Hacker News Reader

burritofanaticon More people should write (2012)

Your writing has stayed with me, and I occasionally remember bits of your essays many years later. Pleased to see your articles in recent months in the New Yorker. Congrats on being a dad!

burritofanaticon Visualizing American inflation across eight categories

Agreed. I remember in 2000 that I used to be able to buy the cheapest full meal with sides at a fast casual for under $4. Now maybe it under $12!

burritofanaticon Ask HN: Most interesting tech you built for just yourself?

All I could think of was the song Radio, Radio. See the line about cleaning up the nation.

https://genius.com/Elvis-costello-radio-radio-lyrics

burritofanaticon Ask HN: What did you build in 2019?

I wrote with a friend his memoir about climbing - The Crux: A Climber's Search For Meaning In Sport, Death, and Change. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0834P85QG/

It was a fun project that took a year to write. The programming bit went into developing a page for pre-orders and fulfillment using stripe and other tools. But suffice it to say, I liked writing a lot more.

The landing page: https://thecrux.rockentry.com/

burritofanaticon Should lawyers learn to code? Arguments for and against

It has a bit to do with the type of work arrangement I want for this phase in my life -- nearing 40 and splitting my time between two geographic locations where active computer time all the time becomes challenging.

I also wanted to move away from working for corporations to working for/with people instead.

If you have an itch, I say go for it unless you're on a track you absolutely don't want off of ever.

burritofanaticon Should lawyers learn to code? Arguments for and against

It depends on the situation. If one is a lawyer who wants new skill sets and perhaps even a career change, an absolute yes. I did this transition seven years ago and left law entirely. I've met a handful of other interesting ex-lawyers who have made the switch from law to software and have been satisfied with the choice.

At the beginning of this year, after trying to explore what I wanted to do for the next stage in my life, I decided to get back into the profession as a solo practitioner and transition away from software development. I'm officially back to practice, and I'm surprisingly happy with my professional life - something I never thought would really be possible.

If you're a practicing lawyer who wants to give yourself an edge as a lawyer, I think it's more important to understand the concepts and principles as opposed inventing or finding the barely existent job of coder/lawyer for a firm - I don't know the name of the role, and I've seen it touted by legal tech folks - but these are elusive. Understanding what's possible, I believe, is by far way more important. For example, I've worked with countless non-coding project/product managers, and they've been great contributors to the process in software development.

My recommendation for lawyers? Do the Python track on Codecademy over a summer and read Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software.

burritofanaticon Free Solo and Economic Growth

This is a very interesting look at climbing as it relates to knowledge transmission.

Prior to YouTube, learning proper form really required you to probably take lessons and live/breath/be super friendly with some really good climbers as a necessity. Now, you can watch a number of good climbers online on having proper technique to get 70% there.

For example this video demonstrates how climbing crimps (a specific type of hold) requires more than just finger strength: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws06PjI4FTU

Stuff like this was nearly impossible to convey by book. If you want to learn how to be a better swimmer for example because you didn't take up swimming until you were in your 20s, it was very difficult. I did this as an adult, and each private lesson with an instructor to improve my form was $100 in recession dollars. Now, you can gather so much online and iron out the wrinkles with live instruction.

Disclaimer: the video linked above is my friend's YouTube channel.

burritofanaticon The Phantom Gambler

Read the story first, but here is the wiki on the gambler: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lee_Bergstrom

Great story.

burritofanaticon From video game to day job: How ‘SimCity’ inspired a generation of city planners

It really is something. I remember a friend from childhood who gave me a pirated copy of the original Sim City. He's now a city planner in Los Angeles.

burritofanaticon Vim Is Saving Me Hours of Work When Writing Books and Courses

Editing is where the dangerous stuff happens.

I was editing a traditional document on a processor called Scrivener, and my worst fear is an errant change unknown to me after saving the file. Going strictly on something like vim might be too hardcore, but if I started out with something like Scrivener, then port to .txt and commit my edits, and bring it back out to Scrivener for compiling, it may make sense.

I haven't looked into too many of my options, but if anyone else doing a decent amount of writing can share their tips, please do!

burritofanaticon Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking Freelancer? (February 2019)

SEEKING WORK - Remote Location: Los Angeles, CA

I have over five years experience in professional software development. I've worked up and down the stacks, and I'm a proficient learner in new ones.

Technologies: Django/Python, React, Android (Kotlin and Java), iOS (Swift and Objective-C), React Native.

Recent projects: https://hackernewslater.com/app/, https://boundedbits.com/

Email: will at boundedbits.com

burritofanaticon One Lawyer, One Day, 194 Felony Cases

Just to note, the type of lawyer that's being written about here is a public defender, one that's appointed to a defendant as a constitutional right.

burritofanaticon My blog can’t keep up: 500 errors all over

Hugo. It's completely static and great out of the box. You can add new posts in Markdown.

burritofanaticon [dead]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18524157

The picture is the end result from the recipe/thread above.

burritofanaticon How I Faked My Way to the Top of Paris Fashion Week [video]

This particular video is brilliant. I laughed when he said, "Last night, they were in Paris. Tonight, they're at the Shed."

burritofanaticon The Hacker News Habit

Man, how did I miss this? I'll check this out! Thanks!

burritofanaticon What Happened to the Winner of McDonald's $1M Flexi-Disc Contest?

The podcast from KCRW goes into further detail as to what happened: http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/lost-notes/a-million-...

burritofanaticon The Wedding Sting (2015)

Funny you say that: https://www.google.com/amp/variety.com/2015/film/news/paramo...

burritofanaticon HoweyCoins – An educational tool to alert investors to possible fraud

Downloaded the whitepaper hoping it would involve oranges. It didn't - still awesome!

burritofanaticon If Ethereum Isn’t a Security Then Nothing Is

Flashing back to Seg Reg class over a decade ago, I could not have imagined we'd talk about such a scenario -- granted, I didn't know what a pointer was, and that hashing in my vernacular did not involve cryptography.

Believers should really read the Howey decision: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/328/293

It's fairly short, and it will give people an appreciation of the discussion. There is a lot to consider in the analysis.

burritofanaticon Blind since birth, writing code at Amazon since 2013

Here is another video about Michael Forzano from SUNY Binghamton, where he attended to study computer science:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWF8SDFju4M

burritofanaticon Generating $32,000 in 30 days selling a crypto-filled USB stick

I immediately questioned how they got around the fact that they're doing the work of money transmitters.

burritofanaticon The risk of nitrites and nitrates in bacon

I also do a hot bacon and egg breakfast almost daily. It's rewarding and gets me ready for the rest of the day.

burritofanaticon Show HN: Kismet – get an e-mail introduction to a fellow HN member every day

Please do not change the name, it's great! Last week, I ran across kismet and declared it as my new favorite word. So, it must be, kismet.

burritofanaticon Brown University raising $120M to eliminate all student loans

I can confirm the general profile of undergraduate students at UC Irvine. I graduated in 2004 as a first-generation high school/college graduate and went on for an advanced degree. A substantial number of my classmates were also the same. I believe in the UC because, for the most part, it maintains its mission of providing Californians access to higher education if you want it.

I recall the rule (not sure if it's still the same) that if you are within the top 10% of your high school class, you will be admitted to a UC campus so long as you meet a minimum SAT score.

burritofanaticon Investor Bulletin, July 25: Initial Coin Offerings

The fact that they've grammatically classified the noun "blockchain" correctly makes me agree. There is more than one blockchain! I don't know why the copy editors as news orgs believe otherwise. Someone smarter than, please let me know if I'm wrong!

burritofanaticon Confession of a so-called AI expert

> It’s a phenomenon that Richard Socher, the dishevelled 30-something (or 20-something?) lecturer who just sold his company for several hundred millions yet still biked to campus, mentioned in his class: “Companies keep asking my students to drop out to work for them.”

Why would anyone not continually bike for commuting purposes once they are wealthy? Biking is such a joy whether you're 7 or 70, rich, or poor.

burritofanaticon Many Smart Contract Use Cases Are Impossible (2016)

It's one of the reasons why the use of the term contract is a misnomer and leads to awkward expectations as to what is possible.

Legally speaking, a contract is merely a promise enforceable in court.

burritofanaticon Introverts, Emotional Processing, Self-Esteem and Salary Negotiations

Lift heavy; do Jiu Jitsu - deter the manager from ever attempting to verbally abuse you lest risking discordance. Relish in your newfound mental clarity.

burritofanaticon Ask HN: I'm depressed, what should I do?

There are certainly things you can do right away to get things right on track. What is your workout schedule like? Are you lifting weights? Check out 5x5 or Stronglifts.