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creakingstairson Softmax forever, or why I like softmax

Because the domain is a Korean name, I half-expected this to be about an old Korean game company[1] with the same name. They made some banger RPGs at the time and had really great art books.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESA_(company)

creakingstairson Exposed DeepSeek database leaking sensitive information, including chat history

It’s harder to learn for sure. Majority of the resources are in English and it’s harder to internalise the keywords. But it’s definitely possible to program without knowing English.

creakingstairson Ask HN: Have you ever taken a career break or gap year to hack?

I’ve recently took a year and a bit off for my mental and physical health. I did have to give up on good income for a while, but I figured my well being was much more important than having a larger house deposit.

Job-wise, I haven’t really stressed that much because I figured it wouldn’t too hard to get a software job as an experienced dev (and I was right)

During the break, I did try to build some for-profit projects so that I could prolong the break as much as I wanted. But in hindsight, it was a mistake if I were to do it again I would just focus on what makes me happy instead of trying to make something that can make money.

All in all, I’d recommend it. I’m in a better place mentally and I hope I can do it again in 5-7 years.

creakingstairson Australia: Kids under 16 to be banned from social media after Senate passes laws

I was wondering how "social media" was defined. Anyone got a link to the actual bill?

From the article:

> "Messaging apps," "online gaming services" and "services with the primary purpose of supporting the health and education of end-users" will not fall under the ban, as well as sites like YouTube that do not require users to log in to access the platform.

Almost every "social" apps are basically messaging apps these days. What's the differentiating factor between banned and not banned? Having an algorithmic feed? So YouTube is not banned because its doesn't require users to log in to access the plaform? Can Instagram enable browsing without logging in (and disable some features except DM) to avoid the ban then?

Also, now kids can create YouTube accounts to use shorts as Instagram reels, community posts as Instagram Posts and subscribe to each other. But hey, that's not a "Social media" right?

creakingstairson A mistake that killed Japan's software industry? (2023)

I mean it is _better_ than Japan, especially after 2015. But Korean software scene is still pretty bad. I still have nightmares about ActiveX/IE6 era. It's just comes down to whether the management sees software as a product or as cost centre. When it is seen as a cost centre, they tend to start a chain of sub-contracts which is never a good thing for software quality.

creakingstairson Java-Based No-Code and Low-Code Application Bootstrapping Tools Review

I suspect most of the low code products are internal-only products and proof of concept apps. Like spreadsheets, other teams find it empowering to be able to make automations without getting the engineering team involved.

creakingstairson Using an 8K TV as a Monitor

I use yabai which does what you say and more pretty well. It also lets you completely remove spaces transition effect but this will require disabling of SIP.

creakingstairson How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

Getting a bank account via SMBC Olive was a painless experience for me. It can all be done an app and a phone call later confirming some details. I was not employed at the time.

creakingstairson What happened to the Japanese PC platforms?

Yeah and a part of e-tax literally asks you to have Japanese Windows in fine print or it fails silently without any warning messages (Fixed by changing chrome locale to Japanese thankfully). Gotta love Japanese websites. I just go into the office and hand write the forms because it beats trying to debug cryptic issues.

creakingstairson Swimmable Cities

https://youtu.be/IYaPfuTkWGU?si=Bdqp6pbCzbGMmQhk

https://youtu.be/iA2cLQ_p6V0?si=FDH_JhD5TBcPxHfP

Here you go!

creakingstairson Swimmable Cities

I’ve come across a video where Swiss people were commuting from work by diving into the river yesterday and it blew my mind! It looks so delightful. I’ve never thought about going to Switzerland for holiday but now it’s all I’m thinking about.

creakingstairson iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

I’m on the same boat as you. I do most of my productive work on my computer. But I started teaching kids recently and realised that kids do EVERYTHING on their phone these days. Write essays, edit videos, play games, make musics etc. A lot of them can’t type well on their keyboards and it’s the main source of frustration for kids when learning coding.

creakingstairson Japan cracks down on use of rideable electric suitcases amid tourist boom

A few weeks ago, Mezameshi 8 (morning news that my wife watches) was fixated on foreign tourists for days and days. Sure, tourists can be bothersome but they’ve been making mountains of molehills. The rideable electric suitcase was one of those issues. I actually laughed out loud as I watched it.

Edit: Also I now remember laughing as the panels started gasping at tourists jaywalking which I regularly see where I live.

creakingstairson Japan stocks plunge as much as 7% as Asia shares extend sell-off

Govt has been intentionally weakening yen (perhaps too much) so that big companies can export more thanks to cheaper prices. This also introduced inflation which would be fine if wage went up as well. But wage has remained stagnant while corporate profit / nikkei soared. It also doesn’t help that foreigners are flooding into the country while yelling “omg everything is so cheap!”

creakingstairson The spreadsheet is a simulation machine

Here you go. The messages are a hoot.

To paraphrase the last sentence:

"There are appropriate tools for each tasks. Just like you don't use the knife that you use to slaughter cows to slaughter chickens. And computers are the knife to slaughter cows in this case."

https://imgur.com/a/T4rrav4

creakingstairson The spreadsheet is a simulation machine

There is a really famous screenshot in Korea of an old manager telling a new hire to NOT use excel functions and do it by hand (and shortly became a meme because of its absurdity). I’ve also heard similar things had happened in Japan.

creakingstairson Magnitude 7.6 earthquake strikes Japan, tsunami warning issued for Ishikawa

Osaka here. The quake felt like it lasted for ages. I’m a bit worried as in the Tohoku earthquake, 9.1 followed two days after the first 7.3

creakingstairson Why do programmers need private offices with doors?

I get what you are saying but I seem to find it hard to engage with anyone, even my old friends, over chat these days. We end up hopping into voice chat when we want to catch up.

creakingstairson Why do programmers need private offices with doors?

I've made numerous friends over IRCs, Warcraft 3 chat channels and whatnot and had preferred it over face-to-face (and I still prefer chat over zoom calls!) but as I've gotten older, I started appreciating talking in real life more and more, and now struggle to form connections over chat. I wonder if there are others who are in the same boat.

creakingstairson Why it's taking so long for Americans to get payments instantly

> but this shouldn't be surprising

Then is it surprising that other nations have had near instant payments for a good while?

creakingstairson Mundane emotions: Losing yourself in boredom, time and technology (2022)

Those are great resources to start with. Thank you!

creakingstairson Mundane emotions: Losing yourself in boredom, time and technology (2022)

How do you find good ebooks? I’ve found some good ones via HN, but it would be nice if there is more dedicated place for ebooks.

creakingstairson Yabai – A tiling window manager for macOS

I cannot use my mac without Yabai because the forced transition delay between spaces is extremely annoying for me.

creakingstairson Switching to Elixir

Types are coming! Hopefully not too far away.

https://elixir-lang.org/blog/2023/06/22/type-system-updates-...

creakingstairson Ask HN: What are you passionate about at the moment?

Drawing at least 30min every day using Line of Action[1]. It’s relaxing and fun to see improvements over time.

I’m also writing my own tools in Elixir for playing around with LLMs. Currently exploring ways to efficiently chunk documents/code/webpages so that I can create embeddings for them.

[1] https://line-of-action.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing

creakingstairson World's most popular painter sent his followers after me because of my review

Huh I didn't know about that. But it seems like those old tabloid shenanigans at least took some effort for the press :p

creakingstairson World's most popular painter sent his followers after me because of my review

Korean news agencies have been caught multiple times posting something inflammatory on social media just to report on it and cause outrage. The media have become literal outrage building machines.

I assume it isn’t limited to Korea and happens all around the world :(

creakingstairson Does Market Timing Work?

Yeah, I don't doubt that there are real people timing the market successfully. But as you said, those methods are under NDAs, not given by random gurus on YouTubes!

creakingstairson Does Market Timing Work?

1. Their reasoning is arbitrary. They pick and choose factors to justify their analysis.

2. They would be much richer if they could.

creakingstairson Does Market Timing Work?

One of my family members is absolutely convinced that they can time the market and it kinda drives me up the wall every time it comes up. They will use all these “techniques” to draw arbitrary lines on the chart to establish a trend in the market while watching the news like a hawk everyday.

Meanwhile I just get on with my day with index funds and get better returns.