Hacker News: przefur

New comment by przefur in "Ask HN: What are some good games to play in a video call?"

przefur — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 17:02:40 +0000

Codenames, avalon, saboteur. I'd suggest board game arena - it has tons of games and runs via web browser. Little to no access issues.

New comment by przefur in "Meta lays off 11,000 people"

przefur — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 12:11:02 +0000

Romania? Poland?

New comment by przefur in "Ask HN: Books that teach you to think"

przefur — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 08:42:10 +0000

I second this opinion, would recommend the book.

New comment by przefur in "Ask HN: My employer has about two months of runway left. What shoud I do now?"

przefur — Fri, 14 Oct 2022 09:22:56 +0000

There is a common saying in my social circle (europe, data engineering) - 'being fired is the best thing that can happen to you', the market is still hot, plenty of jobs available, you often end up with a severance package and ... you'll finally have time to backpack through the country. Having a month for yourself, just to chill, do hobbies, backpack, mountains sometimes is a blessing.

New comment by przefur in "Reading Soviet Sci-Fi at the End of the World"

przefur — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 15:14:01 +0000

Implying that Lem was a Soviet writer feels just wrong.

New comment by przefur in "Reading Soviet Sci-Fi at the End of the World"

przefur — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 15:09:33 +0000

Yeah, it felt so wrong to see Lem up there. The fact that he was renowned in Soviet Union does not make him any Soviet. From what I've read of his works + his biography, he reminds me more of early US science-fiction writers than any of soviet ones.

New comment by przefur in "Reading Soviet Sci-Fi at the End of the World"

przefur — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 15:06:02 +0000

I've had similar thoughts regarding the roadside picnic, the older I am, the more depressing it feels. I would highly recommend another Strugatskys book - 'Monday starts on Saturday', it is pure humor, as opposed to other works of theirs. It's about a soviet scientist that joins government's study on magic. Bureaucracy never been funnier, of course outside of 'The Twelve Tasks of Asterix', 1976.

New comment by przefur in "Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?"

przefur — Thu, 22 Sep 2022 09:43:29 +0000

Of the Ender series books, I've read the whole quintet - Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender in Exile. I've enjoyed all five of them, although the quality drops which each of the instance. Speaker for the Dead is worth the time for sure, the other three I'm not entirely convinced. Speaker won a Hugo award in 1987.

Of Card's novels, the Shadow Saga, is a pretty good read thou. I've enjoyed it more than the Ender's one. It is set in the same universe, and focuses on Bean - another child from the Battle School. It drifts towards political fiction.

New comment by przefur in "Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?"

przefur — Thu, 22 Sep 2022 08:04:31 +0000

If I were to choose three fiction, those would make the cut. Fiction:

The Invincible by Stanislaw Lem - It shed light on me in regards to microelectronics, swarm intelligence. Nothing ever eased my learning curve more for genetic algorithms like this short novel! It is also a good read in general. It also taught me that the difference in scientific vs force vs emotional approach to unknown. Would recommend as a springboard from a day-to-day acitivities.

Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky - a Soviet sf classic, I've read it 3x already. It tells a story about a closed zone where 'aliens' left their artifcats, and how that changed people around them.

Ender's Game - I don't think there is an explanation needed. It is a total classic. It helps a lot to understand outsiders, not just aliens but a humans too.

All of the above are either hard or soft sf.

New comment by przefur in "UX Testing for Public Infrastructure"

przefur — Tue, 20 Sep 2022 13:54:14 +0000

It's actually refreshing to read about airport that has been properly decorated with signs. Without proper information it can get really messy. This plus the stress that often comes with visiting airports makes it a really tough UX case. I'm glad that this terminal was tested properly, I wish some airports could do the same in following months! Also, worth nothing, “wide enough to open the door and roll in a bag without bumping into anything,” This sounds like an absolute opposite to hostile architecture trend that spawns public places nowadays.

New comment by przefur in "Ask HN: What games are you having fun with?"

przefur — Mon, 19 Sep 2022 14:43:56 +0000

Disco Elysium is a piece of art! A lot of text, but what a fulfilling experience. It is, sadly only a one timer. For continuous entertainment I can recommend Into The Breach - the best UX of a strategy game I've ever seen. It is replayable for hours and hours, and is great at every moment of gameplay.

New comment by przefur in "The term ‘quiet quitting’ is worse than nonsense"

przefur — Mon, 19 Sep 2022 09:22:36 +0000

In Poland we have a different name for that phenomenon 'pilnowanie domu' which translates to 'guarding the house / watching the house'. It does have a implication in the name, that those who are affected tend to do nothing productive or organized, they just sit and watch.

It's a sad reality for some people, I do know some people that are living this way.

New comment by przefur in "Why didn't Frodo just hop on the back of one of the eagles and fly to Mt. Doom?"

przefur — Fri, 16 Sep 2022 11:16:24 +0000

"One does not simply walk into Mordor," Boromir says. "Its black gates are guarded by more than just orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep. The great eye is ever watchful."

I'd assume the great eye w/o all the distraction caused by war would've easily sniped the eagles.

New comment by przefur in "Ukraine’s Astronomers Say There Are Tons of UFOs over Kyiv"

przefur — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 09:52:54 +0000

The title of he article caught me off guard, but there is no wrong, per the definition UFO - unidentified flying object. Due to influence of popular culture, the UFO acronym is easily mistook for 'alien craft' in some parts of the world. I do wonder what those UFOs are, intuition would say rockets or satellites.

New comment by przefur in "Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?"

przefur — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 17:19:18 +0000

Free to Play (2014) [1] I've enjoyed this documentary a lot. It follow three DOTA players and theirs life prior to 'The International', a first million dollar e-sport tournament. What caught my attention the most, is that, despite the three main characters (Dendi - Ukraine, Fear - USA, hyhy - Singapore) come from very different backgrounds and cultures, they treat the game almost the same - as a way of living.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjZYMI1zB9s

New comment by przefur in "Factorio is coming to Nintendo Switch"

przefur — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 17:13:43 +0000

Great news, I'll have to buy Factorio yet another time! I do wonder about the battery life and performance of larger factories thou.

New comment by przefur in "The last person standing in the floppy disk business"

przefur — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 17:10:45 +0000

I've read an article about Japanese policeman that've lost a floppy disks with personal data of some Japanese men, it was a story from this January.

This data leak, due to obscurity and the volume was more of a joke in my country, than a serious news. I do however wonder, what it was back in the day? I've never heard of any large scale data leaks involving floppy disks, perhaps I'm too young.

New comment by przefur in "The last person standing in the floppy disk business"

przefur — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 17:04:06 +0000

As a person born in '95 I still remember floppy disks, it was probably the very first 'computer' thing that I've broken.

Heck, I still should have a pile of those stashed in the basement, maybe it's a good time to plug the reader to my PC, and dig through those?

This article was really well written, good reading!

New comment by przefur in "Ask HN: What LaTeX editor do you use?"

przefur — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 11:06:35 +0000

Seconding this, I'm using the same and it just works.

New comment by przefur in "Japan wants young people to drink more alcohol"

przefur — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 14:13:46 +0000

Well, that doesn't sound surprising. I'm glad that my country have gotten past soviet-era drinking. Nowadays the issues are just about the whisper marketing on social media which I hope soon will be regulated.