Hacker News: gcmartinelli

New comment by gcmartinelli in "Ethereum Plans to Cut Its Energy Consumption by 99 Percent"

gcmartinelli — Thu, 03 Jan 2019 14:32:53 +0000

Criticizing cryptocurrency for it's energy consumption is absolutely ridiculous. Every step in technology requires ever increasing energy consumption... hell... the universe expects us to keep increasing complexity and energy consumption! Increasing entropy is basically our purpose...

And trying to decide what is - or isn't - a valid use of energy is pure arrogance. If anything, we should be arguing about energy sources...

New comment by gcmartinelli in "Using a Keras Long Short-Term Memory Model to Predict Stock Prices"

gcmartinelli — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 18:55:38 +0000

I believe a simple moving average would achieve the same result and that mixing training and test data for validation invalidates your model results...

On a positive note, nice showcase of how simple implementation with Keras is.

New comment by gcmartinelli in "Stop treating tech jerks like gods"

gcmartinelli — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 18:40:43 +0000

can we stop telling other people what they should do?

these tech giants are worshiped for what they achieve and how they transform the world, not for their flaws. And yes, they are flawed... they are not "perfect" like the instagram role models you follow - and live vicariously thru.

and using bill gates as a good role model is just laughable to anyone who knows just a tiny bit about his work ethics as Microsoft CEO.

New comment by gcmartinelli in "Centralized Wins. Decentralized Loses"

gcmartinelli — Sun, 26 Aug 2018 03:26:26 +0000

there's a relevant gap in his 'history of the internet' analysis where centralized web was basically all that existed for users (i.e. AOL walled gardens).

as many things in society, these internet trends seem to follow cycles of discovery/innovation and improvement/cost-efficiency.

and the same way the previous centralized web crumbled with the appearance of novel services, so will the current centralized networks. trust in innovation.

New comment by gcmartinelli in "Status – A Mobile Ethereum OS"

gcmartinelli — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 06:21:06 +0000

I believe the issue here is not doing a hardfork. Hardforks are needed sometimes.

The issue is the purpose of "The DAO" hardfork (in practical terms, a bailout) and how it was done (destroying Ethereum's blockchain immutability).

New comment by gcmartinelli in "Ask HN: The most cyberpunk city in the world?"

gcmartinelli — Thu, 06 Apr 2017 13:22:00 +0000

Watching this documentary (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGJ5cZnoodY) about Shenzhen I got a very strong cyberpunk vibe, especially the last 1/3 of it. People at the streets fixing electronics, cheap/pirated circuit boards being sold at the curb, etc.

New comment by gcmartinelli in "What If Evolution Bred Reality Out of Us?"

gcmartinelli — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 01:45:50 +0000

I don't think they are talking about having NO sense of reality. They are saying that having filters that 'simplify', or make these signals more 'user friendly' bring evolutionary benefits in comparison to experiencing reality as is. In other words, we experience an altered reality sculpted by our cognitive engine.

This reminds me of Aldous Huxley's "The Doors of Perception", by the way.

[video] Riemann Surfaces

gcmartinelli — Sat, 03 Sep 2016 20:44:27 +0000

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MmSZrAlqKc

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12421103

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by gcmartinelli in "No Man's Sky is Elite for the 21st century. Pointless? Maybe – but also sublime"

gcmartinelli — Sat, 20 Aug 2016 17:50:29 +0000

I disagree with that. I have put more than one hour in and have found many interesting planets, creatures and geological formations. I'm also captivated by the small stories. What are the Sentinels? What and who am I? What's at the center?

Off course, it takes time and patience. Many worlds are barren, many creatures as very bizarre. But if you explore enough, you finds gems. And that feeling of discovery is something no other game I can remember gave me.

This game in fact is a different experience. I get it if it's not everyone's cup of tea (in fact, apparently the game was built to be 'divisive' [1]).

What I recommend for people beginning is to take their time. Leave their ships behind somewhere and walk around the planet. After you distance yourself from your ship (enough that the return trip on foot is not an option, the only option is finding a beacon to call it), you'll start seeing changes on the terrain. An unexpected lake, sand dunes, cave networks, forests where there were none, etc. The variety on the game is quite impressive, actually... of course, some patterns do repeat. But isn't that true for the universe as well?

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Tcqzg976hQ&feature=youtu.be...

Detecting duplicate images using Python

gcmartinelli — Mon, 20 Jun 2016 13:47:24 +0000

Article URL: http://blog.iconfinder.com/detecting-duplicate-images-using-python/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11937968

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Stanford – The Magic of Bird Flight

gcmartinelli — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 12:07:23 +0000

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLlZnbicPt8

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10438042

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Real-Time Expression Transfer for Facial Reenactment

gcmartinelli — Mon, 05 Oct 2015 10:31:21 +0000

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXVspNUeiWw

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10330892

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by gcmartinelli in "Malware and Hacking Forum Darkode Is Shut Down; Dozens Arrested"

gcmartinelli — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 20:11:15 +0000

It was meant as a sarcastic comment, of course it is inaccurate. :)

IMHO: Unfortunately democracy doesn't work, in practice, as the theory might suggest. What we have in the majority of countries are people in power focused on either: - Preserving their power (status quo), or tangentially the power of those who put them in office - Shifting the power structure, so that they (and their group) can take control

There are few and far between examples of politicians (let alone governments) that act with true altruistic purposes, favoring the interests of "the people". The built-in incentives in our society (and some might argue, our own nature) unfortunately make this a rare occurrence.

By the way... I might argue that the government doesn't sell our information because there is no buyer. It is the user of this information. It is used to control (mainly to control dissent). ;)

New comment by gcmartinelli in "Malware and Hacking Forum Darkode Is Shut Down; Dozens Arrested"

gcmartinelli — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 19:44:22 +0000

Isn't that the deal that Hector Monsegur (sabu) got?

New comment by gcmartinelli in "Malware and Hacking Forum Darkode Is Shut Down; Dozens Arrested"

gcmartinelli — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 18:46:54 +0000

Ah... these hackers just don't understand that hacking, invading people's privacy and stealing their money is a government monopoly.

Neural Networks Demystified [video]

gcmartinelli — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 14:19:21 +0000

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxe2T-V8XRs

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9891363

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by gcmartinelli in "Ask HN: How to learn about the history of computing?"

gcmartinelli — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 14:52:11 +0000

You can find some great resources (although more unstructured) on Youtube. I recommend the following: - Computerphile (https://www.youtube.com/user/Computerphile) - The Secret Life of Machines (1990's series)(some episodes touch on computing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOULWR4h4Io)

New comment by gcmartinelli in "Brazil's gamble on deep water oil"

gcmartinelli — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 14:26:56 +0000

compounding on the other responses, the increased emissions of CO2 in the atmosphere are also changing the ocean's chemical properties (acidification).. and this has a huge impact on the environmental equilibrium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_acidification

New comment by gcmartinelli in "MIT's Bitcoin-Inspired 'Enigma' Lets Computers Mine Encrypted Data"

gcmartinelli — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 21:54:09 +0000

If capitalism is as good as they say, BTC entrepreneurs and miners should be pouring money into cleantech anytime now ;)

The second point is something I've asked myself without any clear answer. Interested too learning more about this.

New comment by gcmartinelli in "Telegram Bot Platform"

gcmartinelli — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 22:21:45 +0000

Thanks for the reference! I've seen some implementations (https://github.com/asdofindia/python-whatsapp-bot) but usually Whatsapp bans accounts that do it.