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jgj

619 karma · joined October 18, 2012

developer, designer

jay at subdes dot co jayjones.me

submissionscomments
jgj··on Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (April 2019)
Location: Eastern PA

Remote: Yes, preferred

Willing to relocate: Yes, but would rather not

Technologies: Typescript, Node, React, Vue, C#, SQL, GraphQL

Resume: > 10 years experience, full stack. Previously @ Amazon, currently @ Toptal.

Email: jay@subdes.co

jgj··on Extensions in Firefox 59
> but no, now one has to wait for sqlite-lite to be built on top of IndexedDb

not exactly sqlite-lite, but it's sqlish and it's build on top of IDB: https://github.com/google/lovefield

jgj··on PostGraphile Instant GraphQL API for PostgreSQL Database
with PostGraphile you pretty much are in complete control. You're free to write your own postgres functions/views which postgraphile will expose as endpoints. you can do so such that they are standalone endpoints or sub-queries to the auto-generated table queries. you can also basically bypass all the auto-generated table queries by creating them in a schema that postgraphile doesn't introspect, and then write all the functionality you want in a schema that it will, thus getting only endpoints/queries that you wrote yourself exposed in the api.
jgj··on Luna – Hack your sleep
This is pretty cool tech--if the smart alarm system works as advertised it would replace a lot of poorly-performing manual processes I currently undergo myself. Make a version with no heating element that can run on a battery and I'll buy it.

Make a version that has active cooling and I'll buy 2 and wear the extra to work.

jgj··on Ask HN: Prettyjson for browser?
for Firefox: http://jsonview.com/
jgj··on Ask HN: How to monetize 10 hours a week?
you might be interested in Toptal (http://toptal.com) the enrollment process is a bit long but there are a good amount of short-term, low-hour jobs available
jgj··on Ask HN: How much JavaScript do you know as a back end dev?
As a real full-stack engineer, I see more job postings for front-end than full-stack. And most of the full stack postings I see are for Ruby, which I don't have a lot of experience with, and Java, which I'd rather not do.

And JavaScript, of course. Usually these are titled "JavaScript Developer" but they really mean "CoffeeScript Developer" and no thanks.

All of the opinionating is really to say it only makes sense if it's what you want to do. I happen to like programming (including JavaScript) so I do back and front end. If you don't like JavaScript don't do front end because it can and will get complex, and JavaScript doesn't help you manage complexity.

That said, if your plan is to work on web applications, the more JavaScript you know, the more valuable you'll be (in theory) to your employer/client.

tl;dr maybe

jgj··on From Backbone to React: Our Experience Scaling a Web Application
I made a file tagging system with node-webkit and Vue (+ gulp/browserify/partialify). Vue was a joy to use. Most of the complexity in the app was dealing with sqlite, Sequelize and many-to-many relationships. Once the data got into a Vue VM it was smooth sailing.

I did run into some performance problems (rendering huge lists into complex tables), but I was able to iron them out for the most part. The only downside, which is definitely not unique to Vue, was debugging--a ton of functions get called in the Vue code when model data changes, so it can be tricky to find the right combination of breakpoints to set to track down why what you're expecting to happen isn't happening.

jgj··on Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (September 2014)
Location: NYC Metro

Remote: Preferred

Willing to relocate: Not right away

Technologies: Python, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, C#, PHP

Resume: https://careers.stackoverflow.com/jgj

Email: jay [at] substancedesigns.com

UI/UX, Django and Flask, all things front-end and game dev. Self-taught, loads of experience. I've done coding and visual design: for consumer and b2b products; independently for small businesses; in-house, producing marketing sites and internal tools; for fun and profit nights and weekends. Extremely eager to learn and grow and make.

jgj··on Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (August 2014)
Location: NYC Metro

Remote: Preferred

Willing to relocate: maybe

Technologies: JavaScript, Python, PHP, CSS, HTML

Resume: https://careers.stackoverflow.com/jgj

Email: jay at substancedesigns dot com

About: Full-stack developer, visual designer, writer. I enjoy being involved in all aspects of product development. Over the course of my career I've done everything from writing and editing copy to designing billboards, developing complex user interfaces and high-performance server applications. I'm always experimenting with new languages (most recently Elixir). I prefer smaller teams/businesses, but more importantly I want to work on interesting problems with interesting people.

jgj··on How to use a super PAC to kill super PACs
Slightly relevant: Lessig is currently doing an AMA (with Jack Abramoff) over on reddit [1].It's only an hour old so there's still a chance that your question might be answered.

[1] http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/29nq9p/lawrence_lessig...

jgj··on Show HN: Napwell – We Want to Help You Sleep Better
I guess the idea is that it's preferable to an alarm clock, whose shrieking beeps and buzzes make for an unpleasant arousal.

I have an alarm clock/lamp that slowly increases light and audio levels (I have it set to bird sounds). It's great for a gentle wake-up, but the bird sounds get repetitive if you don't snooze/turn it off after 20 seconds or so.

My biggest issue with Napwell, aside from the obnoxious information desert that is its homepage, is that I could never fall asleep with a thing strapped to my face.

jgj··on Laverna: Self-hosted Evernote alternative
yes, that is exactly what it does. It adds your tags inside of square brackets at the end of the file name before the extension.

It's built in node-webkit [1] though, so it wouldn't (shouldn't) be too hard to integrate websql, sqlite or some other database [2].

[1] https://github.com/rogerwang/node-webkit [2] https://github.com/uggrock/tagspaces

jgj··on Mail-in-a-box: easy to set up modern SMTP/SMTPS server stack
With every solution that comes along to solve the "host your own email" problem, and every guide that takes you step-by-step, I always find myself just wanting a huge wiki-style site with all the topology of a good, secure email/groupware server explained in plain English rather than a package that purports to do it all for me. Something with breakdowns/discussion about the different options that exist for the different pieces that make up the whole.

It's one thing to easily obtain my own personal mail server, it's another entirely to understand and be able to maintain/improve it.

jgj··on Mail-in-a-box: easy to set up modern SMTP/SMTPS server stack
https://github.com/al3x/sovereign is linked to in the repo. sounds like what you're looking for.
jgj··on Project Naptha: a browser extension that enables text selection on any image
> Unfortunately, your browser is not yet supported, currently only Google Chrome is supported.

FF 28 seems to be working fine with the "Weenie Hut Jr." version...is it just the add-on that isn't supported?

awesome tech, btw

jgj··on Ask HN: What games do programmers play?
Gnomoria, which is like Dwarf Fortress for humans featuring gnomes (http://gnomoria.com)
jgj··on [dead]
> The IRS taxes compensation.

source? genuinely curious if those words are written somewhere.

It would seem to me that the IRS should tax income, specifically income that I can use to pay taxes (or which can reasonably and reliably be converted into something that I can use to pay taxes).

I'd love to send 40% of last week's corporate-paid lunch to the IRS but my guess is they wouldn't accept it.

jgj··on It Is Time For Basic Income
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_slavery

> in most countries you get a wage AND you are free to look for jobs everywhere around you, and to get them

At some point, there will not be enough jobs to keep everyone gainfully employed doing meaningful work (in even the loosest sense of the word). With a basic income, rather than having immense swaths of poverty, each person would have the freedom of any pursuit they desire. For many, this would be some form of productive work.

> Even from a personal standpoint, most people would not really feel good to be paid to do nothing.

This is a thought process very much a product of our current socio-economic environment, where you are told that you are worth the work you put in. But when there is nothing to do, how can you argue with being paid to do nothing?

Furthermore, it is disingenuous to call it being "paid to do nothing". You are being paid a wage directly, unconditionally, but there is nothing forcing you to do nothing. You are free to do anything the law affords.

jgj··on It Is Time For Basic Income
> It would seem unfair at that point to tell some people try and get charity funding (which might dry up at any point).

This is already the status quo. Less people being reliant on charity is a good thing.

jgj··on It Is Time For Basic Income
I think the reliability of charity in this case would increase as the number of people who need it decrease. I don't think we can rely on charity to solve everyone's financial woes, else said woes would already be solved. But when the percentage of people in need of charity grows smaller, the impact of the same pool of charity increases for those left in need.
jgj··on It Is Time For Basic Income
Free from wage slavery, citizens receiving basic income could spend time producing their own commodities. They could learn trades not to use in a career, but to reduce their dependency on others.

I also think the premise that prices would rise and create a GBI death-spiral is far from guaranteed. With a GBI behind them, citizens could potentially be more likely to start their own businesses, increasing competition and productivity and keeping prices well within reasonable range.

jgj··on It Is Time For Basic Income
In the mystical future world where a GBI has been implemented charity still exists, and much of the capital once dedicated to assisting those in poverty-absent-illness can now be directed to those who need help in addition to the GBI.
jgj··on A universal income is not such a silly idea
FTA:

> Payable to whom? > Everybody, or at least, every adult citizen.

jgj··on Font Awesome 4 released
http://icomoon.io/app
jgj··on NudgePad: An Open Source Operating System for Building Websites
https://github.com/nudgepad

No affiliation; that was just the first thing I looked for before even reading the blog post or crowd-funding page.

jgj··on Continuous Design and the NoPSD Movement
I've been designing and prototyping this way for a few years now.

I still keep Photoshop and Illustrator around to prototype look and feel or specific design elements that can't be more readily achieved with CSS. Colors and type can at times be faster to experiment with in one of those tools. But I haven't sliced a PSD in years (except when developing another designer's work).

The other benefit is that your design can be readily kept in source control, in branches if need be, and if you have a good process in place and are thoughtful in your markup conventions, can be swapped between almost seamlessly.

Firebug/CDT are great for quickly tweaking a design...I imagine (hope?) the next wave of web design software would be much like those, except with an easier way to edit markup, work directly on files and integrate with source control. I suppose you can get some analogous with a browser reload plugin hooked to your text editor or filesystem.

jgj··on Django's Architecture: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Here's the video for folks who prefer sentences and context: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KTVws3TiC0
jgj··on Volkswagen's 261-MPG Diesel-Electric
In the future, fuel-efficient cars will look like normal cars! I can't wait. Hopefully it will be because the people making them realize that fuel-efficient cars don't need to look like rejected drawings from Doug[1] and not that everyone decided that all cars need to look like rejected drawings from Doug.

[1] http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/ae342/dougfunnieiscrazy/D...

jgj··on How to work remotely as a software developer
I worked from home for 4 years straight and never gave it more thought than "work when I feel like working or when the situation requires it." Look at that, my method fits in a tweet!
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