Top all-time · #2499
Joey deVilla
Personal blog · joeydevilla.comcultureprogramming
Joey deVilla writes The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century, a personal blog at joeydevilla.com about culture and programming. Since 2008, 30 different Hacker News readers have linked it 34 times, most often “An unexpected application of the P vs. NP problem (2003)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Joey deVilla's Personal Blog
Most-linked posts?
- An unexpected application of the P vs. NP problem (2003)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2009-06-02
- /2008/08/13/countries-that-dont-use-the-metric-system/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-02-08
- /2001/12/03/4419/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-01-25
What Hacker News says?
> Delay > Misunderstand see also: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/06/1944_cia_sabo... https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/... http://www.joeydevilla.com/2015/10/15/how-to-sabotage-your-w... "general interference with procedures"
Comment linking /2015/10/15/how-to-sabotage-your-workplace-wwii-style/
on “Yahoo installed a backdoor for the NSA behind the back of the security team”Submitted Branford Marsalis’ Take on Students Today as a story · 37 points
HN discussionNice summary! I just wish he wouldn't have used pounds for comparison... I mean there are 3 countries left on this planet that don't use the metric system officially. Even the scientists in the US use it. Reminds me of http://www.joeydevilla.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008... But given how he managed to simplify such a complex technology to an easy-to-read article I don't really want to criticize him for using…
Comment linking /wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/king-henrys-foot.jpg
on “H.264 is magic (2016)”Submitted The Scene at Lehman Brothers London on Friday as a story · 35 points
HN discussionI have read the same story about a piece of ham in a pot. There's also The Onion In The Varnish: http://www.joeydevilla.com/2001/12/03/4419/
Comment linking /2001/12/03/4419/
on “How crazy am I to think I actually know where that Malaysia Airlines plane is?”Submitted The illiteracy-promoting interior design abomination called “backwards books” as a story · 10 points
HN discussionDon't mean to offend anyone, but there are more issues with units in the US ;) [0] http://www.joeydevilla.com/2008/08/13/countries-that-dont-us...
Comment linking /2008/08/13/countries-that-dont-use-the-metric-system/
on “Why Is the Dollar Sign a Letter S?”Submitted An unexpected application of the P vs. NP problem (2003) as a story · 10 points
HN discussionThanks! Well done. As noted below, most of this is “common sense,” but there’s a saying: “Common sense. So rare, it’s a God damn superpower.” https://www.joeydevilla.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/commo...
Comment linking /wp-content/uploads/2007/12/common_sense_god_damn_super_power.jpg
on “Show HN: I wrote a book about UI [pdf]”Submitted How the P~=NP problem could save your life one day as a story · 9 points
HN discussionhttp://www.joeydevilla.com/2009/01/03/from-sun-chips-to-sun-...
Comment linking /2009/01/03/from-sun-chips-to-sun-king/
on “Serving at the Pleasure of the King”Submitted Fast Food Apple Pies and Why Netbooks Suck as a story · 8 points
HN discussionI think the point of the fence is to move the impulse from yourself (If I can't see the reason there must not be one) to the greater context (Someone had a reason for this at some point, let me see if I can try to understand). Related to Chesterton's fence is Levi's Onion: https://www.joeydevilla.com/2001/12/03/4419/ Which is sort of a Chesterton's fence situation where someone took those required steps.
Comment linking /2001/12/03/4419/
on “Chesterton’s Fence (2020)”Submitted How to Mine Bitcoins for Fun and (Probably Very Little) Profit as a story · 6 points
HN discussionThe man is guilty of the ultimate corporate crime: making his employer look bad. As one person I know put it, > If you write a document that becomes such a public relations nightmare that it requires the CEO to cut short a family vacation to deal with the mess, update your resume. ( http://www.joeydevilla.com/2017/08/08/one-pragmatic-lesson-y... )
Comment linking /2017/08/08/one-pragmatic-lesson-you-should-take-from-the-former-google-manifestbro/
on “James Damore has an above decent chance of winning his legal case against Google”Submitted Dean Chambers: UnSkewed Polls’ Smarty-Smart Manly-Man Data Guy was Wrongy-Wrong as a story · 3 points
HN discussionhttp://www.joeydevilla.com/2012/07/05/whoa-meridas-real/ I think the above costume was pretty tastefully "sparkled" up. If you want more, you could add the tiara from the movie or a more jeweled belt. Not even the Queen, mother of Merida and trying to shove the princess ideal down her throat, was _that_ dressed up for even the main event of the movie. I don't think this is any plainer or boring looking compared to s…
Comment linking /2012/07/05/whoa-meridas-real/
on “'Brave' creator blasts Disney for 'blatant sexism' in princess makeover”Submitted How Fanboys See Operating Systems (2009) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIn my search for better pictures, I came across this... http://www.joeydevilla.com/2008/05/29/geek-gang-signs/
Comment linking /2008/05/29/geek-gang-signs/
on “Making Nested Parens with My Homeboy, Donald Knuth”Submitted Unspace’s Office May Have Burned Down, But Unspace is Still Burning Bright as a story · 2 points
HN discussionZipkin -> Harpoon -> whale-killing http://www.joeydevilla.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012...
Comment linking /wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/mind-blown.gif
on “Zipkin - distributed tracing by Twitter (aka Google Dapper)”Submitted Uhura aka Gene Roddenberry standing up for what he believed in as a story · 2 points
HN discussionEverything turns out ok though: http://www.joeydevilla.com/2008/01/09/calvin-and-hobbes-off-...
Comment linking /2008/01/09/calvin-and-hobbes-off-the-ritalin-and-high-on-life/
on “If Calvin Took Ritalin (A Tragedy In Four Panels)”Submitted Unfortunate Infographic of the Day as a story · 2 points
HN discussionYou might enjoy this: https://www.joeydevilla.com/2004/07/30/the-breakup-style-of-...
Comment linking /2004/07/30/the-breakup-style-of-powerpoint/
on “The Placeholder Girlfriend”Submitted What makes more money, mining bitcoins, or writing about bitcoins? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionCongratulations on launching. But you might want to clarify that this is for a very small subset of countries in the world, so the rest of us don't waste our time with it? http://www.joeydevilla.com/2008/08/13/countries-that-dont-us...
Comment linking /2008/08/13/countries-that-dont-use-the-metric-system/
on “Show HN: Whichway.link – Braindead location sharing for pedestrians”Submitted Bitter One Percenter stiffs waiter as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI wonder what the historical reason is for having the camera lens at a corner, instead of at the center of the phone/tablet. Is this some fashion thing that everyone decided to copy? I can't imagine there is a technical reason, but I'm open to hear thoughts on this. Maybe originally battery shapes / sizes made a corner camera easier? And now everyone just follows the trend? Onions in the varnish style? Is the "me" b…
Comment linking /2001/12/03/4419/
on “Ask HN: How to teach an elderly parent how to point the camera?”Submitted “why the lucky stiff” on Why You Should Create as a story · 1 points
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