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

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

#61

Post by aaronz3 »

* Owned my own incorporated business at the age of 15 (Looking back, it was kindof dumb. It was essentially just freelancing with a shitload of paperwork attached). I dissolved it at 18 when I went to college.

* Self taught every programming language I know (Started with BASIC, then JavaScript and PHP, did some windows programming in VB, then later VB.NET and now doing asp programming in C#. I've also toyed with Objective-C/C/C++) I'm really impressed by some of the comments here. I've had a better understanding of these languages than most of my professors (which probably speaks more to the quality of my school than my programming ability)

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

#62

Post by [deleted] »

dan_sim wrote: post #56
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…

but you didn't figure out about canadian sales tax yet ;) http://www.tarsnap.com/legal-why.html#NOCANADIANS

[deleted]

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

#65

Post by edw519 »

I strongly believe in initiative, achievement, and success, but for some reason, I find this thread a little troubling. Not because it's bragging, but because it's seems to be mostly about "me me me". I'd rather hear people brag about what they've done for others.

At the time I write this comment, most other comments are about "me".

Noteable exceptions:

- jgrahamc obtaining a government apology for the mistreatment of Alan Turing

- AN447 paying off his parent's mortgage

- patio11 saving a life

Great job, guys! You inspire me. (Apologies if I missed anyone.)

As for me, I've done lots of cool stuff, but if I had to pick one thing to put on my tombstone, it would be, "He made his mother laugh when nothing else would." Everything else seems to pale in comparison.

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

#66

Post by moollaza »

mbenjaminsmith wrote: post #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 intervi…

Very awesome achievements. Congrats. I particularly like the guitar/music stuff. Anywhere I might be able to hear those songs of yours? And by prodigy, was that specific to a style? Like classical etc?

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

#67

Post by yesimahuman »

kksm19820117 wrote: post #4

* 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 Ta…

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

Perhaps that's why you're an atheist ;)

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

#68

Post by pasbesoin »

buro9 wrote: post #48
jk4930 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Initially I wanted to post a silly comment to the original question, but after I read your answer, I can't. You have my full respect, man. Your ghetto story is way more awesome than mine. :)

I'll admit something... my story hampers my present. The problem with such a dark background and fighting out of it is that once out, not going back dominates everything you do. This translates to, "Don't risk what you have". And therein lies a problem, if I have little but can't risk it then I'm risk averse and cannot gamble on high risk opportunities. I desperately want to do a start-up and to do something new, but…

Will the MSc help by providing a "safe" fallback position / opportunities should a venture not succeed (and/or a sense of same)?

I don't mean the question simply rhetorically -- although it initially popped into my mind in kind of that sense. I really wonder what your perspective is in that regard.

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

#69

Post by Mc_Big_G »

The first application I ever wrote, theoretically saved the company $10.2 million dollars.

I was working as a systems administrator at a Big 3 automotive supplier and identified a gap in our million dollar production system. If we ever lost connectivity, the system would be useless and the off-line backup system was insufficient. Our contract stated that we could be charged $10,000 per minute for shutting down the plant. I wanted to learn how to program, so I wrote a backup app in perl.

The electric company dug up our data lines and we lost communications for 18 hours. We tried using the backup system, but it could not keep up with production and we put the plant in jeopardy. My app, which was not in my job description to create and not supported by the company, ran production for 17 hours without errors in a complex automotive sequencing environment.

I don't know that the Big 3 automotive company would have actually charged us $10 million dollars, but it would have easily been > 1 million.

Raising 3 kids as a single father, among other personal accomplishments, by far trumps this achievement, but it doesn't sound as impressive on paper.

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

#70

Post by logicalmind »

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…

That's interesting. I had no idea you were the person who did the pi calculation. My co-worker and I setup all of the computers in our development area to help the cause. Looking at the old stats, we were the #4 producer (Viper). Brings back memories. Thanks for putting that together!
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