Hacker News Reader

dunstadon The clothes don't make the man (boy)

I'm sure Italy has its share of outcasts just as America has its share of well-balanced people.

dunstadon Slow, free range, idle parents can increase IQ and happiness

You wouldn't happen to have a link to the study you mention, would you?

Excellent point. I suppose books could be kept in libraries for atmosphere, even if nobody used them. Funny how a sensible point, when approached from the wrong angle, can be rendered nonsensical.

dunstadon The Apple Tablet

Made me laugh, but McDonald's has that plus food.

dunstadon The Apple Tablet

No one reads books anymore.

Explain why libraries are still operational, please.

dunstadon Tyler Durden’s Rules For Writing In The Zone

I thought it was interesting, if not especially original. Am I missing something?

dunstadon Welcome to HN: A refresher course on how to disagree... (2008)

Sarcasm? I can't tell.

dunstadon Has Hackers News Become Less About Hacking?

I interpreted Hacker News to be news for hackers, not necessarily news about hacking.

Edit: I see that sli posted the same thing farther down. My bad for not reading the whole thread first >.<

dunstadon Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young

If you had said "Sunscreen can be harmful" as opposed to "Sunscreen is harmful", your message might have been better received. Sunscreen is just a tool. It can do good things for you if you use it properly, and bad things if you don't.

dunstadon A Ponzi scheme that works

Duplicate clicky: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1006556

dunstadon How new technology disrupted America’s newspapers—in 1845

I think it's amusing that I read this article on what is probably the future form of news.

dunstadon Ask yourself: Will this get my users laid?

How, out of curiosity, would one go about checking whether the article has already been posted a hundred times?

dunstadon Beware humans bearing gifts.

There's definitely something wrong with this link.

dunstadon Browser Pong

Or, as the author says in his 'about' section, think with the box :)

dunstadon Getting things done by procrastinating

The essays linked to by the author are much more valuable than his own.

PG's: http://www.paulgraham.com/procrastination.html

Perry's: http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/

dunstadon Octopuses Carry Coconuts as Instant Shelters

A song inspired by that video (or possibly a similar one): http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2007/06/07/im-back-2/

dunstadon Octopuses Carry Coconuts as Instant Shelters

All hermit crabs use shells, all trapdoor spiders lay traps. I'm assuming that's the main difference between them and this octopus.

dunstadon Scientist discovers new way to repair damaged nerves

I like this better than what I came up with, but there are parts of it I still don't understand. I'm reading it like this: the new paint represents the growing neurons, and when the neurons grow that's increasing your potential brainpower.

The article says that you learn by pruning connections. I get the idea that as a baby you think anything is possible, and as life goes on you learn that trees can only walk in fiction, and when you touch something hot you get burned. That would be like removing paint.

But what I don't get is this: say you read an article about something you didn't know before, doesn't your brain make new connections (synapses) between neurons? How are those and neuron growth different, and how does the synapse learning fit into the paint model? Or am I misunderstanding how synapses work?

dunstadon Scientist discovers new way to repair damaged nerves

At a guess, I'd say it suppresses the growth to conserve energy, but that's just speculation. Were that the case, it seems like side effects would be minimal.

dunstadon The Science of Success

The author mentions 'key behavioral genes'. Does anyone know more about these?

dunstadon Step one is admitting you have a problem

Not everyone values their relationship with God as much as you appear to. It's called choice.

Edit: I see I've missed the point. The important part of the order is where work is placed on it, not where religion is placed. My bad.

dunstadon Living without money

Submissions dealing with minimalist lifestyles keep recurring on HN. Why does living with little interest this community so much? I'd speculate that it's because most people here have some kind of work they love, and this makes them realize they don't need much else, but I don't really know. It doesn't seem to interest people outside here as much.

dunstadon Living without money

Language is more than the denotation of the words comprising it.

dunstadon Living without money

Taxes are for money, not good will. You created a law taxing friendly favors.

dunstadon Living without money

He's just emphasizing the 'motion' part of the word emotion, since he's correlating emotion with motion. It's not a new word.

dunstadon Has sci-fi run out of steam?

While I haven't read Maps In A Mirror, I did read Card's Characters and Viewpoint, and found it rather lackluster in its advice compared to Stephen King's memoir. Considering that I like Ender's Game more than most of King's work, I thought that was a bit odd.

In response to your edit: sick in what way? I never got that sense.

dunstadon Has sci-fi run out of steam?

Ender's Game is the best science fiction story (or story in general) I've ever read, and much of what makes it science fiction fades into the background as you read. The important thing when I read is the character, whom I can relate to, not the technology itself, which I can't.

dunstadon Morality, Compassion and the Sociopath

He could have made one up, or portmanteau-ed something. That's what language is supposed to do when it fails to describe a concept.

dunstadon Brain-Like Chip May Solve Computers' Big Problem: Energy

My favorite part is when Boahen says of binary computing, "It was so brute force." I hadn't thought of it like that before, but it makes sense, and highlights how the perspectives of different people can shed light on a problem.

dunstadon Morality, Compassion and the Sociopath

I don't think he should've used the word sociopath. It already has a popularly accepted definition, and the concept that he's trying to represent doesn't fit well with it. If you want to read about real sociopaths, go somewhere else.