Hacker News: ynd

New comment by ynd in "Why the practical applications of Bitcoin will be limited"

ynd — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 20:50:34 +0000

Bitcoin is not susceptible to market control like eBay. eBay is a single entity so it is easy to coordinate self-serving decision. Bitcoin is multiple agents that have to co-operate. That prevents any one agent from making unilateral decisions.

Another huge difference is that anybody can become a new agent in Bitcoin. You just buy the hardware. You cannot influence or join eBay in the same way.

New comment by ynd in "Aug. 1, 2012: When Oculus Asked for Donations"

ynd — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 02:45:28 +0000

I think the kickstarter backers are really both investors and customers. They are investors because they do take a risk by paying for a product that doesn't yet exist. This leap of faith from these "customers" allowed Oculus to create a 2 billion dollar product.

People are mad because funding the project through kickstarter created some expectations that were not met. Funding through kickstarter feels like you're investing in grassroots human projects, but this made people realize that it's really just business as usual.

New comment by ynd in "Ask HN: How do you get a “PhD required” job without a PhD?"

ynd — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 02:04:48 +0000

FYI, Einstein was not a bad student. (http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/12/albert-einst...). It's just a myth.

Having a degree does not magically make you more qualified, it's the work you put it over the years to get your degree. The paper is useless, but the experience learned remains in your head.

Alain de Botton: A kinder, gentler philosophy of success

ynd — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 17:45:19 +0000

Article URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtSE4rglxbY

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4627964

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by ynd in "A machine that can dream (Live demo)"

ynd — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:21:37 +0000

It runs much faster with Chrome and Safari due to their better Javascript VM.

A machine that can dream (Live demo)

ynd — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:11:15 +0000

Article URL: http://npcontemplation.blogspot.com/2012/02/machine-that-can-dream.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3600166

Points: 7

# Comments: 2

New comment by ynd in "This photograph is free"

ynd — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 02:57:43 +0000

The main thing I take away from this is that he is not a professional photographer. Of course an amateur can afford to give away photos for free! However, I'm not sure he even realizes that what he says doesn't make any sense for a professional photographer trying to earn his livelihood.

New comment by ynd in "Moore's Law may work for years to come due to quantum anomaly"

ynd — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 16:53:29 +0000

It's disappointing you have to pay to see the original Science paper.

New comment by ynd in "Poll: How much did you earn from your stock options during exit?"

ynd — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:14:32 +0000

He is a victim here, why blame the victim over the perpetrators? Makes little sense to me. As well as saying "evil flourishes"...

New comment by ynd in "Is Talent Underrated? Making Sense of a Recent Attack on Practice"

ynd — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 19:44:48 +0000

It's amazing the authors of the paper didn't realize they were disproving their own conclusion with their results.

New comment by ynd in "Moka - Minimalist functional python library"

ynd — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 04:21:28 +0000

The doc at http://www.phzbox.com/moka/index.html is pretty complete. The only thing I find is missing is a few words about efficiency. Does calling List(l) copy the list l for example?

New comment by ynd in "Steve Yegge: Follow Up to His Accidentally Public Rant"

ynd — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 03:47:21 +0000

troll, also assuming roughly uniform paragraph lengths removing every third word is the same as removing every third paragraph. Maybe we're not as smart as you thought.

New comment by ynd in "Scheme vs. Commmon Lisp"

ynd — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:27:39 +0000

His main point is that Common Lisp is better than Scheme when you need to get things done. Scheme may be more elegant, but it's not developed with a focus on practical utility (i.e. no sort function in the standard).

New comment by ynd in "Now that people are considering NOSQL will more people consider no-DB"

ynd — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 04:05:38 +0000

Well I guess one difference between what he's proposing and mysql is that mysql forces you to write data abstractions that can fit into mysql. Same goes for NoSQL DBs. Using his approach you don't have to worry about that.

Not sure that justifies dumping DBs altogether, but it's still an interesting advantage.

New comment by ynd in "Now that people are considering NOSQL will more people consider no-DB"

ynd — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 23:27:24 +0000

When you say old-school DB do you mean something like mysql?

New comment by ynd in "37signals: A/B testing part 3: Finalé"

ynd — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:33:02 +0000

37signals are known and celebrated for their design style, and I think it's awesome that they are willing to experiment with new ideas and discard old ones. Particularly because the new designs in the post look nothing like their usual style.

New comment by ynd in "Write code like you just learned how to program"

ynd — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 05:37:38 +0000

I disagree with you because in some projects technical correctness is not the first priority. So why should you sacrifice everything in favor of it? In some settings, coding an ad-hoc solution is ugly but better in terms of the constraints (i.e. time, budget) of the project. For example, demos and prototypes.

Also, some programmers don't take satisfaction in writing good code, this article will encourage them to stay in their bad ways, so that's not good. I think this article is good for people who take too much satisfaction in writing good code. Good code is not always an end in itself.

New comment by ynd in "What the Hex? Guess the color."

ynd — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 19:00:21 +0000

For the record, I didn't write this. One of my friends must have played a trick on me.

New comment by ynd in "Ask HN: Feedback on Mixest, my HTML5 ironic indie Pandora"

ynd — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 17:47:42 +0000

Love it. One minor detail: on the ipad it doesn't automatically switch between songs, you have to press play each time. I don't know if that can be fixed though.

Motivating Students Via Mental Time Travel

ynd — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 01:02:16 +0000

Article URL: http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture-society/motivating-students-via-mental-time-travel-15122/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1431500

Points: 1

# Comments: 0