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Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?

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Re: Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?

#641

Post by sgtnoodle »

rozularen wrote: post #517
sgtnoodle wrote: post #247

I'm helping to build a scalable system for delivering high value and life saving medical supplies to hard to reach places via autonomous aircraft. The system is currently operating in Rwanda and Ghana, and aggressively expanding over the next couple years. Specifically, I spend a lot of time thinking about and writing embedded software. The aircraft is fully autonomous and needs to be able to fly home safely even aft…

It's crazy the kind of jobs there are in the USA that are very interesting and in the vanguard of the technology while me (Spain) get to work on banking. Here we don't have anything close to Toyota, Google or SpaceX. The career path for someone that has a passion for its craft can't be compared between the USA and many other countries. Such a shame... I wouldn't say I am qualified for a job related to embedded progra…

There's a handful of places in the USA with thriving tech industry, and there's plenty of opportunity in general, but quite often people have to relocate for the really exciting opportunities. I haven't been to Spain, but my understanding of European culture is that folk generally stick around where they grew up. There's plenty of cool embedded stuff going on in Europe if you look for it. For example, I am aware of a lot of really neat drive-by-wire actuator development.

Re: Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?

#642

Post by sgtnoodle »

auiya wrote: post #569
sgtnoodle wrote: post #247

I'm helping to build a scalable system for delivering high value and life saving medical supplies to hard to reach places via autonomous aircraft. The system is currently operating in Rwanda and Ghana, and aggressively expanding over the next couple years. Specifically, I spend a lot of time thinking about and writing embedded software. The aircraft is fully autonomous and needs to be able to fly home safely even aft…

By "hard to reach places", are you referring to difficulty due to geographic positioning, or geopolitical concerns?

Mainly geographic positioning due to lack of road infrastructure and reliable utilities. Roads are massive capital investments regardless of tech ability, and lots of populated places in the world are still hard to get to quickly. Many medical products are generally available but have a very short shelf life, and so our delivery service helps make them reachable to significantly more people.

Re: Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?

#643

Post by sgtnoodle »

a_diplomat wrote: post #459
sgtnoodle wrote: post #247

I'm helping to build a scalable system for delivering high value and life saving medical supplies to hard to reach places via autonomous aircraft. The system is currently operating in Rwanda and Ghana, and aggressively expanding over the next couple years. Specifically, I spend a lot of time thinking about and writing embedded software. The aircraft is fully autonomous and needs to be able to fly home safely even aft…

I've been to your airfield in Rwanda! It's such a great company.

I'm jealous, I haven't actually made it out myself yet! I've got a little baby to come home to. It's been a very supportive company in terms of work/life balance as well.

Re: Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?

#644

Post by sgtnoodle »

belzebalex wrote: post #598
sgtnoodle wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, or just ask them here if you think they would be of general interest.

I'm looking for an internship in July-August. I've built a lot of model planes younger and what you're doing seems amazing! Is there any way we could talk further?

The best way to get into the system is by submitting your resume on the careers page. I'll give a heads-up to the recruiting team to look out for any submissions mentioning hacker news.

Re: Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?

#645

Post by dopamine101 »

wewake wrote: post #364
dopamine101 wrote: post #356

I am trying to create a metasearch engine for apparel in India. Apparel shopping is different than commodity shopping and requires lots of browsing before selecting your final product to buy. A user will know about a limited number of vendors and will search for products only on them. A central web/app is needed to give results from the long tail of vendors. This product can be extended to furniture and lifestyle dom…

By vendors, you mean brands right?

Brands, Niche e-commerce websites, boutiques

Re: Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?

#646

Post by adreamingsoul »

SJSque wrote: post #395
adreamingsoul wrote: post #316

I believe I could be working in solving bigger problems, but first I need to focus on my mental health, a healthier work-life balance, and providing the primary income for my family.

Two thumbs up, my friend. Best of luck with it.

Thank you, I appreciate your comment.

Re: Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?

#647

Post by adreamingsoul »

jlevers wrote: post #553
adreamingsoul wrote: post #316

I believe I could be working in solving bigger problems, but first I need to focus on my mental health, a healthier work-life balance, and providing the primary income for my family.

Don't discount how important those problems are! Kudos to you for being intentional with them, and good luck. I wish you the best.

Thanks!

Re: Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?

#648

Post by DoctorOetker »

syllable_studio wrote: post #536
DoctorOetker wrote: post #528

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would correspond to a height difference of about 1 km between upper and lower reservoir right?

yup! More fun facts about a 1 km head height... Off-the-shelf turbines are actually spec'd for a max head height of something closer to .5 km. So the design calls for a double-drop. This design approach is taken from the DOE research linked on our website.

so where the geology allows it, why not go even deeper with the lowest reservoir, and put multiple turbines in series, with perhaps small reservoirs each .5 km?

Then the total energy capacity is V * rho * g * h, so that energy store is proportional to height, while tunnel boring price is roughly constant as long as tunnel boring volume of the reservoirs is much larger than the volume of vertical shafts.

I realize its a bit oversimplified but if we consider 2 prices: p1 price per volume for boring horizontally (for reservoirs), and p2 price per volume for boring vertically, then increasing the reservoir size by a volume delta V, requires boring 2 * delta V (upper and lower reservoir), while boring vertically the difference in height depends on the diameter...

Re: Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?

#649

Post by raxxorrax »

johnmorrison wrote: post #579
raxxorrax wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am for research in fission, but it is expensive in deployment and it needs to solve the problem with nuclear waste in my opinion. I also think supply of nuclear fuel can be an issue, although there are some concepts for other types than uranium. > look at German electricity prices True, pretty expensive. But they also include capital for investment in energy infrastructure. Such as building lines to get power from…

> I also think supply of nuclear fuel can be an issue, although there are some concepts for other types than uranium. There are 3 fission fuels occurring in nature: Th232, U235, U238 Actually, our reserves of Uranium are greater (by energy available to generate) than all of our Coal, Oil and Natural Gas reserves combined. Our Thorium reserves are even greater than those. In fact, Thorium is extracted as a byproduct o…

I like to use current numbers, because extrapolating development is often pretty close to lying.

And Germany has much to do for carbon efficiency, but for total emissions it is somewhere in the middle.

https://file.scirp.org/pdf/ME20120500016_67195744.pdf

Data is for overall efficiency, not power production.

And Shellenberger is a nuclear lobbyist for that matter and his statements should be scrutinized. I am not fully content with the decision to make such a cut for fission power generation, but all these numbers are conjecture.

Re: Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?

#650

Post by raxxorrax »

auiya wrote: post #576
raxxorrax wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my friends is a physicist that had the plan to install a closed cistern under his house and heat it up in summer with mostly solar energy. Looked really promising and he had all the numbers figured out to supply a family home with heating and warm water through a normal winter. Didn't do it in the end because there were some problems with building a cistern on his property and the large up front investment nec…

Funny to think the Romans were doing this thousands of years ago (and probably civilizations before them as well), and here we are just now coming around again to the idea of heating/cooling via cistern storage.

True, but current techniques for thermal isolation could really make it quite efficient. The optimal cistern would be a giant ball of water under your house.

I don't have his spreadsheet anymore, but it seemed really solid.

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