Hacker News Reader

donbraeon Web Push for Web Apps on iOS and iPadOS

Even if/when we get the Blink rendering engine in iOS Chrome, I think Apple will still prohibit access to certain features like Bluetooth if they consider it a security or privacy threat. Are Web Bluetooth, Web USB etc. even considered part of Blink, or are they part of Chromium?

donbraeon Web Push for Web Apps on iOS and iPadOS

You can auto-populate the name field by specifying its value in the manifest.json file, eg https://github.com/donbrae/tripods-web/blob/e2fade06991a83ae...

donbraeon Web Push for Web Apps on iOS and iPadOS

I’ve long been hoping for something like the Smart App Banners[0] that native app developers can use to link to their app in the App Store.

It’s relatively unobtrusive and easy for users to dismiss.

[0] https://developer.apple.com/documentation/webkit/promoting_a...

donbraeon Ask HN: What have you created that deserves a second chance on HN?

A puzzle game: https://www.tripodsgame.com.

Wrote a blog post with some background and technical details too: https://www.jamieonkeys.dev/posts/tripods-html5-game.

donbraeon Why Google and Apple work to snuff out the mobile web

I agree about the installation process (though the user shouldn’t need to fill in any info). The actual user experience when using home screen PWAs can be made to be OK, but there really needs to be a meta tag or whatever to allow an ‘Add to Home Screen’ banner to appear (similar to the way you can link to the App Store if you have a native app).

donbraeon Hogmanay

I always put Scottish. British would also be acceptable.

donbraeon Was salary reduction a “constructive termination” or did employee resign? (2013)

> If the US wasn't how it is, another power would rule. Would that other power be as benign and cooperative as the US has been? In current days, the alternative powers would be China, and I don't think a Chinese world power system would be better for everyone.

From this European’s perspective, I welcome the US’s benign power, now and historically (the Marshall plan), and agree the alternatives have always been terrible (unless, say, Canada were to step up in the event of US decline).

However, I’m not sure I would share this perspective if I were living in one of the South American countries where the US has overturned elections, or Iraq or Vietnam. US power is benign as long as you’re on their side.

donbraeon What’s Left in the Apple Silicon Transition

Of course, sorry, my mistake!

donbraeon What’s Left in the Apple Silicon Transition

Indeed. Releasing FCP X as an MVP (a concept no-one outside of software dev understands), without the features in FCP 9 that professionals expect, was a bad idea. I know a couple of filmmakers that switched to PC, partly due to the cost of Macs but also because of FCP X.

donbraeon Freedom to Roam in Scotland (2019)

I stay in Scotland and had always assumed the right to roam also applied to gardens. I thought it was cool that the law would leave it up to individuals to be respectful, and not have to state obvious exceptions in its wording.

The law still does defer to folk’s common sense and decency (to not leave litter etc.) but today I learned that it does explicitly state you’re not allowed to just parade into someone’s garden!

donbraeon Too big to live, too loved to die: Big Tech's billion dollar curse of the free

Timers, calculations etc. could be processed on-device, without having to go to the cloud. At least some newer Apple devices do this.

donbraeon How a great audiobook narrator finds her voices

I have a lot of respect for voice artists who read out whole novels especially. I recorded a blog post of mine a while back and it was surprisingly really difficult to get right.

donbraeon How PostScript kickstarted desktop publishing

I once received a website redesign mock-up made in Excel. Ingenious.

donbraeon Ask HN: Can I see your cheatsheet?

I use my GitHub gists as a cheatsheet: https://gist.github.com/donbrae.

donbraeon iPadOS 16

Scrolling with the trackpad is working fine for me (I’m on a M1 iPad Pro on iPadOS 15.4), at least on the ~7000-line package-lock.json I just tested. The app does have some quirks, mind you, like the native scrollbar obscuring the VS Code scrollbar.

donbraeon iPadOS 16

The native CodeSandbox app[0] is pretty good if you’re a Web/JavaScript dev.

[0] https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/codesandbox/id1423330822

donbraeon iPadOS 16

It works quite well (I have it ‘installed’ as a home screen app). You can open individual files or remote repos, but not local folders. Seems responsive.

donbraeon The age of the fast self-checkout lane is over

> Self introspectively I have a conflict: I don't like that self checkout takes jobs away […]

I used to work as a supermarket cashier. It was incredibly boring. Self-checkouts, for all their flaws, are a step forward for humanity.

donbraeon Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer

Risky in terms of them being 42, or due to the economy maybe not looking too great right now?

donbraeon User friendly web games

Submitted my game https://www.tripodsgame.com. Nae registration, ads or dark patterns; works on mobile and desktop.

donbraeon Celebrating 40 years of ZX Spectrum

No; it was run by a guy called Martyn Sherwood. I found a page about it online[0], which I see includes a reference to my ‘company’, Micro Spec Software!

[0] https://rk.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/jmg7/groups/prismpd.html

donbraeon Celebrating 40 years of ZX Spectrum

Loved my ZX Spectrums (+2A/B then +3). Used them to make games and other software, which I sold via mail order and then through a public domain library called Prism PD. I also made a monthly wrestling fanzine on it; and it was my introduction to making music on computers (courtesy of the `play` command, which allowed for three channels of polyphony, if I remember correctly).

Can’t wait to receive my Next in 2023.

Cheers to Clive and the team (and also to Alan Sugar for keeping it going into the 1990s).

donbraeon SVG passthrough precision

I’ve found Boxy SVG (https://boxy-svg.com) to be a good visual SVG editor. You can edit the SVG markup or use the visual tools. The markup is preserved on save.

donbraeon Three areas where Google Search lags behind competitors: code, cooking, travel

I much prefer Kagi to Google (and DuckDuckGo et al). Often the first page of Google consists solely of SEO rubbish. Being able to block and rank domains is also useful.

donbraeon Ask HN: What hyper-focused industry newsletters do you enjoy?

Wrestling Observer Newsletter[0]. Covers the pro wrestling (and MMA) business. Been going since the 1980s. The writer and publisher Dave Meltzer was featured in the New York Times a while back[1].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrestling_Observer_Newsletter

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/sports/wrestling-reporter...

donbraeon Ask HN: Share your personal site

https://www.jamieonkeys.dev/

Made with Eleventy.

donbraeon My macOS keyboard shortcuts

Author here. Programmer notation: I just mean it more or less as ‘whichever key’.

donbraeon My macOS keyboard shortcuts

That is infuriating. On my work Mac I’m only signed into the App Store (not iCloud) and have not had this problem. Maybe it’s the corporate malware your company installs that’s doing it?

donbraeon FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign

Not in the UK. Only those earning self-employed income over a certain threshold (£1,000, I think) need to complete a return.

donbraeon Microsoft is testing ads in the Windows 11 File Explorer

You need to enable it: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204434 > ‘Use your keyboard like a mouse’.