HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

adamdavis

131 karma · joined November 27, 2012

musician programmer writer human being

a.concise.email at gmail dot com

submissionscomments
adamdavis··on Beethoven transformed music, but has veneration of him stifled his successors?
While I can name several modern classical composers whom I interested in* I think your point still stands and most people wouldn't be able to name an active composer after Beethoven, maybe Brahms. I have brief memories of an interview with Milton Babbitt about how classical music was no doubt on the way out due to advent of popular music, and i think he was right, these days classical music is only relevant in most peoples lives when mentioning an anecdote about how making their newborn listen to Mozart might increase their IQ.

Whenever I would go to a chamber music event or an orchestral performance there will generally be two sets of people there - the old school bougie folk and a handful of conservatory students - the casual audience member is far and few between. Orchestras will have a better chance getting an audience by performing pops or some program full of video game music.

Still, going to the symphony hall, being part of that scene, this might retain it's importance for the upper class / professionals, and this alone could be enough to continue to support more than a handful of orchestras around the United States.

* And the only reason I can is because I studied composition and theory at University.

adamdavis··on Beethoven transformed music, but has veneration of him stifled his successors?
But there are. That is to say, if you mean exceptionally talented composers of classical music.

See Gyorgy Ligeti, Arvo Part, John Adams, George Crumb. Phillip Glass, and Nico Muhly. Everyone except Ligeti (RIP homie) is still living last time I checked.

adamdavis··on Why Yahoo Keeps Killing Everything It Buys
It doesn't make it true either, and nothing that the original poster said suggested that it might be the case. Heck, we don't even know the gender of the original poster.
adamdavis··on Introducing ASP.NET vNext
Good luck with that. For what its worth, in my experience, I've found .NET development to be less painful when not using Entity Framework.
adamdavis··on Show HN: Hipster Domain Finder
Fair enough. I think that's where we differ - I feel the word isn't quite as ill defined as you suggest, though it is commonly misused. A conversation for another time :)
adamdavis··on Show HN: Hipster Domain Finder
Thanks. I'm well aware of what a hipster is and how the term is used in the context of modern slang, this doesn't really help answer my original question, however.
adamdavis··on Show HN: Hipster Domain Finder
What exactly about this makes it a 'hipster' domain finder?

edit: Obtuse question I guess. What makes it a hipster domain finder is the fact the author called it one. Please, carry on.

adamdavis··on Scientists Make First Embryo Clones From Adults
I never really got this line of thought. While creating life in a laboratory and creating life through sexually reproduction between a man and woman (or however it is other organisms manage it) have the same end result, I think it's fairly reasonable to recognize that they are two very distinctly different things.
adamdavis··on Help fund Rails Girls Summer of Code 2014
No worries. Sorry we don't have the opportunity to have a more in-depth conversation about it.
adamdavis··on Help fund Rails Girls Summer of Code 2014
I think you're very sadly mistaken - white people can be victims of racism, too, you dig? I grew up and went through a school system where white people were by far the minority, and yes, I had to deal with racism.

edit: Downvotes? Yikes. Like most people, I'd prefer some constructive replies instead of silent detractors, but it is what it is.

adamdavis··on Microsoft Names Scott Guthrie as Permanent Enterprise Chief
Ah, an important distinction, my mistake.
adamdavis··on Microsoft Names Scott Guthrie as Permanent Enterprise Chief
You can read more here

http://www.asp.net/open-source

adamdavis··on Microsoft Names Scott Guthrie as Permanent Enterprise Chief
Certainly there is more than a small difference between it being rational for you to ignore a company and to call the company itself dormant and stale.
adamdavis··on Microsoft Names Scott Guthrie as Permanent Enterprise Chief
I'm just curious - do you mind elaborating on your thought that Microsoft has been stale and dormant? This just seems so far from reality, so I'm wondering what about them gives you that impression.
adamdavis··on America Has a Black-Market Problem, Not a Drug Problem
Sure, and people who are victims of dishonest police can have evidence to support their claims. Everyone wins.
adamdavis··on We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It
I think the major difference, which I mention in my edit, is the risks that we're suggesting are dangerous to a programmer aren't a direct result of the occupation. In the general case, I don't believe that anything about being a programmer stops someone from exercising on a regular basis (edit: or maintaining a healthy diet).
adamdavis··on We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It
I don't have any of that data either, but to suggest that the life as a programmer working from home is as dangerous as the life of a career coal miner seems a bit absurd to me.

edit: Certainly no one's making the claim that a sedentary lifestyle doesn't have its own risks - but being a programmer working from home doesn't insist you live a sedentary lifestyle, however, the risks involved with being a coal miner aren't optional.

adamdavis··on Happy ending: @N has been restored to its rightful owner
The text in the article certainly expresses they felt Twitter took a long time.
adamdavis··on WhatsApp’s Founder Goes From Food Stamps to Billionaire
I may have read these posts incorrectly, but I don't think anyone made the claim that he won this money. There was simply a poster who stated that 400,000 is comparable to an amount of money you would receive if you won a lottery.
adamdavis··on WhatsApp’s Founder Goes From Food Stamps to Billionaire
I would disagree. There's a distinct difference between food stamps->gigantic acquisition and food stamps->comfortable life as software developer at giant corporation->gigantic acquisition. The former glosses over the entire period in-between.
adamdavis··on WhatsApp’s Founder Goes From Food Stamps to Billionaire
He's suggesting that this headline ignores the period after the time when his family was on food stamps. The period where he had the financial means to live a fairly 'comfortable' life.

The movement wasn't food stamps to filthy rich, but food stamps, to upper middle class existence, and then from upper middle class existence to filthy rich.

adamdavis··on WhatsApp’s Founder Goes From Food Stamps to Billionaire
Word. I was looking at the numbers for MegaMillions - seems like one of the payouts is 1 million dollars - which I think can easily turn into 400k if you took a lump sum. There are also a few payouts that are smaller sums.

This is a sort of silly question, but does one only 'win' the lottery if they get the jackpot?

adamdavis··on WhatsApp’s Founder Goes From Food Stamps to Billionaire
Is Powerball the only game that qualifies as winning the Lottery?
adamdavis··on Kit Kat Conspiracy (2002)
Except that its observably not (true).
adamdavis··on Former Motionloft CEO Jon Mills Arrested By The FBI
Forgive me - I wasn't speaking in general terms about what I believe should happen to any individual who commits fraud, which I think your reply presupposes.
adamdavis··on Former Motionloft CEO Jon Mills Arrested By The FBI
I'm just going to support this opinion as I felt in a fairly similar way to the parent comment and I'm a little disappointed to see you down voted.

I don't see what benefit sending this guy to jail provides other than a simple avenue for enacting vengeance on someone who behaved poorly. Worst case, he should have to repay all of his debts and money he swindled. He'll take whatever lessons from his mistakes that he may.

adamdavis··on Your code may be elegant, but mine works
"Nobody is calling spending weeks writing a caching layer for a 20-row database "elegant" or "best practice"

I don't disagree with your main points, but you might be surprised to hear some things that people will say and unnecessary optimizations they'll attempt...

adamdavis··on 3 Million Teens Leave Facebook In 3 Years: The 2014 Facebook Demographic Report
This is a minor digression, but I just have to know - have things gotten so bad that not having a facebook profile actually raise a red flag to an employer or is what you're saying just conjecture?
adamdavis··on Winter is coming
I assure you it had a point, and I apologize if it was obscured by way of the quote. The point being that, well, perhaps your point would be better expressed through non-sarcastic means.

No ad hominem was intended, it was more of a critique of the general idea of forming rebuttals that consist of sarcastic remarks.

adamdavis··on Winter is coming
I would agree, although I'd also say there's nothing particularly witty or clever about the one I posted.
Page 1 of 3Next →