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blhack

HN member
Joined
Wed, Aug 27, 2008, 3:01 AM UTC
HN karma
24,931
Public activity
3,903 items

About blhack

My name is Ryan.

email is: blhack at gmail dto cmo.

My current (profitable) stack is: python/jquery/apache/mysql My current (dev) stack is: golang/react/RDS

My failed startups are: Social networking websites: thingist.com (better, more organized facebook/twitter), newslily.com (fark/digg/reddit/HN clone), lanmarks.com (social mapping). News aggregators: newsyndicated.com (computational linguistics applied to news/RSS).

Successful startups are: Business analytics/CRM software for niche industries.

Startups I have worked with but not founded so I won't name: Unnamed telemedicine project. Well funded, solved social isolation in the elderly. Great team. Parent company was acquired, and our project (ran as an internal startup to the larger company) was terminated. My role here was research/design/build hardware devices which were to be placed in senior's homes, as well as the backend service that they reported to, and the interface for remote health-providers to interface with this data. Unnamed educational non-profit. This project is ongoing and successful.

Times I have been rejected from YC: 2.

Other consulting that I have done and don't consider startups: design and build custom robotics and control systems for large scale advertising installations. Clients have been amazon, carvana, Tostitos, red bull, the NFL. Design and build complex, custom fire effects displays for use at music festivals including EDC and bonnaroo. The fire effects team is easily one of the most brilliant, competent groups of people I have ever gotten to work with.

My skillset is extremely broad, and I have worked at almost every design/build level of many different successful products.

My hobby is designing and teaching educational workshops for teenagers. I have a strong belief that most people are capable of much more than they realize; I find sharing this understanding with people extremely rewarding, and so do my students. I have taught workshops on electronics to both children and adults all over the world.

My other hobby is creating interactive art installations. I have a profound love for people and humanity, and my art projects typically try to highlight the beauty I see in other people.

Recent public activity

  1. comment
    Comment #48513006

    What is going on at Anthropic? First, it comes out that on some specified subset of queries they will simply downgrade you to a different model. One example is if you are doing mod…

  2. comment
    Comment #48103734

    Is there any obvious way to detect if you’ve gotten owned by this?

  3. comment
    Comment #48066615

    This is bad advice. The choice depends on which is more popular in your area. For me in Phoenix that’s meshtastic.

  4. comment
    Comment #48066594

    Meshtastic is really cool! The heltec v4 is the best board for it you can get on Amazon. Put it on your roof with a cheap solar panel meant for a security camera, and join it to yo…

  5. comment
    Comment #47188667

    Well I certainly feel surveilled when I know that OpenAI will simply give up my data if asked. If anthro is saying they won’t, that’s good!

  6. comment
    Comment #47188656

    Strength is saying what they were asked to do. I want to know! Did the DoW ask them to make kill drones? Because if so THAT IS A REALLY BIG DEAL. The vagueness is irritating. He’s …

  7. comment
    Comment #47188639

    >he said this >>no he didn’t he actually said the opposite of that and the link you just posted says the opposite of what you are claiming >but he might change his mind! Okay?

  8. comment
    Comment #47188619

    GOOD. I don’t want Anthropic, or anybody else to have their tools used for these things either. But Dario is showing weakness here by talking around it. Whatever they were asked to…

  9. comment
    Comment #47188607

    No, the DoW may be implicitly asking for those things. That’s the point I’m trying to make here: Anthropic should just say the unsaid thing here . DoW asked for the following thing…

  10. comment
    Comment #47188600

    Because mass surveillance has been happening by every tech company under every president since George W. Bush, and despite everybody trying to stop it they haven’t been able to. Op…

  11. comment
    Comment #47188585

    The first sentence of that post is: > The Department of War has no interest in using AI to conduct mass surveillance of Americans (which is illegal) nor do we want to use AI to dev…

  12. comment
    Comment #47188541

    Then Anthropic should say: this is what the DoW has asked for, and we aren’t able to do it, or don’t want to.

  13. comment
    Comment #47188528

    The DoW has explicitly said they don’t want this, and what you are describing are not automated kill drones. Anthropic’s safeguards already prevent what you are describing, again t…

  14. comment
    Comment #47188447

    Right. Did the DoW ask for that? Or does Anthropic make a product that does that?

  15. comment
    Comment #47188274

    Did the DoW ask for these things? This whole thing seems like people talking past each other, and that there’s something being left unsaid. Anthropic doesn’t make a product that wo…

  16. comment
  17. story
    Ask HN: What have you built/shipped with Claude Code?

    I'm trying not to get too caught up in the hype here. I'm curious what you've actually built or shipped so far with claude-code. I made a little phonics flashcard game for my kids …

  18. comment
    Comment #46663742

    Consider what the rise of things like shopify, squarespace, etc. did for developers. In 2001, you needed an entire development team if you wanted to have an online business. Having…

  19. comment
    Comment #46617723

    I think you're talking about Renee Good - who is the other person?

  20. comment
    Comment #46522846

    Especially when the software they're developing is supposed to speed up the speed at which the software they are developing is developed.

  21. comment
    Comment #46508746

    Can you elaborate on this more? What would be a task you would use claude code for, and what would accomplishing the task look like?

  22. comment
    Comment #45610291

    These are all over the place in Tempe, AZ. I see them cruising through my neighborhood all the time. The funny thing is that there is usually a guy on an ebike following right behi…

  23. comment
    Comment #40742725

    I will happily pay for high quality news. Every few months I check back in with The Financial Times to see if I can get it delivered to my house again (they used to deliver in Phoe…

  24. comment
    Comment #40384700

    How could this possibly comply with European "right to be forgotten" legislation? In fact, how could any of these AI models comply with that? If a user requests to be forgotten, is…

  25. comment
    Comment #40363206

    Have you ever seen the Northern Lights with your eyes? If so I'm curious where you saw them. I echo what some other posters here have said: they're certainly not gray.