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Ryan_IRL

97 karma · joined December 28, 2010

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Ryan_IRL··on Study Finds Microplastics in Nearly 90% of Proteins Sampled
We might be doing fine on average, despite it. Yet, there are seemingly links to autoimmune diseases and cancers, and still more research to do.

So maybe a good % of the population could be doing more fine without the micro plastics?

Ryan_IRL··on Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?
First off, I think the primary objective should be creating value for the company you work for. Bums in seats, lines of code written does not always produce value.

I think any position where you can automate away your daily tasks, and that's an expectation of the job, is great. There is no shortage of companies that maybe run on legacy software that requires a ton of effort to keep things running. You'd be surprised how often companies do things just because that's how they've always done it.

The other great option, which is what I did, is to become an important part of the team, and start negotiating for shorter work weeks.

I think you can find what you're looking for if you combine these strategies, and nobody would fault you on it.

Ryan_IRL··on Collection Of Puzzles For Programmers
Cool! If anyone likes these they should check out http://projecteuler.net/ as well.
Ryan_IRL··on Windows 8 on a laptop: first look
UI looks inconsistent, but I see a lot there to be excited about. If they are taking cues from the phone OS, then that's a very good thing IMO. I've always felt that was one of the nicer mobile UI's.
Ryan_IRL··on The process behind our startup's logo design - draftswork shown
I don't like this logo at all. It's too complicated and feels contrived.

The concept of just the shell was pretty cool, but the three colors doesn't add anything. I don't care what ideation process says, if it's not adding clarity or defining the brand then I'd say it's just complicating things.

That said, thanks for sharing.

Ryan_IRL··on Realistic Skin Rendering in WebGL
I think the lighting is more impressive than the skin. Still, a cool tech demo!
Ryan_IRL··on Using jQuery’s Data APIs
> If HTML5 data-* attributes change during program execution, use jQuery's .attr() method to get the current values.

I'm not sure why anyone would want to use an attribute for storage, but this is good info. I for one love data-* attributes. It's better than the days of trying to pack info into the id or rel attributes.

Ryan_IRL··on What G+ is really about (pst it's not social)
I just like how G+ helps me share internet jokes with my friends, and at the same time, still be within my anti-social comfort zone.
Ryan_IRL··on Collection of classic computer science algorithms written in JavaScript
Not that I don't appreciate these examples, but they shouldn't have to be in javascript for somebody to learn the algorithm. I've always learned more when I've read some pseudo code (or another language) and implemented an algorithm myself.

Also, to anyone planning to use these in code, please note the copyright. Event though it's MIT, you still have to add the credit to your code. sigh Gotta love copyright law ;D

Ryan_IRL··on Ask HN: Hacker to Hobbyist to Entrepreneur?
Your question tells me you have as good an understanding of the process as you need. Also, I think a good entrepreneur has a sense of what they can't do, ie. marketing, etc. That understanding comes with some failures as far as I can tell.
Ryan_IRL··on PyCon 2011: 5 Talks I Want to See
One of my favourite all time talks was this: http://us.pycon.org/2009/conference/schedule/event/71/

Always a fan of learning new AI techniques with Python.

Ryan_IRL··on Ask HN: Review my side project
The design is great and I think you've done a good job at avoiding that spammy look (envisioning stock images of people with perfect teeth looking right at the camera).
Ryan_IRL··on Ask HN: Best language to code a web app?
http://www.trypython.org/

then

http://tryruby.org/

If you like Ruby more, then check out Rails. If you liked Python more then check out Django and Pylons. Of course there are other languages/frameworks which are also excellent but these are languages with a lot of tutorials, and frameworks that have great communities and are industry proven.

Ryan_IRL··on Ask HN: Best language to code a web app?
I'm going to assume you're asking about frameworks as well since comparing PHP to CGI Python or CGI Ruby wouldn't exactly be fair (even though some people love to compare Rails/Django to pure PHP). This isn't a straightforward question, so I'm not going to give you a straightforward answer, but here goes.

Based on my experience of working with Rails, Django, Pylons, Zend, etc. I'm going to have to say, "It depends LOL!1!". If you're on completely level playing field with Ruby, Python and PHP I would say jumping into Rails would be a good choice since there's so much quality training material out there (and it's a really good framework if you can ignore the fan-boys).

Since you mentioned some real time stuff you might want to look into something like Tornado/Python (tornadoweb.org) though I honestly can't say if any other framework would prevent you from real-time since I don't know anything about your server/load.

If you don't know what MVC is, or think Models are skinny european women then I'd almost be tempted to say play with some PHP without a framework for a little while. This will let you get more familiar with processing a web form for example, or uploading an image without a framework telling you how they think it should be done. Get your hands dirty in other words.

I dunno, that's just my advice. Hopefully I didn't dumb it down for you but I had to assume you've never built a web app.

Ryan_IRL··on I haven't used soap or shampoo in a year, and it's awesome
As uncomfortable as the thought is, I think I'd give this a shot. Regardless of the reliability of these claims, I respect people who question what's "normal" in society.
Ryan_IRL··on So You Just Bought Sex.com For $13 Million – Now What?
I don't think I've gone to random domains since I was on a 14.4 modem. I find it pretty hilarious that that domain can break even just parked.
Ryan_IRL··on Should you do performance reviews in a small startup?
I can't agree more that company culture is hard to change. Maybe even impossible. Trust is a huge factor in creating that culture, and despite outward appearance, friendship between employees does not equal trust. Open communication is the best medicine.

Great article.

Ryan_IRL··on Google Probably Knows What Crap Results Are
Yeah, it sounded more tongue-in-cheek in my head than it comes across in the comment. If this is the reason we see spam results, then the benefit must outweigh the negative effect of potentially pissing of users.
Ryan_IRL··on Google Probably Knows What Crap Results Are
The only benefit I can see to Google are a lot of those spam sites rely on AdSense to make their money. If it makes sense for a developer to register 100 domains and game some keywords, then they must be making a little money.
Ryan_IRL··on Google tracks you. We don't. An illustrated guide
I think it's some valid info here, and it's certainly worth being wary of the info Google collects, but I also sense a little bit of FUD here. The whole "...which can often uniquely identify you" makes me feel like this is playing on fear a little too much. It's not like that "big ebony booty" search is going to come up in a job interview any time soon guys.
Ryan_IRL··on Ask HN: A website for showing off your stuffs
I couldn't either. I'd be interested in helping you develop this idea further if you're interested in a technical co-founder.

You can find my contact info on my site ryanleland.com

Ryan_IRL··on Ask HN: A website for showing off your stuffs
What's the current competition? In other words, is there another site doing something similar?
Ryan_IRL··on Startups in Canada
Coming from a Canadian entrepreneur/hacker, I can say despite our best efforts it's still sort of hard to be taken seriously by some investors. Where I live there is still a huge focus on oil and energy, so unless your technology is applicable to that industry you have only a handful of angels who understand tech who haven't already moved on to silicon valley, etc.

The brain drain effect is pretty serious here. Why wouldn't I want to go somewhere where the other smart people are, and where I can pretty much wear shorts 10 months out of the year? Culture/politics aside, the US is still one of the best places to live if you have money.

Ryan_IRL··on Ask HN: A website for showing off your stuffs
What's the advantage of this over using Facebook and/or Twitter?
Ryan_IRL··on 10 Internet Giants, 10 Years ago
Wait... did you just call me a non-native plant species?
Ryan_IRL··on Tom Robbins on Failure
I'm not sure if I just had an epiphany, but I just sort of got lost in the thought of how our survival instinct prevents us from realizing our full potential.

Good quote, thanks for sharing.

Ryan_IRL··on 10 Internet Giants, 10 Years ago
Was youtube also a matchmaking service? I'm a little confused by that "I'm a Male seeking ..." form below the login box.
Ryan_IRL··on Wikipedia Raises $16 Million to Remain Ad-Free
I'm aware it is temporary, but I'm surely not the only one thinking that banner is more annoying than the occasional ad would have been.
Ryan_IRL··on R2-D2 creator Grant McCune dies
I bet I'm not the only one that hears that sad beep in my head when i read it.
Ryan_IRL··on Happy New Year Hacker News, what are your plans for 2011?
I lost my job a few weeks ago (company I was with went bankrupt). I'm planning to transition to doing more python contract work while learning haskell and more AI.

Wouldn't mind finding a start-up to work with if something interesting comes up.

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