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msaharia

308 karma · joined March 7, 2017

Professor @ IIT Delhi. Engineer. Interested in EdTech.

hydrosense.iitd.ac.in

msaharia[a]iitd.ac.in

submissionscomments
msaharia··on Show HN: XRain – Explore rainfall statistics around the world
Exactly - I can tell you an example from India. India has the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) precipitation dataset. Even if your estimates are more accurate, no company will use your dataset to design/validate a civil engineering design. This has to do with liability of using a dataset from a "non-official" source. Right now, you are stuck in the middle where it is not viable for non-US companies to use it, while US companies will mostly rely on NOAA Atlas. If this is to become a public-facing product, then the current pricing is too high, and might have to develop an alternative business model. Maybe people are interested in checking the floodplain zonation/xrain before buying a house, for example. But no SAAS in that case.

How flexible is your codebase to incorporate regional datasets? I think you will have to regional merging.

What are your current costs of running the setup? Any possibility/plans of white-labeling the codebase?

msaharia··on Show HN: XRain – Explore rainfall statistics around the world
The UI is fantastic . I don't think there is anything wrong with the website. The reason you are not making a sale has probably nothing to do with UI. I think you should concentrate on sales and filling an important gap in user requirement. Who needs this data? There are already many websites where you can get extreme precipitation data for free.

P.S. I am a hydroclimate scientist/professor. Happy to discuss further.

Edit - Looks like we have almost the same background in academics. :)

msaharia··on Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries
They couldn’t come because of any number of reasons: there wasn’t enough time to apply for visa because you issued the letter 1 month before the meeting, didn’t get visa, didn’t get visa on time, visa got approved but passport didn’t arrive on time etc. You also can’t get reimbursed in India without showing actual receipts of conference, hotel etc.

You seem to think that your letter is a guarantee of visa. It’s not.

Source: I’m an academic with both US and Indian experience.

msaharia··on Hey, GitHub – Waiting list signup
Dragon speech? I used it quite a bit 10 years ago!
msaharia··on Advanced Scientific Data Format
So, this is like netCDF format?
msaharia··on One-on-ones with executives
Would you tell us more how that training translates in business/management? Are there good training materials we could look at online?
msaharia··on Fed expects to launch long-awaited Faster Payments System by 2023
UPI exists in India. And m-Pesa in Kenya. Neither are small countries or lightly regulated. At this point, US digital infrastructure is just objectively behind everyone else.
msaharia··on Scientists discover how mosquitoes can ‘sniff out’ humans
How about a control function on human population? (For nature as a system, it might as well count as a benefit)
msaharia··on The Elusive Origin of Zero
I think this article is confusing the discovery of an inscription of zero to the concept of zero. The latter would predate the former.
msaharia··on In Algeria, ancient cave art may show psychedelic mushroom use
You should definitely read about Ancient Indian drink Soma. Soma had a cognate Haoma in Persian as well. And psychoactive sources have a long association with gods such as Shiva. This continues till modern day among his most ardent followers. You will find wide variation in what ancient humans would consider taboo.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soma_(drink)

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20170307-the-intoxicating...

msaharia··on Back to India
I returned to India after close to a decade in the US, during which I got a PhD. Loved living there and was fully integrated. But felt like I could make a much bigger impact in India. So, joined IIT Delhi. Good to know about your journey. Drop me an email (in my profile) if you want to catch up over coffee. :)
msaharia··on The Gov.uk Design System is now live
Hi, is there a wordpress theme with this design system that we could drop in an existing website and benefit from it?
msaharia··on One Year with R
Not a lot of people would realize that Hadley is a minor celebrity in many scientific fields due to Tidyverse! Thanks for all the work.
msaharia··on Nearly 1k mysterious strands revealed in Milky Way’s center
This is perfect for a Desktop Wallpaper. Thanks for sharing!
msaharia··on Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2022 – Show and tell
Looks cool! What kind of models are you using? I would have thought this is a very tight space. Did you develop the models yourself?
msaharia··on Space Force announces the new design of the Space Force's enlisted rank insignia
Can you link me to that book?

P.S. I used to work in NASA Goddard. Very brand conscious agency.

msaharia··on RunAsDate – Run a program with the specified date/time (2019)
What a blast from the past! I used runasdate to run a Neural Network software using time-lagged RNNs beyond the trial period. In my defense, I was a poor undergrad and couldn't afford the license fee of the software (Circa 2010).
msaharia··on TimescaleDB raises $40M
That is awesome. I work in flood forecasting and previously worked in NCAR/NASA. If you would be so kind, feel free to share any white papers, links etc to the project you are referring to.

msaharia[a]iitd.ac.in

msaharia··on TimescaleDB raises $40M
Hi, I am a hydrologist. Would love to hear about what you have done using TimeScaleDB
msaharia··on Ask HN: What is your “I don't care if this succeeds” project?
Would you be publishing your research or data or both? Would you be interested in sharing it privately? I would love to know more!
msaharia··on Johnny.Decimal
This system has tremendously impacted my academic research productivity. Thank you.
msaharia··on WhiteHat Jr’s founder files $2.6M defamation suit against critic
EdTech in India is a predatory environment midwived by unscrupulous VCs. Please raise your against it if you can. And this is not an Indian problem. These companies are making their way to US and worldwide.
msaharia··on How to count every language in India (2018)
No worries. I meant in the Indic language family, not Dravidian. The Tamil version definitely preceded that.
msaharia··on How to count every language in India (2018)
Assamese is NOT a dialect of Bengali. It is older than Bengali and infact the first non-Sanskrit language to which Ramayana was translated to. The Assamese script itself is in a continuous development since 5th century.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umachal_rock_inscription

msaharia··on Ask HN: What is a good business writing course focusing on developers?
Interesting! Thank you. It would be nice if we had good onboarding material available online in the form of a course.
msaharia··on Ask HN: What is a good business writing course focusing on developers?
I have updated my question to clarify.
msaharia··on Tell HN: Call Mom
I talk to my (Indian) parents every day, even if it is a 1-min courtesy call. Started when I went off to college in a different city. And it's also a rather common thing among everyone I know regardless of social status. So, I guess what is typical is dependent on country or culture.
msaharia··on Using Anki to remember what you read
Is Anki a trademark? If someone wants to make a tool called AnkiSuper, is that allowed? I'm not a big fan of the UI/UX. So I am thinking of scratching an itch.
msaharia··on Ask HN: Good ways to capture institutional knowledge?
Could someone please post tool names as well? Everyone is talking processes. But I would love to know more convenient tools as well.
msaharia··on The missing semester of CS education
Hi, how are you getting the keystrokes you type in to overlay on the video? Is there a tool you're using for this? Would be very helpful if you could make it.
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