Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)

#1

Post by niqolas » Thu, Mar 18, 2010, 11:04 AM UTC

I thought I'd start a "brag" thread. I know there are some really interesting and inspiring people here and I want to hear all the cool, unusual, unique things you have done.

Examples:

  * I've travelled to all 7 continents
  * I've won an olympic gold medal
  * I've built a start-up from scratch and sold to Google
  * I invented a consumer electronic device that has sold 10M units
  * I've produced a feature length motion picture [Insert Title]
  * I had this ... funny life experience
  * I went drinking with Vladimir Putin

Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)

#2

Post by cperciva » Thu, Mar 18, 2010, 11:40 AM UTC

I don't normally mention this stuff, but since you asked...

* I started at university when I was 13.

* I won the Putnam Competition.

* I hold a world record for computing Pi.

* My bsdiff binary patching tool is used on tens of millions of computers and has saved several hundred human-years of waiting for software updates to download.

* I found a security bug in an Intel CPU. (Osvik/Shamir/Tromer also found it, but I was first, by a few weeks.)

* I'm the Concertmaster of an amateur symphony orchestra which is performing the Verdi Requiem tomorrow.

Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)

#3

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Mar 18, 2010, 11:49 AM UTC

cperciva wrote: post #2

I don't normally mention this stuff, but since you asked... * I started at university when I was 13. * I won the Putnam Competition. * I hold a world record for computing Pi. * My bsdiff binary patching tool is used on tens of millions of computers and has saved several hundred human-years of waiting for software updates to download. * I found a security bug in an Intel CPU. (Osvik/Shamir/Tromer also found it, but I…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)

#4

Post by kksm19820117 » Thu, Mar 18, 2010, 12:08 PM UTC

* I built a distributed search engine for my final year college project, when my teachers and friends told me I was taking on too much. It survived two project mates walking out, and some rather dumb ones pushed in. I got a 97 for it, and consider it THE accomplishment of my college years.

* Wrote an indexing program in C that crashed a Netware network. :P

* I've read the Bhagwad Gita, the Koran, the Bible and the Tao Teh Ching. I am still an atheist.

* I've written a complete IM module at work when drunk. Oddly, this has been considered one of my better contributions to the project in that company.

* I've completed reading five Asimov novels in the course of a single day.

* I am an Indian, yet can't speak any Hindi. I have lived in the Gulf, yet can't speak any Arabic. My folks speak Konkani at home, yet I cannot speak that either. Dad knows Portuguese, yet I somehow never picked it up from him. Strangely though, I can speak French, Japanese, Quenyan and am on my way to studying Sanskrit.

Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)

#5

Post by patio11 » Thu, Mar 18, 2010, 12:16 PM UTC

I once saved a five year old from drowning in six feet of water. Boiling water. While naked.

(OK, technically speaking ~45C, not boiling.)

Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)

#6

Post by cperciva » Thu, Mar 18, 2010, 12:25 PM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #5

I once saved a five year old from drowning in six feet of water. Boiling water. While naked. (OK, technically speaking ~45C, not boiling.)

Is 45C hot enough to cause injury? (Assuming you don't drown, that is.)

Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)

#7

Post by bozmac » Thu, Mar 18, 2010, 12:30 PM UTC

I created an appointment system and all its related subsystems from scratch in 7 days. The online part is on passport.com.ph

Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)

#8

Post by buro9 » Thu, Mar 18, 2010, 12:37 PM UTC

* I fixed a Brit Award for Best Newcomer in 1998 (Belle and Sebastian) using social engineering

* I built the consumer site for BTopenworld almost single-handedly in 6 weeks (CMS and portal from scratch in TCL), it was live for 7 years before being replaced

* Recently enjoyed a 97.5% mark on an MSc assignment

* Survived living on the streets for more than 2 winters (when you live on the street, you count winters and not years)

* Every code I've ever written outside of education has gone live somewhere... I first learned to code by making a stock control system for a small company and knew computers should be good at that stuff

* I taught myself TCL, PERL, Java, C#, C++, JavaScript, and am currently enjoying a foray into Clojure.

* I've met Paul McCartney, hung out with Blur, Elastica, Pulp and Oasis... partied several years of my life away in a blur

* I've created a data warehouse for semi-structured data from ECM systems

This list is not necessarily in chronological order. I absolutely am missing stuff but the bullets above fill me with joy of some kind. I haven't done the thing I want most to do, which is to work with some great minds on some complex problems, but this is why I'm doing an MSc so late, I want to knock on Google's door.

Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)

#9

Post by cromulent » Thu, Mar 18, 2010, 12:40 PM UTC

I survived being hit in the head with a running 110cc chainsaw. Minor flesh wounds only. Is that cool? I'm not sure.

A friend of mine won the Nobel peace prize and then lost it in a bar afterwards. I wish I could say that.

Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)

#10

Post by gommm » Thu, Mar 18, 2010, 1:03 PM UTC

cperciva wrote: post #6

patio11 wrote: post #5

I once saved a five year old from drowning in six feet of water. Boiling water. While naked. (OK, technically speaking ~45C, not boiling.)

Is 45C hot enough to cause injury? (Assuming you don't drown, that is.)

42-45C is the temperature of the very hot onsens in Japan (at least according to the thermometer reading at an onsen I visited there)... So no I don't think it'd cause injuries...