John Glenn has died • Hacker News Board

Re: John Glenn has died

#141

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Dec 09, 2016, 3:47 AM UTC

kumarski wrote: post #133

theoh wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet, "In order to be an engineer, it is not enough to be an engineer." Jose Ortega y Gasset. No profession has a monopoly on competence.

He made a monstrously inaccurate statement about the area of a solar panel and the power output of an area equivalent with the surface area of a nuclear power plant. I thought he was well versed in how utilities and energy work, but this made me see him in a different light. https://youtu.be/UKT2tKmVk6g?t=16m52s I at one time thought Elon Musk was monstrously good engineer, but I found out he was a physicist recently…

[deleted]

Re: John Glenn has died

#142

Post by FullMtlAlcoholc » Fri, Dec 09, 2016, 3:51 AM UTC

kumarski wrote: post #110

hackuser wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> humanity has lost the Lee Iacocca of Space Perhaps you could explain the comparison to a somewhat famous car company executive ...

John Glenn was an engineer. Lee Iacocca was an engineer. Elon Musk is not an engineer.

Elon Musk saw that the online world needed a secure payment/banking system. Founded X which eventually morphed into Paypal, grows to be one of the biggest online payment processor. Problem solved.

Saw that we humanity needed to transition from fossil fuels if we are to combat global warming, targets the transportation sector and bam, Tesla, is born produces the first highway legal serial production all-electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells, and the first production all-electric car to travel more than 200 miles (320 km) per charge. Basically, the first practical all electric vehicle. Problem solved.

Saw that humanity needed to switch from fossil fuels for home energy. Devised the original idea for Solar City, which his cousins implemented ( and he eventually took over). Certainly, there may not even be a main player in this story as this problem is evident. However, was instrumental in this effort. Solar is now on par with domestic natural gas production for cost efficiency and will likely supplant it moving forward (Natural gas companies operate on very thin margins)(I'd say it's more efficient if one factors in the negative externality of fossil fuel into the efficiency comparison). Problem solved.

Saw that if humanity is to survive, we need to be multi-planetary. No one else is seriously doing it. He forms SpaceX and likely in the next 10 years will put the first human on another planet and has also devised an economical interplanetary travel network Problem solved (To be continued).

An engineer at its core is one who solves problems. He seems to have a good track record of solving some of the biggest problems facing all of humanity today. That's a pretty kick ass engineer in my book. Perhaps you don't regard him as such because you think of engineeers at the product or component level. Looking at the trees, you get lost in the forest. He's engineering at a higher level than most.

Also, I called Elon Musk the rockstar of the automotive world.

Re: John Glenn has died

#143

Post by krapp » Fri, Dec 09, 2016, 3:52 AM UTC

jeo1234 wrote: post #71

cuckcuckspruce wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This deserves a black bar (IMO) Why would YCombinator give him a black bar? Did he bootstrap a lean startup using microservices in Haskel and basic income while building relationships with angel investors for the next round and ensuring a long runway for a pivot into another market? No? Then Hacker News doesn't care. This is Investor News. Angel News. Money News. Not Hacker News. Not "give a crap about science". Eve…

I recommend you review the Hacker News Guidelines ( https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html ). "Anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity" is on topic. John Glenn clearly fits into the group.

The black bar has usually been reserved for noteworthy deaths in the programming and technology fields, and it's always been at the discretion of the HN staff to decide which death deserves it and which doesn't - and most seem not to.

Discussions around people's lives, regardless of their field, are what create worthwhile tributes. The black bar is just vanity.

Re: John Glenn has died

#144

Post by astrodust » Fri, Dec 09, 2016, 4:55 AM UTC

vkou wrote: post #83

andars wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Important to note that the "closed room" was the Command Module on top of a Saturn launch vehicle.

Yes, but AFAIK, the Saturn V was not full of fuel. Given that, the fact that the module was on top of the rocket didn't change the risk profile much. The fire could have happened, even if the command module was in a garage.

They died in a space craft. You think the other Apollo crews were like "Whew, at least it was in training!" and brushed it off?

Going to space involves strapping yourself into a tiny capsule on top of something that's filled with explosives. There's nothing safe about it.

Re: John Glenn has died

#145

Post by astrodust » Fri, Dec 09, 2016, 5:08 AM UTC

masklinn wrote: post #39

astrodust wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure it was presumed to be "not good" as a baseline, and coming back in one piece was a bonus.

Pretty much. Which is the daily life of a test pilot (especially at the time, some planes were absolute death traps). They knew the engineers were trying to make things as safe as possible, but they were still sitting atop giant missiles full of stuff going kabloey if you looked at it wrong: Glenn's first orbit was launched by an Atlas LV-3B, a modified and saferized derivation of the Atlas D ICBM powered by RP1/LOX.…

It's like Chuck Yeager says, any landing where you survive is a great landing, and any landing where the plane can fly again is exceptional.

He flew a firecracker over the speed of sound. That thing could have easily exploded when it hit that velocity due to unpredicted aero loading.

Test pilots are made of sterner stuff than just about everyone else on the planet, but they're not ignorant of the risks.

Re: John Glenn has died

#146

Post by fsck--off » Fri, Dec 09, 2016, 6:05 AM UTC

fsck--off wrote: post #123

Waterluvian wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's a black bar?

It's a black line 1px high at the top of the page above the orange bar. Here's a snapshot of it from 2011: https://web.archive.org/web/20111006184954/http://news.ycomb...

Correction: it's 5px high

Re: John Glenn has died

#147

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Dec 09, 2016, 6:23 AM UTC

nooron wrote: post #134

FullMtlAlcoholc wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a dated reference, but I can shed some light on this. I'm from Detroit and my dad worked at Chrysler basically his entire adult life. Lee Iacocca was the rockstar of the automotive world before Elon Musk hit the scene. As an exec and former engineer at Ford, he spearheaded the development of the mustang among many other accomplishments. After leaving Ford, I guess he needed a challenge and took on the ordeal of…

This was a great explanation. I am curious. Was that high school Cranbrook?

[deleted]

Re: John Glenn has died

#148

Post by rubicon33 » Fri, Dec 09, 2016, 6:23 AM UTC

FullMtlAlcoholc wrote: post #116

hackuser wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> humanity has lost the Lee Iacocca of Space Perhaps you could explain the comparison to a somewhat famous car company executive ...

It's a dated reference, but I can shed some light on this. I'm from Detroit and my dad worked at Chrysler basically his entire adult life. Lee Iacocca was the rockstar of the automotive world before Elon Musk hit the scene. As an exec and former engineer at Ford, he spearheaded the development of the mustang among many other accomplishments. After leaving Ford, I guess he needed a challenge and took on the ordeal of…

A vision greater than self driving cars?

Re: John Glenn has died

#149

Post by FullMtlAlcoholc » Fri, Dec 09, 2016, 6:55 AM UTC

rubicon33 wrote: post #148

FullMtlAlcoholc wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a dated reference, but I can shed some light on this. I'm from Detroit and my dad worked at Chrysler basically his entire adult life. Lee Iacocca was the rockstar of the automotive world before Elon Musk hit the scene. As an exec and former engineer at Ford, he spearheaded the development of the mustang among many other accomplishments. After leaving Ford, I guess he needed a challenge and took on the ordeal of…

A vision greater than self driving cars?

Self-driving vehicles are a cool and novel goal, but it's just not inspirational. I saw the first prototype on campus 17-18 years ago. Honestly, my thoughts on them are similar to those on nuclear fusion...basically like "Shit man, they're not ubiquitous yet." in that it always seemed more of an eventuality, not a bold, unexpected step forward.

Inspirational things are usually illogical and are more rooted in emotion and ideas formed during childhood and the myths we internalize at that age. It will save a great number of lives, decrease commute times and be beneficial for the environment for sure. But it will mostly be of benefit to people with the highest standard of living on the globe.

Honestly, I was looking forward to a world in which technology enabled a world to become more classically liberal, a world that encouraged the free flow of goods, services, capital, culture, people, and ideas where a person's identity isn't so wrapped up in the idea of the nation-state and the stupid games they play. So yeah, this year has been kind of dissapointing. If you can't tell, I'm a huge Star Trek.

For example, John Glenn's effort towards nuclear non-proliferation leading to global disarmament (save for a few emergency nukes...never know when an asteroid could be headed this why and we need to send the world's best fracking crew...Hollywood should totally do a sequel with frackers and it'd get the thumbs up from Trump)

I digress. Society in general don't find automonous cars inspirational. there was no ticker tape parade when Uber completed its first ride in PA. And if there were a live stream, not many people were interested. Although fundamentally it is a human accomplishment, it's not that exciting to see a machine run code.

Re: John Glenn has died

#150

Post by ajw » Fri, Dec 09, 2016, 8:08 AM UTC

jlgaddis wrote: post #126

SEJeff wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn't (respectfully) disagree more. He has inspired a generation of us, myself included. My grandmother used to lead the Indianapolis Aero Club and somehow managed to get him as a speaker. My parents made the 2ish hour drive up just for me to hear one of my heros, Col John Glenn, talk for ~30 minutes (I was maybe 12-13 at the time?). While I did not ultimately achieve my dream of being an astronaut like him, I d…

It seems weird to "run into" someone from the same area here on HN (I grew up about two hours "down" from Indianapolis) -- it certainly isn't exactly a booming high-tech area!

Also grew up in Indy. We're a nomadic bunch.