alkank's comments

alkank | 5 years ago | on: What If You Could Do It All Over?

I am quite excited to hear someone having almost identical views as I do, also being a software engineer (almost) in my mid 30s.

As you also indicated I genuinely struggle to find people with similar frequencies and views.

alkank | 5 years ago | on: Color blindness

You need to pass a color-blindness test to get a driving license in my home country and I can't tell you how much I struggled with it 15 years ago. The reason is exactly this -- I can work out traffic lights very easily although I'm r/g colorblind, however the test was about showing a number of different colors and asking you to name them. I failed, obviously, but the instructor did a favor and marked me as passed.

I still have no idea what practicality that test provides in driving.

alkank | 6 years ago | on: Apple CarPlay, Android Auto distract drivers more than pot, alcohol, says study

I don't have any scientific proof but only a personal observation on this. This is the exact reason why I stopped using Apple CarPlay on my car but instead relying on (iDrive) integrated navigation. Here's my comparison with BMW's iDrive system:

- Apple CarPlay (or Google Maps) show you a very focused view on the current road. This will cause a massive distraction as the screen is updated very frequently with changing road conditions. However with the car's integrated (iDrive) system I zoom-out and see the overall path.

- CarPlay and Google Maps have way too many voice directions compared to iDrive. If I have to go straight, navigation should keep it quiet. This way I can focus much more on the road and the signage rather than looking at the screen.

- As a downside, CarPlay or Google Maps seem to suggest better routes time to time, but the total trip duration will not change any more than ~5%, which I'm completely fine with considering the above pro's it provides.

alkank | 6 years ago | on: Oslo had 0 pedestrian, 0 cyclist, 0 children and 1 driver trafic deaths in 2019

Speed limits in towns in the UK are either 20mph or 30mph, which is 30 km/h to 50 km/h. So speed limits look very similar to me.

The weather is an interesting point though, UK doesn't get any harsh winters - e.g. it almost never snows and doesn't go below 0 degrees celsius, however Norway seems to fluctuate between -5 and +15 degrees celsius.

Oslo: https://en.climate-data.org/europe/norway/oslo/oslo-81/#clim... London: https://en.climate-data.org/europe/united-kingdom/england/lo...

alkank | 6 years ago | on: Ask HN: What are your news sources other than HN?

I read The Economist. Reasons and benefits I have seen so far are:

1. It's weekly. "World this week" section is more than enough to have a summary of what has happened throughout the globe and I can get this information in less than 5 minutes. If you are interested in being more up-to-date, you can also try Economist Espresso, which is daily.

2. It's not only about world news, but also has different sections such as Technology, International, Book & Arts which gives me a wider range of topics to digest on a weekly basis.

3. This is, in my opinion, the most important bit: Because I'm digesting a wider array of topics but only spending an hour or two every week, I have observed a surprising benefit on human relationships as well:

Kick-starting a conversation with a person I don't know.

As a not-so-social person I have always struggled finding a topic to chat about with a person I have met recently. Now, first thing I do is to ask this person where he/she is from, or what their hobbies are, and all of a sudden I make a connection with an article I have recently read on the magazine and try to learn more from that person. This is a wonderful way of building a relationship as well as learning quite interesting facts about the culture or the hobbies of that person.

alkank | 6 years ago | on: Eat This Much – Automatic Meal Planner

This looked really exciting at first and I signed-up immediately, hoping to stop thinking about "what I should cook tonight?". However after seeing an Oreo milkshake suggestion for lunch time I'm not sure how healthy the recipes are.

If the diet selection included a low-sugar option, then it may be much more useful for me.

alkank | 12 years ago | on: Dragdis – Drag and drop anything anywhere

That's exactly what I was looking for - create lists by just dragging including videos. Safari's reading list is cool but I really don't like Safari. Evernote's cool but way too costly to add an item to a list. This one's really simple, really like it.

alkank | 12 years ago | on: Turkey Twitter users flout Erdogan ban

Ironically Gul was the person to sign a legislation a few weeks ago to enable the shutdown of a website in just a matter of few hours (in less than 4 hours to be precise). He either doesn't actually read before signing it or is mocking with people.

They are basically playing the good cop-bad cop with Erdogan.

alkank | 12 years ago | on: Turkey blocks use of Twitter after prime minister attacks social media site

Well there are some situations where you can't just choose between 2 options and hope everything will go on track once you make that choice. Otherwise the history will keep repeating itself - an intervention will be an 'aspirin cure' only, which will probably result with deeper consequences in the near future.

alkank | 12 years ago | on: Twitter is blocked in Turkey

Irony: Twitter ban being spread to the world via Twitter itself. A perfect example of how powerful the internet is despite of the governments.

alkank | 12 years ago | on: Twitter is blocked in Turkey

Considering the fact that I'm seeing #TwitterisblockedinTurkey as a worldwide trend despite of the ban I would say they are far from being able to take away the freedom at all. They will also probably realize that not far from now.
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