Hacker News: alex_h

New comment by alex_h in "A battery has replaced Hawaii's last coal plant"

alex_h — Wed, 10 Jan 2024 22:28:17 +0000

The Kahe (oil powered) plant at electric beach is still operational. The coal fired power plant that shut down is a little further south of there, closer to Barbers point.

New comment by alex_h in "Lead poisoning causes more death, IQ loss than thought: study"

alex_h — Fri, 22 Sep 2023 00:46:47 +0000

Seems like the presence of the accumulated gunk in the cylinder means the hot water must be cleaner by definition? The accumulation being the net difference between what was dissolved in the incoming water and what is dissolved in the outgoing water.

With the exception of gunk that is from the lining of the cylinder itself of course.

New comment by alex_h in "Saintcon: Lock Picking Lawyer Keynote"

alex_h — Sun, 28 Nov 2021 18:45:20 +0000

LPL has discussed locks without being able to pick them, eg the Bowley lock

https://youtu.be/qV8QKZNFxLw

New comment by alex_h in "“Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says"

alex_h — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 09:35:35 +0000

How would one go about trying to get this law enforced on a company? I live in California where this tactic has supposedly been illegal for 3 years already, but when I go to cancel my AT&T internet subscription, I still can not do it online and am forced to call.

New comment by alex_h in "Passive radiative cooling below ambient airtemperature under direct sun (2014) [pdf]"

alex_h — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 22:04:17 +0000

There's some numbers here for what it would take.

https://www.cell.com/joule/pdf/S2542-4351(19)30354-X.pdf

Basically we need 1W/m^2 of cooling for the earth, so if you could get a radiative cooling device with 100W/m^2 you'd need to cover about 1% of Earth's area

New comment by alex_h in "The Enemy as Sociologist"

alex_h — Sun, 02 May 2021 12:11:11 +0000

I think the sentence is meant to be read: "As many Jews as [the number of] Signal readers" i.e. equating the size of the groups, not saying that they were the same group.

New comment by alex_h in "Opinion: We’ll Have Herd Immunity by April"

alex_h — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 18:26:38 +0000

It depends on the r value of the virus. A more transmissible virus requires a higher level of population immunity. Most common estimate I've seen for covid is 70-80%

New comment by alex_h in "Flowrite: Turn short lists of facts into well-written emails"

alex_h — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 16:04:25 +0000

Can it turn a well written email into a short list of facts? That seems more useful.

New comment by alex_h in "Startup Stock Options – Why A Good Deal Has Gone Bad (2019)"

alex_h — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 17:24:56 +0000

I'm definitely not an expert on options contracts, but the examples of clauses I've seen are:

(In the options exercise agreement): "All certificates evidencing shares purchased under this agreement shall bear the following legend: "The shares represented hereby may not be sold, assigned, ..., except in compliance with the terms of a written agreement between the company and the registered holder...""

(On the share certificate): "This certificate and the shares represented hereby are issued and shall be held subject to all ... bylaws of the corporation, to all of which each holder ... agrees to be bound"

Either of which seems to give the company the ability to unilaterally reject any transfer/sale of shares.

New comment by alex_h in "Startup Stock Options – Why A Good Deal Has Gone Bad (2019)"

alex_h — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 15:26:46 +0000

I learned the hard way that options agreements tend to have additional clauses allowing the company to unilaterally restrict sales. The contract might look like it has a straightforward process for employees to sell, with a company first right of refusal (with the company purchasing the stock instead). But there is usually additional fine print that basically gives the board veto power over any transfer of stock.

New comment by alex_h in "I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA"

alex_h — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 19:52:58 +0000

If the person intends to naturalize in the US, a 6+ month period outside the US is also presumed to break the continuity of residence, which resets the 5 year clock for naturalization.

You can challenge the presumption of a break though.

https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-12-part-d-chapter...

New comment by alex_h in "Anders Tegnell defends Sweden's virus approach"

alex_h — Thu, 04 Jun 2020 02:36:24 +0000

The NZ Treasury forecast (made 3 weeks ago) was that unemployment would hit 9.8% by September. I can't find any numbers for the current rate though.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/416633/budget-2020-50bn...

New comment by alex_h in "Saudi Arabia runs online database of women to track them, stop them running away"

alex_h — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 17:08:02 +0000

Maybe Apple should revoke the certificate for the iOS app shown in the article.

New comment by alex_h in "10 gigabit Ethernet 80 GHz point-to-point bridges"

alex_h — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 23:11:17 +0000

What kind of licensing (FCC or otherwise) would one need to operate such a radio bridge in the US? or is it public spectrum?

New comment by alex_h in "USCIS Completes the H-1B Cap Random Selection Process for FY 2016"

alex_h — Mon, 13 Apr 2015 20:46:14 +0000

They received 233,000 applications for 85,000 work visas, and have randomly selected 85,000 of them. Everyone else can try next year.

New comment by alex_h in "Sorry, Box, but free is not a business model"

alex_h — Mon, 26 Jan 2015 15:59:36 +0000

There is a difference between price and cost. The death spiral scenario that he talks about results from dropping the price to zero while still having nonzero cost. You may disagree with that assessment, but it's not a contradiction.

New comment by alex_h in "Global Slavery Index 2014"

alex_h — Tue, 18 Nov 2014 18:11:55 +0000

Figures for Iceland were actually extrapolated from figures for Britain. In all the index is pretty seriously flawed. Some countries are being ranked in the complete absence of any slavery data to justify a ranking.

http://www.economist.com/news/international/21631039-interna...

Pursue Perfection

alex_h — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 17:37:54 +0000

Article URL: https://delightedapp.com/blog/pursue-perfection

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7096795

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

Bloat

alex_h — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 18:15:44 +0000

Article URL: https://delightedapp.com/blog/bloat

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6734161

Points: 5

# Comments: 0

New comment by alex_h in "In Almost Every European Country, Bikes Are Outselling New Cars"

alex_h — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 18:28:22 +0000

I hate to feed the troll here, but the ozone hole problem was solved because of a concerted international effort to reduce CFCs going into the atmosphere, eg. by eliminating them from refrigerator coolants.