Hacker News Reader

Kaotiqueon Ask HN: Have we screwed ourselves as software engineers?

Just let them create these complex monstrosities, eventually it will open up opportunity for simpler tools and systems that will eat them for breakfast.

Kaotiqueon The tragic case of the wrong Thomas James is finally righted

It says that the case could not be re-opened because for that you need new evidence, but the evidence was just overlooked during the initial trial. Even if all the existing evidence is enough to prove your innocence you somehow need "new" evidence to reopen your case. This is not the first time this happened either. It is very hard to get justice even when you are obviously innocent.

Kaotiqueon Eight points for one team is two points for another team

Scrum, Kanban or more general Agile are like recipes. They describe the process and ingredients exactly but everybody does it their own way anyway. It is just a theory, you have to execute it and adapt it to whatever you have available.

Kaotiqueon Dutch scandal serves as a warning for Europe over risks of using algorithms

Thank you for pointing that out. I guess I should not have used the mass adjective.

Kaotiqueon Dutch scandal serves as a warning for Europe over risks of using algorithms

I think you misunderstood me. I am not saying they don't deserve support. I am saying that the government can support people in a way that is not so bureaucratic. Pay the institutions like schools, daycare, etc directly and don't burden the parents with requesting benefits and sending around enormous amounts of money. The institutions can apply for government money for each child they have to take care of. And the parents can just go to work and not move around swats of money.

On of the examples in a mother with 3 children who had to pay back a hundred thousand Euro that were classified as wrongly received benefits. That means she received tens of thousands of Euros per year! What an insane burden to put on mother.

If something goes wrong the consequences are gigantic. Just like it happened in this scandal.

Kaotiqueon Dutch scandal serves as a warning for Europe over risks of using algorithms

No.

Kaotiqueon E-bike injuries on the rise even on well protected Dutch roads

They are definitely faster. I get passed by many old people on their e-bikes. I would not be surprised that speed + reaction time of older people is the main cause of the extra accidents.

Kaotiqueon Dutch scandal serves as a warning for Europe over risks of using algorithms

On the other hand one of the main triggers for this whole operation was the mass fraud by people from Bulgaria who netted a lot of benefits by gaming the system. They traveled to the Netherlands, applied for benefits and then went back to Bulgaria and used Dutch bank accounts and debit cards to get the cash. The tax office never wanted that to happen again and started this program to find fraudsters but ended up classifying a lot of people wrongly. To make it it even more Kafkaesque some of the Bulgarian fraudsters ALSO received the 30k compensation!

One of the recommendations is to stop pumping around so much money. If you let less money circulate the system trough taxes and benefits less can go wrong. Why do people need to receive hundreds of thousands of Euros for children daycare? It makes no sense whatsoever. Let the people keep the money, pay less taxes and pay the daycare centers from the government directly for each child. The bureaucracy is the real problem here.

When parents requested their paperwork they received hundreds of papers with all the real information blacked out. Imagine completely black papers. It was absolutely disgusting and the Dutch government even stepped down because of the whole affair. Amazingly the same political parties got elected again and are now in office in the same coalition as before...

Kaotiqueon Ana is a Python, PHP, and C inspired dynamically typed scripting language

Awful negative comments today. Congratulations on releasing your language. What were some of the challenges you faced?

Kaotiqueon EU is building an $11B tunnel connecting Scandinavia to Italy

Very confusing title and info graphics used in that article. The actual tunnel is only in the Alps.

Kaotiqueon Ask HN: How can my 62 year old father get a job?

In my opinion just keep trying and try to bring up the age topic early just to confirm that the company is really open about hiring him if he meets all other qualifications. At least you can eliminate those companies early on and not waste your time.

He basically is part of a minority group and being discriminated against. Search for companies that already hire from minority groups and are vocal about that. I think it would improve his chances.

Kaotiqueon Advice on JSX Conditionals

I actually really like the nested ternaries. TypeScript understand them very well and you don't have to extract your code outside the render to start using if/else structures. They also format quite well.

Kaotiqueon Using email wrong

As a developer I get hundreds of automated notification emails and somewhere in there is an email that was actually typed up by a human. I tried to turn off all those notification emails but people keep adding me to automated lists that I cannot control. I just cannot beat the incoming flow of emails. So I have been ignoring my email for the last year and nobody really complained about it. If something is really important people will contact me by Teams/Slack, whatsapp or an old fashioned phone call. The means of contacting me also reflects the priority.

Kaotiqueon Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?

Any agent/soldier can access it without a complicated permission or authorization structure. You don't need access to some spy satellite. All you need is a mobile phone, tablet or laptop. It would seem very effective to me.

Kaotiqueon Tell HN: Product Hunt is full of shill accounts, paid upvotes and spam

Teyuto is a product that allows you to create a customized video channel, which is also available on all mobile and smart tv applications! The comment must be original and different from any other user e positive about the product.

They even forgot to remove the instruction on how to write the original comment. What a joke.

When we launched on PH we did zero marketing for it and you do get some nice comments and replies from it. Even with zero marketing we managed to get top 10 of the day, but I am sure you can really game the system with some real effort or by using a bunch of fake supporters.

Kaotiqueon A baby saved ‘Toy Story 2’ from near complete deletion (2021)

If you follow the logic of the title of this article the new policy was that there should always be a mother with a baby on the team.

Kaotiqueon Stop Brainstorming

I always get my best ideas in the shower. Somehow the complete lack of distraction helps a lot with free thinking, but I think suggesting showerstorming in my office would result in a quick trip to HR.

Kaotiqueon 717 Gigapixel Image of Rembrandt's Nightwatch

Don't worry, it is being taken care of very seriously: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/stories/operation-night-watch

Kaotiqueon Ask HN: Where within Europe should we incorporate?

Wouldn't it be much more complicated to incorporate abroad and deal with taxes and foreign law?

Kaotiqueon Does Georgism work? Is land a big deal?

Some questions that come to mind.

Is the price for land supposed to be the same in the entire country or should the government calculate a cost per region. A square meter inside a city would be more expensive to own than a square meter in the countryside?

What are you thoughts on implementing this tax system gradually? Could it work to assign certain parts of land that can be bought and taxed and then except the person from paying other taxes. IE: Buy this land, build a house and don't pay income tax while you live there.

Kaotiqueon Does Georgism work? Is land a big deal?

Exactly. It is actually a very good comparison I think. When you buy a bunch of domains and squat them without doing anything with them you are paying the "tax" but have no income. It is actually in your best interest to develop a business on your domain to compensate for the costs.

Just like land tax would do. Squatting a bunch of land would cost you a lot. It is would be in your best interest to maximise income from the land to pay for the tax.

Kaotiqueon Does Georgism work? Is land a big deal?

I was recently in Egypt and they have a tax on finished buildings. So naturally no building is ever finished. It is a very weird sight that 90% of the buildings don't have windows and uncompleted roofs.

Kaotiqueon How to run a small social network site for your friends

I spend a lot of time on forums before and recently I googled those communities again and all has been lost. Forums contained very valuable information and function as a history archive. Too bad most of that has been replaced with temporary solutions that get pushed down timelines never to be seen again.

Kaotiqueon How to Create a SaaS and Compete with the Big Players as a Solo Founder

10+ engineers is also 3 designers, 2 online marketeer, 2 managers, etc. They would need so much more revenue than a solo dev.

Kaotiqueon The naughty username checking system used by Twitch

My girlfriend got a new bank account and when she received her account number it contained 666. She asked for a different number and they changed it without charge.

Kaotiqueon Apple unveils new iPad mini with breakthrough performance in new design

But they probably announced it as a breakthrough innovation that would change typing forever.

Kaotiqueon Apple unveils new iPad mini with breakthrough performance in new design

It feels weird to me. Maybe it's just the current American culture that feels off for a European like myself. It is over directed and over produced. Zero spontaneity. I would rather watch Elon throw a metal ball into a car window during a presentation. At least that is real.

Change the way movies are directed, because of this new phone? Give me a break. I'm sure it will produce nicer TikTok and YouTube videos but no serious director is going to shoot a million dollar production with a 1000 dollar phone.

Kaotiqueon Gap to close all 81 stores in UK and Ireland

I'm 1.70m tall and living in the Netherlands with exactly the opposite problem. Most pants and other clothes are for taller men. I used to buy my clothes in River Island which had a good fit, but they closed the store last year. Buying men's clothes outside the norm is a pain.

Kaotiqueon Show HN: Generated Pixels – Programmatically generated artwork

I would like to show my project Generated Pixels. In my spare time I like to write scripts and algorithms that create pixel art. I've now created real artworks that your can acquire for your office or home.

I wrote algorithms that create these artworks and additional scripts that make them available on a webshop where you can order them.

Each artwork is a unique combination of material, dimensions, colors, pattern and frame. Each artwork will only be sold once.

The first released algorithm generates a random pattern of colored squares layered on top of each other.

The generated artwork is printed on canvas or as a poster and delivered to your office or home. Currently we offer 40x60cm, 60x40cm, 80x120cm, 120x80cm posters and canvas prints. You can use HACKERNEWS as a coupon for a 10% discount.

I am working on new algorithms to generate other cool patterns.

Kaotiqueon How to deal with difficult people on software projects

What archetype can we attribute to someone categorising their colleagues into some pseudoscientific archetype?

This is an extremely toxic way of dealing with other people and should be avoided. People are much more than a stereotype.