Hacker News: tsudounym

New comment by tsudounym in "The size of BYD's factory"

tsudounym — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 01:46:40 +0000

Japanese-American here. This is revisionism. Japan was absolutely known for low quality products in the past. Probably the best "pop-culture" reference to this is "Back to the Future" when Marty travels back in time to 1955 and shows Doc a Made in Japan product (camera, I think?) Doc says its junk because its Made in Japan, but Marty sees it as high quality because its from the 80s.

New comment by tsudounym in "Taiwan is heading toward an energy crunch?"

tsudounym — Sun, 06 Oct 2024 21:38:01 +0000

It really makes sense for the DPP (Green) to be anti-nuclear. Mainland China is using Westinghouse AP1000 designs from the US for their nuke plants. Taiwan is friendlier with the US and can get a nice discount to license the same AP1000..

New comment by tsudounym in "Caltrain's new electric trains"

tsudounym — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 20:49:50 +0000

Where? Switzerland is 100% but most of continental Europe, Japan and Korea is in the 60-70%s. Then we got USA with 0.84%

New comment by tsudounym in "Relative Evaluation Report on S1, iPhone (2010) [pdf]"

tsudounym — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 13:52:34 +0000

I feel like they're in a worse spot because of how many Android competitors they have now. Back in 2010, they were the main 'alternative' to an iPhone, it was basically a duopoly for a few years - Apple vs. Samsung. Now there's the Google Pixel and a million Chinese phone makers so that Samsung doesn't stand out too much. They seem to be leveraging connections with carriers to push Samsung phones, which seems to keep them afloat.

New comment by tsudounym in "Fossil fuels could have been left in the dust 25 years ago"

tsudounym — Thu, 23 May 2024 20:30:01 +0000

Agreed, cities oriented around the car can't be saved. The cost of maintaining 12, 16 lane highways is so exorbitant that they'll have to maintain the sprawl ponzi scheme or go bankrupt.

New comment by tsudounym in "Apple's risky bet on CarPlay"

tsudounym — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 02:17:53 +0000

Tesla's Spotify app had a long standing bug where it couldn't recognize playlists with more than 100 songs. To be dependent on a car company to give bugs for every individual apps rather than to just mirror from your phone, which will have patched apps right away..

New comment by tsudounym in "Huawei's latest flagship smartphone contains no world-shaking silicon surprises"

tsudounym — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 01:51:48 +0000

WeChat is a 'super app' to the point that you don't need really a browser in China anymore. It's a mobile first based ecosystem (WeChat, XHS, Douban, Taobao, etc)

New comment by tsudounym in "New U.S. immigration rules spur more visa approvals for STEM workers"

tsudounym — Thu, 28 Dec 2023 16:25:45 +0000

As someone not far removed from university, you will have a very hard time finding US citizens who take linear algebra seriously and also have a willingness to work for the Mil Industrial Complex (which this sounds like)

New comment by tsudounym in "Japan automakers play catch-up in EV race"

tsudounym — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 19:37:37 +0000

I don't know why Nissan isn't aggressively exporting the Sakura and Note e-power, the Note especially has a gas engine fallback that powers the battery (not the drivetrain) which should remove range anxiety

New comment by tsudounym in "Uber paid 58 Australians $1350 to have One Less Car"

tsudounym — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 18:21:08 +0000

That's because the US and Australia are run by brain dead individuals (and the voters who enable them) who let the train system they had crumble into disrepair. Even the famously corrupt Ukrainian government did a much better job at multi-modal transport option. The Ukraine refugee situation is the best example of how refugees should be evacuated in the event of a catastrophe. if they did it all by car, it would've been absolute chaos and lead to many more causalities.

Sources: https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2023/05/world/ukraine-railwa...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/15/magazine/ukraine-trains.h...

New comment by tsudounym in "Uber paid 58 Australians $1350 to have One Less Car"

tsudounym — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 00:35:19 +0000

That's just not true. They'll just be stuck in bumper to bumper traffic. Wanna know how I know? Because that's exactly what happened in the opening days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Luckily, Ukraine has a well functioning train system and the majority of refugees escape by train to Poland.

New comment by tsudounym in "Uber paid 58 Australians $1350 to have One Less Car"

tsudounym — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 00:33:15 +0000

Any society with 2+ car households is a failure. All its residences will just be subjected to endless traffic and the smog/co2 emissions that it'll generate. Your second vehicle should be an e-bike, which you can take to a tram/train for long distance rides.

New comment by tsudounym in "The NYC's MTA 20 year needs assessment reminds us they can't build"

tsudounym — Sun, 08 Oct 2023 23:22:25 +0000

The US will continue to fail at public transit because rich people do not use it. As an oligarchy, the government prioritizes the whims of the rich and there are no signs of change. From 1880-1950, trains and public transit were utilized heavily by the American rich in NYC and other US cities because it was the fastest way to get around. Once highways and air travel came about, they stopped. You routinely see celebs on the Tube and other European metros. You hardly see them on the NYC subway anymore. The 2000s were a bit of a golden age for the NYC subway and other US metro systems because Uber and Google Maps navigation did not exist, but now they do. It's going to cause a death spiral for alot of metros unless something changes.

New comment by tsudounym in "Show HN: I built a transit travel time map"

tsudounym — Mon, 24 Jul 2023 16:45:14 +0000

Do you REALLY think gasoline subsidies and government backed 97% LTV mortgages is a free market? People were coaxed out of cities with very generous subsidies as well as race baiting (redlining)

New comment by tsudounym in "Show HN: I built a transit travel time map"

tsudounym — Mon, 24 Jul 2023 15:50:23 +0000

This is a chicken and egg problem, stop making excuses for Western governments. Nearly all US cities had streetcars and dense walkable downtowns. There are pictures of this. They were destroyed in the 1950s due to pressure from car/oil lobbies, as well as eager house buyers who wanted cheap FHA loans. (Only available to whites)

Europe is not immune either, they would've followed the US's footsteps entirely if it weren't for the 1973 oil shock, which hit them harder than the US.

New comment by tsudounym in "Rivian announces 1B gross loss and 600M revenue [pdf]"

tsudounym — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 14:24:18 +0000

Lol no. All the most desirable suburbs in Japan, South Korea have train access. Who the hell wants to find parking anytime you go to the city for arts and fine dining? Who wants to be at risk for DUIs? Most people in these suburbs cannot afford a driver, thats reserved for the ultra wealthy.

Even in Canada, the most desirable suburbs of Toronto are the "streetcar suburbs". People put a premium on having public transit, because it is easier to get on a train to go enjoy a night out than it is to drive there. If you're a loser that stays home all the time and has no friends, then that's on you.

New comment by tsudounym in "Rivian announces 1B gross loss and 600M revenue [pdf]"

tsudounym — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 22:17:29 +0000

Switzerland has villages with only hundreds of people that regularly receive train service. There are states with similar GDP, size and density as Switzerland that do not have any train service.

Sprawling suburbs are a giant scam - the cost of providing urban amenities (power, internet, sewage) to these neighborhoods is much higher than it appears. The lines of pipes and power lines in sprawling burbs cost wayyyy more than it would to maintain a transit oriented development full of townhomes and condos.

New comment by tsudounym in "Rivian announces 1B gross loss and 600M revenue [pdf]"

tsudounym — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 22:12:52 +0000

Because of the space inefficiency of cars, you end up building and widening way too may roads, destroying the countryside. Trains allow you keep development contained without spoiling the countryside. Forgot where I saw this, but a Swiss women used to see lines of trucks in her village until the government heavily promoted electrified freight rail. Now there's little to no trucks in her village.

New comment by tsudounym in "Rivian announces 1B gross loss and 600M revenue [pdf]"

tsudounym — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 21:57:26 +0000

A double track train line can move orders of magnitude more people than a 30-lane highway can. Cars and highways are space inefficient, and highways cause property values surrounding it to decrease due to the pollution and noise.

New comment by tsudounym in "Rivian announces 1B gross loss and 600M revenue [pdf]"

tsudounym — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 21:54:54 +0000

Switzerland has villages with only hundreds of people that regularly receive train service. There are states with similar GDP, size and density as Switzerland that do not have any train service. Don't think of the US as a whole, think of the individual states who easily have the budget equivalent of European countries.