Peter A. Donis

Most-linked posts?

1. Analysis of Tolkien's Ring
   2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2013-01-09
2. "Your" Cloud Data Is Not Yours
   2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-12-19
3. Python v. Go Redux: Error Handling
   2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-09-26
4. Not every data structure is a list
   2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-12-11
5. Delimiters in Programming Languages
   2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-03-09

What Hacker News says?

1. pdonis · 2020-01-17

   > Peter Jackson and team were extremely good at portraying evil in all of its ugliness but failed to portray "goodness" with equal skill I think that's a fair comment. I would go even further--in fact I did, some time ago: http://blog.peterdonis.com/opinions/tolkiens-ring.html

   Comment linking /opinions/tolkiens-ring.html

   on “Christopher Tolkien has died”
2. pdonis · 2012-07-28

   Submitted The Word Count Problem as a story · 69 points

   HN discussion
3. pdonis · 2024-10-09

   Peter Thiel made a similar argument about monopolies years ago. As I pointed out then [1], the argument only shows that monopoly is good for the monopolist; it doesn't actually show that monopolies are good for society as a whole. [1] http://blog.peterdonis.com/opinions/monopoly-money.html

   Comment linking /opinions/monopoly-money.html

   on “US weighs Google break-up in landmark antitrust case”
4. vog · 2013-08-14

   Submitted "Your" Cloud Data Is Not Yours, Take 2 as a story · 6 points

   HN discussion
5. pdonis · 2014-12-06

   > Google at some point stated they will always prioritize long term interests of their users vs. short term interests of their shareholders (paraphrasing) They say that, but they don't actually do that. If they were prioritizing the long-term interests of their users, they wouldn't be giving away their core services for free and funding them with advertising revenues. That may seem better for users in the short term…

   Comment linking /opinions/monopoly-money.html

   on “The World's Dumbest Idea: Maximizing Shareholder Value [pdf]”
6. vog · 2013-01-09

   Submitted Analysis of Tolkien's Ring as a story · 6 points

   HN discussion
7. pdonis · 2012-12-19

   Hopefully it'll result in a TOS that lets Instagram monetize without infringing on the privacy of its users. What I don't get is why Instagram doesn't just let users pay for the value they are obviously receiving from the service. http://blog.peterdonis.com/opinions/your-cloud-data-not-your...

   Comment linking /opinions/your-cloud-data-not-yours.html

   on “Instagram's official response”
8. vog · 2012-12-19

   Submitted "Your" Cloud Data Is Not Yours as a story · 3 points

   HN discussion
9. pdonis · 2014-04-24

   > too much money chasing too few assets And why are there too few assets? To put the question another way, why is it that, even though the Fed has given banks $2.8 trillion in quantitative easing, the banks can find nothing better to do with it than to leave it in their accounts at the Fed earning 0.25%? Is there really nothing more productive going on that they can loan money for? My worry is that I don't see any "…

   Comment linking /rants/non-beatings-will-continue.html

   on “The Bubble Question”
10. vog · 2012-09-26

    Submitted Python v. Go Redux: Error Handling as a story · 3 points

    HN discussion
11. pdonis · 2013-10-14

    are you a fan of "Atlas Shrugged" by any chance Not really. The Red Cross Perhaps we are using a different definition of "profit". AFAIK the Red Cross is funded by voluntary contributions; in other words, people pay the Red Cross to do what it does, indicating that people find what it does worth doing. That meets my definition of "profit", but apparently not yours. So we may be talking somewhat at cross purposes. Bt…

    Comment linking /

    on “Stanford Ovshinsky: the greatest scientist you've never heard of?”
12. vog · 2012-08-01

    Submitted Delimiters in Programming Languages as a story · 2 points

    HN discussion
13. pdonis · 2022-02-04

    Thiel's argument, to the extent it's valid at all, doesn't prove that monopolies are good for consumers (or workers, for that matter). It only proves that monopolies are good for monopolists. http://blog.peterdonis.com/opinions/monopoly-money.html

    Comment linking /opinions/monopoly-money.html

    on “Mergers ruin everything”
14. pdonis · 2012-03-09

    Submitted Delimiters Suck as a story · 2 points

    HN discussion
15. pdonis · 2018-11-29

    > Thiel also holds the view that monopolies are often a good thing. I spotted this (IMO badly mistaken) view of his when he first came out with it quite a while back: http://blog.peterdonis.com/opinions/monopoly-money.html

    Comment linking /opinions/monopoly-money.html

    on “Competition Is Dying, and Taking Capitalism with It?”
16. vog · 2013-08-14

    Submitted Linux Virus (Not) Causing Problems as a story · 1 points

    HN discussion
17. pdonis · 2012-03-09

    > The only point I'd like to make is that he does repeatedly say that he does spend the money on the things that are worth it. Yes, he does, and I agree with his general point. I'm only pointing out that his definition of "worth it" appears to me to be somewhat inconsistent. If the fourth album by that artist he mentions was "worth it" because he liked the other three, why weren't the other three "worth it" as well,…

    Comment linking /opinions/internet-blackout-day.html

    on “Why I Pirate - An Open Letter To Content Creators”
18. randomchars · 2012-12-11

    Submitted Not every data structure is a list as a story · 1 points

    HN discussion
19. pdonis · 2012-12-11

    I have used Lisp as a hobbyist but always find myself coming back to the same issue: not every data structure is a list. http://blog.peterdonis.com/rants/why-python-not-lisp.html Another way to put it, as I did at the end of that post, is: why should I have to reprogram my brain to fit the language?

    Comment linking /rants/why-python-not-lisp.html

    on “Why Lisp? 3 answers”
20. pdonis · 2012-11-08

    Submitted A Proposal for Campaign Finance Reform as a story · 1 points

    HN discussion
21. pdonis · 2013-07-29

    We had a HN thread some time ago about this issue: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4562211 I agree with your take on it; I blogged about it at the time that previous HN thread came up: http://blog.peterdonis.com/rants/python-v-go-error-handling....

    Comment linking /rants/python-v-go-error-handling.html

    on “Why Go Is An Excellent Modern Programming Language”
22. pdonis · 2012-09-11

    Submitted Announcing simpleblog as a story · 1 points

    HN discussion
23. pdonis · 2014-05-17

    Wish I could upvote this more. You nailed three of the examples that I found most questionable in the article. One thing I would add is that it's not just "self-proclaimed intellectuals" that treat issues that are not settled as dogma. Reputable scientists do it too, and that's a big reason why the average American doesn't trust scientists--not just politicians and the media, but actual scientists--to tell them the…

    Comment linking /opinions/science-heal-thyself.html

    on “America dumbs down: A rising tide of anti-intellectual thinking”
24. pdonis · 2023-12-19

    Unfortunately I think it's extremely difficult for any writer today to really capture Tolkien's view of Middle-Earth, because Tolkien's sensibilities were so different from those of today. I get the idea of making things more accessible, but if you destroy the essence of the thing in the process, have you really gained anything? For example, I do not think the Peter Jackson movies, despite the monumental effort that…

    Comment linking /opinions/tolkiens-ring.html

    on “Copyright claim against Tolkien estate backfires on LOTR fanfiction author”

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