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jpasden

23 karma · joined January 20, 2013

sinosplice.com allsetlearning.com
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jpasden··on Ask HN: What's your latest failed side project and why?
This is why I like using Fiverr as a buyer... Occasionally you find someone doing something cool for an absurdly low cost as an experiment or an exercise. Those are the good deals, and they're ephemeral offerings. Glad you enjoyed your time there!
jpasden··on How I killed app sales by going freemium
Exactly what I was thinking. "Credits" feel like a huge ripoff.
jpasden··on The Grand Illusion: Why consciousness exists only when you look for it (2002)
One of my problems with conceptualizing "consciousness" and ideas such as "attention" or "unconscious processes" is that I have such a fondness for analogies that I am forever trying to find the proper one, and it inevitably comes down to some kind of computer-based analogy like the memory management example given in the article.

Instinctively, I find it absurd that the human brain should work similarly to how human-created computer systems work, and that these analogies should be tossed out, but maybe it actually does make a kind of sense? Is there a convergent evolution occurring whereby we will eventually come to understand human consciousness because the more we improve our computer systems, the closer we come to approximating the fundamental "thinking powers" of the human brain?

jpasden··on Any Colour Will Do
"bike shedding," AKA "Parkinson's law of triviality":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law_of_triviality

"Parkinson observed and illustrated that a committee whose job is to approve plans for a nuclear power plant spent the majority of its time with pointless discussions on relatively trivial and unimportant but easy-to-grasp issues, such as what materials to use for the staff bike-shed, while neglecting the less-trivial proposed design of the nuclear power plant itself, which is far more important but also a far more difficult and complex task to criticize constructively."

jpasden··on Rooms and Mazes: A Procedural Dungeon Generator
Another good example of this approach is indie 2D platformer Spelunky. Here's an illustration of the method:

http://tinysubversions.com/spelunkyGen/

jpasden··on Manipulate audio with a simple Python library
This might do what you're looking for:

http://eyed3.nicfit.net/

jpasden··on Click on the tile that has a different color
The game is deliberately using wordplay in Chinese. In the word "色狼" (which does indeed mean "pervert"), "色" refers to sex, but in this case it's being used to mean "color" (which is actually its more common meaning).

It's not an especially funny pun, but it might give Chinese users a little smile.

jpasden··on Project Naptha: a browser extension that enables text selection on any image
This is amazing, and it has truly revolutionary implications for learners of scripts like Chinese, which are still truly indecipherable to learners when embedded in images. I was really happy to see that this extension supports both simplified and traditional Chinese. I tried it out, and while it shows promise there, it definitely still needs a lot of work.

I posted a review on my blog here: http://www.sinosplice.com/life/archives/2014/04/24/can-proje...

OP, I'd be happy to work with you on improving the recognition of Chinese text. Just get in touch with me through my blog (linked to above).

jpasden··on Show HN: Super Planet Crash
So in "Super Planet Crash" the planets can't actually collide? I pumped 11 super-Earths into essentially the same orbit (in the habitable zone), and they seemed to just overlap and do just fine. When I lose, it's always because a planet flies off.
jpasden··on Facebook Refused No-Poaching Agreement With Google
Getting rich?
jpasden··on Ask HN: Would you use a service that sent you customized spoken information?
I had the exact same thoughts as thomasbk, although I have to admit that it does sound kind of cool. No way I would pay $2 or even $1 per day for it, though. Roughly $10 per month sounds reasonable.

I think you'd find that assembling all the right data (which is the true product) is way more work than you imagine. Sure, you could probably do it for yourself with a doable amount of work, but to be able to do it for ANYONE is a massive undertaking. And... yeah, you probably don't want to try to build Google Now.

jpasden··on Fancy Input - CSS3 text typing effects for input fields
I immediately tried to input Chinese, and it stopped working.
jpasden··on Ask HN: Would you be interested in a wiki for cheat sheets?
I'd consider portability. My favorite cheat sheets are images or PDFs (one page only). Adding an element of graphic design can really upgrade a cheat sheet.

(Do some searches for cheat sheets in Google Images, and you'll see what I mean.)

jpasden··on Ask HN: Review my LockScreen news and social reader startup
Cool idea! I would try it if I had an Android phone.

Seems a little weird to me to make the lock screen interactive, though. If there are all sorts of things you can do on the lock screen, when does the lock screen cease to be a lock screen, and when does it become some new layer of limited interactivity?

jpasden··on Ask HN: Would you be interested in a wiki for cheat sheets?
Question: how do you define cheat sheet?

I like cheat sheets (regex, vim, Gmail hotkeys, etc.), but I wouldn't include the article on "Python Shortcuts for the Python Beginner" in a list of cheat sheets.

jpasden··on Ask HN: How do you stop regretting?
I think there are only two ways to deal with regret: (1) accept that you can't change the past, and (2) make sure that you learned something from your mistake(s).

Not learning from your mistakes at all and continuing to suffer from them is enough to depress anyone. So if you haven't yet learned what to take away from your experience that will help you in the future, concentrate on that.

Also, early 30's is NOT too late to start over, in almost any field. You just have to find something that you're passionate about, and yes, you do have a lot of catching up to do. There are a number of success stories out there that start that late in life. Read about them. In some cases, experience gained from early failures even make for bigger successes down the road.

jpasden··on The joys of having a Forever Project
Not everything worth doing makes money though...
jpasden··on The joys of having a Forever Project
A nod to the Forever War? :)

(Great book! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forever_War )