Hacker News Reader

hnzixon Seven Deadly Sins of Introductory Programming Language Design (1996) [pdf]

TurboPascal had a lovely IDE which made it really nice for teaching. Whereas teaching Java was a struggle initially for novices because of the relative difficulty in configuring the development environment. This is probably the most important thing PHP also got right for beginners.

hnzixon Adobe uses DMCA to nuke project that keeps Flash alive, secure and adware free

> or didn't spend any time on flash

This is the same company that assigned a whopping 0.5 FTE to porting the Director plugin from OS9 to OSX, which subsequently took years and killed the platform.

I would not make the assumption that Flash development was well resourced. Which is a shame because despite the bad rep it was an amazing tool for creatives.

hnzixon The Microsoft MFA system almost brought me to a nervous breakdown

IIRC it's not free for a wider identity deployment, it has incremental pricing that makes it look free. It works out somewhat cheaper than a third party solution.

hnzixon The Microsoft MFA system almost brought me to a nervous breakdown

Because Microsoft is too big to fail. When implementing MFA for BigCorps, their internal infra teams often only know MS products and refuse to accept that there could be a better alternative (even when 100% compatible with their stack). It's the ultimate vendor lock-in.

hnzixon [dead]

Tap and hold on the spacebar works pretty great for cursor placement.

hnzixon Insider trading by executives is pervasive – research

There's an appreciable difference between investing in bonds or placing money in a high-interest savings account, and betting large amounts on a stock prior to a large market movement based on information you know and the market doesn't.

hnzixon The Legality of Web Scraping

I've had my non-public LinkedIn account scraped a number of times. Thankfully waving the GDPR cannon now gets the information taken down (eventually).

hnzixon Using 1Password 's `op` CLI tool exposes your secrets to other users

That's... insane. So many breaches come from password stuffing attacks from leaked data. It doesn't matter how strong your password is if it's been compromised on another site.

hnzixon On Solitude

And went into massive debt to fund his sabbatical.

hnzixon Twitter launches Bitcoin tips, NFTs, recorded Spaces, creator fund and more

> What does twitter add to this?

It will (hopefully) provide an easy UX for normies to send funds. Not adding functionality but removing friction.

hnzixon Twitter launches Bitcoin tips, NFTs, recorded Spaces, creator fund and more

This enlarges Twitter from a social platform to a payment gateway. I didn't get it until I watched this video that shows a near-instant money transfer from Chicago to El Salvador, calling it a "Western Union killer": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SByPewKAiZA

Beyond huge for the diaspora sending money back home. Bitcoin's volatility is a problem, but widespread adoption (or adding a stablecoin/altcoin) would mitigate that issue.

hnzixon Signal is experiencing technical difficulties

Atlassian Confluence also just had a multi hour partial outage.

hnzixon Show HN: Generate shared 2FA codes for your entire team

Huh that's awesome I didn't know it had that feature. Cheers!

hnzixon Show HN: Generate shared 2FA codes for your entire team

I thought 1password only allows storing MFA codes for pre-determined sites? Eg it doesn't provide a MFA option for microsoftonline.com.

hnzixon Essay: The Digital Death of Collecting

The problem with digital discovery is lack of good curation. Physical objects can be curated by your parents, friends, etc and are easily accessed.

Whereas most digital discovery algos just chum my recommendations with what's overall popular in a category. I don't want the "latest smash hits", I want to see a respected curator with excellent taste uncovering new gems.

hnzixon I just don’t want to be busy anymore

Also worth checking Vitamin D levels - inside all day at the computer, especially with lockdown, can lead to a deficiency which has direct physiological impacts.

hnzixon Sometimes mindlessness is better than mindfulness

Unwanted mindfulness when you are trying to get into the flow state - also known to sports psychologists as "the yips".

Come to think of it, I wonder if coding burnouts / writer's block / analysis paralysis has the same underlying mechanism.

hnzixon The most impressive linguistic feat I’ve ever seen

> something that is sadly often not possible now with the diverse presentation media we employ

I miss using <tables> and 1px invisible GIFs to create pixel-perfect web layouts from Photoshop. But there's also something to be said for creating a perfectly re-arranging fluid layout.

hnzixon As a solo developer, I decided to offer phone support (2017)

It also depends if you're supporting org users or The General Public. Org user support can be quite rewarding. Dealing with the unwashed masses however...

hnzixon The Frustration with Productivity Culture

TFA is essentially saying orgs should have a framework that enables their staff to work smarter not harder, and that the org's ROI is not a coder's problem to solve.

hnzixon Enterprise Software Projects Killed the Software Developer

I really, really hope Stephenson's Fall in Hell isn't prescient when it comes to the rise of Ameristan. That book plus Palahniuk's Adjustment Day are a terrifying glimpse of our boring dystopia morphing into complete dystopia.

hnzixon Burning out and quitting

Perhaps consider career downsizing. Work 3 days a week and minimize lifestyle costs.

You can be free in 15 years but you'll never be able to buy back your youth.

hnzixon Hire for the Ability to Get Shit Done (2011)

"On time, on budget, and on fire."

hnzixon NvChad: An attempt to make Neovim TUI as functional as an IDE

Spacemacs runs in terminal mode.

hnzixon It’s not that hard to be in the top 10% of your field

After spending a long time in enterprise, it does feel like 80% of people are there to warm up the chairs and fill in the occasional form. This is not a problem for mgmt because the more staff they have, the more budget they get to throw at their business objectives.

The solution IMO is to break the divide between the director level and the grunts by having upper mgmt walk the floor, and to have a coherent program of work with measurable outcomes. As far as I can tell this happens almost never.

hnzixon Stonewall Nation

I've seen a lesbian club handle this by have some nights as "lesbian only" (policed by "face control" aka the door bitch and bouncer) and other nights as mixed. It seemed to strike a good balance between mixing the tribes and creating a safe space.

hnzixon AstraZeneca Scientist Says Delta Variant Makes Herd Immunity Impossible

Hospitals hit capacity and run out of beds and ventilators. This is a hard threshold. Once you pass it, mortality goes through the roof.

hnzixon The rise of never-ending job interviews

They'll miss most of the good talent if they're doing 6 interviews for a standard role. The candidates with skills and options will go elsewhere and you'll be left with the desperate dregs.

hnzixon Git-blame-someone-else

You can always alias it to "git praise".

git config --global alias.praise blame

hnzixon SARS-CoV-2 Gamma variant infected 16 fully Pfizer vaccinated Guiana gold miners

20-somethings are at a lower risk for mortality, that doesn't mean they won't suffer long COVID symptoms like arthritis and reduced lung function. And also infect more vulnerable age groups.