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portlander52232

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Operation Epsilon 3 years ago

They recorded only selectively (perhaps a cost savings to be fair) and destroyed the recordings after transcribing the relevant parts. So much respect for privacy compared to what we might expect today!

Norton's Dome 3 years ago

From the article: “ To see that all these equations of motion are physically possible solutions, it's helpful to use the time reversibility of Newtonian mechanics. It is possible to roll a ball up the dome in such a way that it reaches the apex in finite time and with zero energy, and stops there. By time-reversal, it is a valid solution for the ball to rest at the top for a while and then roll down in any one direction. However, the same argument applied to the usual kinds of domes (e.g., a hemisphere) fails, because a ball launched with just the right energy to reach the top and stay there would actually take infinite time to do so.”

Love a lower barrier to entry for 3D. “A new way to 3D” gets the point across. Just evaluating the homepage, I like the fun aesthetic a lot. However, a large proportion of the examples on the homepage have a slight horror/gross-out element to them. E.g., does the cowboy dude have to have his torso swelling and undulating? I think this comes from trying to demo the SDF model overtly, whereas some demos should just be of cool stuff you can make that doesn’t look like it’s made of gooey balls.

Once upon a time somebody made a Lego mindstorms robot that walked up to objects and then drummed on them. It was very cute. Can’t find the video now though.

I love everything about it. I’d buy today except I’ll committed to split keyboards. They let me keep my shoulders back. If you ever make a versions that’s fully split (two halves that can be well-separated) and still non-ortho, even better if you can figure out how to wirelessly split…

My only other feature request would be a USB port for a yubikey.

I’ve lived in Airbnbs full-time for the last two years. While the existence of the service has enabled a fun lifestyle for me, my opinion of the company has fallen and fallen over that time:

* I’ve paid them tens of thousands of dollars in service fees. Yet the customer service experience is on par with an airline or cable company. Getting bounced from person to person every hour, having to explain the situation a dozen times (really, a dozen), and in the end they rarely help me.

* Easily 90% of listings contain some kind of misrepresentation. Probably half it’s something egregious. Airbnb doesn’t seem to care.

Hopefully they’re trying to turn the ship here. We’ll see.

Just for one example, Seattle has a lake right in the middle of town in a bowl with tens of thousands of people working and living right around it, and that lake is used as a seaplane airfield with aircraft landing and taking off every few minutes throughout the day.

If you haven’t tried FAANG, it might be worth considering. I took a FAANG job on a lark, intending to stay a short time just to have it on my resume, and ended up liking the job way more than I expected and stuck around much longer than planned. In particular, my expectations about the job were completely inaccurate. The office politics, corporate bureaucracy, interpersonal dynamics, and overall stress level are all way better than I ever experienced at small companies. You cite a lack of small teams as your reason for avoiding FAANG (and I know there are probably others), but I’m generally working with 1–4 people at a time.

They basically invented a new programming paradigm. You’re not familiar with it so it doesn’t make sense. But it actually more closely matches what’s really going on, so it’s more straightforward to someone familiar with how React works. The class-based API did not closely match how React actually works and so led to various common bugs which don’t occur anymore with the hooks API. You do have to learn the paradigm, but having done that you understand a lot more what you’re doing. This would probably be clearer if it were just a new programming language instead of being shoehorned into Javascript—then it wouldn’t seem so weird to be learning a new paradigm.

It'd be cool if they made a single-key Touch ID accessory for people who use other keyboards. Since they probably won't, I wonder if it's feasible to take the keyboard and chop it down to a smaller size.

Scram Switch 5 years ago

I don’t know why the downvotes but I’m scratching my head trying to figure out what words in the OP would be forbidden. But I guess you wouldn’t be able to answer that question.

Light weight and stiffness change how a bike feels, far more significantly than it improves objective performance. A light, stiff bike with a fast-engagement hub feels sporty and fun, it’s that simple. It makes you want to go harder and makes you smile as you do it.

You can buy a carbon bike at any mainstream bike shop, they aren’t just for pros anymore. I ride one because it feels amazingly sporty. I’m an enthusiast but not very athletic. The super light, stiff bike is just fun to ride.

The aero features like integrate stem and bars is mostly found on time-trial and triathlon bikes. In contrast you can get conventional road bikes, gravel bikes, and mountain bikes in carbon at any nice bike shop.

Michael, big fan of your work here. Can you talk a bit more about how to avoid subordinating or dominating?

Propublica is actually even nicer than Medium, if you ask me.

The similarity you're noticing is partly fashion, but largely just that the technology and market conditions finally exist to use magazine-style type on web pages.

Google Maps for iOS 14 years ago

I generally agree, but there is one respect in which Apple Maps is scads better than Google Maps. It's not exactly important, but it is really nice: Typography.

The Quiet Ones 14 years ago

The other day I was awakened by the... most... annoying... sound... in the universe: a leaf blower outside my window.

Worse! They blew everything directly into the bicycle parking row! Years' worth of dirt on my bike in one minute. Debris and filth in all the works. Earthworms. Had to completely detail the whole bike.

Meanwhile, leaves are some of the best compost available. Why do we blow them noisomely to rot on the "unused" areas of the pavement (i.e., bike parking, bike lanes)?

The Quiet Ones 14 years ago

For around $50 you can have an audiologist make earplugs that are molded specifically to your ear. These are much more comfortable and give better attenuation than standard earplugs.