Hacker News: vectorjohn

New comment by vectorjohn in "Show HN: Remote personalized training tracked with Apple Watch"

vectorjohn — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 16:56:06 +0000

I've actually been using this since the year started, and it helps you have clear fitness goals more than anything else I've tried before.

New comment by vectorjohn in "Relicensing React, Jest, Flow, and Immutable.js"

vectorjohn — Sat, 23 Sep 2017 18:55:06 +0000

Yes, that's exactly the point. It disarms people from fighting over patent nonsense. If you hate software patents you should love the bad + patents license.

New comment by vectorjohn in "Scientists Design Solar Cell That Captures Nearly All Energy of Solar Spectrum"

vectorjohn — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 00:51:05 +0000

What is it that makes solar panels cost what they do, ultimately? Not materials, right? Those are all basically sand and other not so special things. Labor? Isn't it mostly automated? Upkeep of the factories? Input energy?

Maybe it's just all those things together. But it sure seems like if we wanted to it wouldn't be that hard to ramp up production and drive costs down a couple fold. Not that I know how.

New comment by vectorjohn in "Scientists Design Solar Cell That Captures Nearly All Energy of Solar Spectrum"

vectorjohn — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 00:36:15 +0000

I think it would be much easier to use methane. Just as carbon neutral if you make it yourself, and doesn't have as many exotic engineering requirements.

I didn't know that about fuel cells though, interesting.

New comment by vectorjohn in "A new hypothesis in medicine: give patients drugs they know don’t work"

vectorjohn — Sun, 11 Jun 2017 18:31:23 +0000

Also, any doctor will tell you that.

New comment by vectorjohn in "Tesla Passes Ford by Market Value"

vectorjohn — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 20:19:41 +0000

Even buses don't take you door to door. I can't imagine a future where a streetcar is anywhere near as good as self driving cars (possibly paired with mass transit).

New comment by vectorjohn in "Tesla Passes Ford by Market Value"

vectorjohn — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 14:49:50 +0000

I really want to be in the business of writing the software that plans these things. The possibilities are crazy. Predicting where to have cars based on overall traffic flows, having cars ready for individuals who always leave at the same time. Think, a car is 30 seconds away every time you follow your routine. That's faster than getting into and starting your own car! Especially if you have a parking garage.

New comment by vectorjohn in "Tesla Passes Ford by Market Value"

vectorjohn — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 04:06:39 +0000

Cabs are expensive, relatively slow, and busses are just slow and don't take you to your destination.

Really, this doesn't seem like much of a stretch.

New comment by vectorjohn in "Tesla Passes Ford by Market Value"

vectorjohn — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 03:32:14 +0000

Those aren't congesting city streets, at least that I've ever seen.

New comment by vectorjohn in "Tesla Passes Ford by Market Value"

vectorjohn — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 03:31:24 +0000

Uh, what? Cabs are already really popular. Why would a self driving car be "from hell"? You think they can't be cleaned?

New comment by vectorjohn in "Tesla Passes Ford by Market Value"

vectorjohn — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 03:29:22 +0000

I think car sharing even works in those cases. It's all a logistical problem. Not that there won't be some people who own cars. There just aren't that many problems that are hard to solve with car shares to outweigh the huge benefits.

New comment by vectorjohn in "Tesla Passes Ford by Market Value"

vectorjohn — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 03:25:38 +0000

Driverless cars can take you between train stations and destinations. No magical form of train will come to your house or go to your office.

In fact, this is a perfect use case for driverless cars. The problem with trains everywhere is the wasted time not on the train and the million stops along the way.

New comment by vectorjohn in "Tesla Passes Ford by Market Value"

vectorjohn — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 03:22:59 +0000

Wow, so for the short time you have kids in diapers this won't work for you personally. Big whoop.

We still have typewriters around too, and some people ride horses. Old tech doesn't die, it just diminishes to a smaller niche.

New comment by vectorjohn in "Tesla Passes Ford by Market Value"

vectorjohn — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 03:19:16 +0000

Give it a rest. There is no possible way he can solve it right now, we don't have self driving cars yet.

New comment by vectorjohn in "Tesla Passes Ford by Market Value"

vectorjohn — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 03:17:09 +0000

"A teenager doesn't just "want a car." He wants that freedom that car gives him."

Precisely, and this is why owning the car isn't that important. This teenager presumably still has to pay for the car and fuel, or bug his parents for it. Paying for the (cheaper) self driving ride is no different.

New comment by vectorjohn in "Tesla Passes Ford by Market Value"

vectorjohn — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 02:59:19 +0000

You missed the point like the GP. None of those services are anything like what's coming. Car2go still has to be parked, has to be close, you have to live in the home zone. Zip car is just... Not even close. It's a rental service and you need to take the car back.

Comparing either of those or public transit to self driving cars misses the point entirely.

New comment by vectorjohn in "They Used To Last 50 Years"

vectorjohn — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 14:35:23 +0000

The fear of battery degradation is way way overblown. You'll drive at least a few hundred thousand miles before you might "need" to replace it [1]. And even then, you could keep going.

[1] https://electrek.co/2016/06/06/tesla-model-s-battery-pack-da...

New comment by vectorjohn in "What's Really Warming the World?"

vectorjohn — Sun, 26 Feb 2017 20:14:29 +0000

I like the response peer review or STFU. Maybe PRoSTFU.

What is that technique the fake-reasonable argument makers use? It's like a Gish gallop but slower. Maybe that's the best description of it.

New comment by vectorjohn in "“Old” Food Reduces Lifespan"

vectorjohn — Sat, 18 Feb 2017 00:19:09 +0000

How is that your take? It seems that would completely contradict it. If it's just accumulation of errors how would that be impacted at all by what you eat? Especially the age of what you eat!

New comment by vectorjohn in "House Passes E-mail Privacy Act"

vectorjohn — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 15:49:12 +0000

Privacy has literally no tangible value to most people. It's just a warm fuzzy to a few, and a practical value to even fewer.

Convenience on the other hand has obvious value to almost everyone.