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SpacemanSpiff

Re:Discover the world of microcontrollers through Rust on Sunday September 17, 2017 @05:29PM (#15271813)
Hey, any chance your hardware developer friend could spare a few minutes to talk about his/her work? I'm a freelance hardware+software developer and there's not many of us out there it seems. It would be great to get some feedback on some long-term business goals. You can reach me at [email protected] Thanks!
Re:Show HN: Nim in Action on Wednesday August 09, 2017 @12:18AM (#14965510)
I just ordered my book. Here's a 37% off discount code: fccpicheta courtesey of /r/nim and /u/psychotic_primes
Re:Ask HN: What're the best-designed things you've ever used? on Monday February 20, 2017 @08:14AM (#13686906)
HP 32SII scientific calculator. I had one in high school (not sure what happened to it), recently picked one up on ebay and haven't regretted it!
Re:How Dropbox Hacks Your Mac on Friday September 09, 2016 @06:11PM (#12466406)
I've recently started using Syncthing to synchronize files between different machines. I'm super impressed at the quality of the application, its stability, and the documentation. Syncthing is written in go and open source. https://syncthing.net/
This article was linked on HN last fall I believe: http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/11/airplane-maintenance-... Basically the airlines are outsourcing maintenance to places like El Salvador, Mexico, and China. The FAA has very little capacity for providing the same level of oversight previously conducted in US-based maintenance facilities. Scary.
Re:The “Internet of Things” Needs a Fix on Saturday July 02, 2016 @06:27PM (#12024001)
wow, with all due respect, to me this vision of the future sounds horrifying. My refrigerator on Facebook? No thank you.
About Mises

The Mises Institute, founded in 1982, teaches the scholarship of Austrian economics, freedom, and peace. The liberal intellectual tradition of Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) and Murray N. Rothbard (1926-1995) guides us. Accordingly, we seek a profound and radical shift in the intellectual climate: away from statism and toward a private property order. We encourage critical historical research, and stand against political correctness. The institute serves students, academics, business leaders, and anyone seeking better understanding of the Austrian school of economics and libertarian political theory.

EDIT: Source: https://mises.org/about-mises They are based here: 518 West Magnolia Avenue Auburn, Alabama 36832-4501

Re:Why Erlang Matters on Friday April 08, 2016 @05:24AM (#11453517)
Hi, I'm quite new to the community myself, so I don't have any established contacts to share at the moment. I recommend checking here: http://www.meetup.com/Elixir-Berlin/ This company also has an office in Berlin now: https://www.erlang-solutions.com/contact.html
Re:Why Erlang Matters on Thursday April 07, 2016 @04:11PM (#11450248)
Embedded systems programmer here. I'm learning Elixir and am very excited about the nerves project: http://nerves-project.org/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpzQrFC55q4 Edit: There also seems to be a good Elixir/Erlang community here in Berlin Germany where I live at the moment.
Re:Hacker Monthly Shuts Down on Saturday January 09, 2016 @06:36AM (#10870899)
I've been a print subscriber since May 2011 and I just wanted to say that my monthly issue of Hacker Monthly has consistently been a wonderful experience. The articles, the art, everything was very enjoyable. Thanks so much for having offered this service!

Ask HN: Financial startup asks for private info via email. Where do I complain?

I've been using the services of TransferWise (http://transferwise.com) to send money to Europe from the US. Their service has work out really well so far, but I'm worried about their approach to obtaining additional information for their fraud detection/customer verification service.Recently after initiating a transfer, I was asked via email for "... a screenshot from online banking, a bank...

( Read More... | no comments | 2 points | on HN )
I totally agree. It seems birds are not dumb enough to do this: https://youtu.be/F4ml61jI5ow?t=207 (at 3:42)
This is simply not true in my experience. I have personally seen birds perform significant aerial maneuvers to avoid collision with my aircraft, going very close to 130MPH. By the time I see the bird it is often in a very steep dive, the bird saw my plane long before I saw the bird.
Birds are very different from drones in the sense that birds often practice active collision avoidance, at least in the case of encounters with a small aircraft. I have often seen birds take evasive maneuvers when a collision is imminent, much more quickly than I could have as the pilot of the aircraft. Drones at this point have no sense of self preservation when faced with a collision with an aircraft and are therefore in my opinion much more dangerous.
The accelerometer/gyroscope IC I am using is this one: http://www.murata.com/en-global/products/sensor/gyro/scc2000

It is an avionics-grade 3-axis accelerometer + Z axis gyro.

Re:Rent my private airport for your hardware startup on Friday July 10, 2015 @09:29PM (#9868076)
We're thinking approximately $2500/month for basic use of the hangar and house. Please contact me directly for more details.
Re:Rent my private airport for your hardware startup on Friday July 10, 2015 @09:00PM (#9867989)
The Paradise Valley generally receives less snow than other places in Montana. My wife and I drive a Prius year round and typically a grocery store trip is ~40 minutes round trip. We're able to take the Prius on 95% of our winter drives. This last winter was quite warm, we were flying kites outside over Thanksgiving with our extended family.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Valley_%28Montana%29

Some photos of the harsh winter conditions experienced here :)

http://imgur.com/OwmFVok http://imgur.com/CcnJjFV http://imgur.com/I3pfkxO

Re:Rent my private airport for your hardware startup on Friday July 10, 2015 @08:57PM (#9867982)
Hello, thanks for your feedback. I posted this because I feel like it is a very unique space/opportunity and is in the spirit of fostering startup progress. I guess many Show HN posts could be considered to be an advertisement. Usually it is an advertisement for an individual's skills or awesome ability. In this case, my wife's and my awesome ability is restoring a run-down airport facility and trying to make it into something more modern. A lot of hard work has gone into this space and I believe that this opportunity is a reflection of our hard work, just like a lot of the software projects out there. I apologize if you feel like my intent is too commercial for the subject line chosen.
Re:Rent my private airport for your hardware startup on Friday July 10, 2015 @06:41PM (#9867378)
sounds like an awesome project :)
Re:Mentors Are the Secret Weapons of Successful Startups on Sunday March 22, 2015 @12:12PM (#9247247)
I believe this to be true in other aspects of professional life as well. When I was learning to fly to become a commercial pilot having a mentor who was himself an accomplished pilot and mechanic helped tremendously. I was able to advance through my flight ratings at a much greater speed than if I had been learning on my own.
Frankly, as a new parent who lives in the US I am worried that my family would be punished for an action such as what is described in the article. I think that the climate of irrational fear combined with exuberant supervision lead to an environment where decisions which would seem rational to a European could be construed to be dangerous to children in the US. Like walking home unattended. I don't think this fear of coming to live in the United States is unjustified if your values don't entirely match those of the local population. -- edit -- I also don't think that this kind of enforcement action is a rare event, and that this is why it is being covered in the media. In my opinion, it is being covered in the media because it is a significant example of an event which illustrates the divide in the US between what the majority believes (letting children walk home unsupervised is dangerous) and what a smaller number of parents challenging this establishment believe.
Re:The fatal attraction of lead on Sunday October 12, 2014 @04:46PM (#8446541)
Thankfully, the general aviation industry in the US is moving away from leaded avgas. http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-News/2014/September/0...
Re:Biggest Mistakes in Web Design 1995-2015 on Saturday September 20, 2014 @01:42PM (#8345063)
Yeah, that whole section read like something from 2002 to me as well.
Re:Inside a Tesla Model S Battery Pack on Friday September 12, 2014 @02:27AM (#8306825)
Take a look at http://files.wizkid057.com/teslapack/update2/Tesla%20BMS%20M...

For cell #1, my guess is that the 4 parallel resistors (R3) are the balancing resistors and that Q1 is a small logic level MOSFET which enables cell balancing. On a BMS project I'm working on balancing current is only 250mA, so a small SOT-23 MOSFET is all you would need.

Re:Epic Forum Thread on Concorde (2010) on Saturday September 06, 2014 @06:09AM (#8277961)
From page 2 of the discussion: "Anyway, back to some figues; at Mach 2, 50,000', the typical fuel burn per engine would be around 5 tonnes/hour, falling to around 4.2 tonnes/hour at 60,000'." So at 60,000 feet, total fuel flow would be: 4.2 tonnes/hour * 4 engines = 16.8 tonnes/hour 16.8 tonnes/hour * 326 gallons per tonne = 5477 gallons/hour 5477 gallons/hour * 1/1320mph = 4.15 gallons/mile, 0.24 miles/gallon 0.24 miles/gallon * 120 passengers = 28.8 passenger miles/gallon

The 787 boasts around 120 passenger miles per gallon. So the Concorde uses 4x this much at highest efficiency. Not bad for 60's engineering at mach 2! I can see why it was not profitable to operate however, due to the increases in fuel cost since the aircraft was designed.

And every year there are numerous incidents where a bird strike inflicts significant damage to a manned aircraft. Just because a risk already exists doesn't mean that it's acceptable or wise to increase this risk arbitrarily IMO.

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