akgerber

42 ms·

421.
by akgerber 12y ago
I tried encryption on my HTC One M7, currently running 4.4, and performance was sufficiently bad to make the phone barely usable. Then I needed to factory-reset the phone to turn encryption off.
422.
by akgerber 12y ago
No, but you need to heat your house a lot less if there's an economic incentive to insulate it more because fuel is less subsidized, and to design new houses to take solar heating into consideration again.
423.
by akgerber 12y ago
Pittsburgh's weather isn't that bad, having gone through 4 winters there in college. This year has been an outlier, with the Western US generally experiencing record heat and drought while the Eastern US has experienced record col
424.
by akgerber 12y ago
Even so, the way a family with 2.3 children lives can differ significantly between cities. A successful middle-class family with 2 children isn't abnormal if they live in a 2-bedroom apartment in NYC, but they are well outside the norm
425.
by akgerber 12y ago
Denver is a midsized metro area of 2.5M, how many Interstates do you expect? And how far are you driving that only an Interstate highway counts as a 'real roadway'?
426.
by akgerber 12y ago
There are plenty of parts of Pittsburgh where a car is a 'want', not a 'need.' Especially in the era of improving bike infrastructure and internet taxis.
427.
by akgerber 12y ago
That said, if you can bike or take transit to work, the cost of owning, maintaining, and insuring a $5000 used car to go hiking and surfing isn't very significant.
428.
by akgerber 12y ago
It's within range to work remotely and come in a couple days every couple weeks, while living in a lovely village in the mountains, and to take relatively easy weekend trips to the city, while paying Midwest-level real estate prices on
429.
by akgerber 12y ago
Especially now that 'fatbikes' that can ride on snow are widely and cheaply available, e.g. http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/gravity/fat-bikes/fat-bi...
430.
by akgerber 12y ago
Social Security and Medicare are also essentially longevity insurance, which is extremely valuable. Since one can't predict with any confidence how long one will live beyond 'probably 50-110 years if I don't get hit by a car&
431.
by akgerber 12y ago
There is a bug in the histogram for Vermont.
432.
by akgerber 12y ago
That is, in fact, Etsy's goal. But the DIY & handmade is a movement on its own with its own set of virtues, probably an heir to the Arts & Crafts movement as a reaction against mass production: http://en.wikipedia.or
433.
by akgerber 12y ago
I have generally seen people finishing PhD.s lately reluctantly start looking for jobs in alternate industries only because there is an extremely slim chance of getting a reasonably well-paid, secure job doing the type of scientific researc
434.
by akgerber 12y ago
A Finnish teacher at midcareer appears to make pretty much the average wage in Finland: http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/teachers-salaries_tea... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European
435.
by akgerber 12y ago
The same process took place in Japan. The camera industry is a familiar example— both Canon & Nikon began by making copies of German Leica and Contax cameras, then tweaked them, then moved into innovative original designs. By the 70s or
436.
by akgerber 12y ago
My guess would be that the American washing machine market matured during the era when apartment living was seen as low-class, and thus the market concentrates on big machines for the big suburban houses that everyone who could afford a lau
437.
by akgerber 12y ago
Mostly it's not a space constraint, especially in the outer boroughs where there's a bit more space. There are plenty of compact European models that well into small apartments, e.g. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wik
438.
by akgerber 12y ago
The idea is that the fine is high because they can't catch every parking violation. Likewise, the fine for fare-beating on mass transit is much higher than a transit fare, because it's very unlikely you've been caught on your
439.
by akgerber 12y ago
Trinity Church is still one of the largest Manhattan landholders, descending from a royal land grant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_Church_%28Manhattan%29#...
440.
by akgerber 12y ago
Greater NYC still includes a lot of very dense conurbation well beyond the city limits. For example, some of the densest cities in the US are those in Hudson County, NJ, and some of the suburban downtowns (for example, White Plains) have sk
441.
by akgerber 12y ago
Most American cities have many neighborhoods that aren't laid out to be accessible by non-automotive means. But that doesn't mean we should have zoning codes that require that to be the case always and forever, and that doesn&#x27
442.
by akgerber 12y ago
A Passivhaus should be designed to allow for similar ventilation as older houses: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house#Ventilation I haven't actually examined one in person, so I don't know how well it&
443.
by akgerber 12y ago
You don't need an automobile to travel beyond your neighborhood! You can take a bus or a train or ride your bike, even in suburban areas. Plenty of midsize cities worldwide work on various combination of mass transit, automobiles, walk
444.
by akgerber 12y ago
You don't need an automobile to travel beyond your neighborhood! You can take a bus or a train or ride your bike, even in suburban areas. Plenty of midsize cities worldwide work on various combination of mass transit, automobiles, walk
445.
by akgerber 12y ago
Parking consumes a huge amount of land, which isn't free in urban neighborhoods. Requiring businesses to provide it is a 'stealth tax' on goods, which raises costs for people who can't afford or don't want a car. An
446.
by akgerber 12y ago
Many Manhattan vehicles are delivery trucks or service vehicles driven by construction or foodservice workers. Many are taxis or car service vehicles. Some are avoiding the $17+ toll on the Verazzano Narrows bridge by taking the free Manhat
447.
by akgerber 12y ago
Different countries have far different degrees of automobile use. Essentially nobody commutes by automobile in Tokyo or Manhattan, and those cities are organized around major railroad stations as opposed to highway interchanges, with neighb
448.
by akgerber 12y ago
Though the driver's desire for unobstructed travel is just as legitimate as anyone else's, the amount of land area required to cater to that desire is far larger than that of the pedestrian, cyclist, or mass transit user: http:&#
449.
by akgerber 12y ago
Firearms (along with sewing machines) were one of the earliest products to be mass produced with interchangeable parts. There wasn't a modern assembly line yet, but firearms weren't hand-made in the sense they were during the 1700
450.
by akgerber 12y ago
The areas right next to parking lots in National Parks are very busy, but usually once you get a mile down a trail, even in a very popular park, it's very nearly empty.

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