skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> assumption you made in that the speed of natural processes in removing co2 is the best possible baseline.

No, sorry. That's not what I meant. What the ice core data gives us as a baseline is what will happen if humanity and all of our technology leaves the planet. Let's call it 100K years for 100 ppm reduction.

This is a real baseline based on highly accurate scientific data. The first thing I did when I reached this conclusion was to try to invalidate ice core sample data. It turns out this data is extremely accurate and, I think I can say, irrefutable.

And so, this is the baseline from which, I propose, we need to evaluate any proposal that says: Eliminate X and we save the planet (fix the problem, stop climate change, etc., pick one).

In other words, I propose it proves a simple idea:

We cannot fix this problem by eliminating anything.

We can say this because we know that if eliminate humans and human technology --let's call that "everything"-- it will take 100K years to drop 100 ppm.

Every such proposal should be measured from this baseline.

Eliminate cars? Nope, you can't just do that and fix it faster than 100K/100ppm, if at all.

Eliminate cars, trucks, planes, trains and ships? Nope, that is still less than humanity evaporating. It's still, at best >100K/100ppm.

Eliminate all fossil fuels and all of the above? OK, now we are getting stilly and it still isn't going to be any less than 100K/100ppm. Because for 100K/100ppm by elimination of human sources of CO2 we have to leave the planet.

If you haven't I urge you to read the paper I linked to in my top comment. The researchers had enough and were convinced that the solution was a world-wide shift to renewables. They say so in the paper. And --thankfully-- they are also honest enough to say that they were astounded to discover that what they knew to be true was, in fact, false. We need honest scientists that are isolated from the consequences of looking at the truth of these issues.

Their conclusion, paraphrasing, was something like: Even if we switched the entire world to the most optimal and efficient forms of renewable energy (yet to be invented) atmospheric CO2 levels would continue to rise exponentially.

That is a sobering though.

As to solutions like bioengineered trees, etc. From what I've seen the main issue (other than the potential for horrific unintended consequences) seems to be that when you look at the energy and resources it would require to develop, manufacture, deploy and manage such technologies you realize they would cause more harm than good.

I don't know the answers. What I think I know is that we need to stop lying because the narratives being pushed are false and dangerous (because they prevent our scientists from working on the real problem).
I can’t seem to find the PDF of Brent’s siggraph sketch in 2006 (Shadow map bias cones), but our follow up work [1] hopefully makes the connection between distance and r^2 clear: these techniques are all computing some sort of solid angle and filter width from that.

As Raph is mentioning in a side thread, there are lots of assumptions! (Some of them similar to the randomized assumptions behind alpha, generally).

[1] http://graphics.stanford.edu/~boulos/papers/prefilter_rt08.p...
I'd like a Randall Munroe what if on this.
Best mouse I've found is the Logitech G Pro, it annoys me that it's full of stupid RGB lights, but it has the precision and speed of a good gaming mouse without being too ridiculous in design or cost ~$60
At least this has gotten better. Not too long ago you would have most likely been 100% exposed to the small farm that provides food for you and your family and a bad harvest could literally kill you.
Why not? Speed?
Really... I wonder what the spare cycles are doing, whether it's truly waste and bad coding or if it's doing some kind of sophisticated predictive algorithms that we're unaware of. I do try to assume engineers did something smart, maybe there's a good reason...

I really hope the reason isn't "so we could run the mainline linux kernel" or "because we needed a RTOS" or something similarly bloated.
I think you're agreeing with the parent comment:

"...if a company writes something that blocks... content from being accessed by law enforcement [like e2e encryption], protection is removed."

That's exactly how I read this. This is a head-on attack on all types of encrypted applications that would block government from (legally) accessing the user's data whenever they want.

This would effectively remove protections from Signal, iOS, WhatsApp, Keybase, or any other platform offering e2e encryption. It doesn't rule encryption illegal per se, but now the platforms may be held liable for the crimes that happened through their services, which would force them to either take their chances, or shut down, or implement some sort of backdoor.

(disclaimed: IANAL).
this is a fascinating pattern. have you tried drinking or otherwise (legally) inducing a relaxed state to see if there's a difference? this could help isolate if anxiety or "overthinking" triggers the stuttering.
> Once the restaurants close, the tourists don’t come, Broadway has no shows, and the entire system implodes,

6 months ago HN readers were saying things like, "We should shut down the economy so my cousin doesn't get corona."

Now at least HN has moved to, "the entire system implodes."

Better late than never I guess, but we're still sacrificing half our population financially, and school-age children's education, for a 0.1% fatality rate, mostly elderly people with other health issues.
I don't know what percentage of electricity generated in California comes from renewable energy. If it's not 100% renewable then the EVs won't be Zero-emission either! Let's not even talk about range anxiety, charging times and long queues at the charging stations during a long weekend. If Hydrogen can be manufactured/extracted efficiently, that's definitely going to be a lot better than EVs. At least there won't be millions of used batteries to be disposed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memex

The memex (originally coined "at random",[1] though sometimes said to be a portmanteau of "memory" and "index"[2]) is the name of the hypothetical proto-hypertext system that Vannevar Bush described in his 1945 The Atlantic Monthly article "As We May Think".

That cat's been out of the bag for at least 75 years.
In that comment you're comparing a statically-typed language (C#) with a dynamically-typed one (Python) and your main concern is that C# libraries feel "overengineered". This totally makes no sense to me because the whole development methodology will be different between the two. I.e., it makes no sense to me because your concern is the most shallow one.

And yes, using a statically typed language with strict typechecking (i.e., no implicit integral conversions like in C and C++) leads to programs that feel "engineered" (I wouldn't say overengineered) but which are easy to confidently refactor and build upon.

IOW, flexible/productinve language + static typing + good IDE (VS) = easy to develop "obviously correct" code that works when it compiles and which obviates the need for a huge battery of tests. IME.
another excellent article on the same topic https://mcfunley.com/choose-boring-technology
Has any of commenters read the article? Looks like everyone talks about using bleeding edge tech in startup and how its bad, but this article is about building a bleeding edge product and how difficult is to sell such product (probably because everyone know that using bleeding edge products is dangerous :) )
I remember standing outside a few years ago and glancing up and seeing a plane which, even ~40,000ft up, appeared huge. I pulled out my phone and looked it up on an aircraft tracking app and it was an A380.
I think it is challenging (but not impossible) to fail at stage 1. If you join any tech company that is already public and part of their compensation is incentive stock options and/or restricted stock which is refreshed annually, then 4+ years can deliver a pretty solid "boost" for you to do Stage 2. Stage 2 is harder of course, but 90% harder? A bunch of companies fail in the seed/series A stage. That can happen reasonably quickly (1 - 2 years), so stage 2 can take 3 - 5 years to catch the right one. And then stage 3 is kind of up to you're ability to hit the market at the right time. More difficult still, but not impossible.
Presumably they hope to use wind, or solar, or some other power generation technology. That is one of electric vehicle's actual points of benefit; the power generation source is modular.
copy right system is broken, so is the patent system.
I'm not sure anyones suggesting they couldn't fly at all, just that some researchers propose what they were capable was closer to jumping off trees or hills and gliding to the ground, rather than launching from flat ground and flapping their way across continents.

Though there's at least one guy who ran some calculations for Quetzalcoatl's probable aerodynamics and came up with numbers suggesting it could fly ~10,000 miles. Other people criticise that saying it only takes into account estimates of bone/wing structure and body weight, and ignores energy requirements which reptilian metabolic possibly cannot provide.

I hope they're wrong. I desperately want to believe that there once existed 35 foot wingspan "dragons" which were capable of trans continental flight :-)
The one thing most people don't realize, is that this is not only about producing energy more cleanly, this will definitly also mean things like driving less (or less individual), eating different, flying way less, making all things more usable etc. And this quite frankly is the harder thing to tackle because it means changing culture.

And that culture needed to change not now, but a while ago. If the whole world fully stopped emitting CO2 today, the latency till we could measure the first effect on climate would be roughly 13 years.

Most people I know are way too optimistic about what it takes to deal with this. A good way to get a feeling is to play with the sliders of this model here: https://en-roads.climateinteractive.org

Edit: this is btw. not something that I am happy with. Like at all. It stresses me out to think about it. People down voting a post that simply states the scientific consensus on that topic doesn't make it any better to be honest.
These kinds of things pop up a lot on HN, so I want to ask: are they helpful to people? I save basically every single one, planning to come back to them (I studied math and economics in college, and do a little programming now but not enough to call myself a developer), but can’t find time between work and everything else to dive in and actually advance my skills.

So maybe what I’m asking for is this: is there a “refresh your math, sharpen your sword” resource that exists that one could tune to what they do today?
Amortize it over the life the machine. Go is no gold standard, but what does it mean in terms of total energy cost? Manufacturing cost? A twice larger cache and half the frequency ram bus? I dunno what the answer is, but I think being able to run a safe language for the OS gets us to an entirely different regime.
Thanks mate. :)
I think it would be awesome if OP open-sourced this. That way we could make suggestions via pull request.
Recently Lufthansa announced that they (will) remove all A380 airliners from active service earlier than planned. The Covid-19 pandemic hit the airlines hard and those big airliners are the first to go.
Mathematics for the Nonmathematician (1967)
24 days ago... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24327740
Honest Truths About Starting a Business
How often are you converting miles to feet?
It’s not like they’re still building the same model 50 years later though, I imagine every single thing about it has changed
I’m in the middle of speed running khan academy’s entire math section. This’ll compliment my task well. Thanks for sharing.
For all the mathematics enthusiasts and scholars out here, we have Slack and Freenode IRC channels[1][2] to discuss mathematics and computer science literature like this.

It is a reading and discussion group that focuses on math and CS books, articles, and papers, as well as using software tools like Python, WolframAlpha, Desmos, etc. to explore new concepts we come across. As an example of what we discuss in this forum, see "From Vector Spaces to Periodic Functions"[3] that was a result of one of the discussions in this forum. We plan to discuss Munchausen numbers[4] next.

If this sounds interesting to you, please join us.

[1]: https://bit.ly/euclidslack

[2]: https://webchat.freenode.net/#euclidpoint

[3]: https://susam.in/blog/from-vector-spaces-to-periodic-functio...

[4]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/0911.3038.pdf
One of the most under appreciated aspects of data is the processes and devices that create the data. I've found that most people think that all you have to do is link data x to y and voila get on your way. The successful integration of data across systems is more often a challenge of processes not meshing. I see very little in the discussion about how to overcome this process impedance mismatch. There needs to more agreement on where a process ends and its output.

On the technology side where the systems are complex and there is a need for further understanding I've seen some success with RDF where there is more of description with of relationships and one can form a topology. RDF though requires a big jump in knowledge and has only been worth it when there is no other way. Superficially it is simple, but it introduces a lot more questions at times that can lead to a lot of complexity.

I've seen standards generated in the utility space through CIM and IEC via extensive collaboration between vendors and the utilities, but the environment is very different with a lot less competition and narrow scope. This has also been achieved at great cost that most companies won't want to bear. Further, it has still been extremely hard as utilities have different network standards around the world. Look at things like IEC 61968-9 or CIM for transmission and distribution networks for examples. Green button is another example, but I would suggest it is easier as it is more of a final node problem and not right in the middle of a more complex process.

If the focus is more on FICO like situations, it is likely a lot easier as it is more of a MDM like view where there is a strong centre and much weaker nodes around that centre that get good value from the conformity. But it isn't clear if there are a lot of opportunities like that and that those likely don't need much of a strong standards base they just need to hit the right problem at the right time and define it as they like.

In dealing with marketplaces and being in the position as a supplier I've found that the supplier position is pretty weak and the marketplace does whatever they want. When using old standards like EDI they just put in very dirty (poorly processed) data and let the supplier just deal with it. There is a lot of preference to work with better marketplaces, but sales teams really don't care and the cycle goes on. The incentive models can be quite skewed.
While this is all well and good - why is everyone chasing extremely-complex magnetic suspension etc fusion instead of just drilling a deep hole, dropping a stripped-down H-bomb in, and harvesting the (enormous) heat energy released via geothermal? The napkin math works out to insane energy gains in each iteration (even with low efficiency assumptions) if you're hydrolyzing hydrogen fuel from H2O for the next blast with the energy, and the process requires no new exotic science - all the basics were invented in the 60's.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_PACER

Unlike back then, today we have high-voltage DC power lines capable of ~85% efficiency over a ~12k km range (planet is 40k km). A few of these stationed in the middle of nowhere could supply the world's power, even if they're not too safe to the surrounding area (which is unlikely, since we've blown up thousands of bombs underground "safely" for decades).

Why the hell don't we have nearly-unlimited fusion energy farming by now?
Maximum efficiency of 2%.

Even the worst electrolysis driven by cheap solar does better.
Try moving to Europe. Pay is a bit lower, but you get a lot more vacation.
If you are not paying to google, you are not the customer. So no wonder there is no "customer" support for you, because you are not the customer.
California to phase out sales of new gas-powered cars by 2035
It seems to me that the hub and spoke model would have been a lot more environment friendly. I think governments should tax airlines for their emissions.
I mean, I _guess_ this is cool. Not so much for those of us outside the US who can't use it.

But.

It's kinda not what I like to hear that my password manager's dev team has been working on. I trust them to do one thing. Virtual credit cards is not that thing...

:sigh:
Though the website's design is quite pretty, at least in my opinion
Difference between Python 2 and Python 3
The proliferation risk of nuclear fuel is overblown. Reactors don’t use weapons-grade fuel, and purifying it to weapons-grade material is harder than making the fuel to begin with; if you can take fuel and refine it into a weapon, you might as well start with unprocessed uranium.
Wait.. people melt the cards down into shapes? And they still work?
That last bit is no joke. I got tired of getting ssh probed so I engineered an ssh server that could kill the client with its response (takes a bit of fuzzing and a lot of requests but they all use the same code so once it works it works well). For about a week it was hilarious to watch what used to be 5 to 15 hits on the server with various account and password combinations turn into exactly one request from an IP and then nothing. What's more, when IPs would come back again and again for another shot, with my ssh client killer that stopped to. I hoped it was because the error was alerting the owner of the machine that something was amiss and they were taking steps to correct it.

Needless to say, the script kiddies were not happy. Not happy at all. I think my poor old DSL line was dead for a week, got AT&T to give me a different address block and they said they were black holing "hundreds of gigabites" (which at the time was a lot) of spurious packets. Now I just use fail2ban and ignore them, doesn't help their other victims but it keeps me off their radar.

Running the server on AWS hosts might be an interesting alternative.
It is my personal opinion that you don't need "*" character ever there are other alternatives available always. And if avoiding that character makes it far safer I'm all for it.

rm -rf /+(?)

If anyone not understanding the joke,
+ character matches 1 or more instances, and (?) matches any one character.
And / is start of entire filesystem.
rm is remove. -rf (recursive, never ask verification).
So it removes every file that you have rights to remove.

You can also do same thing accidentally by proxy. When my first computing teacher asked entire class to write anything to terminal to show that you had to write specific commands and computers don't understand normal language. Then she told to press enter. I asked her if she was sure. She asked why.
I said that I wrote "format c:" . I have never seen teacher walk so fast in a classroom. I think that was last time she used that line in the classroom.
That's fascinating, and somewhat similar to my own experience. I was born with a large, central vision-obscuring cataract (or developed it very early on) in my left eye, and my optometrist told my parents not to worry about it, so they didn't.

My left vision was as you described, very low-resolution and dark, with the addition of a large dark spot near the middle. I read with my right eye, though it felt like a little bit of the left was integrated. This led to eye strain, especially after I got into software and spent 8-10 hours a day staring at tiny text on a screen.

I had the lens with the cataract removed at 26, and while it was initially fascinating to have brighter vision and be able to make out large print words, I eventually felt kind of disappointed that I didn't have a better result. My vision was still very blurry (significantly worse than the right eye), and since the artificial lens I received can't flex to focus like a real lens, glasses only correct for a single fixed distance, and text had a weird shimmer to it that made it very difficult to read when my brain integrated the two images. So I mostly stopped wearing glasses and went back to reading with my right eye.

But I recently had a series of headaches due to eyestrain, got a new reading prescription that was better than the old one, and have been wearing glasses any time I read or look at a monitor. And until you mentioned it, I hadn't really realized that the "shimmer" is almost gone, and my left vision is much better than at any other point in my life. Cool!
C++ Should Support JIT Compilation
How can it be in the Democratic platform if nobody supports it? Is it not written by prominent people?

https://www.ans.org/news/article-463/after-48-years-democrat...
Send them an email, they might not be aware their rate limit is too restrictive.
>Apple's OS is largely a microkernel design

They are hybrid design, or some would even refer them to monolithic. Definitely not microkernel, although they are moving in that direction with DriverKit and other kit initiative.
For starters, all the old designs are built with analog automation which is no longer available, so at the very minimum, you need redesign the automation system. Keep in mind, every component you install will need to be certified and tracked from raw materials up to follow stated processes, which need to be nuclear safety certified too. And you need to have two separate families of parts so the requirement of diversity in implementation is fulfilled, to avoid coinciding typical failures. At least now that EPR projects are close to completion, there's now a precedent that it is even possible to implement digital automation in accordance to western nuclear safety standards.

Also the mechanical safety standards are way stricter now, so you can't really just take an old design and add digital bus automation. You need more redundant safety systems, corium catcher and stuff. Not so easy.
TIL "doing donuts" was a thing in both the capitalist (1st) and communist (2nd) worlds.

(also, about a predecessor to the Stinger: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9K32_Strela-2 )

Bonus clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W1FFu4Z2mI
(Strela being a polysemous term in russian, it can be used not only in a military sense, "arrow", but also in geographical, and, as this girl group embodies, an anatomical.)
Wouldn't BWB compromise passenger capacity, and wouldn't flying mach 0.98 be extremely fuel inefficient?

I think there were more hurdles here than a lack of daring.
Support for generics (CLI) and exceptions (both).

There are other languages I can take out of the bag like Mesa/Cedar, Interlisp-D, Smalltalk-80, although they are already on the 80's borderline, which then also brings Ada, Standard ML and Object Pascal into the picture.
Yes, that's the hope. Less than 20% of the electricity is produced from renewable sources in my state (Victoria, AU). If the number of EVs increase that's just going to put more pressure on the grid and will require burning more coal. I don't know if the pollution from cars is worse than burning coals in a power plant. I'm guessing it's not. I'm hoping for hydrogen as the future. There is company working on Hydrogen here. Even Toyota and Honda have been working mostly on Hydrogen not battery based EVs. I've nothing against Tesla. In fact I admire Elon Musk as an engineer. But given the choice I'll probably go with Hydrogen fuel cell cars if it can be made readily available like Petrol.