nkoren

69 ms·

721.
by nkoren 10y ago
> Your entire point is based on bulletin board discussions and anecdotal evidence from being peripherally involved with rocketry in the 90s (which given context, I'm taking to mean "I hung out in space forums and bulletin board
722.
by nkoren 10y ago
One fun counter-argument to my thesis: the FastTrac engine which was developed in the late 1990s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastrac_(rocket_engine) At the time, however, I recall hearing endless griping from variou
723.
by nkoren 10y ago
Sorry, I should have been clear that I was talking specifically about the era from roughly the mid-1970s until the mid-2000s. Prior to that, US rocket scientists were wildly innovative and also rather good at trade studies. Subsequent to th
724.
by nkoren 10y ago
> It's also untrue, US rocketry kept varied propulsion types throughout its history including both RP1-only and LH2-only as well as mixed stages, HTPB and Aerozine. My account was simplified, but the tangent was long enough already.
725.
by nkoren 10y ago
Ariane 6 looks like it will be a fine rocket. Should be quite competitive if they can get it to market before, say, 2010, and if SpaceX's reusability efforts come to naught. Otherwise, I fear it'll be much too little, much t0o lat
726.
by nkoren 10y ago
This kind of thinking contributed to American rocketry being trapped in a local maxima for decades. There are many reasons it became trapped, but one of the primary reasons was that rocket scientists would insist on optimising rocket engine
727.
by nkoren 10y ago
That was really fascinating -- thank you!
728.
by nkoren 11y ago
Not a fan of authoritarian governments, but I have to say that from the perspective of a UK-based SaaS company trying to cope with VATMOSS, their reasons are more than a little compelling. Sometimes pragmatism really does need to win the da
729.
by nkoren 11y ago
> Inspite of importing more high-end labor than almost any other country? On a per-capita basis, I don't believe this is anywhere nere correct.
730.
by nkoren 11y ago
Thanks for explaining this. I was struggling to understand Erdogan's tactics. On the surface they seem simply idiotic: the Streisand effect is hardly news, so the result of protesting this video is utterly, utterly predictable whose be
731.
Meteor framework moves to NPM(infoworld.com)
6 points by nkoren 11y ago|2 comments
732.
by nkoren 11y ago
I'm still vaguely sentimental about my old Saturn, which died in 2002. Saturns had a reputation for being the safest cars of their day, and mine certainly proved that to me. My wife and I were driving on a fast stretch of highway east
733.
by nkoren 11y ago
Hmm, and yet: var elem = {foo:"bar"} var set = [elem] set.indexOf(elem) // 0 set.indexOf({foo:"bar"}) // -1 So I guess the strict equality comparison is using some kind of internal ob
734.
by nkoren 11y ago
> Using a `{}` for this would only work for a set of strings and things that can be uniquely coerced into strings. The code they use has the same limitation. It adds / removes / ensures the uniqueness of elements in the set by
735.
by nkoren 11y ago
Millennials are indeed richer than their grandparents, which is the comparison you're making here. But not their parents. But GDP per capita is not a good statistic to be making this argument with, mostly because it is a mean rather th
736.
by nkoren 11y ago
Ancient Athens, at its peak, had a total population of less than 300,000 people. They represented the urban elite of an empire of a few million people at best. I think it would be difficult to find any comparably-sized contemporary populat
737.
by nkoren 11y ago
Marks and Spencer is not a bad comparison, product-wise. But M&S is more distinctly up-market, whereas Trader Joe's is more generally a bargain. (This is appreciated, because although I'm not actually an unemployed PhD stude
738.
by nkoren 11y ago
Apropos of nothing: I moved to the UK eight years ago, and damn, I still miss Trader Joe's. For the most part, I find mid-scale urban British grocery/retail to be much better than its American counterpart (where the industry is to
739.
by nkoren 11y ago
Hololens really does sound like an absolutely extraordinary and revolutionary product. I'm genuinely excited to try it. ...And then I see mention of Skype, which is a product that -- since its acquisition by Microsoft -- has gone stead
740.
by nkoren 11y ago
Like http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/24/11094524/prt-transit-histo... ?
741.
by nkoren 11y ago
...until battery-swap technology was invented.
742.
by nkoren 11y ago
Interesting analysis -- although his numbers actually go off-track in a number of places. The flubs the math on the maximum power output (it's actually about 20% worse than he estimates) while making too strong a case against LED light
743.
by nkoren 11y ago
Longer life, better solar angle, less shading from vehicles and surrounding trees and buildings, less deposition of sunlight-blocking dirt and grime, easier access for cleaning and maintenance, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.
744.
by nkoren 11y ago
Let's do this Jeopardy-style. Answer: "Roads." Question: "What surface or environment -- by virtue of having no control over shading or solar angle, and by maximising dirt, wear-and-tear, and difficulty of maintenance --
745.
The Man Who Built an Arm Out of Scrap Metal(bbc.co.uk)
1 points by nkoren 11y ago|0 comments
746.
Stephen Hawking: Do Black Holes Have No Hair?(bbc.co.uk)
2 points by nkoren 11y ago|0 comments
747.
by nkoren 11y ago
Apple as a model for how to produce slick software? Once upon a time, perhaps -- but these days, surely you jest! The quality of their software has become abysmal . The latest versions of iMovie, Pages, Keynote, and Numbers, on the App Sto
748.
by nkoren 11y ago
If it holds up, this is fantastic. Given how interesting the Pluto system has turned out to be, I can only fantasise about a potential super-earth system relatively nearby. However, to be completely pedantic: would this actually be a plane
749.
by nkoren 11y ago
Thanks for the good question. :-) You're right of course, and this isn't going to stop anytime soon. Moreover, even if the world were to evolve towards city-states rather than nation-states, there would still undoubtedly be inter-
750.
by nkoren 11y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaregions_of_the_United_Stat...

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