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beyondzero's comments

beyondzero | 4 years ago | on: AWS Private 5G

Spot on. This could be a game changer for us ($xB 100+ year old manufacturing company), where we are on a long, slow journey to digitize every piece of manufacturing (long and slow because manufacturing runs almost 24x7x365). Wifi, even the top enterprise systems, is not as resilient, cheap and quickly installed as we'd like.

So now I can use 5G instead, and template and deploy it via the cloud? Yes, yes! We'll put this through some cost models, but it will likely jump NPV of IoT and automation projects by pushing down the initial capital costs (fiber runs pulled by union electricians to wifi gear installed by a vendor vs. 5G base stations and servers installed and configured by plant electricians and corporate IT).

beyondzero | 4 years ago | on: Stockholm parents built their own school app, then the city called the cops

> I think this digital child managing system sounds moderately dystopian to be honest.

A lot of the reactions and rebuttals to this comment are from HN childless people, whose perspective is their memory of being a child age 12-17, talking past HN people with children, whose perspective is about their kids age 5-12. At one end of the range you are educating about drugs and sex and good decisions, on the other end of the range you are worried about clean butts and walking across busy streets.

The method of CREATING an older child who can be an independent and functional adult is by "MICROMANAGING" early-on so they develop good habits (especially good habits of independence!). And I am a Montessori parent which is fairly radical compared to the normal US system.

beyondzero | 4 years ago | on: Is this the simplest (and most surprising) sorting algorithm?

This is silly but sort of relevant.

During college junior year (1993) as a physics major I took a class in digital electronics (which included 68000 assembler programming). We had a lab contest to create the fastest sorting routine for a set of random unique numbers between x and y.

I won the contest by setting to 0 a y-x register range of memory and then inserting each number into the range based on the number itself ("27" into register 27, "18" into register 18, etc.). Then I printed out all non-zero numbers in the range.

The other 20 or so students did versions of bubble-sorting and called my solution a cheat. The professor defended my victory as I had not broken any of the rules of the contest...

beyondzero | 4 years ago | on: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

Construction materials supplier here. That is not necessarily true. There are two major drivers for open office plans:

1) The notion in architecture that open plans, by literally removing barriers, figuratively remove them and create a more open and inclusive office environment. This is a popular belief in the biggest architectural firms in the world, even though the principals at those firms all have luxurious private offices.

2) Recently some offices have flipped to open plans to accommodate hybrid working. E.g. allowing employees to WFH 2-3 days / week but then expecting them to hot-desk when they come in. This reduces the total footprint required, which can reduce costs...except many firms are using the saved funds to enhance the office in other ways (more natural light, better furniture, plants and fountains, catering, etc.) in order to attract talent.

Gensler has published a lot of this research and positioning publicly in reports and in their podcasts.

beyondzero | 4 years ago | on: Building a vision of life without work (2015)

Lancaster, PA resident here. Many, possibly most, Amish are not farmers anymore. To your point, a lot own businesses like lawn care, grocery and hardware stores, tourist traps, and construction companies.

Since childcare is mentioned, I would be remiss if I did not point out that the Amish have a disproportionate rate of child sex abuse. Offenders often get off because the Amish community pressures victims not to testify. Victims are sent to re-education centers. It is pretty gross what goes on in plain (pardon the pun) sight. But they bring in tourist dollars. Most Amish are lovely of course, but their lifestyle has a very dark side.

beyondzero | 5 years ago | on: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

> Curious on your age range.

This is going to be the dominant driver for female infertility. My wife and I waited until she was 32 and I was 40 and we struggled for two years. Eventually we talked to a doctor and both got tested. I was in the 98th percentile for sperm health, but unfortunately her egg production was closer to a woman 10 years older. We did IVF and got very lucky on the first try, with one viable embryo, who is now a curious and amazing four-year-old.

beyondzero | 5 years ago | on: Schools Should Exclusively Use Free Software (2014)

Re: which CAD to use...

I work in a +1$B company in AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) and our designers and engineers use AutoCAD, Revit, Inventor, 3DSMax, KeyShot, Unity, Solidworks, Rhino, SketchUp, plus the entire Adobe Suite. The Autodesk tools represent probably 75% of the install base.

I agree that learning the concepts is more important on where and what to click in any particular software set. But in AEC, Autodesk is king.

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