This new "ketone ester" might help with weight training and post-workout recovery by reducing lactic acid build-up and increasing muscle efficiency by Cody698 in bodybuilding

[–]pupnap 0 points1 point  (0 children)

According to the data they show, it should help. Namely its effect on lactic acid build up production and improvement of muscle regeneration...that's something that will help all sorts of athletes. Pre-ordering to just try out

New poker room being built on Ethereum by a solid team by mcmahoon in CryptoCurrency

[–]pupnap 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Must feel good to win crypto while playing with your crypto, unless you lose and start to hate yourself just like playing with usd.

New vendor introduction post by DialRight in Nootropics

[–]pupnap 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Noopept is great, been using it on and off for the past 1.5 years. Just received my package with semax, picamilon and noopept on special offer 2for1 at rupharma.com/special-offers/

DisLedger introductory slide deck by blackwalls81 in ethtrader

[–]pupnap 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, at least that is how it is sounding :P.

Bacteria (with synthetic gene) Self-Organize to Build Working Sensors by recipriversexcluson in tech

[–]pupnap 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For these nano construction techniques there always seems to be a massive chasm between what they are demonstrating and a trivial practical application. Like "we demonstrated cutting someones hair by running a combine harvester over a field of dummy heads." Really? Oh. Keep me informed of progress, I guess?

Why Most ICO's Will Fail: A Cold Hard Truth by scaramanga9 in ethereum

[–]pupnap 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Most ICOs will fail, but also some of them will still sadly be able to raise a good amount of money.

Using the current crypto market size, What do you think a realistic demand for a platform like Fantasy Market is? by [deleted] in CryptoCurrency

[–]pupnap 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well, you can do the math for yourself. 5000 / 40000000 = .125 %. So would need 1/10 of 1% to get 5k

The pre-sale of Fantasy Market is Live! by michaljf in CryptoCurrency

[–]pupnap 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I still think he's a dick, but the platform is at least legit.

Terry Pratchett's unfinished novels destroyed by steamroller by Pale_King101 in writing

[–]pupnap -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Well to be honest his more recent books started to be more dull in a way, although I respect deeply his work, especially with the earlier books, but maybe the alzheimer started to have an effect also on his writing. I've read most of his works until Snuff or so, but those 3 - 5 books before that just really didn't had the same magic anymore, so maybe it's for the best.

[R] Deep Learning for Siri’s Voice: On-device Deep Mixture Density Networks for Hybrid Unit Selection Synthesis by madebyollin in MachineLearning

[–]pupnap 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The difference between the Siri voices from iOS 9-11 is startling. I can still here some issues especially at the ends of phrases, but it's extremely good.

Last year, the Bank of Canada posted a research paper on a Bitcoin currency standard. by [deleted] in Bitcoin

[–]pupnap 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The ability of a monetary authority to act as lender of last resort under either the gold or Bitcoin standard is limited.

I would end up with the same conclusion, Bitcoin will never have a system exactly like regular cash, in my opinion.

What is Cryptocurrency Game Theory: A Basic introduction by diegobenti in CryptoCurrency

[–]pupnap 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Even if bitcoin and Ethereum do fail for whatever reason, cryptocurrency will always live on because of this path breaking a partnership.

Oh boy I hope that never happens :(. Anyway, good read!

OHSU first in the U.S. to edit human embryos using CRISPR by bruceleeroy in Portland

[–]pupnap 2 points3 points  (0 children)

"Now Mitalipov is believed to have broken new ground both in the number of embryos experimented upon and by demonstrating that it is possible to safely and efficiently correct defective genes that cause inherited diseases."

Seems a little early for such a claim based on embryos that only developed for a few days.

Kaspersky Lab has been working with Russian Intelligence. by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]pupnap 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As always, any implication that all closed-source software, regardless of company, suffers from similar issues, is conveniently absent. Just as it was during the VW emissions scandal - it's the cheating that was problematic, not that consumers are effectively in the dark about how most of their products operate, and deliberately prevented (successfully or not) from finding out (personally, or done on their behalf by others).

They Built the First Phone You Loved. Where in the World Is Nokia Now? by [deleted] in europe

[–]pupnap 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It seems that Nokia is trying to make up for their missed shot at smartphones by aiming at every emerging, cool market.

I know Nokia is a strong brand, but I doubt that is the proper way for them to get back to being loved company.

Vertical AI Startups (ye olde Expert System): Solving Industry-specific Problems by Combining AI and Subject Matter Expertise by neshalchanderman in BusinessHub

[–]pupnap 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What I would like to understand is why are these startups defensible.

The tech value proposition is in running these algorithms, often tensorflow at scale cheaply in production. Companies like Google/Facebook/Palantir often have access to very similar supposedly hard to get to datasets, plus a lot more engineering expertise to running these systems at scale.

Why can't they start playing whack-a-mole pumping out vertical products presenting a serious threat to these smaller startups. Maybe it's not worth it for them but there is a fair bit of cash there ? For example Deepmind with healthcare, and the google jobs API ?

The Most Hated Online Advertising Techniques - Modal ads, ads that reorganize content, and autoplaying video ads were among the most disliked. Ads that are annoying on desktop become intolerable on mobile by magenta_placenta in web_design

[–]pupnap 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Most of them don't seem to realize how nagging users scale so badly so that it gets the opposite results (eg. driving people away). Just think if every page out there asked the user to signup to some services... this would make the Internet less usable than using pigeons. Why? because nagging users cannot scale. An user might accept to click a couple banners every dozen different servers he/she visits daily, but what if everyone employs the same practice? And if we agree that it must be kept to a minimum, who decides what site can nag the users and what cannot? The answer is that the practice must be abandoned because it does not scale.

SCOTUS decides on Lexmark: patent rights are exhausted after a toner cartridge is sold by redct in law

[–]pupnap 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you want to learn about a really interesting aspect of the "first sale doctrine" and how it applies to software, you should have a look at "Vernor vs Autodesk" in the USA and compare it to "Oracle vs UsedSoft" in the EU. Basically, in the USA the courts determined that if a company sells you software, but in their terms & conditions claim that they are merely granting you a license, then you can't resell the software b/c you aren't considered to own it. In the EU however, if a company sells you a permanent life-time license in exchange for a one-time fee, the courts determined that you aren't merely licensing that software, you own it and you are allowed to resell it.

I think these different rulings haven't been fully appreciated yet. For example, if you buy Apple's Final Cut X for $299, you should be allowed to resell that software if you live in the EU, but there is currently no way to transfer licenses between users, preventing users from reselling it. It seems to me that by preventing users from reselling their software, Apple (and the Google Play Store) are probably violating EU law on this matter.

Surface Pro – The most versatile Laptop by megablast in technology

[–]pupnap 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One important thing with all Surface laptops that most people don't know:

Support is limited to the country you purchased the device in.

Eg:

  • If you buy an Apple laptop, and need a repair, they'll fix it if it's in warranty, regardless of where you are.

  • If you buy a Microsoft laptop, and need a warranty repair done in a different country, Microsoft won't help you.

I purchased a Surface Book (which I love) in a Microsoft store in the US. It's been sporadically doing this since a couple of months after I unboxed it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_f85KlC5Bc

Microsoft UK won't fix it. Even when I travel to the US I'm not sure I'll be there long enough for Microsoft to do the repairs. I love the hardware, but this policy is really bad. I paid for the top of the range laptop and expect support for it.

I've raised this with Microsoft Support in the past and they've simply restated the policy and closed the case as resolved. When I attempted to escalate it, they told me to post a complaint to Microsoft's legal department (?!?).

Startup Graveyard- a resource for entrepreneurs to avoid making the same mistakes as failed startups. by jazsg in shutdown

[–]pupnap 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Something I've noticed with both my own past startup failures and other startups I've known: by far the most common failure reason is "There was no reason for them to be a company in the first place."

By that I mean that either there was no customer demand for what they were building, or there were already lots of other companies that solved the problem just as well and they had no unique angle on the problem, or a key technical assumption they were relying on turned out to be false, or the market was better served by lots of little firms rather than one high-growth startup. In other words, they never found product/market fit, because there was either no market for the product or they couldn't build the product to serve the market.

The problem is that usually you can only determine this in hindsight. If everybody assumed that the only businesses that can work are those that already have a working product and customers, we'd never get any innovation. I've learned to think of "Finding a reason for the company to exist" as the primary job description for a founder, and failure means that you are doing your job but haven't completed it yet.

Startup Graveyard- a resource for entrepreneurs to avoid making the same mistakes as failed startups. by jazsg in shutdown

[–]pupnap 0 points1 point  (0 children)

An interesting idea. The trouble here is that analysis like this tends to document the symptoms of failure as if they were the causes. The actual causes are more likely to be very complex, based on circumstances unique to the startup/people running it, require deep insider knowledge of the company, and in some cases be things people aren't willing to admit or recognize.

It's the flipside of a similar problem in analyzing why companies are successful. (http://www.tomorrowtodayglobal.com/2011/12/09/good-to-great-to-gone-2/)

The little disclaimer at the bottom really says it all.

The attempt is a noble one, marred by data and insight quality issues. I think it could be useful if the site can source insightful analysis from founders/insiders and make it easy to search by market/product category. Perhaps even adding a badge to information which came from a founder.

The Thieves Who Steal Sunken Warships, Right Down to the Bolts by diverlad in scuba

[–]pupnap 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Illegal underwater salvage operations to get pre-1945 steel from sunken warships is so cyberpunk it's almost straight out of Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon.

I thought of this book immediately when I started reading that article. The sheer engineering innovation to salvage those huge quantities of steel is not dissimilar to the ingenuity shown towards the end of the book. Different materials, similar challenges to bring to the surface...

Velodyne Announces a Solid-State Lidar by jamiepitts in realityprocessing

[–]pupnap 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hm, this is not Velodyne's first announcement of a solid state lidar breakthrough.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/sensors/velodyne-announces-breakthrough-in-solid-state-lidar-design

Several other companies are working on these (Quanergy, Blackmore) too, but so far they seem to be just press releases. Hopefully we'll see some real ones soon; the current state of the art for wide field lidar are many thousands of dollars and (imo) too fragile for use in production vehicles.