Live data from Hacker News

Some Details of My Personal Infrastructure

blog.stephenwolfram.com

331–340 of 415 posts

Re: Some Details of My Personal Infrastructure

#331

I personally wonder what has the modern world come to, that an individual cannot take a leisurely walk without distraction, and thus feels like they must be working on a computer while getting in some basic movement for their body.

One thing that had me wondering about is how on earth he deals with reflections on the screen. Any attempt I've ever made to work outside in the sun (usually when it's too nice to be indoors) has resulted in me frustrated and giving up when I can't see a bloody thing on the screen. Maybe I'll give it a go on the Macbook Pro I've just gotten at work.

Polarized sunglasses help me a lot. As long as they aren't polarized in the same direction as your screen, it should work pretty well.

Re: Some Details of My Personal Infrastructure

#332

I just don’t know about hiking with a laptop. Down time is also productive time. That said, it is interesting how he organizes the digital assets of his life. A little off topic: I subscribed to use the Wolfram Language a couple of years ago and really liked the integrated documentation, and the capabilities built in for just about everything. What was a turnoff was the very slow cycle time between entering code to b…

> Down time is also productive time

...or maybe it's not productive and not being productive all the time is a good thing for your mental health.

Re: Some Details of My Personal Infrastructure

#333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most inexpensive shredders have a very low duty cycle, so they'll cut out or overheat if you shred continuously for more than a couple of minutes. That's fine if you shred a couple of documents at a time, but it's infuriating if you have a big box of documents that need to be shredded. Heavy-duty shredders capable of continuous use are bulky and heavy, which is a significant issue if you live in a small apartment.

just burn em in a trashcan

I use a cylinder of wire mesh on something heatproof, in the garden.

Better than a cheap shredder by miles, and some nice heat that makes it pleasant in wintertime. :)

Re: Some Details of My Personal Infrastructure

#334
post #330
post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand your point. I worked remotely for ten years and there was constant banter in the slack (skype before that) channels. We would spend as much time socializing as we would if we were in the office. I won't make any assumptions about your work experience but I believe most of these criticisms tend to come from people that have never worked at a remote-first company. If anything, remote is slightly more…

You don't understand that many people prefer interacting with other people in person instead of via a slack channel? You can like your remote job. I agree there are ways to make it work, for certain people and certain jobs, and it can even be better than a workplace in some cases. I am not criticizing it, just explaining the advantages I find from working in an office with other people (btw, I have done remote work t…

> You don't understand that many people prefer interacting with other people in person instead of via a slack channel?

> I wonder if you have tried socializing in person and via a computer. It's so much better in person, that I don't care about not having logs. If you don't understand that, you may be a robot.

Your point would be a lot more effective without the insults. I also wonder if you are unable to see the irony of your assertion that different people have different preferences and then telling me I must be a robot if I don't share your preference.

Re: Some Details of My Personal Infrastructure

#335
post #95

Here's a guy I think of as very successful, and very smart, and yet he seems extremely tethered to his computers. Meetings while walking, and assuming nobody notices? Questioning the practicality of time spent outside? That's kind of... really... sad.

Better than sitting in a cube all day like a lot of sw eng...

Re: Some Details of My Personal Infrastructure

#336
post #53

I can see why some people think this guy is a bit much (Wolfram-branded Pilot Precise Grip pens, Wolfram Cloud, Wolfram Language) but this is a very thorough and interesting article. He even admits the embarrassing stuff: Apple Mac Pro.

Why is that embarrassing? I think they're pretty and pretty good.

Re: Some Details of My Personal Infrastructure

#337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For old-school meaning about '85 or so, 'optical mouse' meant a mouse on a special gridded pad that worked optically. See this: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sun_optical_mouse.jp... That's not a regular mouse pad, it's a special red/blue/silver grid detected by a laser in the mouse.

You could rotate the mouse pad and the mouse wouldn’t track. Very prankable. Edit: At least on a Sun workstation

I have fond memories of those things.

Re: Some Details of My Personal Infrastructure

#338
post #29

I really like the personal homepage idea. Reminds me of the iGoogle days. Anyone know any products / tools to create a simple one consisting of essentially an organized collection of links? I guess any static site generator could work, but would be nice to have an out of the box theme and can show RSS Feeds.

I just created my own chrome extension, and an html file for the new tab page:

https://github.com/codemac/config/tree/master/chrome

Currently, I have a cronjob that greps my todo files in org mode, and puts the currently scheduled task below a picture of General Sherman.

Post reply on HN