Hacker News Reader

aohtsabon Fanboyism and Brand Loyalty

A few years ago before I entered university, my mother purchased me a Mac. I had grown up with PCs all my life, but I blindly believed "it was really preferential for using Photoshop", "artistic", bla, bla. That was when I thought I would go into graphic design, and all of my technological opinions were based on word-of-mouth from friends.

Then I got into programming.

Looking back, I'm glad that I had a Unixoid machine to start with, but the more I work in the command line, the more attractive Linux becomes. I would have defended Apple to the death 2 years ago, and now I can't wait to get something that isn't a black-box, hardware-wise, and a more malleable operating system .

I ..might be turning into a Linux fanboy, but I'm much more concerned with functionality now.

aohtsabon [dead]

I'm still trying to figure out how "hackers are like political dissenters" .... =)

Amusing read nonetheless. Reminds me why I'm very thankful for the friends I have with similar interests/lingo. Not that I introduce myself as a hacker, but the word comes up in conversation—any non-programmer immediately thinks I'm talking about some crazy Neo wannabe.

It's interesting how different vocabularies can really set people apart.

aohtsabon Become a morning person. How to end insomnia for $520.99

do you know whether they affect seasonal depression?

aohtsabon Is a college education worth the money?

how so?

aohtsabon Is a college education worth the money?

I don't think first-years are a fair assessment of any institution. Many of the original 90% partiers will either a) shape up, b) drop out of college or c) some other choice. Good luck -- my friend is also a grad student teaching first-year calculus for "business, social sciences and humanities" .. ie kids that aren't interested in math. In his words, "it's painful".

aohtsabon Michelangelo's secret message in the Sistine Chapel?

This one almost seems more plausible.

aohtsabon Michelangelo's secret message in the Sistine Chapel?

piece of trash it may be .. but his other book "Angels & Demons" introduced me to CERN. :) It also opened me up to art & art history.

aohtsabon Google Maps Lawsuit: Woman Follows Directions, Gets Run Over

Maybe this woman followed the directions exactly so that she could pursue a frivolous suit against Google. Mostly, I don't want to believe that someone could look at the situation and not see reality.

aohtsabon Ask HN: Which Non-Macbook notebook would you recommend?

Also looking for a Linux laptop.

Any recommendations/feedback for ASUS models? I'm looking into the K501D-X3 laptop.

aohtsabon Republicans' new Web site not exactly what they hoped it would be

I can't either! Does this mean they took apart the software and remolded it to their own purposes (proprietary & doubtful besides), or ar they really using a GIS to show upvotes?

aohtsabon O'Reilly $9.99 Sale - Has Anyone Been Able to Download Their Book Yet?

ordered on friday, just downloaded it about an hour ago.

aohtsabon How (not) to distribute 100 apples in 10 crates with python.

why do you not recommend a list comprehension?

aohtsabon Vimium - the hacker's browser

same! really liked vimperator but not enough to switch to firefox.

aohtsabon Ask HN: Any good books on graphing/charting/visualization?

My favorite line was: "Bad design pokes a finger into the eye of thought."

He even brought out his iPhone & iPad and commented on the easily-navigated UI.

Normal registration was $380 per person, albeit ft students received a $180 discount.

I half-expected him to show some of Randall Munroe's hi-res graphics (such as http://xkcd.com/657/), but alas, it would have been too perfect =)

aohtsabon Ask HN: Any good books on graphing/charting/visualization?

Fun fact - Tufte's in Arlington giving a talk and we're taking a 15 minute break right now. Compelling speaker and thrilling read (he's giving away four of his books to every attendee).

aohtsabon Poll: What are you investing time to learn?

which kind?

aohtsabon An appeal for unremarkable women

> I am not sure that women necessarily have the same attitude towards material objects.

Then clearly you haven't talked to enough women.

Also, if you believe the only allure of programming is a poorly-paying job and terrible hours, then there are larger problems afoot.

aohtsabon How to begin to teach yourself how to code, starting from scratch

that's been the most difficult part for me, actually -- finding fun problems that I could work on that aren't completely impossible. I spent a lot of time reading books on Python when I should have just been playing with code.

aohtsabon Punked in the Data Center: 'What happens if I cut this cable?'

for some reason I didn't find this funny ... it's oddly reminiscent of "Punk'd", where Ashton Kutcher places people in awful situations and then pulls the blanket and laughs at how upset they got.

aohtsabon It took almost two weeks of 14 hour days to program this game

really digging the animation/feel of the game. Also, I died =), hit continue, and the music stopped.

Best of luck man, looking forward to seeing your other games.

aohtsabon US government rescinds 'leave Internet alone' policy

I wonder how the government will define copyright infringement -- does this mean anyone with copyrighted material on their computer will be "banned from the internet"? (also - what does that even mean?)

aohtsabon Shady URL: Don't just shorten your URL, make it suspicious and frightening.

dickensurl.com

aohtsabon Shady URL: Don't just shorten your URL, make it suspicious and frightening.

http://5z8.info/dogporn_n3p6_bomb-plans

My happiness is confused. =) This is the best and worst thing I've seen all day.

aohtsabon Anti-IRS Rant of Software Engineer who Today Flew Plane into IRS Building

I'm surprised that no one's commented on what Jon Stack was talking about — the laws affecting Indie Contractor's tax status.

http://synergistech.com/ic-taxlaw.shtml

"20 Questions" of the IRS to determine status http://synergistech.com/20qs.shtml

Has anyone had any trouble with this? As an early indie contractor, I'm pretty damn concerned about this.

aohtsabon [dead]

I couldn't agree more—it's highly unlikely that he would craft only two flash cards to help him with Arabic.

Also, god forbid that someone disagrees with the US's asinine foreign policy over the past decade or so — the last thing we need is a country of critical thinkers.

aohtsabon Amusing Comment Thread

although adding their fb profile pic to all of their comments might take away the edge of anonymity.

aohtsabon Kindle Dev Kit open to beta testers

was this already available? ...or is this the SDK everyone's waiting for?

aohtsabon Kindle Dev Kit open to beta testers

submission required a brief description of proposed applications, which Amazon said they would review. I don't get it - does that mean that they'll wade through all of the ideas and pick the ones that sound good? Or was it just a soft filter to make sure developers have an idea?

aohtsabon Poll: Are you getting an iPad?

Not quite true — at $500 it's more affordable than a regular Macbook, so for people not in need of full computing power, it might be a viable alternative.

...once it gets flash support, of course.

aohtsabon Poll: Are you getting an iPad?

Agreed on the lack of e-ink. When I read that Amazon and Sony would have to struggle to provide a touch-screen, full-color interface, I thought that meant Apple had come out with an e-ink tablet. It looks really cool, yes, but frankly I'm disappointed it's not e-ink. That specific feature attracted me to the Kindle in the first place, and I absolutely love that I'm not staring at light.