msutherl
Joined 16 years ago
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Jun 15
Recent submissions
Comment · 8 years ago
Comment · 8 years ago
Skim, read comments, and for things I want to remember, add them to an appropriate Are.na channel.
For longer articles I want to read eventually but know I won't get to for a long time, I use the "Save this page" feature of Inoreader[2].
Since I've started using Inoreader, I haven't gone back to any of these articles, but I'm ok with this – I tend to review the cache every 6-months to a year when I happen to have uninterrupted free time (like between jobs or on vacation). Previously I had Are.na channels called "To Read 1", "To Read 2", and so on.
[1] https://are.na
Comment · 8 years ago
Speaking strictly about the "look and feel," I must say I love it. It's one of the most well-designed apps I've ever seen.
Per-UX, I've found Skype very difficult to use since the last major redesign a few(?) years ago. I'm not sure if the update made it worse. I feel generally confused just the same.
Comment · 9 years ago
Miles better than everything else: https://www.inoreader.com/
Comment · 9 years ago
And given a suitable vector representation of the street layout, the stretch-and-compress could be given constraints so as not to warp (i.e. curve streets on) the map
Comment · 9 years ago
Comment · 9 years ago
I spent a lot of time trying different systems and finding I couldn't stick with one. Now I embrace the chaos of multiple systems.
I keep a bullet journal, which is mainly for journaling and long-term planning.
Some days I write a list of tasks on a piece of paper.
I put events with a definite time in my calendar (add with Fantastical, review with Calendar app, Week Cal + Fantastical on iPhone, Calendars 5 on iPad).
I put "someday" tasks and tasks that have a definite due date in Things on Mac and iOS (the new version is one of the best pieces of software I've ever used). The new Things also integrates calendar events into the "Today" view, which is quite useful. But I don't look at it every day.
Previously I used "2do" with "smart lists" corresponding to a priority matrix ("important urgent", "important not urgent", "not important urgent", "not important not urgent.") It was a bit too complicated and I switched to Things when the new version came out a couple months ago.
I also used to have a daily checklist in 2do, but after it became habit, I found I didn't need it anymore. I highly recommend a daily checklist for anyone recovering from burn-out, depression, or similar.
I've just switched to doing high-level planning in a "Master Plan" document in Quip. It's already quite detailed and covers most aspect of my life.
Otherwise lately I organize my days into 3 or 4 timed 1-2 hour focused work "zones", with as much ceremony as time affords, to the point of making special drinks, listening to specific music depending on the theme, and lighting candles.
I'm also experimenting with 3 10-minute open-ended thinking periods per day, for which I have alarms set in my phone.
The latter two habits have been very effective. I'd tried Pomodoro in the past, but I find that ceremony is important.
That sounds pretty exotic, but the major insight from the past 10 years of trying things is that finding the one right system is a fool's errand. Trying many different systems – the simpler the better – and letting them evolve naturally works best for me.
Comment · 9 years ago
I'm having trouble finding information about what GNUnet is on the website. Is there an overview somewhere?
Comment · 9 years ago
re: most other software: "Wow. It's just a relational database."
Comment · 9 years ago
And now you find the same thing at http://apollo.rip or http://redacted.ch, almost exactly as it was.
Comment · 9 years ago
Ah, I remember this Fedex comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9282104 ++
Comment · 9 years ago
On chef and cucumber: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13209760
On Knuth, C, and Haskell: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12741430
On npm and In Praise of Idleness: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12209300
On revenue: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11307264
On cranks: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10931403
On "Great Men": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10166372
On the vastness of space: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9937353
Advice from a doctor: https://www.are.na/block/324266
A+ dig at pg: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7140065
Comment · 9 years ago
Just Messenger, Events when I'm invited to them, occasionally being tagged in a post, and a couple of groups.
I won't speak for what "blockchain" can or will become, but you might see the hype more clearly by considering the ideology inherent in asking specifically for the "proper application." You imply that you or someone in a position you understand might "apply blockchain" to a "problem," as you commonly understand it.
I see "blockchain" more as a movement, which completely evades "application" in the common sense. People building these technologies, and organizations around them, live in a separate world that makes little reference to the broader world of which most of us are a part. They start with distinct priors, which rule out most existing solutions on the grounds that they demand political centralization (see: https://medium.com/@VitalikButerin/the-meaning-of-decentrali...).
You can summarize this ideology as: 'if there's a sysadmin, the system is broken.'
It may very well be the case that they are creating a new world that will be marginalized and outcompeted by incumbent systems and organizations, but that's how I understand what's 'actually going on'.