Hacker News: stakkur

The Source of "Water" (2020)

stakkur — Fri, 23 May 2025 21:29:04 +0000

Article URL: https://jamesgill.net/waterword/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44076790

Points: 12

# Comments: 7

New comment by stakkur in "Why Is The Guitar Tuned Like It Is?"

stakkur — Fri, 07 Oct 2022 15:59:18 +0000

There are many guitar 'tunings', and many predate the 'standard' tuning the article refers to. Also, players make up different ones all the time, including using capos to temporarily change 'tuning' on the fly. The 'standard' tuning is by no means the only one.

New comment by stakkur in "Learning Is Remembering"

stakkur — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 14:48:26 +0000

If storing information and creating associations between bits of it were 'learning', then databases would be very smart indeed.

No, learning is not 'storing pieces of information in long-term memory and recalling them'. It's not the ability to recall information. At the very least, learning is information+behavior change+understanding+values and attitudes associated with the information. It's much more complex than memorization and recall.

New comment by stakkur in "Linux on the laptop works so damn well that it’s boring"

stakkur — Sat, 24 Sep 2022 22:24:41 +0000

Ah, cue the long thread of “No because my special combination of hardware/special configuration demands caused problems so Linux bad!”

New comment by stakkur in "Gen Z never learned to read cursive"

stakkur — Sun, 18 Sep 2022 14:42:27 +0000

* In order to write cursive legibly, you need to slow down*

And right there is one of the crucial cognitive and proprioceptive benefits of handwriting over ‘keyboarding’.

New comment by stakkur in "Gen Z never learned to read cursive"

stakkur — Sun, 18 Sep 2022 14:40:33 +0000

This is not true, of course. In the US, millions of students still learn and write cursive. Yes, even in public schools. Is it uniformly taught/practiced? No, but it’s far from ‘dying out’. My wife is a 20+ year public school teacher, and daughter attends a Waldorf school.

And all criticisms I read of cursive seem to utterly ignore the proven cognitive and other benefits of handwriting, instead focusing on ‘efficiency’ and ‘speed’ or—even sillier—comparing it to ‘keyboarding’ as if handwriting’s only value is its utility.

New comment by stakkur in "Privacy vs. “I have nothing to hide” (2019)"

stakkur — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 17:47:23 +0000

A: "I have nothing to hide!"

B: "Then stop wearing clothes."

A: "That's stupid, it's against the law to run around naked in public!"

B: "So what if we had privacy laws like that?"

A: "That's stupid, I have nothing to hide!"

New comment by stakkur in "Let’s make WordPress officially support SQLite"

stakkur — Mon, 12 Sep 2022 20:24:25 +0000

I would go further than the writer and say SQLite would be appropriate for almost all WP applications. Offhand, I can’t think of a meaningful use case that would make MySQL more preferable to SQLite.

New comment by stakkur in "Brickit scans your pile of bricks and gives you ideas, with instructions"

stakkur — Sun, 11 Sep 2022 21:45:20 +0000

Thereby defeating the fundamental benefit of playing with Legos. So much software tries so hard to replace what never needed replacing.

New comment by stakkur in "Queen Elizabeth II has died"

stakkur — Thu, 08 Sep 2022 18:46:08 +0000

As Queen, she met 14 US Presidents (15 total) and 16 Prime Ministers (17 total). Whatever our feelings toward the anachronism of hereditary monarchies, she's been a participant in (and witness to) a significant amount of modern history.

New comment by stakkur in "Reddit's favorite products in one place"

stakkur — Thu, 08 Sep 2022 16:24:33 +0000

frequency of appearance != favorite.

New comment by stakkur in "TIL: You can access a user’s camera with just HTML"

stakkur — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 19:35:25 +0000

Yep, I do.

New comment by stakkur in "TIL: You can access a user’s camera with just HTML"

stakkur — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 15:58:30 +0000

Reason #368 why I cover all cameras and disable mics by default, and only uncover/enable when in use.

New comment by stakkur in "Responding to recruiter emails with GPT-3"

stakkur — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 17:49:11 +0000

In fact, this is most recruiter inquiries.

New comment by stakkur in "U.S. life expectancy drops sharply, the second consecutive decline"

stakkur — Thu, 01 Sep 2022 04:10:26 +0000

Consider the dataset. Adjust expectations accordingly.

Why Did Garry Tan Block You on Twitter?

stakkur — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 22:14:32 +0000

Article URL: https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/why-did-garry-tan-the-new-ceo-of-y-combinator-block-you-on-twitter/article_3fdd1c1c-28b1-11ed-afa8-b3ba9ebc92cb.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32669028

Points: 42

# Comments: 13

Fountain: Plain Text Markup for Screenwriting

stakkur — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 15:18:57 +0000

Article URL: https://fountain.io/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32663254

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by stakkur in "Mikhail Gorbachev has died"

stakkur — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 00:39:27 +0000

Russia didn’t ‘transition to democracy’. This seems to be a particularly American fantasy.

Philosopher Emily Levine: I don't fear death, and you shouldn't either

stakkur — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 18:37:43 +0000

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsuV896pG-A

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32653556

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by stakkur in "Welcome Home, Garry Tan"

stakkur — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 16:00:22 +0000

Based only on your comment, I'm guessing you're unaware of Palantir's work with intelligence agencies even when Tan was there. Also, Thiel's mission from the start was this kind of work.

I served in the Marine Corps. I've had some exposure to Palantir's 'offerings'. It's a fucking nightmare of a company, morally and ethically, and it always has been.