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moollaza

59 karma · joined February 25, 2010

Frontend Dev @ DuckDuckGo https://zaahir.ca [ my public key: https://keybase.io/moollaza; my proof: https://keybase.io/moollaza/sigs/ILH2XKBlouYiqAnRDGPlAyix9L3fa9kQHpFGod1OTMo ]
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moollaza··on Bing contract prohibits DuckDuckGo from completely blocking Microsoft tracking
The redirect can be disabled in our settings.

Go to https://duckduckgo.com/settings#privacy and disable the bottom setting, "Redirect (When Necessary)"

moollaza··on Show HN: RepoRemover – Easily archive and delete multiple GitHub repos
This is a little tool I made to ease my Spring repo cleaning. It's not possible to archive or delete multiple GitHub repos at once on GitHub.com, and I noticed many people were passing around scripts as a way to achieve this. I figured it would be even easier with a nice UI, and I was looking for an excuse to play around with Vue.js

I hope other devs find this useful! Feel free to send feedback, or open issues on GitHub.

Thanks.

moollaza··on Improving DuckDuckGo
We're working to improve our feedback process, but as mentioned, we have a "Feedback" button at the bottom right of every search result page.

Clicking this opens a form right on the results page which you can use to specify what the feedback is about (link results, image results, ads, etc.) and why you're happy/unhappy with what you're seeing.

This feedback is reviewed daily by our team.

moollaza··on Improving DuckDuckGo
Hey there,

To clarify, we haven't closed anything that was previously open, and all open source Instant Answers will remain open.

For now, we've paused community contributions for new Instant Answers and non-essential changes, until we can find a better way to work with the community and their contributions.

moollaza··on DuckDuckGo Traffic
Our instant answers are open source. You can see the Perl used for the passphrase Goodie here: https://github.com/duckduckgo/zeroclickinfo-goodies/blob/mas...

We’re not storing these generated phrases anywhere.

moollaza··on Ask HN: Who needs contributors? (October 2016)
FWIW, you can also write the documentation parsers (Fathead type Instant Answers) in Python, and Ruby

For example, here is a parser for the Python docs, written in Python: https://github.com/duckduckgo/zeroclickinfo-fathead/blob/mas...

and the same for Ruby: https://github.com/duckduckgo/zeroclickinfo-fathead/blob/mas...

moollaza··on How DuckDuckGo is trying to help programmers
For 1 -- try adding "news" to the query. That should almost always trigger our News Instant Answer

For 2 -- We actually have maps powered by openstreetmap: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=20+paoli+pike+paoli&ia=maps

moollaza··on DuckDuckGo ES6 Cheatsheet
These are all community-contributed. You can view all the JSON source files here: https://github.com/duckduckgo/zeroclickinfo-goodies/tree/mas...

and you can search for Cheat Sheets (and all other Instant Answers) here: https://duck.co/ia?q=cheat+sheet

moollaza··on DuckDuckGo ES6 Cheatsheet
It's all open-source. These are powered by simple JSON files, you're welcome to submit a LaTeX Cheat Sheet :)

https://github.com/duckduckgo/zeroclickinfo-goodies/tree/mas...

I think we have over 200 cheat sheet now

moollaza··on DuckDuckHack: Help us make the web a better place
Yup, that was me :)

Thanks again for notifying us, I'll be checking if any other Goodies may have fallen through the cracks.

moollaza··on DuckDuckHack: Help us make the web a better place
Which Goodie is it? I'd be happy to see why it's not triggering.
moollaza··on A lightweight code review tool that works with GitHub
Ah, thanks for pointing that out. The UI on the staging server is much nicer ;)
moollaza··on A lightweight code review tool that works with GitHub
Following the links in their Github repos I found their docs, http://docs.review.ninja/#quickstart which links to their Github auth page (http://review.ninja/auth/github). So far I've enabled it for a throwaway repo and haven't seen what it does yet. I'll keep exploring though.
moollaza··on Marketing your startup: What's on your checklist?
I was about to ask the exact same question. I'm trying to solve a problem that I (and some colleagues) face daily, which I assume others must face too. Actually, I sorta know others have had the same problem because when I first looked for a solution, I came across a few posts and discussions offering terrible solutions that I didn't like. After being annoyed enough, I figured I'd try and see if I could develop a solution.
moollaza··on 5 Tiles Keyboard
I really think you should give Minuum a try. I've used most of the ones you listed above (Swype, Swiftkey, 8Pen, Fleksy) and ended up sticking with Minuum. I've been using it for almost a year and don't regret switching. I used to love Swype, but it started to get pretty slow and once I switched to Minuum, it was nice to see how much screen space I could reclaim.
moollaza··on New DuckDuckGo design
Actually there is a "Cloud Save" feature that helps you save (and restore) your setting without using cookies. Scroll to the bottom of the settings page and you'll see it.

As the page says, "The benefit of [Cloud Save] over using the URL parameters bookmarklet is that when you change settings, they will automatically be saved in the cloud."

moollaza··on The next version of DuckDuckGo
You can actually increase the width of the results, if you prefer. It's in the settings: https://next.duckduckgo.com/settings

Click on the "Look and Feel" tab, then change the "width" :)

moollaza··on Ask HN: Idea Sunday
Perhaps Yahoo Pipes? http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/
moollaza··on Basecamp was under network attack
After taking a look at CloudFlare's knowledge base, it seems that their services would definitely help if you were under attack. According to CloudFlare, they offer basic DDoS Protection with their plans, and it seems like you can upgrade to a business account during attacks for improved protection/mitigation. They also claim that they don't have a cap on the size of attacks they can handle.

Relevant links: https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200172676-C... https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200170216-H... https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200170196-I...

moollaza··on Dragdis – Drag and drop anything anywhere
Clicking the "Feedback" button in the app directs you to their contact page:

https://dragdis.com/contact

moollaza··on The Matrix in JavaScript in less than 600 bytes
Looks like there's already a very similar submission: http://js1k.com/2013-spring/demo/1382. This one however is significantly better.
moollaza··on An Interview with DuckDuckGo's founder, Gabriel Weinberg
Hey, I'm the intern who implemented the HNSearch Zero Click plugin, so let me explain the poor result:

A HNSearch (HNSearch.com) for "interview duckduckgo" doesn't return this thread at all, in any of the results (even on a 'stories' only search), however the one thing it does surface is your comment, because that exact phrase was found in it. I realized we weren't showing the right comments, and I found a very small bug which has now been fixed. So thanks for getting me to notice that :)

However, if you search "interview duckduckgo's" (ie. the same wording in the thread's title) the ONLY result returned is this exact thread (an HNSearch limitation).

These same results are fed to us by the HNSearch API and so the fault lies within HNSearch's search methodology (as far as I can tell). We're still looking for a resolution to this, however, any suggestions are welcome!

moollaza··on DuckDuckGo Cooks Google's Goose
Regarding the UI, have you looked at the "Settings" page? Most of the UI is fully customizable -- you can change almost all of the colours you see, you can even remove many features such as the icons, sidebar, 0-click box, even the ads!

You can also adjust the layout of your results: alignment, page width, font and font size, underlining of links, etc.

Clearly they've provided a multitude of options, you just need to try them out.

Also, they do allow site search using the same syntax as Google.

moollaza··on Ask HN: Dropping out of college and moving to SF
cj, as a fellow 19 year old University student I kind of know how you feel, especially with respect to your friends lacking ambition. If I could graduate now and get into real work I think I would really enjoy it. Some of the classes I have to take, or the work I have to do seems really boring and irrelevant. For example we were required to take a course on Probability which was taught by a terrible prof and through the whole semester all I could think about was working on something real and exciting.

However, I'm studying Computer Science (my program, Business Informatics, is actually half CS and half business) and I'm very glad I chose this program because in one of my first classes I met another student who is just as passionate and driven as I am. We've become great friends and recently started working on some software we hope to work on over the summer and launch.

So I was going to ask if you've considered switching from Neuroscience to CS? Or perhaps consider dropping in on some CS classes? You probably stand a better chance of finding like-minded students there. Who knows, there could be someone just like you eager to work on software and get into startups.

Just my two cents...

moollaza··on Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)
Wow, I would love to be able to play like Vai. Makes me think of the awesome battle in Crossroads. Neo-classical is pretty amazing. As for the EP, you mean you'll email it? If so sure. moollaza@gmail.com (Thanks!)
moollaza··on Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)
Very awesome achievements. Congrats. I particularly like the guitar/music stuff. Anywhere I might be able to hear those songs of yours? And by prodigy, was that specific to a style? Like classical etc?
moollaza··on Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)
* Grade 9 (age 14) I Raised $3500 for the Stephen Lewis Foundation (Fighting Aids in Africa), I was the 2nd highest fundraiser (A gr.12 beat my be $50) But b/c of our fundraising we (the Gr.12 girl and I) got to hand Stephen Lewis (the United Nations' special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa) a giant cheque for $40,000

* My parents are from South Africa, emigrated to Canada during Apartheid, and my relatives were good friends of Nelson Mandela's and played relatively important roles in the Anti-Apartheid movement. While imprisoned on Robben Island, Nelson Mandela wrote a letter (or two) to my Great Aunt. There's a copy in a biography I read. I believe he also went to at least one of her birthday parties. Later, when he was in Toronto (1998) I got to meet him, and sing ABC' and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with him (I was 7 @ the time)

* My great uncle used to work with Mahatma Ghandi, when they were both lawyers in India. There are pictures somewhere in India's archives of them together.

* Last week while in the grocery store with my dad, a woman near us yelled that the guy running stole her purse. Myself and another guy immediately ran after him (another guy joined us on the way) and we chased the culprit into the parking lot. He gave up and I sternly asked for the purse back, then I handed it to the lady and a bunch of people called the police. (I didn't want to brag about that one, but now seemed like a good opportunity)

moollaza··on New Guitar Game with Real Six String Controller
Anyone think this will be a real game-changer? At least now my friends can't complain that the game is easy because there's no actual strings/chords to play.
moollaza··on Ask HN: Idea for improvement on HN reading.
Your idea seems pretty cool. I follow engadget.com as well and on a related note, they offer an "apple-free" version of the site which can be changed to exclude whatever you want through the url. So perhaps thats an idea?

Here's engadgets article on their apple-free version: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/30/do-you-hate-apple-news/

moollaza··on Drugs Yes, Drugs No?
The only drugs that are "bad" are the ones the government isn't getting a cut from. Alcohol was illegal once. Look at it now. I guess my argument works best with marijuana. I mean you get angry drunks. When was the last time you found an angry stoner? (not gonna lie I kinda took that from Robin Williams, but he was right)

If you were able to control marijuana the same way you control the pricing and distribution of alcohol i think you'd eliminate a lot of problems. Petty dealers at least.

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