HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

loonster

301 karma · joined January 25, 2021

submissionscomments
loonster··on The First Animal Ever Found That Doesn't Need Oxygen to Survive
It is amazing how different evolution trees converge on optimal configurations. It reminds me of crabs.
loonster··on Almost never use a pie chart for data
Pie charts shine when there several data points that can be grouped into 2-3 macro groups.

The easiest example is "What is your opinion of ___?" (Strongly Favorable, Somewhat Favorable, Neutral, Somewhat Unfavorable, or Strongly Unfavorable)

At a glance, you can see if the opinions are positive or negative, and then can see if they are polarizing or mostly neutral.

Another example would be the makeup of congress. Democrat, Independent, and Republican for the major groups. Subgroups could be based on percentage of votes the person received from their district. It would show which seats could swing.

loonster··on Silicon Valley Bank unmasks the hypocrisy of libertarian tech bros
A bank should keep the money secure. Anything >0% loss is unacceptable. They were greedy and had a duration mismatch. Interest rates rise and the value of the longterm bonds go down. The regulators should have stepped in and stopped that. Why didn't they?

No one should be made whole. Looks like the stock holders will have a 0 and bond holders will take a significant cut. Depositors will be safe.

The executives should all be in prison for this. Only have to do this once. The other banks would wisen up and get their act together.

loonster··on January 1, 2023 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1927 are open to all
No publisher would want to sign a contract with an author that isn't likely to live much longer. It needs to be either a fixed amount, or Life + something.
loonster··on P-22 has been euthanized
It is not a zero sum game.
loonster··on Why do new cars look like wet putty?
The backup camera would not be such a big deal if cars had smaller pillars.
loonster··on A hundred UK companies sign up for four-day week with no loss of pay
I would take Wednesdays off.

No more than 1 day away from a day off. Need to schedule an appointment for anything: Wednesday.

loonster··on The Age of PageRank Is Over
> Our proposed price is dictated by the fact that search has a non zero cost. With other search engines, advertisers cover this cost. But it costs us about $1 to process 80 searches.

.0125 per search. The teams rate is twice that.

loonster··on Ask HN: Advice that changed your life?
"The answer is always no unless you ask."
loonster··on Some people who appear to be in a coma may be conscious
The problem isnt if you are actually brain dead. The problem is if you just appear to be brain dead. Organ harvesting is done without the aid of anaesthetic.
loonster··on Apparent size of Andromeda galaxy compared to the Moon
Someone can be both a better physicist and have a poorer understanding of physics. We have the luxury of time. We can learn about the great discoveries that the great physicist developed from scratch. Just imagine the type of discoveries he would have made if he was born in the late 20th century.
loonster··on NASA’s Webb takes star-filled portrait of Pillars of Creation
The JWST and Hubble have multiple cameras. The Hubble IR image is likely just the IR camera while the JWST is likely a composite of multiple cameras.

(This is purely speculation.)

loonster··on The case for energy optimism
It's also safer. In between where I live and work are neighborhoods that I do not want to walk down.
loonster··on Show HN: The Unix Pipe Card Game – teach kids basic Unix commands
You should add this game to boardgamegeek. They will also host the files for you if you want.
loonster··on The Real War 1939-1945 (1989)
He didn't say he was retired from the military. You need 20 years in to get a retirement. A tour in Afghanistan is not sufficient.
loonster··on White House is pushing ahead research to cool Earth by reflecting back sunlight
Cement roads?
loonster··on Why 23.976 and not 24 FPS? (2016)
I am curious if the video game effect is a function of the fps or exposure time. Would a video of 48 fps with 1/48s exposure look off?

Not sure how a camera would be built that could do this...

loonster··on With seemingly endless data storage, people are 'digital hoarding'
Do you mean delete?

(This is a joke of old reddit vs new reddit.)

https://old.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/

loonster··on Candidate Insists Google Blocking His Website; He Requested It Not Be Indexed
Or my personal favorite, Rep Hank Johnson thinks Guam will tip over if too many troops get deployed onto it.

https://youtu.be/cesSRfXqS1Q

loonster··on Managers with a business degree reduce employees' wages, do not increase profit
As a native English speaker, I adore your version.
loonster··on Days Since Incident – tracker of natural disasters on Earth
For me it had a calming effect. Natural disasters appear to be relatively common
loonster··on I spent $3k on a Samsung Smart TV and all I got were ads and unwanted content
Maybe the targeting works the other way around. Those refrigerators have cameras. Maybe a little bit of machine learning to figure out what you buy and play targeted ads based on what's in your fridge or what used to be in your fridge but isnt currently.
loonster··on Factory jobs are booming like it’s the 1970s
The big push for diversity is an anti union movement.
loonster··on Factory jobs are booming like it’s the 1970s
Does it matter who he blames?

There is enough blame to be spread around for both major parties. Trump had his -15- 45 days to slow the economy. Congress printed trillions of dollars. Nearly every governor was more draconian than the federal government.

loonster··on Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
The cost of the part doesn't matter. The cost of my time does.

For common components, I need a parametric part so that I can instantly change the length, size or type. If my M12 becomes an M16, I want all the taps and C'Bores to adjust without any further input from myself.

For more expensive parts, it's nice to have a homegrown parametric part to minimize potential missorders.

loonster··on Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
Ah, that may be the key. (I do not use solidworks).
loonster··on Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
I use it everyday. It works very well. Just being able to easily switch screw sizes and having all of the taps/c'bores readjust is worth it.
loonster··on Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
I have had an incorrect CAD model from them. (Which they fixed when I brought it to their notice). Once burned, twice shy.
loonster··on Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used
If it's a commonly used item, it would be much more efficient to pay an entry level CAD guy to draw up a parametric screw part. Add in toolsolids of all the subtracts that the component will do (taps, CBore, clearance), and supplier call outs. It starts to become efficient.
loonster··on ‘I’d rather eat an actual burger’: plant-based meat’s sizzle fizzled in the US
The first name that comes to mind is Owsley Stanley, the sound system guy for the Grateful Dead. He was a carnivore eater for 50 years.
Page 1 of 17Next →