HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

akerr

183 karma · joined March 8, 2015

submissionscomments
akerr··on Show HN: I made a little math game named Summle
Nice work! The Countdown model works well for this format. Best maths Wordle variant I’ve seen so far. The video really helped to see what to do (minor point: had to scroll down to see numbers on my phone). Did feel a little cheated when my iteration was locked in as a solution and I could immediately see an improvement!
akerr··on The complicated futility of WordPress
WordPress keeps getting better and 5.9 was a big leap forward. The OP should try using a vanilla WP install, use or build a (child) theme that supports blocks, add WP Super Cache to get static site level performance and stop worrying about complex layers of third-party cruft. If you're worried about 'marketing interns' messing with the site, don't give them 'Administrator' roles!
akerr··on A VGA monitor may be easier to repair than you think
I did this when I was a teenager - with CRT monitors. Higher voltages and I had the fun of refocusing the tube and fixing the colour registration while it was on, reaching around the back while I looked at my test pattern.

I learnt a lot about computing hardware and software on that Pentium box: 166 MMX (overclocked to 200MHz), 16MB RAM (later 64MB), running Debian and my resurrected 15” LG CRT. Oh, and a 56kbps modem.

akerr··on Roadrunner Blocked by U.S. Border Wall Wins Best Bird Photo of 2021
Meep meep!
akerr··on Show HN: PDFs from HTML
PDFs are designed to be printed and HTML tends to be overrun by ads. The former is nicer for reading and the latter is nicer still with ad-blocking, reader mode and/or a tasteful design.
akerr··on Graph Toy, an interactive graph visualizer using mathematical functions
Reminds me of desmos.com which is aimed for education but is quite powerful, e.g. audio support for accessibility.
akerr··on PulseAudio Loudness Equalizer for dynamic contexts such as movies
Also Justin Frankel is a good programmer. Ease up on the thesaurus, buddy :)
akerr··on Why do printers still suck?
Another happy Brother user here. Our HL-L2360D is rock solid, crisp, duplex and AirPrint is excellent. Cost AU$150 years ago and AU$15 for toner via eBay.
akerr··on PulseAudio Loudness Equalizer for dynamic contexts such as movies
I’ve never found one that works as well as the one included with Winamp in the late 90s. Or have I just become fussier since then?
akerr··on The vocal ranges of the greatest artists of all time
Chris Cornell. Maybe C#2-G6? but with power.

https://youtu.be/GNFQzvahiI4

akerr··on Apple of 2019 is the Linux of 2000
Sure. I was using Linux in 2000 and now I’m using Apple in 2019.
akerr··on A Worrying Analysis of Recent Neural Recommendation Approaches
Isn't the main advantage that the companies don't need to be transparent (to users, regulators etc) about their algorithms because they "can't"?
akerr··on Image optimization decreased website's page weight by 62%
Would save 3% too.
akerr··on China Is Building a Rain-Making System Three Times as Big as Spain
Do you mean Lake Eyre? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Eyre

There has been discussion about flooding it with sea water for years but it seems impractical.

akerr··on Request for Education Startups
Scaling teachers is often called team-teaching and coaching, i.e. training more teachers to be more effective. Effective teacher-teacher relationships are a good predictor for effective teacher-student relationships. Broadcast one-to-many relationships aren’t effective for bidirectional factors crucial to education such as feedback or empathy (this is where people are different to mass production or say entertainment).
akerr··on Kids can't use computers (2013)
Most computer users run to a script: click this then this then this... Kids learn the latest app from their friends but the biggest difference is that they aren't as afraid of breaking things as adults. This is why adults are impressed by kids. Also, most of us learned by experimenting further. 'Digital natives' is a myth because only a few pursue what they are soaking in.

So 'maintain' is close. But I would argue that learning to maintain is not the goal or the measure. More important than using computers is understanding computers. Not a bunch of scripts or facts but concepts and a problem solving approach. This helps a little with maintenance but digital literacy is more about being informed of what is a pervasive aspect of our society (security, privacy, trust issues etc). This is also why a car analogy is not apt: technology is more pervasive. We don't use cars to make things in the way we use computers.

akerr··on Another Hack: 117M LinkedIn Emails and Passwords
We'd like to 0wn your professional network on LinkedIn!
akerr··on Ask HN: What's the best client for gmail for mac?
I just use Mail. It's fine. Still miss Sparrow though.
← PreviousPage 3 of 3