jthacker · HackerTrans

This is certainly a great immediately useful tool but also a relatively small ROI, both the return and the investment. Big tech is aiming for a much bigger return on a clearly bigger investment. That’s going to potentially look like a lot of useless stuff in the meantime. Also, if it wasn’t for big tech and big investments, there wouldn’t even be these tools / models at this level of sophistication for others to be using for applications like this one.

jthacker

4년 전discuss

I'm unable to read the article due to the paywall, but if the first paragraph is indicative of the thesis, then it is "startups that build incremental functionality on top of existing products are upset when the company improves their product with the same functionality". I'd say there are two issues at play here: 1. The large Tech companies are too big and do too many things. They should be broken up for no other reason than to protect the public from their eventual collapse or abuse of power. 2. As a startup, don't build an incremental product that can easily be scooped by a competitor, especially if that competitor is a mega corporation.

jthacker

4년 전discuss

While hemoglobin in blood has magnetic properties there’s no evidence that it leads to anyone being able to feel magnetic fields. At least one study has shown evidence for humans sensing magnetic fields but the author's do not make a case for blood being the biophysical mechanism https://authors.library.caltech.edu/90480/. The earths magnetic field is very weak and the force felt on our blood is even weaker.

It’s still a debate how animals sense the earths magnetic field. However, all theories rely on special adaptions and not on the extremely weak magnetic properties of blood.

jthacker

8년 전discuss

SparkMeter is hiring! We're looking for a Systems Engineer, a Customer Operations Associate, a Commercial Operations Associate, a Business Administration Intern, and a Commercial Operations Intern.

We developed our low-cost, pre-pay enabled, smart metering system as a solution for electric utilities in developing countries to serve low-income customers. Our metering system is being widely adopted by utilities serving customers in rural parts of Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

SparkMeter is a great group of smart people with a mission. Message me if you want to chat about these roles!

http://www.sparkmeter.io/en/jobs/

jthacker

8년 전discuss

The article mentions that it's a problem to ride the elevator past the top or bottom floor, but it is unclear why. I don't see why this should be an issue.

jthacker

10년 전discuss

Agreed. How are knitted objects normally made on these machines? Are they using the "assembly" instructions?

jthacker

10년 전discuss

Is it really true that "all of mathematics can be described with sets"?

jthacker

10년 전discuss

Unquestioning acceptance of science is definitely not a conclusion of this piece nor is it alluded to.

The main argument of this piece is how "an understanding of what real truth-seeking looks like" can allow you to reject claims when they are scientifically proven to be false. While he does not directly state that one should be skeptical of the scientific community he also never states that there should be unquestioning acceptance of it either. It is however made clear that skepticism is a key trait of being a scientist.

He begins by pointing out the seeming contradiction of being a scientist who is "supposed to have skepticism and imagination, but not too much" while "gathering facts and testing your predictions" before you "either affirm or reject the ideas at hand". Even then you still must "accept that nothing is ever completely settled, that all knowledge is just probable knowledge." Establishing early on that a scientist must be willing to accept that "a contradictory piece of evidence can always emerge" while still advancing our collective understanding.

"Knowledge has become too vast and complex for any one person [...] to convincingly master more than corners of it". You therefore must rely on the collective of scientific knowledge and those who practice it, the "scientific community". He points out the difference between this group and one of pseudoscientific thought is that the claims of the latter can be demonstrably rejected using the scientific method.

A scientist must remain skeptical, but in order to be productive you also need to rely on your community, no one person can verify all claims. Being skeptical is inherit in being a scientist, and therefore part of the scientific community. Relying on the scientific community is not akin to unquestioning acceptance. Questioning established beliefs while backing it with scientific evidence is the key difference between the scientific community and the pseudoscientific one.

jthacker

12년 전discuss

Speculation: It appears they are using this for the overarching structure of projects. Rather than managing individual appointments it manages overall time, e.g. on this day BobbySue should be spending 50% of her time on project A and 50% on project B. Then you can make the calendar read only from the digital side.

That being said, I would still like to see a pick-n-place managed version of this that stays in sync with google calendar.

jthacker

12년 전discuss

The 99.6% effectiveness statistic comes from the planned parenthood website and I'm assuming they quoted it from this study since they do not cite their source http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/22/5/1310.short

99.6% is the method-effectiveness (i.e. the efficacy if used properly) or 0.4 unintended pregnancies per 100 "women years" (13 cycles)

Other interesting results from the study: - the method-effectiveness rate found for this method is comparable to oral contraceptive - 9.2% stopped using the method due to dissatisfaction - Couples that had intercourse during the fertile period had an increased pregnancy rate of 7.5% - This study was done in European countries and the pregnancy rate was lower than similar studies performed in developing countries

jthacker

12년 전discuss

I actually did the same %s/2048/4096/g in the code the other day after getting 2048. And I finally beat it! http://i.imgur.com/pC51sNT.png

I suppose the next step is to make it endless and see how high you can go.

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