Hacker News Reader

closetkantianon Ask HN: What's the state of the art for drawing math diagrams online?

If I could add a pile on question, how about bar graphs and line graphs?

closetkantianon Show HN: I wrote a book on language learning and released it free

Thanks, this is really cool. I can't wait to read more.

closetkantianon Show HN: Kobo as a Google Photo Digital Frame with LLaVA-Generated Haikus

I'm sure I'm not the only one who will assume the title is referencing the Haiku OS rather than poetry. Very cool project nonetheless.

closetkantianon Show HN: BookQuote, a tool to generate book quote image like readwise

Cool tool. I think it could be a bit more polished. I'd like to have the author's name in there as well, and options to immediately share to whatever site I'd like. Also, why not just automatically look up the site on goodreads rather than having the user find the URL?

closetkantianon 32“ E Ink screen that displays daily newspapers on your wall (2021)

Reminds me of the glass cases containing the sports section that bars occasionally put above urinals. Maybe that could be a good use case for a very fancy bar somewhere.

closetkantianon Show HN: CloneDub – Convert audio into any language using the same voices

I just tried this out--for some reason every number that was mentioned in my audio was not translated into Spanish. So I heard a string of Spanish, then "forty five thousand" or "six point seven percent". Sounded decent past that.

closetkantianon Venetians are pondering raising their entire city

I misread this as 'razing', hahaha.

closetkantianon Animal Sex Determination Is Weirder Than You Think

"Even in cultures where the concept of a third gender is celebrated, it is a rare phenomenon"...

As someone who lived in Thailand for a few years, I'm going to tell you that you are totally wrong.

closetkantianon Show HN: I Got ChatGPT to Write Complete Programs

Can you share the code that it wrote?

closetkantianon Anime dating sim that also does your taxes

They actually contacted me based on my Upwork.com profile. At the time, I think I was the top search result for SAT or SAT verbal.

closetkantianon Show HN: Turn Text to Flowcharts

Oh, just saw this! It's for creating infographics for practice materials for standardized tests, like the ACT and SAT. The style looks like this: https://prepmaven.com/blog/test-prep/sat-math-charts-and-gra...

closetkantianon Anime dating sim that also does your taxes

I actually worked with them to develop a fake SAT test. It was released, and they had an online competition where they gave $26k to the highest scoring test taker.

closetkantianon Show HN: Turn Text to Flowcharts

I'm looking for something like this, but for infographics.

closetkantianon Ask HN: Anyone free to meetup in Tokyo on Xmas?

Bangkok, Thailand

closetkantianon Apple Music Sing

This is so pointless that it made me start questioning reality and wondering if it was April Fool's Day.

closetkantianon Ask HN: Are there any books that changed your life during college or school?

Architecture as Metaphor: Language, Number, Money by Kojin Karatani. Awesome interdisciplinary work that let me understand some mathematics (coming from a background in Philosophy and Literature).

closetkantianon Ask HN: Are there any books that changed your life during college or school?

Architecture as Metaphor by Kojin Karatani.

closetkantianon Show HN: 500 Letters – A fiendishly addictive word game

This is great, thanks.

closetkantianon Show HN: I built a site that finds the cheapest place to buy a book

I just used this to order a book via Book Depository, and I'm somewhat concerned. The site never asked me where I wanted to have the book shipped, and just assumed I wanted it delivered to the address associated with my PayPal account, when in fact it was a gift. There was no way to change the delivery address after the order was placed. I had to send a message manually explaining the situation. :(

I guess Amazon, for all its faults, has a few things going for it.

closetkantianon Are Race-Based Firings Legal? Twilio's About to Find Out

I'm actually a college admissions consultant and this doesn't really tell the whole story. For one, university admissions at selective colleges are holistic, so "scores" doesn't really mean very much, especially since many schools are now test optional.

You also lump Asians and white people together in a way that's inaccurate. In fact, by some accounts, white people are the largest beneficiaries of current college admissions practices at top universities, thanks to legacy admissions practices / donations, a preference for athletes, and race-based admissions policies.

I recognize the last two of these may seem counterintuitive, so I'll explain. With regards to athletics, the sports represented at top schools lean heavily towards those played in affluent, predominately white areas — think squash, crew and tennis.

With regards to race-based admissions, yes Hispanics and black people benefit (to be fair, they almost never benefit from legacy), but the real "victims" are Asians, whose representation at Ivy League schools has remained flat since around 1990, in spite of the fact that the Asian American population has almost tripled over the same time period.

closetkantianon Are Race-Based Firings Legal? Twilio's About to Find Out

An alien reading articles and comments on hacker news would probably assume that most racism is actually directed at white people.

closetkantianon Oberlin College to pay $36M to bakery owners who were falsely accused of racism

Here are some Facebook posts made by Allyn Gibson (son of the store owners / same guy who chased the black shoplifter):

“I wasn’t racist ever … but this ** and the way people treat me now because I am “white” is racist and is making me racist,” Allyn Jr. wrote. “I don’t owe a damn person a damn thing. If these lazy *** want to start working then they could earn their own money. That’s what my family does for money… work.”

///

So yes, he is a racist, and the family could well be. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

closetkantianon Ask HN: Why are delivery apps so expensive?

Well, that depends a lot on where you are. Here in Bangkok, Thailand, that would cost $5.86 with standard delivery, or $6.28 with priority delivery. Basically comes down to the fact that labor costs are much lower here (minimum wage is $10 a day); delivery is done via scooter, rather than car (lower fuel costs); population density is high (restaurants are close to customers).

closetkantianon Hispaniola's great divergence

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/20/world/americas/haiti-hist...

^Great article on the same topic

closetkantianon Hispaniola's great divergence

The dog whistle comes out

closetkantianon Saudi Arabia’s Plan to Build a Skyscraper That Stretches for 75 Miles

Is it just me or is no one addressing the most obvious disadvantage of this plan? Building a city along a "line" is simply a terrible idea. As far as I can tell, every major city in the world is based around a downtown "core" with less dense areas radiating outward from it, except where geographical barriers prohibit this. The advantages of this model are so manifold that I can't even begin to enumerate them—everything from (relatively) short commute times to equidistant access to central services from every direction. I cannot think of a single advantage of having a city that is a straight line.

closetkantianon Ask HN: Is it possible to make JotForms look sleek?

Any suggestions?

closetkantianon iPhone Costs by Region

This has to be the worst map design I've ever seen.