HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

ktr

600 karma · joined January 13, 2011

[ my public key: https://keybase.io/ktr; my proof: https://keybase.io/ktr/sigs/NWkQ1_3u2GcwM56fyO9_P66BtSHGzWg3wGA68bYGFY8 ]
submissionscomments
ktr··on Apollo will close down on June 30th
Not sure I agree. Apollo is apparently monetizing these users above and beyond what Reddit is/was able to accomplish. I’m confident that this represents value to Reddit > 0. So Reddit may have leverage, but not all the leverage.
ktr··on Actually Portable Executables
I really enjoyed Expert C Programming (https://www.amazon.com/Expert-Programming-Peter-van-Linden/d...).
ktr··on Headphones are collecting too much personal data (2019)
Has anyone had any experience with new Bose headphones? If you use the Bose Connect app, I believe what the author wrote is accurate. But that app doesn’t work on the newer headphones (at least, not the ones I have). Instead I need to download the “Bose Music” app which doesn’t seem to give you the same options for privacy. And if you don’t use that app, the headphones are much less useful (eg, no hardware controls to switch which device you are connected to).
ktr··on What we can learn from the 1918 flu pandemic
For a fascinating, in-depth look at the Spanish flu of 1918 check out John Barry’s “The Great Influenza” [1]. The book was amazing and gives you a real sense of what one of the worst pandemics in history must have been like.

[1] The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143036491.

ktr··on API docs in a fast, organized, and searchable interface
I was impressed that you can save for offline use right in browser.
ktr··on Just Color Picker
I saw the recent electron based color picker someone created because windows didn’t have a color picker. This is lightweight and one of my favorite tools. It also has a Mac version (although no Linux as far as I know).
ktr··on Tup (an alternative to make)
See http://gittup.org/tup/make_vs_tup.html for comparison with make.
ktr··on Ask HN: Any suggestions for new laptop?
Thanks very much. I used to have a ThinkPad and loved it. Will investigate!
ktr··on Ask HN: Any suggestions for new laptop?
Thanks. I heard great things about the XPS so was excited to get it, but as noted above I haven't been thrilled. Also, the keyboard is not great in my opinion. The Linux version could be better (I am forced to use Windows at work).
ktr··on SQLite Release 3.25.0 adds support for window functions
My introduction to window functions (and the best write-up I’ve seen) was through the SQL Cookbook (http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596009762.do). I highly recommend.
ktr··on Mysterious Musical Stones of Ringing Rocks Park in Pennsylvania
Totally agree! I took my 4 year old and 2.5 year old recently and we had a heck of a time making sure we didn’t get hurt. They did have fun though :)
ktr··on Someone forged my resignation letter
The other thing that is odd is that they mentioned their mother's illness took a turn for the worse and they were communicating with only the CEO via phone. It seems unlikely that you only let the CEO know at the beginning of your absence and then don't let him/her know when you will actually be coming back. It also seems unlikely that the company would accept your resignation, post the position, interview, make an offer, and have the new person start all within 6 weeks. Perhaps it is just me, but that seems like an aggressive timeframe to get all of that done.
ktr··on Sxc – An s-expression based language source transpiler for C
I was trying to think of how to say the same and thought "sexy-c" might work. Cool project.
ktr··on Holding Your Breath in India
Couldn't agree more. I got to the end of the article thinking "why did you stay after the first series of episodes?". I never realized how bad it was there and I am sad for all those impacted by it - especially the little ones.
ktr··on Vim powered browsing with Firefox
Seems much lighter weight and doesn't change your interface so much. I tried pentadactyl and it felt (to me) that it changed the browser experience too much. This has fewer commands and options, but seems like "just what I need" as opposed to "everything". I came across it looking for Vimium for Firefox.
ktr··on Uses of Tmux Explained
Will it be taped? Would be interested in seeing it :)
ktr··on Company with the “World’s Least Powerful CEO” Makes $2.5 Million Every Day
I'm really interested in how organizations are organized. Does anyone have any suggested reading material for things like this? I've only ever heard the term "cells" before as it relates to terrorist groups, but I'm not sure if this is a similar concept. But I often wonder if organizing a business more like a democracy would yield better results in the long run ...
ktr··on Optimization at the Obama campaign: a/b testing
Any idea or theory why that is? E.g., after reading sites like http://www.useit.com/ you'd think the only thing that people do is scan (not read).
ktr··on ZenPayroll raises seed round from the Mt. Rushmore of Valley entrepreneurs
I'd be very interested to hear how you feel after you get out of implementation. Maybe we can share war stories (see my email in my profile if you're interested in catching up).
ktr··on ZenPayroll raises seed round from the Mt. Rushmore of Valley entrepreneurs
Yes, I would agree with that statement as well. There is certainly nothing stopping us (nothing proprietary, etc.) other than a lot of work. But, to your point, it should be less the 2nd time around!
ktr··on ZenPayroll raises seed round from the Mt. Rushmore of Valley entrepreneurs
> I don't know about this. How am I locked in?

I think the article is referring to much bigger implementations - I'm just finishing up a 3,000+ employee implementation with all kinds of crazy things going on that cost my client an arm and a leg. To put it into perspective, the implementation took ~ 3mos to go-live for employees across almost all 50 states and another 2mos to fix the issues that cropped up during the first few payrolls. It's unlikely they'd be willing to switch anytime soon regardless of how unhappy they are up to this point.

ktr··on How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail
This is crazy - I ordered 3 things from Amazon today through Prime and started wondering if/when a day would come when you'd have same day delivery from Amazon and what it would look like. I figured it would happen someday, but thought the complexities would be too much to handle for a while. Looks like they're way ahead of me. This is why I love Amazon.
ktr··on All that is wrong with the Recruitment Industry
Well, since this came up I thought I'd share what I'm doing: http://www.teamcruiting.com. Would love feedback.
ktr··on Olark launches "Targeted Chat"
Any interest in sharing the code?
ktr··on Ask HN: Sending non-mass emails?
I like postmark as well.
ktr··on On Diaspora's Social Network, You Own Your Data
Great point - thanks, that makes a lot of sense. Wasn't thinking about it like that.
ktr··on On Diaspora's Social Network, You Own Your Data
I'm sure it has been discussed elsewhere, but does FB actually earn $5.11 per user? That's amazing to me - I rarely use the site, but even when I am on I don't recall ever clicking an ad. In fact, I don't know many people that have either.
ktr··on Show HN: Streak.com - Do sales, support and bug tracking all inside Gmail
I was just thinking this - I think < $8 / mo. would be a no-brainer, between $8 - $19 might be worth it and > $19 I probably wouldn't use it.
ktr··on Why Lua?
Thanks for the pointer! I'll have to keep that in mind.
ktr··on Why Lua?
Sorry, I would actually consider myself quite proficient in Python. What I was trying to [unsuccessfully] show was that the underlying mechanics of Python's import mechanism are different then, say, Python's dict or list implementations. Whereas in Lua everything really is just a table. I ran into this (in Python) when I was trying to dynamically import code based on command line arguments and access the functions in said script as strings. So in Lua, you just `x = require"script" ; x["fn"]` whereas in Python you sort of need to know this information up front unless you go through the machinations I outlined in the article.

But this was obviously a poorly written part of the article that could use improvement.

[EDIT] typos [EDIT2] less arrogance :)

Page 1 of 2Next →