Hacker News: xpda

New comment by xpda in "Tulsa Remote"

xpda — Fri, 16 Nov 2018 16:55:40 +0000

Yes. Oklahoma has cut public education more than any other state in the country.

New comment by xpda in "The U.S. will impose duties on solar equipment and washing machines made abroad"

xpda — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 00:00:04 +0000

This will, of course, raise the cost of solar equipment and washing machines in the U.S. I can understand the GOP wanting to raise the cost of solar power in order to increase the use of fossil fuels, but why washing machines? Did Maytag make a large campaign contribution?

New comment by xpda in "Thor Electric Truck Will Probably Beat Tesla’s to Market"

xpda — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 21:35:05 +0000

The Tesla Model S weighs significantly less than most pickups and large SUVs on the road today. Tesla's heaviest, the Model X, is significantly lighter than the GMC Yukon, for example.

I don't see the logic in this argument. Electric vehicles are not going to destroy the roads.

The estate tax currently affects only the top 0.18 percent of estates

xpda — Fri, 29 Sep 2017 02:15:46 +0000

Article URL: https://medium.com/@xpda/president-trump-lied-2322024846e3

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15362288

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by xpda in "Andrew Ng calls Tesla irresponsible for shipping an imperfect autopilot"

xpda — Fri, 27 May 2016 19:27:48 +0000

There will be better autopilots, but never perfect ones. Aircraft have been using imperfect autopilots since their inception. Most planes have a prominent red button you can press to disable the autopilot whenever it misbehaves.

I'm not sure why this post routes through facebook, but here is a link to the article: http://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/model-s-on-autopilot-crash...

Your Media Business Will Not Be Saved

xpda — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 15:12:33 +0000

Article URL: https://medium.com/@joshuatopolsky/your-media-business-will-not-be-saved-1b0716b5010c#.hp95csyna

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11596220

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by xpda in "Gone in Six Characters: Short URLs Considered Harmful for Cloud Services"

xpda — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 15:17:11 +0000

It's hard to believe so many people consider the use of shortened URLs a security measure. It is not, and was never intended to be. A URL is exposed, by definition, whether long or shortened. A shortened URL is a convenience, not a security tool. Some people misuse base64 encoding for "security" as well, but it does not mean we should get rid of base64 encoding.

New comment by xpda in "Losing Money"

xpda — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 17:12:33 +0000

It's risk/reward. Whether a VC fund, NYSE, or government security, you can risk more for greater reward. This does not mean, as the article implies, that you should. It depends on the individual and the purpose of the investment. I can probably make a lot more money investing in a riskier company, but I am also more likely to lose some or all of my investment.

If I am considering investment in a fund that expects a 40% annual return, I should remind myself that if it was a sure bet, then enough people would be investing in it to drive the price up and the return down. There are plenty of investors as smart as me, and many of them are willing to do more research than I am.

New comment by xpda in "Outlook 2016’s New POP3 Bug Deletes Your Emails"

xpda — Sun, 28 Feb 2016 16:07:01 +0000

This is typical of software development in recent years. The emphasis on newer platforms and technology (in the case iMap) results in new user interface limitations, as well as bugs, for existing users of older technologies (i.e. desktop, keyboard access, and Pop3).

I've found eM Client to be a good alternative to Outlook and WLM.

New comment by xpda in "Get Me Off Your Fucking Mailing List [pdf]"

xpda — Sun, 14 Feb 2016 18:17:27 +0000

The references are a nice touch.

http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2822.txt

https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt

New comment by xpda in "What happens to a tiny town when Walmart disappears"

xpda — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 02:34:13 +0000

As a matter of fact, I do live in a small town with a median household income of less than $30,000. There is a Walmart store. Most Walmart employees do not qualify for food stamps, but they do get health and other benefits not available at many local small businesses. There are relatively high paying jobs at the Walmart store -- much higher than are typically available at local small businesses. And, if a Walmart employee is willing to relocate, there is even more advancement potential.

I cannot imagine anywhere in the lower 48 United States where there could be a community in which people have to drive three hours to get food. If there is, the demand would certainly justify someone from inside or outside the community opening a grocery store. A large capital outlay would not be necessary.

New comment by xpda in "What happens to a tiny town when Walmart disappears"

xpda — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 15:40:00 +0000

If people in a community have to drive three hours for food, then there will be enough demand that someone will open a grocery store. When there's an economic vacuum left by a closing superstore, other, possibly smaller, stores will come back and fill it. It's simple economics.

When a company such as Walmart opens or closes a large store, there seems to be a mass of news articles explaining how the opening or closing is destroying the community.

When a large store comes in, people rarely consider that the new jobs will have benefits and advancement opportunities not found in the traditional mom-and-pop stores. When a large store closes, people rarely mention that it will leave room for new mom-and-pop stores to open.

The fact is, large stores have a pluses and minuses. Their opening or closing is more a result of local economic conditions than the cause.

New comment by xpda in "Curiosity Self-Portrait at Martian Sand Dune"

xpda — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 04:12:17 +0000

The raw images are available without Javascript. There are thousands, complete with img tags:

http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?s=1197&camera=MAST_

'http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/01197/mcam/1197... alt="Image taken by Mastcam: Left" width="160" hspace="0" vspace="0" style="border: 3px solid #FFFFFF;">
'

New comment by xpda in "Why use www?"

xpda — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 01:08:52 +0000

I agree. Microsoft, Apple, and Google have the ability to modify user behavior without much downside. The rest of us are better off making the user experience as fast, efficient, and simple as possible.

By coincidence, I just put a 301 redirect on my personal site to go from www.xpda.com to xpda.com two days ago. If I could only get ctrl-enter to submit https://domain.com instead of http://www.domain.com in Firefox, I'd be happy. (There was a bug that prevented this last time I checked.)

New comment by xpda in "How we fought bad ads in 2015"

xpda — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 16:32:54 +0000

"In 2015, we stepped up our efforts to fight phishing sites, blocking nearly 7,000 sites as a result." One of the 7000 "phishing sites" they blocked was a page on my personal site (http://xpda.com/f18ebay/) that has been there more than 10 years and has nothing to do with phishing. It's not an important or high-traffic page, but it was irritating nonetheless to be falsely accused by Google and, as a result, a several other web institutions.

New comment by xpda in "In defence of the hamburger menu"

xpda — Sat, 16 Jan 2016 04:45:19 +0000

I'd settle for a universal shortcut key that activates the hamburger menu, just like the F1 key is used for Help. Ohh no... someone killed F1 AND Help when I wasn't paying attention!!!

New comment by xpda in "When to join a startup"

xpda — Thu, 14 Jan 2016 15:43:31 +0000

This is true, and is often overlooked. Many startups are internally funded, and grow through profits. These companies are typically more conservative in their business strategies, because people tend to have less risk tolerance with their own money, because there are no outside investors pushing for accelerated growth, and sometimes because of more limited finances.

New comment by xpda in "PC Sales Drop to Historic Lows"

xpda — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 04:15:38 +0000

Advances in desktop CPU speed have been minimal over the past few years. If I could get a reasonably priced PC that's 50% faster than my two-year-old system, I'd buy it today. Instead, the best performance gain for me is a PCIe SSD.

New comment by xpda in "Infinitely fast phase velocity with zero-index metamaterials"

xpda — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 14:46:29 +0000

The headline is not correct. The article is about how light is processed, not how it travels.

New comment by xpda in "Oklahoma Earthquakes Are a National Security Threat"

xpda — Sun, 25 Oct 2015 17:36:42 +0000

Wastewater injection wells, contrary to popular press, are not used primarily for the disposal of fracking fluid or other drilling waste products. Produced water is, by far, the largest component going into wastewater injection wells.

When you get oil and gas out of the ground, a lot of salt water comes with it. Sometimes, especially in Oklahoma, there can be 10 times as much water as oil. This "produced water" is used for injection into other wells to displace oil, but there's enough left over to require wastewater injection wells for its disposal.

http://energyindepth.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Wastewat...