Hacker News: Crunchified

New comment by Crunchified in "My Two and a Half Years at TikTok E-Commerce in the US: Hope to Disillusion"

Crunchified — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 20:58:59 +0000

It's a little (or maybe a lot) different, given the added dimension of clashing (international) cultures and the resulting management perceptions. In some ways, it's the opposite side of the spectrum from those European countries that established their business operations in the USA in the '80s and '90s with far greater benefits and relaxed working schedules than the typical US corporate policies of the era. SAP comes to mind as an example.

New comment by Crunchified in "The Peppermills of Jens Quistgaard"

Crunchified — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 01:51:47 +0000

The pepper grinders at the gift shoppe at Seattle's Space Needle are terrible. Someone like this designer needs to make a GOOD Space Needle pepper grinder with a good (Peugeot) mechanism!

(I recall a sombrero-roofed observation tower at the I-95 South of the Border rest stop/tourist trap in South Carolina called the Spice Needle)

New comment by Crunchified in "Learning Synths"

Crunchified — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 02:10:41 +0000

I did exactly that as well. I wanted to figure out what a synthesizer does/is, so I bought a MicroBrute and had a great deal of fun with it.

So much fun, in fact, that I bought a MatrixBrute not terribly long afterward. Now _that's_ a monosynth to last me a lifetime!

New comment by Crunchified in "Tiny Black Holes Could Have Left Tunnels Inside Earth's Rocks"

Crunchified — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 07:03:47 +0000

Yeah, OK, it did say that. But the reasoning behind this rather complex scenario (i.e., the process) is left up to us to figure out. "The thing came in here, sucked out all the juice, and then left a while later leaving just the crust behind, like an old chewed out tennis ball."

New comment by Crunchified in "Tiny Black Holes Could Have Left Tunnels Inside Earth's Rocks"

Crunchified — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 06:54:08 +0000

"Stojkovic and his colleague, De-Chang Dai of National Dong Hwa University and Case Western Reserve University, also suggest looking for PBH evidence in celestial bodies with surprisingly low masses. They posit that if a PBH shot through a body such as a planet, moon, or asteroid with a liquid core, it might get trapped inside and vacuum up its center, hollowing it out until an external impact dislodged it."

Please explain how this phenomenon would lessen a celestial body's mass?

New comment by Crunchified in "NASA freezes Starliner missions"

Crunchified — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 23:03:15 +0000

Diverging slightly from the topic, Palm (the Palm Pilot company) at one point had a market cap higher than all US airlines combined.

New comment by Crunchified in "Germany's 49-euro ticket resulted in significant shift from road to rail"

Crunchified — Sun, 13 Oct 2024 00:41:11 +0000

A big externality is time-savings, and can be calculated.

New comment by Crunchified in "The Naming of America (2023)"

Crunchified — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 23:46:53 +0000

I am simply grateful that I don't live in the United States of Vespucciland.

New comment by Crunchified in "Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images"

Crunchified — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 23:42:12 +0000

It is NOT the insurance company's job to replace a worn-out roof. That is YOUR responsibility! If a roof on your home is not up to the proven (albeit occasional) stresses of your local environment (including snowfall, winds, volcanic ash, etc.), whether due to quality, design, or wear, I see no reason why the insurer should not modify its indemnity. I will grant you that a decent insurer would allow you to petition for a review based on any verifiable additional information that you, as owner and insured, might be able to present.

New comment by Crunchified in "Show HN: Rotary Phone Project"

Crunchified — Sat, 23 Mar 2024 20:43:08 +0000

Take that carbon mic element and tap it repeatedly on a hard surface to loosen up the granules of carbon that need to be able to move round in there when you speak into it. You may find that it improves the fidelity noticeably.

New comment by Crunchified in "Amazon plans to charge for Alexa in June–unless internal conflict delays revamp"

Crunchified — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 06:49:00 +0000

But how will Amazon sell all those Echo products without Alexa?

New comment by Crunchified in "The Pontiac Aztek Was Not a Design Tragedy, It Was a Corporate Tragedy"

Crunchified — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 00:29:46 +0000

It's what most people in leadership roles think leadership is (or should be). And they are SO wrong.

New comment by Crunchified in "Three American climbers solve the 'last great problem in the Himalayas'"

Crunchified — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 01:15:15 +0000

These guys aren't using their cell phones to keep warm, I'm quite sure. It's true that Lithium Ion Polymer batteries, so very popular in portable rechargeable devices (and prone to the occasional thermal runaway) usually don't do well below 0°C. But that's not likely to be what they'd choose for such a mission. Simple Energizer brand AA/AAA disposable lithium batteries work fine down to about -40°, and can generally power heated socks and gloves etc. without any modification, and aren't particularly expensive given their considerably greater energy capacity and much wider temperature tolerance over alkaline formulations. The disposable lithiums weigh a good bit less than alkalines, too...for, you know, when every gram counts?

Edit: Also, these batteries aren't necessarily exposed to outside temperatures. Strategically placed near the body, they can be kept at higher temperatures for greater power efficiency - but if they are exposed to outside temps, they will not die as easily as your (pathetically useless in this situation) cell phone batteries would.

New comment by Crunchified in "Three American climbers solve the 'last great problem in the Himalayas'"

Crunchified — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 22:40:23 +0000

Lithiums don't work in cold temperatures? That's a new one on me. Many lithium battery formulations work in colder conditions than other common formulations. I don't read the NYT so didn't read the article, but were they climbing in temperatures well below -40° with exposed batteries? I know that lithiums are commonly used in balloon payloads that can get mighty cold!

New comment by Crunchified in "Is it legal to mix cash in a jar? How is Bitcoin mixing any different?"

Crunchified — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 01:17:59 +0000

Proper cash is a source of freedom. It doesn't even have serial numbers. It has weight and defined properties, but they took all that away from us quite a while ago. Until recently, the paper with numbers and faces on it still served as a fairly usable facsimile, but the powers-that-be continue to take those "privileges" away from us, the undeserved underfolk. Just wait until CBDCs are thrust upon us - that'll take care of the last vestiges of freedom that cash currency, and previously real money, had given us.

They have changed the concept of money, a natural right, into a constructed privilege.

New comment by Crunchified in "Is it legal to mix cash in a jar? How is Bitcoin mixing any different?"

Crunchified — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 00:02:34 +0000

Cash is just one of those freedoms things big government hates. Through money-laundering laws, gov gets to stick its nose into ALL of our lives to treat us all as the potential criminals they know we are. The latest thing their ever-tightening regulations do is to threaten our bank accounts based on mere suspicious behavior.

New comment by Crunchified in "Candela P-12 taking off – Electric hydrofoiling passenger vessel [video]"

Crunchified — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 20:31:49 +0000

How about Puget Sound (Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia...), where there are ferries all over. Several routes have "foot ferries" (no cars) offering rides with added speed to get the commuters to home or work across several miles of semi-open waters. Only rarely are waves a serious factor, and I don't know if that's even serious enough to affect this watercraft. Just one example of where this could really be useful and profitable. I can think of others.. Chesapeake Bay, Lake Champlain, Great Lakes...

New comment by Crunchified in "Airlines will make $118B in extra fees"

Crunchified — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 20:07:30 +0000

Dark website patterns are the internet's embodiment of the sleazy salesperson.

You want the product, the sales guy wants to upsell you and increase his profit margin (corresponding to sales commission). Nobody likes to be sold at like this, but many companies are perfectly happy being represented by such sleazebag salesmanship.

New comment by Crunchified in "From airlines to ticket sellers, companies fight U.S. to keep junk fees"

Crunchified — Sun, 19 Nov 2023 20:45:04 +0000

IF the fees are just "fluff" that adds pure profit to the goods or services rendered, then these new fees regulations will have the government's desired effect. But if the fees are needed to cover costs and expenses, they WILL be incorporated into the bottom line prices, and the regulations will force the advertised prices to rise in lieu of the fees.

As in any "free-market" system, the cost structures of each business will govern its competitiveness and the amount of profit that competition will allow.

And, as usual, the government will find out that further regulating free markets (a three-word oxymoronical phrase) will not achieve the stated goals of lowering the public's costs of goods and services. It might, however, level the playing field in ways that appeal to voters who rely on government to solve all their woes.

New comment by Crunchified in "Amazon lays off hundreds in Alexa division"

Crunchified — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 20:12:49 +0000

I know, now. I used search on this site for "Amazon" but results were obviously not complete enough to be helpful. Any advice on how not to duplicate, short of paging through the submissions to the nth degree?

I checked the guidelines and FAQs. I emailed the contact info but haven't heard their answer yet, either. Sigh.

This was my first submission, and I don't want to repeat this mistake!