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andyakb

358 karma · joined December 30, 2011

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andyakb··on MIT Wristband Could Make Air Conditioning Obsolete
Why would their be FDA trials for this?
andyakb··on Cheaper to rent in Barcelona and commute to London
What? The author never actually said they were going to do this, it was just to make the point of how expensive London is, which is what the parent comment said.
andyakb··on Here’s what it would take for self-driving cars to catch on
I cannot imagine that google wants to rollout the current iteration of their self driver car at scale to consumers. They want they technology sorted out and for that phase of it, they do not care what the car looks like and you cannot assume that's how their self driving cars will always look.
andyakb··on What happens when you're #1 on Hacker News for a day
His experience was not that Thailand is an expensive place to live, his experience was that Bangkok _can_ be an expensive place to live
andyakb··on Hacking the Olympics
Reading the other posts, this doesn't seem to be the case. It is "hacking" because he was creative in how he pursued this goal while still working within the framework
andyakb··on Show HN: I made a site that lets you bet against Bitcoin Hash Rate Volatility
The grey area with online poker is because it isn't explicitly made illegal in the wire act (online sports betting is explicitly illegal), but the UIGEA legislates against games of chance which there are arguments that poker is not such a game but it hasn't been tried in court. Many sites used that argument to offer online poker to US residents and had their domains and bank accounts seized, Pokerstars settled for over 700mm and bought Full Tilt Poker in the process. The US govt doesnt care where you are based if you are violating US law and attracting US customers.
andyakb··on The Internet Trolls the FBI’s “Private” Bitcoin Wallet
No, the author isnt. This is the full quote: "The price after the Silk Road seizure has remained fairly constant but the currency itself has fallen from a high of $260 to about $130 this morning."

It is a horrible worded statement as it doesnt specify the time frame within which the price fell from 260 to 130, but they clearly state it has been stable since the SR seizure

andyakb··on Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?
Did you do a 301 redirect from the old domain to the new one?
andyakb··on Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?
Please do blog about it. Freelancing while traveling is a concept that a lot of us are really drawn to, but most of the current blogs focus on the travel and only briefly mention the freelancing aspect. Maybe if you focused a bit more on the business side of things you could find a niche within the blogosphere.
andyakb··on Drug addiction: The complex truth
I agree with the point you are making, but for clarity's sake wanted to add that syringe distribution has many different legal (and pseudo-legal) standings across the US. In Boston (not sure if it is all of MA) you can buy needles and syringes from a pharmacy, while in Maine they require a prescription; however, many communities in Maine still have needle exchange programs
andyakb··on Did the FBI Lean On Microsoft for Access to Its Encryption Software?
Still not news. This article is nothing new, it simply took a piece from another article, added a title and called it good. They didn't even really add any commentary, other than saying one of the sources was their friend.
andyakb··on (Trying To) Face Down The Evil At TechCrunch Disrupt
That doesnt stop you from promoting "issues" and highlighting a stance a candidate has on those issues, you simply cannot use the magic words [1]. This is a fairly strange defense because 501(c)(3) organizations are almost synonymous with this type of lobbying.

1: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/government-elections...

andyakb··on From Mr Average to Superman: Craig Davidson's account of using steroids (2008)
Not really sure where you got the idea that the some esters of testosterone are ok for first time users and others aren't, except maybe no ester. Many (most?) Doctors prescribe cypionate for trt in the US, and these aren't just the anti aging clinics.
andyakb··on Ask HN: What's a reliable long-term personal storage medium?
This seems way over the top. How muuch extra reliability does this get you when compared to RAID+1 locally and amazon glacier or s3? For the super paranoid, add a non-amazon based online backup as well. This seems to have made sense before these services were available, but just doesn't seem worthwhile anymore
andyakb··on Ask HN: why are Bitcoin trading fees so high?
Traditional brokerages face all of these issues as well and actually comply with them, all while offering lower fees.

There are a handful of startups that are looking to have offerings that are appealing to funds and other non-retail investors, so things do seem to be going in that direction. For the time being though, it is more profitable to cater to the retail investors than pursue a low margin [potentially high volume] clientele.

andyakb··on It's a Dumbphone, But It's the Nicest Dumbphone You Can Buy
In almost all cases like this, your absolute best choice is to simply give them what they want and gtfo of there. If they see you playing with something in your pocket, it could escalate things very quickly
andyakb··on Soylent: What Happened When I Stopped Eating For 2 Weeks
Right. I would wager money that this is why they were suggested; to measure muscle preservation
andyakb··on Ask HN: How would you come up with $1500 in 30 days or monthly?
This is really, really misplaced advice. As a programmer, he knows how to program, he does not know how to profitably trade, nor is it easy to learn. An analogy would be telling a chef to open a restaurant because they are a good cook. While common advice, it isnt that simple. The analogy also fails because it is much easier to learn to run a restaurant than it is to trade profitably, let alone on the forex markets.

He has valuable skills that should easily command him more than what he "needs" to make, he should use those skills instead of attempting to learn an unrelated, saturated, and difficult field.

andyakb··on Billionaire Revealed: The Biggest Company You’ve Never Heard Of
That's not exacty how polticians treat billionaires, or anybody really. I'm not saying its free of corruption by any means, but almost nothing that transparently corrupt occurs
andyakb··on Ask HN: Is it ever OK to completely unleash on incompetent coworkers?
This sounds a bit narcissistic
andyakb··on The Massachusetts Software Tax
MIT? Harvard? Dozens of other schools? Huge medical research field? Come on.
andyakb··on The Science of Winning Poker
Reddit has its place, but the level of poker discussion there will never approach that of twoplustwo which is a resource any aspiring player should use
andyakb··on SkyMall's SkyFall
How would that be the case?
andyakb··on Block NSA funding for collecting the call records of all Americans
Read the website. Despite the name, it is not about defunding the entire nsa, but instead about removing the authorization and funding for blanket data collection
andyakb··on Block NSA funding for collecting the call records of all Americans
I would strongly recommend including an auto email form. Maybe not as powerful as a phone calll, but conversions will be much higher
andyakb··on Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight Blog Is to Join ESPN Staff
Exactly. Major elections arre infrequent. Nate got his start with sports. Let him do sports the majority of the time, but when elections come around, give him an outlet to do politics as well. Disney is a pefect fit.
andyakb··on Ask HN: Any startups working to capitalize on the coming privacy boom?
Based on...?
andyakb··on Ask HN: When did people start paying for your SaaS and why?
Ok, then I misunderstood the comment. I was thinking they were saying $20 was too much to spend, not that they wish they could get away with only spending $20 per acquistion. Thanks for clarifying!
andyakb··on Ask HN: When did people start paying for your SaaS and why?
I don't know a ton about your industry, but why can't you spend $20 per customer? I can't imagine your clv is lower than that. Or are you saying you wish you only had to spend that much?
andyakb··on Get Rid of the App Store’s “Top” Lists
...the point is to gets 10s of millions. Simply because they are already making a lot does not mean they should avoid optimizations. If they had that attitude, they would have "stopped" at whatever number was deemed to be enough. "Why make X change, they are already makings 100s of millions with the appstore?" A business's goal is to maximize profit. This is a clear option that has minimal costs in comparison to the returns that even you recognized. You are trying too hard not to be wrong.
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