Hacker News: mna_

New comment by mna_ in "A misalignment of AI in mathematics"

mna_ — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 20:06:22 +0000

Chess is kept afloat by chess players, not by billionaires. If all the billionaire backers stopped sponsoring tournaments, people like me would still play, still pay for chess club memberships, still pay entry fees for tournaments, and still buy chess books, and so on.

New comment by mna_ in "Ask HN: Books Written for Polyglots?"

mna_ — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 08:55:34 +0000

The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton is written primarily in English but has a lot of Latin and some Greek in it. To read it properly and fully, you would need to know all three languages.

New comment by mna_ in "The Golden Age of British Ice Cream"

mna_ — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 20:16:12 +0000

Cheers!

New comment by mna_ in "The Golden Age of British Ice Cream"

mna_ — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 08:22:57 +0000

> including ice cream.

Name some brands please.

New comment by mna_ in "Coursera Bets $100M That Andrew Ng Can Do What Coursera Can't"

mna_ — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 08:39:03 +0000

Coursera stinks now. Extremely slow load times, annoying AI chatbot that takes up the right half of the screen on the landing page, and a lot of courses that were free are now behind a paywall.

New comment by mna_ in "US oil inventories fall to 'precariously low' level as Iran war disrupts supply"

mna_ — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 08:27:41 +0000

Nitpick: Iranians didn't invent chess. Four player chess called Chaturanga was developed in India, then it was picked up by the Iranians (in Farsi, it's Shatranj) and later the Arabs (at some point here, it became a 2 player game). Then the Spanish picked it up from the Arabs. The Spanish and the Italians buffed the Queen and Bishop allowing these two pieces much greater movement, and this is chess as we know it today.

New comment by mna_ in "The Case for Free Online Books (2014)"

mna_ — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 08:28:45 +0000

Some more free ones:

Abstract Algebra by Judson - https://judsonbooks.org/abstract-algebra-theory-and-applicat...

Linear Algebra by Hefferon - https://hefferon.net/linearalgebra/

Real Analysis by Lebl - https://www.jirka.org/ra/

Differential Equations by Lebl - https://www.jirka.org/diffyqs/

These should be enough to give you a first and second year undergrad level education in mathematics (minus stats&probability).

New comment by mna_ in "Ask HN: How did you discover Hacker News?"

mna_ — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 08:37:55 +0000

A chatter linked HN on #commonlisp on freenode back in 2011.

New comment by mna_ in "Poll: How often do you check "newest"?"

mna_ — Sat, 30 May 2026 07:40:41 +0000

My HN viewing habit: check frontpage quickly (only the frontpage, rarely beyond that), check "new" for 5-6 pages to see if anyone has posted something cool, and then lastly check "active" and go through every page because that's where the interesting discussions are.

I used to think the frontpage was natural and unadulterated but then I learned that dang, tomhow, et al "curate" the frontpage, so you essentially see what they want you to see, but with "active" there's less of that.

New comment by mna_ in "A sentimental tour of late 1990s and early 2000s hacking tools"

mna_ — Mon, 18 May 2026 09:25:18 +0000

Who remembers milw0rm.com?

New comment by mna_ in "JP Morgan to scrap £3B London HQ if Starmer is replaced by PM 'hostile to banks'"

mna_ — Wed, 13 May 2026 07:46:10 +0000

These banks and consultancy companies just hoover up all the talent and bright minds from our best institutions. You wouldn't believe the amount of Oxbridge grads I've met who now work at McKinsey&Co, Jane Street, etc. This is why we're faltering in STEM when compared to China. Our brightest don't become mathematicians, physicists, chemists, engineers, and so on anymore. Instead they become bankers and consultants at vampiric companies, with the sole goal to make rich people richer.

New comment by mna_ in "How Many Children Learned Mathematics from Kiselev's Textbooks?"

mna_ — Tue, 05 May 2026 08:29:08 +0000

>In a typical American or British arithmetic textbook of the same period ...

British students were taught from Euclid's Elements until around the 1970s, so he's wrong.

New comment by mna_ in "The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced"

mna_ — Sat, 02 May 2026 08:49:07 +0000

For me, it's The X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Simpsons and Malcolm in the Middle. Those are the shows I watched as a kid and I'll love them forever.

New comment by mna_ in "GTFOBins"

mna_ — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 07:53:10 +0000

I've used them for pwncollege CTFs but pwncollege is way below your level (I've seen some of your write ups before).

New comment by mna_ in "Tactical Success, Strategic Failure? Washington Walks the Path to Defeat in Iran"

mna_ — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 08:30:02 +0000

Bombing people (including kids) is not "trimming the grass".

New comment by mna_ in "The Pentagon Threatened Pope Leo XIV's Ambassador with the Avignon Papacy"

mna_ — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 08:25:12 +0000

>on the Christian and Jewish sides, it's led by people who have no sincere belief in the respective religions, but hijack it for their personal power.

Have you read the Old Testament? It's full of war.

New comment by mna_ in "No One at Waffle House Remembers FEMA Official Who Says He Teleported In"

mna_ — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 08:34:00 +0000

When I get sleep paralysis, I either see shadows or aliens (the typical Hollywood grey ones with big heads) surrounding my bed.

New comment by mna_ in "Brain scans reveal how to enters a psychedelic-like trance without drugs"

mna_ — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 08:18:47 +0000

I did this as a teen but I wasn't trying to meditate. I just wanted to listen to my favourite albums without any distractions. Anyway, I'd almost always fall asleep. How do you stay awake?

New comment by mna_ in "The house is a work of art: Frank Lloyd Wright"

mna_ — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 08:06:24 +0000

You might like the British TV show Grand Designs.

New comment by mna_ in "What major works of literature were written after age of 85? 75? 65?"

mna_ — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 09:04:39 +0000

For the most part, he plays normal openings. If he does play something offbeat, it's because he's trying to avoid prep.