Hacker News Reader

bikamonkion Alberta startup sells no-tech tractors for half price

I am looking for a no-tech web browser...

bikamonkion Voyager 1 runs on 69 KB of memory and an 8-track tape recorder

Wow! Reading this after watching PHM I almost cried...again.

Now, this is what impressed me the most: ""... and wrote software flexible enough to be updated from Earth decades after launch.."

OTA patches where invented in the 70's :)

bikamonkion Making WebAssembly a first-class language on the Web

Do programmers actually write in wasm or automatic tools port/compile other languages to wasm?

bikamonkion Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans

My words:

This feels like don't buy at Walmart, support the local small shop. We passed the no return sign miles ago.

Gemini's:

This is like advocating for artisanal blacksmithing in the age of industrial steel. It sounds great in theory, but we passed the point of no return miles back.

Yeah, we can tell the difference :)

bikamonkion Waymo robotaxi hits a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica

Seems the robotaxi saved a life.

bikamonkion jQuery 4

For us that started doing web apps as soon as the web was invented, JQ was a miracle.

Thanks guys!

bikamonkion Cloudflare Global Network experiencing issues

Compliance. If you wanna sell your SAAS to big corpo, their compliance teams will feel you know what you're doing if they read AWS or Cloudflare on your architecture, even if you do not quite know what you're doing.

bikamonkion OpenAI says over a million people talk to ChatGPT about suicide weekly

So they read the chats?

bikamonkion The AI coding trap

Not in my experience. I still spend much of the time thinking before prompting. Then I spend time reviewing the AI written code before using it. Does not feel like a trap. It mostly feels like having a super experienced pair programmer. I may be using it differently than others since I do not have it integrated to my IDE. I use it like I used google + stackoverflow before it.

bikamonkion Nine things I learned in ninety years

Luck favors the bold. One acts boldly because one feels lucky.

bikamonkion React is winning by default and slowing innovation

I've said this before: for most web apps, React is like hiring an 18-wheeler to deliver a pizza. Years ago, the same was true for Wordpress.

An engineer designs solutions. That includes selecting the right tools.

bikamonkion Blacksky grew to millions of users without spending a dollar

I'd bet she was probably scrolling through the endless stream of fear (war, poverty, crime), guilt (diets, fitness, beauty), and shallowness (jokes, celebrities). In those moments with loved ones, I choose to engage, explain what's happening, and make them aware of how it's making them feel. Then I guide them toward alternatives. We play, we cook, we read, we plant, we dance.

It isn't entirely our fault. It's deliberately made and constantly adjusted to be addictive, for the sole purpose of selling ads, swaying votes, counting more MAUs, and increasing valuations.

Still, knowing something is bad for you isn't enough to make you stop, right? Yet, once you are out, you can choose to help others, especially the ones you care about.

bikamonkion Blacksky grew to millions of users without spending a dollar

Let them be rich. Stoicism would recommend you not try to control what isn't in your hands to control; just accept it. Can you imagine that centuries ago, the same rules of class, power, and money drove society, and some very smart philosophers came to the right conclusions? Let it be. Meanwhile, those hands, freed from frustration and fear, can build the extraordinary.

bikamonkion Blacksky grew to millions of users without spending a dollar

It's been many years without social networks for me. At gatherings, I'm often the only one without a phone in my hand, and it feels strange. Eventually, the "phoners" make eye contact and chat a bit, usually about something they all saw on a screen. But it never lasts. They always go back to the screen. It seems silence and quiet time make them uncomfortable. Even in a formal business meeting, screens are open, and attention is lost.

Will decentralized social networks fix this plague? I don't think so. The only thing that works is disconnecting. Just a few weeks into it, you'll realize you have so much free time. Time for hobbies, time for loved ones, time for finding peace and joy, time for creating and sharing. You will regret the thousands of hours wasted on that useless addiction. A few months in, you'll hear the birds singing again. You'll notice the evening skies. You'll find comfort and joy. The time you get back will help you build incredible things.

bikamonkion DrawAFish.com Postmortem

Did I read Firebase? I assume you stayed on the free side? Or your attackers were mean enough to have you wake up to a five figure bill?

bikamonkion Telo MT1

Super ugly and super pricey.

bikamonkion Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

Been there since 0.5% :)

bikamonkion Bill Atkinson's psychedelic user interface

Care to explain how this dissolves the ego like I am 5?

bikamonkion Guess I'm a rationalist now

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationalist_community

"In particular, several women in the community have made allegations of sexual misconduct, including abuse and harassment, which they describe as pervasive and condoned."

There's weird sex stuff, logically, it's a cult.

bikamonkion The Value Isn't in the Code

The value is in keeping the code running. Unless you are doing something very complex from scratch, you are mostly writing code for hire or for your startup. Nowadays, that code does not really take that long to develop. You will be wrapping, mixing, and orchestrating several paid, free, and OSS APIs and frameworks to work together with your solution to the problem. This will take six to eighteen months to complete. Then the value starts. That code is making you or someone else money. If you stop efficiently and correctly managing the code, someone loses money.

bikamonkion What are people doing? Live-ish estimates based on global population dynamics

Wonderful work! If 0.13% are in jail, how many do you estimate are positively changing the world?

bikamonkion The One-Person Framework in Practice

How does a solo developer/maintainer with a production app and thousands of active users take a "disconnected" long-week vacation?

bikamonkion Open source and self hostable/private file converter

Is there a Vert for html to PDF?

bikamonkion I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days

Right on point. The same principle applies when deciding whether to use a framework or not. Coders often marvel at the speed with which they can build something using a framework they don’t fully understand. However, a true programmer seeks to know and comprehend what’s happening under the hood.

bikamonkion Age and cognitive skills: Use it or lose it

With 25 years of experience in software development, I’ve noticed that long coding sessions leave me feeling more fatigued than they used to. However, I’ve also become significantly more productive, as I spend far less time grappling with problems I’ve already solved. I’ve only just begun to explore AI-assisted coding, so that isn’t what’s driving my efficiency. Is it reasonable to assume that the natural decline in cognitive performance over time is offset by the gains in experience and expertise?

bikamonkion Explainer: What's r1 and everything else?

So, is AI already reasoning or not?

bikamonkion TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users

Did the US president just told a private company to go ahead and break the law?

bikamonkion Combining 15s interval whole-sky-camera photos to form a 4y spanning keogram

So cool that the shape resembles an hourglass!

bikamonkion The Swedish cabin on the frontline of a possible hybrid war

1bn concurrent streams is a lot. Can satellites handle the same or more?

bikamonkion The age of average (2023)

Restaurants serve the same menues and food taste the same

Music sounds the same

Clothes look the same

News outlets show/promote the same

Social apps have the same features

Movies are sequels, prequels, spinoffs of the same

Yeah, creativity is long dead