Hacker News: taloft

New comment by taloft in "My friend starts her job today, after learning to program in prison"

taloft — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 20:04:48 +0000

If no employer is willing to “put themselves at risk”, what choice do ex-convicts have but to commit more crimes? May as well give them a life sentence in prison for anything that makes them an employment risk.

New comment by taloft in "American Airlines Bans Wearing Too Much Personal Protection Equipment on Board"

taloft — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 21:04:00 +0000

They’re going to be descending whether atc gives them permission or not. Keep in mind, Southwest has TCAS and already knows of nearby aircraft to a near certainty. The only real goals are get to breathable air and don’t hit anything. Passengers have minutes before they run out of air.

New comment by taloft in "Ask HN: Best teacher you ever had? Why?"

taloft — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 17:53:20 +0000

I had two exceptional teachers in college, in history and philosophy. As a compsci major, I hated both subjects before taking their classes, but ended up loving both subjects due to the professor’s passion for their field and for teaching.

New comment by taloft in "Ask HN: Not resting fully because can't sleep long enough"

taloft — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 17:46:07 +0000

All good points. Note that caffeine has a half life of 5 to 6 hours, rather than 12. I’d cite it, but a simple search makes this apparent.

New comment by taloft in "Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality"

taloft — Fri, 10 Jan 2020 18:23:20 +0000

Saying it’s just a screen on your face is an oversimplification. While that may be a somewhat accurate physical description, it doesn’t capture the actual experience, anymore than saying a smart phone is just a phone in your pocket.

I’ve had vr sets since the oculus dk2, and admit that I probably haven’t used it in over a year, because it’s a bit cumbersome, locks you into a single experience, removes you from your environment, and the relatively lower quality of applications that are available.

There are some really great immersive applications though such as subnautica, google earth, and elite dangerous.

New comment by taloft in "Dented Reality: Magic Leap Sees Slow Sales, Steep Losses"

taloft — Sat, 07 Dec 2019 13:09:13 +0000

This reads like someone who has had VR for a limited time. Yes, it’s very impressive at first, and people write posts like these. After a few years, many realize that the resolution is low, the headsets are uncomfortable, and the experiences are limited. It still has a long way to go. I do agree that it can happen, but it needs to be much better, similar to the state of AR,

New comment by taloft in "Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B"

taloft — Fri, 01 Nov 2019 16:00:51 +0000

My Garmin 935 is waterproof, has an always on display, shows smartphone notifications, charges once a week, and has worked for over a year. If apple or Fitbit had this, I’d go back. Had multiple fit bits and they all broke in 6 months. Had an Apple Watch, but it needed to be charged every day, wasn’t waterproof, and display turned off. Apple has improved on 2 of those but it still needs every day charging.

I would put garmin last software, but the other hardware features more than make up for it.

New comment by taloft in "A Lunar Space Elevator Is Feasible and Inexpensive, Scientists Find"

taloft — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 13:54:58 +0000

That’s no moon.

New comment by taloft in "A Boeing Code Leak Exposes Security Flaws Deep in a 787's Guts"

taloft — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 11:48:09 +0000

Too late.

New comment by taloft in "Racket Is an Acceptable Python"

taloft — Thu, 11 Jul 2019 20:52:08 +0000

If racket is an acceptable python and python is an acceptable lisp, then racket must be an acceptable lisp?

New comment by taloft in "Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying?"

taloft — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 19:54:55 +0000

Fears aren’t rational. They are emotional. It will take a long time to address it with just your thoughts. A better way is to try to address the emotions and fix that. You have a lot of choices here. Some examples are a therapist, spirituality, meditation, a coach, flying lessons, or flying repeatedly until the fear goes away. Trying to solve emotional stuff with intellect is not the most effective way imho.

New comment by taloft in "Observable Universe contains 10x more galaxies than previously thought (2016)"

taloft — Thu, 04 Jan 2018 20:46:24 +0000

"The Universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space."

New comment by taloft in "Why I'm Productive in Clojure (2013)"

taloft — Sun, 22 Oct 2017 20:50:02 +0000

The Boeing video says Clojure is used for maintenance systems, not control systems. That’s an important distinction. Maintenance systems can go offline and the aircraft still flies fine. The critical control software is not written in Clojure from what I could tell.

New comment by taloft in "Apple‘s insularity is a problem for AppleTV"

taloft — Fri, 29 Sep 2017 04:29:41 +0000

And the remote sucks. The buttons are centered vertically, leaving equal empty space above and below. So I end up holding tne remote upside down half the time while my brain is trying to work out whether it is upside down and how that would affect the button placement relative to my fingers.

New comment by taloft in "Apple Watch Series 3"

taloft — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 15:04:39 +0000

Also have a Garmin 735xt for the same reasons. Another big issue is battery life. Garmin can go for a solid week or more between charges, while Apple Watch is about a day.

New comment by taloft in "US solar plant costs fall another 30 per cent in one year"

taloft — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 14:53:14 +0000

Solar can save a lot of money over 30 years, but current homeowners have to pay the initial cost. Solar initial costs are much more than composite and homeowners may not stay long enough to make it worthwhile. Also, they may not recoup their investment when they sell the home.

New comment by taloft in "Apple Watch sales up over 50% since last year"

taloft — Thu, 03 Aug 2017 06:11:45 +0000

If the Apple Watch had week long battery life and was waterproof I'd get it over my garmin. When I had the original Apple Watch, I had to charge it every day and couldn't get it wet. Also my garmin always shows the time. None of that turn your wrist or its blank nonsense.

New comment by taloft in "Convincing C programmers to switch to C++: A look at human behavior (2016)"

taloft — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 16:38:14 +0000

According to Alan Kay, programming is a pop culture right now. So people want to preserve the investment in the language of their choice by maintaining or improving its pop status.

New comment by taloft in "Silicon Valley CEO Pleads ‘No Contest’ to Abusing His Wife"

taloft — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 12:36:33 +0000

The link is malware to my iPhone. Locks me into a full screen ad for winning something, then breaks the back button. Had to close the page.

New comment by taloft in "Leaked email from United Airlines CEO blames passenger for violent removal"

taloft — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 19:00:25 +0000

Airplane, single-engine land. It's a rating added on to a pilot certificate, and says what kind af aircraft you may fly. The "land" part means an airplane that lands on the ground, which is different from "sea", for airplanes that can land on water.

Also, note that minimally you would need a commercial certificate to fly for hire. Even then, there are some restrictions on how you can do that. A private allows you to fly with friends, but you may not charge them. You can share expenses for the flight with friends, but need to be careful that it's legitimate sharing.