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Ask HN: What are you passionate about at the moment?

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Re: Ask HN: What are you passionate about at the moment?

#641

Post by dhfryvby »

whydontwezz wrote: post #631
philip1209 wrote: post #251

Low-plastic living. I read a book by the world's first zero-waste restaurant, Silo. The book got me thinking about how different our lives would be if oil were expensive. "Pretend oil is really expensive" is a good proxy for doing things that are "eco-friendly." Since reading the book, I've tried to eliminate single-use plastic from most of my life. It's incredibly hard. Everything from my socks to my vegetable packa…

I never understood why we don't pump and incinerate all non-recyclable waste straight into a volcano and let the lava deal with it!

It could work with unmaned aerial blimps or other load bearing uav's.

You would sort the waste and grind it down if necessary.

They could hover high enough to not be affected by the rupture of the lava lakes. Unless there is an open caldera like in Nicaragua.

Then you would just have to deal with the local communities spiritual beliefs, which would benefit from a financial incentive.

Re: Ask HN: What are you passionate about at the moment?

#642

Post by appplication »

cbrugs wrote: post #388
appplication wrote: post #230

I just downloaded Ableton Live and it’s been a blast playing with it. Similarly, I finally understand how modular synths work and it’s basically just functional programming with sound. I haven’t bought any modulars yet but I’m really looking forward to getting into it in the new year. Music production is very cool and I can’t wait to learn more.

I got into making house/techno music about a year ago and it's become a life-changing hobby just like getting into tech was. Getting to that point where you start making "listenable" music is unmatched. The best advice that I can give (that you didn't ask for) is to use a reference track as you make a song. It keeps you inspired, allows you to learn from the track, and prevents the kind of listening fatigue that make…

When you say use a reference track do you mean trying to e.g. mimic some style, sound or beat?

Re: Ask HN: What are you passionate about at the moment?

#643

Post by appplication »

loxias wrote: post #562
appplication wrote: post #230

I just downloaded Ableton Live and it’s been a blast playing with it. Similarly, I finally understand how modular synths work and it’s basically just functional programming with sound. I haven’t bought any modulars yet but I’m really looking forward to getting into it in the new year. Music production is very cool and I can’t wait to learn more.

Enjoy!!!! I worked in music tech for a few startups starting in 2000, have written a few instruments (VSTs) and dabbled in making noise (some call it music). specialize in cutting edge dsp, but i just like applying it to PHAT SOUNDS. :D i'm a much better sw engineer DSP enthusiast than an artist, but can still hold my own. Get ready for so much fun. Making music gets infinitely more fun once you start to build all yo…

I do enjoy coding quite a bit as well. Where do you recommend getting started merging these two interests?

Re: Ask HN: What are you passionate about at the moment?

#644

Post by gadders »

itake wrote: post #639
gadders wrote: post #625

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What were you eating? Were you trying to stay lean at the same time?

I didn't diet, which probably didn't help. I had an unlimited meal plan in college, but didn't take full advantage of it.

Yeah, eating and sleeping loads helps.

Re: Ask HN: What are you passionate about at the moment?

#645

Post by mzl »

polivier wrote: post #605
mzl wrote: post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What model did you end up using? And what system did you do it in? My immediate guess on how to model it would be to create reified constraints for the wordlists of different lengths (the constraints in chapter 22 of https://www.gecode.org/doc-latest/MPG.pdf ). For each square, use standard logical constraints to check if it is the start of a word (previous square a black one, this square not a black one), and how lo…

The problem mentioned in the Gecode documentation example is different than the one I solve. In their case, they start with a WxH grid with known black square positions, and their model essentially answers the following question: "Given a crossword grid template and word list, does there exist a feasible assignment of words for the template?" I my case, the black square positions are unknown, so the question instead…

Thanks for the link. I think that your version of getting to a reified extensional constraint (your table method) looks like a reasonable way to do it, and probably works quite well for OR-Tools CP-SAT in particular.

Another way to do it directly is to embed the control variable in the table, with a full set of all possible tuples for when the control variable is false. This, however, gives a large blow-up of the table size, especially for wide tables/long words and might be too expensive. Using compressed/smart/cartesian product tables or MDD constraints if the system supports it would solve this (OR-Tools does not, AFAIK).

As for the Gecode model, my idea was that the way to model the words using separate element constraint for each letter could reasonably be extended into a model for reified words by changing the element constraints to tables over the triple in the above way. The benefit is that one would not trigger the combinatorial blow-up one gets for the above with a full table over the whole word since it is only a single letter.

In a related case, I used reified extensional constraints specified using regular expressions in https://github.com/zayenz/cp-mod-ref-2019-patchwork to optionally place polyominoes on a grid.

Re: Ask HN: What are you passionate about at the moment?

#646

Post by davidw »

sjmulder wrote: post #599
davidw wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YIMBY politics is where it's at for me too. My city has a housing crisis. My best friend here got forced out by the prices. It's different from software... so slow to get things done. But also really rewarding to see housing get built and policies allowing different, more affordable kinds of housing to be built. We just re-legalized SRO's here!

That's great! There's a housing crisis here too and unfortunately the opposition to the project uses this as their main argument. Those supporting refugee housing are framed as enemies of the 'real' locals, even though the current plans are the result of trying to fit the refugee housing in such a way that it doesn't impact planned permanent housing projects.

The answer is to build enough for everyone. Building enough can happen in a lot of different ways:

https://www.sightline.org/2017/09/21/yes-you-can-build-your-...

BTW, the two groups that seem to be doing the most concrete work on housing are:

* https://new.yimbyaction.org/

* https://welcomingneighbors.us/

I've learned a lot and it's great to connect with people all over the US doing similar work.

Re: Ask HN: What are you passionate about at the moment?

#649

Post by CobaltFire »

Aaronstotle wrote: post #199
politelemon wrote: post #18

Games. I've been forcing myself into productivity for too long because that is the thing to do. I recently built a gaming pc, picked some jrpgs, and I'm having a blast. There are entire franchises and worlds for the exploring. There are amazing rich stories and history and beautiful soundtracks that I'm living through right now. My wishlist grows by the day as I discover new tales.

As I've gotten older its rare for me to enjoy games, I can't seem to play for more than 15 minutes before wanting to turn it off/feel like I'm bored.

This was absolutely true for me up to this year. What changed?

I retired, and my chronic burnout started to recede (slowly). I realized that, for me, the issue was learning and remembering new systems were introducing a cognitive load that I just couldn't handle on top of the load I was carrying.

I know that's not directly helpful, but it may be worth looking at whether you are showing signs of burnout.

Re: Ask HN: What are you passionate about at the moment?

#650

Post by jkestner »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #292
jkestner wrote: post #191

Citizen science! It's great when people realize they can answer their own questions with observation and data, and for activism because data is a powerful story. One friend of mine started https://publiclab.org to feed this, and another is doing data journalism to highlight holes in the government's environmental data. https://www.muckrock.com/project/ A rules-configurable sensor tool I made a long time ago was used…

Your kids school has a makerspace - that sounds awesome can you provide any more details?

Oh, I realized I answered how we set it up, but maybe not what we do. It's just during regular library time, a parent volunteer presents/reviews a concept (the teachers tell us what they've been working on) and has an activity. Depending on the grade level, it might be playing with batteries, switches and bulbs, bringing in nature to look at under the microscope, building a motorized vehicle with LittleBits, or trying out pulleys.

Kids can also take stuff from the shelves to work on themselves, but we need to make activity cards to give the ones who are less sure of themselves a self-guided path.

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