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christopoulos

23 karma · joined September 2, 2013

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christopoulos··on How I wrote, crowdfunded, and independently published a book
See, this is where you could go the extra mile and actually tell the author exactly what word it is. Do you do this at your work as well?
christopoulos··on Riot is now Element
This is so true. I remember this when I had a conversation with a Spanish developer and he said Java mid-sentence...
christopoulos··on Ask HN: What did you make during lockdown?
I returned to creating music on an MPC after an 8 year hiatus. I’m loving being back at it again.
christopoulos··on The Day AppGet Died
This is why I personally am very reluctant to the sharing of well founded ideas on platforms such as github, in hackathons, in competitions, in recorded speeches etc. How unlikely it may seem, this is a great example that ideas with traction do get picked up and copied, and the originator screwed over. I honestly sometimes feel as if the openness is pushed and saluted, but with the ulterior motive to skim for ideas.

Edit: corrected autocorrect

christopoulos··on Tell HN: Interviewed with Triplebyte? Your profile is about to become public
I’m curious on Meta, got a link?
christopoulos··on Designing the Perfect Date and Time Picker (2017)
Yes, I agree, and everyone (devs) should think about who they’re really trying to make things easy for.

If you simply say follow the ISO standard you’re essentially making it easy for yourself and hard for the users. Sprinkle that with a drop down day picker as in the example, and you’re really in control of what the input will be. Not much chance of faulty input, right?

However, the ISO will not be relatable for many people and the drop down is a UI nightmare.

The user will be spending much more time with the form than devs (runtime), so this of thinking should definitely be avoided (during programming time).

christopoulos··on Want to build a side business? buy a great domain name
Depends if you have the ISellOnions.com website...
christopoulos··on Ask HN: Has any progress been made on large format E-ink displays?
Do you have an example of such OLED sheet that you can recommend?
christopoulos··on Jitsi Meet Security and Privacy
I thought jitsi sent video from user to user, not via server? Or is that a configuration matter?
christopoulos··on Show HN: Zoom Redirector
Solving Zoom’s Dark Pattern no 1... great work!
christopoulos··on Stripe can make automatic LLCs but a wire transfer from Citi nearly ended me
As I’m not from the US, could you explain the differences or provide a resource?
christopoulos··on Almost everything on computers is perceptually slower than it was in 1983 (2017)
I feel like it’s a behavior encouraged by Googles Material design or derived projects: slide details in and out of the screen (google maps pin details, for example), hide input boundaries (no border on search text input fields), tons of sporadically placed spinners.

I really dislike that tendency in design and behavior and find it counterproductive.

christopoulos··on Proprioception: The Silent “Sixth” Sense
I find this interesting as I had a somewhat opposite experience when I tried a dark restaurant when visiting Berlin (eating in complete darkness). It was surprisingly rest to relocate utensils and my glass of beer, as I went back and forth between them, stopping and raining to eat.

Of course, the room wasn’t empty and void other sounds, which may have helped me build a general sense of direction and thereby helped me.

christopoulos··on Save .org
Could we include .book while we’re at it? Seems like the handling of that TLD went really wrong...
christopoulos··on Adam Neumann planned for his children and grandchildren to control WeWork
Thank you, what a story!
christopoulos··on Adam Neumann planned for his children and grandchildren to control WeWork
Don’t know the pets.com story, care to tell more or link resource?
christopoulos··on New carbon nanotube-metal hierarchical material is 10x darker than Vantablack
Maybe we now can get true black on an LCD screen?
christopoulos··on The Writer of the Future
Isn’t the point here that it was the path the free information ideology inadvertently produced: (free) information served with ads (because everyone needs butter on the bread)? And because of that ingrained ideology, it’s still difficult to charge for the actual information product?

Edit: missing word

christopoulos··on DevOps didn’t exist when I started as a developer
That’s why I always push the message that we choose the right amount of bureaucracy for the task at hand. Simple change / feature? No need to make a lot of documents for that? Fluffy idea that several people needs to work on? We need some mocks, diagrams and take requirements from client.

I think that’s a healthy way of doing it, but sadly many almost have to be pushed to do it, even with bigger things.

christopoulos··on DevOps didn’t exist when I started as a developer
Yes, I understand. While I’ve never only attributed that to Agile alone, but also this sort of brogrammer-code-is-the-real-product, it sometimes feels like a maturing industry sort of rolled back into its teenage years. Diagrams? Solution models (up front thinking)? Document for future reference? Nah, we don’t want to do that.

It’s sad. Just recently had an experience like this with developers I manage. I do loathe the brogrammer culture more than anything...

christopoulos··on DevOps didn’t exist when I started as a developer
That I can understand and I’ve seen that too. And now Scaled Agile Framework is coming in hot as the enterprise version.

I’m actually proud of the parts of agile we work with, which primarily enables us to react changing needs and priorities quickly (unlike heavy waterfall).

After 22+ years in the industry I’ve come to realize that any new concept or concept that gets traction (CQRS, Event storming, AI) will produce a religious following. It’s kinda sad, because causes as lot of noise and friction.

christopoulos··on DevOps didn’t exist when I started as a developer
Genuinely curious, what is it that you don’t like about Agile? I mean, the concept, the processes? The lack of something or too much of something?
christopoulos··on Absolute Scale Corrupts Absolutely
Isn’t there a similar, sort of inverse pattern with laws and enforcement?

The name escapes me, but it’s about the fact that once, even though laws were passed, it required personnel to enforce it, so there was a sort of a natural equilibrium between government and citizens. But now that we have all this technology, law enforcement can enforce even the pettiest of laws...?

christopoulos··on Ask HN: What's the largest amount of bad code you have ever seen work?
I very much agree.

I remember when i realized that TDD shouldn't have such weight in our development as it had gotten (when it was high on the hype curve).

It was when we starting using a messaging infrastructure that made everything much more reliable and robust, and trough which we could start trusting the infrastructure much more (not 100% though, of course).

It made me realize that the reason why we did this excessively large amount of tests (1800+) was because the fragile nature of a request/response-based system and we therefore "had to make sure everything worked".

What I'm trying to get at here is thar TDD assumed the role of a large safety net to a problem we should have addressed in a different manner. After introducing the messaging, we could replay messages that had failed. After this huge turning point tests were only used for what they should have only been used for - ensuring predictable change in core functionality.

(our code also became easier to understand and more modular, but that's for another time...)

christopoulos··on Show HN: My new project – Startupconfessions.io
Thanks! I've deployed a fix - could be better, but it'll do the job for now.
christopoulos··on Show HN: My new project – Startupconfessions.io
Thanks for the heads up. Will fix.
christopoulos··on Show HN: My new project – Startupconfessions.io
True, startupconfessions.io is inspired by codingconfessional.com, which I'm a big fan of. The idea to test a similar format on other subjects came to me during a teacher strike this spring, where the was a lot of classic thrashing in the media between the involved groups (government <> teachers). After that, this subject of startups presented itself. Ultimately I hope the site can bring out some truths and valuable lessons that everyone can learn from.