HN user
There's also the "graph on average paid vacation time in industrialized countries:" which is actually mandated vacation. I'd be very interested in seeing the 'average' graph to compare.
Original source of the graph (afaik): http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/2007-05-no-vacati...
He said he stopped reading.
I like that the top purchasers are advertisements.
Excellent point, but it shouldn't impact an A/B test. Specifically, the experimental and control users should be equally drawn to look at the deactivation page.
However, this could give a false impression of improvement if you just look at the data before and after the launch. It's a good reason to also look at the total number of deactivations / visits to the deactivation page.
How does fewer clothes that you don't wear mean less laundry?
I wish I had been. I heard a car crash last night, and when I got downstairs, it became clear that someone had hit a parked car (hard) and was fleeing the scene. I actively tried to catch the license plate, but could only pick up the first three characters, and even those I'm not confident of. Not sure if 15fps on 480x320 would have helped (especially in bad lighting), but I'd love to have that footage and find out.
I know you're being sarcastic, but I actually saw this coming and invested a fair amount in kneezles. Now I wish I'd just bought kneezle options, since I could have gotten much better leverage.
I really would like to write a more articulate reply, but it's late and I'm tired, so I'll leave you with:
I don't believe you.
Portable electric heaters can be incredibly efficient, since they only heat the room in question. I don't know much about building materials, but the article suggested that most heat loss is through windows, so worrying about wood building seems unnecessary.
Water conservation discussion need to be very localized. Lots of places in the US have very low population densities and plenty of water. Conservation is silly in this case. Whether your toilet uses a lot of water or a little, the same amount of poop and same amount of water are going to end up back in the river. Besides all this, toilet flushing and ice in drinks is peanuts compared to agricultural usage. They are little things and do not make a huge difference.
Please site your sources. Here are some of mine:
http://greenliving.lovetoknow.com/Energy_Efficient_Space_Hea...
Fine, but under this law men have the right to marry women, but women do not (and vice-versa). Thus, the law is sexist.
Should I be considering this differently from solar? They're both harvesting ambient EM radiation; and the energy density of solar is much higher. I guess that radio goes through walls and never sleeps, so that's a plus. Anyway, I thought that the mentioning of a solar calculator was quite appropriate and warranted further discussion.
None of the listed offenses are universally crimes (in the US): Speeding is frequently an infraction (eg, http://www.co.thurston.wa.us/distcrt/traffic.htm). Underage drinking is often legal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_drinking_age). Having a couple of drinks will almost never put you above the legal BAC (http://www.drunkdrivingdefense.com/general/bac.htm, http://www.ohsinc.com/drunk_driving_laws_blood_breath%20_alc...). Marijuana use is decriminalized in many states (although it remains a federal crime) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_cannabis#United_Sta...).
What if Alexa is no longer around?
Presumably the next step is to write Dwarf Fortress for this.
A Poisson distribution with a mean of 1.84 results in about 45% of children being first born. In fact, the best you can do with any distribution is 54%. For example, if there are 10k couples, then there will be 18.4k children born, at most 10k of which can be first born; and 10/18.4 = 54%.
In fact, the only thing that matters for the distribution (once you know the mean) is the number of childless families, since they could have had a first born but didn't.
I haven't been able to figure out where 74% comes from. Is there some way to sample on a per-family basis to come up with this?
edit: spelling
I built a mediocre prototype around November, and am currently working on a hopefully better prototype.
Useful info about the following: I am a cheapskate, and am interested in producing this very cheaply. If you're willing to drop $80 on the compass module, certain aspects of this will change.
My first prototype was built out of cell phone vibrating motors, a belt I stole from a friend that had good holes for the motors, and a compass from http://www.robsonco.com/Dinsmore/. It worked alright, but the motors were prone to getting stuck, the compass module wasn't as consistent as I'd like (eg, it gave around 30 degrees to cardinal directions and 60 degrees to diagonals). To build this, you'd probably want basic soldering skills and preferably a basic understanding of electronics. If you were seriously interested I could send you instructions.
For my second prototype I'm using coin-type pager motors, so I don't need to worry about the heads hitting anything. Specifically, I'm using: http://www.pagermotors.com/index_files/Products/DiskL/DiskL.... (and fwiw I measured them at 40mA). I'm also using an AK8973 compass chip, although I haven't yet tested it. This is _not_ a hobbyist friendly chip, and it's kind of a pain to get. On the other hand, I got them for $7 a piece and I expect it to give me better accuracy than the Dinsmore module. I expect to use a microcontroller interpret the output and activate the motors (I may need more cir. For the belt I'm essentially using a canvas strap. To do all of this (mostly to deal with the newer compass chip) I've so far needed to etch my own circuit boards (you can get around this pretty easily for approx $20), will need to solder better than Santa's elves, and will need to program a microcontroller.