kshatrea
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5 years ago
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on: Foam – A Roam Research alternative with VSCode, Markdown and GitHub
I personally like the JetBrains model where one can pay yearly and get updates but if you have to stop paying due to some reason you can still use the version you originally paid for.
kshatrea
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5 years ago
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on: The American Press Is Destroying Itself
I am not American and don't live there but have American friends. Most of them anecdotally were happy about the op-ed you mention - they probably aren't members of your political tribe. But then they don't subscribe to the NYT anyway.
My point is that the GP is right, this is survival. They tried to be neutral by publishing an op-ed the other side probably liked. Didn't work and therefore it pushes them more into one camp to survive.
Just a guess based on anecdotal information.
kshatrea
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5 years ago
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on: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
When was this? I know someone there but haven’t spoken to them recently.
kshatrea
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6 years ago
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on: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
My friends and I have this theory that the top management at Google feels they are extremely close to general AI. With acquisitions like this we would hazard the guess that they want to see what data they are missing that could feed that borg and then buy a company that could supply the missing bits. They just have to promise that they won’t use it for ads. But if that AI gets better and better soon they have enormous new opportunities.
Just a theory though.
kshatrea
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6 years ago
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on: Mozilla and Google Chrome Refuse to Support Gab’s Dissenter Extension
If you consider communism as far left, then yes the far left has absolutely killed millions. If you do not consider communism far left, I don't know what to tell you.
kshatrea
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7 years ago
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on: Show HN: Millow – Stay connected with your inner circle
Thank you for the great and detailed answer. I feel very strongly about using Facebook and since this app would focus on people I am close to, a future FB acquisition would mean more of my info in FB’s hands. I support acquisitions, just that my personal trust matrix has an FB exclusion zone.
kshatrea
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7 years ago
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on: Show HN: Millow – Stay connected with your inner circle
To be clear, I am not saying they shouldn’t be acquired - if they get acquired by Twitter/Microsoft/AANG I am totally going to be a supportive user. It is the F word I consider unworthy.
kshatrea
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7 years ago
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on: Show HN: Millow – Stay connected with your inner circle
Here's my question off the bat: Facebook is known for using Onavo to find networks that take off and then buying them (I forget names - tbh was it?). I know of course this early in the process you don't know what the future holds, but are you open to acquisition by Facebook? I place a very high value on using the product depending on that answer.
kshatrea
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7 years ago
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on: The death of Google
I think idea that this blog post is conveying is overrated. People said the same thing about Microsoft under Ballmer. Then he left. Nadella came in and continued many of the things that he did, and their stock price has soared. For Apple the opposite happened - their profits and stock price have soared, yet Tim Cook can't catch a break. Every little error leads to a chorus of "It wouldn't have been like this if Steve was around". Perception isn't everything.
In my humble opinion, Sundar Pichai must go. Ballmer said it best - "I am a pattern"[0]. I think Pichai has been a great manager but he, from the outside, doesn't seem to be a great leader. If he steps down, the new person gets leeway to change some things and get some social capital.
[0]https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/11/outgo...
edit: fixed language
kshatrea
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7 years ago
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on: Google I/O'18: Keynote Livestream [video]
I am not sure what all this is supposed to enable us as customers or users to do. What I can see is a bunch of ways to avoid human contact including no longer calling people like a real human or not even choosing my own words in an email. But from the perspective of someone who dealt with Google's awful customer service, maybe they could use this in that regard to actually have a voice on the phone even if it isn't human.
Automation is a great thing until you see the human cost. At some point Google is going to have to use its vast capacities to not give people more time, instead give them more opportunities. For e.g. the DeepMind paper showing how to save energy - that was cool.
kshatrea
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10 years ago
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on: Carl's Jr. wants to open automated location
kshatrea
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10 years ago
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on: Authorities cover up nude Roman statues to not offend Iranian president
Completely OT but somehow relevant in my mind: this kind of submission getting up symbolizes how HN is now becoming mainstream - there is nothing even marginally "hacker" about this post - unless they were using some cool new optic fiber to make the statues "invisible".
kshatrea
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10 years ago
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on: Chennai floods: The Hindu not published for first time since 1878
I can only apologize - I presume I heard it somewhere and internalized it. Not like I am making fun of Venezuela, at least not intentionally.
kshatrea
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10 years ago
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on: Chennai floods: The Hindu not published for first time since 1878
Like many other people, I have family there and there is no doubt about it, this is one of the worst disasters to hit Chennai. We will have to wait out the storm to see the cumulative damage, but most of my family and friends are reporting Venezuela-like conditions of empty store shelves and lack of mobile and internet networks. In such a condition, I don't think The Hindu had a chance.
On a more positive note, here is how startups are helping:
http://yourstory.com/2015/12/startups-rally-help-chennai/
kshatrea
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10 years ago
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on: Indian startup Snapdeal caught in crossfire due to bollywood actor's comments
I changed the heading so that non-Indians could figure out relevance from the heading.
kshatrea
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10 years ago
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on: In the first majority-Muslim U.S. city, residents tense about its future
As a citizen of a country with many such cities[0], I would advise the people of this city to relax, nothing bad is going to happen. The only real issue most Muslims have with any non-Muslim country is that it is a general perception that they're Muslim first[1](just one reference but I can get more). For e.g. in India, most Muslims hate Israel[2] even though Palestine has nothing to do with India's foreign policy objectives except at the UN (which is its own story).
As for the liquor ban, that kind of thing happens in many places. For e.g. in India an Indian state (Maharashtra), banned beef, even though it is only the cow that is sacred in Hinduism and one can slaughter buffaloes.
I am not Muslim and I don't like religion as a concept, but as long as the act of violence is not perpetrated, I don't see what the residents of Hamtramck, MI have to worry about.
[0]
http://islamicpopulation.blogspot.se/2010/07/indian-cities-w...
[1]
http://baltimorechronicle.com/muslimsfirst_nov02.shtml
[2]
http://blogs.hindustantimes.com/they-call-me-muslim/2010/01/...
kshatrea
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10 years ago
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on: Dizzying Ride May Be Ending for Startups
Looking at India, this can be conflated with a global level ending of the dizzying ride. [0] gives a good overview of this. In short, the free lunch is now over and people are asking for results. I am sure it has a lot to do also at an economic level with the Fed now talking of tightening- that means interest rates are headed higher and there is more aversion to risk. I am not an economist, so others might have different opinions.
[0] https://goo.gl/9MfjBa
kshatrea
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10 years ago
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on: How Eye Tracking Will Change Gaming
I have worked and work for competitors of Tobii.
The article is kind of biased.
The cheapest eyetracker in the world is The Eye Tribe tracker ( I have worked there). They've not been able to solve the battery drain problem yet (running IR LEDs costs you) and therefore mobile gaming is out. I would assume Tobii has had similar issues. Tobii's EyeX is the only Tobii device cheap enough to go into the consumer market but it cannot do a high resolution head pose estimation at a high frame rate. The other awesome company for eyetracking in Sweden is Smart Eye which is targeting a different industry still has issues with high precision at low frame rates.
In short, eye tracking is important and progressing fast but we aren't where we want to be in terms of using less power and also kind of supplanting the hand controlled devices for typical use cases like aiming in FPS games or changing POV based on head pose. We've used Tobii as part of competition research and the EyeX API is a bit limited also. I would give this article a 7/10.
Edited for clarity.
kshatrea
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10 years ago
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on: Indian Startups Vie to Win E-Commerce Battle
One of my classmates has worked with several of these, starting with Myntra, moving on to Jabong, Hopscotch and Lenskart (by Flipkart) before moving on to becoming an EIR at some VC firm.
According to him, most of these are operating at hair-trigger margins and it is the funding that is keeping them going, waiting for the day when they can either increase prices and still win or make enough volume to become profitable. The main wildcard is the internet penetration and the transportation structures in tier II and tier III cities - if they can manage deliveries at scale for cheaper costs to enough people, it should work out for them. Otherwise they will all lose to local stores anyway which have decades of inventory management skills.
kshatrea
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10 years ago
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on: What Refugees Bring When They Run for Their Lives
The overwhelmingly male youth that are immigrating are the reason a bunch of conspiracy theories are afloat on the internet.
The next few years will be interesting. By all accounts Europe is headed for a recession and recessions usually foster xenophobia.[0]
As an Indian living in Europe, I haven't yet noticed any changes but I assume that it will only get worse since behind all the talk about "humanity" most people still have to get 3 meals and when you have thousands such young hungry and tired men who can't get a job, I agree with the parent. Hopefully he and I are proved wrong since this is a real crisis.
[0]http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/racethmulglocon.4.2.183?...
