16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft • Hacker News Board

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#41

Post by Melyan » Mon, Mar 26, 2012, 9:24 PM UTC

Why is it necessary to include the age in the title?

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#42

Post by psycho » Mon, Mar 26, 2012, 9:47 PM UTC

Well, the kid doesn't have to worry what to answer on a question about the most impressive thing he did if he decides to apply to YC someday.

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#43

Post by arethuza » Mon, Mar 26, 2012, 9:50 PM UTC

psycho wrote: post #42

Well, the kid doesn't have to worry what to answer on a question about the most impressive thing he did if he decides to apply to YC someday.

I'm hoping his next step is to create a full computer and port Linux to it... :-)

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#44

Post by artursapek » Mon, Mar 26, 2012, 9:52 PM UTC

Melyan wrote: post #41

Why is it necessary to include the age in the title?

Are you serious?

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#45

Post by DanBC » Mon, Mar 26, 2012, 9:56 PM UTC

Melyan wrote: post #41

Why is it necessary to include the age in the title?

It's not necessary. But it does make a difference to the story. Some one who'd had years of education and gone through a good college and has worked in the industry could have made this, and everyone would have been impressed. The fact that this young person created this without all that is impressive.

And, depending what media you have access to, there's not often good news about young people.

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#46

Post by simonbrown » Mon, Mar 26, 2012, 10:19 PM UTC

See also: Working 8-bit CPU in Minecraft

http://boingboing.net/2010/11/12/working-8-bit-cpu-in.html

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#47

Post by BHSPitMonkey » Mon, Mar 26, 2012, 10:35 PM UTC

tibbon wrote: post #16

jacquesm wrote: post #15

I watched the video all the way to the end, this is nothing short of amazing. Now I get why they call it 'creative mode'.

If they pulled it off in survival mode, I would be absolutely floored. Well, I still am anyway, but still- Damn creepers.

> creepers

So THAT'S what was causing the memory corruption.

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#48

Post by Zaak » Mon, Mar 26, 2012, 10:56 PM UTC

arethuza wrote: post #43

psycho wrote: post #42

Well, the kid doesn't have to worry what to answer on a question about the most impressive thing he did if he decides to apply to YC someday.

I'm hoping his next step is to create a full computer and port Linux to it... :-)

My mind boggles at the sheer size of 8M RAM in minecraft...

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#49

Post by arethuza » Mon, Mar 26, 2012, 11:01 PM UTC

Zaak wrote: post #48

arethuza wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm hoping his next step is to create a full computer and port Linux to it... :-)

My mind boggles at the sheer size of 8M RAM in minecraft...

According to NASA the Minecraft world is pretty big:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120312.html

[NB It's just to the left of Neptune]

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#50

Post by prophetjohn » Mon, Mar 26, 2012, 11:45 PM UTC

arethuza wrote: post #43

psycho wrote: post #42

Well, the kid doesn't have to worry what to answer on a question about the most impressive thing he did if he decides to apply to YC someday.

I'm hoping his next step is to create a full computer and port Linux to it... :-)

It would be neat, but honestly the complexity of a modern CPU is not something that any individual would be able to recreate in a life time if they were building it piece-by-piece. I imagine that's true for any CPU capable of running recent Ubuntu releases or even something light like, I dunno, Puppy.