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flashm

205 karma · joined November 9, 2015

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flashm··on I moved my blog from IPFS to a server
‘ipfs add’ pins the file by default, not sure if that’s recent behaviour though.
flashm··on Ask HN: What DBMS would you recommend for read-intensive geospatial queries?
PostGIS would get you up and running, but is not particularly quick unless you have a budget and the knowledge to tune it. It is however probably the most mature, and will be able to do anything you need.

If you need read speed, check out Clickhouse, or something in memory, like Tile38. Clickhouse in my experience is at least 50-100x faster for a point in polygon than Postgis out of the box.

flashm··on Ask HN: What are your news sources other than HN?
The BBC is pro government. It was pro Labour for many years recently. It’s still fairly unbiased compared to most sources.
flashm··on Are we beyond using email as a login method?
Debunked how? It seems the consensus is that it’s just as secure as using a username and password and allowing the user to reset via email. It’s been discussed here a few times.
flashm··on Pineapple Fund looking to convert some funds to Bitcoin Cash
And 30 minutes is acceptable...?
flashm··on Ask HN: What is a good site to post remote/heavy travel programmer positions?
Hi, Whats the contact email?
flashm··on Ask HN: What's the best business for a tinkerer?
Interesting, can you elaborate?

Which platform/APIs do you use? What language do you program in? Where do you get back testing data from?

Thanks!

flashm··on My Hardest Bug Ever (2013)
...?

Nearly half a dozen? So five? In four years.

It's still interesting, and I don't suppose many people are searching for it so what's the issue with it being posted again?

flashm··on Ask HN: Experience with freelance development that is Not web dev or mobile?
Cheque writing software, written in COBOL.

Got the work through a family friend, it's his business. I had to learn COBOL (managed through Visual Studio these days thank god) and have ended up contributing to the main application, converting Microsoft c++ and c# examples into COBOL, e.g Gdi32 printing, windows forms, wpf and so on.

Luckily as it's Managed COBOL and based on .NET you can call classes written in C++/C# so I've been doing that where possible!

Good fun and completely different to my usual line of Web Dev.

flashm··on Show HN: 10,000+ places to work from near you
This is interesting for me.

Assume you're scraping those other sites (coworker etc) for their space data, and making it searchable in your app.

Have you had any issues with copyright etc? I have a venue finding website and have been toying with the idea of scraping some competitors for data

flashm··on Network Performance Issues in Europe
What's interesting about this is that Cloudfare seem to duck a big chunk of the flak - everyone immediately suspects their own server, as cloudfare gives a pretty generic error page.

Lots of people chasing Heroku on twitter currently, for example when it's not their fault at all.

flashm··on Implementing your own recommender systems in Python
I've always thought that music recommendation systems should look at the actual music, and not as much at the surrounding meta-data.

What kind of instruments are used? What key is it in? What structure is the song in? i.e does it have a standard format, is it prog, is it a symphony etc What language is it in? What Rhythms are used?

That information, used properly, should be able to actually recommend music that the listener enjoys, not just guesswork that is usually rubbish. The Spotify algorithm for example...

flashm··on Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26B
Here's looking forward to my Hotmail account email address being accidentally 'shared' with LinkedIn and the never-ending LinkedIn spam returning.
flashm··on The Japanese art of not sleeping
Canned and cartoned(!) coffee is all over the place now in the UK. Starbucks make a lot of it, and there seems to be quite a few smaller brands popping up.

It's all full of sugar though, more like slightly coffee flavoured milkshakes. Combination of the sugar and caffeine really works though...

flashm··on Hello world in every programming language
That's brilliant. The code in the web server is surprisingly readable.

I like the 'O RLY?' to start an if/else

flashm··on Apple Sent Two Men to My House
Thanks. I think perhaps the article should link to some context...
flashm··on Craig Steven Wright claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto
BBC argyle says that was calculated at 449USD per Bitcoin, so assuming nearly 1Billion USD or thereabouts when they were at their peak
flashm··on Experienced Programmers Use Google Frequently
I usually pack up for the day when that happens.
flashm··on UK spy bill will force tech firms to disclose future products before launch
Thanks! I will look seriously at this. My next business will definitely not be within the clutches of HM's finest.
flashm··on UK spy bill will force tech firms to disclose future products before launch
Yes please, where can I sign up?

Seriously though, I live in Berkshire, and am looking for decent places to move to. The grass is definitely always greener! :)

I have even begun to look at some roles in SF.

flashm··on Quora begins making money with the introduction of advertising
It seems to be the last resort to make money if you haven't got a real business.

Not everything has to be a business though. Quora (in my mind, at least) would be good in a distributed/federal setup, as would twitter.

flashm··on England and Wales House Price Analysis
It costs a lot less, runs smoother, and gives better service. At least that's the idea. Whether it works or not in practice is for another day.
flashm··on England and Wales House Price Analysis
Fortunately in the UK you don't pay capital gains tax on the property you live in.

You pay it on your second property I believe, but only if you sell, and only if it is a second property at that point.

CGT is also only 10% or 20% depending on your earning situation.

flashm··on England and Wales House Price Analysis
Well that would be crap :(

However, I did vote Blue, and I agree with the principal of small Government and that more should be privatised. Can't have my cake and eat it I suppose.

flashm··on England and Wales House Price Analysis
Here are some more datasets provided by HM's Government, there are a lot of interesting sets: https://data.gov.uk/data/search
flashm··on The Stupid Shit No One Needs and Terrible Ideas Hackathon 2.0
I would love to help out with this. Just followed you on twitter
flashm··on England and Wales House Price Analysis
Really? Where did you hear that?
flashm··on England and Wales House Price Analysis
This is really great. Even more interesting since I live in one of the very, very red parts in the south east so have a particular interest in how much my house is earning each year - a lot more than me, as it turns out.
flashm··on Guillory, who says he was ousted as Cruise co-founder, files counter-complaint
'Remains to be scene'

Who proofreads this rag?

flashm··on Medium and Twitter founder: ‘We put junk food in front of them and they eat it’
Ah sorry that's the way it read, probably my comprehension!

It's a very interesting field. I'm not waiting around for it to happen though, especially in the UK which is a very conservative country in the main.

I'm actively building my business so that I can take a back seat, or sell it within 3 years and thus spend more time solving different problems (that may or may not have a monetary end-game for me).

At the moment they are just side projects!

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