zatara

11 ms·

61.
by zatara 16y ago
Sometimes I think that HN is too self-centered. The fact is that HN, Reddit, TC, et al. are places where geeks/nerds/hackers go to. I personally enjoy all of them, but unless my product focus on this market, I would never waste my time worr
62.
by zatara 16y ago
Could you elaborate a little more on CCL? I thought it was mainly used to access Cocoa frameworks, but maybe things have changed since the last time I checked it. Are there any chances it can now work with Cocoa touch?
63.
by zatara 16y ago
I understand the common HN view for just jumping in and trying to build stuff. Nevertheless, I wonder when would you consider a good time to attack some more complex stuff (e.g. SICP, PAIP, K&R, etc)? I guess it is the kind of thing you
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by zatara 16y ago
You are probably not familiar with some niche markets in engineering and 3D design, where this is part of day-to-day operations. Check www.3dconnexion.com for more info.
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by zatara 16y ago
Because... "The things that you own end up owning you." Tyler Durden
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by zatara 16y ago
What I like the most is: "You can only connect the dots looking backwards". It is a very good perspective when things don't make much sense in the present, and also gives an insight about the Jobs-Woz relationship. Woz was definitely the ha
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by zatara 16y ago
So that means open-sourcing it would be a bad decision, despite my personal wishes. The suspicion part is very difficult to understand: if they just suspect I am infringing, can they sue and force me to disclose the tools?
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by zatara 16y ago
Thanks for your comment. I think you nailed it in the end, it is very common in this industry for the big guys to just sue and buy out startups. I have seen it happening before. In practice, it just makes innovation very, very difficult (th
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Ask HN: Can I be sued for using patented algorithms for in-house stuff?
3 points by zatara 16y ago|5 comments
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by zatara 16y ago
I used to subscribe to your point-of-view, but don't anymore. The traditional teacher-pupil relationship is well over-rated, and may be more efficient in the very start of the learning curve. Once the basic toolset is available, I'd much ra
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by zatara 16y ago
Java is to JavaScript what Car is to Carpet.
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by zatara 16y ago
"... led to an 8x increase in paid conversions. Look at that again. That’s not 8%. That’s 800%." Technically, a 700% increase.
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Off -Line, I Reconnected(montrealgazette.com)
2 points by zatara 16y ago|0 comments
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by zatara 16y ago
It is not that easy in a society designed to flatten standard deviation...
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by zatara 16y ago
My experience with surfing tells me that you don't paddle towards where the wave has been, you wait and position yourself for the next one. The basic assumption is very sound, in a global world economy repositioning may be very interesting.
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by zatara 16y ago
Not yet, but it is definitely worthy a look. Thanks for the link.
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by zatara 16y ago
If you really like it, please have a look at http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/print/2009/12/hadza/finkel... . This has taught me more about hacking and life than most books I ever read. I believe pg was on the right track with the "Hacker
78.
by zatara 16y ago
I guess this is one of the best descriptions of my own "hunting" habits. It is amazing to me how hacking/making seems so similar to the kind of persistence hunting that our ancestors used to depend upon ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=826H
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by zatara 16y ago
http://www.ajidev.com/iannotate/
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by zatara 16y ago
Well, thanks for the tip and please keep us posted. ;-)
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by zatara 16y ago
I like the attitude, but it is not so simple. Take a look at the other replies, from people with more experience on the engineering side (rather than CS), and you'll quickly realize that self-study/hacking can only get you so far. It wouldn
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by zatara 16y ago
I consider CS the most important part of this project and the real open problem. I thought about doing this project in LISP, because dealing with custom-made devices will require code generation and lots of AI. I'll have to translate lots o
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by zatara 16y ago
I think you nailed it, this is the insight I was looking for and wasn't able to express myself. I've had this experience in the medical field and it is true, certain practical stuff (surgery, soldering, etc) requires demonstration/feedback.
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by zatara 16y ago
Well, I do enjoy my family and friends, but they are also busy and have their own lives (school, work, etc). I'm not willing to be an absent father, but in reality I have 3 full open days in my week and I'm bored to tears. Should I just fil
85.
by zatara 16y ago
I'm not sure about this. I've been through something like that during the PhD, when I had to do some advanced stuff in Mechanics (finite element analysis), without the proper background. It worked and I learned a lot, but it is different fr
86.
by zatara 16y ago
I think bringing in more knowledgeable people in the future will be definitely necessary. What I'd like to do is to be able to build a rough alpha version (think Apple I), and then have people come and polish it (think Apple II). With more
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by zatara 16y ago
Good advice, thanks. What would be the best way to balance the time needed for hacking and background acquisition? One thing at a time (e.g. read SICP, then hack something in Scheme) or in parallel (read 2 hours/day and hack during the rest
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by zatara 16y ago
I'm in Europe, things are different here. Anyway, it is almost always possible to combine residency with graduate training, as I did, and shorten things up.
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by zatara 16y ago
You're right, I don't need the title by itself. But I do think that CS is the most challenging part of this project, and this opinion is shared by many people into robotics. The mechatronics part is tough, involves lots of math, but it is a
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by zatara 16y ago
I wish I were you some years ago. About your engineering study, how is the startup mentality? I see a lot of talk about entrepreneurship in engineering, but most students and professors seem to be more focused in what is more important to l

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