Hacker News: lancewiggs

New comment by lancewiggs in "OpenAI should build Slack"

lancewiggs — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 19:35:24 +0000

An alternative perspective is that if someone sends me a Google sheet link then I know almost immediately that is probably not a “serious” document. Similarly with Google Docs, as “serious” documents with proper tracking of changes and so on are in Word.

Of course the uses of serious spreadsheets are often in finance and serious documents are in law.

New comment by lancewiggs in "Data centers in space makes no sense"

lancewiggs — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:21:10 +0000

It's exiting the 5th best social network and the 10th (or worse) best AI company and selling them to a decent company.

It probably increases Elon's share of the combined entity.

It delivers on a promise to investors that he will make money for them, even as the underlying businesses are lousy.

New comment by lancewiggs in "A flawed paper in management science has been cited more than 6k times"

lancewiggs — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 01:32:33 +0000

I found mistakes in the spreadsheet backing up 2 published articles (corporate governance). The (tenured Ivy) professor responded by paying me (after I’d graduated) to write a comprehensive working paper that relied on a fixed spreadsheet and rebutted the articles.

Integrity is hard, but reputations are lifelong.

New comment by lancewiggs in "Our approach to advertising"

lancewiggs — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 08:05:10 +0000

Whether it not this is AI slop, it places a huge burden on everyone here to read it, which we will not. Please be thoughtful, and just stop.

New comment by lancewiggs in "Allow me to introduce, the Citroen C15"

lancewiggs — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 22:32:47 +0000

AI bot-like behaviour.

New comment by lancewiggs in "Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing"

lancewiggs — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 00:15:48 +0000

Generally you pack it into a crate and fly it. You may well need a Carnet and/or other paperwork, and it only makes sense for longer trips.

Consider buying a bike in Europe instead - generally cheaper and you can get something more appropriate to the terrain.

New comment by lancewiggs in "Ask HN: My university wants all my IP (PhD Student) is there anything I can do?"

lancewiggs — Sat, 08 Nov 2025 05:18:59 +0000

Talk to a VC as well. Or more than one, and ideally ones that are in the medical device space and have done similar deals with others from your university. If they are interested then they can apply pressure on the university too, to get to a solution that works for everyone.

New comment by lancewiggs in "Please stop asking me to provide feedback #8036"

lancewiggs — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 23:47:40 +0000

2: is not optional as the pop-up has occurred and the interruption done, and 4-6: are not obvious nor easy for almost everyone.

I recommend people always respond with the lowest possible score (1, not 0) when presented with popups like this.

New comment by lancewiggs in "US falls out of 10 most powerful passports list for first time in 20 yrs"

lancewiggs — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 22:16:32 +0000

The New Zealand Active Investor Plus resident program requires $5m NZD, which is under $3m USD, but that would take everything. There is another program mooted where you buy a business for less than that.

New comment by lancewiggs in "The Gold Card"

lancewiggs — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 01:35:47 +0000

NZ’s Active Investor Plus program is more like EB-5 than this. AIP requires that migrants invest their funds, not donate them. The Growth category requires fewer residency days and a NZ$5m (~US$3m) investment in “growth” companies or funds, including VC funds and companies that VC funds invest with. The Balanced category requires double the investment and has a wider range of asset classes, but also a longer duration and higher number of days of residency required.

New comment by lancewiggs in "Want to piss off your IT department? Are the links not malicious looking enough?"

lancewiggs — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 06:03:41 +0000

Fun but scammy.

If you copy the generated url and put it into the entry field (and repeat) then you end up at a bitcoin site. As Bubblerings has pointed out that has malware.

New comment by lancewiggs in "YouTube to be included in Australia's social media ban for children under 16"

lancewiggs — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 20:16:57 +0000

I clicked and there is absolutely is content that is not acceptable, to me, visible on the front page. Everyone has a different opinions of what’s acceptable, which is why we have ratings systems so society can draw a line.

If a platform doesn’t curate then governments or the legal system, or lobbyists targeting payment providers will step in.

New comment by lancewiggs in "NSF plans end to lone U.S. Antarctic research icebreaker"

lancewiggs — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 05:17:38 +0000

A lot of excellent climate research is done in the polar regions.

New comment by lancewiggs in "How to not pay your taxes legally, apparently"

lancewiggs — Sat, 05 Jul 2025 20:53:56 +0000

If you are a US citizen then US tax will apply to you wherever you are. People form other countries switch off their home tax if they do not meet residency requirements.

There is no capital gains or wealth tax at all in New Zealand, but only for domestic investments. For offshore investments there is a deemed return that you treat as income, so if your wealth is tied up in illiquid stock then it can be dire.

New comment by lancewiggs in "Major reversal in ocean circulation detected in the Southern Ocean"

lancewiggs — Fri, 04 Jul 2025 07:46:02 +0000

Look at London. Draw a line west. Compare climates. Now do the same for New York and go East. Ocean currents are what keeps London warm and NYC cool.

So this is a huge deal. I’ve been down to the Southern Ocean, lectured all the way by scientists.

North of the Antarctic is the only place on earth where the sea can rotate completely around the world without hitting a land mass, and it is deemed the engine of the world’s oceans. Those oceans are what have absorbed most of the excess CO2 that we’ve emitted, and a lot captured has been buried in deep ocean. But the ocean warms, and can capture less CO2, and bad days are ahead.

This news signals not just a slowing in that absorption for an area, which not just sends more CO2 into the atmosphere, but has more terrifyingly unknown downstream implications for other ocean streams.

New comment by lancewiggs in "BYD's Five-Minute Charging Puts China in the Lead for EVs"

lancewiggs — Sun, 08 Jun 2025 20:00:32 +0000

BYD is moving so quickly - the ones I’ve seen recently in NZ are surprisingly innovative, superb quality. Obviously not all markets are getting all vehicles, and the best are yet to leave China. Check out the EV Shark and Denza D9.

New comment by lancewiggs in "Mary Meeker's first Trends report since 2019, focused on AI"

lancewiggs — Sat, 31 May 2025 01:05:18 +0000

Here’s the PDF. https://www.bondcap.com/report/pdf/Trends_Artificial_Intelli...

New comment by lancewiggs in "Uber to introduce fixed-route shuttles in major US cities"

lancewiggs — Wed, 14 May 2025 20:08:03 +0000

Sure - if you do it by passengers and not by vehicle count. Busses are hilariously more efficient at moving people.

New comment by lancewiggs in "Show HN: We built a Plug-in Home Battery for the 99.7% of us without Powerwalls"

lancewiggs — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 00:09:57 +0000

The market exists - I have a product from another company - Bluetti - (1).

The Pila is a beautiful device, but that beauty comes at a price - it's a lot more expensive than, say, Bluetti's range of portable power stations and others too. They are also expandable, connect to solar panels and so on, and apparently the German market has embraced batteries like this with solar panels to give your home a degree of independence very easily.

(1) https://www.bluettipower.com/collections/power-stations

New comment by lancewiggs in "Why you don't reach early even if you speed up?"

lancewiggs — Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:46:52 +0000

Your long distance speed is mainly a function of how frequently and quickly you stop. Never think you can outrun a professional long haul driver.