Hacker News Reader

technoguyrobon Ask YC: Have you built a good website that nobody visits?

http://www.imageboard.net/accounts/login/

NO TEXT, HUH?

Just kidding, that's pretty cool. :)

technoguyrobon Unix Command-Line Kung Fu

I agree, and that's not what I meant by my comment. I agree it was poorly worded. Read my second edit. Thanks for the reply!

technoguyrobon Unix Command-Line Kung Fu

It's funny, because saying "Here's a PDF link" in response to a Scribd document is to me almost like saying "here's a WMV version" to a YouTube page.

// in fact, it's almost exactly like that, since the latter (Scribd/YouTube) is just a presentation layer for the former (PDF/WMV)

EDIT: Could the person who downmodded me please explain? I'll delete my comment afterward. Thank you.

EDIT2: After reading the two posts below, I now redact everything in this comment. :) I didn't say what I meant. I agree, I have no problems with PDFs either. However, I don't have a problem with WMVs either, since they open flawlessly in VLC. My point was that it's funny because I've gotten used to the worldview of "Oh noooo, PDF!" (and similarly, "oh noooo, WMV!"), and now it's kind of funny to see the opposite happening ("here's a PDF!" instead of screams of anguish).

Also, Paul, this is why I add a comment edit requesting clarification each time I get downmodded to 0 without a reply (and suggest my peers do likewise). Not because I disagree or find it questionable (I don't), I would simply like more feedback than that and hope it instills that habit into people reading my edit and the person who modded me down, since feedback is what makes Hacker News.

technoguyrobon Extraordinary mathematician Alexandre Grothendieck celebrates his 80th birthday in self-imposed isolation

There is an interesting Reddit discussion talking about the man:

http://reddit.com/info/6ivyk/comments/

For those who don't know who Grothendieck was, he essentially pioneered how we do modern mathematics. What Weierstrass, Riemann and Cauchy did to formalize the calculus, Grothendieck did to modern algebraic, topological and analytic notions. With the exception of Godel, I can't think of many mathematicians in the same league as he is (or at least was).

technoguyrobon Best Programming Jokes

I mentally replaced "computers" with "browsers" in that one, as it definitely fits more.

technoguyrobon Sitting straight 'bad for backs'

Just follow this guy's advice:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=184930

and code from a beach chair in Brazil. ;-)

technoguyrobon Multi-millionaire startup founder throws 29th birthday party...with 300 homeless people

This is why we do startups, right guys?

technoguyrobon It is now completely impossible to sell a laptop on eBay

Essentially, the problem is a credentials issue. If you can distinguish "serious" buyers from the "scammers," then you're set. I've done a little freelancing on elance.com, and the way they handle this problem is that they charge a small amount to make bids. Of course, this is somewhat different since one is bidding for jobs and not items (receiving money, not giving it), but it's still not very helpful, since I doubt anyone would pay even a nominal fee to make bids for buying items. Craiglist's solution to this problem is to limit buyers and sellers to their respective local geographic areas, which turns out to be pretty effective, but can oftentimes constrain market opportunities (and of course, there's no built-in auctioning capabilities).

I remember one post on YC a while back was about generating post modernism essays in response to spam emails to the point where a spammer could not possibly sift through all of them in a reasonable amount of time (and the "English" nature of the essays would make them hard to distinguish from real responses). This would make spamming unprofitable. Perhaps this can somehow be generalized to problems like s(c|p)ammers on eBay.

technoguyrobon Code on the Road: Laid off? The one thing you absolutely need to do on the first day

This is why I hope to be earmarking half a million for a trip around the world in a few years. I may only end up using a tenth of that, but I don't want to limit myself in terms of activities: scuba diving, mountain climbing, safaris, maybe a few expensive hotels, foreign clubbing, etc.

All with a laptop at hand.

technoguyrobon Ask HN: Best IP geolocation service?

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=136091

technoguyrobon Ask YC: Why doesn't Google use better technology to build its services (e.g., Flash)?

Ask Adobe?

technoguyrobon Ask YC: Why doesn't Google use better technology to build its services (e.g., Flash)?

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=164464

technoguyrobon LyX: Open-source word processor for mathematicians/academics

Oh, right. I got it for free. :)

technoguyrobon LyX: Open-source word processor for mathematicians/academics

I use EXP because it lets me write about 25% faster than I write by hand (with a bunch of macros and keyboard shortcuts I don't even the mouse to click on various symbols, like most WYSIWYG editors).

http://www.expswp.com/

I wrote the following in about a cumulative hour using EXP:

http://math.uic.edu/~robertk/files/mth504_notes.pdf

I've used and seen many people use various math typesetting editors, and from my experience EXP lets you be the most productive (not good for research papers, but very good for writing homework, notes, etc.).

technoguyrobon Confirmed: Facebook Apps Are Useless

I would hardly say Facebook apps are useless in terms of revenue generation:

http://www.onlineepiphany.com/2008/02/08/how-i-would-get-sta...

technoguyrobon The Value of Ideas

This is his sole steady source of income (the other being speaking engagements), so the marketing is understandable.

technoguyrobon Google Launches TV Advertising

To summarize how huge this is:

Google now provides anyone with a credit card and an internet connection with the ability to create a television commercial and monitor the success of their campaign using a simple online tool. Touche!

technoguyrobon Mollom Just Gave Me An Hour A Day Back

No, you don't understand. It prompts for a CAPTCHA after the user has submitted his text. So if I just wrote out a paragraph of a comment, and submit, I wouldn't want to have that paragraph NOT show up just because I'm too lazy to enter the CAPTCHA. I think the people who won't enter the CAPTCHA will be far smaller with this method.

technoguyrobon Mollom Just Gave Me An Hour A Day Back

The beauty of this system is that it won't lose any comments. Even the people who are forced to enter a captcha (which usually decreases the amount of comments) would rather do that than know they wrote all that for nothing.

technoguyrobon 100 exclusive alpha invites to socialmedian code = hacker

Seconded for technoguyrob[at]gmail.

technoguyrobon Free US ZIP Code Database as CSV

Download the database I posted in my other comment here, and try this SQL statement:

   SELECT z.ZIPcode, (sqrt((z.latitude-z2.latitude)*(z.latitude-z2.latitude)+(z.longtitude-z2.longtitude)*(z.longtitude-z2.longtitude)))) AS dist
   FROM `zip` AS `z`, `zip` AS `z2`
   WHERE `z2`.`ZIPcode = 'YOURZIPCODE'
   ORDER BY dist LIMIT 10

Might be faster if you do a query to get the lat and long for the ZIP code you need first, though. Hell, it would probably be fastest to skip the database all together and just import the data and loop the distance formula, recording the smallest distances as you go.

technoguyrobon Free US ZIP Code Database as CSV

The latter. You're free to upload it elsewhere and spread it, however.

technoguyrobon Free US ZIP Code Database as CSV

That seems useful, but it's more aggregated data (by state & region, not zip).

technoguyrobon Free US ZIP Code Database as CSV

I have a better and more recent one, courtesy of yours truly (don't spread it around):

http://therobert.org/stuff/misc/5-digit%20Commercial.csv

7.7MB | February 2008

I need a database that shows the population in each zip code, too. If any good Samaritan can share, that would be great.

technoguyrobon Standing versus Sitting

Coupled with an Aeron, this makes the perfect investment of your VC money for the entire team!

technoguyrobon Facebook game development

I used this:

http://developers.facebook.com/

That should be pretty much all you need.

technoguyrobon NYTimes hand codes their HTML

Indeed. I don't understand. How else is it possible to write HTML? (without obscene disgusting things like Frontpage or Dreamweaver of course)

technoguyrobon Orangutan attempts to hunt fish with spear

I know. I'm just saying that was a lot more useful than any of the replies here. I don't know why I got downmodded.

technoguyrobon Orangutan attempts to hunt fish with spear

I'm disappointed by your answer, but even more so that you have more than 1 upvote. For once, reddit provided more value to me than Hacker News:

http://reddit.com/info/6haio/comments/

technoguyrobon Orangutan attempts to hunt fish with spear

Is this confirmed?

This is the Daily Mail...