mrgriscom

12 ms·

91.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
Wow this is huge news. I wonder what higher resolution the DoD now has at their disposal to prompt them to release this. For any potential consumers of the data, be aware the SRTM has significant gaps in coverage: nothing above latitude N61
92.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
The argument is this information is free. Products of the federal government are in the public domain, so to restrict access to it so aggressively is unethical.
93.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
Sadly, after Kelo v. City of New London it seems that "significant government interest" can mean "anything which makes the government any amount of money".
94.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
I'm annoyed that the taboo thing to say in this discussion is whether increased traffic fatalities is always an inherently bad thing. When you're talking about societal-scale policy, it's impossible to make anything 100% safe
95.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
This guy sounds like a complete sleaze. I appreciate that he wrote the article, as it did contribute a few moments of my day's HN entertainment, but I don't understand the praise being heaped on him. Simply "coming clean&quot
96.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
Crashplan. Off-site backups. Works great on linux. Saves old versions/deleted files forever. Multiple devices for cheap. Set it and forget it.
97.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
Well it just feels quixotic to me to sabre-rattle at some company in a place you have absolutely no jurisdiction over. And to me the real douchebags are the ones selling their parking spaces, so I'd welcome if they were the targets of
98.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
It seems like a more effective strategy than trying to lob legal threats at a foreign corporation is to target the people actually using the app. Pass a city ordinance with 100x damages for people who sell their public parking spot. Run a f
99.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
And now we live in this wonderful world where companies don't actually file DMCA takedowns at all, but rather have gentleman's agreements to take down content in a manner indistinguishable from the DMCA except the part that actual
100.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
Still not entirely clear from the article, but, sounds like you were working in the US without a work visa? What did you expect?
101.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
That was kind of my point -- that second-perfect accuracy over such long time spans is rarely needed or even possible.
102.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
But don't we already have this problem? If, for example, I wanted to calculate exactly how many seconds old I am, I would probably do it the naive way, adding up the years, months, days, hours, etc. But to get the truly exact answer, I
103.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
That's why I made a distinction between civil time and atomic time. If you're doing stuff with enough precision that differences of parts-per-billion matter, then use SI seconds, which aren't changing. But civil time is for s
104.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
You would continue to use the IERS as the authority on what the true solar time is. They would continue to declare when leap seconds are, but instead of inserting them as a discontinuity, you would simply amortize them slowly over a long pe
105.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
Can anyone explain why leap seconds exist vs. a gradual skewing of atomic time to match the earth's rotation. Like say, "from date X to Y, civil time will be atomic time slowed by Z parts-per-billion". It just seems like such
106.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
The likely result though is that the app will simply refuse to run if not granted the permission.
107.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
half expected this to be announcing google's competitor to slingshot/snapchat. left relieved.
108.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
I remember those binge drinking proclamations in college and reading a few years later that they basically didn't work at all. People construct their social norms based on the behavior of those they observe around them, and particularl
109.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
that is basically the "please go away and stop asking" response
110.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
All else being equal, isn't a large fossil fuel power plant 2x more efficient than an ICE, simply from economies of scale from producing tons of power in one central place?
111.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
I actually put a lot of thought into these issues. http://mrgris.com/blog/2013-03-27-survivorship-in-the-digita... . My solution is way too complex for a lay-person, though.
112.
Show HN: the Mercator projection like you've never seen it before(mrgris.com)
20 points by mrgriscom 12y ago|11 comments
113.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
Since the position is static the earth itself would deform too eventually. So I believe the answer is "not much".
114.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
Good, because if you can't swim, it only takes one time!
115.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
Here's a site that lets you use any arbitrary height: http://www.heywhatsthat.com/sealevel.html
116.
by mrgriscom 12y ago
Those are swaths that the SRTM was unable to survey before its mission ended. There are only a few of them and luckily they're all inside the US where there is already higher quality elevation data available from the USGS to fill them
117.
by mrgriscom 13y ago
My point is that if the employee has no guarantee of continued employment over the period where the company still benefits from the IP that employee created, why should the company have any right/expectation to the employee's cont
118.
by mrgriscom 13y ago
That is the nature of at-will employment.
119.
by mrgriscom 13y ago
It is further questionable whether this person could even legally work as a contractor. Depending on the level of control the company exercised over how your friend performed their duties (and "admin stuff" sounds pretty hands-on
120.
by mrgriscom 13y ago
Talk about living paycheck to paycheck...

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