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Damn you, Arduino...I have no free time for this.

ryanwaggoner.com

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Re: Damn you, Arduino...I have no free time for this.

#21

Post by davidw »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #5
replicatorblog wrote: post #2

Ryan, I really like a lot of your posts, but some of them feel a little light for HN. This one could be summarized as "I got an Arduino, Physical products are really cool". Kind of bummed its #1 right now. Nothing personal against you, just that personality rather than content seems to be rocketing things up the page.

That's fair, and this is the thing I worry about the most with my blog. Part of the problem is that a bunch of my readers aren't technical, so I sometimes wonder how deep I should go on technical posts. As far as HN goes, I submit a lot of the stuff I write, but only because a fairly large percentage seems to find some traction here, so I guess people enjoy it. That's not necessarily proof that it's quality content,…

Not your fault people vote it up. It's certainly far more on topic than a lot of things that get submitted, so you can't be faulted for submitting it.

Re: Damn you, Arduino...I have no free time for this.

#23

Post by dman »

RiderOfGiraffes wrote: post #19
hugh3 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, this is the same guy who wrote "The Secret To Getting on the HN Front Page".

I remember reading that and wondering how many people follow it. Today, after watching yet another of my more technical submissions sink without trace, I start to wonder whether I should game the system in the ways he suggests. After all, it would demonstrate and make use of the knowledge I've gained from being here here a while, and perhaps it would give my submissions a fighting chance among yet another submission…

I think we desperately need something like subreddits so that people can self organize into groups where they create and consume information to their liking.

Re: Damn you, Arduino...I have no free time for this.

#24

Post by RiderOfGiraffes »

dman wrote: post #23
RiderOfGiraffes wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember reading that and wondering how many people follow it. Today, after watching yet another of my more technical submissions sink without trace, I start to wonder whether I should game the system in the ways he suggests. After all, it would demonstrate and make use of the knowledge I've gained from being here here a while, and perhaps it would give my submissions a fighting chance among yet another submission…

I think we desperately need something like subreddits so that people can self organize into groups where they create and consume information to their liking.

I'm working on something. PG hasn't yet responded to a question, so I'm reluctant to do too much work or say too much about it before then.

Re: Damn you, Arduino...I have no free time for this.

#25

Post by ryanwaggoner »

It's been brought to my attention that this post is disappointingly light on content and substance, and after some careful reflection, I agree. So I've updated the post with a more in-depth review of the Arduino and Sparkfun Inventor's Kit. This is intended largely for technical people who haven't played with electronics much, but are interested in getting started. Let me know if there's other things I can cover in the review, and I'll try to be more in-depth and judicious with my submissions in the future.

Re: Damn you, Arduino...I have no free time for this.

#26

Post by almost »

RiderOfGiraffes wrote: post #20
NickPollard wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could also just be a slow news day - I certainly feel like there it's been pretty light on meaty articles today. Maybe I should try to track that and see if there's some tendency towards different kind of articles on a Friday due to it being the end of the week.

It's technical/mathematical rather than news, but there's this one: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1846682

Yes, lets have more of that kind of thing!

Re: Damn you, Arduino...I have no free time for this.

#27

Post by davidw »

base2john wrote: post #13

Thrilled that this is #1 for now. HN "Hackers" need to realize that the physical world exists beyond the console.

Sure, we do, but it's so pleasant to live in a space where you can do so much without having to go out and buy things or otherwise wait on the physical world. It's nice to work and learn on your own time at your own pace.

Re: Damn you, Arduino...I have no free time for this.

#28

Post by ryanwaggoner »

RiderOfGiraffes wrote: post #20
NickPollard wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could also just be a slow news day - I certainly feel like there it's been pretty light on meaty articles today. Maybe I should try to track that and see if there's some tendency towards different kind of articles on a Friday due to it being the end of the week.

It's technical/mathematical rather than news, but there's this one: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1846682

I actually read and voted up that submission, but you have to understand that the set of people who care about / understand a post like that is small. As a result, with a generalized community like HN, you're always going to fight to get attention for stuff like that, especially as HN grows. This is an excellent argument for something like subreddits, because otherwise the community just gets more and more shallow. Bugs me to think I've contributed to that :(

Re: Damn you, Arduino...I have no free time for this.

#29

Post by billswift »

There is an opportunity for a side-business here. I cannot download really big files, so I buy my linux distros on DVDs. I wasn't able to find anyone selling Arduino, when I asked on a Arduino forum a nice person mailed me a copy, but I think someone with a fast connection and a web site could make a few dollars extra downloading and packaging open source software for people who can't download their own. I doubt that there is enough demand for this to be a main source of income, but the marginal costs if you already have a way of taking credit cards and the fast connection should be minimal.

Re: Damn you, Arduino...I have no free time for this.

#30

Post by dman »

RiderOfGiraffes wrote: post #24
dman wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we desperately need something like subreddits so that people can self organize into groups where they create and consume information to their liking.

I'm working on something. PG hasn't yet responded to a question, so I'm reluctant to do too much work or say too much about it before then.

Awesome! If youre working in python by any chance I could write some code for it too.
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