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svrocks | 14 years ago | on: Let's talk about chairs.

You can find Aerons online (ebay, craigslist) for a fraction of retail. I am currently sitting in a full-featured Aeron that I got for $400. I bought it 6 months ago and have no complaints so far.

svrocks | 14 years ago | on: Business Cofounders, Go Fuck Yourselves

I agree with all your points and would like to hire you to code up my idea for mashing up internet memes and home improvement supplies. I have already purchased the domain name: lolcatphotosharinghomedepot.com. Although I have made this much progress already, I am prepared to offer you 5% equity in this endeavour. The combination of my prestigious Harvard MBA and my 1 year of consulting experience at prestigious Bain, Co. will assure our success. Please let me know when we can begin. Your first step will be to deploy an Oracle/Microsoft cloud server in the cumulonimbus formation off the coast of East Africa to handle the user traffic that I am sure will arrive shortly.

svrocks | 15 years ago | on: Show HN: Groupon Scraper in Python

no i just made this yesterday, it only takes snapshots of current deals. If you want to collect revenues going forward I would set up some kind of cron job and run it every night at a reasonable time (11pm Eastern US time would probably work, but you'd underestimate on the West Coast deals)

svrocks | 15 years ago | on: Show HN: Groupon Scraper in Python

Ha yeah the code is a mess. I have used BeautifulSoup before but I don't understand how it works well enough and just wanted to get something out the door

svrocks | 15 years ago | on: Groupon files for IPO

Wow. Google revolutionized the way we entertain ourselves, learn information, and interact with each other. Groupon has revolutionized paying $5 less for a pedicure on Sundays before 1pm.

svrocks | 15 years ago | on: Groupon files for IPO

because there are far more people who don't care about such trivialities as profitability or sustainability than those who do

svrocks | 15 years ago | on: ASK HN: Can any of you solve this?

2 pi R h gives you the surface area of the side of a cylinder with height h, since you are taking the circumference of a circle and multiplying it by h

svrocks | 15 years ago | on: ASK HN: Can any of you solve this?

Assumptions: 1) Earth is a sphere with radius r 2) "Sky" is a hollow spherical shell with radius R

The surface area of the entire spherical sky is: 4\piR^2

This can be represented by a spherical integral that I'm not sure I can write cleanly here.

We just need to change the bounds of that integral to find the area of the observable part of that shell. The Intersecting Chord Theorem along with some trigonometry can be used to find these bounds.

The answer I get is:

(1 - cos(x)) / 2 where x = Arctan(sqrt(r(R-r)) / r)

This seems to have the correct asymptotic behavior (as r approaches 0, cos(x) approaches cos(pi/2) = 0, and the answer approaches 50%

EDIT: My previous answer assumed the shapes were cones instead of spheres. Sorry about the confusion.

svrocks | 15 years ago | on: What happens to all the Asian-American overachievers when the test-taking ends?

As someone who fits that profile with scary accuracy, I can maybe elaborate on the phenomenon. Asian-American children grow up with much external motivation, which gives them a sense of purpose and work ethic. The problem is, external motivation alone can only help in accomplishing mechanical goals that require little creativity or thought and have clear cut evaluation systems. This is not a problem for taking tests, banging out classical piano pieces with no expression, gaming the college admission system, or editing financial models.

But of course after the shelter of academia is left behind, we find ourselves in a world that has no strict system of evaluation. This is where Asian-Americans seem to struggle. I know I do. What makes a trend take off? What does success even mean anymore? I think this is what makes Asian-Americans grasp for job options that are able to provide external motivation and reward which manifests itself in a more conservative attitude.

svrocks | 15 years ago | on: Targeting leftover land mines

I participated in one of the trials for Lahiru's project. The system was very intuitive: it's basically a metal detector that interacts with a computer to store state. As you approach the edge of metallic object and the metal detector beeps you can click a button to store the current location of the detector. By moving the detector along the edge of the object and storing more points you can map out the shape of the object to determine whether it is a mine or just debris.

It's nice to see this solution is getting close to shipping. Definitely a smartphone app whose value we can all appreciate.

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