4 ms·

I am 99% confident of this, but would you clarify for us 100%: are you that Alan Kay?

dang 10y ago
It's definitely him. Let's not make him bother with authenticating himself. We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11839876 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11839876 and marked it off-topic.
- syngrog66 10y ago
  ok, thank you!
- alankay1 10y ago
  It's about Bob Barton, why would you mark it off topic?
  - NhanH 10y ago
    Just to clarify, dang marked the comment asking you to authenticate yourself as off topic, and subsequently removed it from your comment. Your comment is left untouched.
  - dang 10y ago
    Hi Alan. The Barton comments couldn't be more on topic! The only comment affected was the one asking you to prove that your account was really you, since we know it's you and I could just say so. If you view the overall page (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11836832 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11836832) you'll see that the Barton thread is still at the top, where it belongs. The reason I did this was so the discussion could focus on the important thing (Barton) and not the procedural thing (how do we know you're the real Alan). This seems not to have entirely succeeded :) Background: A weakness of the comment tree model is that an off-topic reply to a top comment (like the Barton one) hangs near the top by virtue of its parent. "Detached" here means snipping a child comment away from its parent and making it a top-level comment in its own right, which then allows it to fall in rank on the page. That's what I did in this case. Whenever we do that we post a little mantra explaining what we did, along with a link to the original parent, in case anyone wants to see the previous context.
    - alankay1 10y ago
      Thank you!
alankay1 10y ago
There's a classical clarinetist, a judge, a rugby player, a rabbi, a survivalist, a computerist, ... Which one were you hoping for?
- syngrog66 10y ago
  Sid Meier said a game is a series of interesting choices. Therefore I should probably pick the rabbi survivalist. :-) Instead I will go with the computerist. If you are indeed the PARC Alan Kay: thank you, sir! Grew up learning to program in an industry and ecosystem you helped design.
  - alankay1 10y ago
    I'd like to meet the combination of the rabbi and the survivalist! But I'm the PARC one.
    - syngrog66 10y ago
      rabbi survivalist: me too! From a ruthlessly pragmatic and scientific standpoint I suspect to maximize the chance of that it might help to visit Israel. :-) I realized after I posted my question it was almost certainly you. You were very generous to respond... thank you.

dang 10y ago

It's definitely him. Let's not make him bother with authenticating himself. We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11839876 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11839876 and marked it off-topic.

syngrog66 10y ago
ok, thank you!
alankay1 10y ago
It's about Bob Barton, why would you mark it off topic?
- NhanH 10y ago
  Just to clarify, dang marked the comment asking you to authenticate yourself as off topic, and subsequently removed it from your comment. Your comment is left untouched.
- dang 10y ago
  Hi Alan. The Barton comments couldn't be more on topic! The only comment affected was the one asking you to prove that your account was really you, since we know it's you and I could just say so. If you view the overall page (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11836832 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11836832) you'll see that the Barton thread is still at the top, where it belongs. The reason I did this was so the discussion could focus on the important thing (Barton) and not the procedural thing (how do we know you're the real Alan). This seems not to have entirely succeeded :) Background: A weakness of the comment tree model is that an off-topic reply to a top comment (like the Barton one) hangs near the top by virtue of its parent. "Detached" here means snipping a child comment away from its parent and making it a top-level comment in its own right, which then allows it to fall in rank on the page. That's what I did in this case. Whenever we do that we post a little mantra explaining what we did, along with a link to the original parent, in case anyone wants to see the previous context.
  - alankay1 10y ago
    Thank you!

alankay1 10y ago

There's a classical clarinetist, a judge, a rugby player, a rabbi, a survivalist, a computerist, ... Which one were you hoping for?

syngrog66 10y ago
Sid Meier said a game is a series of interesting choices. Therefore I should probably pick the rabbi survivalist. :-) Instead I will go with the computerist. If you are indeed the PARC Alan Kay: thank you, sir! Grew up learning to program in an industry and ecosystem you helped design.
- alankay1 10y ago
  I'd like to meet the combination of the rabbi and the survivalist! But I'm the PARC one.
  - syngrog66 10y ago
    rabbi survivalist: me too! From a ruthlessly pragmatic and scientific standpoint I suspect to maximize the chance of that it might help to visit Israel. :-) I realized after I posted my question it was almost certainly you. You were very generous to respond... thank you.