Top all-time · #2223
blogorrhea
Personal blog · asserttrue.blogspot.comprogrammingscience
blogorrhea is a personal blog at asserttrue.blogspot.com about programming and science. Since 2009, 33 different Hacker News readers have linked it 395 times, most often “The Serif Readability Myth”. The last post was in 2018, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (21) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for posts on health, placebos and science claims, plus the serif readability myth and internet economics. Commenters are split on quality: some call pieces worth reading, others call them sensationalist.
- Recommended for · 4 comments
- Called worth a read; praised as right on Opera Unite; serif readability and internet economics posts recommended.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 21 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Bioinformatics, genomics, and Javascript
Most-linked posts?
- The Serif Readability Myth3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2013-01-18
- How to Write Fast Code3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2009-03-23
- JavaScript needs Elvis2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2009-03-12
- Is Depression Really Biochemical?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-03-26
- Are Placebos Really Sugar Pills?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-01-30
- JavaScript damn well needs Elvis2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2009-03-12
- Do less and go fast, revisited2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2009-03-24
- Lung Cancer and the Power of Suggestion2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-02-10
- Why Do Drug Companies Hide So Much Data?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-02-06
- How to get your software-development priorities right2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-03-23
What Hacker News says?
assertTrue() recently did a series on this. If you're interested in this kind of thing, it's worth a read. Here's one of the posts (ignore the linkbait headline) - http://asserttrue.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-to-live-30-longer...
Comment linking /2013/03/how-to-live-30-longer-maybe-more.html
on “This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again”Submitted Are Placebos Really Sugar Pills? as a story · 471 points
HN discussionSounds to me like he's either temporarily enraged, or is trying to get fired. The spashscreen does 1 thing, it tells the user that the app is loading and you don't need to click the exe/icon again. His solution to a 5-10 second load time is to provide a fake UI, record phantom mouse clicks, and also give the user a game to play, only makes everything worse. Some apps have to initialize, and without that you are left…
Comment linking /
on “Splash screens == sloth ”Submitted How I Fell in Love with a Schizophrenic as a story · 433 points
HN discussion"To go fast, do less" -- http://asserttrue.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-to-write-fast-cod...
Comment linking /2009/03/how-to-write-fast-code.html
on “Why GNU grep is fast”Submitted Splash screens == sloth as a story · 258 points
HN discussion"So before you go around claiming that serif typefaces are easier to read than sans-serif typefaces, you might want to do a little checking around. The embarrassing truth is, there's no solid research to back up that claim." Source with references: http://asserttrue.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-serif-readability... One of many studies that show it's actually additional spacing that's at work when small text readability…
Comment linking /2013/01/the-serif-readability-myth.html
on “Hack – A typeface designed for source code”Submitted How to Write an Opening Sentence as a story · 230 points
HN discussionNecessary context for this article can be found in an earlier Hacker News comment http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5196734 by another participant on an earlier article from the same blog: > > It appears you've made some sort of resolution to publish and promote a blog entry per day in 2013. 40 entries in 41 days this year vs. 46 in all of 2012. You should reconsider - whatever your reasons were, I doubt they incl…
Comment linking /2013/02/drug-companies-stop-hiding-your-data.html%E3%80%80
on “The Myth of Japanese Longevity”Submitted The Myth of Japanese Longevity as a story · 144 points
HN discussionlayperson cite for finicky placebos: http://asserttrue.blogspot.com/2013/01/are-placebos-really-s...
Comment linking /2013/01/are-placebos-really-sugar-pills.html
on “The 10 commandments for happiness and success”Submitted How to Write Fast Code as a story · 143 points
HN discussion>after it's gone, after it's cured once and for all, this bane of human existence, this No. 2 Cause of Death, we will have extended human life a grand total of (drum roll, please) 3.3 years http://asserttrue.blogspot.com/2013/02/taeubers-paradox-and-...
Comment linking /2013/02/taeubers-paradox-and-life-expectancy.html
on “Cure for cancer one step closer after 'spectacular' breakthrough”Submitted Riddles have no place in job interviews as a story · 95 points
HN discussionhttp://asserttrue.blogspot.com/2013/03/olive-oil-fullerene-a...
Comment linking /2013/03/olive-oil-fullerene-and-lifespan.html
on “Drug cocktail almost doubles lifespan of worms”Submitted Why the super-rich get richer as a story · 64 points
HN discussionyes, he really was that right (link to the post): http://asserttrue.blogspot.com/2009/06/heres-what-opera-is-a...
Comment linking /2009/06/heres-what-opera-is-about-to-unveil.html
on “Opera Unite”Submitted What Opera is about to Unveil? as a story · 61 points
HN discussionRead "How the Internet is Changing Economics." http://asserttrue.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-internet-is-chang...
Comment linking /2012/01/how-internet-is-changing-economics.html
on “Is It Time to Say Goodbye to Barnes & Noble?”Submitted NoSQL Required Reading as a story · 55 points
HN discussionAh, this site again. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5327200 for context. The author's posts vary greatly in quality. Sometimes they're reasonable. Sometimes they're stuff like "antidepressants in tap water cause autism" ( http://asserttrue.blogspot.com/2013/02/antidepressants-tap-w... ) and "Do warnings on cigarette packs cause lung cancer?" ( http://asserttrue.blogspot.com/2013/02/do-lung-cancer-warnin...…
Comment linking /2013/02/do-lung-cancer-warning-labels-cause.html
on “Placebos becoming too effective, pharma industry worries”Submitted Biggest Risk Factor for Depression: Low Income as a story · 48 points
HN discussionFrom an earlier Hacker News comment http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5196734 on a submission from this blog: > > It appears you've made some sort of resolution to publish and promote a blog entry per day in 2013. 40 entries in 41 days this year vs. 46 in all of 2012. You should reconsider - whatever your reasons were, I doubt they included a desire to develop a reputation for presenting topics that were sensation…
Comment linking /2013/02/drug-companies-stop-hiding-your-data.html%E3%80%80
on “Antidepressants, Tap Water, and Autism”Submitted My toughest job-interview question ever as a story · 45 points
HN discussionThe same author wrote an article called "Lung Cancer and the Power of Suggestion" recently, which would suggest his hypothesis: http://asserttrue.blogspot.com/2013/02/lung-cancer-and-power...
Comment linking /2013/02/lung-cancer-and-power-of-suggestion.html
on “Antidepressants, Tap Water, and Autism”Submitted Two techniques for massively faster JavaScript as a story · 44 points
HN discussionOh, gah, submissions from assertTrue( ) are showing up on HN's home page again. I've just read the short blog post kindly submitted here by the blog post author, and I don't see any added value from it that wouldn't come from any other review of the book that the blog author recommends. I am not worried about Amazon (but I don't use Amazon cloud services at all). Previous comments about this blog and its editorial p…
Comment linking /2013/02/drug-companies-stop-hiding-your-data.html%E3%80%80
on “Amazon: The Everything Company”Submitted How the Internet is Changing Economics as a story · 40 points
HN discussionCan a mod change the URL on the submission to the non-shortened one? http://asserttrue.blogspot.com/2010/01/nasas-one-man-stealth...
Comment linking /2010/01/nasas-one-man-stealth-plane.html
on “NASA Stealth Copter”Submitted In defense of PDF as a story · 39 points
HN discussion
