Hacker News: clamprecht

New comment by clamprecht in "Ti-84 Evo"

clamprecht — Sat, 02 May 2026 17:58:20 +0000

In high school our computer class was in BASIC. They taught us to swap two variables A & B like this:

  h = a
  a = b
  b = h

But I knew the BASIC we used had the SWAP command. On an exam, I used SWAP A,B instead of the above. I got the lowest passing score, a 70%, and the teacher wrote, "Do it our way please". No thanks Mrs. Mott, I'll take the 70.

New comment by clamprecht in "Ti-84 Evo"

clamprecht — Sat, 02 May 2026 05:37:05 +0000

I should do an AMA at some point. There was a pseudo-AMA on reddit a while back: https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/1z0yx7/first_person...

New comment by clamprecht in "Ti-84 Evo"

clamprecht — Sat, 02 May 2026 05:36:04 +0000

The fact that you made a game on a device that "wasn't for games" is even cooler.

New comment by clamprecht in "Ti-84 Evo"

clamprecht — Sat, 02 May 2026 05:33:44 +0000

I'm not sure how much he actually used it after I wrote it for him, to be honest! But we did have access to daily newspapers, and some of us got weekly stock charts called "Daily Charts" by Investor's Business Daily (all paper, of course). Some of us were into trading stocks (this was during the Internet boom 1995-2000). Another weird skill I learned that is still useful to this day.

New comment by clamprecht in "Ti-84 Evo"

clamprecht — Sat, 02 May 2026 05:31:15 +0000

I served 60 months of the 70 month sentence. I had a computer restriction, so I couldn't be around a computer.

Since I wasn't able to use computers or the Internet for that time, I did/read/learned a lot of things I wouldn't have otherwise learned. Learned how to make hooch (prison wine), how the law works and how to maneuver the court system (useful for both civil and criminal cases), got more fluent in French by speaking with some native French speakers from Benin, learned how to work out & lift weights (which I still do), and learned the value of freedom.

New comment by clamprecht in "Ti-84 Evo"

clamprecht — Sat, 02 May 2026 01:08:02 +0000

My TI-85 story. While I was in prison, around 1996 or 1997, I found out a friend had a TI-85 calculator. I realized it was programmable, so I borrowed it over the weekend and wrote a program to track his stock portfolio. It was the first time I had programmed anything in 2 or 3 years.

Then I learned that the US Bureau of Prisons had a rule against any calculator (or device) that was "programmable". So I programmed the TI-85 so its startup screen read, "TI-85 NON-PROGRAMMABLE CALCULATOR". Problem solved.

New comment by clamprecht in "Austin’s surge of new housing construction drove down rents"

clamprecht — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:27:12 +0000

At a glance, I'm a bit skeptical. It looks like they're cherry picking the high point for rent (the COVID spike).

> "Rents fell. In December 2021, Austin’s median rent was $1,546, near its highest level ever and 15% higher than the U.S. median ($1,346)."

Of course having more housing should, all things equal, lower rent. But all things certainly weren't equal, especially during this time period.

New comment by clamprecht in "Hacker News front page now, but the titles are honest"

clamprecht — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 15:50:10 +0000

I'd love it if the mouseover text would be these titles.

New comment by clamprecht in "Ask HN: Went to prison for 18 months, lost access to my GitHub. What can I do?"

clamprecht — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 17:12:37 +0000

Is there a phone number associated with the account? How does GitHub want you to prove that you're you?

New comment by clamprecht in "NordVPN says its new protocol can circumvent VPN blockers"

clamprecht — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 22:54:28 +0000

I wonder if it's analagous to spread spectrum[1] with radio comms.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spread_spectrum

New comment by clamprecht in "No Bitcoin ETFs at Vanguard? Here's why"

clamprecht — Sun, 26 Jan 2025 19:50:08 +0000

> I'm wondering if there's a good way to trade on Bitcoin's volatility?

It is with options on MicroStrategy (MSTR). I think one strategy is holding MSTR and selling calls (i.e. covered calls). There are probably other strategies that don't require holding MSTR shares, like selling a call and buying a put, but I may be messing that up.

Check out the youtube channel called "Quant Bros" (cringe name, I know), and the /r/MSTR subreddit.

New comment by clamprecht in "I had to take down my course-swapping site or be expelled"

clamprecht — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 15:26:27 +0000

I went through similar crap with University of Texas at Austin when I wrote Classgrabber around 2002. Universities are pathetic when it comes to this stuff. If a CS student (or any student) does anything to show how incompetent their own staff is, they go berserk. And they still have the balls to ask me for alum money every year.

New comment by clamprecht in "Tell HN: John Friel my father, internet pioneer and creator of QModem, has died"

clamprecht — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 20:34:03 +0000

Wow, QModem! I wish a had a screenshot of my main QModem page with the top BBSs & dialups in my list. I never met John Friel, but his software changed my life.

New comment by clamprecht in "FinCEN Beneficial Ownership Information FAQ"

clamprecht — Wed, 04 Dec 2024 22:28:34 +0000

Enforcement blocked today by a court:

https://www.cir-usa.org/2024/12/judge-orders-nationwide-inju...

New comment by clamprecht in "Tips for linking shell companies to their secret owners"

clamprecht — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 20:57:31 +0000

Then I ask the same question you just sidestepped: how will the ex-CIA agents maintain privacy/secrecy after the Act?

New comment by clamprecht in "Tips for linking shell companies to their secret owners"

clamprecht — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 17:38:00 +0000

I see no comments so far about the Corporate Transparency Act[1] and how it affects privacy with LLCs, etc. The US government will soon have a database of all (complying) beneficial owners. This database will eventually be hacked, leaked, shared with local law enforcement (further allowing it to be leaked).

How will the "rich people" maintain privacy/secrecy after the Corporate Transparency Act?

[1] https://www.uschamber.com/co/start/strategy/small-business-c...

New comment by clamprecht in "Argentina's New President Wants to Adopt the Dollar as the National Currency"

clamprecht — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 19:32:28 +0000

Is this from personal knowledge? If so, can you explain how you know this?

I ask because I lived there for 5 years, and anytime I sold dollars for pesos, the cuevas (the place that does the exchange) were extremely picky as to which $100 bills they would take.

New comment by clamprecht in "Apple unveils the new MacBook Pro featuring the M3 family of chips"

clamprecht — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 00:38:47 +0000

It's weird they mentioned something about how you can do 8K video editing with Premier Pro, but didn't mention Final Cut Pro X. Are they killing FCPX?

New comment by clamprecht in "WHO advises against use of artificial sweeteners"

clamprecht — Mon, 12 Jun 2023 17:07:40 +0000

Does Coke Zero or Pepsi Black taste any better to you? I don't like diet coke or diet pepsi, but I do like the newer coke zero.

New comment by clamprecht in "Waze tests new alerts warning drivers about roads with a ‘history of crashes’"

clamprecht — Wed, 28 Dec 2022 22:51:06 +0000

Why doesn't Google Maps (or Waze) offer 3 choices:

1. Fastest route

2. Shortest route

3. Safest route <-- this is the big one

The insurance companies would love it, and I'd love it. The data is out there... I've been asking this for over 10 years.