Hacker News: sudo_cowsay

New comment by sudo_cowsay in "Show HN: Teach your kids perfect pitch"

sudo_cowsay — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 06:10:13 +0000

I’ll admit, I don’t have perfect pitch. I do however have 2 friends with perfect pitch and a teacher with it. One of my friends says it is useless (they also play an instrument). The other 2 find that they are the exception to the “useless” rule. The other friend is training to be a composer and the teacher teaches students relative pitch with it. I’m sure if you used it properly it would indeed help with improv and learning. However, I don’t understand how it would help you play in tune. I feel like that’s more of relative pitch (which is what most professional musicians use). I also play a fretless instrument and I feel like playing in tune is more of muscle memory and subtly adjusting your fingers by the millimeter, and less about having perfect pitch. The areas between using perfect and relative pitch blurs a little though (which I think you might be confusing(?)).

For example, you can go like: Wham! “Oh that’s a little too high” and adjust (relative pitch)

Rather then: Wham! “Hmmmmmmm, that’s an an E not an F” (perfect pitch)

Fun fact: Itzhak Perlman promotes relative pitch and knowing the distance between notes rather than perfect pitch.

New comment by sudo_cowsay in "Show HN: Teach your kids perfect pitch"

sudo_cowsay — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 05:55:12 +0000

Thank you! That's really interesting. So it's like a muscle I guess. More you use it = better.

New comment by sudo_cowsay in "Show HN: Teach your kids perfect pitch"

sudo_cowsay — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:28:59 +0000

I feel like the pianist trained you rather than you achieving it like a little kid does. That happens sometimes if you put in the effort (learning/memorizing/training). While I am not old enough to know how it changes, could it be perhaps that what you had learned when you were 16 was in your mind a certain pitch and as ears change (a 16 year old can hear higher pitch than 30 year old), you don’t relearn it, therefore it’s shifted? Please correct me (pretty sure I’m wrong)

New comment by sudo_cowsay in "Show HN: Teach your kids perfect pitch"

sudo_cowsay — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:24:47 +0000

It’s not “real” perfect pitch. It’s more like training and memorizing. It doesn’t come as naturally as it does for kids.

New comment by sudo_cowsay in "Show HN: Teach your kids perfect pitch"

sudo_cowsay — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:23:44 +0000

Colors are useful. Perfect pitch is pretty much useless. The exception being a composer or school conductor (you really gotta scold those children, haha). While it is a fun trick to have, the practicality of it is very different from knowing what different colors are. The most useful application of perfect pitch I’ve seen is my high school orchestra teacher honing our intonation.

New comment by sudo_cowsay in "The founder of Craigslist has given away half a billion dollars"

sudo_cowsay — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 20:42:21 +0000

Looks cozy and nice. Pretty humble/modest for a guy like that.

New comment by sudo_cowsay in "Image Compression"

sudo_cowsay — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 23:20:10 +0000

shouldn't people have learned this in high school cs?

New comment by sudo_cowsay in "SpaceX to buy Cursor for $60B"

sudo_cowsay — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 01:28:27 +0000

Cursor has a very cluttered UI. Very unintuitive.

New comment by sudo_cowsay in "Show HN: Putt.day a daily mini golf game"

sudo_cowsay — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 02:43:08 +0000

Ain't even loading for my poor laptop. Sounds like a lot of fun though!

China has approved the first invasive brain-computer chip

sudo_cowsay — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 20:10:01 +0000

Article URL: https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/06/01/1138133/china-world-first-brain-chip/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48438075

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

New comment by sudo_cowsay in "Dropbox CEO Drew Houston to step down"

sudo_cowsay — Wed, 27 May 2026 09:46:44 +0000

dropbox vs drive???

New comment by sudo_cowsay in "Ferrari Luce"

sudo_cowsay — Tue, 26 May 2026 07:48:23 +0000

Ratioed

New comment by sudo_cowsay in "Over 97% of the 'Linux' Foundation's Budget Goes Not to Linux"

sudo_cowsay — Sat, 09 May 2026 06:20:33 +0000

is it investments or just donating/funding for no compensation?

New comment by sudo_cowsay in "How fast is a macOS VM, and how small could it be?"

sudo_cowsay — Sun, 03 May 2026 04:51:28 +0000

How do you VM it up? What tool do you use?

New comment by sudo_cowsay in "Spirit Airlines Is Winding Down All Operations"

sudo_cowsay — Sat, 02 May 2026 07:36:27 +0000

It's a fall down. Just like their stock prices.

Cold Rush: Cooling Quantum Computers

sudo_cowsay — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 04:32:34 +0000

Article URL: https://www.science.org/content/article/helium-3-runs-scarce-researchers-seek-new-ways-chill-quantum-computers

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47930482

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by sudo_cowsay in "Ask HN: Novel crazy ideas on reducing RAM usage"

sudo_cowsay — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 02:50:20 +0000

It was meant to be broad (for more creative responses). However, I would focus more on OS level.

Ask HN: Novel crazy ideas on reducing RAM usage

sudo_cowsay — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 02:18:29 +0000

Hi! I'm just wondering what kinds of software tools and ideas can be used/made to reduce the usage of RAM. Crazier the better.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47929809

Points: 3

# Comments: 9

New comment by sudo_cowsay in "DeepSeek v4"

sudo_cowsay — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 07:02:34 +0000

I sometimes wonder if there are any security risks with using Chinese LLMs. Is there?

New comment by sudo_cowsay in "I am building a cloud"

sudo_cowsay — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 07:33:35 +0000

inflation