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jdriselvatoon Latest AWS SDK/CLI incompatible with S3 alternatives

Looks to be "a" fix here: https://github.com/boto/boto3/issues/4400#issuecomment-26007...

jdriselvatoon The economics of writing technical books

The ebook (.epub or pdf) is for free on the GitHub: https://github.com/jdriselvato/FFmpeg-For-Beginners-Ebook/tr...

jdriselvatoon The economics of writing technical books

In 2020 I wrote a book on FFmpeg after going through the entire FFmpeg documentation. I wanted to learn FFmpeg inside and out by actually using it to convert audio/video based on what the documentation offered. In the end I open sourced the results as an extension to the official docs[0] and then released in on Kindle as well[1].

In the last 4 years I've sold 743 books which is just shy of $2000. Still I love the fact that every month I'll get a KDP payout email and it feels more gratifying than my own FAANG+ paycheck for some reason.

[0] https://github.com/jdriselvato/FFmpeg-For-Beginners-Ebook [1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087GYV15Y/

jdriselvatoon Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (June 2024)

Hello I'm John Riselvato,

  Location: Durham/Chapel Hill, NC, USA
  Remote: Yes. Flexible on timezones
  Willing to relocate: No (unless it's back to Shenzhen long-term)
  Technologies: iOS/Swift
  Résumé/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-riselvato-38340352/
  Email: jdriselvato at gmail dot com

I've worked in multiple startups, but I currently work at Walmart Global Tech. I went through the HAX hardware accelerator in 2017, which fueled my passion for hardware communication with iOS. I love going to trade shows and standing at booths talking about my product. I have a knack for giving presentations to investors and general demoing. I also have a lot of knowledge with hardware manufacturing in Shenzhen (QA, sourcing, etc).

jdriselvatoon Coding in Vision Pro

You have a great humorist writing style. I enjoyed the read and it just makes me want one even more.

I just went to an Apple Store to demo the Vision Pro and walked out feeling like I had a religious experience. I was overcame with emotion over that immersion demo, those baby rhinos completely blew my mind. I'm booking another appointment soon to get another taste. I really hope the price becomes manageable for consumers like me; I love the tech and want the future but can't afford it.

jdriselvatoon J.G. Ballard: My Favorite Books

I wondered why myself, but look at the ads in an old phone book. The ad art can invoke a lot of imagery in itself.

https://hpr.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/L_VNBK-YellowPage...

jdriselvatoon Pen Pinery Going into 2024

Pen Pinery's community goals for 2024: A micro-blogging platform for published authors.

jdriselvatoon How French was medieval England?

If you have an interest in English and the evolution of the language you must check out the YouTuber Simon Roper.

There's no finer student of the subject than him and I appreciate that he starts every video with "I am not [a] formally qualified linguist," yet he has a deeper understanding than most.

Some of my favorite videos:

- Celtic Influence on English [0]

- Progressing Some Words from Proto-Germanic to English [1]

- A London Accent from the 14th to the 21st Centuries [2]

- A Northern US Accent from the 18th to the 21st Centuries [3]

- Old English and Middle English; why are they so different? [4]

---

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcCx43I2Vio

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F72jkM9An5Y

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lXv3Tt4x20

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXaXnQv6knQ

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWI_dFxbzyg

jdriselvatoon Ask HN: What to do with text from old, unarchived, online forums?

Back in the day a lot of video games had lore that was either made up or told telephone style. There wasn't exactly wikis on a lot of information to tell truth from fact.

So printing out the discussion allowed you to learn how to accomplish certain things or unlock certain items doing weird gamepad movement, even if it was false.

See Mew in Pokemon Y/B/R and the SS Anne truck: https://gaming-urban-legends.fandom.com/wiki/Mew_Under_the_T...

All you need is some troll posting how it worked for them, and you'd print out their instructions along with someone else who said they got it working the same way with a +1 step, and you're printing off the entire discussion, trying to get a Mew before school the next day to no avail.

My Dad wasn't going to let me hogging the family computer for hours playing on my gameboy for no reason.

jdriselvatoon Ask HN: What to do with text from old, unarchived, online forums?

You have to remember that there was a time when phone lines and internet connections shared resources. Also, the internet wasn't nearly as fast as it is now, even a decade ago, so printing meant you had that copy locally without needing to wait for load times.

I have a couple of GameFAQs discussions and cheat lists for various PS2/GameCube games from the early 2000s. They're stowed in a folder because it was a hassle to run between the family room and my bedroom when referencing.

Also, for the longest time, a household shared a single computer. So printing off the pages meant I didn't need to compete between family members for computer use.

Edit: A friend just reminded me of navigating in the passenger seat with a stack of Mapquest prints.

Edit-2: If anyone wants to relive this in the modern world, print to PDF blog posts, news articles, etc., and store them on your Kindle (or equivalent). You'll notice you'll comprehend the article way better than on your phone or laptop.

jdriselvatoon Writing books remains a tough way to make a living

Goodreads discoverability seems pretty good to me. I'm constantly finding new books through their recommended algo, front page, curated lists and search. What else could they do to improve that?

For example, if I wanted find more beatnik related books (after reading On The Road) I search lists and find this fantastic community scored collection with more books than I'll ever want to read on the subject: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/89976.Beatniks

jdriselvatoon Ask HN: What did you fail to finish in 2023?

If the doubling the word count seems daunting, you can try rewriting your 20k words into a short story and still get something out of it.

If you're anything like me you'll probably never return to finishing the novel and it'll rot on your hard-drive for years to come. At least if you package it up as a short story it'll be just as rewarding as a completed NaNoWriMo.

Then if you're happy with it you can still publish the short as a kindle ebook (Which can probably be completed by the end of January and you'll start off the new year accomplishing significant.)

jdriselvatoon NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month

At the moment we're trying to get authors on the platform to build up the "marketplace" (although we're not a traditional marketplace of selling books).

The great thing about authors is they should be reading just as much as they write. So in a sense, we're able to build both sides of the coin by marketing to a single user from the start.

jdriselvatoon NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month

I love the concept of Notebook.ai, thanks for sharing that.

When I was writing my first fantasy novel I was messing around with Notion templates (almost a local wiki in a sense) just to organize weapons, factions/governments, religions, etc. It didn't work as well as I expected and I had been wishing something like your service existed the whole time. Well done!

For time being, I'll put together a little blog post about Notebook.ai to let the community know about it. I know there's writers out there that are looking for this exact product. I appreciate the comment!

jdriselvatoon NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month

Good question.

We're not a marketplace just like NaNoWriMo isn't a marketplace. As an author you build an author profile (like any other social media) and link directly to where people buy books (Except we have catered icons for Ao3, Amazon, wattpad, quotev, etc that show up on the profile).

So the cataloging of publications on the profile is just like Amazon's author profile, GoodReads' author profile, a person website, etc it's another place for people to find ones work.

The plus side of an author profile is if you share your publications they can rank on the community feed where new readers can organically find your novel. Then go to Amazon, B&N, etc and purchase it.

The reader can also follow the author so if the author adds blog posts they'll see it show up on the feed. Which I think will be a great way for Authors to talk about book tours, new novel releases or WIP they're starting.

It isn't so much about wordcount is the focus but building an author brand on the platform where ones publications, WIP and posts are all talking to the same algo on the community feed. Here people can easily find new authors and what they are working on in an author/reader relationship I haven't found else where.

jdriselvatoon NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month

Right now I'm in the middle of the chicken and the egg problem where we don't have enough authors cataloging their publications and b/c of that obviously readers are not interested in using the site.

I've gone back and forth with taking Open Libray's [0] catalog as that would at least flesh out our collection of books but then I'd have to deal with verifying authors to accounts so they can access their books. Which sounds like a major headache and also just defeats the concept of building a community.

Since this is really a weekend project, I'm just going to keep building the tools out to perfection and hope people will trickle in over time.

Luckily for me I just want to write, so the tools I'm building are exactly what works for my writing goals and I think overtime others will find the same value.

[0] https://openlibrary.org

jdriselvatoon NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month

I love NaNoWriMo and have written and won every year since 2019. My only issue is once the month is complete, no one cares about your novel or that you finished it.

So when I got laid off earlier in the year I started working on an alternative to NaNo.

https://penpinery.com

At the moment it's in MVP but it current has:

- Author profiles w/ blogging - Publication cataloging + reader reviews - WIP cataloging with word count tracking - A community feed similar to Goodreads + WIP word count updates

The idea is I think NaNo could be more social post-November. With Pen Pinery's current MVP I think Authors can build a readership fanbase much easier than anything NaNo could do.

In the future I want to also have goal tracking based on pages instead of word count and for editing as well. I also think there's a lot of potential for building out an ARC sign up system.

Pretty much I've self-published 15+ books and I'm putting everything that worked for me into a social author/reading platform.

Authors who use NaNo or are completely against it, I'd love to get some feedback on the concept from a description standpoint. Any thoughts or tips?

---

Since this is YC, the tech stack is Django 4, Postgres and Bootstrap 5; Hosted on DigitalOcean.

jdriselvatoon Ask HN: Show me your half baked project

https://penpinery.com

At its core it's NaNoWriMo but I was frustrated with the limited use of NaNo after completing a novel. So this adds the social aspect found in GoodReads + the profile akin to Bandcamp. At the moment it's just a host of my own books but all the functionality is there for real use.

- Custom Author profile w/ Blog posting - Publication list - WIP list w/ Github-like stats - Word count tracking and badging gamification

It's built with Django 4, Bootstrap 5 and Postgres. I'm hosting on DigitalOcean. I mention this as it was my first time working with any of those technologies, and even if the user base is nil, I've learned a lot from the experience.