Hacker News: jspann

New comment by jspann in "I wanna live an NPC life"

jspann — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 20:28:17 +0000

I feel like this take is for a more passive form of stoicism. No you don't have to care about what is going on around you, but you do need to somewhat engage with your life to solve problems, pay bills and take care of loved ones.

New comment by jspann in "How Universities Should Prepare Founders"

jspann — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 02:40:04 +0000

(Disclosure: I'm getting a PhD in CS now)

> The hard part of startups is product: knowing what to build, and being able to build it

Funny enough, this is why I think a PhD is undervalued by many. You spend years focused on a single area, sometimes pivoting topics, and getting hands on experience with operating solo on the outskirts of a particular field.

The overall point of the degree is you learn how to learn. The nice part is you have the padded walls of university equipment, funding, and time; So failure isn't terminal, just an opportunity to figure out what didn't work.

There's a few reasons how and why this message got distorted and lost in modern academia (honestly it would be a great subject for a book). It's no mistake that better known programs and programs with ties to a stream of successful startups are also the ones where there's a culture of builders and makers.

New comment by jspann in "Windows brings out the Rorschach test in everyone (2003)"

jspann — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 22:07:53 +0000

This got a laugh out of me! Thanks for sharing!

Ask HN: What was your big failure? How did you get around it?

jspann — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 19:41:05 +0000

Sincerely a guy who took a gamble on the last few years and is about to lose

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49173922

Points: 9

# Comments: 5

New comment by jspann in "Creating another MCP server, but this one is for research"

jspann — Thu, 21 May 2026 14:16:57 +0000

-My spreadsheet is in Google Sheets

-The hosting is in AWS

-The server itself uses the FastMCP library, in python

Creating another MCP server, but this one is for research

jspann — Thu, 21 May 2026 13:17:56 +0000

Article URL: https://jspann.me/blog/posts/research_mcp/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48222157

Points: 2

# Comments: 3

Using an LLM for Research

jspann — Wed, 20 May 2026 12:27:24 +0000

Article URL: https://jspann.me/blog/posts/research_mcp/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48206600

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by jspann in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2026)"

jspann — Mon, 11 May 2026 16:55:36 +0000

> Quell doesn’t store your messages — they’re processed and discarded in real time.

Are you using a 3rd party system to generate the numbers and forward them to your number? How can you audit that they 3rd party that creates the Quell numbers isn't saving the messages before they move to your server?

Creating an MCP Server to answer questions about me

jspann — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 15:52:31 +0000

Article URL: https://jspann.me/blog/posts/aboutme_mcp/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47850530

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

Using a local VLM to organize my screenshots folder

jspann — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 14:45:24 +0000

Article URL: https://jspann.me/blog/posts/my_screenshots_arent_organized/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47627254

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

New comment by jspann in "Microsoft please get your tab to autocomplete shit together"

jspann — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 01:25:50 +0000

> Ivan was born at a very young age, this has made a lot of people very angry and is widely regarded as a bad move.

Lol

New comment by jspann in "Coursera to combine with Udemy"

jspann — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 19:27:35 +0000

> 50% of buyers don't even finish the first video.

Just wondering - Is that a guess or a backed up statistic? Would be eye opening if that really was the case

New comment by jspann in "Map of all the buildings in the world"

jspann — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 19:14:37 +0000

I've had a project idea in the back of my mind for a long time: take all of my locations that I've saved in Swarm (https://swarmapp.com) and 3D render all of the buildings that I've been to. The issue was a lack of models of the actual buildings - which is here! Maybe it is possible...

New comment by jspann in "Netflix kills casting from its mobile app to most modern TVs"

jspann — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 17:36:18 +0000

What was the Texas patent case?

New comment by jspann in "Play snake in the URL address bar"

jspann — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 00:51:08 +0000

This is fun!

New comment by jspann in "Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]"

jspann — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 01:36:33 +0000

Maybe I'm reading the headlines wrong, but it doesn't seem like a lot of people read the actual press release and earnings report from the August 11th, 2025[1]:

1) The "Going Concern Assessment" that they put out was a regulatory requirement because they didn't have full control of the sale of parts of the pension. They say in the release that they're going to have the sale finalized on December 15th, with details on August 15th

2) They not only mention opening a new business segment, but built a lab AND got FDA approval for that segment (Advanced Materials & Chemicals)

3) The sale of the pension is going to have so much of a surplus they're going to pay down parts of the long debt that they have.

I'd love to be corrected if I'm misreading this, but the reports of Kodak's death seem greatly exaggerated

[1]: https://investor.kodak.com/news-releases/news-release-detail...

New comment by jspann in "How Hyper built a 1M-accurate indoor GPS"

jspann — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 13:41:07 +0000

This is a very cool project / startup! I'm curious, how do you get the ground truth data? Is that just you marking down where you are as you walk through the store?

New comment by jspann in "Cognition (Devin AI) to Acquire Windsurf"

jspann — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 18:31:19 +0000

> 100% of Windsurf employees will participate financially in this deal

> 100% of Windsurf employees will have vesting cliffs waived for their work to date

> 100% of Windsurf employees will receive fully accelerated vesting for their work to date

This sounds like a happy ending for the employees of Windsurf and a good deal for Cognition

Ask HN: Best way to make the most of WWDC?

jspann — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 20:16:36 +0000

I've always wanted to go since I built my first app in middle school and I finally have the opportunity this year! I'm from the east coast but will spend the whole week there and had planned on going to the live sessions / workshops.

Any advice on taking advantage of Cupertino or suggestions on how to make the most of the conference?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44195395

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by jspann in "President signs order refusing to enforce TikTok ban for 75 days"

jspann — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 03:34:52 +0000

> It’s unclear whether Trump can legally pause the TikTok ban.

Irrespective of my political leaning, Trump's legal scenarios have made me learn more about how the U.S. government works and question hypothetical scenarios that I'd never thought of before. Can a non-member be the speaker of the house? How did the Gulf of Mexico get its name? What procedures are official rules vs. just customary? What does it truly mean to be "impeached"? It's given me a new perspective on how laws are written and appreciation for how rules are defined for future generations.