Hacker News: kappasan

Toward an Archive of Everyday Urban Observations

kappasan — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 20:01:14 +0000

Article URL: https://medium.com/@dedede.de/toward-an-archive-of-everyday-urban-observations-e3d3cfc5607a

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46606991

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Ninja Codes: Neurally Generated Fiducial Markers for Stealthy 6-DoF Tracking

kappasan — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 12:07:16 +0000

Article URL: https://wikitopia.city/pages/ninjacodes/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45745725

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

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

kappasan — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 03:54:18 +0000

Still working on dédédé [1] - it's a simple web-based platform to share the "good, bad, and why"s of urban spaces. We're slowly adding functionalities and crushing bugs, an iOS app is in the pipeline too!

[1] https://dedede.de/en

New comment by kappasan in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2025)"

kappasan — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 03:12:26 +0000

Thanks so much, and super cool newsletter btw!

Not directly involved with for Cities, but they're friends of friends and we should have a chance to meet them very soon.

New comment by kappasan in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2025)"

kappasan — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 07:31:45 +0000

Did a Show HN about a month ago, but we're hard at work building dédédé [1] - it's a not-for-profit website that invites people to casually share the "good, bad, and why"s of urban spaces.

[1] https://dedede.de/en

We're based in Kyoto and the posts are heavily Japan-centric; we'd love to see posts from all over the world!

New comment by kappasan in "Chongqing, the Largest City – In Pictures"

kappasan — Sun, 27 Apr 2025 08:41:48 +0000

Haven't been to Chongqing in a while, but the vertical nature of the city is fascinating [1]. It's like they layered multiple cities on top of each other! Curious how that affects social interactions in daily life.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/CityPorn/comments/8kqwnf/chongqing_...

New comment by kappasan in "BART's Anime Mascots"

kappasan — Sun, 27 Apr 2025 01:07:47 +0000

We have something similar here in Kyoto! But we're Japan so there's an actual anime [1] and a character relationship chart [2], both straight from the city government.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OInuZFHeQo

[2] https://www.city.kyoto.lg.jp/kotsu/cmsfiles/contents/0000215...

New comment by kappasan in "Algebraic Semantics for Machine Knitting"

kappasan — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 18:34:36 +0000

Speaking of computational knitting, I recently learned about "solid knitting" [1] which is awesome.

https://www.cs.cmu.edu/news/2024/solid-knitting

New comment by kappasan in "On Jane Jacobs (2017)"

kappasan — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 20:11:05 +0000

A big Jacobs fan here, but I remember reading her book (The Death and Life of...) and also about Robert Moses and thinking "hmm both sides have a point" so she'd probably hate me if she was still alive.

I personally think she was a bit too trusting of the (cybernetics-adjacent?) idea of order spontaneously arising from chaos.

New comment by kappasan in "Kezurou-Kai #39"

kappasan — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 09:59:02 +0000

Tangential but the name is a pun - "kezuroukai" translates to "shall we shave?" in Japanese, but "kai" can also mean something like "gathering" or "community".

New comment by kappasan in "What if your website had business hours? (2022)"

kappasan — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 21:14:32 +0000

So like Gossip's Cafe? https://gossips.cafe

New comment by kappasan in "Photographs of 19th Century Japan"

kappasan — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 21:23:21 +0000

Thanks so much for checking out the website! I hear machiya are quickly disappearing in Kyoto (often turned into generic apartments) so it's great to hear your friend is keeping the old city alive.

New comment by kappasan in "Photographs of 19th Century Japan"

kappasan — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 19:37:15 +0000

Cool photos! My workplace is an old machiya [1] in Kyoto that's more than a hundred years old, so I kinda live like the people in these photos (not really of course - no konbini back then).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machiya

New comment by kappasan in "Obituary for Cyc"

kappasan — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 07:08:26 +0000

I wonder if it's possible to design a new formal language (something like lojban [1], with a grammar strictly based on formal logic) but with better UX so that it can be used by regular folks like me? Maybe combine something like Attempto [2] with a dedicated visual UI?

I would think a language like that could speed up knowledge base construction. Maybe it can also serve as a substitute for natural languages in some situations where we want our communication to be logically airtight.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lojban

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempto_Controlled_English

On a separate note, I've always wondered how Cyc is pronounced. Is it "sike", or is it "see-why-see"?

New comment by kappasan in "Neurotoxic worms growing up to 3ft long are in Ontario, Canada"

kappasan — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 07:46:42 +0000

I remember in junior high, we kept a pack of much smaller and cuter planarians [1] for a science class. We cut them up into pieces (sorry worms!) and they really do regenerate! Fascinating creatures.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dugesia_japonica

New comment by kappasan in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (March 2025)"

kappasan — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 10:25:40 +0000

We just did a Show HN last week [1], but we're building dédédé (https://dedede.de/en), a place to share the "good, bad, and why"s of urban spaces. Please check it out if you hadn't already!

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43465740

New comment by kappasan in "Show HN: A website for sharing the "Good, Bad, and Why"s of urban spaces"

kappasan — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 19:16:23 +0000

I guess you're referring to this one? https://dedede.de/en/posts/CimzQqTYi4

FWIW that's a post I made myself - the German embassy in Tokyo put up a series of posters explaining some German words, and that's the image they chose for "schadenfreude".

New comment by kappasan in "Show HN: A website for sharing the "Good, Bad, and Why"s of urban spaces"

kappasan — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 19:11:51 +0000

I agree that is very true. We'll see if there are free (or very cheap) solutions we could use.

New comment by kappasan in "Show HN: A website for sharing the "Good, Bad, and Why"s of urban spaces"

kappasan — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 14:24:05 +0000

Thanks so much, we'll look into it!

New comment by kappasan in "Show HN: A website for sharing the "Good, Bad, and Why"s of urban spaces"

kappasan — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 06:05:05 +0000

OP here - just to let you know the signup form asks for an email address, but we're just using it as the user ID so a non-working address works fine.

EDIT: apart from one minor inconvenience, you won't be able to reset your password if you forget it