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brendanw | 1 year ago | on: Let the Birdmen Fly

Americans testing the laws of physics with wingsuits are continuing to be criminally prosecuted by a national park service that turns a blind eye to the malfeasance of its own staff

brendanw | 5 years ago | on: Electrified wingsuit from BMW reaches 186MPH on first flight

I run a small site/app where wingsuit pilots upload gps tracks for analysis. 180mph is fast but can be achieved/sustained without a jet.

In practice that is difficult to do on most BASE jumps as you need to sustain a steep angle for 10-15 seconds to hit that speed. Density altitude will greatly affect performance as well.

What's cool is being able to sustain 180mph while not losing altitude, which it sounds like BMW+Salzmann have accomplished. From the article:

"While Salzmann’s first flight was a resounding success, it appears he’s not resting on his laurels. According to BMW, the daredevil wants to fly between the skyscrapers of South Korea next."

I've dreamed of being able to zigzag through downtown skyscrapers for more than 10-15 seconds. The Jetman project is astounding. From a friend who is working on a copycat, the costs are close to 100k to replicate. Eager to see experimentation+progress on any projects with the promise of making hybrid human+wing flight more accessible (cheaper).

brendanw | 5 years ago | on: Bitcoin Halving Just Occured

I use USD-C and DAI to give out grants to a team of international volunteers. Could not get payments to a guy in Turkey through venmo, paypal, square cash, or transferwise. Now we just send everything via stablecoins.

brendanw | 6 years ago | on: Ask HN: How to find work while homeless?

Negative thought spiral. Life is rough for the OP right now; negative thoughts are begetting negative thoughts. I think most folks have been there, with variance in magnitude.

brendanw | 6 years ago | on: Gilbert Strang Teaches Linear Algebra

Gilbert Strang got me through the more difficult of the two linear algebra gatekeeper classes in University. I didn't go to class once after the first week. I sent him a thank you email and he wrote a nice reply.

brendanw | 6 years ago | on: Algorithms Interviews: Theory vs. Practice

I've wonder if this + optimizing for sticky labor while meeting legal requirements. A person who has contributed to impressive open source ticks both checkboxes but will not pass FANG interview.

brendanw | 6 years ago | on: Reasons Why Job Seekers Are Not Given Feedback

In my last cycle of interviewing in SF, I ran into two folks I had interviewed in the past. Both very strong interviewers in that I could sense they were putting their full energy into collaborating with me. I remember thinking I really hope I was as gracious of an interviewer. I don't think I have ever been an asshole, but I felt guilty because I have gone into interviews at 70%. SF is small too.

For those curious, the two companies were Coinbase and Envoy. Interviewers at both companies were across the board superb.

brendanw | 6 years ago | on: Is It Time for the US to Drag Jobs Out of Silicon Valley and into the Heartland?

There does not have to be a trade-off between trees and new construction; see the new transbay terminal in San Francisco as an example, or the Changi airport in Singapore.

The poop in SF is from growing rates of homelessness, not from density. SF ranks low on density compared to NYC and Hong Kong, yet only SF has a poop problem.

NIMBYism crops up in every place where there is growth, and it seems to create a system that rewards luck of being born in the right time and place over contributions to society.

brendanw | 6 years ago | on: Today’s Top Tech Skills

As someone who loves kotlin on android, I have been searching for companies experimenting with kotlin jvm or kotlin node backends and have been surprised to see that companies are not making the jump. Swift is remarkably similar to kotlin. With a kotlin backend you have the benefits of the JVM or node ecosystem and a beloved language that a bunch of your frontend devs will understand.

brendanw | 6 years ago | on: Peloton S-1

Not to mention the shady business practices of many gyms. Search "Planet Fitness requiring direct withdrawals" on reddit.

brendanw | 6 years ago | on: Peloton S-1

How about the Presidio for riding? I am not a cyclist. I incurred a foot injury recently, and have been thinking of ways I can exercise without impacting my feet too much. I've thought riding a bicycle around the Presidio could be pretty nice.

brendanw | 6 years ago | on: A Walk in Hong Kong

A few years ago a Chinese man on the BART tried asking me for directions. His english was poor. With the aid of google translate we were able to do some basic communication. Over the course of 10 minutes I learned he was trying to visit the Wikipedia headquarters. I mentioned I was surprised he could access Wikipedia in the mainland. He told me that many know how to access Wikipedia.

Let's be clear. Authoritarianism is not culture; it is an evil political ideology that the people of China are subjected to.

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