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johnasmith

247 karma · joined August 12, 2014

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johnasmith··on You might want to build your WebApp in Canvas instead of HTML
Compose Multiplatform is an interesting framework that can render to a web canvas, including full accessibility support.
johnasmith··on Brazil publishes a list of companies needing age verification, includes Ubuntu
Canonical Serviços De Software Ltda.;
johnasmith··on Tesla is trying to hide 3 Robotaxi accidents
I'm curious, what does having control over the update process give you? Isn't it replacing one unauditable black box system for another? Are you concerned about a regression and don't want to be in the vanguard cohort?
johnasmith··on More than a quarter of all new code at Google is generated by AI
Google has two billion lines of proprietary code, conformant to their style guides and proprietary requirements. I can't imagine they'd poison their model with non-conformant third party source.
johnasmith··on Strandbeest
The English translation of the (Dutch) "strandbeest" is "beach animal".
johnasmith··on Ask HN: Is Hacker News under attack from spam bots?
Not all John Smiths are bad, promise.
johnasmith··on Google Reader shutdown tidbits (2013)
The article suggest that it was neither. That rather it was an engineering decision: the product did not have staffing to be properly maintained, and rather than staff it up, it was easier to turn it down.
johnasmith··on Google has no visionary leaders and a pervasive sense of nihilism
Google is no such place. I've worked in several product areas, and while there is no formal one-size-fits-all process, generally engineers build products specified by PM written PRDs, often informed by UXR, designed by UX. At least for the last 12 years, it's not been a wild west of rogue engineers.
johnasmith··on The fall of Firefox: Mozilla's once-popular web browser slides into irrelevance
For Firefox to succeed, it has to differentiate. There are two meaningful ways it does, or will do, in the near future:

1. Mobile extensions: that's a unique value prop

2. Fight for the user: manifest v3, web environment integrity, and whatever comes next are degradations in user experience, and following a different path puts FF apart

johnasmith··on O(1) Build File
There are build systems where this guidance isn't terribly valuable.

With Bazel for example, you typically have build files in each directory, and a test target for each test class in that build. But bazel allows you to select and run targets in a collection of directories, select targets recursively, or by a variety of other criteria. Your CI systems runs targets selected implicitly, while each build expresses the test targets explicitly.

johnasmith··on Guava: Google core libraries for Java
One of the newer things I've appreciated from guava is ListenableFuture to Kotlin suspend functions interop.
johnasmith··on Wired has removed "How Google alters search queries" story
That's a fine argument to make, but the article didn't.
johnasmith··on Wired has removed "How Google alters search queries" story
The article conflated ad selection and search query results.
johnasmith··on Mozilla's midlife crisis has taken it from pioneer to Google's weird neighbor
Mozilla's office in SF, pictured in the article's first photo, is literally neighbor to Google's SF office, making that a particularly apt photo and headline pair.
johnasmith··on Internal document explains why Google has become slow and bureaucratic
We can assess the analogy on its merits, but random opinions are circulated in docs at Google all the time. From this article, 186,000 employees, therefore lots of opinions. This is a random employee who's made an analogy, not a leadership owned doc.
johnasmith··on Google has a company strategy, not a product strategy
I mean, I've worked in search, android, and c&c, and the above is pretty close to my experience in all three.
johnasmith··on Tether USDT is depegging from dollar
The way it's meant to work is tether acts as a market maker, always willing to buy and sell tokens at parity. Nobody would buy below that if they know tether is around. Tether, having issued the coins, should have sufficient capital to play that role. But if they spend too much of their capital, they lose the ability to fulfill their role.
johnasmith··on Shortest URLs on the Internet
I wrote myself a Chrome extension that does this, using http://l/foo style links, and using Chrome's sync to share across devices. Works well enough but limited to desktops.

Some large orgs maintain internal shorteners, like http://go links at Google.

johnasmith··on Google Timer is back
Looks like this was an actual bug, not deliberately removing a feature:

https://twitter.com/dannysullivan/status/1560010093294489602

https://support.google.com/websearch/thread//152736727

johnasmith··on Rumor: Google Stadia May Be Getting Shut Down
I've been using Stadia since day one. It's a really terrific execution of cloud gaming. It would be a real shame if it did get shut down. I hope the rumors are false.
johnasmith··on Ruby Shield: Shopify donates $1M to stewards of rubygems, bundler
Shopify CEO Tobias Lutke was a core Rails developer. He's tightly connected to the Ruby & Rails communities.
johnasmith··on Quebec Sovereignty Movement
I'm Québécois from birth (Trois Rivières). I voted in the incredibly close '95 seperation referendum. In my view, separation or sovereignty would be bad for us.

Separation is mainly predicated on the idea that Québécois are culturally distinct from the rest of Canada, and that our values would be better represented independently. We mostly speak French, and the rest of Canada is predominantly anglo (my New Brunswick Acadian mother in law would have me point out New Brunswick is officially bilingual and has many Francophones). Separatists would argue that there are substantively deeper differences, but having lived abroad in several countries over a decade and returned, any differences seem to me razor thin. We have vastly more in common than separates us. Breaking from Canada to underline these minor differences would come at a tremendous cost.

But creating a movement around identity is easy. So every now and again separatist ideas gather steam. We'll pay through the nose for a Québécois Nation and be no better off for it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Quebec_referendum

johnasmith··on Ask HN: GPT-3 reveals my full name – can I do anything?
I found the Schmidt suggestion surprising, but here it is, apparently made seriously, to change your name upon arriving at adulthood: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704901104575423...
johnasmith··on All IoT devices Bricked after Insteon shuts down?
The Arstechnica article Doctorow is linking to: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/04/shameful-insteon-loo...
johnasmith··on Android 12 is live in AOSP
No difference except you did it from source and spent the build time yourself.
johnasmith··on Android 12 is live in AOSP
You can buy a pixel device and flash it to AOSP here: https://flash.android.com/

Install a launcher of your choice and be on your way: https://www.tomsguide.com/uk/round-up/best-android-launchers

johnasmith··on Dogs distinguish human intentional and unintentional action
They compared across breeds ("51 dogs of various breeds", 9 of which were pugs or 'small' [1]), but some breeds are... dumb as hell. I'm skeptical the statement holds across all breeds. My friend's pug will run full speed into a wall for no apparent reason, hardly the most perceptive of creatures.

1. https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs415...

johnasmith··on Gail.com
I'll give you $5 for it.
johnasmith··on PHP “Note That”
In google source code: https://cs.android.com/search?q=%22wtf%22%20f:java$&ss=andro...
johnasmith··on Firefox Cannot Be Trusted at the Hands of Today’s Mozilla Management
It seems presumptuous to speculatively be outraged and it seems unfair to assume that because a person was once employed by Facebook, their efforts at Mozilla will be corruptive. Lets wait and see.
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