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aen

409 karma · joined April 20, 2011

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aen··on Margin considered harmful
Design for the sake of shipping, not for the sake of design.
aen··on Use your WiFi and bluetooth-enabled phone to auto unlock your mac
No source. Only binaries.
aen··on Inspiring videos that made me a better designer
I had the pleasure of meeting him. I remember when I requested for a photo he had a childish glee on his face.
aen··on A new type of book
What's a MUSH?
aen··on A new type of book
Except each character "instance" is controlled by another reader at each juncture.
aen··on A new type of book
A reader will always follow a path and every path is a single story. Like how you are not aware of other parallel universes. So I still think it's more of the hardware that's being reimagined. You just flip the book differently.

About your two friends, it sounds like intuition. How do you think it relates?

aen··on Open for everyone
Svbtle's great for some people and Medium's better in some ways. It's like comparing Blogger with WordPress. The future is in content-centricity and interface-simplicity. Let's appreciate these guys for leading the frontier.

PS: This one is more in tune with how the brain works. Pretty radical idea for a writing interface. https://vimeo.com/66995098

aen··on Ask HN: What email client do you use?
Sparrow on my Mac and Mail on my iDevices. I like simple and light clients.
aen··on Ask HN: Remember if a user has completed a first-use feature tour?
It's going to be a logged-in user. I suppose I'd use a tour_completed KV store for a bunch of tour_type : boolean.
aen··on Love with Weed
At last.
aen··on Education dominates Singapore's 'different' culture
We're extremely good at some things but at the expense of everything else. Thus our lives generally aren't very interesting. I'm a pretty smart guy (140± IQ) who dropped out of the system when I was 15 and went through non-systematic but relentless self-education. The learning habits formed in school helped. But I was 'free'. My point is whatever the status quo, there will be a minority that will abandon the system taking along with them only the good parts and then become interesting. So with a bigger population, you get more of such minority which causes Microsofts, Googles and Apples to happen.
aen··on The new Digg
Looks like http://www.likabl.es and http://dropula.com. I still prefer the Reddit/HN style layout. Feels like reading a magazine (no sense of rank) now rather than a list of ranked articles.
aen··on How I created and launched a website from the Internet café in Zimbabwe
Congrats buddy! Shows that nothing can stop someone from creating good things. I'm not into hiphop but the site looks pretty well-made.
aen··on From Business Guy to Programmer
Familiar sentiments.

I've been a designer all my professional life and belonged to the find-a-developer-for-idea-X category. I've been lucky to have had the help of really good tech friends but it never felt right. It's like sculpting with a proxy. A part of me yearns to feel the plaster and chisels with my own hands. So like you I just did it.

I launched http://mocku.ps/ a few months ago, by putting together everything I learned from books and tutorials, asking on Stack Overflow, trial and error and sleepless nights hunched over my code editor. I almost permanently pissed off my wife.

Craving more now I'm on to my next project http://paperi.st/. It feels great to be able to produce what's in your mind by yourself.

aen··on A rather curious landing page
Nope. With "the way we express our ideas online" I was actually trying to mean writing and blogging. Should I reword?
aen··on A rather curious landing page
I wanted to suggest something in an interesting way. In the context of the product which I should not reveal yet, the interaction would make a lot of sense. I don't expect people to think this is the best email sign up mechanism. As long as it tickles the landing page has fulfilled it's purpose.
aen··on A rather curious landing page
OK I can promise you here that I will only use your email address to notify you when the product beta is launched. And it'll be interesting.
aen··on Fire Me, I Beg You
Resonates with me.
aen··on [dead]
No
aen··on [dead]
Yes
aen··on Overthinking
LOL.
aen··on Overthinking
I'm sorry that my article offended you.
aen··on Overthinking
Prior knowledge. Yes. Exactly what I was telling. I gave the numbers question to some of my friends and they all seem to be crippled by their prior knowledge.

I was thinking about the iPad too. I wonder what astronauts are using now. Surely not the space pen.

aen··on Overthinking
The film scene is one of the things that motivated me to write this. So I used it for some humor. Whether it is true is besides the point. Though an urban myth, it made me think about the subject.
aen··on Pair (YC W12) is a Path for the Two of Us
Trying it with my wife. Liking it so far.
aen··on The Benefits of Bilingualism
I was sufficiently bilingual with English and Chinese at the age of nine or ten. I've always mostly think in the abstract and images, even before I was bilingual. I have exceptional spatial IQ so I guess it overrides everything else. The article is true in the sense it has probably improved my mental agility.
aen··on Reform Revolution, a Pinterest clone?
Andreas. I posted a response to your post on my blog. http://aentan.com/design/pinterest-rip-off/

I was in fact one of the early adopters of the fluid grid layout after being deeply inspired by Grid-a-licious. I got really upset when I saw you being accused by Mashable.

aen··on Ask HN: 5-digit alphanumeric or 12-digit integer simpler and more secure?
12-digit integer e.g. 907653849272
aen··on Ask HN: 5-digit alphanumeric or 12-digit integer simpler and more secure?
5-digit alphanumeric e.g. HEL2N
aen··on Why we didn't make an app
Nice post Eric. This is why I can never imagine myself without my physical books, whether or not I have a Kindle. A world in which the only texture is glass is sad.
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