vitaminj

9 ms·

31.
by vitaminj 15y ago
There is no legal basis for kicking Greece out of the euro. None of the relevant treaties have any provision for member states kicking another state out of the monetary union or a member state leaving of their own accord. I think there is a
32.
by vitaminj 15y ago
Default has a pretty loose definition, but what will most likely happen is some kind of debt restructuring (which people will interpret as a default), e.g. extending the maturity on bonds, writing off some parts of the debt, paying out a lo
33.
by vitaminj 15y ago
I think it's a credit to the CS community that computer scientists actually ask this question. I'm an electrical engineer and I left a career in oil/gas to do something "good" with my skills. A few of my former colleagues used to ruminate a
34.
The seduction secrets of video game designers(guardian.co.uk)
2 points by vitaminj 15y ago|0 comments
35.
by vitaminj 16y ago
I'm an electrical engineer (power systems) by background and this is my little project - an automated cable sizing tool to IEC standards. A little background to how it was conceived: Over the years in the design consulting / engineering ind
36.
Ask HN: Review my project - An automated cable sizing tool(cablesizer.com)
1 points by vitaminj 16y ago|1 comments
37.
by vitaminj 16y ago
That's true ONLY IF America started to produce textiles. But the textbook trade models (e.g. Ricardian, Hecksher-Olin, etc) all pretty much recommend that America should just stick to producing fish and fur to maximise its gains from trade,
38.
by vitaminj 16y ago
"When I spend $100 on materials and labor, and I can -- at best -- sell the result to you for $80, $20 of wealth is destroyed. Why? Because the original $100 came from the creation of wealth equal to that, and I transformed that $100 into s
39.
by vitaminj 16y ago
If you've ever been to business school, then you'll know that most of the students clearly don't give a shit about the course material. I mean what kind of 18 year old kid would care about the pricing of a zero-coupon bond?
40.
by vitaminj 16y ago
Fair enough, although I've never actually seen an AC/AC converter without a DC link in real life (the closest thing probably being a direct torque control VSD).
41.
by vitaminj 16y ago
Switch-mode power supplies are essentially DC rectifiers, which will never ever give you 110V, 60Hz (an AC voltage). One way to change the frequency of a power source is through a double-conversion type AC/AC converter, i.e. 1st stage is a
42.
by vitaminj 16y ago
In statistics, you're supposed to come up with a statistical model first before running regressions on the data. But quite a few papers I've read (especially in finance) seem to go the other way around, i.e. They run regressions on a data s
43.
by vitaminj 16y ago
Is there any way to change the settings so that I get sent an email once every 2-3 days instead of daily? I don't fancy writing a daily journal, but a twice-a-week diary would be sweet.
44.
by vitaminj 17y ago
Do kids actually learn about power factor? That point aside, while an intuitive understanding is nice, power factor is really a mathematical construct arising from the multiplication of two out-of-phase sinusoids (i.e. voltage and current).
45.
by vitaminj 17y ago
It's also worth mentioning that voting is mandatory in Australia, failure of which will result in a fine or legal action (if the fine isn't paid). The fine is paltry - I was fined $25 about 10 years ago when I was out of the country and did
46.
Laser fusion test results raise energy hopes(news.bbc.co.uk)
4 points by vitaminj 17y ago|0 comments
47.
by vitaminj 17y ago
I think there are various levels of "badness" when it comes to theft: 1) When you steal your neighbour's car, that's the worst because you're completely depriving your neighbour of the exclusive use and enjoyment of their property. 2) When
48.
by vitaminj 17y ago
More discussion here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=382899
49.
by vitaminj 17y ago
I agree it's a great site. Kalid is also a regular contributor on HN.
50.
by vitaminj 17y ago
In defense of MBAs, they can actually be useful IF you already have domain knowledge. The problem is when MBA graduates with no domain expertise are unleashed to manage and lead a business. It's dangerous even in small markets, for example
51.
by vitaminj 17y ago
To me, one of the interesting things about how mathematical results have been discovered historically is that they have often been accidental (or intended for something else). eg. eigenvalues were originally looked at for use with quadratic
52.
by vitaminj 17y ago
Fractional reserve banking refers to banks holding only a fraction of their deposits in the form of liquid reserves, and lending out the rest. The scheme in the article is about borrowing $9b from the Fed with $1b equity at a low rate, and
53.
by vitaminj 17y ago
Also check out the reddit thread that inspired this post - http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/abiax/can_someone... Some very eloquent responses in there. I was moved.
54.
by vitaminj 17y ago
Non-government deposit banks are legally allowed to create money (up to some reserve ratio).
55.
by vitaminj 17y ago
While I agree that most of the entrepreneurs don't have brilliant ideas, I thought there were two clear standouts: 1) The guy that developed carbon nanotube probes for microscopy applications (www.cnprobes.com) 2) The guy that hacked away i
56.
by vitaminj 17y ago
The idea that protectionism is bad needs to be qualified. Whilst the successful Asian countries that are cited here (eg. Japan, Korea, Taiwan, etc) are export-oriented and encouraged trade, they were all quite protectionist early on. Big co
57.
by vitaminj 17y ago
I can't say this is at all surprising. My experience in providing rural communities with electricity is somewhat analagous to what is being said about micro-credit. I've been working on rural electrification in a small developing country fo
58.
by vitaminj 17y ago
The risks associated with introducing new technology need to be taken into account. An oil company may not think it's worth the risk to try untested technology (or rather, try standard techniques on untested reservoir conditions). But the I
59.
by vitaminj 17y ago
The oil industry generally isn't very innovative, nor do they tend to test costly, untried technologies on their assets that already make billions of dollars. Take water injection for instance, which is a standard method for maintaining res
60.
by vitaminj 17y ago
The results raise questions of where and when a company could choose to exert this influence, but Glattfelder and Battiston are reluctant to speculate. "In this kind of science, complex systems, you're not aiming at making predictions [lik

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