a4isms

5 ms·

1.
by a4isms 4d ago
Don't talk to me about the 90s if you weren't soaking a tennis ball in lighter fluid and firing the flaming missile out of a "potato gun" made out of beer cans... in the 70s. Also something about all the kids trying to i
2.
by a4isms 6d ago
Another analogy can be found in the current way that automobiles are sold. For new models that are considered desirable, they maximize their margins by putting expensive limited editions with desirable badging and options on sale first. It
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by a4isms 9d ago
I can't speak for anyone else, but I suspect that Amazon are nearly continuously planning for automated deliveries. Drones? Trucks with lockers that stop in front of your house and you retrieve your delivery? I dunno, but there'
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by a4isms 18d ago
> my TOS doesn’t matter, but theirs does? Wilhoit Conservatism: In-groups protected by contract law but not bound by it, alongside out-groups bound by contract law, but not protected by it.
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by a4isms 21d ago
Nevertheless, you are still Wright to have your own say, and it is delightful to have commonality, no matter how "trivial."
6.
by a4isms 21d ago
In the 1970s, a bunch of us would have marathon sessions playing this newfangled game called "Dungeons and Dragons." It was a box set then, AD&D was yet to come. We played in a games club on Yonge Street in Toronto, and just d
7.
by a4isms 21d ago
As posted on Mastodon: “If I see Trump start walking around in Tim Curry’s hat or shoes, there will be trouble. Terrible, retributive trouble.”
8.
by a4isms 21d ago
Smaller role, but he was brilliant in "Oscar" with Marissa Tomei and some guy who was nominated for an Oscar in 1977 for the screenplay to "Rocky." Absolutely nobody else could make the word "elocution" sound s
9.
by a4isms 22d ago
Not that it matters, but my use case for Nitter and XCancel was to provide a link to accompany a screen shot when discussing a tweet on Mastodon. Now I'lll just use a screen shot, there is zero chance I will send them direct traffic of
10.
by a4isms 23d ago
I chose the names from The Flintstones, although the joke is not from the show. Ridiculously unimportant trivia: The Flintstones borrows heavily from The Honeymooners, was the first animated sitcom, and was also the first animated show aire
11.
by a4isms 23d ago
An old variation: Fred and Wilhelmina are in bed together. Fred tosses and turns, unable to sleep. "Fred, what's troubling you?" "You know Bjarne from the bank? Well, a balloon payment is due tomorrow on my loan, and I d
12.
by a4isms 2mo ago
This is well before most HN readers' time, but Michael Milken, the "Junk Bond King," was handed a $600,000,000 fine and a ten-year prison sentance for insider trading and racketeering. He was also barred from reëntering the s
13.
by a4isms 2mo ago
> Demanding similar changes at the thousands of smaller airports where A320-class planes land would be a non-starter. Perhaps similar: One of the reasons the Vickers VC10 was so successful in the 60s and 70s was that it could operate fro
14.
by a4isms 2mo ago
My 2c: The goal is longer, thinner wings than usual. Long and thin wings are far more efficient—think gliders and the U2. But beyond a certain width, those wings become incompatible with existing airports and other facilities for handling c
15.
by a4isms 2mo ago
In 2001, OG Business of Tech blogger Joel Spolsky famously said about Napster: Your typical architecture astronaut will take a fact like “Napster is a peer-to-peer service for downloading music” and ignore everything but the architecture,
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by a4isms 3mo ago
Video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=9h9wStdPkQY
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by a4isms 3mo ago
Another—very old—rationale: People write code differently when they know that it will be reviewed by people who will not only comment on it, but also form long-term impressions of the submitter's competence and fit based on the code t
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by a4isms 3mo ago
Excellent!
19.
by a4isms 3mo ago
With people I'm invested in, like a community (which includes co-workers), I start with some experience that they are good people, which provides an incentive to ask whether options 2 or 3 (or both) would work. Option 3 in particular l
20.
by a4isms 3mo ago
Here's a simple idea: You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into. And three interpretations to consider: 0: The default: That person is irrationally attached to being wrong. Best to walk a
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by a4isms 3mo ago
Feels like "I Don't Hire Unlucky People" all over again, but with extra tokenmaxxing steps. https://neonrocket.com/2014/05/rescued-from-the-ashes-i-dont...
22.
by a4isms 3mo ago
There is something of a tradition in the design world to use theft-shaped words for things we collect for inspiration/ideas. A piece of advice I followed in the 80s and 90s when paper was still a thing was to have a "Swipe File,&q
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by a4isms 3mo ago
The easiest metaphor for HN's evolution is that of gentrification: An outsider community forms in a down-market neighbourhood. Lacking money and power, it makes its own culture. That becomes "hip," and those with money start
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by a4isms 4mo ago
In addition to his book, I am constantly linking to "Intuitive Equals Familiar:" https://www.asktog.com/papers/raskinintuit.html A short must-read for people designing (via prompt or any other tool) user expe
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by a4isms 4mo ago
Jef was a huge proponent of incremental search. That hasn't become mainstream-ubiquitous, but it is certainly code-editor-ubiquitous. Jef being an extremist, he wanted incremental search as the only mechanism for moving the cursor. I
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by a4isms 4mo ago
Two connected anecdotes: 1. In the 90s, I had a struggling one-man Mac ISV, and would do gig programming on the side. I did a lot of work for boutique investment banks, and also for a "consulting" firm that did about 75% of their
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by a4isms 4mo ago
Or, investors do understand the difference, but think they're buying low to sell high to "greater fools." If the market can remain irrational longer than a fundamentals-driven investor can remain solvent, is it irrational t
28.
by a4isms 4mo ago
Or more specifically, didn't Tesla bail out Elon's cousins Peter and Lyndon Rive?
29.
by a4isms 4mo ago
A very long time ago, I found myself commuting to work alongside a centi-millionaire who happened to only own one car, a Volvo 740 Estate. His wife drove him to the commuter train station, and he shlepped to work like everyone else. I was r
30.
by a4isms 4mo ago
This is something you say aloud, while muttering "useful idiot" under your breath.

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