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joshtynjala

276 karma · joined May 4, 2009

Frontend developer, open source contributor, codes in Haxe, karaoke enthusiast, likes bowler hats, pinball, and Muppets.

https://github.com/joshtynjala https://twitter.com/joshtynjala https://feathersui.com https://logic.ly

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joshtynjala··on Douglas Adams and the exterminated Doctor Who adventure
It got co-opted and contorted by the right in America. The right intentionally pretended that "woke" was an umbrella term for "all sorts of crazy issues" that it never was. The more "crazy issues" that they could add onto the pile the better, in order to make the word useless to the left. If anyone on the left continued to use "woke" intending its original meaning, those listening would associate their own thoughts about the extra unrelated issues, muddying the speaker's message.
joshtynjala··on Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids
If you have a pihole or something that blocks ads/tracking for your entire network, try configuring it to exclude to your Apple TV. My Paramount+ app went from crashing daily to no crashes in many months.

Technically, you could also configure the pihole to allow the specific hosts that the Paramount+ app needs to access. However, I found that there were many hosts, and they also change from time to time, so it can be annoying to keep them updated when the app starts crashing again.

joshtynjala··on When stick figures fought
And OpenFL https://openfl.org/ which is an implementation of the Flash API written in Haxe. It can cross-compile to HTML5 or native C++ mobile and desktop. Disclosure: I'm a contributor.
joshtynjala··on How Flash games shaped the video game industry (2020)
I don’t recall Apple unpublishing my AIR apps. One of mine was among the first secretly submitted before Adobe revealed the feature publicly. However, I definitely remember after Apple added the new clause, when I needed to submit updates, those were stuck in approval limbo for many, many months. Then, suddenly, they all got approved in a flurry and there was never an issue again.

Adobe AIR is actually still available today (now maintained by Harman through an agreement with Adobe), and it can still compile native iOS apps that can be submitted to the App Store. This feature was never removed, and is still maintained to be compatible with new iPhones.

joshtynjala··on The Skyline algorithm for packing 2D rectangles
Your web browser may have also spent some time packing rectangles into rectangles. I recall reading this article a while back about how Firefox does/did it.

https://mozillagfx.wordpress.com/2021/02/04/improving-textur...

joshtynjala··on Wordpress.org Login: "I am not affiliated with WP Engine in any way"
He's appeared in several of related threads here on HN. He is always asked about his lawyers, and he repeatedly claims that they're cool with his behavior.
joshtynjala··on Bubbles
Haxe can compile to even more targets these days, like C++, JVM, C#, PHP, Lua, etc. It also includes an interpreter to run without compiling, and there’s a newer, faster VM for Haxe called HashLink.
joshtynjala··on We don't do that here (2017)
Maybe I read it too fast, or maybe my brain was still focused on my work tasks, and that was taking priority over my casual skimming of HN. It doesn't really matter. All I know is that I suddenly had to go back and re-read that part because, for a moment, it seemed to me that the author might consider "gay" to always be a pejorative. And maybe others were incorrectly interpreting it the same way that I did at first.

I also considered that other commenters might not think using "gay" as a perjorative was a big deal, but HN rules encourage the assumption of good intent.

joshtynjala··on We don't do that here (2017)
I think that the author was a bit unclear in regards to the word "gay". It almost sounded like the author thinks that using the word "gay" in any context should be considered bad. After I went back to read that part again, I realized that they were referring to people saying "that's gay" to mean something along the lines of "that's bad" or "that's something I don't like". This was a common phrase among teens and 20-somethings 15-20 years ago, but it is rightly considered in poor taste today.
joshtynjala··on “Open source” is broken
Apache funding goes to stuff like infrastructure and administrative stuff. Developers writing code for Apache projects are volunteers and are not paid by Apache. If they’re lucky, their employer might pay them to contribute to the Apache project.
joshtynjala··on Unifying iPadOS and macOS
Have you tried creating a .pkg file instead of .dmg? Much better user experience, in my opinion. The developer controls where the .app goes, and there’s nothing for the user to unmount when finished.
joshtynjala··on HiveNightmare a.k.a. SeriousSAM – anybody can read the registry in Windows 10
There’s a safer way to run self-signed software on macOS, for anyone that prefers not to do the master disable. First, try to run the program. When it fails, open Settings.app and go to the security section. You’ll find the most recently blocked program name mentioned and an Allow button that will remove the block. Then, you can run the program. You need to do this only once per program.
joshtynjala··on Kind Engineering [video]
When I was attending university, one of my professors pointed out the ACM code of ethics: https://ethics.acm.org/
joshtynjala··on Whatever Happened to UI Affordances?
Ideally, the layout would adjust the spacing between items, so that one item is always partially cut off. I don't know whether Apple does that or not (or if it's their small number of possible iOS device resolutions, like you suggested). However, that seems like something that Google should consider as a way to improve the Android experience.
joshtynjala··on NymphCast – Open-source Chromecast Alternative
If I discover a new movie trailer on my phone, and I want to watch it on my bigger TV screen, it's much easier to immediately cast the video that I've already pulled up than to try to find the same video with my TV remote.
joshtynjala··on Using fake reviews to find dangerous extensions
I took his meaning as, the vetting seems strict before you submit, but it actually turns out to be much less strict after you submit.
joshtynjala··on Eat for $1.50 per Day – Layoffs, Coronavirus Quarantine, Food Shortages
Yesterday, QFC in Interbay was nearly out of canned beans, flour, and milk. I’m sure there was more that was low, but I noticed those bare sections in particular.
joshtynjala··on VVVVVV’s source code is now public, 10 year anniversary jam happening now
You can actually create graphics in the Flash WYSIWYG editor and import them into OpenFL. You won't get the exact same workflow, but it's not completely lacking the visual tooling either.
joshtynjala··on VVVVVV’s source code is now public, 10 year anniversary jam happening now
OpenFL, a library for Haxe that implements the Flash API, includes a mechanism to import graphics drawn with Flash's original tooling.
joshtynjala··on Tools we used to create a hit HTML5 game on Steam
Just to add a little more... Haxe not only transpiles to C++, but it also transpiles to JavaScript. With a Haxe codebase, can deploy a project as both a native app and on the web. Really nice for games especially.
joshtynjala··on Flash Is Responsible for the Internet's Most Creative Era
Adobe Flash Player, the web browser plugin, will no longer be updated in 2020.

The Flash IDE, now called Animate, continues to be developed by Adobe. They have not announced an end of life for this tool. It will still be updated after 2020. In fact, it can now export a variety of new formats other than SWF files for Flash Player, and they've been expanding the animation features quite a bit in recent years.

It's unfortunate that many people are confused about what exactly Adobe has discontinued. So many people in this thread are lamenting that this user friendly animation tool no longer exists as a starting point for new users, when in fact, it does and will still be in active development beyond 2020.

joshtynjala··on Syntax highlighters are wrong (2014)
I found it surprising that the author didn't mention the possibility of deemphasizing doc comments at the same time that they increase the emphasis of regular comments. Doc comments have value for consumers of libraries, so I'm not always able to remove them, like the author did. However, doc comments have a slightly different syntax, so we can make regular comments prominent, like the author suggests, and we can make doc comments less prominent so they aren't distracting.
joshtynjala··on Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue
Apple allows physical items or services to be purchased without Apple's payment infrastructure. The strict rules and 30% fee apply to "digital" subscriptions/items only.
joshtynjala··on The Elements of UI Engineering
You can save arbitrary data when you push a new state with the HTML history API. This data is restored when you go back, and it does not affect the URL. Both React Router and Reach Router allow you to programmatically navigate and use this capability. I've used it on multiple occasions to restore both app state and UI state when navigating back. It's a little more work, of course. You can't just link to a simple URL. You need an event listener that creates the state object and tells the router to navigate manually. You may also need to ensure that any back buttons in your UI actually go back into the history instead of adding a new entry. It would be nice if it were easier, but once you get it working, the level of polish compared to most web apps makes it feel worth the effort.
joshtynjala··on Things I Don’t Know as of 2018
In case you missed it, the official create-react-app 2.x supports TypeScript out of the box now, and it has better defaults than react-scripts-ts. No more ridiculously strict lint rules.
joshtynjala··on Goodbye, EdgeHTML
WebKit and Chromium are both still open source. While they may not be porting commits back to KHTML specifically, they are certainly making all of their enhancements available for free to the community. Personally, I wouldn't call that little to nothing.
joshtynjala··on Who Invented the iPhone?
You're ignoring the pixel density, though. Half the resolution, but a screen many times smaller in physical dimensions than the monitor that you are comparing it to.
joshtynjala··on TypeScript at Google
The first thing I do in a new CRA-TS project is make the tslint.json rules default to warnings instead. Or just disable them completely. After that, it's great! I'm actually surprised that they still haven't loosened the rules after Dan called it out a month or two ago. Seems like an easy enough fix to at least make them warnings until they choose better defaults.
joshtynjala··on Is WebAssembly the Return of Java Applets and Flash?
You can build Android apps (and iOS too!) with Adobe AIR today. In fact, it's been possible since about 2010.
joshtynjala··on So You Want to Compete with Steam
Check out Movies Anywhere.
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