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davidryal

34 karma · joined March 8, 2010

I'm an entrepreneur in SF, always looking for enthusiastic hackers to brainstorm with. Especially interested in WP, rails, and django. also, this is old info.
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davidryal··on PlanetScale Offering $5 Databases
free tiers are a subsidy paid by either VCs or paid users that in some cases can function as a marketing cost, if the free tier is time-limited and thus represents a finite cost to the business.

far better to just have transparent pricing that takes customer needs into account. bravo planetscale

davidryal··on Ask HN: How can we improve the world via creative, compassionate new ventures?
As long as dollars are created at interest, the only jobs that will be paid well are those that make more money. Any kind of social work will always be living off those scraps in terms of ability to pay a living wage.

One way to make life easier for underpaid people doing work that helps individuals but doesn't 'make' more money would be to let nonprofits issue a complementary currency and do the legwork to get it accepted for lifestyle-enhancing services that might not otherwise be available to those volunteers/employees. Wouldn't pay rent, but would let them save money on yoga classes or house cleaning or the like. Barter networks exist, as do non-profit service-based time-denominated currencies. Nobody's doing it in a clean, unified way, but that might be more likely to happen than a tax credit, given the current political environment. :-/

davidryal··on Off the Grid, but Still Online
Missouri! Do you know the folks at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage?
davidryal··on Show HN: WorkingOn – Minimalistic progress tracking for teams
hm, has the producthunt community seen this?
davidryal··on Boardinghouses: where the city was born
Really brings to the fore the dynamics that have led to AirBnB's success despite our society's focus on single-serve autonomy.
davidryal··on Ripple had $2.5B money transfer, now second biggest virtual currency
actually, the history of money is far more pluralistic and interesting than even colonial money. regional currencies built this country until consolidated via central bank in the name of stability.
davidryal··on Did space storms drive us mad?
watch for an increase in frequency of this kinda storyline over the next few months.
davidryal··on Fukushima Radiation Breaks the Scale — No Idea by How Much.. Can’t Measure It
if by that you mean it has partially (and to what extent is unknown) isolated the thing we can't control at all and will be cleaning up for 30+ years (stated by nuclear expert in video fta), then yeah it's all fine. unless you can prove that all ill effects are contained within that exclusion zone, it's not control, it's the illusion of control to make yourself feel better.

so if they're finding radiation in rice crops hundreds of km away, is that still control?

davidryal··on Fukushima Radiation Breaks the Scale — No Idea by How Much.. Can’t Measure It
i'm pretty amazed at the handwashing here. not absolutely sure there's anything to see here, so move along and don't linger...
davidryal··on Fukushima Radiation Breaks the Scale — No Idea by How Much.. Can’t Measure It
an exclusion zone is not a control; it's an acknowledgement of lack of control.
davidryal··on Fukushima Radiation Breaks the Scale — No Idea by How Much.. Can’t Measure It
how do you know that's true?
davidryal··on Modern Civil Disobedience - Tim DeChristopher
I'm so glad this made HN.
davidryal··on Hackers & Founders Co-op, The Accidental Incubator
+1 to all good tidings.
davidryal··on Destroy the Planet: Buy Organic
And if cow manure actually was the only suitable material for organic fertilizer, you might have a point. It's called COMPOST, and it can be made from almost any organic waste.
davidryal··on Post-Japan earthquake/tsunami, blogs fill niches not addressed anywhere else
.. told through the specific example of one particular story, then generalized out to the blogging experience.
davidryal··on Solar Power Blowing Up in the United States
not sure about some of your other assumptions about engine efficiency and electrical equivalent mpg's. gas engines are extraordinarily inefficient compared to electric, whatever the source of power (even coal!)
davidryal··on Solar Power Blowing Up in the United States
solar's strength will always be in its decentralization, not its efficiency. If we can get the best of both worlds to some extent (e.g. car charging overnight from batteries charged by a rooftop home solar array), that's a going a long way towards 'daily' sustainability.
davidryal··on Ask HN: For-profit, non-profit, or some kinda hybrid?
wow, i'm surprised by the lack of response here. is HN the type of place where you need to get a bunch of people to vote up your link before anyone notices?
davidryal··on Ask HN: For-profit, non-profit, or some kinda hybrid?
I should have covered this. Choosing the for-profit road would, indeed, meaning converting to a C-corp. Luckily, that's not too hard to do without adding much marginal cost on top of the legal costs of closing a round.