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THansenite

52 karma · joined July 25, 2014

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THansenite··on Ask HN: What are you reading?
Currently reading: This Inevitable Ruin (DCC Book 7) by Matt Dinniman - Back to DCC after interrupting it for Red Rising, which is another fantastic series judging by the first book.

Deep Work by Cal Newport - Going through this book to help my focus, especially in the super-connected world we find ourselves in.

Every Tool's a Hammer by Adam Savage - Huge fan of Adam Savage and it is fun reading stories about him establishing himself and his views on making.

I'm also planning a reread of "Fall; or, Dodge in Hell" by Neal Stephenson as his references to greater and greater resources being used for supplying computer power seems dangerously relevant to our current data center arms race our world is watching.

THansenite··on Writing by hand is good for your brain
I recently overcame this as I've been reading more of the unread books populating my shelves. I always wanted to keep my books in pristine condition and never wanted to mark them up. Now, I realize they are part of MY collection and marking them up with highlights, underlines, notes, etc., only make them more valued since they contain their intrinsic knowledge from the author as well as my own views. Even if I want to give them to friends to read, they'll see areas that jumped out to me and maybe appreciate some of the additional context or focus I noted as well.
THansenite··on The lost joy of music piracy
Are there any communities like this still around and thriving?

I miss the old bulletin board days of the mid 2000s to mid 2010s, before Facebook and other social media took over. I'm part of a vintage car building community (LocostUSA) that still uses forums, but is a very small, niche community. What others are still active?

THansenite··on Jerry's Map
I'd love to see the system he used for creating his if you can remember.
THansenite··on Why thinking out loud with someone beats thinking alone
As much as people make fun of "new math", it is really neat to see my 3rd grader working through a math problem step by step in a way that makes sense to them instead of the rote memorization I had to do as a kid. While they don't like showing their work, it helps them to work through each step to make sure their assumptions are correct, like you said.
THansenite··on Why thinking out loud with someone beats thinking alone
This makes sense when you think about the divided state of the USA today. People were isolated during COVID and had no feedback on opinions formed then. When they started creating bubbles after lockdown, they wanted validation for the opinions they formed without that feedback. Now, people constantly argue online because that feedback they needed while cementing those ideas wasn't there and we aren't willing to take that communication feedback to tweak our opinions based on common sense because we all believe we are right. This article makes a lot of sense.
THansenite··on Show HN: An 8-bit live gamecast for baseball
Agreed. As a developer, I'd love to see how this was done or if you have it out on Github.
THansenite··on Sixty percent of US consumers say 'AI' in brand messaging is a turnoff
This is so true. My wife loves knitting and frequently gets comments about her items of people asking if they could have her knit something for them. When she tells them that if she tripled the prices of a similar store-bought one, she'd still be making sweatshop wages, they go back to the mass produced version they already have pretty quick.
THansenite··on Mechanical Watch (2022)
I've been fascinated by mechanical watches for years. It can become a deep rabbit hole (like most hobbies). I frequently have watch restoration videos playing in the background as I'm doing things and love the process of taking apart, cleaning, and reassembling these watch movements. Wristwatch Revival is probably my favorite. I has encouraged me to tear apart a few watches of my own to give them a good service. As complex as they look, most follow a very similar process to rebuild.
THansenite··on OpenAI president forced to read his personal diary entries to jury
I'm imagining a Dungeon Crawler Carl style view-meter that shows more people tuning in as he gets to some juicier parts of his journal. B-b-b-b-b-b-b-osss BATTLE!!!!
THansenite··on OpenAI president forced to read his personal diary entries to jury
I can understand what you are going for here, but I feel it is a slippery slope along the lines of police saying, "why can't I search your house if you have nothing to hide?" Orwellian oversight leads to stifling creativity because you know people are watching. I like that I can 'speak freely' in my journal since they are my personal thoughts.
THansenite··on OpenAI president forced to read his personal diary entries to jury
It is actually a decent sized community. As someone who works in technology, I enjoy the aspect of actually creating something physical when so much is ones and zeros on silicone. While not daily, I try to journal regularly as a practice to slow down, focus my thoughts, and use it as therapy to get frustrations/emotions/musings out so I can move on.
THansenite··on OpenAI president forced to read his personal diary entries to jury
I honestly don't know how I feel about this. I keep a journal where I can get thoughts out of my head so I can move on. Like the article, its nothing I'd really be ashamed of, but I see it as a kind of personal therapy where I can dump my thoughts. I write with the assumption they are my private thoughts and even I don't have any plans on going back and rereading. I know I'm not a CEO, but even I wouldn't want my private thoughts brought into a courtroom that I never thought would see the light of day.
THansenite··on Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?
Do you have more details on this project anywhere? I've been working on habit-building and tracking in my journal for the past year and a half or so, but I'm looking to amp it up a bit more. Your project appeals to my software developer and hobby collector mindset and would love to learn more about it.
THansenite··on Iran war energy shock sparks global push to reduce fossil fuel dependence
Because downtown city centers were missing out on office worker revenue and started giving incentives to companies who brought people back into the office. I 100% believe the reason we went back into the office at all was because of this despite all the talk of 'in-person collaboration.'
THansenite··on Text-Based Google Directions
As someone who is currently enamored with Meshtastic devices, several of which have built in GPS, this is making me wonder of future iterations of the software and being able to somehow utilize the directions on the mesh.
THansenite··on Ask HN: What are some books where the reader learns by building projects?
This series popped into my head as soon as I read what the original poster was looking for. As someone who loves building things, I've read through many Gingery books in the series with aspirations of building many of the machines. That said, the refractory sand for the foundry in the first book is still sitting in a bag in my garage.
THansenite··on The Life of NHL Dentists
Playing rec league years ago, I had always played with a full cage. I decided to go with a half visor to be one of the cool kids. Went to my local shop and it was a bit more expensive than I had planned so I figured I'd wait until the next week to buy it. That week, I took two pucks to the cage. I never did go back to buy the visor.
THansenite··on Des Moines Register grapples with how to handle reporter’s past tweets
As someone currently living in Des Moines, this is all the city can talk about right now. Facebook is on fire with people going after the Register, pitchforks in hand. It is kind of ridiculous they'd dig up 8ish year old posts this guy made in a story about his generosity towards a children's hospital, but it seems that is what media has to do now to get eyes. The backlash on the Register has been swift and harsh, though, and with print media already on the decline, is probably pretty bad news for the paper overall.
THansenite··on Drinking fluoridated water during pregnancy may lower IQ in sons
Or, ya know, the real experts.....parents on Facebook.
THansenite··on Punpedia – The Online Encyclopedia of Puns
You'd see it more if you look in finance. Outside of tax season, you can frequently see them at H & Arrrrrr Block.
THansenite··on Ask HN: Where to start on creating AI for games?
You should check out CodinGame. I go on there from time to time to mess around with the challenges where you program the AI to do the task presented. Might be a fun way to get in the AI mindset.