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x43b

2,782 karma · joined September 1, 2011

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x43b··on Why does a plastic-wrapped turkey sandwich cost $15 at the NYC airport?
For the past five years, I have a no eating on travel days policy. Not only do I feel like I am avoiding these high costs, my stomach is less active which is great on travel days.
x43b··on Dont think of price, think of cost per use
I liked the general idea but found the examples counterproductive. I personally prefer cooking whole foods at home. However, paying $14 for one meal would provide calories needed to live. I do not "need" to touch my phone 32,000 times at 2 cents a piece.

30 years from now I will hopefully retain some my experiential (expensive) travel memories but may not remember/care if I used a value or flagship phone for a given 24 month period.

x43b··on Branson and crew reach space, return in runway landing
I think the tilting tail and minimal thermal protection system concept will always remain suborbital. But there are reusable space glider concepts like X-37 and Dream Chaser.
x43b··on Julia adoption keeps climbing
Thank you. I will look through both.
x43b··on Julia adoption keeps climbing
Any recommendations on beginner (to Julia) books to get started?
x43b··on The “menu engineers” who optimize restaurant revenue
I interpreted that part of the article as having nothing to do with prices. Instead it was 7 types of appetizer items or 10 entrees.
x43b··on Airbus pilot tries Microsoft Flight Simulator [video]
I heard the same story but it was Bob Hoover and not Yeager.
x43b··on NASA Just Launched Its New Perseverance Rover to Mars
I'm excited for Ingenuity, the Mars Helicopter Scout!
x43b··on Boeing quietly pulls plug on the 747, closing era of jumbo jets
>>The Covid-19 pandemic threatens to leave their manufacturers scrounging to find buyers for the last jumbos built.

This is imply not true. The last 747s built are freighters. Freight demand is at an all time high due to COVID and constraints on supply chians. Even passenger vehicles are being called into freight service (which is far less efficient yet still economical).

x43b··on Tim Bray told a union meeting Amazon should be broken up
Do you have evidence Amazon sold books at a loss for 20+ years?

Buying a book for $10, selling it for $12, then spending $5 on a new warehouse is cash flow negative but not selling at a loss. Amazon isn't even cash flow negative anymore.

x43b··on Scott Forstall tells story about Steve Jobs, Microsoft, and a dead fish [video]
>If you're a hiring manager and can't even be bothered to >know the most basic facts about me and that I might not like >that piece or pork or salmon for religious or ethical >reasons then that about says it all.

If you are a hiring manager and you are attempting to learn someone's religious or dietary beliefs prior to hiring then then you should be sued/fired.

x43b··on In 2019, Americans went more to the library than to the movies on average
Maybe I'm an outlier being in that age bracket and having young kids. But I am shocked that none of those 30-49 year olds don't have kids that are being escorted to the library to pick out new ones and returning/repeating every two weeks. One adult and two kids ~25x=75 person trips. Finding the equivalent number of movies that everyone would want to see and sit through is unfathomable to me.
x43b··on Energy Storage Investments Boom as Battery Costs Halve in the Next Decade
I actually work on reducing emissions tangentially and am absolutely not a "denier", but I have not seen any evidence that our models are so accurate that we can predict the tipping point from halting increases to decreases within 1%.
x43b··on The High Price of Multitasking
I love gadgets and sensors, I've looked for a reason to get a smart watch. I have avoided it because once I eliminate interruptions/multitasking, I can't see a good use case for me. I check email/messages too often, I can't imagine a buzz/chime/flash on my wrist helping.
x43b··on Why isn’t CPU time more valuable?
This always bothered me too. Both when computers were expensive to me and now cheap. I get paid a good amount of money during the day to use a computer to compute things, display/interface with me, to communicate to humans and other computers. Then my computer is idle/sleep when I am not there. This feels inherently wrong to me. How is that I cannot come up with something useful for my computer to do when I am not there to make real contributions when I resume work? (disclaimer, engineer who programs but not a computer scientist)
x43b··on What ABC called "pink slime," USDA now says can be labeled "ground beef"
Significant number of carbs and has added sugar, sounds less nutritious than hamburger to me.
x43b··on What principal investigators taught me about my failure to land tenure
"At the age of 41, after working in several postdoctoral positions over the course of 12 years, I started applying for tenure-track and other permanent positions."

Why would you wait 12 years after your terminal degree to START applying for permanent jobs?

x43b··on Colin O’Brady Completes Crossing of Antarctica with Final 32-Hour Push
https://www.pillsburybaking.com/products/creamy-supreme/clas...

Looks like a >4:1 carb:fat ratio by weight.

x43b··on Colin O’Brady Completes Crossing of Antarctica with Final 32-Hour Push
Carbohydrates are 4 calories/gram. Fats are 9 calories/gram. Frosting does not win.
x43b··on IBM is not doing "cognitive computing" with Watson (2016)
Why is applied physicist in quotes? Elon has a ivy league physics degree, was accepted at Stanford in applied physics, and has clearly applied a knowledge of physics at numerous companies.
x43b··on Books I read this year
This is tangential, but I wonder what was meant by Eddie Izzard lacking natural talent. Outside of rare provable conditions (learning disabilities, height, etc.) I wonder if natural talent exists or if it was a matter of determination plus deliberate practice before people noticed and thus declared someone "naturally talented".
x43b··on Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
Stopped thinking that working harder at what others think I should be doing is the key to my success and start evaluating what should I do rather than only how do I do it better.

Stopped eating added sugar and refined carbohydrates.

x43b··on The clock is ticking for Spotify
"Somewhat unrelated but.. is the music industry expecting that we go back to buying CDs (or $0.99 tracks) if streaming services die out? Because I'm pretty sure I won't. I can't see myself going back to physical media or DRM-laden files any soon."

iTunes dropped DRM between 2007-2009. I don't think anyone is expecting you to go back to "DRM-laden files" anytime soon.

x43b··on Sous-vide startup wants to take the tech-industry’s kitchen darling mainstream
>>Why would that product be better than the current >>generation of "sous vide" products, which can clip onto >>any pot or cambro?

They are fundamentally different cooking techniques. Immersion cooking, "sous vide", is cooking food in a sealed bag in a water bath.

"instant pot" are more like smart cockpot/pressure cookers where the food is contained a pressurized (sometimes) vessel in air.

Which is better depends on the type of food and cooking technique you wish to utilize.

x43b··on Sous-vide startup wants to take the tech-industry’s kitchen darling mainstream
I do not ever intend to stop using my Anova. But in terms of going main stream, I feel like it is already or it is not and the ship has sailed.

I bought my Bluetooth(rarely use that part, just set and walk away) cooker for $125 over a year ago. Why would this competitor make it go mainstream.

I am all for more consumer options, but how is this different/better?

x43b··on Sous-vide startup wants to take the tech-industry’s kitchen darling mainstream
I bought an ANOVA 18 months ago and two more people have bought one after eating food from mine.

We all use ours several times a week. It turns out so good and so consistent, I basically use it for all beef, chicken, pork, and lamb.

x43b··on How a College Student Used Creative Commons to Dominate Political Photography
>>Gage's work is probably not prohibitively expensive in terms of money.

"between states to more than 40 speaking engagements." "I traveled to nearly every part of the country to cover his political events,” "Skidmore is hot on the campaign trail again, toggling his time between New Hampshire, Iowa, and Arizona"

Prohibitively expensive is a relative term, but it is hard to imagine this not costing 10s of thousands of dollars and being out of the reach of most high school and college students.

x43b··on Survive and Thrive
"it's so many sigmas from the norm they may as well be Toyota consultants from the 90s"

I am not catching the reference. Can you explain or link to something I can read. Are you talking about Kaizen?

x43b··on Life in a Studio Apartment with My Wife and Two Sons
"400 sqm with two kids might be a drama for people in the US"

400 square feet (~37 m^2)

No need to turn this into another stereotyping Europe vs US issue. I agree 37 m^2 is plenty of room for some people, not for others, regardless of where you are from.

x43b··on Should we all be looking for marginal gains?
I felt the same way. The sport optimizations I felt like we're from Faster, Higher, Stronger. The hot dogs I read about in the chapter on outsiders and innovation, maybe in a Freakonomics book. I know I read the hospital and checklists before too.
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