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andsko

9 karma · joined June 30, 2020

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andsko··on Baby chicks pass the bouba-kiki test, challenging a theory of language evolution
It's your lucky day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXJfK1wR_w0

Buddhism, Out-of-Africa, Talking Dogs | Robert Sapolsky Father-Offspring Interviews #96

Research implies that - no, pets don't have complex understanding of word combinations, beyond the usual commands. But, in terms of recognizing words individually - some of the gifted ones show abilities on par with 18-month-old humans.

andsko··on Tell HN: I'm having the worst career winter of my life
Could you configure a limited free trial? I've had other plans for the weekend!
andsko··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (October 2025)
I'm working on the 1000th comment at the moment
andsko··on Show HN: Active Introspection
I keep hoping that someone else sees something in it and comes up with a neat description :D

People often surf the internet, or even chat with friends - to simply rediscover concepts. Noticing a word, "trust", for example, and thinking "ha, that's that word that explains most of the friction in our team". Then your mind starts coming up with all the associations related to the concept of trust and how it applies to your situation. "Time well spent" you think to yourself, often downplaying the tax that you have to pay.

This application is an attempt to gather some of those keywords without all the extra noise. To help a user to register information from his experience, to find connections and to get new perspectives on ordinary things.

andsko··on Show HN: Octos – web-based dynamic wallpaper engine
Hey, congratulations on the big release!

I was thinking why not make it a standalone full-screen app, desktop or web, but there's definitely something special when it's on your homescreen. You become attached to it, instantly. Like if this wallpaper has always been there. Maybe it's the process of installation, and some work required on your part to do, and then that little anticipation while it's getting installed. Haven't played desktop games for a long time but had the same feeling of excitement to finally see how it works. And it didn't disappoint!

I've been mostly chilling in the clouds since the installation. Look Ma! I can fly!

andsko··on Show HN: Octos – web-based dynamic wallpaper engine
>549 github stars

>buymeacoffee: Be the first one to support underpig.

What am I missing?

andsko··on Show HN: Keywords for Self-Talk
Yeah, I might have overthought the description. Basically - it's a random word generator, with additional features to be able to extract some signal from the noise.

First, an ability to highlight a subset of the generated words. You get a bunch of random words, then highlight which ones you want to concentrate on.

Simply trying to select the words in your head doesn't have the same effect. Brain is too lazy for this. But when they are differentiated and combined visually - you start getting the combined associations.

Second, a shortlist of words. These will get prioritized during a word batch generation and act as a glue. I've noticed that some words are more effective in terms of thought provokation than others.

Take "yesterday" for example - pairing it with random words allows you to jumpstart a retrospective: "yesterday coffee", "yesterday tree", "yesterday interactions". And then you can get more specific - "yesterday interactions cynical" etc. Gives you angles which are hard to come up with on your own.

A better description would probably be - "random word combinations for introspection".

andsko··on Show HN: Keywords for Self-Talk
connection grateful hopeful

search words resonate

learn experience underutilized

thoughts aware rich

andsko··on Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels
Did something similar years ago for tech-related topics: https://old.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/l3kel1/tech_tv/

Didn't get much love from the internet but it was featured on a popular site, along with other similar TVs: https://www.makeuseof.com/fun-streaming-sites-for-a-tv-like-...

Regarding the iframe, the YT controls. Someone has noted that it takes the TV experience away. I agree, but hiding the YT embedded UI is against TOS. Plus the UI already has sound control, subtitles, link to the video - features that others suggested here.

andsko··on Chasing utopian energy: How I wasted 20 years of my life
Web Archive link since the site isn't responding: https://web.archive.org/web/20220622142155/https://briangitt...
andsko··on Show HN: I wrote an eBook on tracking personal finances using Python
Hi! You've got some extra text in the url and it gives 404.
andsko··on Show HN: Perfect your English pronunciation in preparation for a public speech
When a user starts recording, websocket continuously sends audio and receives probable transcriptions. You can observe this process in logs live as well. Whenever the program detects a word match within a currently active window it moves the current position to the position of this match and then revisits previously processed words to see if there are any updates.

A drawback of this method is that if a user pronounces all the words wrong it won't move forward and a user might think the program simply lags. But basing the current word position on a transcription input length is too chaotic from my experience.

Or did you ask about the general idea of the site? If so - it's for automatic pronunciation check. There are many apps that do this with predefined words and phrases. With this site a user can check and practice any text. I think it's a good fit for detecting mistakes in pronunciation while preparing to make a public speech or to record an audio/video to put it on the internet. It's aimed primarily at non-native speakers, but a native speaker can find it useful for polishing their enunciation as well.

andsko··on 12 requests per second: A realistic look at Python web frameworks
And because of Instagram: https://instagram-engineering.com/python-at-scale-strict-mod...
andsko··on Show HN: Topic-based 1-on-1 chat
Good point. Thank you!
andsko··on Show HN: Topic-based 1-on-1 chat
Aha. Maybe a flag both on the index page and in the chat window that a user is offline? And an option to leave a conversation even if a responder wrote messages but didn't get any from an author yet? Then this conversation goes back to the index page.
andsko··on Show HN: Topic-based 1-on-1 chat
Did you click "start"? In that case you are meant to respond. Again: 1on1 chat.
andsko··on Show HN: Topic-based 1-on-1 chat
Thank you for the feedback! You can check for a response and continue a conversation any time.
andsko··on Show HN: Topic-based 1-on-1 chat
You're right. Fixed now. Thank you!
andsko··on Show HN: Topic-based 1-on-1 chat
Start=start conversation. It redirects you to the chat window. Should I name the button "start chatting"?