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tomarr

277 karma · joined April 3, 2013

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tomarr··on Show HN: OpenFreeMap – Open-Source Map Hosting
Have you been running this for long? I've looked for something in this space for the last couple of years but only came across MapTiler /AGOL and a few others, that were either pretty expensive (for small datasets) or restrictive functionality.

If so I'd say you need to work on the SEO and findability side.

tomarr··on Ask HN: what are examples of successful "open-source alternatives"?
Wordpress is quite a big one?

I think Blogger was the main alternative back then, but there were probably several commercial ones with reasonable market share.

tomarr··on San Francisco-to-L.A. overnight train inches closer to reality
Large amount of US popular is clustered around key areas (East Coast corridor, West Coast Corridor, Midwestern cities etc.

No reason these couldn't be linked up and are more populous than many equivalent regions with HSR. It's like power grids, noone is arguing that one big one from SF to NY is the right solution.

tomarr··on Google paid $26.3B in 2021 to be the default search engine
Well it's more like Google is victim of rent seeking. Pay me $26b or Bing will be the default. Google has clear first choice preference across a large swathe of the market.
tomarr··on Creating aerial imagery with a bike helmet camera (GoPro) and OpenDroneMap
Hey nice writeup. I saw you linked to Mapillary on there, have you used this and the API? The CV side can really add to mapping functionality.
tomarr··on Tesla engineers were on-site to evaluate the Twitter staff’s code, workers said
I would love to agree but it's simply not correct. They are buying existing tunneling machines and there is nothing yet to suggest a step change.

The radical proposals in terms of stripping out safety equipment for operational tunnels may prod some development, but ultimately any gains here are not going to be captive and will just result in revised client expectations (outside Boring funding & delivering projects worth $10bn+ individually themselves, with no public involvement).

tomarr··on Countries with Declining Population 2022
How would you go about this?
tomarr··on Why are maps so hard to make?
Emailed
tomarr··on Why are maps so hard to make?
Hey

I tried Felt and it looked good. However for me the marker / polygon moved significantly with different zoom levels which is a fairly big issue. This was in 54,-1 area (lat/lng) - I don't know if it could be as simple as different coordinate systems on markers vs mapping?

tomarr··on Launch HN: Carbon Crusher (YC W22) – Carbon Negative Roads
Hello

I watched your video with the Crusher. For most places having a subgrade of rock or good granular material as seen in the video would be a luxury for road construction. In general roads on this material are fairly stable and it is the more common subgrades of clay, silts and sands that have problems normally related to drainage issues. Does your solution offer anything for these scenariosm?

tomarr··on Should you contribute open data to OpenStreetMap?
I don't think that's obvious, e.g. an Apple or Facebook could take OSM and fork it privately and invest all their efforts into that, without releasing upstream for competitive advantage.
tomarr··on Ask HN: Have you found something you love to do? If yes how?
Do you expect Starlink (or equivalent) to radically alter this space?
tomarr··on Amazon is bypassing supply chain chaos with chartered ships and long-haul planes
>Bunker fuel shouldn't be marketable for sale as a fuel at all. We (= OPEC, in this case) could still sell it to chemical companies, but the rest, we should just be sticking back in the ground. This would reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by such an extent it's not even funny.

Bunker fuel is responsible for ~3% of CO2e emissions? OK it may have a greater impact on air quality, but in terms of carbon it is not exactly a stand-out item.

tomarr··on Go Where No Drone Has Gone Before
There has been a few if you monitor the news, mostly unsuccessful (e.g. Iraqi PM a couple of weeks ago)
tomarr··on What really happened at the Millennium Tower?
This is generally because of heave effects (clay rising up after loads being removed for basement excavation), and results in significant raft slabs (as much as 3m thick) and tension piles which can be horrendously expensive.
tomarr··on What 3°C of global warming looks like
Developed country is developed

Developing country is developing

I would say your viewpoint there is overly simplistic.

tomarr··on Hunter S. Thompson Interview on Gonzo Journalism (1975) [video]
>>traditional media just deals in half truths and artificially modifying information

You know, this also could be a definition for Gonzo journalism which by its nature is 'truth inspired'.

tomarr··on Amazon has acquired Facebook's satellite internet team
It is fair to say this is quite distorted by the impact of very low interest rates on expectations of future profits though, which is a key component in the share price.
tomarr··on The humble water heater could be the savior of our energy infrastructure woes
They are designed for a number of air changes per hour/day which would be analogous I guess. I can't remember the number but a Google will tell you, it's different depending on the kind of environment (office/home etc)
tomarr··on Intuit to share payroll data from 1.4M small businesses with Equifax
Also you can say you have other offers (or even go ahead with multiple applications) and therefore you want a competitive offer.
tomarr··on The Miami condo collapse is a reminder of America's artificial land problem
Is it? Spalling is usually noticed a lot more, you would probably see some yielding or signs of progressive collapse first.

The pictures I have seen make foundational failure look more likely.

tomarr··on Embassy Gardens Sky Pool
(ignoring earthquakes) I guess the swimming pool would need to be on bearings and allowed some degree of rotation/translation from the buildings. This would be achievable as it does not extend that far into the building, so you should be able to have it supported in this way with a sliding bearing at the supports. I would not be surprised to see further supports and beams added to the initial architectural concept though.
tomarr··on Why did Alibaba's Jack Ma disappear for three months?
Perhaps England had some form of free speech but it certainly was not the 'American standard'. There has always been limits - and fairly extensive when it comes to topics posing a threat to the establishment, such as Ireland and the colonies.
tomarr··on Underwater Roundabout in the Faroe Islands
I would guess the Faroe Islands would be in reasonably unfractured rock. This would be favourable to drill and blast which is cost effective as tunnelling techniques go. The sprayed concrete seen in the article pictures is likely secondary lining for water ingress and a membrane for waterproofing than to form the primary support lining.
tomarr··on Oxford University breakthrough on global COVID-19 vaccine
The bigger dependent will be the prevalence of COVID during the trial (time, location and population sensitive)
tomarr··on Evolving Reddit’s Workforce
Well this assumes the management cost (or inefficiency) does not go up for remote, which is unclear.
tomarr··on Cameras and secret trackers reveal where Amazon returns end up
The GPS tracker technique does not seem foolproof, basic QA on returned goods would likely be trashing the GPS trackers.
tomarr··on Cement is the source of 8% of the world's CO2 emissions (2018)
CO2e is standard when talking about GHG which takes this into account.
tomarr··on Epic, Spotify, and Tinder form advocacy group to push for app store changes
"It's like two bald men fighting over a comb"
tomarr··on Estimating unobserved SARS-CoV-2 infections in the United States
Well sure, and that is a perfectly valid comment at the micro level. However, we can relatively clearly see that the COVID-linked death reporting is under-reported from mortality baselines.

Therefore it's highly likely that for a given death it is more likely to be incorrectly categorise as non-COVID when COVID was responsible, than to be incorrectly designated COVID.

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