Hacker News Re-Imagined

marttt information

@marttt

From 10/5/2015, 8:21:44 PM till now, @marttt has achieved 1695 Karma Points with the contribution count of 399.

Recent @marttt Activity

1 day ago • Comments on a post

I was completely blown away when I found this years ago. I'm a kid of the early 1990s, and this was music on dot matrix printers. I just couldn't believe my ears when I first listened to the whole thing.

I did some radio production back then and needed a soundtrack for a lecture by an eminent computer scientist from my country (he's got an oddball sense of humour, and he was approaching 90 at that time). Since our country is, well, poor as compared to Canada (where The User is from), the band was kind enough to allow me to use their composition free of charge (the initial fee they asked was well above my head). They sent me flac or wav files just like that. This still makes me feel warm when I think about that. Really nice people.

Their "Symphony No 2" is also on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m43MkQgF9p0

And on Vimeo (needs login): https://vimeo.com/16207657

Might be their old webpage: http://www.undefine.ca/en/projects/symphony-for-dot-matrix-p...

Would be really interesting to have a look at the actual code that made the printers work. I wonder what language they used, etc.

3 days ago • Comments on a post

I had a successful low-volume bookmark system in a single text file:

1. paste the URL in the file

2. add a free-form description to it by hand

The hand-typing part proved to be a fairly good "bullshit filter": typing a description is annoying, so I ended up storing only the most relevant links, for which I was willing to write a short description in my own words. Compare that to the save-and-forget systems where storing and tagging a link takes about a second.

If you like free-form systems, there's also good ol' One Big Text File, a strangely effective solution: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29661167

4 days ago • Comments on a post

As someone with rural/countryside roots, I recall similar advice on physical labor: it is best to work at a steady, consistent pace all day long without getting sweaty or breathless. You'll avoid (or postpone) dehydration, remain more alert and calm, and thus it is much easier to switch tasks immediately.

As a tree planter of several seasons, I've realized that this advice works remarkably well. Pushing yourself, sweating, drinking stimulating beverages instead of plain water etc seems to give you an edge while planting, but it's kind of deceptive in the long run IMO. Steady, moderately paced, but consistent, non-stop work is more effective in the grand total.

Then again, all this might come down to whether one is a "long distance runner" or a "sprinter" by personality and bodily characteristics. I guess I'm somewhere in between, but, approaching 40, these "100 meters in 9.2 seconds" daily life dashes are somehow starting to lose their appeal. Howdy, middle age!

11 days ago • Comments on a post

If you're afraid, don't do it; if you do it, don't be afraid. -- my dad

I remember reasoning like this a lot in my early adulthood when I had to to use our (diy, somewhat inaccurate and scary) table saw.

18 days ago • Comments on a post

Maybe Computer Science Unplugged would offer some inspiration? Teaching CS fundamentals without using a computer: https://www.csunplugged.org/en/at-home/

"Classic" version of the book with all the activities, also in PDF form: https://classic.csunplugged.org/books/

I would also recommend Elizabeth G. Hainstock's book "Teaching Montessori in the Home: The School Years" (and the first part, "The Pre-School Years", which is for children aged up to 5). IIRC, these books are from the early 1970s, but I was blown away by the clarity of the instructions, explanations and drawings. The School Years book is, obviously, aimed at somewhat older children, but it offers really interesting exercises and tools for teaching maths: https://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Montessori-Home-School-Years...

Best of luck and have fun!

20 days ago • Comments on a post

Several forestry workers I know used the same argument: while working with a brush cutter, they prefer not to use a FM headset because it would distract them away from also hearing what the machine's engine is doing.

I personally have also felt less concentrated and more mentally tired while trying to simultaneously cut brush and listen to music (let alone an intellectually challenging podcast). As a tinnitus sufferer, I use both ear plugs + best possible earmuffs to reduce the dangerous frequencies as much as I can. Works fine, and I can still hear the machine, too.

22 days ago • Comments on a post

See also The Sokal Affair on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair

Quoting that entry: "Sokal said he was inspired to submit the bogus article after reading Higher Superstition (1994), in which authors Paul R. Gross and Norman Levitt claim that some humanities journals will publish anything as long as it has "the proper leftist thought" and quoted (or was written by) well-known leftist thinkers."

23 days ago • Comments on a post

Have you noticed any significant mood changes as a result of fasting? Unexpected bursts of anger, impatience, being "too straightforward" with your peers or spouse etc? This is something I've experienced while on intermittent fasting.

1 month ago • Comments on a post

Re: mid-career, no papers -- does this effectively result in ageism inside the academia? Widespread, but poorly hidden?

1 month ago • Comments on a post

Tangentially related, but it reminds me of a quote by Nassim Taleb: "The curse of modernity is that we are increasingly populated by a class of people who are better at explaining than understanding, or better at explaining than doing." (from Skin in the Game)

I think he said this with regard to school system (teachers and teaching). Taleb's bitterness often feels tiring and pompously unfair (albeit also funny), but I have felt something similar after years of working in journalism.

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