tent's comments

tent | 9 years ago | on: Pixar offers free online lessons in storytelling via Khan Academy

While I'm sure they exist, I've never met any young kids who were particularly good at telling stories. As with all things, some people have more natural talent than others, but I don't think anyone is very good right off the bat.

Think of it like any other art. Not everyone is equally good at it, but with practice, everyone gets better.

tent | 9 years ago | on: My Watch Runs GNU/Linux

Not that it is perfect, but the Fleksy keyboard is pretty good about guessing what you meant to type, even if you miss several letters. I'm able to use it without looking, but I'd never trust it entirely.

edit: I forgot to mention Minuum. It's quite similar, but compresses all the keys into a single row. Consequently, it doesn't seem to be as accurate.

tent | 9 years ago | on: Reflecting on the Right to be Forgotten

Police Google as much as you like. They can remove their results worldwide, but not the data itself.

I'm confident that there will always be a search engine available that gets around this law. Perhaps we will even see some specialized tools to show only results hidden by Google.

tent | 9 years ago | on: No Spanking, No Time-Out, No Problems

I think the idea isn't so much that punishment doesn't get results, but rather that those results come with side effects. Usually, this is some harboured anger, or avoidance of the parent.

Yes, punishment gets changes behavior, but it's not always a 100% positive change.

It should have been phrased better in the article.

tent | 9 years ago | on: Show HN: LaptopHits.com – see what laptops people are talking about online

I hate to bring up styling when it's been covered so much, but I think it is critical you make this mobile friendly.

There are a few big reasons for this:

- Since it's computer shopping, you'll probably have a fair amount of users accessing this site from a mobile device.

- Mobile users are more likely to leave your site if it looks even a little frustrating to use. Google offers several mobile friendly sites that recommend laptops.

- Google will not rank your site as high if it does not deem it to be mobile friendly.

- You said you are looking for a job as a Rails developer. It's a fair bet that any potential employer will expect mobile-compatible sites. Perhaps you don't really intend to do much front end work, but knowing more about it will benefit you regardless.

I understand that what your site offers is very special, and probably much better than hand picked recommendations. Many mobile users simply don't care. They don't want to zoom and pan to select options. Why should they stick around on your site, when they can just hit "back" and choose another result from google?

All that said, I really like what your site has going on. It seems quite functional, and the minimal design is a breath of fresh air.

There are two other things I would change, but these are just personal preference. Feel free to ignore them:

1. I would like the option to view more items per page.

2. The default, bright blue link color hurts my eyes. Something a little darker would be great.

Keep up the good work!

tent | 9 years ago | on: I can’t just stand by and watch Mark Zuckerberg destroy the internet

I think you took him a little too literally.

It's true that sitting and reading isn't really going to help you live any longer. If you're going to read, however, you should at least get something meaningful out of it.

It may be different for some, but I get much more out of HN than I ever did when I used Facebook.

tent | 9 years ago | on: Heavy Screen Time Rewires Young Mouse Brains, for Better and Worse

The brain adapts to better deal with what it is exposed to.

Of course an animal raised in an intense environment will handle it better than one that isn't, and have some difficulty with calmer environments. The reverse is also true.

It doesn't surprise me that children used to the quick pacing and interesting stories found in television and games have trouble focusing in slower environments, such as school.

It's easy to jump to the conclusion that children should be raised without television or games, but I think we should also experiment more engaging means of education.

tent | 9 years ago | on: Donald Trump’s Contract with the American Voter [pdf]

Regardless of whether it is just or not, it is still the law. If it is harmful, then it should be changed.

Illegal immigrants often do not enjoy all the rights and privileges citizens of the United States do. Many underpaid, overworked, and denied benefits.

If we need more people in this country, we need to make it easy for them to come, and we need to treat them right when they arrive.

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