Hacker News Reader

vatyson Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

You can get a reverse osmosis system for ~$150. Maybe not cheap, but not super expensive either. Even if you're renting for a year and leave it behind that's less then $0.50 a day over one year.

vatyson Wizard for Mac – new kind of statistics program

I use Wizard all the time. I'm not a data scientist, but I often need to make engineering decisions based on trends hidden in large datasets. Wizard makes it easy to find what I'm looking for. I'm generally using it for a first pass at data, and when I find the trend, outlier, correlation, etc, that I'm looking for, I'll then move on to a tool with more features like Tableau or JMP to really dig in.

What is wrong with having a fast and easy to use tool which makes data analysis accessible? If people misuse their data or their tools, that's their fault.

vatyson Wizard for Mac – new kind of statistics program

I use Wizard all the time at work for analyzing manufacturing data to quickly check for trends and correlations. I find it better, easier, and faster than the internal tools purpose-built for the same task. I also prefer Wizard over JMP, Tableau, or any R/numpy/gnuplot methods, specifically for one-off tasks and analyzing new issues.

I’m not going to write a script or configure complex software for a quick check. Wizard is perfect for that. It’s also super fast at scanning through really enormous CSV files, then generating plots for every parameter.

Every coworker who sees me using it for these tasks wants to know what it is, or how I send out relevant plots so quickly when new datasets are available. It’s really a fantastic tool for quick work.

There seems to be a lot of negativity in this comments section about misuse of statistics. I think people are missing the point. Easy tools make data analysis more accessible, but misuse of data is the fault of the user, not the tool.

vatyson New York City in 1993 in HD – DTheater DVHS Demo Tape [video]

And everybody looking straight ahead rather than down at a smartphone

vatyson The Merge

> We can't create something that is greater than our own limitations

If that were true we would still be single-celled organisms. Or do you mean it can't be done intentionally?

vatyson The Internet Archive has digitized 25,000 78rpm Gramophone records

> Why were these recordings played and digitized in stereo when the records were mono?

Probably to allow for better post-processing in case one groove wall is in better condition than the other. They seem to be going for completeness rather than hard drive efficiency.

http://great78.archive.org/preservation/

> This means we deliver both groove walls of 4 different stylus sizes with and without EQ for a total of 16 channels of audio. The most comprehensive presentation of 78rpm discs ever!

vatyson MusicBrainz: an open music encyclopedia

http://www.filebot.net

Very powerful file renaming tool that also leverages TheTVDB, AniDB, TheMovieDB, etc for TV and movies. Both GUI and command-line versions available, I always use the (free) command-line version even though I paid for the GUI.

It also accepts scripts, has smart/fuzzy matching, and is an all-around good renaming tool for other things too.

vatyson 11 Years of Cassini Saturn Photos [video]

Also, from OP's submission history, here is the original WSJ page for this with additional clips: http://graphics.wsj.com/saturn/

Jon Keegan (WSJ) also provided a link to tools used to generate this and other videos from the source images: https://github.com/jonkeegan/cassini-tools

Overall, a very cool project.

vatyson 11 Years of Cassini Saturn Photos [video]

This is incredible, and it appeals to me on so many levels.

The snippets that are smooth time-lapse clips are like a brief view of a lonely journey far out in space.

But on top of that it is a work of art. One of the best combinations of amazing space photography, glitchy artifacts, smooth time-lapse. It’s like a fever dream of 90s music video perfection.

Put on your favorite albums and watch it. The glitches are bound to sync with some beat or another at some point.

vatyson Pepsi Design Strategy (2008)

I've always loved this absurd document. I think it must have been made after the new logo was designed, as a way to back-annotate a fake history of how it was developed.

Looking at the new Pepsi logo, this is all I can see: http://blowatlife.blogspot.com/2009/02/pepsi-logo-response.h...

vatyson Apple Watch owners use their nose to navigate the watch

I love the stipple picture of the guy nose-tapping his watch

http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/HC-GU128_Watch_G_2...

vatyson Microsoft quietly rewrites its activation rules for Windows 10

If activation per device is stored online, what does this mean for VMs? What kind of "device" does a VM look like?

vatyson Ask HN: What's the hardest problem you've ever solved?

Debugging a "hot CPU" boot failure issue. A custom motherboard design would only boot when the CPU was cold, like ICE cold (put it in a freezer, or hit it with cold spray).

Turns out the bias current node (external RBIAS resistor sets bias current) for PCIe was routed too close to an inductor for a power rail. When the CPU was warm, the power rail pulled more current, causing the inductor to ring more, causing the crosstalk on the bias net to screw up the PCIe subsystem and hang the CPU.

Found the issue accidentally on a layout change. Had to prove it by drilling out the via and re-routing the signal with wire.

vatyson That Way We’re All Writing Now

Sure, Hackers came out in 1995. That's 20 years ago. And after that movie came out, if not before, using 1337 speak online was already a joke.

But the article did make the distinction that this is about the "mainstream internet". I kind of agree, but not completely.

> For the first fifteen years of the mainstream Internet, the main way language changed was at the level of the individual word.

I guess the argument there is if the impact was solely on vocabulary at first, and is now starting to change grammar. I think an earlier example of internet grammar would be verbing a noun. It is certainly not unique to the internet, but I remember it being common online in the 90s. It struck me back then as a shift in language that was spreading more quickly online than offline.

vatyson That Way We’re All Writing Now

> It makes your feeling seem universal.

Rage comics, subordinate clauses, FML postings, tweets, anonymous comment threads, etc. The internet makes it easier to share the kind of tiny moments you'd never speak of. Then, suddenly, we all realized that we could all relate to them. Secret micro-shame revelation becomes a commonplace part of the modern human experience. Isn't the internet wonderful?

vatyson Why Apple is obsessed with gold: It's all about Asia

Why not both? Making an absurdly expensive gold flavor elevates the whole Watch brand, positions it as a luxury good, and makes it more appealing in China. Win-win.

vatyson NeXT Logo Presentation by Paul Rand to Steve Jobs [pdf]

My favorite example of "post-rationalization" is the BREATHTAKING Design Strategy behind the new Pepsi logo of the last decade.

http://www.goldennumber.net/wp-content/uploads/pepsi-arnell-...

The bit about Pepsi energy fields and globe dynamics is my favorite, but it is all kind of amazing.

Edit:

By comparison, this NeXT logo document seems pretty tame. Mostly describing the intent behind font choices and getting people's attention. Making the 'e' small does help prevent the all-caps design from looking like it has 'EXIT' in it.

And for what it's worth, I kind of like the NeXT logo. It looks a bit dated today, but it's not bad. Very 80s futurist.