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Ask HN: What are some problems solved in unrelated domains?

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Re: Ask HN: What are some problems solved in unrelated domains?

#91

Post by ncheek »

deadly_syn wrote: post #90
frogpelt wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like you aren't a fan of the way this QR code was used. I went to a restaurant the other day and it had one of those Coke Freestyle soda machines. There was a QR code on the screen which I scanned with my phone. This opened a website with drink choices. I put my cup under the dispenser and pushed the Barq's Root Beer button on the website on my phone which dispensed the drink from the machine. I was impress…

I wonder what the security implications of this would be. Did the QR code connect your phone to the machine locally, or is there some menu out there for every freestyle coke machine on the open internet? If it's the latter I'd wager there's probably a way to remotely create a huuuge mess at some random five guys location.

When I tested one of these machines out 2 months ago, a new QR code was generated each time the machine timed out to the home page. At this point, the old QR code and even the loaded webpage became useless.

This means you can’t save the URL, leave the restaurant, then use it to control the machine later.

Re: Ask HN: What are some problems solved in unrelated domains?

#92

Post by azepoi »

faizshah wrote: post #15

If you look in the field of network analysis there’s several camps of researchers, namely: physicists, sociologists, mathematicians and computer scientists all solving the same problems but from different domains with different terms and drawing from different prior work. They all interestingly converge in the sub field of community detection or graph clustering.

for me it was learning differential equations. From mechanical systems, chemical reactions, electrical circuits, ecological systems, control systems, epidemiology...

Re: Ask HN: What are some problems solved in unrelated domains?

#93

Post by muzani »

webmaven wrote: post #75
calpaterson wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I researched this I found that automotive Kanban bore absolutely no relationship to the computing industry's Kanban. Shigeo Shingo's book ( https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0915299178/ ) is particularly emphatic that Kanban was a was for repeatable industrial processes and not, for example, for knowledge work. Automotive Kanban is not a "Todo"/"doing"/"done" board, by his account anyway. The tickets sat on individual…

> It was about limiting the number of unfinished work items (which take up space and can be a sign that something is out of control). As it happens, limiting unfinished work items (aka WIP) boosts software development productivity as well. The space being taken up is mental, but is also a bad sign of things spinning out of control.

Unless you're in a startup, where most ideas are usually distractions, or trying to play catch up with a competitor.

Re: Ask HN: What are some problems solved in unrelated domains?

#94

Post by webmaven »

muzani wrote: post #93
webmaven wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It was about limiting the number of unfinished work items (which take up space and can be a sign that something is out of control). As it happens, limiting unfinished work items (aka WIP) boosts software development productivity as well. The space being taken up is mental, but is also a bad sign of things spinning out of control.

Unless you're in a startup, where most ideas are usually distractions, or trying to play catch up with a competitor.

Well, sure. But if 'succumbing to distractions' is the issue, I'll note that this also tends to result in piles of semi-complete WIP.
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