mmcdan
Joined 16 years ago
Karma
90
Submissions
50
Member since
Nov 4
Recent submissions
Comment · 12 years ago
I echo this sentiment. Would love to hear about your path to tech.
Comment · 12 years ago
Is this intentional lucid dreaming a skill you've developed or did it come naturally? I've heard you can increase the probability of having a lucid dream by keeping a dream journal, doing "dream checks" in everyday life, etc... but i've never heard of a surefire way to have them.
Comment · 12 years ago
I am so happy this thread exists. Reading a bunch of raw, honest, and insightful stories about the journey through an industry fueled by reality-distortion is like a breath of fresh air. This feeling must be what people mean when they talk about the "old HN". Glad to see its spirit still lays beneath the surface.
Comment · 13 years ago
I think that there are a lot of professional-quality robotics projects that one can do, if you look at specialties that use robots. "Robot" is a loaded term that conjures up generalized images of the stuff you read and see in movies. Look into keywords like "automation", "mechatronics", etc...
Examples: Silicon wafer handlers, pick-and-place machines, vacuum cleaners, beer pourers, recycling sorters, package handlers, CNC machines, etc... An especially interesting field is open-source prosthetics.
There are prosumers making these types of robotics projects in their garages/local hackerspaces. There are many online forums where people sharing their builds as well, and many times these builds are actually used in production situations.
Also a high-quality robotics platform in no way needs to cost $1000. If you're on a budget just go to a local hobby shop, spend $100 on a chassis + wheels + motors and order some $0.10 sensors online.
Comment · 13 years ago
Beautiful visualization. One thing missing though is a color-scale for age. Difficult to tell what color represents older vs newer and what are the magnitudes of the differences in age.
Comment · 13 years ago
You can search through any files that are in your project workspace. When you start a project, just "Add Folder to Project" and include the ruby gems directory and the ActiveRecord source directory.
Comment · 13 years ago
At the risk of sounding Zen, the philosophical stuff taking a backseat is the progress. Even if you wind up in the same place doing the same job as before, there was progress if you no longer wonder 'what if'. It's when you believe that the grass is greener on your side.
Comment · 13 years ago
I think that the comment was more about death by cancer than death itself. Cancer can happen at any moment in your life, and some types can occur without any apparent cause that we can determine(aside from twiddled bits in our DNA). When it happens, our own bodies rebel against us. Death by cancer can be long and extremely painful for the person dying as well as loved ones. Death is always difficult for the living to cope with, but it is a part of life as you mention. I think that a 'graceful death', one that occurs quickly/painlessly after a long life well-lived, is not a bad thing to want.
Comment · 14 years ago
I would argue the exact opposite. Online printing turnaround time is slower, costs more(for printing in batches), and is inconvenient when UPS/Fedex keep leaving "sorry we missed you" notices because you're at work.
Comment · 14 years ago
It's all about perspective. 1day turnaround is very slow for software but extremely fast for hardware. In the harware world, high-quality parts turnaround in 1 day is revolutionary.
Comment · 14 years ago
To directly answer the question:
The median household income for California is $60833(http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06000.html). The average household has 2.89 people. As a single person, you have more money to spend than most families in the state. The odds of your survival are high.
To answer your implicit question: I think you are asking "Can I survive and save some money earning 72K in California while keeping up with the Joneses(tech-savvy urbanites in Silicon Valley or LA tech scene). Yes you can. In fact, I rented a room in a large house in SV with full access to everything(kitchen, living room, backyard, bathroom etc...) for under $900/month. My roommates were people from LinkedIn, Cisco, etc... Worst case food scenario is you spend $15/meal, 3meals/day, and 31 days/month... $1400/month food. Add $100/month bill for your iDevice. Add $100/month for a monthly public transportation pass. Add $1000/month for the do-whatever-the-fuck-I-want fund.
With these covered, you are spending $3500/month, or $42000/year.
Assume your take home will be $50k post-tax. You are saving about 8k/year and living a pretty lavish life for an austere single person.
Comment · 14 years ago
The Insight Data Science fellows program looks awesome, but it is disappointing that only phd candidates and post-docs can apply. There is some irony with the fact that the cover of their brochure uses the facebook friendship visualization done by Paul Butler, who was an undergraduate intern at facebook when he made it.
Comment · 14 years ago
Great Job. I viewed this just because I like seeing what people on HN are working on. Then 1 hour later, I realized that the music was still playing and I was in a state of flow with the work I was doing. This surprised me because I don't normally enjoy this type of music.
Definitely put "slow", "medium" categories on there. Also, maybe filter out the songs that do those jarring breakbeats since those break the state of flow.
Comment · 14 years ago
For something as critical as email, "fine until Apple changes anything" is not good enough, given that Apple has a habit of changing things.