WingNews logo WingNews GitHub [2]

scabarott's comments

scabarott | 4 years ago | on: How to Write about Africa (2019)

"Most of the kids I played with, are probably dead. They almost certainly died horribly. Maybe some of them became child soldiers, and killed and raped. I could have gone on about how I had to treat PTSD, from my experiences over there" Lol. I actually wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt. Now I don't believe you at all. And you have no idea what the essay is talking about - your post and reply could have been the entire inspiration for it.

Take it from me my friend, you know next to nothing about Africa and Africans, or how most Africans live. Your entire comment is representative of the kind of people who think they do.

scabarott | 4 years ago | on: How to Write about Africa (2019)

Well said. In general there's no winning on boards like this. Most people here are ignorant of most of Africa and Africans in general, but that doesn't stop them from pontificating and being condescending know-it-alls

scabarott | 4 years ago | on: How to Write about Africa (2019)

As an African, born and bred who "looks like I came from Africa", I really really hate it when a European person writes about Africa. They tend to end up writing things like the energy and enthusiasm of the African people is inspiring as hell with no clue whatsoever how immensely condescending and patronizing that comes across. Let me transliterate that so you have a little bit of an idea: the energy and enthusiasm of European people is inspiring as hell. I know the poster is probably well meaning yet the post comes off ironically in exactly what the essay is describing - as if the poster didn't read that before saying their piece about "Africa"

scabarott | 4 years ago | on: Apple acquires classical music streaming service Primephonic

I was with you up until you mentioned Christoper Hogwood. Not that there's anything wrong with him just that that wouldn't be the first name to pop up in my head when I think music vs 'stodgy music for wealthy old people'. It makes me think what you're trying to say in so many words is that you prefer music played on period instruments using something close to the orchestra that would have been available to the composer in their own time. That would limit you to music from sometime before the mid 1800's since composers since then pretty much have had the modern orchestra we have today so 'period' orchestras would be anachronistic and not what the composer intended. If you like period orchestras you should check out recordings of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in San Francisco. They also play 'Hogwood' style on authentic period instruments.

scabarott | 4 years ago | on: Why I no longer contribute to Racket

If you've dealt with VC's or lawyers before you'll understand this example. Of course many probably worse examples from Academia or restaurants or military or whatever but if you're a software entrepreneur these are very good examples.

scabarott | 4 years ago | on: The Limits to Blockchain Scalability

I'm a huge proponent of crypto and the many things it's going to make possible that were not previously possible. But the developing country angle is oversold usually by people just parroting it without really knowing what things are like in developing countries: 1. In many developing countries increasingly you can also use phone or card almost as conveniently as you can in the west. In fact some developing countries are more advanced as far as mobile payments go (out of necessity because of less developed banking systems) e.g Mpesa in Kenya. Generally visa/bank cards and payment apps are not as alien as you might think they are in many parts of Africa or India or South America 2. Using Bitcoins for transactions/moving money around with the current state of the art is a lot more difficult and less accessible than using western union and other financial services that are ubiquitous in these places. Since at present you can't really use Bitcoin for much you still have to convert it fiat which means using an exchange. Most exchanges have even more onerous kyc/id requirements than banks and many financial institutions in developing countries won't even touch bitcoin at all. And not even to talk of the relative technical sophistication required to use crypto services let alone maintain a wallet. As far as developing countries go crypto-currency at present is mostly a curiosity among the well-heeled and well-connected in the largest cities. It's going to be a long long time before the promise of crypto bringing salvation to the un-banked comes anywhere close to reality.

scabarott | 5 years ago | on: Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?

I didn't see that post, but I'm sure the poster meant they had huge expectations based on it's reputation as 'the book' or it's place in popular culture and it lived up to that hype when they did read it. The original question is ambiguous and can be answered both ways.

scabarott | 5 years ago | on: Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?

>>Interesting that people are substituting the hard question (what has been hyped and has lived up to it)

I think it's the way you're reading the answers (and the question). If you look at it as "What was hyped to you and lived up to the hype when you finally experienced it", then the answers make sense and there's no confusion.

scabarott | 5 years ago | on: Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?

I think that's separate from whether it has lived up to the hype or not. It's pretty much changed everything, whether you think that's good or bad or imperfect.

scabarott | 5 years ago | on: Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?

I love this answer. You could say the same about Cloud computing. So much early hype and outlandish claims but it's kinda snuck into being a ubiquitous everyday thing we take for granted although in a different way from what the hype predicted. I wonder if the same will happen for 'blockchain' or 'VR' or other buzzy tech that look for a while like they won't live up to the hype (Looking at you IoT)

scabarott | 5 years ago | on: Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?

I’m one of the few people who actually watched the remake before the original. It was a great movie and blew my mind. But it can’t compare to the original. There’s something operatic and timeless about the original that the remake doesn’t have. It’s much less polished but rawer in a sense. I think it will still be a classic 50 years from now and eminently watchable but I can’t say the same about 2049 as great as it was. The remake is a great movie but just a movie if you understand my meaning.

scabarott | 5 years ago | on: CEO of Banjo admitted to being a Neo-Nazi skinhead in his youth

I don't know why they're down-voting you. I'm at least concerned that someone with that kind of past has anything to do with building such sensitive and influential law enforcement infrastructure. I don't know what his current state of mind is and I believe in second chances but this kind of history should disqualify you from at least some types of sensitive roles.

scabarott | 5 years ago | on: Shirt Without Stripes

Or maybe there's just not a lot of AI in their main search product (for whatever reason). They seem to be pretty good in other areas (Translate, Cloud speech-to-text, Alexa etc.)
page 1
more