May the newborn Jesus Christ free us from this world and show us the way to God. Merry Christmas to the Hacker News community!
(Psst, that was >2000 years ago. He's ∞+2k years older now. Agree with everything else.)
Wish HN: Happy Holidays
261–270 of 272 posts
Re: Wish HN: Happy Holidays
#262Merry Christmas to you all. Incredible!! P.S Wish the next iteration allows for multi touch!
it'd be nice if you could create loops at least then run them in parallel... like maybe have a record button under each blob then when you push the big play it combines them...
That's kinda getting into sequencer territory, but also sounds fun.
Re: Wish HN: Happy Holidays
#263What better than a Blob Opera rendition of the Sea Shanty Wellerman to close off the year: https://g.co/arts/GhWUzQAG8U6Q5B387
whoa i tried doing some recordings and it was complete crap - how the heck do you get them to sing at once and jump notes?
Re: Wish HN: Happy Holidays
#264I would also like to say that being a part of the Hacker News website and community is golden. I think that I have said enough...
Besides that, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!
Re: Wish HN: Happy Holidays
#265Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. Kinda makes you wonder why other communities haven’t been able to reproduce the level of quality and civility (I know HN is still far from perfect, but night and day vs. other platforms). A great community to be a part of, and much appreciation to those that oversee and contribute to the high quality and respectful discussions.
Downvoting, which on the surface seems less civil, leads to more civil discussions. Just my opinion of course... Happy Holidays! I second the gratitude for all the work by dang and the rest of the HN team. Well done and thank you!
I was almost tempted to downvote this. But I disagree with you, so I won't.
Re: Wish HN: Happy Holidays
#266Earlier quoted context omitted.
My hearing is blown out, has been for a long time, and the damage has finally caught up to me. I stopped music despite a few attempts to restart it with my hearing disability; I can't use power tools; and, my concentration to use computers has gone away. I am homeless with no career, and live in a constant state of suicidality with no ability to finish suicide. Yes, I am seeking medical treatment and disability compe…
There's a lot of very interesting information here that only prompts further curiosity. Music sounds important to you. How impactful is the hearing damage you speak of? Why can't you use power tools? Are they unbearably loud to use due to the hearing damage? How long can you tolerate in-ear earplugs for (possibly with high-rated passive earmuffs over the top) - or does this exacerbate other symptoms? The concentratio…
How impactful? Suffered T & H for a long long time. I don't enjoy listening to music anymore, much less performing.
T: four tonal ranges in one ear, two in other; non-aggravated significant flare-up's in both. Stress is a factor. Some tonal ranges have morphed over time from pulsatile to resonant; none are purely sinusodial; they cover lows to mids to highs.
H: I become angry from loud sounds and sometimes quiet ones. Any exposure increases sensitivity. Stress is a factor.
Earplugs w/muffs: any exposure to vibration/noise aggravates both T and H. With no hearing protection on e.g. a miter saw, I'd risk an ER visit. Even one unprotected cut introduces significantly amplified T for days.
Programming: Any brain activity increases T & H, incl'g coding, social activities, or anything involving interacting with technology and society, for that matter. Programming specifically causes my brain to always be "on", which is particularly bad for T.
Life outcome: Was told no treatment existed, so I tried to deal with it and move on with life. Didn't work. That was decades ago.
Suicide: peaceful method available, not the problem. Persistent fear of death exists.
Mental theories about serotonin imbalances, DSM nonsense, etc: I have found humanity to be distasteful since childhood. Conscious decision. Please kill me now.
Limited social networks: in the space / satellite / cam age, this is impossible. I am not moving underground.
Re: Wish HN: Happy Holidays
#267For a while now, this site has felt to me like one of the last bastions of high-quality discussion on the internet. Many days, it's the first thing I open in the morning and/or the last at night, and I sure am thankful that amid the firestorm of superficial engagement maximization platforms, there's at least one site that consistently leaves me feeling more informed, enlightened, and rational. Happy Holidays, HN!
Re: Wish HN: Happy Holidays
#268What better than a Blob Opera rendition of the Sea Shanty Wellerman to close off the year: https://g.co/arts/GhWUzQAG8U6Q5B387
whoa i tried doing some recordings and it was complete crap - how the heck do you get them to sing at once and jump notes?
This is one of the precorded ones, but if oyu check one of the sister comments you can see that a guy hooked up his MIDI keyboard to it. So I guess something like that :-)
Re: Wish HN: Happy Holidays
#269Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a lot of very interesting information here that only prompts further curiosity. Music sounds important to you. How impactful is the hearing damage you speak of? Why can't you use power tools? Are they unbearably loud to use due to the hearing damage? How long can you tolerate in-ear earplugs for (possibly with high-rated passive earmuffs over the top) - or does this exacerbate other symptoms? The concentratio…
How impactful? Suffered T & H for a long long time. I don't enjoy listening to music anymore, much less performing. T: four tonal ranges in one ear, two in other; non-aggravated significant flare-up's in both. Stress is a factor. Some tonal ranges have morphed over time from pulsatile to resonant; none are purely sinusodial; they cover lows to mids to highs. H: I become angry from loud sounds and sometimes quiet ones…
T: I'm curious if you ever listened to exceptionally loud sounds at or near the problem frequencies either once-off or over an extended period of time. I also wonder if/how well the technique where you put your hands over your ears and flick your fingers works (I'm quietly hoping you haven't heard of it and it's useful :D). (I hold my index/2nd finger slightly away from my head, but mostly the same as https://trudenta.com/this-simple-trick-may-help-with-tinnitu...)
H: It sounds you're describing a death spiral feedback loop where the H increases the T which aggravates the H which...? I can kinda understand your overall worldview now. Also, how do you mean that you become angry? Sensory-overload driven perpetual aggravation ("bar-fight mode")? A feeling of core breakdown leading to an event-horizon "everything goes white" or "bomb goes off in movie and nobody can hear anything" level of fundamental disassociation? (Those are the two reference points I have the most familiarity with, to a small extent.)
Earplugs: Without wishing to ask triggering questions, I'm very curious why this input risks you ending up in ER (and (generally) why) - panic attacks, "please just knock me out" levels of T, unbearable mental stress, or...? (Maybe a combination?)
Programming: It being problematic for your brain to always be "on" is fascinating. For me, I find that my own hypersensitivity impacts my ability to access that place that reasons about complex problems and makes creative leaps, which strongly overlaps with fundamental calmness and tranquility. When I'm overloaded, it's like the pathway I use to access that place of internal calm is involuntarily monopolized by "immediate problem! must be alert" that doesn't go away and gets REALLY old very quickly. Similar to when someone's trying to settle down and go to sleep but can't because of persistent disturbance that never stops. My ability to use a given device is based on whether I can compartmentalize the bit of my brain that seems to need to remain "on" and hyper-vigilant until I slooooowly acclimatize and integrate the idea that the input isn't the end of the world, and finally relax. I'm curious if any of this resonates for you.
Muffs: Oooh. I get the impression you still have to avoid strong resonance even with earplugs and muffs in. Yeow. What level is "too much" with everything you can get your hands on?
Suicide: I was completely out of the ballpark with the direction I went in there, welp. I'm curious as to the root of your fear of death, although that's getting into personal questions that don't require answers. FWIW, my own worldview is that accepting one's expiration date is a form of obedience toward the consequences of the fallen mess we're in, and strict naïveté of the exact specifics about the when and how isolates our inevitable physical death from influence and conditioning by our fundamentally broken desires and intentions. TL;DR, I've drunk the "we probably do live forever" koolaid and think that messing with the implementation details touches things that are not meant to be touched for safety's sake, and that's where my own fear comes from.
Medical diagnoses: I personally wouldn't classify the root of unrest you're describing as being fundamentally based on a serotonin imbalance or DSM implication. It definitely sounds like something else. I've personally been trying to get to the bottom of my own sensitivity issue with VeRy PrEdIcTaBlE results for over a decade, and I can relate to your disenfranchisement about society (and particularly the medical (and educational) establishments).
Social networking: I would describe my own social interaction overall as generally "sustainably perfunctory", with HN being the primary focus I actually pay attention to :). As for the surveillance aspects of society, that's a firehose problem the world has made for itself that I'm slowly learning thankfully requires less attention and emotional investment than all the privacy sheep insist is necessary.
Re: Wish HN: Happy Holidays
#270Earlier quoted context omitted.
How impactful? Suffered T & H for a long long time. I don't enjoy listening to music anymore, much less performing. T: four tonal ranges in one ear, two in other; non-aggravated significant flare-up's in both. Stress is a factor. Some tonal ranges have morphed over time from pulsatile to resonant; none are purely sinusodial; they cover lows to mids to highs. H: I become angry from loud sounds and sometimes quiet ones…
T: I'm curious if you ever listened to exceptionally loud sounds at or near the problem frequencies either once-off or over an extended period of time. I also wonder if/how well the technique where you put your hands over your ears and flick your fingers works (I'm quietly hoping you haven't heard of it and it's useful :D). (I hold my index/2nd finger slightly away from my head, but mostly the same as https://trudent…
I've tried the fingers flick, no change.
I've dewaxed at the doctor, no change.
Target sounds - sounds risky. I'd rather do in a clinical setting.
There are new experimental drugs and techniques in the pipeline. Many vets suffer from this; many have it far worse than I do currently. There's a real need for new treatments.
My hunch is that we'll want to develop risk profiles for T and H based on genetics. My ears are sensitive and I shouldn't have exposed myself to loud sound at all as a kid. Probably should be part of military admission screening.
I've had this for a long time. It was so unbearable at first that I was sure suicide was inevitable. (Still seems that way). But, the remediation for me is low stress, low exposure to sound, get enough sleep, avoid activities that exasperate T and H. It's not as bad as it was when I got it long ago but has never gone away. Damage is done, though - to my life, career, relationships.
Anger: I never experience true quiet, so my baseline cortisol is elevated. I become easily angered. Yelling mostly. This raises my T and H. Any significant brain activity raises my T and H. I never finished uni nor accomplished much. My attention span was wrecked after I got this.
Tech: I detached a few years ago when I decided to drop out of life, prepare for suicide, and focus on shitposting 24/7 until death about the largely unattributed scumbag targeting incidents that I've accumulated over decades. Problem solving isn't on my radar any longer.
Muffs: Sure, I can wear muffs and plugs for short jobs. I'd be ok. But I'd prefer no exposure because it took decades for the T to subside, and only a few months of playing a musical instrument (with muffs and plugs) to make it worse again. That was about 3-4 yrs ago; T still worse than it was 5 years ago. Any exposure is risky.
Societal issues: Zero Trust, applied to technocratic incumbents means breaking up big tech, banning data hoarding and data brokering, banning cameras everywhere, policing satellites - a futile pipe dream, indeed. The risks of power asymmetry via tech will only rise. I am not optimistic at all about the future of democracy. Asymmetric power hoarding opportunities will probably increase significantly over the next 50 years - a scary prospect.