<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: filiph</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=filiph</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Thu, 16 Apr 2026 06:12:24 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=filiph" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by filiph in "Implementing Unsure Calculator in 100 lines of Haskell"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Hi, I'm the original author of unsure calculator. Let me just say thank you! I love the code and the fact that people are having a go at this stuff.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 25 Apr 2025 09:23:06 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43791751</link><dc:creator>filiph</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43791751</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43791751</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by filiph in "Show HN: Unsure Calculator – back-of-a-napkin probabilistic calculator"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'd argue this is WAI.<p>It's hard for me to imagine _dividing_ by -1~1 in a real-world scenario, but let's say we divide by 0~10, which also includes zero. For example, we are dividing the income between 0 to 10 shareholders (still forced, but ok).<p>Clearly, it's possible to have a division by zero here, so "0 sharehodlers would each get infinity". And in fact, if you try to compute 500 / 0, or even 500~1000 / 0, it will correctly show infinity.<p>But if you divide by a range that merely _includes_ zero, I don't think it should give you infinity. Ask yourself this: does 95% of results of 500 / 0~10 become infinity?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 16 Apr 2025 11:16:07 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43703933</link><dc:creator>filiph</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43703933</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43703933</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by filiph in "Show HN: Unsure Calculator – back-of-a-napkin probabilistic calculator"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Wow, this is fantastic! I did not know about squiggle language, and it's basically what I was trying to get to from my unsure calculator through my next project (<a href="https://filiph.github.io/napkin/" rel="nofollow">https://filiph.github.io/napkin/</a>). Squiggle looks and works much better.<p>Thanks for the link!</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 16 Apr 2025 11:02:40 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43703833</link><dc:creator>filiph</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43703833</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43703833</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by filiph in "Show HN: Unsure Calculator – back-of-a-napkin probabilistic calculator"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm familiar with fuzzy numbers (e.g. see my <a href="https://filiph.net/fuzzy/" rel="nofollow">https://filiph.net/fuzzy/</a> toy) but I didn't know there's arithmetic with fuzzy numbers. How is it done? Do you have a link?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 16 Apr 2025 10:59:47 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43703813</link><dc:creator>filiph</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43703813</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43703813</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by filiph in "Show HN: Unsure Calculator – back-of-a-napkin probabilistic calculator"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Part of the confusion here is likely that the tool, as seen on the web, probably lags significantly behind the code. I've started using a related but different tool (<a href="https://filiph.github.io/napkin/" rel="nofollow">https://filiph.github.io/napkin/</a>).<p>The HN mods gave me an opportunity to resubmit the link, so I did. If I had more time, I'd have also upgraded the tool to the latest version and fix the wording. But unfortunately, I didn't find the time to do this.<p>Apologies for the confusion!</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 16 Apr 2025 10:57:04 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43703797</link><dc:creator>filiph</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43703797</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43703797</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by filiph in "Show HN: Unsure Calculator – back-of-a-napkin probabilistic calculator"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Nice! Are you using your python script often?<p>The reason I'm asking: unsure also has a CLI version (which is leaps and bounds faster and in some ways easier to use) but I rarely find myself using it. (Nowadays, I use <a href="https://filiph.github.io/napkin/" rel="nofollow">https://filiph.github.io/napkin/</a>, anyway, but it's still a web app rather than a CLI tool.)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 16 Apr 2025 10:53:47 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43703772</link><dc:creator>filiph</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43703772</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43703772</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by filiph in "Show HN: Unsure Calculator – back-of-a-napkin probabilistic calculator"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I think I was looking at this and several other similar calculators when creating the linked tool. This is what I mean when I say "you'll want to use something more sophisticated".<p>The problem with similar tools is that of the very high barrier to entry. This is what my project was trying to address, though imperfectly (the user still needs to understand, at the very least, the concept of probability distributions).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 16 Apr 2025 10:50:23 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43703746</link><dc:creator>filiph</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43703746</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43703746</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by filiph in "Show HN: Unsure Calculator – back-of-a-napkin probabilistic calculator"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It's all computed in the browser so yeah, it's JavaScript. Still, 8 seconds is a lot -- I was targeting sub-second computation times (which I find alright).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 16 Apr 2025 10:43:17 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43703703</link><dc:creator>filiph</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43703703</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43703703</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Show HN: Unsure Calculator – back-of-a-napkin probabilistic calculator]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Article URL: <a href="https://filiph.github.io/unsure/">https://filiph.github.io/unsure/</a></p>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43690289">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43690289</a></p>
<p>Points: 930</p>
<p># Comments: 162</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 15 Apr 2025 08:22:59 +0000</pubDate><link>https://filiph.github.io/unsure/</link><dc:creator>filiph</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43690289</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43690289</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Performance vs. Preference]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Article URL: <a href="https://filiph.net/text/performance-versus-preference.html">https://filiph.net/text/performance-versus-preference.html</a></p>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42856947">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42856947</a></p>
<p>Points: 1</p>
<p># Comments: 0</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 28 Jan 2025 19:41:20 +0000</pubDate><link>https://filiph.net/text/performance-versus-preference.html</link><dc:creator>filiph</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42856947</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42856947</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by filiph in "We need technology that is less immersive, not more"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Something I should have probably addressed in the article but didn't get to it for brevity: there are at least two kinds of immersion, and people tend to conflate them. (I'm not immune to this.)<p>There's intellectual immersion. Flow. You can be intellectually immersed reading a book or playing chess.<p>Then there's sensory immersion. Put a VR on, you're immersed this way.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 13 Jan 2024 08:48:20 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38978257</link><dc:creator>filiph</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38978257</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38978257</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by filiph in "We need technology that is less immersive, not more"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> Before I had gaming hardware I wasted the exact same amount of time by re-reading books and comics, and it was quite immersive.<p>If so, you are in the minority. For most people, it is easier and more natural to put down a book and go do something else, than it is to quit a video game. Media consumption metrics seem to corroborate this.<p>> That sounds an awful lot like the good old "why do we build space rockets when people are starving".<p>If you want to simplify the article this way, sure, but then it's "why do we build ever-more immersive entertainment when we could build space rockets or try to address starvation". I think there's a difference. (And of course, even then we're losing all nuance of the actual article, but I guess there's no way around that.)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 13 Jan 2024 08:45:12 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38978247</link><dc:creator>filiph</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38978247</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38978247</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by filiph in "We need technology that is less immersive, not more"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I think that quote confuses intellectual immersion with sensory immersion. Those are separate things. Yes, you can be immersed in a chess game or a good book or a PacMan game, but it's not the same as having a VR headset on?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 13 Jan 2024 08:39:23 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38978222</link><dc:creator>filiph</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38978222</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38978222</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by filiph in "We need technology that is less immersive, not more"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Nobody disputes that entertainment has value. The article is about the fact that so much talent and resources is funneled into immersion.<p>Using your neurosurgeon example, I posit that having fewer VR headsets will not prevent the doctor from unwinding. Nor will having mobile phones with less vibrant colors or application with lower engagement metrics.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 12 Jan 2024 18:20:33 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38971796</link><dc:creator>filiph</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38971796</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38971796</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by filiph in "We need technology that is less immersive, not more"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I didn't want to bore the reader with various definitions of immersion but you're raising a very good point. Apart from the "immersion for entertainment" that I'm mostly talking about, there's also the "flow" and the "tech as augmentation". I have obviously no problem with people being more productive through technology. What I have issue with is the (unwitting) funneling of the world's talent and resources into tech that makes us immersed in non-existent worlds just for the sake of entertainment.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 12 Jan 2024 17:09:10 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38970749</link><dc:creator>filiph</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38970749</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38970749</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by filiph in "We need technology that is less immersive, not more"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> I rather missed the point where he explains why immersive games are bad.<p>The article's title isn't "immersive games are bad".</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 12 Jan 2024 17:04:06 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38970670</link><dc:creator>filiph</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38970670</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38970670</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by filiph in "We need technology that is less immersive, not more"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I agree with you. One part of the article that I cut for brevity but maybe I should have included talks about the kind of immersion that is created by bright colorful moving pictures on a mobile screen. A lot of talent and resources is thrown at the goal of keeping people glued to their phones (TikTok, Candy Crush, etc.). "Engagement" is a form of immersion.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 12 Jan 2024 17:02:57 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38970656</link><dc:creator>filiph</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38970656</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38970656</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by filiph in "We need technology that is less immersive, not more"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I agree that it's not just about talent. That said, having more talented people interested in a field often has the effect of bringing money and political will.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 12 Jan 2024 17:00:10 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38970613</link><dc:creator>filiph</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38970613</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38970613</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by filiph in "We need technology that is less immersive, not more"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It looks like you're countering with the "it's always been the case" argument. I use it often myself, but I think it's good to realize when it's stretched too far.<p>Yes, I'm sure there were some people in the past who said that reading books is an indulgent waste of time. I'm sure you could find articles in old newspapers.<p>That in itself doesn't mean that working on a VR headset technology is as meaningful as working on a more sustainable energy source or developing software for cancer research, does it? Just because you find a similarity with something that happened in the past doesn't mean you can just abandon all critical thought.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 12 Jan 2024 16:56:46 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38970554</link><dc:creator>filiph</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38970554</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38970554</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[We need technology that is less immersive, not more]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Article URL: <a href="https://filiph.net/text/we-need-technology-that-is-less-immersive,-not-more.html">https://filiph.net/text/we-need-technology-that-is-less-immersive,-not-more.html</a></p>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38968550">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38968550</a></p>
<p>Points: 294</p>
<p># Comments: 195</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 12 Jan 2024 14:43:52 +0000</pubDate><link>https://filiph.net/text/we-need-technology-that-is-less-immersive,-not-more.html</link><dc:creator>filiph</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38968550</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38968550</guid></item></channel></rss>