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johnobrien1010

260 karma · joined July 31, 2012

python programmer wannabe
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johnobrien1010··on Falcon 3.0 game manual (1991) [pdf]
If you detailed game you may enjoy DCS manuals as well: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/downloads/document...
johnobrien1010··on The Third Wave (Experiment)
I think the implication is that he completely made it up.
johnobrien1010··on Maine's constitution has unprintable sections
Yeah, IMHO title should probably be has unprinted sections, not unprintable sections
johnobrien1010··on Tuple Spaces (Or, Good Ideas Don't Always Win) (2011)
Python implementation: https://pypi.org/project/lindypy/
johnobrien1010··on It Took Me a Decade to Find the Perfect Personal Website Stack – Ghost+Fathom
I don’t do a ton of blogging anymore but I’ve been impressed with Publii. You can piggyback it in GitHub so the incremental cost is very low/nothing.
johnobrien1010··on Ask HN: For a startup website to show customer logos, do you need permission?
Legally you do not need permission, it is considered fair use. Business wise and so on is another matter.
johnobrien1010··on Ask HN: The biggest lies society/industries have told us or still tell us?
Lying about jury nullification.
johnobrien1010··on The Modos Paper Laptop
Link to the project as promised for anyone interested in making such a device:https://medium.com/garage-adventures/eink-laptop-based-on-on...

Requires a largish 3d printer (which I happen to have, one of the advantages of co-owning a makerspace:https://revolutionmakerspace.com/) or ordering a 3d print online.

johnobrien1010··on The Modos Paper Laptop
I'm one of those guys who cobbled something together in my basement.

I'm on my mobile so don't have a picture but will post one later.

One surprising thing to me?

I don't use it. At least, not much in comparison to my actual laptop.

It reminds me of folding keyboards for cell phones. I've bought a couple and thought, these are great, they'll make inputting text on a cell phone so much easier... except I don't end up carrying them around in my pocket, and so end up typing on my mobile phone using the touchscreen just like everyone else.

People think that a distraction free device will allow them to achieve their goals but it is actually the discipline to do the work which will allow them to achieve their goals; the device probably won't change that.

johnobrien1010··on Half Baked
I agree. With some customers/prospects who I know won't take wireframes as commitments or think poorly of something have baked, I share such ideas. I'm hesitant to do so to a wide general audience.
johnobrien1010··on Half Baked
I'm a product manager. One of the things I'm moved towards doing with engineering teams over the years is bringing ideas when they aren't fully fleshed out sooner to engineering teams. It really helps do a couple of things- it saves time, if it is a bad idea, I found out sooner rather than later. And if it is a good idea, it gives other people the opportunity to contribute to it, making it their own as well as mine, which helps everyone on the team take more ownership of the outcome and have a better feeling of purpose in life. I think you need to earn credibility before you start doing it but once you have that credibility I highly recommend it.
johnobrien1010··on Ask HN: What happened to Twitter poison pill?
Good analysis from Matt Levine for those who are interested:https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/authors/ARbTQlRLRjE/matthe...
johnobrien1010··on Ask HN: What book changed your life?
Moral Mazes by Robert Jackall
johnobrien1010··on Ask HN: Do I have to host all data in the EU to comply with GDPR?
No, you don't have to host in the EU. There is no section of GDPR that says you have to host in the EU.
johnobrien1010··on Google reportedly promises change to research team after high-profile firings
I submitted this because I found the content of the paper which led to Timnit Gebru’s exit remarkably non-controversial:http://faculty.washington.edu/ebender/papers/Stochastic_Parr...

Reading the paper, does anyone see any reason why there would be a legitimate reason why someone would move to block submitting it for publication?

johnobrien1010··on You need to be able to run your system
I one time met a guy who was trying to debug an issue he was having in production on a sprawling Django code base which he couldn't run in any other environment. It was impossible until he got the system running in the local environment.

I also came on once to a set of projects where there wasn't a good separation of the environments; test and prod shared the same database, b/c it was "too hard" to replicate the prod data back to test. Consequently, no real DBA work could be done b/c it couldn't be tested, only small hot-patchy kind of work.

Separation of concerns is a slightly different problem but the root cause of the issue is similar, you need to be able replicate the complexity of your system in production as much as possible in a lower environment, otherwise you won't be able to make as significant changes as you'd like to your system.

I don't think this is terrible advice, while I recognize there are limits to what is possible to run locally/in lower environments, the central notion of 1) separation of concerns and 2)matching the complexity of the lower environment to production as much as possible is I think good advice.

johnobrien1010··on Ask HN: How to Take Good Notes?
Some tips for taking notes during meetings: https://medium.com/@john.obrien/how-i-take-notes-during-a-me...
johnobrien1010··on Almost everything on computers is perceptually slower than it was in 1983 (2017)
Why do people keep writing essays on twitter instead of writing an essay and posting it as a blog post?
johnobrien1010··on Unbearable news
If anyone in the comments can figure out a sustainable business model for news that doesn't involve bloat-inducing ads or unrealistic expectations of consumers paying subscription fees, I'll Venmo them (money to buy) a beer.
johnobrien1010··on My name causes an issue with any booking
My name is John O'Brien. I can't tell you the number of times using my name breaks web forms.

One time at work, I insisted on getting access to a system I manage. When they added my name, the whole system came down for a day in production. I told them never mind, they deleted my name from the list of registered users, and the system came back up.

True story.

johnobrien1010··on How to Become the Best in the World at Something
"The easiest way to be at the top of your field is to choose a very small field." - Simone Giertz, TED Talk, May 14, 2018 https://singjupost.com/why-you-should-make-useless-things-si...
johnobrien1010··on Ask HN: What do you do with your Raspberry Pi?
I built a device that pulls the weather from Darksky and displays it on electronic paper every hour.
johnobrien1010··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (February 2019)
Wolters Kluwer | Waltham, MA | https://wolterskluwer.com/| ONSITE | Full-time

As a global provider of professional information, software solutions and services, our work at Wolters Kluwer helps to protect people’s health, prosperity, safety, and legal rights while building better professionals in business.

Hiring an Associate Product Manager (Insurance Research Tools) https://recruiting.adp.com/srccar/public/RTI.home?c=1218201&...

Questions: HRSource@WoltersKluwer.com

johnobrien1010··on Ask HN: Suggestions for product management courses for a software engineer?
I'm not sure of any good courses. Getting an MBA is often helpful for getting into PM.

Here is a list of books I'd recommend:

Tuned In Joel on Software Don't Make Me Think The Lean Startup The Mythical Man Month The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO The Design of Everyday Things Escape Velocity Competition Demystified The Art of Agile Development

johnobrien1010··on Thoughts on Insurance
One thing I'd add is that the potential for new technology to better identify risks also is the potential to nullify the need for insurance. It is fundamentally the uncertainty over which house will burn down that leads to the need for insurance; if anyone had a 100% accurate model, the folks who were definitely not going to have their house burn down would not need insurance.
johnobrien1010··on How Python Makes Working with Data More Difficult in the Long Run
It seems like the argument is because the language doesn't force you to use static types, in the long run it could be bad.

But since it provides you the option to use static types, I think the limitation is more in whether you do so or not, not in the language. If anything, by not forcing you to use static types, the language provides more options, which seems like a good thing...

johnobrien1010··on Printer's key
Other fun book facts: by looking at the length of the number that is the second to last digit in the ISBN, you can tell how many large an ISBN block the publisher bought, which often relates to the size of the publisher. If it's only two digits, they only bought a block of 100 ISBN's, so they're probably a very small publisher. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Nu...
johnobrien1010··on What Killed Straight Pool? (2005)
I wonder if I'm the only guy out there in his 30s who still plays straight pool?
johnobrien1010··on New Requests for Startups
Reading the new list of Y-Combinator “Requests for Startups”, the Financial Services request really resonated with me.

Probably the best investing advice for people is really straightforward; you need to start saving now in order to reap the benefits when you retire.

A set of simple questions, such as your age, whether or not you are contributing to a 401k, and your net worth would probably get you 90% of the way there; from that information alone, most investing advice would follow based of basic mortality statistics, historical stock market performance, and the average retirement age.

The hard part is to start putting money away; that is, to start saving a significant portion of your savings and investing them in the market.

One way to do that might be to make it a one-time decision. What if there was a site where in order to sign-up you were required to setup direct deposit to special investing account? The investing account would, in turn, take a percentage of your salary, and invest it in age-appropriate index funds. The remainder would be re-deposited into a person’s local checking account. That way, it would feel like you only had the net amount that ends up in your checking account, and the invested amount would be removed before you had a chance to contemplate spending it.

A setup like this is something that someone could easily do for themselves using a discount broker, but a site that would more or less make it a one-time decision could be really helpful, because it would remove much of anxiety and education that a person typically has to go through to get this right.

johnobrien1010··on New axe design uses lever action to make splitting wood easier
From the website, it looks like it costs $266. I think you'd have to being chopping a lot of wood for it to be worth it to get that expensive of an ax, even if it is better.
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