Hacker News: pcote

Trusting Others and Technology Choices

pcote — Mon, 03 Apr 2017 16:33:03 +0000

Article URL: http://hundredminutehack.blogspot.com/2017/04/trusting-others-and-technology-choices.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14024252

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Fun with Python and Monkey Patching

pcote — Mon, 27 Mar 2017 13:47:59 +0000

Article URL: http://hundredminutehack.blogspot.com/2017/03/fun-with-python-and-monkey-patching.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13967656

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

Drag and Drop Files with HTML5 and Flask

pcote — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 13:53:53 +0000

Article URL: http://hundredminutehack.blogspot.com/2017/03/drag-and-drop-files-with-html5-and-flask.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13914196

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

When Side Projects Become Brownfields

pcote — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 18:15:40 +0000

Article URL: http://hundredminutehack.blogspot.com/2017/03/when-side-projects-become-brownfields.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13804695

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by pcote in "Ask HN: Is Java EE worth learning in 2017?"

pcote — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 02:57:54 +0000

For me, the right fit is Python and Javascript. However, my problems and your problems are not the same. Java EE might be the best choice for what you are tackling for all I know. Also, you'll likely find that the year being 2017 is not as important as you think it is.

New comment by pcote in "How I use Anki to learn mathematics"

pcote — Sun, 11 Dec 2016 22:59:57 +0000

For me, Anki reviews are a morning ritual. I do whatever it scheduled for the day. Then, I take time to review weaknesses. Then I move onto doing my actual projects. A combination of project experience and curiosity inform me as to what new Anki cards I need.

So yes and no to your question. Anki by itself isn't useful for learning to program. Anki as part of a larger personal development system can be pretty effective from my experience.

New comment by pcote in "How Does the Electoral College Work and Is It Fair"

pcote — Sun, 06 Nov 2016 14:48:37 +0000

The first thing that pops into my brain is how memory allocation works on a computer. In that context, indirection works really well. My program makes a general request for memory resources. The vm handles talking to the operating system for me. The operating system deals with the virtualized and real addresses for accessing the memory my program needs. In most cases, I'm okay with this arrangement.

This issue is really all about systems in general be they computer or social. As things scale bigger, representative indirection becomes MORE important, not anachronistic as the article suggests. Said representation helps contain complexity and provides for a simpler interface.

And that's what the electoral college does. It simplifies things. It allows states to take care of their own election details. The central government doesn't have to much micromanage the details of every state. Their primary concern is who gets to that 270 electoral vote threshold. The fed level hopefully doesn't get too wrapped up in details of how ballots are cast or how votes are counted.

And yes, I concede that it's not necessarily "fair" and that there are edge cases that are unfortunate. But it is a reasonably stable and well-engineered system all things considered.

JQuery Ideas That Help Me Memorize Really Big Numbers

pcote — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 14:08:37 +0000

Article URL: http://hundredminutehack.blogspot.com/2016/10/jquery-ideas-that-help-me-memorize.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12684464

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by pcote in "RIAA takes on stream-ripping in copyright lawsuit targeting YouTube-mp3"

pcote — Sun, 02 Oct 2016 02:43:35 +0000

Morally, I agree with you. DRM is an exercise in futility. But you aren't really comparing apples to apples here.

I radio ripped my share of music too when I was a kid. It was a pain. I had no little control and often no warning about when a song I wanted would play. The dj would often talk over the start or end of the song. A song I wanted would sometimes fade transition with a song I didn't want. Reception sometimes stunk. If everything went right, the overall quality of the recording was still inferior to what you'd get if the single or album were just bought outright.

In the 80s, DRM was naturally built into the inconveniences of the technologies of the time. Now that technology has solved for those inconveniences, we find ourselves in a fundamentally different situation for both consumers and business.

Making an HTML5 Paint Program for Fun and Fun

pcote — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 13:53:54 +0000

Article URL: http://hundredminutehack.blogspot.com/2016/09/making-html5-paint-program-for-fun-and.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12597604

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by pcote in "Stepping Backwards from AngularJS to JQuery – An Experiment"

pcote — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 21:35:02 +0000

Functional, yes. I can't think of too many cases where JQuery has every prevented me from mutating anything.

New comment by pcote in "Stepping Backwards from AngularJS to JQuery – An Experiment"

pcote — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 21:26:38 +0000

That's not exactly the way I think of it. I try to be pragmatic about my tech choices, even if I might be wrong at times.

To pick on your NoSQL example. There was one project where I had a large set of records which were all JSON in a text file. There was no one set structure for it. Attempts to set up proper MySQL tables for these records didn't work out so well. It was only after the pain of trying that I decided that MongoDB made more sense for this "collection of documents".

New comment by pcote in "Stepping Backwards from AngularJS to JQuery – An Experiment"

pcote — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 21:01:34 +0000

Nope. jQuery came first. For me, it was a matter of spending a few years in Java shops. Most of the work was so server-side focused that I ended up forgetting a lot of my Javascript.

After leaving my last job, I decided I needed to update my skills and Angular seemed like a good road to go down. It was only recently that I decided to return to the old jQuery well to see what I could do with it vs. Angular. I'm glad I did.

New comment by pcote in "Stepping Backwards from AngularJS to JQuery – An Experiment"

pcote — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 20:48:35 +0000

I almost went down the event delegation route. The only thing that stopped me was having stumbled upon a tactic that happened to work where I just attached individualized event handlers one at a time. I appreciate the input and will make sure to give event delegation a second look.

Stepping Backwards from AngularJS to JQuery – An Experiment

pcote — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 17:17:02 +0000

Article URL: http://hundredminutehack.blogspot.com/2016/08/stepping-backwards-from-angularjs-to.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12383386

Points: 36

# Comments: 67

Python and JavaScript Jam Session – A Web Interface for Apt-Cache

pcote — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 12:13:20 +0000

Article URL: http://hundredminutehack.blogspot.com/2016/08/python-and-javascript-jam-session-web.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12247081

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Making Things Within the Quadrants of Want

pcote — Wed, 03 Aug 2016 14:52:04 +0000

Article URL: http://hundredminutehack.blogspot.com/2016/08/startup-ideas-and-quadrants-of-want.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12218311

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Flashmark – What It Is and Why I Made It

pcote — Mon, 25 Jul 2016 17:36:39 +0000

Article URL: http://hundredminutehack.blogspot.com/2016/07/flashmark-what-it-is-and-why-i-made-it.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12160182

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by pcote in "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Ending Poverty (2010)"

pcote — Sun, 17 Jul 2016 18:02:35 +0000

>> Seems that SV and Stanford could do a lot more to fix the issues closer at hand in the Bay Area (homelessness, unaffordable living, rising inequality) and the US in general before solving all the worlds problems. Lead by example sort of stuff

Speaking as someone who currently struggles financially, one of those three things is not like the other....

Homelessness and unaffordable living are things that could potentially threaten me personally. Rising (income) inequality does not. There are bonuses and fat paychecks being received all the time by upper management in a casino nearby where I live. Those well-off managers are not the sort of things that are worth losing sleep over.

Using Python to Play with Binary Files

pcote — Fri, 10 Jun 2016 12:25:55 +0000

Article URL: http://hundredminutehack.blogspot.com/2016/06/using-python-to-play-with-binary-files.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11875854

Points: 1

# Comments: 0