Hacker News: fonzie

New comment by fonzie in "Facebook will shut down its physical gifts service this week"

fonzie — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 19:55:05 +0000

Does it say much that I didn't even know they did that?

New comment by fonzie in "Show HN: Script Excel with Python"

fonzie — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 15:50:52 +0000

Awesome. You may already know, but a huge proportion of the large finance firms are still stuck with 2003 and from speaking to a few people, they don't seem super ready to change. Given you are planning on selling it, these guys would probably be decent customers.

New comment by fonzie in "Show HN: Script Excel with Python"

fonzie — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 14:05:46 +0000

This seems pretty great. Any plans for compatibility with Excel 2003 and 2007?

New comment by fonzie in "Europe's Square"

fonzie — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:48:03 +0000

I read that. Hence why I said at the moment. It'd be great for them to get it sooner rather than later. At least in the UK, most basic accounts issue Visa debit cards and a lot of the basic credit cards are also Visa.

New comment by fonzie in "Europe's Square"

fonzie — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:25:08 +0000

Doesn't seem to accept Visa at the moment. As much as I like the idea (despite the name) of a European Square, not accepting Visa is less than optimal, especially as they try to gain traction.

New comment by fonzie in "How useful is a Physics degree?"

fonzie — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 21:38:56 +0000

I'm about to graduate with a degree in Physics. While the degree itself is brilliant I don't really think it is incredibly helpful in the startup world.

You do learn C, Mathematica, MatLab, etc, which means you will at least know what is going on when you look at code, but by itself this is not enough.

Something that has definitely helped me was taking a Microprocessors course, where you learn Assembly, which meant really understanding computational processes like memory, power, speed. I was lucky that we were able to create a standalone project that really helped solidify all the theoretical ideas. If If you can do a course like this, I highly recommend it.

Unless you spend as much time auditing CS courses as you do in Physics lectures (and really have the commitment to learn both), you will not leave with the same knowledge as a CS student, but if you put in the work, you can be competent.

I really have only one piece of advice: If you want to build applications once you graduate, start building now. It doesn't matter if they aren't brilliant or even good for that matter; build. It doesn't matter if they don't look incredible; build. It doesn't matter what languages or frameworks you learn; build. If you do this, with time, you will learn that you can learn most things relatively quickly and be competent in whatever it is you decide to do after graduating, because you spent time hammering away, grinding and really learning.

New comment by fonzie in "A calculator that only shows the answer after you give a suitable estimate"

fonzie — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 18:39:21 +0000

I actually think this is pretty great. I like the idea that I try things my head to at least figure out if I'm in the right ballpark and, as a physics major, in the correct order of magnitude and understand underlying concepts.

I also see this being really useful at getting better at stuff like dimensional analysis.

New comment by fonzie in "Light Table - a new IDE concept"

fonzie — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:39:25 +0000

This looks really exciting. I also like the way that it is presented as enormously simplifying a somewhat complex space. Great stuff!

Is silence going extinct? (With audio links)

fonzie — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 15:53:59 +0000

Article URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/magazine/is-silence-going-extinct.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3717333

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

New comment by fonzie in "Help I'm Losing My Writing Ability"

fonzie — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:02:51 +0000

I would look at Henry Miller's 11 commandments of writing. Online here http://www.listsofnote.com/2012/01/henry-millers-11-commandm...

New comment by fonzie in "Chapters 7 & 8 of the Rails Tutorial are out ("Sign up" & "Sign in, sign out")"

fonzie — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:19:52 +0000

Again, awesome and thank you!

New comment by fonzie in "Bootstrap 2.0, From Twitter"

fonzie — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:34:36 +0000

While I think Bootstrap is fantastic and helpful, my only worry is overreliance and under customisation, thus a decrease in creativity.

I would be a little bit sad if every new web app I visited overused Bootstrap and stuck to that now increasingly popular design.

New comment by fonzie in "Chapter 6 of the Rails Tutorial, 2nd Edition is out ("Modeling users")"

fonzie — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:55:59 +0000

Michael, this is fantastic once again. Thanks a bunch. Really looking forward to those screencasts whenever they come out also.

New comment by fonzie in "Designing "Mute""

fonzie — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 03:08:38 +0000

A good solution to the iPhone's mute issue would be a gasp Blackberry-like gasp 'nightstand mode'.

Though it would not have saved the day in this instance, it would be a good implementation. So many times I do not want all my apps alerting me with push messages and emails and texts; I just really want phone calls or alarms to come through.

New comment by fonzie in "Coderacer: interactive coding game from the treehouse team"

fonzie — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:39:51 +0000

The app pairs you up with random people. AFAIK you're not able to choose with whom you play.

The point of the long and winding sentence

fonzie — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:27:17 +0000

Article URL: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-ca-pico-iyer-20120108,0,2137466.story

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3446057

Points: 10

# Comments: 3

New comment by fonzie in "I was on BloombergTV talking SOPA today - how'd I do?"

fonzie — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:43:13 +0000

I've been keeping my mother updated with the whole SOPA thing and sent her this video too. She's 'very impressed that people so young can be so eloquent and steadfast'. I think you did great and stood ground with poise, confidence and intelligent arguments. Well done.

New comment by fonzie in "HTML and CSS Learning Tool Recommendations"

fonzie — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 03:53:18 +0000

I echo this. The stuff on there is mostly rock solid as it is and they keep adding new material. They keep you motivated by awarding you badges as you go through the learning process. Pretty sweet team behind it too; attentive and responsive to feedback.