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abrie | 4 years ago | on: Pooping hippos create ‘community guts’ in African ponds

This article reminded me of a story I heard second hand. In the Karoo of South Africa, sheep farmers provided lambs with feed containing the ground up stomaches of older sheep who lived in the area. If this was not done, then the lambs would fail to thrive when grazing. Presumably the ingested intestines transmit bacteria conferring the ability to digest otherwise indigestible material.

abrie | 6 years ago | on: Show HN: Ten Steps to an Algorithmic Song

"Intervals", "Scales", and "Chords" are good terms to search for. They are elementary concepts present in a lot of music. Ten Steps use six notes of the C Major Scale, all of which belong to either the I or IV chord. The I and IV chords use, by definition, an interval of 1-4-7.

For an entertaining overview, check out Leonard Bernstein's 1973 Norton lectures, "The Unanswered Question"[0]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFjonLo8gYHIXC35K4Ujr...

abrie | 7 years ago | on: Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (April 2019)

Location: Atlanta

Remote: Yes

Willing to relocate: No

Technologies: HTML/CSS/ES6+, Go, Python, C#, Rails, Devops

Resume/CV: Please contact. Or visit github.com/abrie

Email: [email protected]

Adaptable, motivated, and disciplined developer. Inventive and creative when necessary. 15+ years experience.

abrie | 8 years ago | on: Advice for Aspiring Writers

In other words, you need to write more than just words. This has certainly been my experience over the last decade or more of chasing the thing. At this point I've written some fairly solid web code and a decent narrative, but as for the marketing... well, let me just post a link[0].

[0] https://goeiebook.ca/story/bussing

abrie | 9 years ago | on: Liquid assets: how the business of bottled water went mad

In Len Beadell's book "Blast the Bush", he describes a solution (pun?) developed while building the Woomera Rocket Range. Apparently the groundwater had a terrible taste; so they built a distillation facility. But the distilled water was unpalatable because it was too pure. So, they experimented by mixing distilled water with small amounts of groundwater, eventually arriving at a drinkable ratio.

abrie | 9 years ago | on: Ghost Robotics' Minitaur Quadruped Conquers Stairs, Doors, Fences

The Issus genus of jumping insects (planthoppers)[0] have a gear mechanism connecting their rear legs. The gear synchronizes the motion of the two back legs; thereby reducing 'yaw rotation' when jumping[1]. The gear communicates motion faster than a purely neurological system.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issus_(genus)#Gear_mechanism

[1] "Interacting Gears Synchronize Propulsive Leg Movements in a Jumping Insect," by M. Burrows et al Science, 2013.

abrie | 9 years ago | on: A Soviet scientist created tame foxes

There was also a converse experiment: a population of dogs was un-domesticated by breeding for a strong wild response. I don't have the exact reference, but recollect that the process also took a remarkably low number of generations.

I wonder what sort of physical attributes/neurochemistry would develop in increasingly wild populations of dogs.

abrie | 9 years ago | on: Anatomy of a World War I Artillery Barrage

The posted article lacks substance, but I read "Over the Top" because of your comment. It is excellent. Thank you. I found my copy on archive.org[0].

I read it alongside "The Arms of Krupp"[1], and found the combination highly synergistic. The sensation of perspective is multiplied further if read with "All Quiet on the Western Front".

[0] https://archive.org/details/overtopbyamerica00empe

[1] https://openlibrary.org/books/OL24200511M/The_arms_of_Krupp_...

abrie | 9 years ago | on: Facebook is wrong, text is deathless

This comment is a personal anecdote. People respond to text in different ways. But they respond to visual motion more predictably. That has been my observation over the course of a year while experimenting with writing an electronic book. The book began as an Android app; and when shown to an audience the general response was one of disinterest. They'd read a few lines and stop, then comment on the photos. Maybe this was because the book was bad, but to me it seemed people did not want to read a lot of text. Perhaps the content was boring? I don't know. In an attempt to promote the work, I generated an auto-scrolling screencast of the book --- which resulted in (slightly) more interest. Consequently I've shifted to converting the book from an Android app to an autoscrolling mp4. It's a work in progress, and I'm prone to unrealistic optimism, but maybe this is a step toward a format for future written works [0].

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afXzziwURRU

abrie | 10 years ago | on: HN Office Hours with Jared Friedman and Trevor Blackwell

Hello,

I've developed a custom toolchain while writing an electronic book[0]. The toolchain automates the conversion of markdown and media into a scrollable "app-novel". Initially I'd hoped to earn income from the book itself, but the naiveness of that idea is quickly becoming apparent.

As a pivot, I am developing a public interface for the toolchain, with the idea of permitting others to write books in the same style. Unfortunately it is not ready to be demonstrated. Nonetheless, this feels like a untapped industry to me, and I wonder what your opinions or suggestions might be.

Thank you.

[0]https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ca.goeiebook.m...

abrie | 10 years ago | on: Lessons of Demopolis

My knowledge about this topic comes from a single source[0], but your argument also seems to apply to Venice. It found its beginnings as Rome was being sacked, when people fled the invaders and found safety on the islands. With political knowledge and sophisticated technology, they displaced (and integrated) the 'native' people and built an incredible civilization. Venice went on to become a significant power, greatly aided by geographic advantage.

Also, it's interesting to consider the decline of Venice. Although that's better described by cliodynamics than geography.

[0] Venice (Wonders of Man Series), John H Davis http://www.amazon.com/Venice-Wonders-Series-John-Davis/dp/08...

abrie | 10 years ago | on: Idea Debt

The majority of this thread's comments relate personal experiences, so I might as well contribute mine as well. Nearly a decade ago I started work on a project. For eight years progress consisted of taking notes and daydreaming. I was going to write a book that would make me famous. Over the years the dream-ideas progressed from a paper book, to an iPod book, to a HTML5 book. The daydreams always kept up with the available technology. Finally, two years ago, I suddenly started working on the thing. It is a travelogue, written for Android. The difficulties of implementation were unexpected and surprising. And now that it's approaching completeness a new set of unexpected problems arise. I'd assumed that simply writing a book would be enough to sell it; but apparently a lot of marketing is required. Daydreaming has benefits, but it costs time.

Edit: Having mentioned marketing; here is video screen cap of the book: https://youtu.be/yX4JTS-eIqQ

abrie | 10 years ago | on: The next generation of journalism students have no idea what's ahead

Interesting to learn that programming is being taught to writers. Perhaps it's a poor analogy, but the term Singer/Songwriter comes to mind when I imagine such a hybrid. Either one of the two component skills could earn a living; but the two together have greater potential for producing works of significance. Also, it reminds me of Scott Adams career advice[0], where he suggests being "good" at more than one thing.

[0] http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/07/care...

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