My dad was responsible for the blue diamond marshmallow in Lucky Charms.
As for myself, I have zero debt, no outstanding loans at all, including no car payment and no mortgage.
Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)
51–60 of 253 posts
Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)
#52Two chicks at the same time!
Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)
#53I 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…
You forgot "I started Tarsnap."
I don't really consider Tarsnap to be in the same category as those. Sure, I think Tarsnap is a fantastic online backup system; but that's rather subjective. If/when Tarsnap becomes wildly successful, I'll be able to make the objective claim of "I started a company which (is making $X/year profit | I sold for $Y | has N customers | etc. )" but until that happens, Tarsnap isn't really something to "brag" about.
Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)
#54* I paid off my parents mortgage (age 20)
I paid off at age 24.
Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)
#55I once kicked a tin foil sandwich wrapper into a bin on the street from my hands at about a 10 foot distance without losing a step. Unfortunately nobody witnessed the most glorious moment of my life, and I looked around with massive futility to find someone who actually noticed. The moment after my most glorious moment thus became my least glorious moment.
Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)
#56I 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…
but you didn't figure out about canadian sales tax yet ;) http://www.tarsnap.com/legal-why.html#NOCANADIANS
Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)
#57* was a guitar prodigy in my teens
* almost got booted from college for publishing the president's dirty laundry on Paul Schrader's dime
* had 3 top 40 songs with my band on the radio (alt top 40)
* founded a pr agency at 26
* had my own newspaper column before 30
* got a client 25 minutes on cnn int (valued at 6 million us)
* was the first to publicly attack the junta after the coup in thailand in 2006
* was interviewed on live tv for an hour without a script (hellish)
* taught myself a handful of computer languages and secured early funding for an internet startup
* got to brag about it all on hn =)
Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)
#58Whether you consider these things amazing is up to you, but I'm happy about them.
* I obtained a government apology for the mistreatment of Alan Turing
* I wrote an original book
* I went to Oxford after my state school told me I wasn't up to it, I stayed and did a doctorate there
* I learnt to swim when I was 21
* I learnt to speak French fluently as an adult
Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)
#59I grew up in a fishing village in the north of Scotland - when I was 19 one of my school friends insisted that I experience what it is like working on a trawler in the North Sea. After a few days of sea sickness, hard work, lack of sleep, and fear I probably would have shot myself if someone had given me a loaded pistol. Nothing I did since then (and I had summer jobs while I was a student doing things like weeding l…
I presented at the first 3 web conferences in '93, 94 and '95 at CERN, Chicago and Darmstadt.
Quite proud that the paper I presented in Chicago in '94 suggested that it might be a good to build programmatic extensibility into web browsers - possibly using a virtual machine. I remember the audience thinking it was a very silly idea... ;-)
Given the precedent of the Eolas case I wonder how much my employer might have made if that idea had been patented. Fortunately they didn't approve of me doing that work so that never happened.
Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)
#60* Grade 9 (age 14) I Raised $3500 for the Stephen Lewis Foundation (Fighting Aids in Africa), I was the 2nd highest fundraiser (A gr.12 beat my be $50) But b/c of our fundraising we (the Gr.12 girl and I) got to hand Stephen Lewis (the United Nations' special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa) a giant cheque for $40,000
* My parents are from South Africa, emigrated to Canada during Apartheid, and my relatives were good friends of Nelson Mandela's and played relatively important roles in the Anti-Apartheid movement. While imprisoned on Robben Island, Nelson Mandela wrote a letter (or two) to my Great Aunt. There's a copy in a biography I read. I believe he also went to at least one of her birthday parties. Later, when he was in Toronto (1998) I got to meet him, and sing ABC' and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with him (I was 7 @ the time)
* My great uncle used to work with Mahatma Ghandi, when they were both lawyers in India. There are pictures somewhere in India's archives of them together.
* Last week while in the grocery store with my dad, a woman near us yelled that the guy running stole her purse. Myself and another guy immediately ran after him (another guy joined us on the way) and we chased the culprit into the parking lot. He gave up and I sternly asked for the purse back, then I handed it to the lady and a bunch of people called the police. (I didn't want to brag about that one, but now seemed like a good opportunity)