Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment
18 comments
Amateur Radio and the likes (to include GMRS, CB, etc.) - especially digital modes. KR4AUW, WSHM613.
How did you start and what are you getting out of it? Did you get certified?
So a bit of background - generally techy young guy who's done a bit of everything from web development to getting deep into LFS/remixing Arch Linux to rock climbing and shooting. I was trained as a 25U Signal Support Specialist in the US Army and got my first dip into RF communications there, though we focused primarily on using the systems, not necessarily the theory behind them.
Fast forward a couple years, and I was told to study for and take a test to become certified and get into HF as there were a slew of contests coming up I could help out with (Winter field day, state QSO party, etc.) Coincidentally, I was asked to teach a class for my company and spearhead radio maintenance for the unit the same day I got my Technician license, which, after doing a week-long deep dive into the FCC's test, helped a lot.
So yes, I am now certified as a Technician in the US (Callsign KR4AUW, [1]) and am working on upgrading to General class at the end of the month. It's been good to get back into radio stuff after being focused on an IT help desk, and nearly 100% of the material carries over to better job performance. Plus it's a good hobby, and it's shown me what valuable training is out there, primarily RACES, SKYWARN, and the FEMA incident response method.
[1]: https://kr4auw.us
Fast forward a couple years, and I was told to study for and take a test to become certified and get into HF as there were a slew of contests coming up I could help out with (Winter field day, state QSO party, etc.) Coincidentally, I was asked to teach a class for my company and spearhead radio maintenance for the unit the same day I got my Technician license, which, after doing a week-long deep dive into the FCC's test, helped a lot.
So yes, I am now certified as a Technician in the US (Callsign KR4AUW, [1]) and am working on upgrading to General class at the end of the month. It's been good to get back into radio stuff after being focused on an IT help desk, and nearly 100% of the material carries over to better job performance. Plus it's a good hobby, and it's shown me what valuable training is out there, primarily RACES, SKYWARN, and the FEMA incident response method.
[1]: https://kr4auw.us
When I was a kid, we had radio machine in our house and we used to listen to some live music during those blackout hours. A really fun moment lost to time now but never really got back into personal radio use ever since.
Chinese. I've spent the past year doing an advanced language study at a leading university in Beijing. The experience was very motivating, but at times very humbling. The teachers there were fantastic tutors and great sticklers for detail.
The teachers stressed equally the importance of thoroughly mastering both the language and the cultural context. You can speak the language very well, but unless you become part of the "in-group" by amassing all those cultural symbols and idioms, you won't progress much beyond just being a foreigner speaking Chinese, and the things you'll be capable of expressing will sound very Western. One of my teachers remarked: not bad, you've got the fundamentals right — I'd say, five more years and you'll be really great! (That in the top-level class!) And that gap is there not just because of the immense headstart that every subject of their nine-year compulsory education system benefits from: scores of memorised poems, historical passages and excerpts from literature. You can also feel that gap present whenever you don't know how to call or use this vegetable, what the deal is with the tricolor glaze on historical artifacts, and which food traditionally goes well with alcohol.
I think that, as a Westerner, you can master English (for many definitions of "master") without becoming an expert on the U.K. or the U.S.. To master Chinese, I think that you can't help but become a sinologist. The cultures are too different to coast on a shared legacy. But it helped a lot to live a year there.
Anyway, one of the fathers of modern Chinese literature, Lu Xun, once wrote an essay [1] in which he advocated for a relaxed, non-commital approach to reading books. If you see an interesting book on the table, open it and leaf through! If you have to put it down after a few pages, so what? Make it a habit to check out every book you encounter. Over time, bits and pieces that you glean from those scattered pages will build up into extensive knowledge in a wide range of subjects, and a sense for what the world is.
I've been doing this with quite a lot of writers recently, and that has been helping me cover a lot of ground. Right now, I'm currently reading a collection of essays by Wang Zengqi (1920–1997) titled "Life Is Very Fun" [2]. The writer was an optimistic soul, full of vitality, and in his essays he delighted in surveying the life of the average Chinese and their small daily pleasures, especially of the people in Beijing, where he moved fairly early in life, and of those in his hometown in Gaoyou. He's written a lot about plants, vegetables, food, and the seasons, all with great scrutiny and personal interest.
And so I'm pleased to say that, after reading a humble essay titled "Radish" and vigorously cross-checking videos in social media, I can now recognize white radish, small red radish, large red radish, green radish, purple radish, beautiful heart red radish, red-in-the-middle radish, and then some [3].
[1] https://www.marxists.org/chinese/reference-books/luxun/18/02... — I'm not sure if there's a translation around.
[2] https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%94%9F%E6%B4%BB%EF%BC%8C%E6%...
[3] Loose translations of 白萝卜、小水/杨花萝卜、红皮萝卜、清萝卜、紫萝卜、心里美萝卜 and 穿心红萝卜.
The teachers stressed equally the importance of thoroughly mastering both the language and the cultural context. You can speak the language very well, but unless you become part of the "in-group" by amassing all those cultural symbols and idioms, you won't progress much beyond just being a foreigner speaking Chinese, and the things you'll be capable of expressing will sound very Western. One of my teachers remarked: not bad, you've got the fundamentals right — I'd say, five more years and you'll be really great! (That in the top-level class!) And that gap is there not just because of the immense headstart that every subject of their nine-year compulsory education system benefits from: scores of memorised poems, historical passages and excerpts from literature. You can also feel that gap present whenever you don't know how to call or use this vegetable, what the deal is with the tricolor glaze on historical artifacts, and which food traditionally goes well with alcohol.
I think that, as a Westerner, you can master English (for many definitions of "master") without becoming an expert on the U.K. or the U.S.. To master Chinese, I think that you can't help but become a sinologist. The cultures are too different to coast on a shared legacy. But it helped a lot to live a year there.
Anyway, one of the fathers of modern Chinese literature, Lu Xun, once wrote an essay [1] in which he advocated for a relaxed, non-commital approach to reading books. If you see an interesting book on the table, open it and leaf through! If you have to put it down after a few pages, so what? Make it a habit to check out every book you encounter. Over time, bits and pieces that you glean from those scattered pages will build up into extensive knowledge in a wide range of subjects, and a sense for what the world is.
I've been doing this with quite a lot of writers recently, and that has been helping me cover a lot of ground. Right now, I'm currently reading a collection of essays by Wang Zengqi (1920–1997) titled "Life Is Very Fun" [2]. The writer was an optimistic soul, full of vitality, and in his essays he delighted in surveying the life of the average Chinese and their small daily pleasures, especially of the people in Beijing, where he moved fairly early in life, and of those in his hometown in Gaoyou. He's written a lot about plants, vegetables, food, and the seasons, all with great scrutiny and personal interest.
And so I'm pleased to say that, after reading a humble essay titled "Radish" and vigorously cross-checking videos in social media, I can now recognize white radish, small red radish, large red radish, green radish, purple radish, beautiful heart red radish, red-in-the-middle radish, and then some [3].
[1] https://www.marxists.org/chinese/reference-books/luxun/18/02... — I'm not sure if there's a translation around.
[2] https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%94%9F%E6%B4%BB%EF%BC%8C%E6%...
[3] Loose translations of 白萝卜、小水/杨花萝卜、红皮萝卜、清萝卜、紫萝卜、心里美萝卜 and 穿心红萝卜.
Bitcoin Cash
What a strange coincidence!
My passion right now is pulling off a 51% attack against you and all 17 of the other people using BCH
dare i ask: how's it going ?
Surely this is satirical
[deleted]
I'm passionate about how in Ray Kurzweil's "The Singularity is Nearer" he predicts that $1000 of compute hardware will be able to simulate the human brain by 2023-2032. I think this means life will change dramatically very soon and we will soon have lives free of repetition.
Is it just me or somehow our day to day does not seem that changed at all and yet as humanity we all are leaping forward exponentially with our inventions.
Python3 Webstack ecommerce programming. Ultrazon Hey everyone!
so what have has sparked your interest so far in python3 webstack ecommerce ?
My side project BeatCode which is a PvP version of LeetCode. Once this is fully complete I want to build my own OS that can efficiently remember what you did to feed to your local LLM (Hopefully like Iron Man's Jarvis one day)!
Just rewatched Hamilton and ig I just want to contribute by building something great that can help people. There are just too many AI apps out there for everything and none of them are solving the problem quite well enough. I'm just learning everything right now tbh and see if I can get to the frontier of something.
Just rewatched Hamilton and ig I just want to contribute by building something great that can help people. There are just too many AI apps out there for everything and none of them are solving the problem quite well enough. I'm just learning everything right now tbh and see if I can get to the frontier of something.
i like the name "BeatCode", maybe share an anecdote or two.
where are you learning these new things from, is there something that you can share with all of us ?
where are you learning these new things from, is there something that you can share with all of us ?
I have stumbled upon many of the best internet nuggets during these open-ended questions and HN communities feels like one of those spaces where a lot has been going on but not a lot of sharing sometimes.
Every once in a while I struggle with my own passion, likes or interest and in those times I try to look outwards and thus I am here.
Anyway, I hope you are having a great weekend—from one earthling to another.