Hacker News: mehrshad

New comment by mehrshad in "Why has there been so little progress on Alzheimer's disease?"

mehrshad — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 02:30:11 +0000

https://www.statnews.com/2019/06/25/alzheimers-cabal-thwarte...

"Despite being described as a “cabal,” the amyloid camp was neither organized nor nefarious. Those who championed the amyloid hypothesis truly believed it, and thought that focusing money and attention on it rather than competing ideas was the surest way to an effective drug.

It has not worked out that way. Research focused on amyloid, and the development and testing of experimental drugs targeting it, have sucked up billions of dollars in government, foundation, and pharma funding with nothing to show for it. While targeting amyloid may or may not be necessary to treat Alzheimer’s, it is not sufficient, and the additional steps almost certainly include those that were ignored, even censored. Probably the most shattering turn came in March, when Biogen halted the study of what proponents called the most promising Alzheimer’s drug in years — an amyloid-targeting antibody."

I still refer to this article seven years later. Groupthink in the medical research space sets back progress by decades. And it's not just Alzheimers. The FDA's approval process is stymied by a CYA culture that fails to adopt the risk profile it needs to in order to potentially save large contingents of sick and dying.

New comment by mehrshad in "Apple at 50: Five Decades of Thinking Different [video]"

mehrshad — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 05:54:55 +0000

Never been a fan of Pogue's 'pop tech' take on things, but GREAT interviews here with Woz, Bill Fernandez, Ron Wayne, Chris Espinoza, John Sculley(!), Robert Brunner, Avi Tevanian, and John Rubenstein - never going to see a team like this again (Federighi and Ternus sighting at 56:54). Also good to hear names like Burrell Smith, Joswiak, Jef Raskin, Wendel Sander, and Andy Hertzfeld throughout (would've been great to have Gassee and Markkula, but I'll take what I can get). And while I miss Steve Jobs, he went out on top, and I'm sure the current landscape would have relegated him to outcast status yet again.

Growing up across the bay in the 80s during Apple's heyday makes me so very nostalgic for the culture of innovation, creativity, and fun that once made us elementary school nerds excited about building great things and outshining other nerds, with our unsung heroes not too far from us geographically. Also, the massive pranks at Sun and SGI just made everyone believe they can be a kid well past their teens. Now I'm seeing the high school and college kids I coach are so obsessed with scale, clout, and unbridled control, through hedged iterative development efforts and overhyped marketing. Grit's been replaced by grift.

For me, the final nail in Silicon Valley's coffin was when Weird Stuff closed - an obscure milestone, but one that marked an end to that era. Nevertheless, glad to have CHM continuing to carry the torch with amazing retrospectives like this.

The Old House at Home (1940)

mehrshad — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 07:16:46 +0000

Article URL: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1940/04/13/the-old-house-at-home

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39438773

Points: 25

# Comments: 3

Microsoft Azure Kinect Kits Discontinued

mehrshad — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 02:46:31 +0000

Article URL: https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-will-end-production-of-its-azure-kinect-developer-kit-sales-will-end-in-october/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37170903

Points: 14

# Comments: 1

The New Cold War That Threatens to Turn Hot

mehrshad — Fri, 19 May 2023 06:45:53 +0000

Article URL: https://jamestown.org/program/the-new-cold-war-that-threatens-to-turn-hot/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35998571

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by mehrshad in "macOS Ventura is now available"

mehrshad — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 21:05:08 +0000

Microsoft's PowerToys has a great answer to Spotlight on Windows if you're so inclined to try it out.

[0] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/

New comment by mehrshad in "Pearson Says Blockchain Could Make It Money Every Time E-Books Change Hands"

mehrshad — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 15:43:04 +0000

As a part-time returning student at a community college - who's really just taking advantage of their fantastic advanced manufacturing facilities - most every teacher in this department subscribes to this approach. YouTube channels such as NYCCNC, Blondihacks, Weld.com, Titans of CNC, The Engineering Mindset, and others provide far superior material over any textbook, and the lecturers realize that any textbook they're obligated to assign just cannot keep up with the pace of innovation from the creator community. As such, "textbook sharing" is implicitly encouraged here, and the one or two students per class who actually buy the printed books are the butt of most of our jokes throughout the semester.

Now if only the languages department at this school would realize this. Those textbooks and "CDs" are the most egregiously overpriced materials, and it seems that none of the lecturers in the department want to put in the time to build a course around collaborative learning (group discussion) and the abundance of free materials available online.

TL;DR - thanks for being a goodguy/goodgal professor.

New comment by mehrshad in "Love the smell of old books? This bookseller would like you to leave"

mehrshad — Sat, 23 Jul 2022 16:55:04 +0000

“The buying of more books than one can read is nothing less than the soul reaching toward infinity.” -A. Edward Newton

New comment by mehrshad in "White Castle wants to install robot cooks in 100 new locations"

mehrshad — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 22:58:51 +0000

Back in the early 2010s, I was consulting with a then-budding startup called Momentum Machines (now Creator.rest), in which I was tasked with market validation for their Rube Goldberg-esque 6mx1mx2m burger-making machine (not a robot). When I'd speak with both independent and multi-franchise QSR owners, the resounding sentiment was that they absolutely craved an automated solution to replace line cooks, but they could not imagine replacing cashiers, who they believed were the face of the brand.

But in speaking with the few corporate offices that would bother to even respond to us, we'd be brushed us aside as nothing more than a novelty, as they considered any introduction of automation anywhere in the food-assembly process to be a hit to their brand promise of "freshness" and "quality."

Now with the Great Resignation giving employees a bit of an upper hand, I'm pretty sure the corporates are changing their tune in displacing the $15+/hr/unit meat suits ASAP. They're just waiting for the regional/tier-3 QSRs like White Castle to go all-in before making the plunge themselves.

[0] https://www.creator.rest

Machine learning used to predict synthesis of complex novel materials (2021)

mehrshad — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 05:27:48 +0000

Article URL: https://phys.org/news/2021-12-machine-synthesis-complex-materials.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30158956

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Three things Web3 should fix in 2022

mehrshad — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 04:05:43 +0000

Article URL: https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/28/22906010/web3-nft-internet-history-video-platformer

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30158488

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by mehrshad in "Elizabeth Holmes found guilty"

mehrshad — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 04:51:53 +0000

A colleague of mine was contracted by one of several firms tasked with liquidating Theranos' Newark facilities back in Aug 2018. I took the opportunity to grab the equivalent of $15,000 of tools, furniture, scientific equipment, and of course, swag. All legally - liquidators are tasked with clearing the site of everything by a set time.

Had free reign throughout the facility for two days, scavenging through 200k sqft+ of warehouse, marveling at the cringey pseudo-motivational blather posted everywhere and grabbing whatever could fit into my apartment at the time. At one point, we spotted Holmes (and her "special needs" Siberian Husky puppy who left dribbles of urine on the warehouse floor) arguing with some operators from afar.

We weren't allowed to touch specific computers, chemicals or any hardware locked in the cages (incl Edison devices), but everything else was up for grabs, from high-end Mitutoyo measuring tools to Aeron chairs to U-Line desks, Theranos bumper stickers, water bottles, etc etc etc.

So yeah, I've got a few bits of Theranos branded gear... Still waiting on the right time to sell.

[0] https://imgur.com/a/36HtZCp

The Philadelphia Experiment

mehrshad — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 21:43:15 +0000

Article URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Experiment

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28409761

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

New comment by mehrshad in "Fry's Electronics is closing all stores"

mehrshad — Wed, 24 Feb 2021 06:40:59 +0000

As a tween who would beg his parents to take him to the OG Fremont store (Mission @ Warm Springs) back in the early 90s, and as a pimpled 14 year-old who was rejected by Fry's for a job but got scooped as a novelty hire at NCA Computer (also RIP), and as someone who spent several thousand dollars of his allowance on games, parts, peripherals, and of course impulse section candy bars, this is the one vestige of my childhood foray into electronics and computing that's held out this long. Weird Stuff and CompUSA were great, but didn't have the same kitsch or, ahem, 'smell' as Fry's. The dime-a-dozen corporate park outfits you'd find ads for in Computer Currents (I'm looking at you, Laitron Computers) just didn't have the same "browsability" or relatively welcome vibe where you could literally spend hours in whichever store just looking for inspiration and guidance on future career paths in tech.

Sure, most of the open box items were used and vandalized, but they were cheap and worked great with a little elbow grease. Sure, 97% of the employees treated customers like shit and huddled in clique-ish corners mocking us for whatever stupid reason - but the 3% of employees that cared (and who were also horribly underpaid) were absolutely amazing at their job. Sure, the food was crap when they started adding cafes. But watching the oversized Tesla coil do its thing while you get a sugar rush from the Frappuccino was better than any Disney experience.

It was a long time coming, but I will miss you Fry's. I'm hoping MicroCenter, Central Computer, Jameco, Anchor, and the other "independents" stick around just a little bit longer.