azernik

78 ms·

931.
by azernik 7y ago
I'm unclear why the author sees the collapse of OneWeb as a bearish sign for SpaceX; this is a competitor falling away, leaving Starlink with only Amazon's recently-founded Kuiper as competition. COVID-19 is indeed a challenge, as
932.
by azernik 7y ago
You cut down as much of those as possible (e.g. not making people pay utilities, as many countries/localities have done), treating nonessential employees as laid-off and needing government aid like anyone else, adding tax and insurance
933.
by azernik 7y ago
Freeze mortgage payments/interest, waive rent - there are lots of ways of dealing with this, and most are all about removing any financial return on capital for the duration.
934.
by azernik 7y ago
Civil engineering uses lots of explosives, so I can see how someone would reasonably think that. Cutting canals and mountain passes and the like. Problem is the same as the problem of military use - you usually wants the force distributed i
935.
by azernik 7y ago
Oh I agree we're getting there. I just think excluding storage from the cost equation gives the wrong impression of where we are right now.
936.
by azernik 7y ago
As Microsoft noted in their blog post, XBox Live also runs on Azure.
937.
by azernik 7y ago
Yes. Same with the exceptions to shelter-in-place for the suppliers of essential service providers.
938.
by azernik 7y ago
Almost all emergency-related profiteering is about non-artificial supply and demand issues. Grocery chains charging 10x as much for water or toilet paper is exactly the kind of thing these laws are meant to prevent. (If the shortage is long
939.
by azernik 7y ago
Sure, but if you want a good price comparison you have to include the cost of the necessary storage.
940.
by azernik 7y ago
Citogenesis in action!
941.
by azernik 7y ago
These hacks have been around for years - they're standard practice in mass casualty incidents (e.g. a lot of the research on ventilator-sharing was done after the Vegas shooting) where sudden surges of requirements outpace local supply
942.
by azernik 7y ago
Masks and valves and tubing are much less durable goods than the ventilator itself; some of them wear out, some of them become biohazards after use, etc. So there's both a shortage of the parts required to keep existing ventilators i
943.
by azernik 7y ago
Copying over my response to another comment, because I think people will see this and get the wrong idea: What you refer to as the "hospital's oxygen system" is the oxygen output port on a ventilator. See also this note in th
944.
by azernik 7y ago
What you refer to as the "hospital's oxygen system" is the oxygen output port on a ventilator. See also this note in the text: "The prototype as a whole has been tested on one of our colleagues directly inside the Chiari
945.
by azernik 7y ago
Yup! It's just the mask. A ventilator is a pretty complex, configurable piece of electronics and machinery. It needs to push air in and pull it out at specific volumes and pressures (usually hand-calibrated to the individual patient by
946.
by azernik 7y ago
Original title is "Emergency mask for hospital ventilators". The title on the post is misleading. A ventilator is a machine with electronics, moving parts, and sensors that pushes air into people's lungs and pulls it back out
947.
by azernik 7y ago
Ground transportation is so much larger of an emitter that drops in commuting have a bigger effect.
948.
by azernik 7y ago
Thanks so much for putting this together! It is insane that this is not being done by the government, and that it's left to random coders to throw this together in their free time.
949.
by azernik 7y ago
Yup - in Israel they explicitly made exceptions to school closures for children grades 3 and under of essential personnel. (i.e. let's make sure the doctors can be at work and not staying home with their 10-year-olds)
950.
by azernik 7y ago
It's not just about getting access to services; all of those homeless services are awful for limiting disease spread. Soup kitchens are going to force people into relatively close contact.
951.
by azernik 7y ago
There's been a lot of work done on alternate biochemistries. Most of the alternate chemistries that look practical are at low temperatures, not high ones, because high temperatures inherently break down complex molecules. See http
952.
by azernik 7y ago
Yes. Some of the original work was done in (pre-occupation) East Jerusalem, and a good chunk of the fragments are in Jordan today. A lot of the early work was done by Americans, but that's more because it was the immediate post-war per
953.
by azernik 7y ago
And a buffet brunch!
954.
by azernik 7y ago
For a country the size of the US? Yes, there is a MASSIVE difference between the two. The volume of movement by air between California and, say, Colorado is massively larger than that between California and China, and one of those places
955.
by azernik 7y ago
The ban is for people who have been in the Schengen zone within the last 14 days, not just for direct arrivals from those states.
956.
by azernik 7y ago
It's pretty clear that Trump misread his statement. In more ways than just that one.
957.
by azernik 7y ago
1. Restrictions on internal travel 2. Isolation for those exposed or showing symptoms 3. Paid time off work for people who can't do their jobs in isolation, to make sure people report exposure and symptoms 4. Suspension of public gathe
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by azernik 7y ago
If it's dumb but it works, it isn't dumb.
959.
by azernik 7y ago
Pareto efficiency does not apply, because it is a theoretical construct that assumes perfectly rational actors. It's useful for thinking about the market, but not an actual law. (For a more humorous statement: https://www.yo
960.
by azernik 7y ago
You do not want to trust your market's health to some random trading firm's coding skills and goodwill, just like you wouldn't open up a public webservice without some basic rate-limiting.

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