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svrocks

Re:First amateur polywell fusion reactor, in a Brooklyn apt on Tuesday August 02, 2011 @10:19PM (#2839570)
well of course, they're changing the world one daily deal at a time. what has nuclear engineering ever done for society?
Re:Let's talk about chairs. on Tuesday July 26, 2011 @06:08PM (#2809683)
You can find Aerons online (ebay, craigslist) for a fraction of retail. I am currently sitting in a full-featured Aeron that I got for $400. I bought it 6 months ago and have no complaints so far.
Re:Ask HN: Review my app, ChatThrough.com on Saturday June 11, 2011 @06:38PM (#2645075)
Is there a reason why r/trees is the only subreddit with a chat group ;-)
I predict you would get many more users if you could get an email reminder (with link) when new high-quality movie torrents hit piratebay
Re:Business Cofounders, Go Fuck Yourselves on Thursday June 09, 2011 @10:34PM (#2639563)
I agree with all your points and would like to hire you to code up my idea for mashing up internet memes and home improvement supplies. I have already purchased the domain name: lolcatphotosharinghomedepot.com. Although I have made this much progress already, I am prepared to offer you 5% equity in this endeavour. The combination of my prestigious Harvard MBA and my 1 year of consulting experience at prestigious Bain, Co. will assure our success. Please let me know when we can begin. Your first step will be to deploy an Oracle/Microsoft cloud server in the cumulonimbus formation off the coast of East Africa to handle the user traffic that I am sure will arrive shortly.
Re:Show HN: Groupon Scraper in Python on Saturday June 04, 2011 @09:46AM (#2619484)
no i just made this yesterday, it only takes snapshots of current deals. If you want to collect revenues going forward I would set up some kind of cron job and run it every night at a reasonable time (11pm Eastern US time would probably work, but you'd underestimate on the West Coast deals)
Re:Show HN: Groupon Scraper in Python on Friday June 03, 2011 @06:49PM (#2618272)
Ha yeah the code is a mess. I have used BeautifulSoup before but I don't understand how it works well enough and just wanted to get something out the door
Re:Show HN: Groupon Scraper in Python on Friday June 03, 2011 @06:48PM (#2618269)
Yes but I wanted to be able to collect sale statistics, so either way some scraping would need to be done on the links

Show HN: Groupon Scraper in Python

https://github.com/jxchen/DailyDealScrapersOn the Groupon IPO thread someone mentioned people selling scraped groupon deal data. To satisfy my curiosity I made my own. Pretty interesting to play around with the data and see how much money their deals are making.

( Read More... | 8 comments | 8 points | on HN )
Re:Groupon files for IPO on Thursday June 02, 2011 @03:33PM (#2613559)
Wow. Google revolutionized the way we entertain ourselves, learn information, and interact with each other. Groupon has revolutionized paying $5 less for a pedicure on Sundays before 1pm.
Re:Groupon files for IPO on Thursday June 02, 2011 @03:23PM (#2613504)
because there are far more people who don't care about such trivialities as profitability or sustainability than those who do
Great idea, but I think this would be much improved by some standardized test cases, especially for the algorithms. I saw a lot of haphazard 3-input tests.
Re:ASK HN: Can any of you solve this? on Sunday May 22, 2011 @09:06PM (#2574703)
After choosing a different way to find the angle, my answer matches yours. Kudos for having a much simpler answer.
Re:ASK HN: Can any of you solve this? on Sunday May 22, 2011 @08:41PM (#2574664)
wow that's an interesting and counterintuitive result. I need to figure out why my integral doesn't line up with that
Re:ASK HN: Can any of you solve this? on Sunday May 22, 2011 @08:28PM (#2574644)
2 pi R h gives you the surface area of the side of a cylinder with height h, since you are taking the circumference of a circle and multiplying it by h
Re:ASK HN: Can any of you solve this? on Sunday May 22, 2011 @06:27PM (#2574423)
Ah you're right, I missed a factor of 2 in the top integral. Will edit shortly.
Re:ASK HN: Can any of you solve this? on Sunday May 22, 2011 @06:19PM (#2574395)
Assumptions: 1) Earth is a sphere with radius r 2) "Sky" is a hollow spherical shell with radius R

The surface area of the entire spherical sky is: 4\piR^2

This can be represented by a spherical integral that I'm not sure I can write cleanly here.

We just need to change the bounds of that integral to find the area of the observable part of that shell. The Intersecting Chord Theorem along with some trigonometry can be used to find these bounds.

The answer I get is:

(1 - cos(x)) / 2 where x = Arctan(sqrt(r(R-r)) / r)

This seems to have the correct asymptotic behavior (as r approaches 0, cos(x) approaches cos(pi/2) = 0, and the answer approaches 50%

EDIT: My previous answer assumed the shapes were cones instead of spheres. Sorry about the confusion.

Re:First habitable exoplanet discovered? on Monday May 16, 2011 @11:57PM (#2555197)
5028
As someone who fits that profile with scary accuracy, I can maybe elaborate on the phenomenon. Asian-American children grow up with much external motivation, which gives them a sense of purpose and work ethic. The problem is, external motivation alone can only help in accomplishing mechanical goals that require little creativity or thought and have clear cut evaluation systems. This is not a problem for taking tests, banging out classical piano pieces with no expression, gaming the college admission system, or editing financial models.

But of course after the shelter of academia is left behind, we find ourselves in a world that has no strict system of evaluation. This is where Asian-Americans seem to struggle. I know I do. What makes a trend take off? What does success even mean anymore? I think this is what makes Asian-Americans grasp for job options that are able to provide external motivation and reward which manifests itself in a more conservative attitude.

Re:LinkedIn Prices IPO At $32 To $35 Per Share on Monday May 09, 2011 @09:41AM (#2528644)
Amazon went public in 1997 for $18/share with 1996 revenues of $16MM and $(6MM) net loss.

Google went public in 2004 for $85/share at about 100 P/E

Re:Targeting leftover land mines on Friday May 06, 2011 @02:55AM (#2520223)
I participated in one of the trials for Lahiru's project. The system was very intuitive: it's basically a metal detector that interacts with a computer to store state. As you approach the edge of metallic object and the metal detector beeps you can click a button to store the current location of the detector. By moving the detector along the edge of the object and storing more points you can map out the shape of the object to determine whether it is a mine or just debris.

It's nice to see this solution is getting close to shipping. Definitely a smartphone app whose value we can all appreciate.

Re:Washington Post has lost all journalistic integrity on Sunday May 01, 2011 @03:25AM (#2502595)
Barry Eichengreen...what else is new. Career Fed-monger. I remember reading his book in college about how the gold standard was the cause of the Great Depression. Later on that year I attended a guest lecture he gave in which he made fun of Joseph Stiglitz.

Status-quo economists have too much power in this decadent society.

Ask HN: Does a consumer-friendly site for comparing health care costs exist?

After reading some stuff about how ridiculously opaque hospital/specialist billing can be, I wondered if it's possible for me to compare health care costs geographically, by type of procedure, etc. I know these data exist and are publicly available, but it seems like it is mostly controlled by government agencies and is hardly consumer-friendly.

( Read More... | no comments | 5 points | on HN )

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