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heliodor

1,116 karma · joined December 18, 2008

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heliodor··on Puerto Rico's Solar Microgrids Beat Blackout
The vast majority of roofs in Puerto Rico are flat and the vast majority of buildings are made of cinder blocks and concrete.
heliodor··on NASA Astronauts Depart Space Station After Nine Months in Orbit
"not being able" is just another way of saying "stranded" again.

Please read up on the details of this adventure and you'll come to realize that whoever is putting this phrasing into the media is trying to lie to you!

heliodor··on Hedge fund warns White House is inflating crypto bubble that could wreak havoc
How can you possibly say it has no fundamentals?

Here are some use cases that give it a non-zero value:

It competes with Western Union for money transfers.

It provides ways to transfer money to places and for things the US government doesn't approve of.

heliodor··on Show HN: I made a Note-Taking app for people who keep texting themselves
You can pin yourself to the top of Whatsapp and write to yourself. Explain that to her. It's what I do and it's been phenomenal.
heliodor··on HP discontinues online-only LaserJet printers in response to backlash
It could just mean he never tried to analyze it.
heliodor··on T-Mobile users thought they had a lifetime price lock–guess what happened next
You don't have to limit that first statement to telecoms.
heliodor··on Santa Barbara's collective memory, sold for kindling
A lot more people would be interested in bidding for a domain name than for a company that owns a domain name.

The domain name should be auctioned off separately but the bankruptcy court is more interested in completing the task in the easiest way possible for them instead of doing things right.

heliodor··on Bard is now Gemini, and we’re rolling out a mobile app and Gemini Advanced
It cuts through all the SEO junk. Ask it for a recipe, for example. Night and day UX compared to a recipe site.
heliodor··on Car ownership in the US is becoming more expensive
Have you adjusted for inflation?
heliodor··on Ask HN: What is your best flight booking app/site
I've noticed that sometimes Google Flights finds a cheaper international fare if using the airlines site in the local currency instead of USD. Clicking the button at the end in Google Flights takes care of all the settings to get you to the price they showed.

I've also noticed Google Flights prices being outdated sometimes.

heliodor··on I'm sorry but I cannot fulfill this request it goes against OpenAI use policy
from Costco
heliodor··on Peregrine moon lander suffers anomaly after launch
What does it mean to have cryptocurrency on the spacecraft, physically?

Sounds like a marketing falsehood to me.

I can't imagine what a statement like, "there was 1 bitcoin on board the spacecraft" would mean. It is nonsensical given what bitcoin is, and cryptocurrency in general.

You can have the keys printed on paper and placed onboard but that does not mean there was 1 bitcoin onboard.

heliodor··on Tracking developer build times to decide if the M3 MacBook is worth upgrading
If employees are purposefully isolated from the company's expenses, they'll waste money left and right.

Also, they don't care since any incremental savings aren't shared with the employees. Misaligned incentives. In that mentally, it's best to take while you can.

heliodor··on Blot turns a folder into a website
The interesting question is how did you arrive at this site layout where the pricing is hidden in the sign up page when every single SaaS site on the internet has a pricing link in the header and in the footer. Genuinely curious.
heliodor··on Copyright is not a moral right, it's a monetization strategy
I wasn't asking for an explanation. Just pointing out it feels wrong.

Same way, it would feel wrong to have copyright protection and have it go away if the item is sold to someone else.

heliodor··on Copyright is not a moral right, it's a monetization strategy
You're trading the copyright itself. But you're proposal would ban that.
heliodor··on Copyright is not a moral right, it's a monetization strategy
You talk about moral but I don't see in your proposal what's moral about not allowing two entities to trade things fair and square.

To see what I mean, it rubs me the wrong way when I buy a used car and lose the warranty by doing so.

heliodor··on Shein forces Amazon to lower seller fees
Amazon too.
heliodor··on Ask HN: How do you decide a non-fiction book is worth your time?
Step 1: make sure it's not on the New York Times bestseller list.

That list is quite manipulated. Makes for fascinating reading to see the dynamics of it explained.

heliodor··on 23andMe updates their TOS to force binding arbitration
There are two processes at play:

- refuse the updated terms of service

- refuse the arbitration

The previous version of the TOS had arbitration too, so I'm not sure what all the stink is about.

Both versions tell you that you have 30 days to opt out of arbitration by emailing arbitrationoptout@...

As usual, the journalists failed at the job and are spreading misinformation.

Current version: https://www.23andme.com/legal/terms-of-service/full-version/

Previous version linked at the bottom: https://www.23andme.com/legal/terms-of-service/full-version/...

Go to both and search for arbitrationoptout@ and you'll see they both have the 30-day opt-out.

heliodor··on Gemini AI
"Hostile?" That's quite a loaded word. How about just "tougher?"
heliodor··on Chrome's next weapon in the War on Ad Blockers: Slower extension updates
What do you base this belief on?
heliodor··on Ask HN: What work/office purchase transformed your life?
A big desk. A bunch deeper and longer than the bare minimum. And L-shaped so that I can rest my hand on it.

Having an external monitor behind my laptop screen allows me to change the focal distance of my eyes back and forth, so that's probably good for the eyes.

heliodor··on NYPD barred from telling people they can't film in precinct stations
I didn't read it well, I guess. "Protecting people's public image" sounds much broader than whether an arrest or conviction is public record.
heliodor··on NYPD barred from telling people they can't film in precinct stations
Are you saying that every crime punishment should automatically include loss of privacy? Cause that's what your statement sounds like.
heliodor··on Who profits most from America's baffling health-care system?
Maybe because most people can't afford the top private universities. But would have liked to go there.
heliodor··on Adblock Plus and (a little) more
Blackmail

Threaten physical harm

heliodor··on Who profits most from America's baffling health-care system?
Talking about "public" and "in-state" is not the point.

College is mostly about the private institutions at a national level. That's where people would like to go.

heliodor··on Add Friction to Your Onboarding
The article's point doesn't seem right.

It's measuring a random quantity in the bigger picture.

Retention percent doesn't matter as much as number of users retained, which leads to total revenue. But then you have to factor in the cost of acquisition. And the cost of infra to serve non-paying users.

My take on it: they took a multivariate analysis, plugged in the details of their business model, came up with a result, and then publish it as if it's advice applicable for all kinds of companies.

heliodor··on Google Cloud Spanner is now half the cost of Amazon DynamoDB
This! Google has shown many times they can't be trusted.
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