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brianjlogan

239 karma · joined February 7, 2020

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brianjlogan··on Stop using REST for state synchronization (2024)
You've sold me. Braid is now on my list to experiment with.
brianjlogan··on AlphaEvolve: A Gemini-powered coding agent for designing advanced algorithms
Does this remind anyone else of genetic algorithms?

Is this basically a merge of LLM's with genetic algorithm iteration?

brianjlogan··on Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now
This is your tried and true. C level read a magazine, mandatory implementation order, engineer ticks the checkbox and waits for hype to pass so they can remove it.
brianjlogan··on The future of software is Nix
That doesn't make sense to me. You can use Nix on non NixOS distros in your user space. Home manager is quite popular.

Have you tried using it in user space?

brianjlogan··on Boox Palma Review: A Phone-Sized E-Ink Android Device That Isn't a Phone
I haven't seen any overwhelming support. I absolutely love this thing. Coming from Kindle and Kobo. It's not a good smartphone replacement. It IS a fantastic E-reader. I carry it with me everywhere. I do Anki flashcards, do my Obsidian notes, read my Kindle and Kobo libraries I've accumulated finishing books I've procrastinated on, I use Omnivore.app for any articles I find on my Pixel, and the web browser for things like Crossplane Docs which don't get captured nicely as an article. I can share notes with Android to my Obsidian. Look I know it's Android, I know it's probably not the latest kernel, I know it has drawbacks. But from my personal experience this device has single handedly revived my ereading and replaced 90% or my doom scrolling because of the convenient form factor.

Other vendors make competition! I want color and a more secure android please.

brianjlogan··on Pi calculation world record with over 202T digits
I memorized and forgot 50 digits of Pi after doing some memory training game. Was a cool bar trick but ultimately lost my memory palace discipline. I might be able to pull out some percentage of accuracy if I focused but it feels fairly pointless.
brianjlogan··on New ways to catch gravitational waves
Since gravitational waves would still be restricted to the speed of light what would the benefit be?

Would "obstacles" be circumvented? I would think interference would still be possible but instead of line of sight it would be large gravitational distortions (black hole, stars).

Humility clause: I don't know what I'm talking about.

brianjlogan··on Intelligent Brains Take Longer to Solve Difficult Problems
This isn't a particularly shocking result but it's great to see validation of a theoretical model put to practice using computing. So they were able to match a similar result in their model of intelligence and mental computation time between the real and simulated participants.

Fascinating..what a time to be alive!

brianjlogan··on Hacker News stylized as a retro 90s macOS desktop
Same on Android with Chrome.
brianjlogan··on The harsh truth of video games programming
I mean arguably Minecraft is in the same category of "feature" cutting that the OP is mentioning. It certainly did not feel like it was a AAA game. I started playing Minecraft in Alpha and it sure felt like one person made it.
brianjlogan··on The Great Resignation? More Like the Great Renegotiation
Shouldn't this be a part of a healthy functioning economy?

Shouldn't labor be free to move where demand is? Demand represented by fairer compensation.

I have a hard time believing these people are permanently quitting work. Rather think of it from the point of a business trying to attract new customers.

I can see the inflation affecting me in my purchases and it's not breaking me. Restaurants are charging more and it's making me re-evaluate how important dining out is if it means trapping people in a low wage job they hate.

Do I really wish for someone not to move up the ladder into a better position just so I can choose from some 50 restaurants in my area? Would my life still not support the indulgence of being able to eat out with say 25 restaurants instead of 50? And with a heftier bill but less frequently going out to eat?

I think America is finally exercising some of the benefits of capitalism for the lower class and not just for the elite.

brianjlogan··on Bottles: GUI front end to run Windows software on Linux
How's that work? You have a QEMU windows box setup to game on?

Why not use Proton?

brianjlogan··on “Coding is basically just ifs and for loops.”
I love this :). How much of mankind is creating things sheerly for their pleasure?
brianjlogan··on Show HN: I built a no-BS recipe search engine
Yeah they must have falsified reviews or the parser is broken. New York Times doesn't even break the first page of results.

Edit: Also they should add a filter for "paywall" recipe sites. I haven't been able to find any of the top recipes as browseable.

brianjlogan··on Doing something is better than doing nothing for most people: study (2014)
Yeah that "enjoyable" state is kind of difficult to describe. My experience may be different than yours but for me it's an emptiness of being in tranquility with the chaos of my own thoughts. Only with deliberate practice. To me "work" does not mean suffering but directed concentration and discipline. If I accept my mistakes and imperfectness of that "work" the process to me is "enjoyable". But the "joy" is difficult here because it's not really that exact emotion.
brianjlogan··on Doing something is better than doing nothing for most people: study (2014)
Curious if the study would have the same results today with the prevalence of Mindfulness meditation. Perhaps it's my predisposition since I've googled for it. But I see advertisements for Calm and Headspace. I think even on TV. I see "Mindfulness" centers, physical places to take classes and meditate. A whole commercial market has taken hold of this new interest of fighting back the confusion of modern life.

My trouble with advertising these aids, is that perhaps people will be attached to them. For me the main thing that makes me enjoy meditation is that no matter what if I have the discipline I can do it. If I lose my limbs, if I have constant pain, if I'm unhappy, if I lose my family. All the awfulness of life can at the very least while I'm living not take away my inner peace. I can feel and observe the river of life without being swept away by it. I have a "comfortable" sense of security in my existence.

Coming back to the article. Having been through those experiences I would very much choose to be alone with my thoughts. I am literally trying to find time every day. Especially over electric shock haha.

brianjlogan··on Subinterpreters for Python
Probably additions like the Walrus operator that "complicate" the syntax and negate the "Zen" of Python by having one right way of doing something.

Migrating away from the pseudocodeness of Python.

Just a guess though I have about the same experience as you.

brianjlogan··on Work-from-home boom leads to more surveillance
I prefer Mouse Move. Windows Store so it seems to get around the corporate blockers. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/move-mouse/9nq4ql59xlbf?ac...
brianjlogan··on Post Mortem on Salt Incident
What configuration management tools use this methodology?
brianjlogan··on Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?
No golden bullet for this problem I think but definitely one that is widely shared.

- Get rid of your smartphone and go to a dumb flip phone (avoid distractions).

- Dump your ideas into a system you can review later like [RoamResarch](https://roamresearch.com/),[Trello](trello.com), or a folder with Markdown Files Check out GTD method because these thoughts qualify as something you should dump in your sort bin/inbox bin to go through later. Other things like "I should check the mail", "I should build a fort" all count as distracting tasks to keep track of.

- Meditate and learn to recognize transitive thoughts. I really recommend the [Calm App](https://www.calm.com/) although you really don't need to use an app I found it's [21 Days of Calm by Tamara Levitt] program helped get me started and gave me a handful of techniques to get into a zen state.

- Use [The Pomodoro Technique](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique) to focus on one task at a time and avoid over taxing your focus muscle.

- Build and Keep Track of your Habits. Your habits are extremely important to do deep and meaningful long term work. You need to cultivate them. Check out [The Power of Habit](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0055PGUYU)

- All industries that have REALLY important critical life saving tasks use checklists. [HBR: Using a checklist to prevent Failure](https://hbr.org/2010/01/using-checklists-to-prevent-fa.html). I use app.everyday.app to do a Daily Habit Checklist but I did this using a tiny Mole skin for a month and it worked great as well. Side note you made me dig into looking up this thing called [Seinfeld Chaining](https://lifehacker.com/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret-2...) and I found out [Seinfeld has nothing to do with it](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ujvrg/jerry_seinfeld...)

Personally all of the things I listed have some type of associated tool but all can be accomplished with a timer, pen, paper ,etc. Don't let yourself get caught up trying to find the "perfect" tool. Just start doing the things so you build the habits. They are far more important.

brianjlogan··on Illustrated Jq Tutorial
Doesn't yaml have significantly more baggage as far as "advanced features" that couldn't be properly duplicated in json?
brianjlogan··on Illustrated Jq Tutorial
Powershell Core and .NET core are MIT Licensed as of 2016 https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/blob/master/LICENSE...

Debian install instructions https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/instal...

Enable https, add feed, apt install

As someone who started out scripting in Powershell but preferred Linux as an OS. I found myself missing powershell's object passing in opposition to bash's string passing.

That being said I now primarily use iPython for advanced shell tasks as I can leverage all of Python's libraries like JSON or YAML.

brianjlogan··on Ask HN: What's the best corporate password manager?
Always heard great things about this product but haven't had a chance to implement it yet.

Advantage over keepass is that you can't retain a copy of the keyfile.

brianjlogan··on Show HN: HiddenVM – Use any desktop OS without leaving a trace
In most instances I think torture would yield all of your knowledge including the secondary unlock.

Unless you're thinking your attacker would exclude you from torture for "yielding" the password.

I would think if they are capable of torturing you than they wouldn't stop at a polite confession.

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