Hacker News: jaqalopes

New comment by jaqalopes in "The Milwaukee Brewers win the first World Series title in franchise history"

jaqalopes — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 04:32:57 +0000

You read a headline about it on a website less than an hour after it happened?

New comment by jaqalopes in "The Robot I Didn't Expect to Build"

jaqalopes — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 16:25:39 +0000

I really appreciate Hurst's honesty here about the frustration involved in building a company. It's easy to focus on the flashy success stories of startups whose "simple" idea goes straight to the moon. But discovering new science and using it to invent new products, not to mention finding markets for those things, is often an absolute slog. Taking this piece at face value, I admire Hurst's resilience and determination in the face of that slog.

New comment by jaqalopes in "Turn an old junk phone into a Talking Jack-O-Lantern"

jaqalopes — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 19:54:01 +0000

Lot of haters in this chat but I think this is delightful and I'll definitely try it! We typically sit out on our steps and greet Trick or Treaters in person; I think a talking pumpkin will be a real hit with the kids, and I am quite sure no one will steal it while we are sitting right there!

New comment by jaqalopes in "Scandinavia's first farmers slaughtered hunter-gatherer population, DNA suggests"

jaqalopes — Sun, 11 Oct 2026 12:50:59 +0000

This exact dynamic happened in the American west and is still happening in Brazil

New comment by jaqalopes in "Anime User Interfaces"

jaqalopes — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 23:47:59 +0000

These are so sick. As a 34 year old whose first computers were already Windows 98, it's so weird to imagine a past where this is what the future of computing looked like, as opposed to what we actually got.

New comment by jaqalopes in "Show HN: I mapped every US golf course"

jaqalopes — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 12:25:47 +0000

Possible bug: Went scrolling way East on the map for kicks and was surprised to find 14 courses on Guam, but also that the data don't repopulate as you make it back around the globe a second time. This seems to happen in both directions—eg Guam doesn't populate at all if you scroll West.

New comment by jaqalopes in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (June 2025)"

jaqalopes — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 23:11:43 +0000

Editing my fantasy novel. Made a mindset change recently that helped me get past a months-long block.

New comment by jaqalopes in "The Barbican"

jaqalopes — Mon, 12 May 2025 23:12:57 +0000

Sounds like the perfect setting for a souls-like game.

New comment by jaqalopes in "How the US built 5k ships in WWII"

jaqalopes — Fri, 09 May 2025 00:35:11 +0000

A friend and I were at the WW2 museum in New Orleans a couple years ago and he said something that really stuck with me. Amazed at an exhibit on wartime manufacturing, he turned to me and said, "This is so unbelievable to me. To think what we accomplished when everyone in the country was pulling in the same direction. There's no way that could happen anymore." I hardly want to glorify warfare, but he has a point. As a young person in our chaotic and ambiguous present day looking back into the haze of the past, there really is something incredibly romantic about the era of war mobilization. Ordinary people had a purpose simply assigned to them, and if nothing else I think it's still the case that people in all eras crave purpose.

New comment by jaqalopes in "TV Garden"

jaqalopes — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 21:52:46 +0000

This is pretty amazing. I clicked on a Luganda-language channel in Uganda and it was a concerned-looking woman being interviewed for a news segment about a "for men" testosterone supplement. Kind of heartening to see that people everywhere are the same, for better and for worse.

New comment by jaqalopes in "The Housing Theory of Everything"

jaqalopes — Sat, 01 Mar 2025 02:35:26 +0000

Tangential question: Is housing activist your occupation? And if so how did you get into that line of work?

New comment by jaqalopes in "Watch TV from the 90s and earlier"

jaqalopes — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 03:55:37 +0000

This is miraculous. I randomly flipped to Air Bud and it's just... playing the whole movie! How on Earth was it possible for one person to make this???

New comment by jaqalopes in "A Child's History of the World"

jaqalopes — Thu, 27 Jul 2023 16:31:04 +0000

> All of the people who lived in the country of the Tigris and Euphrates were white. We don’t know how nor when nor where colored people first lived, though it is interesting to guess.

I guess you can read this as a funny, outdated text but I personally would not give it to my kid.

New comment by jaqalopes in "KernType – A Letter Spacing Game"

jaqalopes — Thu, 27 Jul 2023 13:10:55 +0000

93/100 here, wonder if there’s a difference between mobile and desktop? I played on mobile and being able to bring my phone right up close to my eyes seemed to make it easier to judge the spacing than if I’d done it at my desk.

New comment by jaqalopes in "Have attention spans been declining?"

jaqalopes — Tue, 25 Jul 2023 14:38:24 +0000

I’m a fellow ADHD sufferer and you’re 100% right that it is disabling in many contexts where “normal” function is optimal. But I want to encourage you not to despair entirely—-there are legitimate ways in which the ADHD mind has an edge. Mainly in recognizing lateral connections that neurotypical people might not see—-in essence, creativity, innovation. Not that neurotypical people can’t be creative, they obviously can be. But the ADHD mind has been shown to have this unusual quality. It’s why people with ADHD are often especially good conversationalists and jokers, even if they are terrible at getting their taxes done on time.

New comment by jaqalopes in "A.I. (1981)"

jaqalopes — Wed, 19 Jul 2023 02:38:04 +0000

> I could hardly believe this finish, yet the program certainly earned its victory. … Only one thing marred the scene. Villa, who only a day earlier had reached the summit of his backgammon career in winning the world title, was disconsolate.

This seems to be the pattern for the human champions who are the first to lose to computers. What a truly singular moment in existence to experience. Both a personal loss and a loss for the whole human species, and you have to bear it alone.

New comment by jaqalopes in "Forget Spotify for news – let's fix the real problem (2017)"

jaqalopes — Sun, 16 Jul 2023 22:09:20 +0000

The author conflates individual YouTube channels with "publishers" which is nonsense. The publisher is YouTube. You don't read 10 different "publishers" when you read stories in a newspaper by 10 different journalists. Are we also going to say that watching, say, 20 TikToks from different creators is consuming content from 20 publishers? I sure don't think so. The whole idea of the article seems like nonsense to me. "Spotify for news" is your web browser or the home screen on your phone that has five different news/social media apps. We don't need another layer in between.

New comment by jaqalopes in "How to Do Great Work"

jaqalopes — Sat, 08 Jul 2023 14:17:09 +0000

I'm surprised how many negative responses this essay has received. If you read it as prescriptive, "Do these steps and you will achieve greatness," then yeah obviously he is skimping on the "why" of it all. But as he says at the very top, this essay is actually descriptive. This is an analysis of how great work comes about, based on looking at many cases of "it." Your own mileage may vary.

For my part, I found it perfectly thought provoking; not a strict roadmap to follow, but a set of observations against which to measure my own experiences and ideas, and see if I can't improve on what works for me. I appreciate anyone who is trying to dig deeper into how human beings can better themselves and create meaning in our indifferent universe.

New comment by jaqalopes in "Ask HN: Could you share your personal blog here?"

jaqalopes — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 01:33:40 +0000

https://www.chriszombik.com/blog/

Most of my writing energy the last couple months is going into finishing a book projects but when that's done I will have more to write on other topics!

New comment by jaqalopes in "All Those Naked Greeks"

jaqalopes — Sat, 10 Jun 2023 12:39:51 +0000

On the topic of the nude statues, I have no evidence for this idea, except: modern toy dolls are often "nude," with the idea children will put clothes on them. Is it possible that the Greeks put different clothes and decorations on their nude base statues, clothes which are now gone, evanescent as the paint that once adorned the marble statues as well?