Hacker News: svs

New comment by svs in "What is the nature of consciousness?"

svs — Fri, 02 Jun 2023 06:24:26 +0000

Childish Western philosophers. Not a single mention of Indian metaphysics which has deeply studied this problem. Not to be taken seriously.

New comment by svs in "Ask HN: Is it normal to fall out of love with coding?"

svs — Wed, 09 Jan 2019 08:59:10 +0000

Coding is transforming a set of problems into a particular level of abstraction. Higher levels of abstraction exist (team, business model, etc.) and it's perfectly fine to find them more fulfilling and interesting as one goes. I haven't coded in years as a result of being a founder and then CTO of a largish company. I don't miss it because my head is in a completely different place but equally absorbed in solving problems. And people are fascinating - hacking people, groups, teams, customers etc. is much more fuzzy and presents interesting problems as well.

New comment by svs in "India’s Aadhaar Software Hacked, ID Database Compromised, Experts Confirm"

svs — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 07:29:26 +0000

Biometric collection is always for specific purpose. General purpose, compulsory biometric ids exist only in Malaysia IIRC.

New comment by svs in "Chess over ActivityPub"

svs — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 06:30:52 +0000

If the creator of this is reading this - can you please stop flipping the board every time we click 'Next move'? It makes it impossible to follow the game. Thanks

New comment by svs in "The Crystal Programming Language"

svs — Sun, 15 Apr 2018 17:55:07 +0000

Try having a default value for a key in a JSON document that isn't null. In Go, this is pure torture. Then compare with the serde library for Rust. Go's lack of generics makes this kind of use case much harder than reasonable.

New comment by svs in "Scientists sent a rocket to Mars for less than it cost to make “The Martian”"

svs — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 19:20:51 +0000

so is not having women in STEM. Pick your poison.

New comment by svs in "Jq – Work with JSON on the command line"

svs — Fri, 02 Dec 2016 19:45:27 +0000

The JQ stackoverflow community is VERY helpful.

New comment by svs in "Jq – Work with JSON on the command line"

svs — Fri, 02 Dec 2016 19:43:58 +0000

Cannot accept user inputted script for json transform because Security nightmare! That's JQ's and JMESPath's secret sauce.

New comment by svs in "Jq – Work with JSON on the command line"

svs — Fri, 02 Dec 2016 19:42:24 +0000

JMESPath is nowhere near us powerful. No unique(), for example, which is very important when munging JSON

New comment by svs in "NPM and Left-Pad: Have We Forgotten How to Program?"

svs — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 09:26:45 +0000

The problem is not of small modules. The problem is lack of dependability. If the language patrons stand behind a set of modules and guarantee continuity and availability, it really doesn't matter what is in them and the world can continue regardless of how insane the module or the whims of any one author. This is not about the technical merits of having or not having a stdlib. The module in question could have been anything.

Making this about is-positive-integer misses the point that this is a social/political problem not a technical one. A language ecosystem must address concerns of business continuity as first class concerns.

New comment by svs in "Why Gold?"

svs — Sat, 12 Mar 2016 01:28:47 +0000

Correct. You can discharge any financial obligation with the legal tender and the recipient is obliged to accept it. We're saying the same thing.

New comment by svs in "Terra Bella"

svs — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 18:24:45 +0000

Which one do you prefer? Alan Parson's sombre take (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNiie_zmSr8) or Judas Priest's angry laser-tinged screed (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1B_pZC8aWU) as the soundtrack to our state of total surveillance?

New comment by svs in "Why Gold?"

svs — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 17:59:47 +0000

Yes, all of these are reasons why gold got started. A gold backed system is perhaps not even possible anymore let alone desirable.

Please see http://svs.io/post/69301254342/bitcoin-fud There are only two things we've used as money (metals and state power)

New comment by svs in "Why Gold?"

svs — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 17:56:42 +0000

Yes and at some point you need a token of value. Imagine the plight of the itinerant tradesman as he herds his chickens through the forest from village to village simply so he can trade.

No no, food is far too cumbersome to be a token of value. Much better to slip a tiny token into ones waistband and exchange it in the markets. Gold was an exceedingly good token of value.

Diamonds are not currency because they are not easily divisible. But they have been a store of value for centuries now, and that makes them money.

New comment by svs in "Why Gold?"

svs — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 17:48:49 +0000

The value of gold depends on the supply of it. The value of silver depends on the supply of it. The value of gold does not depend on the supply of silver. The two are separate currencies.

So for a currency to be stable, its supply has to be stable. The supply of other things need not be.

New comment by svs in "Why Gold?"

svs — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 17:44:45 +0000

Tungsten was first isolated in 18th century. Gold was already established by then.

New comment by svs in "Why Gold?"

svs — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 17:05:45 +0000

because of those five properties of gold.

New comment by svs in "Why Gold?"

svs — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 17:05:02 +0000

granted, but gold can be used as an ornament and money at the same time. use as an ornament does not detract from its use as money.

New comment by svs in "Why Gold?"

svs — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 16:38:40 +0000

Yes, but not at the time gold rose to prominence as a currency. In those days people needed mostly swords and axes.

New comment by svs in "Why Gold?"

svs — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 16:30:25 +0000

Paper money (fiat currency in particular) gets value because you can pay debts and taxes with it.