Hacker News: nradov

New comment by nradov in "How to Earn a Billion Dollars"

nradov — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 15:21:38 +0000

What's wrong with the argument? Do entertainers get a free pass?

New comment by nradov in "How to Earn a Billion Dollars"

nradov — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 15:15:32 +0000

Why should we believe that your opinion is more objective than other market participants?

New comment by nradov in "Appreciating Exif"

nradov — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:39:29 +0000

I'm suggesting that newer developers will find Exif to be quite different from hierarchical file formats that use delimiters between data elements, as is common practice lately with XML / JSON / YAML / etc. And it is technically somewhat challenging to manipulate Exif using the most popular high-level languages. Obviously competent developers can overcome these challenges.

New comment by nradov in "Appreciating Exif"

nradov — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 20:41:05 +0000

Exif is totally unlike what modern developers would think of as a "file format". It's more like dumping a set of binary block data structures from memory to disk. This was efficient on old digital cameras with minimal hardware resources. But making any significant edits requires doing pointer arithmetic, which can be an alien concept for developers who have only ever used memory-safe programming languages.

New comment by nradov in "Appreciating Exif"

nradov — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 20:34:33 +0000

It's so stupid that we have to do geotagging as a post processing step with separate software. That could be built in to the camera with a GNSS receiver or smartphone Bluetooth link with minimal impact on cost or battery life. And yet even today many high end cameras lack such basic functionality. It's like the camera manufacturers aren't even trying anymore.

Something is jamming GPS over Europe. Here's what we found

nradov — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 18:31:10 +0000

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz23G_UXCGA

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48520070

Points: 4

# Comments: 1

The Mysterious Woman Behind the Nord Stream Explosion

nradov — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 23:34:02 +0000

Article URL: https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/nord-stream-explosion-pipeline-9a109da9

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48510631

Points: 5

# Comments: 0

New comment by nradov in "Fully autonomous drones have killed human soldiers for the first time"

nradov — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 01:30:08 +0000

What's your point? Ukraine has successfully hit many military targets in Moscow with a variety of weapons. Why would they bother with civilian targets when there are so many vulnerable military targets to choose from?

Ukraine was barely a functional country in 2014. It took them a long time to get their act together and build a defense industry. Rocket science isn't easy.

New comment by nradov in "Fully autonomous drones have killed human soldiers for the first time"

nradov — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:16:09 +0000

What an ignorant comment. Ukraine has attacked Moscow many times with drones and cruise missiles. And good luck to them, I hope they destroy Moscow completely.

https://abcnews.com/amp/International/ukrainian-drones-targe...

Ukraine is already using unmanned combat ground vehicles. They're not too far away from building autonomous weapons similar to those in some of the Terminator movies, although they probably won't be humanoid form factor.

New comment by nradov in "Fully autonomous drones have killed human soldiers for the first time"

nradov — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 23:48:50 +0000

The future is now.

New comment by nradov in "Waymo Premier"

nradov — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 22:15:05 +0000

I do stuff for fun that's more dangerous than driving so I guess perspectives vary.

New comment by nradov in "Waymo Premier"

nradov — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 20:58:13 +0000

This is very much location dependant. Cars are convenient, predictable, and affordable in most of the USA. People just drive to their destination and park in one of the abundant free spaces without worrying about it. There are only a handful of dense cities where traffic and parking are a huge hassle. Public transit can sometimes be a great option and we should build more of it, but realistically most people will continue to rely on cars (possibly autonomous) in our lifetimes.

New comment by nradov in "Waymo Premier"

nradov — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 20:51:58 +0000

You've got to be kidding. SF police and prosecutors barely do anything about real crimes, never mind blocking a road for a few minutes.

New comment by nradov in "Waymo Premier"

nradov — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 20:47:59 +0000

The HN commentariat skews young and male so opinions seen here are often disconnected from average people in the real world. Many women feel unsafe riding on US public transit because other riders act out in antisocial ways. We can argue about whether this perception is rational based on crime statistics or whatever but you're not going to convince them to ride until the police and transit system operators start enforcing basic rules of behavior and cleanliness.

New comment by nradov in "Waymo Premier"

nradov — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 20:41:36 +0000

Driving is actually not "very dangerous" if you're sober, not distracted, and driving a properly maintained modern car. Like most any activity the risk isn't zero but you can cut it down a lot.

https://www.iihs.org/ratings/driver-death-rates-by-make-and-...

New comment by nradov in "Waymo Premier"

nradov — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 20:28:36 +0000

Obviously the Waymo Premier service should also include a nice handgun with the car.

New comment by nradov in "I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA"

nradov — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 17:33:28 +0000

I don't understand your comment. Companies like Netflix, Old Dominion Freight Line, Nvidia, Comfort Systems USA, and Intuitive Surgical have all significantly outperformed the S&P 500. What "awful" things have they done in the name of money?

New comment by nradov in "Hacking for Defense Stanford 2026 – Lessons Learned Presentations"

nradov — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 17:01:25 +0000

Huh? The DoD has maintained relationships with many area startups and tech companies for decades. Have you not been paying attention?

New comment by nradov in "New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker"

nradov — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 16:33:58 +0000

That's one of the reasons why most of those other countries have stagnant economies.

New comment by nradov in "I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA"

nradov — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 16:30:46 +0000

It will be interesting to see how many of those companies remain "incorruptible". Your new book seems a bit like a sequel to Jim Collins's 2001 book Good to Great. Several of the "great" companies including Circuit City, Fannie Mae, and Wells Fargo later ran into serious problems. And from an investor perspective, as a group they have underperformed the S&P 500.

https://www.harpercollins.com/products/good-to-great-jim-col...