Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Things I still can't do in November 2014

facebook.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 153 posts

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#131

Post by epsylon »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #64
estebank wrote: post #31

> 30. Get a discount from the federal government for being healthy. Fat people should pay more taxes because they cost society more. This means some approved weigh in and testing centers Am I the only one finding this insulting, disgusting and backwards? People can be overweight for a multitude of reasons, some of which are: * Genetics * Medication * Health conditions * Smoking * Enviromental reasons * Lack of sleep…

Most fat people don't have reasons other than stuffing their faces for being fat. As evidence for this, consider the fact that obesity is skyrocketing while most of the things on your list are not changing.

You don't tax the fat people, you tax the unhealthy food. As far as I've noticed, this is another very US-centric problem: portions are much larger and the food is much more carb-heavy in the US (compared to other developed countries). There's a strong cultural aspect to that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soda_tax

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#132

Post by lazyjones »

Underwhelming, mostly "luxury problems" other people don't have. He can probably fund a bunch of startups to tackle most instead of complaining.

You know what I miss most? While there are plenty of online courses, some even for particular specializations, noone offers "synthesizable" courses targeted at arbitrary special fields with arbitrary preexisting skills. For example, I want to learn everything about state-of-the-art battery production (e.g. how factories operate, what the scaling issues are etc.). I have a background mostly in IT, physics from school, strong in mathematics. I should be able to choose this specialized topic and then "add" prerequisite courses until I'm confident that I can build on my existing knowledge and get exactly what I need to know to become proficient in battery production.

My current choices are either to study physics at a major university and try to find courses that cover my target topic to specialize towards the end (realistically, I'd have to read 100+ publications to cover recent advances), or to find books on the topic and whenever I feel I lack knowledge to understand a book, other books to cover these holes. Very difficult, trial-and-error and slow. Or I could hire a personal trainer(?) proficient in the field (how to find?) to get me there.

Neither of these seem very attractive and efficient and having a flexible online course system for this purpose would really help. Any takers? Don't you want a simple, effective way to become proficient in a particular field without wading knee-deep through useless material for years?

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#133

Post by mkaroumi »

diziet wrote: post #7
mkaroumi wrote: post #2

"Liked" 6. Get somebody to come to my house, pick up my dry cleaning and drop it back off the next day (Amazon "Clean"). There's actually a new Swedish startup (I'm not a part of it) that does exactly this! https://twitter.com/LaundryOnlineSE "LaundryOnline is a swedish startup created to make ur day more awesome by taking care of ur laundry. We pick up and deliver ur laundry fast and easy." Seems cool!

Washio does this in SF as well (I've been a happy user) 12. Get a qualified guitar / piano / cello teacher to come to my house without randomly calling people on craigslist or doing general google searches. 13. Keep track of where everybody in my team is physically right now. Both of these are possible with the right apps~

Cool, thanks for the info. There's always "an app for that"

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#134

Post by flycaliguy »

girvo wrote: post #93
gordaco wrote: post #28

Honestly, I find some of these points quite disturbing. And a lot of them are not a matter of technology. 13. Keep track of where everybody in my team is physically right now. I don't want to work with you, ever. 40 hours a week are for the team, sure, but during the remaining 128 you don't have any business in my life. What you propose is creepy. 25. Be able to take a course online and get graded -- and get a diplom…

As far as 30 is concerned, we already make smokers and drinkers pay more taxes through the various huge taxes on cigarettes and alcohol directly (at least in my country). It's not so far fetched, and if it reduces obesity then it's a net good for society.

Sit down with a social worker and try to explain the new weigh in system for a long list of reasons to abandon this concept entirely.

I don't even understand why this list is being taken seriously. The guy basically just said:

I want to have GPS for my dog, be able to buy nice art and, ya know, just live in a society governed by regulated physical fitness like some sort of Nazi.

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#135

Post by stefan_kendall3 »

diziet wrote: post #7
mkaroumi wrote: post #2

"Liked" 6. Get somebody to come to my house, pick up my dry cleaning and drop it back off the next day (Amazon "Clean"). There's actually a new Swedish startup (I'm not a part of it) that does exactly this! https://twitter.com/LaundryOnlineSE "LaundryOnline is a swedish startup created to make ur day more awesome by taking care of ur laundry. We pick up and deliver ur laundry fast and easy." Seems cool!

Washio does this in SF as well (I've been a happy user) 12. Get a qualified guitar / piano / cello teacher to come to my house without randomly calling people on craigslist or doing general google searches. 13. Keep track of where everybody in my team is physically right now. Both of these are possible with the right apps~

They also operate in DC apparently. It was significantly less expensive to not meet the weight minimum and pay extra vs. use the hotel laundry service.

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#137

Post by SamReidHughes »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #98
DanBC wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mostly agree with your point[1] but you should be aware that seroquel and abilify (the 5th and 6th most prescribed medications in the US) both lost increased appetite and weight gain as side effects. The US also has a lot of "off label" prescribing of other anti psychotic meds. This includes risperidone - which again promotes weight gain. The rate of prescribing mental health meds has increased dramatically since t…

If one's calorie needs go down, one can reduce consumption, correct? Similarly, "increased appetite" is simply a desire to eat more - additionally, it's a signal that your mind can correctly dismiss once you know it's phony. Another choice is to do what people in 1989 did - not consume those pills . I'm aware you don't like me. I make no effort to signal loyalty to the American "blue tribe" (c.f. Scott Alexander [1])…

> additionally, it's a signal that your mind can correctly dismiss once you know it's phony.

I know it's a phony signal yet I haven't correctly dismissed it. Please tell me what I'm doing wrong.

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#138

Post by glenra »

jsnell wrote: post #65

> 4. Locate where my dog is right now using a barely noticeable GPS chip. > 13. Keep track of where everybody in my team is physically right now. I think we can kill two birds with one stone here. Your team is collared, right?

#13 seems easy and there exist apps for it. Not that the team would WANT to do this, but if you had a sufficiently compelling use case the problem doesn't seem difficult.

For instance, if everyone on his team carries a smartphone (iOS or Android) they can all install google+ and turn on background location sharing so he can see them on a map.

https://support.google.com/plus/answer/3302509?hl=en

There's also Apple's "Find My Friends" cloud feature, and a bunch of 3rd-party apps that do the same.

If they don't carry a cellphone then...um...give them one and tell them to carry it. :-)

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#139

Post by yummyfajitas »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #137
yummyfajitas wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If one's calorie needs go down, one can reduce consumption, correct? Similarly, "increased appetite" is simply a desire to eat more - additionally, it's a signal that your mind can correctly dismiss once you know it's phony. Another choice is to do what people in 1989 did - not consume those pills . I'm aware you don't like me. I make no effort to signal loyalty to the American "blue tribe" (c.f. Scott Alexander [1])…

> additionally, it's a signal that your mind can correctly dismiss once you know it's phony. I know it's a phony signal yet I haven't correctly dismissed it. Please tell me what I'm doing wrong.

What you are doing wrong is eating when you get that signal.

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#140

Post by michaelbuckbee »

Osmium wrote: post #15
jokoon wrote: post #3

first world problems of somebody living in the silicon valley ? sorry but most of those things either stems from politics or lack of market development.

I found it a little bizarre too, e.g. > 11. Get a quick, binding divorce online. This makes absolutely no sense to me, in so many ways. Presumably a divorce should be a rare enough occurrence that doing it in person is not a burden?

http://www.wevorce,com
Post reply on HN