Hacker News Reader

farnsworthyon PowerBuilder History, Powersoft History (2004)

"It was an offer like no other offers. The groom asking for Powersoft's hand in marriage was Sybase and the billion dollar dowry offer was very seductive. So a wedding/merger was arranged on February 13, 1995. I hope they took pictures during the wedding ceremony and honeymoon because the "paper valuation" (the deal was done with Sybase stock—worth $904m) didn't last long. The bad news arrived in the form of fabricated (Sybase) sales results. Sybase stock took a tumble, along with the fortune of many Powersoft executives..."

farnsworthyon Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?

Beautiful. I wonder if a business publication would be interested in an expanded version of this...

farnsworthyon Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?

Open plan verdict: Too much mayo.

farnsworthyon Oracle owns “JavaScript”, so Apple is taking down my app

It needs a new name (that isn't "ECMAScript").

farnsworthyon Ask HN: What's the best way to improve typing speed?

http://zty.pe/

farnsworthyon Radio host Art Bell has died

12-packs:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEX_Btnpd5GWYCOIXtFpb1g/vid...

farnsworthyon Japan Wants to Allow Crypto ICOs [video]

Interested parties:

https://www.scribd.com/document/375623623/Call-for-Rule-maki...

farnsworthyon Designing, folding, and flying the finest paper airplanes [video]

"After going about as far as I could go folding planes, I decided I need to study this other field, this art called 'Origami.' So I worked on that for about ten years..."

farnsworthyon Stripe Billing

I could write that series in a weekend.

farnsworthyon Stripe Billing

How about for new startups (with low or no volume)?

farnsworthyon Be careful what you copy: Invisibly inserting usernames into text

Whitelisting might be better...

farnsworthyon Email marketing for e-commerce

How about credit card companies, who refuse to allow opting out?

farnsworthyon Email marketing for e-commerce

The quote sounds like wishful thinking to me (reminiscent of drum-beating realtor-speak).

100% of this customer wants to hear from 0% of the companies with whom he does business.

Then there's this common unsubscribe strategy: "Okay, we've unsubscribed you from all messages pertaining to (some narrowly-defined topic)."

Web 2.0 killed popups and unders and overs for the most part, but these sprung back to life once Mom and Pop were told they could make money blogging and pimping other peoples' products (the new Amway or Avon).

farnsworthyon Ask HN: What company mission do you find inspiring?

https://www.eff.org/

farnsworthyon Ask HN: Weirdest hack that you ever saw in production?

Dictionary Attack 1.0

farnsworthyon How I've built a profitable Slack bot as a side project in Rails

Companies are using this, though? The price (both annual, and the above, especially considering transaction costs) is too low!

The post says: "Abot logo is just an icon from Icons8. I have to pay $19.90/month for a license." That begins to approach professional-level pricing.

farnsworthyon Ask HN: Anyone else not read the questions on SO, only the answers when stuck?

I think you pointed this out yourself: everybody is in fact reading the questions, but in the SERPs, not on SO.

(And I'm sure people are scanning the body of the question there, too, if only subconsciously--I know I do.)

farnsworthyon Gaijin Engineer in Tokyo

"When I told a group of kids my eyes were naturally blue (they thought I wore colored contacts), they backed away and whispered, “Scary.” The first time I went to the grocery store, my appearance alone caused a small child to burst into tears."

farnsworthyon Ask HN: What is the biggest challenge you face as a developer?

Yes, there's an incredible lack of self-awareness and understanding out there, with regard to others.

farnsworthyon Ask HN: What is the biggest challenge you face as a developer?

Not being permitted to do my job.

Yes, I'd love to help you, if only you'd let me. Won't you let me?

But you won't, because you can't seem to control yourself--it's like a compulsion to self-sabotage. (Similar to what happens to creative works in the entertainment industries. Too many cooks...)

And it isn't the CEO, who is typically a practical business guy, enjoyable to speak and deal with. He's never the problem (and it's best to deal with him directly when possible, no matter your role). Instead it's the VPs and CTOs and others in lead or similar roles, who are inherently political creatures. Witness there the worst sort of decisions in everything from hiring to "culture" to technical and business strategies.

Personified, the typical company is a capricious and self-defeating entity.

What was the question again? Oh yes, here's me trying to write an app, up against all that...

farnsworthyon Gaijin Engineer in Tokyo

"Hello monster/ghost person." Yes, that's me?

farnsworthyon Gaijin Engineer in Tokyo

Agreed, it's a simple, polite request to a business partner.

George says: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usN3rpfFoGA&t=30s

farnsworthyon Toys R Us to close all 800 of its U.S. stores

Sad Original Simba. :(

farnsworthyon Toys R Us to close all 800 of its U.S. stores

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_sWmWM7-fs

Experts (?) with their "sense of excitement" and such, but the parents shopping for this year's Xmas sensation consumer good will be looking at price and availability (with "Getting the hell out of there" likely somewhere in the mix), hence Walmart then, and Amazon now.

farnsworthyon CIA new nominee director Gina Haspel ran a torture site and destroyed evidence

"In 2002, she oversaw a secret prison in Thailand that tortured two terrorism suspects. That torture took place within the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” program, in which suspected terrorists are sent to US allies, and interrogated in “black sites” on their soil.

One of the men, known as Abu Zubayda, was waterboarded 83 times in one month and was slammed into walls by the head. He was deprived of sleep and kept in a coffin-like box. Interrogators later decided he didn’t have any useful information.

ProPublica found that Haspel personally signed cables to CIA headquarters that detailed Zubayda’s interrogation.

CIA videos of the torture were destroyed in 2005, on the orders of a cable drafted by Haspel. Her then-boss Jose Rodriguez, the CIA’s director of operations for counterterrorism, signed off on the order. “The cable left nothing to chance. It even told them how to get rid of the tapes,” he wrote in his memoir, according to ProPublica. “They were to use an industrial-strength shredder to do the deed.”"

farnsworthyon Profiling Go Applications with Flamegraphs

Yeah, it could be a new struct, especially if another parameter or two comes along (though the simplest thing has its benefits, too).

farnsworthyon How to Write CSS That Works in Every Browser, Even the Old Ones

"your time machine is fueled up and ready to go"

farnsworthyon Ask HN: How can I stop receiving spam phone calls?

https://www.npr.org/2017/07/31/540515367/familiar-looking-nu...

farnsworthyon FBI's Use of Paid Best Buy Informants Goes Deeper Than We Knew

Or under/over-tighten, forget the oil, strip the mount. But you need a garage and jack (curb?), oil disposal, etc.

(It's nice not having a car anymore.)

farnsworthyon Crazy things happening in SF because of its out-of-control housing prices

Yeah, but is that "on purpose" altruism, or an accident of expansive geography?

Regardless, it sounds like a more affordable place (if car-bound).