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almostarockstar

293 karma · joined September 5, 2014

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almostarockstar··on Pi 1.0
What would you say are the merits of the terminal that a TUI encapsulates?

My opinion is that TUI is just a GUI with less fidelity. Being composed of text characters provides no additional benefit other than a retro style. The benefits of the terminal are outside of TUIs - composing scripts, piping data, bash etc.

almostarockstar··on Warren Buffett Steps Down as Berkshire Chairman, Names Son to Replace Him
Some better words just off the top of my head:

- to prevent institutional degradation.

- to avoid cultural shift for the worse.

- to keep hold of and nurture that culture.

almostarockstar··on Screen viewing time from age 1 to 8 years and subsequent academic performance
It's not entirely about what they're watching (though even what you are describing sounds awful), it's about what they're missing out on in that time. It's 2 hrs every day not communicating with another human being, not developing motor skills, not problem solving etc.

I have 2 kids under 5 and we have ~0 screen time (unless we are having some sort of crisis and need a distraction for a few minutes). We spend time with similar families, and those with more screen time. I'm not trying to sound superior when I say there is a VAST difference in ability between the two groups.

almostarockstar··on Show HN: 18 Words
To optimize for player reward and increased time spent on the game, I would score it out of 72, 4 pts per word as follows:

-1pt for timer running out.

-1pt for 1 letter hint.

-1pt for 2 letter hint.

-1pt for skip (only available after the above).

That should let players aim for top points, but still feel like they get some reward for figuring it out, and keeps players in the game even if they can't figure one word out.

almostarockstar··on Your website is not for you
100%.

Ignoring the fact that sometimes founders feel the need to put their stamp on everything, for startups and scaleups that haven't progressed to corporate slog, I think it's near impossible for even the best staff designer in the world to arrive at the optimum website/deck/infographic/widget without founder or leader feedback.

The key ingredient is their insight. That's what sets any startup apart. Otherwise the designer would be the founder.

almostarockstar··on Irish finance minister calls €14B tax windfall from Apple 'transformational'
It’s a clear headed decision. Every euro of it needs to be spent on infrastructure. We can’t fix the shit weather but we can try to bring the country up to modern standards.

IMO, fears of companies leaving are unfounded. We’re still the only native English speaking country in the EU and from a business sense, our culture most closely matches that of the US. The Irish government knows where the bread is buttered. There will always be attractive incentives for multinationals to be HQd here.

almostarockstar··on Super Heavy has splashed down in The Gulf of Mexico
It sead.
almostarockstar··on Notes on my Remarkable tablet
I got mine (recently) for two reasons:

1- My desk was always covered in paper and I hated the mess. On this point, I am 110% satisfied. My desk is super clean.

2- I found it very hard to keep track of multiple projects, or discussions across notebooks, or pages in a notebook. On this I am still not quite there. It's better for sure but I really want to search for people, dates, or keywords, rather than being super careful and organised with folders and notebooks for every conversation, which then gets too messy.

The benefit of root access to the device be default is that I can build what I need. In the two weeks I've had the device, I've been able to automate finding my device on the network, syncing my notes, converting them to non-proprietary files and OCRing them. The next step is to implement nicer search and discovery UI which admittedly is a bigger challenge.

almostarockstar··on Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England
Anecdotally, I have seen decorative plates hanging on walls, spinning wheels, ships wheels, oil lamps, etc all used decoratively in contemporary settings.
almostarockstar··on Why do ships use “port” and “starboard” instead of “left” and “right?”
Leeway: The "lee" is the area downwind of a vessel. A lee-shore is a shoreline that the wind blows on to, as opposed to a windward shore that the wind blows off. To give leeway is to allow enough room for a vessel to be blown off course by the wind and avoid danger.

Rig (noun): The mast and supporting stays on a boat. (oil rigs, "big rig" come from this I think).

Rig (verb): To put the sails up and tie on the sheets and other lines that control sails. ("Let's rig this up." == "Let's set this up.")

Posh (my favourite, though I doubt it's actually true): Port Out Starboard Home. When travelling from England to India around the tip of Africa, it was favourable to have a cabin on the port side on the way to India and starboard on the way back as it would be in the shade most of the time and a little cooler in the sun, with a view of the land.

See also: Change tack / try a different tack, right the ship, stay the course, (to be) swamped, "At a rate of knots" (very fast), keep an even keel, keel over.

almostarockstar··on Why do ships use “port” and “starboard” instead of “left” and “right?”
A "hitch" knot is typically used to fasten around a fixed object. So you might use a hitch to tie the boat to the shore, or tie a line around a wooden (or these days aluminium or carbon fibre) boom. I'm not sure if it's purely nautical.
almostarockstar··on Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior
You should still do that. And you should read the paper and pick the bits you think might be useful and iterate on them. The cutting edge isn't like a knife, it's more like a rotating barrel of blades that take little chunks out of the impossible, and come around again.
almostarockstar··on Show HN: Generate startup ideas based on HN comments
This is great! The few prompts I tried provided reasonable ideas. Bookmarked!
almostarockstar··on Grid Beam
Looks like you could do some damage with those bolts on the chair if you caught on them.

But this is a cool concept.

almostarockstar··on Show HN: A device that only lets you type lol if you've truly laughed out loud
Maybe I'm an exception, but I have never ever seen lol used with that 2nd meaning.
almostarockstar··on Twitter to employees today: 'If in office or on your way, please return home'
I'm sure they will both figure something out.
almostarockstar··on Low Energy Chest Fridge
Perhaps a transparent door, inside the main insulating door. So people could open the fridge and stare slack jawed without letting all the cold out. Condensation blocking the view would be an issue I suppose.
almostarockstar··on George Saunders on the art of the short story
I have a folder of a dozen or so short stories that I like to write as a distraction when code gets too...rigid?

It's a wonderful hobby that takes very little effort and becomes it's own reward.

Never shared anything though.

almostarockstar··on Hyperlinks in Handwriting
Ah now I’m not going to stop thinking about this all evening.
almostarockstar··on Systematically Improving Espresso (2020) [pdf]
Off-topic, but that paper is extremely well formatted and illustrated. It was a true pleasure to scan through.
almostarockstar··on Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?
Relevant story based on your example:

During the early days of the covid lockdowns, before nursing home staff or residents were vaccinated, many staff quit en masse to work as covid test center staff. The hours were better. The job was less complex and less demanding. The pay was comparable.

Then when the remaining staff began to contract covid, they were down to a few core people working continuously to provide care. Many recently (and not so recently) retired nurses returned to work until they could figure things out.

There isn't much to learn about enterprise staffing here except that when the chips are down, people who are truly devoted to their jobs will go to extraordinary lengths to make sure it gets done.

I feel it's a pity these people are often (in my country) poorly compensated for the incredible effort they make.

almostarockstar··on Ask HN: What would be your “perfect” programming language?
> - Terminating. All programs terminate.

How are you side stepping an NP-hard issue like the halting problem?

almostarockstar··on Ask HN: How do startups/lean teams successfully handle mat/pat leave?
CTO/Founder here. Coming up on 3 years with my co. Baby is 10 months now. Our tech team is small. Just me and three others.

My experience was very similar. Tried to make a gradual wind-down, spent more time documenting and planning while stepping away from core functions.

I will say that while “work” continued, “progress” slowed. People stepped up to manage, but nobody had the vision or the same passion for our product or future. I don’t blame them. It’s not their job.

almostarockstar··on 10 Years of Meteor
I started my post-PhD career as a one-man-band "full-stack" shop on the back of meteor. I remember developing prototypes overnight between client meetings and blow minds with a fully functioning product deployed and functional before they even finished describing it to me.

I reluctantly moved on to a larger project where Meteor just didn't make sense and it just seemed to fall apart in the rear-view mirror.

I have such fond memories of using the CLI to scaffold a new project that came with built in auth, UI components, and a simple, sane project structure, then deploy it with a single command...bliss.

almostarockstar··on Ask HN: How did you find your current job?
Founded company. Surprised this isnt a top answer here of all places.
almostarockstar··on Cities with Nice Weather
I currently live in Dublin, I think you are exaggerating quite a bit.

There are many reasons not to live in Dublin (poor housing quality / price, high cost of living, poor public transport, crime, etc) but the weather is absolutely not on that list.

Dublin has about 130 rainfall days each year, and most of those are in the winter. Most days are mild and dry. The weather is warm and pleasant enough to enjoy water sports year-round. I spend most of my recreation time during the winter in a wetsuit without a hood.

We don't get heavy snow, extreme cold/heat, hurricane force winds, or flooding. Overall, I think the weather here is better than most people give it credit for.

almostarockstar··on Making a falling sand simulator
I'm guessing here, but I assume a double buffer would solve this for many cases.
almostarockstar··on Umeshisms
Clearly there are more parameters than accumulated practice time, but I'm really getting at the point that some people (most people?) probably could manage to reach many of those tricky shots given enough practice. But they don't try every time and so sell themselves short in the long run.

Rafa had to start somewhere, and he definitely did not hit every shot when he was a young boy.

Tying this back to the OP - my criticism of the 'Umeshisms' described are that they're absurd when applied to a system where your strategy has fixed outcome probabilities. If you could improve your ability to get through airports quickly with practice, then it would be self evident that missing the odd flight is a consequence of improving your skill at the optimum rate.

Or maybe I just don't understand the frame of reference of the OP.

almostarockstar··on Umeshisms
Except that they only miss those shots because they haven't had enough practice attempting them.
almostarockstar··on Advice gathered from people smarter than me
Second this. I'm not super fit either, but I have very different mental processes when running vs walking. Both positive, but distinct.
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