andymurd | 7 months ago | on: Bookmarks.txt is a concept of keeping URLs in plain text files
andymurd's comments
andymurd | 5 years ago | on: Ask HN: Most interesting things you've learned/discovered in 2020?
Then I learned that I feel fine with being rubbish at metalwork, but that I actually want to get better at woodwork. Now I am enjoying the process of failing, learning and improving.
andymurd | 6 years ago | on: AWS Lambda Firefox
andymurd | 7 years ago | on: Sinclair ZX Spectrum Prototype
andymurd | 8 years ago | on: Ask HN: How to document your *project*
mkdir doc && $EDITOR doc/index.mdandymurd | 8 years ago | on: Ask HN: What's your favorite RSS reader?
andymurd | 8 years ago | on: Ask HN: What was your first computer?
Sinclair ZX81 with 16k RAM add-on
Rubber-key Sinclair ZX-Spectrum
ZX-Spectrum +3 with 3" (not 3.5) disk
Commodore Amiga (I can't remember the model) with an 85MB hard-disk
andymurd | 9 years ago | on: How Australia Bungled Its $36B High-Speed Internet Rollout
I once tried to follow the Udacity course on Tensorflow, but could not download a 10GB that was needed for one of the exercises. Download kept failing and restarting and eventually I killed it after 8 days. Utterly shameful.
andymurd | 9 years ago | on: Ask HN: How you wake up?
However, in my life before cats I really struggled to wake up for a 9-to-5 until I got an alarm with a lamp that lights up very gradually, simulating sunrise. I was surprised at how well it worked and definitely recommend them.
I had a Bio-Brite model, which I don't think are made nowadays but google for "alarm clock lamp sunrise" and there are lots of alternatives.
andymurd | 9 years ago | on: Ask HN: What are some great “Free” services provided by IBM, Amazon, etc.?
Reading through the sales copy, it seems to be a reasonable competitor to Heroku. They offer 3 small gears free and have a startup assistance program for those that qualify.
andymurd | 9 years ago | on: Spotify is gaining leverage over record labels
I first tried Spotify many years ago, back when playlists were quite new. At the time, I was living in the UK and a big user of last.fm but, out of curiosity, I spent an afternoon building one playlist out of the few tracks they had that I liked.
I was/am into house and techno but the tracks were not yet available on Spotify back then - but the originals which were heavily sampled sure were. So I ended up with a playlist of funk, disco, blues, hip-hop and jazz that was kinda familiar, lotta fun.
Fast-forward several years and I'm living in Australia, where last.fm is a paid service that had stagnated, so back to check out Spotify again...
It had millions more tracks.
It had learned from my playlist. Discover weekly is soooo good.
It had my attention and my credit card.
To the parent poster, I suggest you treat Spotify like a friendly muso willing to lend you her near infinite collection. I've you've ever wondered about $GENRE, go and play. I have no relationship with Spotify except as a very happy customer.
andymurd | 9 years ago | on: Ask HN: I'm new to the valley. What's the best way to meet people/programmers?
andymurd | 9 years ago | on: The Weird World of Expensive Wine (2016)
- Glass bottle
- Bottling & Labelling
- Transport
- Cork/closure
- Taxes (29% here in Aus)
- Retail Markup - 25-50%
- Promotions, payment processing, business overhead, etc.
An eight dollar bottle of wine does not leave a lot of money for grape growing, harvest, wine making, aging etc, all the good stuff that makes wine tasty. Probably under one dollar.
Some grape varieties cost a lot more than others, e.g. Pinot Noir is expensive to grow and harvest because it has thin skins and so is easily damaged. However, any recent vintage bottle that retails for more than $100 is about meeting a market price point, not production costs.
andymurd | 9 years ago | on: Ask HN: What services do you use alongside GitHub to get “Atlassian” features?
- Version Control (Bitbucket)
- Issue Tracking (Trello)
- Team Chat (Slack)
- Wiki (None, but I'd love to hear recommendations for free, private wikis)
- CI/CD (Wercker.com)
andymurd | 9 years ago | on: An Email Thread Between a Developer and Gigster
Both parties were happy with the change.
andymurd | 9 years ago | on: Ask HN: Can my users prove they own a GitHub/LinkedIn account, would this work?
andymurd | 9 years ago | on: Ask HN: Parents-what extra education to you give your kids?
We also do a bunch of weekend activities with an educational aspect - from external events like Maker Fair and Science Expos, to taking apart the lawn mower to learn about engines.
We also have this fun ritual at bedtime where he can ask any question about anything and get a serious answer. Of course this is used to delay lights-out but it's one of the most valuable learning exercises (for parents too). At this age, almost everything can be made educational but the trick is to keep it fun.
andymurd | 9 years ago | on: Ask HN: Do people need this tech to exist?
andymurd | 9 years ago | on: Ask HN: How would you develop your next “big idea” if you were alone?
andymurd | 9 years ago | on: Best Wifi Mesh Network Kits
The results were mixed - they either work really well, or really badly. It seems that the home's wiring and appliances have an overwhelming effect on their efficacy. So, the recommendation is try before you buy if at all possible.