Hacker News Reader

namankon Stop participating in hackathons just to win

Lol. That's like saying stop doing startups just for money.

Do you see the irony?

namankon Google Maps a Japanese Nuclear Ghost Town

Sorry about downvoting your comment, did not mean to.

Well, that`s where having good VCs might make a difference. Summly might be at a bigger scale but VCs trying to get their money out of a sinking ship is usually how "soft-landing" is managed.

namankon What Being a Handyman Has Taught Me About Male Insecurity

I think that most self-made rich people are over that mental barrier where they know that everything in the world is made by people like themselves. So they aren't afraid to participate in new things.

I`ve definitely have had my share of folks that like the pretentiousness. As it turns out, they are also the easiest to screw with.

namankon Poll: Do you meditate?

That is awesome! I may steal the fasting from you!

namankon Academia Is Eating Its Young

The reward structure we live by is oriented towards extrinsic motivation even when work produced by intrinsic motivation is known to be of higher quality.

There goes a story that Edison was taught this lesson when he tried to sell his very first voting machine. He was told, "we don't want it if we can't mess with it". That's when he is suppose to have decided to only work on projects that people wanted.

Then there is Tesla - worked on projects without much regard to their social or economic relevancy.

Do not make this into a debate about Edison vs. Tesla, this is just to show how fucked up is this world we live in. I think all of us, hackers, hustlers, and designers, have made a similar choice at one time or another when we've decided to do it for the x or be true to yourself.

namankon Google killed me

Wikipedia has to have sources.

namankon How I Met 75 Investors and Raised $650,000

Congrats!

Concern: is 650k after 75 investors inefficient?

namankon Conflicts with co-founder, nearly bankrupt, unknown future

"mobile (iOS, Android, J2ME), C++, C, C#, some other rare skills I cannot specify (because will identify me)"

If this is true, also look at Canada - especially Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and Calgary.

namankon I'm a loser and I want to change that - now

All you gotta do is try.

namankon What I Learned from a Sex-Crazed Short-Order Cook

Anyone want to comment on their implicit assumptions in downvoting my question?

namankon What I Learned from a Sex-Crazed Short-Order Cook

TLDR?

namankon BlackBerry Shares Jump as Lenovo CEO Mentions Possible Deal

Just saw Thorsten Heins talk last week, no way is he gearing up for a sellout.

But I'll leave this comment here as a reminder to self in case they do sell.

namankon Show HN: 6 months ago I quit my job to pursue indie dev. Here is our first game

Haha, yes, that's what I thought too.

But that's what makes it fun. It's the perfect combination of familiarity & challenge!

namankon Where are the “big problem” jobs?

Well.. depending on how pervasive it gets, I would put Google Glasses on the same scale as the iPhone when the consideration is the bigness of "big problem".

So, how big was the iPhone?

namankon Brown University creates first wireless, implanted brain-computer interface

Thank you!

Is this streamed or available for viewing later?

namankon South African province spends $15.4M (140M ZAR) on WordPress site

Being in the minority doesn't mean they can be treated as outliers. Those ministers have multiple cases against them.

Given the nature of public attitude and their trust in the justice system in a developing country such as India, you can rest assured that the number of reported cases are below the number of actual occurrences.

namankon Staying Great

I think you have to think about employee development, which means that the requirement of the to-be-great employee becomes willingness to learn and dedication to the company (or you). This doesn't always mean spending time on mentoring them but can also include giving them a job that is just a bit taxing to their current abilities.

How to? Take them out to a coffee on the first day and get personal with them. Then talk about their goals and what they want from the job. What they value in their life. To be a great CEO, you have to be a great leader.

Because you cannot build a great company if you don't respect your people as people.

namankon South African province spends $15.4M (140M ZAR) on WordPress site

You should check out the Indian House of Commons, called the Lok Sabha. Rape and bribery are a prereq.

namankon South African province spends $15.4M (140M ZAR) on WordPress site

No email in your profile.

I have been thinking about this for some time now and I feel the biggest factor in using this is localization. Nature of corruption is different in most countries, the startup will need to address that.

I'm down...email me? ping@namank.com.

namankon The Apprentice Programmer

Actually the apprenticeship model exists in Canada too. But it`s restricted to trades like electrician and plumber and does not extend to engineering or law.

namankon 40 Years After an Acid Attack, a Life Well Lived

It has, google "epistemic injustice".

namankon What Coke Contains

The process is representative of the complexity involved in something so pervasive that it almost replaces water.

It is the complexity and the pervasiveness that makes it mind-boggling.

namankon What Coke Contains

And how those things not only survive but flourish in the same environment. It's mind boggling that those designs can co-exist without immediate repercussions! The complexity through the times amazes me!

namankon Programming Languages Are Simply Not Powerful Enough

Would you recommend that or pg's On Lisp?

namankon Programming Languages Are Simply Not Powerful Enough

I am studying engineering, which is all about OOP. HN is making me so uncontrollably curious about the functional stuff!

namankon The Story of Bageshwori, Watsi's First Patient

I would think it would be more complicated given the population difference in the third world vs. the first world.

That would be pretty interesting though.

namankon The Story of Bageshwori, Watsi's First Patient

Thank you, Watsi founders, thank you.

rock on

namankon An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

In a span of a few blocks a person could eat for free 5 or 6 times a day.

Care to expand?

namankon Thalmic (YC W13) introduces gesture control without the cameras

Well of course. But that's DSP for parsing the muscle contractions, right?

I would imagine you guys didn't do any application-specific math like guidance of the choppers..? Just curious!