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p00dleson Fair coins tend to land on the same side they started

Could it have anything to do with contact with the hand? Moisture/oil from the hand making the “same side they started on” a tiny bit heavier than the other side? Or, and I’m no physicist, static electricity or something?

p00dleson The German group buying ticket dodgers out of prison

Thanks for the clarification on Vietnam I didn’t get the reference, despite having seen The Big Lebowski several times.

p00dleson The German group buying ticket dodgers out of prison

I 100% agree in principal, but I think there is something psychological about paying even a small amount of money that makes people treat public transit differently (better) than if it it’s entirely free.

Sort of related, I can think of NYC charging $1 for a subway card, you don’t see discarded subway cards on the floor of the stations.

p00dleson Causality for Machine Learning (2020)

I like the way that this book is structured. There are no equations, which makes it approachable, and some of these concepts are better explained with language than equations, at least in the beginning.

A similar book is What If by Hernán and Robins. By the end they focus on time-varying treatments, but the first half introduces a lot of the same concepts as this book. What If ia also available for free - https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1268/2...

p00dleson UCLA’s ‘worrisome’ plan for tiny $600 dorms put on hold

If by “aging 1981 apartment building” they mean an apartment building built in 1981, it is so frustrating to me that American buildings are essentially designed for a useful life of ~30 years before they need to be replaced. Though there are maintenance costs to maintaining older buildings, other things being equal isn’t it better to maintain rather than rebuild? My personal preference for older buildings aside, aren’t some of the most desirable and high-value apartments well-preserved older buildings?

p00dleson Cisco Acquires Splunk

that, was funny

p00dleson Stanford is a platform

By "this story", are you referring to your story, or the story described in the parent post "> Many of the incoming students I speak with are overachievers who spent a lot of time in high school thinking about how to get into a great college. They strategized their extracurriculars and optimized their grades. (To an extent, that was me.)"?

p00dleson Spotify looked to ban white noise podcasts to become more profitable

Since iOS 15 iPhones can generate “background noise” including dark noise, balanced noise, rain, ocean, etc. You can even play it at the same time as music, a podcast, etc. with its own, independent volume control.

An icon appears for me when in the Control Center when I swipe down, the “Hearing tile”, and can be used to play/pause and change Background Sounds.

Can also be accessed this way:

1. Open Settings and scroll down to Accessibility

2. Tap on that, then scroll to the Hearing section

3. Choose Audio/Visual

4. Tap on Background Sounds

5. Turn on Background Sounds by tapping the on/off toggle

https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/07/23/how-to-use-rain-d...

p00dleson Auditory illusions with examples from Daft Punk

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qN1fVkeSUXE

I wonder how many people knew the correct lyrics before this commercial, I certainly did not

p00dleson For some with ADHD, the low rumble of brown noise quiets the brain

this is amazing, thank you so much.

I have been using a 90-minute Brown Noise loop on Spotify, but even though it is downloaded on my phone, I have to connect to the internet to start using it, which can lead to distractions when messages start pouring in.

p00dleson How to Walk (12 miles a day)

Sir/madam, have you ever tried an Osprey that suspends the weight of the bag off of your back with a sturdy piece of mesh and very minimal metal internal frame?[1] (I think Osprey pioneered this, other manufacturers now have it too). It has been life changing for me. I use it daily for commuting, and just finished 3-week tour through 3 countries with laptop, Kindle, and everything else packed inside this one bag. I’m sure Osprey has smaller versions if 34L is too much.

[1] https://www.osprey.com/us/en/product/tropos-TROPOSF19.html

p00dleson Backblaze S-1 IPO

do you mind if I ask where you store the Arq backup? On a separate physical drive, in a cloud service, etc.?

p00dleson Backblaze S-1 IPO

Not sure if it’s the same use case but I use Cryptomator with OneDrive and it’s worked well.

p00dleson Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

Just bought one with your recommendation - thanks!

Those things are going like hotcakes. Looks like they are perpetually sold out. Their "Limited Daily Stock" - released daily at 9am MTN time - went from 7 to 3 by the time I finished my purchase.

p00dleson The Mental Benefits of Being Terrible at Something

+1 to challenge of learning a language as an adult. I feel that once you get older, you aren't in as many situations where you don't know what you're doing. Partially because it sucks to not know what you're doing, so you avoid those situations, and partially because you simply get better at the things that you do over time.

It's been helpful for me to remember that for every expert, there was a time when they were the same level as you are.

p00dleson The Mental Benefits of Being Terrible at Something

If you're interested, David Epstein wrote a book called "Range" that provides an alternate viewpoint to the 10,000 hour rule. I found Epstein's model resonated more for me than the 10k rule.

https://davidepstein.com/the-range/

p00dleson Watches from the Soviet Union

Awesome! Thank you. I also ran across a few companies that make a Valjoux 7768 Moonphase, also looks nice and seems within budget.

p00dleson Watches from the Soviet Union

The 1815 Moonphase is absolutely gorgeous - do you have any recommendations for similar moonphase watches for a first-time watch buyer, under $1000?

p00dleson Excel Never Dies

I removed the F1 from a keyboard so that I don't misfire when going for F2, resulting in the dreaded 'Help' window that you have to use a mouse to click out of.

p00dleson Excel Never Dies

^1 for Excel keyboard shortcuts.

One can customize the ribbon at the top for must used functions, which can make Excel such a fast tool to use compared to Google Sheets or even Excel for Mac (speaking as a Windows user).

If I had a big Excel project to do, and I had the choice of 1/2 day on Excel (Windows) vs. a full day with Google Sheets or Excel (Mac), I would pick the 1/2 day with Excel (Windows).

p00dleson Show HN: Compare prices that US hospitals charge patients, insurance companies

this podcast episode has an excellent breakdown of the healthcare pricing system in the U.S.

https://econtalk.simplecast.com/episodes/keith-smith-on-free...