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bbbobbb

355 karma · joined March 7, 2018

bob_hackernews {at} fastmail.org
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bbbobbb··on People love to work hard
AI written article that pushes twisted agenda.

I am pretty sure majority of people would not love to work hard if they didn't have to. There are exceptions for everything but don't confuse people who are doing something they like that others consider work. And I very much doubt most peoples' life passion is working on some tech startup.

bbbobbb··on 50% of U.S. vinyl buyers don't own a record player
I would buy and play vinyl if the music I listen to (renaissance, baroque) was actually released on vinyl.
bbbobbb··on Don't Download Apps
Is there no police where you're from? Why are you reporting supposed hit and run to tech support of an app?
bbbobbb··on Seven Days at the Bin Store
I don't recall ever returning anything. I don't buy that much stuff in general, but I feel like having the ability to just buy and return stuff makes you end up with more junk.
bbbobbb··on Boring tech is mature, not old
It's often ignored because not all people get to work on interesting new features or care about the customers. This is all cool and dandy if you're a founder or working a job where the actual product is interesting, but most jobs are boring with no actual incentive or even a way how to care about the customer and then making it at least technically interesting in some aspect is a way not to go insane.

Just playing the devil's advocate here. I would prefer using boring technology that gets the boring work done as quickly and easily as possible anyways, but that's because I have more fun doing other things than working.

bbbobbb··on My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards
Right, I only meant in regard of inconvenience of having to charge it.
bbbobbb··on My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards
While I prefer wired keyboard as well (due to not having to deal with pairing / connection issues), this argument I don't understand:

> Firstly the board is completely wireless, which means I have to charge it via USB-C. As I'm sat practically tethered to my desk all day a permanently wired option would actually be more convenient as it would save me to the hassle of charging.

Then plug the USB-C cable in permanently? How is it different from it having a wired keyboard?

bbbobbb··on The joys of maintenance programming (2011)
That's not what the post is about. They describe the process as mostly fixing issues with existing software, so the motivation is that something is broken or not working as required anymore.

Refactoring it is just one of possible parts of the process, much opposed to 'yeah this legacy code is broken dogshit and needs to be rewritten even though the current software is already written, proven and works for 99% of the stuff we need' approach.

bbbobbb··on Why are our keyboard not wireless?
It also works just while plugged in so there is no downtime. I feel like I charge it couple times a year by any random usb-c that is on my table at the moment while I keep using it. Even if it didn't, it takes maybe 1-2 minutes to charge for the rest of the day so there is no disruption.
bbbobbb··on Why the IDE needs to be reimagined
I'll just have to guess the reimagined IDE is not longer very text-centric given that without proprietary JavaScript the page is just a green background.
bbbobbb··on PicoLisp Tutorials
This only sounds like a 'problem' because the lisp dialects are so similar that you would almost expect them to be the same, no?

That seems like a nice feature - you know Common Lisp so you have to only learn some nuances to write PicoLisp effectively.

When it comes to the c-family of languages, you wouldn't expect a complaint about having to be aware of the differences between C and JavaScript since you can't even entertain the idea that they are all that similar.

bbbobbb··on It's 2023, so of course I'm learning Common Lisp
Thanks, I forgot about this aspect of live program editing. Whether or not it's possible (or how close just quick live reload) is to this it' definitely not a first class citizen like you presented. It also reminds me of Pharo (or maybe just smalltalk, I've only played with Pharo) where you build the program incrementally "inside out".

It does make me wonder how aplicable this way of programming is to what I do at work but that is more because of the technologies and architectural choices where most of the work is plumbing stuff that is not local to the program itself together. And maybe even for that with the edges mocked out it would make sense to work like this.

Again, interesting video that made me think. Thanks.

bbbobbb··on It's 2023, so of course I'm learning Common Lisp
Not the OP but would somebody be able to summarize HOW are the lisp REPLs different then to me? I've written limited amount of clojure and common lisp just to play around and I don't recall any difference between Clojure REPL and the REPL I get for say Kotlin inside IntelliJ idea.

Maybe the ability to send expression from the IDE into the REPL with one keybind but I cannot say it's not possible with the Kotlin one right now because that's not what I use it for.

bbbobbb··on The 30-year mortgage is an intrinsically toxic product (2018)
It sounds like I might be in this case. We're talking decades. You are talking about various investments and even making sure to time the mortgage to beat the market.

I am talking about putting the money in S&P 500 and similar without trying to time, beat or track anything.

bbbobbb··on The 30-year mortgage is an intrinsically toxic product (2018)
Your math is too simple. Consider alternative scenario where you invest your down payment and what you save on mortgage (generally slightly more expensive), invest what you save on extra repairs / maintenance.

After those 30 years it's entirely possible that as a renter I have:

- been able to take advantage of moving freely for personal or economic reasons

- been able to move to a newer completely renovated apartment number of time for no costs other than moving my stuff instead of either paying for it or living in a house with a 20 years old kitchen

- been able to live without stress about all the responsibilities that come with owning a house, being in debt and tied down

- come out with enough money from my S&P500 that I started 30 years ago to decide to settle down somewhere and buy the house or continue as is with bunch of money saved up

I am not saying that this is what will always happen or that owning a house is strictly worse but the "rent is money down the drain, mortgage payments is money you keep in the end" angle is way too naive.

bbbobbb··on Famous Programers with Repetitive Strain Injury (2022)
Kinesis freestyle is pretty cheap. I bought the mechanical one which is more expensive but don't use it. I'm too comfortable with microsoft ergonomic keyboard with light membrane keys https://www.microsoft.com/en/accessories/products/keyboards/... of which I have three. The only issue with the microsoft one is that it has to fit you since it is split but one piece. With a fully two piece split keyboard you can adjust it to your needs.
bbbobbb··on When Work Didn’t Follow You Home
Fertility is definitely not below replacement rate. Maybe in western countries.

You find it hard to say it's unfair but you seem to hint to it. I don't think it is in the slightest. Also you sound like a software developer from the US so you likely can afford to work say 80% and "recoup" some of that free time.

bbbobbb··on Proof you can do hard things
I think that it is a US specific obsession.

I don't even know what "calculus" is really.

I have had plenty of math classes both in high school and later at university but I don't recall any significant distinction that would leave me with some concrete idea of "algebra" vs. "calculus" vs. "whatever" years later.

bbbobbb··on AI and the Automation of Work
I agree with you about ideal approach to tests and spec but sometimes the "specification coming from elsewhere" is pretty vague, incomplete or simply lost in time.

In that case, if I have code that satisfies that specification as demonstrated by say acceptance testing or years of use, I will happily opt for test that take the code as specification. I am not using those tests to prove the code "correct" but to prevent regressions during refactor or new feature development later on. Worse case scenario they should keep the program as broken as it is now or has been for years.

bbbobbb··on Reddit.com appears to be having an outage
Those error pages are actually infuriating. Maybe I'm just getting older but seeing "You broke reddit" and all the other shit annoys the hell out of me. It's their website, the error should be "we fucked sometning up, sorry" and be done with it.
bbbobbb··on Framework Laptop 16 Deep Dive: Display
Right, the pixels are visible when the text is smaller, not when you zoom in.
bbbobbb··on I gave commit rights to someone I didn't know (2016)
That makes sense, thanks for the clarification.
bbbobbb··on I gave commit rights to someone I didn't know (2016)
I know this is not point of the article but:

> The PR was bigger than what I felt I could sensibly review and, in honesty, my desire to go through the hours of work I could tell this would take for a project I no longer used was not stellar.

The PR: https://github.com/django-money/django-money/pull/2/files?di...

Do others share this sentiment?

This doesn't look like a particularly big PR to me, judging solely by the amount of code changed and the nature of the changes at first glance.

Are most of your PRs at work tiny, couple lines of code at most? Am I sloppy for not even consider reviewing this for "hours"? Are all code bases I have worked on sloppy because features often require changing more code than this?

bbbobbb··on Tell HN: Today Is Global Accessibility Awareness Day
> When my partner goes to bed at night, I can keep watching Star Trek TNG with subtitles.

Don't take this as a snarky remark, but why are subtitles the solution to this over headphones?

bbbobbb··on Remote work brings hidden penalty for young professionals, study says
If they're able to play video games and not pay attention during the meeting then it's a waste of their time to be there in the first place. Stop wasting people's time with your meetings.
bbbobbb··on Samsung's response on 'moonshot' controversy
They should not be allowed to lie and say their technology "enhances details". This is not a TV show and there are no details to be enhanced.
bbbobbb··on Report: U.S. pedestrian death rate increased during COVID
This is something I think about whenever I am in a taxi/uber (don't drive, live in a city with good public transport).

It's astounding that we're completely apathetic to driving at high speeds in opposite directions with clearance of meters at best. You simply put your life in the hands of hundreds of random people you pass every trip, hoping that they (intentionally or due to any tiredness, distraction or medical emergency) don't swerve in the slightest to your side and kill both of you instantly.

bbbobbb··on Turkey earthquake opened 190-mile-long fissure
There is a 300km long fissure and the article contains one tweet with four pictures? And googling it reveals another set of like three images and rest of links to this article?
bbbobbb··on HP bricking printers remotely if the client's credit card expires [video]
That's a nice straw man you've built there. Let's try an alternate scenario: don't let people die because they cannot afford expensive treatments.

Now we have something else to aim for rather than policing people's bodily autonomy.

bbbobbb··on Where our gasoline comes from
I would argue that this specific use-case is still energy wasted all the same. Maybe it is even net negative given that it increases the difficulty for other energy wasting miners, even before considering other externalities.
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