extragood

This article had one detail that was not included in the video that had always bugged me. Carl says "how could it be .. that at the same instant there was no shadow at Syene and a very substantial shadow at Alexandria". That seemingly requires coordination between 2 people across a vast distance and accurate time measurement. I rationalized that it could be accomplished with people at each location, each with a sundial, making records of shadow length, and later comparing their measurements, but it still seemed like a messy explanation.

The detail of no shadow at the zenith on a specific day solves that problem. That removes the complication of the coordination of 2 observers and the lighting of the well better explains why the phenomenon was noticed to begin with.

The other unresolved problem for me is that it still requires the assumption that light is parallel i.e. the sun is (relatively) incomprehensibly far away, and that was not established fact at the time afaik.

My company has "apps" on n8n, Zapier, and Make. I've used them all and they're fairly similar: they make integration of supported platforms easy and support simple automation workflows.

E.g. if x happens on y platform, get relevant data, process it, send me a text message if it's during the day or email me if it's at night/weekend.

It's frequently faster than building out the integrations yourself, and is more accessible to inexperienced programmers/ less technical folks.

In terms of ease of use, I'd rank it: Zapier (top), Make, n8n. Same ranking for available apps. Complexity of workflows I'd rank those in reverse though. You can do more with n8n.

I enjoyed my story!

It was based on the prompt I shared previously.

The protagonist was Aeyela who was rendered as an anime/manga school girl. Her voice was portrayed as deep and masculine, which was pretty entertaining.

I did encounter a couple issues:

* the 2nd song was age-restricted, and I was unable to skip it, so the music stopped. I looked at another tab and returned, and another song loaded

* potentially related to the above: the voice narration stopped and I couldn't figure out how to get it to resume, even after toggling a few of the related settings

In terms of big exits, Marc Randolph, Netflix's founder was married well before he started the company and had kids at the time.

In terms of (much) smaller exits, I'm the child of a startup founder. I was about age 8 and it was sold when I was about 25. It was never more than 20 people, and my dad was President as the founding engineer. It was enough for a solid middle class childhood for myself and a sibling in a VHCOL area and my dad and mom are very comfortable in retirement.

It helped that my mom was stay at home, I think. My dad bootstrapped his company and had to work on it nights when I was young after his paying job before they had enough customers that they could go full-time. They never took funding. He made time for us on the weekends, but my mom did all the weekday stuff

The lawsuit against Fox by Dominion made it clear to me that they exist to sell ads to their viewership by telling them what they want to hear, regardless of facts. I have no doubt that there's a long-standing legacy of that amongst many news groups, or maybe even most of them, but I'm not aware of a bigger manipulation of the American public

The intent of the original was for spectacle, inspored by theater, and I would think that other upscale restaurants with similar configurations would choose to do that for the same reason. It has entertainment value. The article contrasted it with diners and sushi restaurants where it serves a different purpose: ensuring sanitary standards.

Open floor plans in offices serve yet other functions: cost savings and employee management.

While it's interesting to note the parallel trend of removing walls in offices and restaurants, I don't know that they actually have that much in common

I find myself doing the same, especially when searching for something that I am considering purchasing. I don't need Google, Youtube, Amazon, etc trying to sell me alternatives to whatever I've already made an informed decision on

I love the idea, but I keep on getting hung up (after 10+ minutes) on

``` [worker] Searching for music... ```

If it helps, my prompt was:

> I would like a story set 2000 years in the future, where humanity has achieved interstellar travel. Humans prioritize exploration of extra-solar planets and the search for intelligent life

I think n8n qualifies. Also TrueNAS

When I was saving for the down payment of my condo, one of the biggest changes I made was making my own lunch, rather than eating out every day.

There are going to be regional differences of course, but here in SF, a modest lunch costs at least $20. My average was around $25, or about $6500/year.

I adopted "meal prep Sundays" where I make all of my lunches for the week ahead, and the average cost is consistently around $5, making my annual weekday lunch cost about $1300. +$5200/year post tax to be used on other things.

Applying the same general idea to dinner unlocks further savings.

The funny thing is - I don't know that I'm even sacrificing time with this approach either. It takes me maybe 1.5 hours on Sunday for the lunch prep thing, but I'm saving a bunch of time by not physically going to restaurants, ordering, taking deliveries, etc. The variety is lacking with this approach, but the tradeoff is well worth it in my book.

I'm starting to think that many of us who are so fond of vim are simply experiencing the effects of Stockholm syndrome

Alcohol deaths worldwide overshadow drug deaths by a large margin. Opiods are the biggest share at 70%

WHO has 3 million deaths linked to alcohol [1] vs .5 million for narcotics.

[1] https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/alcohol [2] https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/opioid-over...

One guess where the fentanyl is manufactured

I recently stopped after years of using indica strains primarily for sleep. On one hand, I don't feel noticeably more (or less) rested now that I've stopped, but the dreams I have now.. it's kind of incredible how vivid and memorable they are. I'd forgotten what it's like to wake up and just reflect on whatever series of events my subconscious mind constructs.

I was imagining that would be crowd sourced as well, assuming no publisher input. But I have to admit it has its flaws, and I don't have a great answer for academic texts.

As far as Amazon investment goes, it seems like a missed opportunity if they're not putting at least some more money into it. That's got to be the best possible marketing platform for their ebook/kindle and wider book sales.

I don't know if it's the answer, but proving basic knowledge of a text could help e.g. a short multiple choice quiz. Anyone determined enough could defeat those measures of course, but it'd probably cut down on the volume of insincere reviews and lend credibility to those that pass.

I went once, with my first "serious" girlfriend, 15+ years ago. It was one of several trendy chain restaurants she insisted we visit as inexperienced high schoolers. This restaurant and the Elephant bar will forever remind me of her: aggressively middle class with aspirations of upper class experience without really knowing what that is. And on one hand, I do understand it. On the other, it felt tacky and desperate at the time, and I can't really ever shake that association for either place.

Ironically, I remember reading an article in the SF Chronicle declaring us the best read drunks in the late '90s/early '00s. We were spending more on books and booze than anyone at the time, though that may have changed

I haven't read a physical newspaper in years, but if I were to read one again, I hope it's using that font

I knew an early dev at DoorDash, and he hated that policy.

That said, I personally agree with that approach. It's the practical vs academic argument: the ideal is both. Anecdotally, the most productive dev on my team was hired from a customer of ours where he personally used and integrated with our software.

I'm currently in a similar situation by the sound of it.

There's an ebb and flow of inbound projects, and one of the engineers has taken advantage of his down time by building out infrastructure and reusable platforms. He pauses that and resumes paid work for clients as they come. I love it - he gets a lot of satisfaction out of building what he thinks we'll need without explicit deadlines, and consults me and his direct manager as necessary. His work is inspiring the more junior engineer on the team to learn and work more creatively and productively. That frees me up to establish better relationships with our Sales and Success teams to bring us new and better clients, which in turn increases their close rates. With the right people and environment, you can create a positive feedback loop that is fairly self-sustaining.

14 cans is just shy of 5 liters by my calculations. A little less than double recommended daily water consumption. You really have to be actively trying to hurt your body to hit those numbers

I agree, and I see a lot of false equivalence comparing BC to the dangers of Tylenol/acetaminophen/paracetamol in this thread.

Yes, both are drugs and can be misused with disastrous or even fatal consequences. The important distinction is that you can use oral contraceptives correctly and still have seriously negative, life-altering side effects. There are alternatives which may be preferable and ideally every woman should have access to a medical expert who can guide them to make the best choice.

Access to an appropriate medical resource is in the other issue, in the absence of a completely safe and effective option. And that seems to outweigh the risks in the the US. I can only hope that, when given the option, women continue to consult medical professionals even though there is now an over-the-counter option available.

Planks are the best

Just one more bit of anecdotal evidence to support your view.

Our app was rejected after review until we updated an external support doc to which the app linked. The doc contained system requirements for both iOS and Android devices, and we were specifically rejected for even having mentioned the competing operating system.

I agree. I've run a support team for a mid-sized SaaS company for many years and have so far resisted any outsourcing. Unsurprisingly, Support is one of the commonly cited high points of our product. The members of my team are well trained and knowledgeable and can escalate things easily so that the vast majority of customer problems can be resolved satisfactorily.

The challenge with resisting outsourcing is justifying the cost of it. I try and frame it as: what is the likelihood that a customer churns if their problem goes unresolved?

Of course in our case, each customer represents thousands of dollars in ARR, so that's an easier argument to make.

My dad is an old school EE and this post really reminds me of him.

It doesn't matter that he lives comfortably and could much more easily replace the hardware. He enjoys the process of taking something broken and making it useful again.

I liken it to spending hours configuring and modifying open source software when a paid option exists, if you have the expertise and/or interest. And doing that with hardware has the added benefit of reducing waste, which is something I admire.

I definitely get the appeal!

Very little code will still be used a decade later. I have sincere doubts that much that I've produced will endure even half that long. Software is ephemeral. But as you pointed out, quality furniture can last for many decades or even centuries and still be as useful as the day it was built.

I don't know that it's an entirely useless anecdote for HN. Woodworking seems to be a popular career path after burning out in tech around here.

I'm in the same boat. I select which apps send notifications to my watch and that prevents me from using my phone unnecessarily. Looking at my wrist is a lot easier than taking the phone out of my pocket and unlocking it. And I'm much less likely to get distracted by something unrelated.