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markkaton Help Reddit build a recommender

I'm not sure if it's a recommendation engine they need, but they do need a better way to find subreddits. IMO some sort of a map might work better than a rec engine. Or even just a quick way to see what subreddits another user subscribes to.

markkaton Having fun with 404

http://hubski.com/404

The house...

markkaton Hacking Hacker News

I have been working at it with http://hubski.com. In short, you choose people to filter content for you based on what they post, and what they share. You in turn choose what to pass on to those who follow you. It's been working pretty well.

I'm still working on recommendations. There are suggestions once you follow someone. It's a good way to get started, but the best way to get good content is to hand pick folk based on what they have shared.

markkaton A Word to the Resourceful

Hardly a formula. But sure, even if you consider it to be one, it's not book worthy. It's common sense.

markkaton A Word to the Resourceful

Well, I am sure that some will disagree, but what I've seen, most of what is in self-help books is common sense, although the best wrap it in amusing or counter-intuitive anecdotes. I think self-help allows people to convince themselves that there's formulae to life, when it's really just a matter of doing things in earnest and learning as you go.

So, basically I see self-help books as a sign that someone over-values impersonal advice. Not a sign of confidence, IMHO.

markkaton A Word to the Resourceful

This just crystalized something for me. I like to create stuff with people. Once I find that someone is thoughtful, reflective, or whatever you want to call it, I like to talk with them in a manner that prods the abstract. It now makes sense to me that my most successful collaborations have happened with people with whom I can easily speak in the abstract. Details and competence are real things, but they are not the most important things by a long shot. Details can't be accounted for except for the fact that they will arise and they will have to be dealt with in one manner or another. Also, besides a reticence to talk in the abstract, one thing that puts serious doubt in my mind about people is self-help books.

markkaton The White House's Response to SOPA

"I guarantee that I will add a strongly worded signing statement that will indicate that I do not wholly approve SOPA when I sign it."

Sorry, but I have little faith that this administration will do the right thing. If Obama said what he will specifically not sign off on, then I might be a bit more optimistic.

markkaton Defeat facial recognition

Wouldn't a surgical mask and sunglasses do the same with less work? They have designer masks and sunglasses.

markkaton I was on BloombergTV talking SOPA today - how'd I do?

Very nice job. I like the 'no need for more government' tack. This is the language that catches people's ears. If I don't understand the issue, my first impression in "Looks like the government is keeping these smart tech kids down."

I think one or two more simple 'take-aways' would help. I also think people want to know why a company Facebook would be against SOPA. If they understood that in the form of a simple example, that would go a long way. Everyone uses Facebook.

Really great job. Very articulate. I would have added 50 ums. :/

markkaton Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011

Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August.

markkaton Ask HN: Did you learn a language this year?

Yes, Arc.

markkaton Ask HN: Using HN as a commenting engine?

You could potentially use http://hubski.com as a blog, which is built on top of news.arc, and thus, has a similar commenting engine. It allows for richer content, like embedded videos and pictures. But no nice url...

A few people submit their blog posts to hubski. Since people don't share feeds, it's not frowned upon.

markkaton Ask PG: Please can we have a way to merge items?

I see your point. I'm still not sure how it would be implemented in a way that the signal/noise was high, that the associated articles were relevant.

I run http://hubski.com that was built on top of news.arc. One of the things that I did to help tie posts together was to add tags. It's not perfect, but it does help pull up similar articles. You can follow tags too. EX: http://hubski.com/tag?id=architecture

It's a tough call. HN does work for most people, I think. The maybe the potential blowback is not be worth experimentation at this point? PG seems willing to make changes, but he's conservative about it. Maybe from lessons learned?

markkaton Ask PG: Please can we have a way to merge items?

I think that identical URL submissions don't work. However, sometimes a discussion isn't just about the topic, but the specific coverage of the topic.

I'm not sure that merging discussion based on topic would work, or how it would be decided.

markkaton The end of social

This is in part my motivation for http://hubski.com, which is a sharing-based aggregator. I think that news that comes with crowd-sourced analysis is infinitely more valuable than the MSM formula, and that's where aggregators shine. However, curation is something that doesn't crowd-source as well. IMHO curation gets stale if it's completely crowd-sourced, but it also gets stale if it's left up to the individual. The solution I'm trying is to allow users to put their curation in the hands of a group of select people. It's easy to see who is contributing what, and if someone isn't providing value, you swap them for someone else. -You basically build a curation group.

markkaton Ask HN:Best Development Laptop?

I'm with you. I just recently got a U260 and I love it. My wife, who is a mac user, is even impressed.

http://i.imgur.com/R5aw8.jpg

It's a sexy beast. Performance is good. It is quiet and cool too. Battery life is fair, but I keep it plugged in most of the time.

markkaton Show HN: Hubski, my idea of a better aggregator

I'm gonna +1 on making it easier to read (maybe slightly bigger font, but definitely lower font weight) and I'm a 19y/o with 20/20 vision.

:) Awesome. Thanks heynk. I'm still searching for the perfect title font. If have any more feedback, definitely send it along to markkat at gmail. Or, people report issues and make requests at: http://hubski.com/tag?id=bugski

And if you dig it, spread the word!

markkaton Show HN: Hubski, my idea of a better aggregator

Thanks. I increased titles and subtitles by 1px.

It does make it a bit easier on the eyes.

markkaton Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda's Resume. Anyone interested?

Dexter? Why didn't I know that? A2 here, but Hi5.

I think this one is almost more effective. Maybe a mix between the two.

markkaton Show HN: Hubski, my idea of a better aggregator

Thanks! Maybe I should go a bit bigger with the font...

markkaton Show HN: Hubski, my idea of a better aggregator

Thanks. The imgur: http://i.imgur.com/NYrMf.png

markkaton 50% of neuroscience papers suffer from a major statistical error.

What? How would that be justified?

markkaton 50% of neuroscience papers suffer from a major statistical error.

Yes, but I think one of the problems is that the reviewers can't sufficiently judge statistics. It is peer-review, after all. I've had some reviewers ask some questions that indicated that they didn't really understand the t-test.

markkaton 50% of neuroscience papers suffer from a major statistical error.

So very true. I went from physics into biology, and the shoddy application of statistics is surprising. This is a failure that could be easily addressed at the university level. More stats classes.

markkaton 50% of neuroscience papers suffer from a major statistical error.

It's true. Many anti-depressant drugs have no significant effect when compared to placebo.

http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fj...

markkaton Welcome to the new web.

True. I have little interest in actual discussions on G+ or FB because of the public use of my full name, and the connections that I have there. There are, and will remain, plenty of people that enjoy interaction that has a bit more anonymity. r/truereddit is quite good.

I think part of what has happened to these dwindling forums is that they are functionally out-dated, and a bit too insular. -It takes too much time for new people to get up to speed on most boards. (dont forget Hubski, btw. :))

markkaton Why the world of scientific research needs to be disrupted

Bingo. There is good reason to fear being scooped. It can cost you funding, and thus, your job.

markkaton Why the world of scientific research needs to be disrupted

I absolutely would if I could do it and still get funded. I'd love to share everything openly. Just pay my bills as I do it.

Currently, science is funded based on individual results. You can't blame folk for wanting to be promoted or to win tenure.

markkaton Why the world of scientific research needs to be disrupted

To disrupt scientific research you need to change the way that science is funded. Science is not for-profit, unlike the disrupted industries mentioned here. If you have to show how determining how a flagella works is going to produce revenue, then you are going to stifle science in another way.

Good science is slow, deliberate, and motivated by open-ended questions and discovery, not by end points.

We need to fund the process of science, and make sure that the knowledge gained is shared publicly. No other disruption is necessary.

markkaton Show HN: A clean directory of awesome startups

That totally depends on the content, I have found. We've had a couple of links and it brings a couple of hundred hits. However, we've also have had a few that brought a couple of thousands, with little difference in the rank/time.