Hacker News: EddieB

New comment by EddieB in "Dostoyevsky isn't difficult"

EddieB — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 16:26:25 +0000

Agreed on Garnett- but you might also like McDuffs

New comment by EddieB in "Dostoyevsky isn't difficult"

EddieB — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 16:22:44 +0000

I recently worked my way through (in order) Anna Karenina, Crime & Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov. Each time seeking Garnett translations as I found the usual recommendations just not hitting the spot. That said, and for context I'm English, and new to the classics- so not sure if the writing style just clicked more. I did switch half way to McDuff for The Idiot and wasn't too far from Garnett.

New comment by EddieB in "The emergence of print-on-demand Amazon paperback books"

EddieB — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 10:18:01 +0000

The last 3 books I’ve purchased from Amazon (UK) have been of questionable quality. The most recent was Designing Data–Intensive Applications (O’Reilly) and I’m still not sure if it’s print on demand, counterfeit- or just a reject. Roller marks, damaged pages, slightly off print. The returns process is inconvenient, one-offs are okay but on multiple purchases it’s fatiguing and so the book stays.

This isn’t specific to Amazon, I had the same issue with Waterstones in the UK (online)

I now just buy second hand (Abe, WOB) and hope for the best.

New comment by EddieB in "The happiest I've ever been"

EddieB — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 22:34:13 +0000

Had this thought multiple times over the years. However, reality in the UK is training cost and time (~2 years with 2 days a week college + at least ~£5k cost and further 2 years gaining experience) can be quite a blocker- difficult to achieve with dependents for most. Then throw in the reality of domestic work and building up experience. Greener grass and all that

New comment by EddieB in "The state of Linux music players in 2026"

EddieB — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 09:16:41 +0000

Great list! Not sure how I've missed all these in my search but I've had success with Plexamp (Gnome, Fedora), with Plex served from my Synology NAS. Opinions on Plex aside, it's been the most successful "native" experience across mobile/linux that just works.

Majority of GTK/Adwaita solutions are always so close but missing something critical, especially when using DLNA (e.g treated as secondary to local library, intermittent first load issues etc) That said, I got quite far with Gapless [1]

1. https://gitlab.gnome.org/neithern/g4music

New comment by EddieB in "Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?"

EddieB — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 22:50:04 +0000

Thank you adamors, I’ll be sure to give Satantango a go next- I’ve been struggling to find a modern substitute for the Russian classics and haven’t been able to put my finger on why- there is a quality to it that keeps me engrossed.

New comment by EddieB in "Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?"

EddieB — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 21:28:19 +0000

I’ve been working through more Dostoyevsky- currently ending the year reading The Brothers Karamazov (Constance Garnett translation).

It’s topping The Idiot for me- and a fitting way to end the year. I have spent most of 2025 stuck in a 19th Century reading cycle which started when reading Murakamis “After the quake” short story collection, specifically Super-Frog saves Tokyo where he mentions Anna K.

Anna Karenina-> Crime and Punishment-> The Idiot and some various Kafka in the mix too.

Hoping to visit some modern stuff again next year

New comment by EddieB in "PS5 now costs less than 64GB of DDR5 memory. RAM jumps to $600 due to shortage"

EddieB — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 19:50:08 +0000

Thanks :) very much looking forward to it! Maybe I’ll be a AMD convert after this!

New comment by EddieB in "Neopets.com changed my life (2019)"

EddieB — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 22:35:04 +0000

I followed this exact same path. Started with HTML for guilds, learning to slice PSDs and ended with learning VB6 to develop auto buyers / adopters :D Slopdog forums was my inspiration for using VB I think?

New comment by EddieB in "PS5 now costs less than 64GB of DDR5 memory. RAM jumps to $600 due to shortage"

EddieB — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 20:28:35 +0000

Just went through this today for my daughter- struggled to find an i5 not on pre-order, and the RAM was crippling- ended up going Ryzen 7 for a first time and 2x8Gb DDR5 6000 @ £119 - looking forward to building it with her!

New comment by EddieB in "New website lets you trade Starbucks gift cards for Bitcoin"

EddieB — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 17:41:29 +0000

Whats stopping people selling their gift cards and using them before the buyers? Or am I missing something?

New comment by EddieB in "How to Start an Anonymous Blog"

EddieB — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 15:42:00 +0000

The author briefly touches upon this under the section 'Word and character frequency analysis', but I'm not sure this would really help with writing style?

Go: A breath of fresh air

EddieB — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 06:57:37 +0000

Article URL: http://eblundell.com/thoughts/2013/10/10/Go%3A-A-Breath-Of-Fresh-Air.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6531781

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by EddieB in "2nd year Comp Sci student that just now figured out I have ADD"

EddieB — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 06:25:39 +0000

Thank you for sharing this, I am in a similar situation and often think this, however always fall back to the "I'm just being lazy train of thought".

I didn't actually make it through the exams that would allow me to study Computer Science, after studying hard I just couldn't concentrate when it came to the exam, I had plenty of time and knew it was important however couldn't focus. (I was like this throughout most of my education, good in class - failed the exams)

Perhaps this is just more excuses in a modern world full of distractions, either way I think I'll seek some professional advice.

New comment by EddieB in "Ask HN: Best environments to hack in SF"

EddieB — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 21:48:43 +0000

Wow, thanks for the great responses!

I will definitely head up to the public library near the civic center and checkout the POPOS guide.. great information :)

As for the hackerdojo, I already plan on heading there but wont be down that way for a couple of weaks yet..

Ask HN: Best environments to hack in SF

EddieB — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 16:36:13 +0000

Hi all,

I'm in SF for two months to explore and take some time out to work on personal projects and I'm looking for some nice places to hack on my projects.

Places with WiFi are preferable but not a necessity. I'm just looking for good environments from calm to busy. So if anyone has any good well known/not so known spots, please share :)

Thanks!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5461512

Points: 4

# Comments: 6

New comment by EddieB in "Great HN parody"

EddieB — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 11:57:07 +0000

Can't look at the listing in the same way after seeing that haha

New comment by EddieB in "Ask HN: what was the best life/programming choice you ever made?"

EddieB — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 16:37:15 +0000

Life: Quitting my my full time dev job to go freelance (less money, but I've always got a smile on my face now)

Programming: Putting aside spending all my time learning best practices and paradigms and just creating something I have in my head.

New comment by EddieB in "Show HN: Zoko - Github Game Off 2012"

EddieB — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 14:05:02 +0000

Yep picked that up, might be worth noting however..

A couple other tricks I picked up also, but that's game play wise so I wont drop any spoilers here.

I think I'll try making some levels later on tonight, just complete the game!

New comment by EddieB in "Show HN: Zoko - Github Game Off 2012"

EddieB — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 13:52:57 +0000

Not only does it look great it's actually quite challenging, in a nice way.. Well done!

Some controls on intro would be nice, had to look in source to make sure there wasn't some magical way to jump.