<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: zck</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=zck</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Mon, 13 Apr 2026 08:50:53 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=zck" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by zck in "The truth that haunts the Ramones: 'They sold more T-shirts than records'"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> Isn't a band's purpose to produce good music and aren't people supposed to like musicians because they produce good music?<p>There are two definitions of "good" here, that are different.<p>1. "good musician" means a musician who is skilled or adept in their instrument. I'm separating this from if a musician is good at writing music.<p>2. "good music" means music that is entertaining or enjoyable.<p>The Ramones were not incredibly skilled in their instruments. They wrote music that many people found enjoyable. They were not good musicians, but they created good music.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 26 Mar 2026 19:05:45 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47534362</link><dc:creator>zck</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47534362</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47534362</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by zck in "How to Have a Bad Career – David Patterson (2016) [video]"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>As he's mentioned, he has given this talk a few times, aimed at different audiences. One version of the talk has its slides here: <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bzis5MXW83vCdUdXYnFIVDVOSkE/view?resourcekey=0-z3gPdGk4ptNuguAM8e8liQ" rel="nofollow">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bzis5MXW83vCdUdXYnFIVDVOSkE...</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 21:44:58 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46995695</link><dc:creator>zck</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46995695</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46995695</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by zck in "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (February 2026)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p><p><pre><code>  Location: Boston, MA
  Remote: Yes
  Relocate: No
  Technologies: backend web for >15 years. I've worked recently in Kotlin and Java. I've also done some Go, and in personal projects have worked with a lot of different Lisps.
  Email: zkanfer@gmail.com
  Site: https://zck.org/</code></pre></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 02 Feb 2026 18:09:24 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46859135</link><dc:creator>zck</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46859135</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46859135</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by zck in "Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Your link includes this quote from Stevens:<p>> "The Olympic and Paralympic Games are the ultimate symbol of human excellence. I do not believe that financial insecurity should stop our nation's elite athletes from breaking through to new frontiers of excellence,” said Stevens.<p>And furthermore:<p>> By providing financial support for athletes so they can continue competing and by increasing that support for each Games in which they compete, the Stevens Awards will dramatically increase the likelihood that athletes will continue competing, and winning, for America.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 29 Jan 2026 10:50:22 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46808391</link><dc:creator>zck</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46808391</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46808391</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by zck in "Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The stated goal is that the money will help people do better in the Olympics. I don't see how it will do that. It might be good to do, but it won't help people perform better.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 29 Jan 2026 04:40:12 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46805877</link><dc:creator>zck</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46805877</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46805877</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by zck in "Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>How many of these normal careers pay a single paycheck of $100k that can't be cashed for twenty years? That's what this offer is.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 29 Jan 2026 02:20:46 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46804913</link><dc:creator>zck</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46804913</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46804913</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by zck in "Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Do you think a 21-year old fencer will be more competitive because of this money? A 17-year old swimmer? A 16-year old gymnast?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 29 Jan 2026 01:15:11 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46804377</link><dc:creator>zck</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46804377</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46804377</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by zck in "Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Is your argument that, if she knew she was going to get $100,000 in 2010, she would have been number 1 in the world in doubles in 1990? That's how I understand the stated goal of this gift.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 29 Jan 2026 01:03:33 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46804272</link><dc:creator>zck</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46804272</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46804272</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by zck in "Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> “I do not believe that financial insecurity should stop our nation’s elite athletes from breaking through to new frontiers of excellence,” Stevens said upon the announcement of his gift.<p>So his goal is to prevent money issues from being a thing getting in the way of athletes achieving. But he has structured it in a way that prevents the money from helping this goal.<p>>  Per the Wall Street Journal, “Half will come 20 years after their first qualifying Olympic appearance or at age 45, whichever comes later. Another $100,000 will be in the form of a guaranteed benefit for their families after they pass away.”<p>So half of it will never be seen by the athlete. Ever. And the other half will not be seen for at least two decades.<p>What Olympic athlete is not able to achieve as much because they don't have money decades down the road? Or because their heirs don't have enough money? I might be missing something, but how do these two incredibly-delayed payments help them train now? They can't use money they won't see for 20 or 30 years to hire coaches, buy equipment or pay for track time. They can't buy food or pay rent with money they will never see.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 29 Jan 2026 00:54:03 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46804175</link><dc:creator>zck</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46804175</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46804175</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by zck in "Ask HN: Share your personal website"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>My personal site is <a href="https://zck.org/" rel="nofollow">https://zck.org/</a> . Mostly textual posts about Emacs, Linux, programming. There are a few pages that are games, and I also have a page for my my generative art: <a href="https://zck.org/art" rel="nofollow">https://zck.org/art</a> .</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2026 18:41:00 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46637093</link><dc:creator>zck</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46637093</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46637093</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by zck in "What sets great managers apart"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> one of the most annoying things to me are managers who pull the "here's what I'm evaluating you on...now write up this self eval what you've done over the last year that fits these items and I'll copy paste it into your eval."<p>Every Friday morning, my company has a meeting for the teams to explain what they've worked on that week. Every Thursday afternoon, my manager asks me what I've worked on that week.<p>So when I do something, I have to explain that I did it at least three times:<p>1. In Jira.
2. In daily standup.
3. Every Thursday to my manager.
4. Sometimes in Slack, because no one reads Jira comments unless they're pointed to in Slack.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 18 Aug 2025 16:40:46 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44942601</link><dc:creator>zck</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44942601</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44942601</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by zck in "Lisp project of the day"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Someone else has given you the Common Lisp version. Here's one for Clojure:<p><pre><code>  (printf "x = %6d\ny = %.8E\n" x y)
</code></pre>
If I've understood everything right, and your example is in C, the format string in Clojure is identical to the one in your comment.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 25 Jul 2025 17:24:34 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44685730</link><dc:creator>zck</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44685730</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44685730</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by zck in "Mathematicians hunting prime numbers discover infinite new pattern"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> there's also the dubious, or trivial, or dunno (gotta generalize this pattern as well) of the first "consecutive" twin prime but they overlap which is 3,5 and 5,7.... which reminds me of how only 2 and 3 are both primes off by one; again, I need to generalize this pattern of "last time ever primes did that"<p>For the triplet n, n+2, n+4, exactly one of those numbers is divisible by 3. So the only triplet n, n+2, n+4 where all numbers are prime contains 3: 3, 5, 7.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 21 Jun 2025 21:49:42 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44340984</link><dc:creator>zck</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44340984</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44340984</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by zck in "Literal Fuck Hats Saved the Peregrine Falcon"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Weirdly, the hats remind me of things used for the opposite purpose -- diaphragm birth control (c.f. <a href="https://healthjade.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/coil-spring-diaphragm.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://healthjade.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/coil-sprin...</a>), or rolled condoms.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 04 Jun 2025 21:36:50 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44185815</link><dc:creator>zck</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44185815</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44185815</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by zck in "Amelia Earhart's Reckless Final Flights"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p><a href="https://archive.is/5kYUW" rel="nofollow">https://archive.is/5kYUW</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 04 Jun 2025 21:32:39 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44185784</link><dc:creator>zck</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44185784</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44185784</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by zck in "Binary Wordle"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I also made some number-based wordle-variants, which I call "numberdle". I found that it was hard to come up with good ways of guessing because wordle has the restriction that <i>most</i> combinations are invalid. You won't ever have to guess xwqqf, because that's not an English word. And more importantly, guessing some letters gives you information about the other letters. If you find out three letters, and have the target as _a_ts, you can use that to figure out the other two letters.<p>But if you need to guess a number, and you know it's _5_34, having three correct digits don't help you figure it out.<p>So I made some variants where guessed values <i>do</i> help you figure out the correct answer.<p>In rationerdle (<a href="https://zck.org/numberdle/?variant=rationerdle" rel="nofollow">https://zck.org/numberdle/?variant=rationerdle</a>), you have to guess a rational number x/y, where both x and y are between 1 and 99, inclusive. It displays the rational number you actually guessed, and whether x and y separately are too high or too low.<p>In factordle (<a href="https://zck.org/numberdle/?variant=factordle" rel="nofollow">https://zck.org/numberdle/?variant=factordle</a>), the player has to guess the factors of a target number.<p>In formuladle (<a href="https://zck.org/numberdle/?variant=formuladle" rel="nofollow">https://zck.org/numberdle/?variant=formuladle</a>), there is a graphed straight line, and the player has to guess the mx+b formula that graphs that line.<p>I would like to make more, but didn't have any other great ideas when I ran out of interest.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 04 Jun 2025 20:28:48 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44185131</link><dc:creator>zck</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44185131</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44185131</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by zck in "In the US, a rotating detonation rocket engine takes flight"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>>...if you substitute fuel "burning" process with subsonic propagation used in every conventional engines with fuel "explosion" process with supersonic wavefront...<p>This fragment confused me, because it looks like there are three substitutions. There aren't; there's only one. Read it as:<p>If you substitute fuel burning (which has subsonic propagation, and is used in every conventional engine) with fuel explosion (which has a supersonic wavefront)...<p>The first and third "with" link a noun (the respective process) with a property (how fast it shoots gas out the back). The second "with" is the substitution.<p>English is hard! I'm a native speaker, and I had to take a look at a few webpages to understand just this part! And I'm still left with questions, like why subsonic is described as having "propagation", but supersonic is described as having a "wavefront". Is this a distinction with a difference? I don't know.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 16 May 2025 16:08:50 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44007112</link><dc:creator>zck</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44007112</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44007112</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by zck in "Moving Forth: a series on writing Forth kernels"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I understand implementing words as you think they should be. However, you need the core first, and that's where I'm working right now. I'm trying to get the central loop, dictionary, and threading model functional.<p>Which brings up another complication -- the threading model. There are multiple, of course. But sometimes I want to figure out, for example, what the `w` variable does. Is it different between indirect threading and subroutine threading? Maybe!</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 15 May 2025 19:58:55 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43998723</link><dc:creator>zck</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43998723</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43998723</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by zck in "Moving Forth: a series on writing Forth kernels"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Writing a Forth myself, I find it somewhat frustrating that I have relatively different design restrictions than these guides. I don't need to be incredibly low-power, so I'm using C, not assembly. I'm not a great C coder, and I've never done assembly, so I find it hard (but not impossible) to learn from assembly. Also, because it's not assembly, I can't just JUMP to code the same way assembly can.<p>It's also frustrating trying to understand some of the lowest-level information. For example, a few systems have a very fundamental `w` variable -- but what is is used for? You can't search for it. Or just using registers and having to remember that %esi is the program counter (aka instruction pointer).<p>I keep wanting to make a series of diagrams to really understand Forth's program flow. It makes sense in concept, but when I go to program it, there are a lot of nuances I keep missing.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 15 May 2025 17:25:36 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43997238</link><dc:creator>zck</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43997238</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43997238</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by zck in "UTC is Enough for Everyone, Right? (2018)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm not sure this exactly is what I'm thinking about. Yes, `at time zone "UTC"` does the proper conversion, so all times will represent the exact instant they should. But in no cases do you know what time zone the data came in as -- that information is <i>thrown away</i>.<p>When you look at your data, what is the time a user's watch said when the data was input? What time zone was the data input as?<p>Here's some queries:<p><pre><code>  create table tz_test ( comment varchar, ts_tz timestamptz );
  
  insert into tz_test (comment, ts_tz) values 
  ('midnight US Eastern', timestamp with time zone '2025-05-13 00:00:00-4'),
  ('4am UTC', timestamp with time zone '2025-05-13 04:00:00+0');

  select comment, 
         ts_tz
  from tz_test;
</code></pre>
I would expect that one row comes out as midnight, and the other row comes out as 4am. But they both come out as midnight. That's what I don't like.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 14 May 2025 23:44:37 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43990358</link><dc:creator>zck</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43990358</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43990358</guid></item></channel></rss>