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madoublet

273 karma · joined April 29, 2012

I help entrepreneurs build amazing e-commerce sites. https://profitapps.io https://matthewsmith.com
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madoublet··on Sketch.systems
Thought the same. On a side note, the Sketch website is a hot mess. Love the Sketch product, but this... this is something.
madoublet··on Try Galaxy: A web app to demo Samsung’s OS on an iPhone
It works fine.
madoublet··on Total Crap – A magazine written by AI
You are missing the final key phase: everything gets crappier and we just accept it. There is no denying that LLMs are the future. But, much like the SEO optimized Internet and offshored goods, everything just sucks a little more.
madoublet··on No Mow May, Low Mow Spring
Looks nice. Soft to walk on. Great for kids and pets. Fairly inexpensive to maintain. Never really understood why people don't like lawns TBH.
madoublet··on No Mow May, Low Mow Spring
Also impractical simply b/c non-commercial mowers cannot cut long grass.
madoublet··on Unchecked corporate pricing power is a factor in US inflation
The explanation is a little more complicated and varies by sector but is far from unsubstantiated.
madoublet··on Sh1mmer – An exploit capable of unenrolling enterprise-managed Chromebooks
I certainly wouldn't argue with how anyone else raises their children, but I think it has been hugely beneficial to restrict access to technology early in my kids' lives. It can be introduced as they get older without worrying about them falling behind
madoublet··on Sh1mmer – An exploit capable of unenrolling enterprise-managed Chromebooks
Learned that the hard way with my kids. Google Family Link is awesome. Apple Screen Time is adequate.
madoublet··on Sh1mmer – An exploit capable of unenrolling enterprise-managed Chromebooks
I don't think everyone agrees.
madoublet··on Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED
I think most people (not devs/designers) view a laptop as something that costs around $750. That is why Windows still has a huge marketshare. Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, Microsoft all have laptops that have solid build quality, OLED screens, touchscreens, etc. at $1,500-2,200 price range but no one buys those. If you are in that price range, you are probably in one of those niche industries (design, development, graphics) and you are probably buying an Apple.
madoublet··on Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drugs
Yeah, hope it is a stepping off point for launching a better private insurance company as well.
madoublet··on How to code, build, and deploy from an iPad using Gitlab and Gitpod
I think it is Surface envy. The iPads are just not very capable in productivity scenarios and Macs are not very flexible. So, if you want a touchscreen device for leisure and a productive device work work, you end up with two machines with very similar specs on the inside. It does not make a whole lot of sense, but it is the state of the Apple ecosystem. Now, Microsoft has a whole bunch of other problems (mainly around reliability) that make the Surface a bit of a mess. But, they do seem to have the right form factor for modern computing.
madoublet··on Stackit: Cloud and Colocation
Do they intend to attract US interest? When I see a country specific TLD, I automatically assume that the company is focused on a specific region.
madoublet··on Apple is ready to admit it was wrong about the future of laptops
Strongly disagree. I think there are certainly use cases around video and 3D design that performance is _the most important metric_. But, hardware performance has not been an issue for general computing or software development in a few years. The problem with MacOS is around usability. It is just not on par with Windows 11, ChromeOS, or even iOS. They haven't evolved the software to meet modern computing and it really shows.
madoublet··on Apple is ready to admit it was wrong about the future of laptops
Apple on the desktop is not in a good space. If you take performance out of the equation, the new Pro laptops just look and feel years behind what Microsoft is doing with Windows 11 and the Surface. MacOS was really fantastic a few years ago. It was lightweight and great for development and design. But, now it just feels old and bloated.
madoublet··on Roku says it may lose YouTube TV app after Google made anti-competitive demands
Same here. Except for the cable part. I really like Google TV but, I am not going to buy new hardware for it. Hulu is good enough, plus they have some good exclusives coming back.
madoublet··on I don't want to do front-end anymore
This. But, I would extend it to say that if you are solo dev it may also make sense to just use base JS to get stuff out quicker. If you have a team, then frameworks start making more sense b/c it extends best practices farther into the app.
madoublet··on Radicle: A peer-to-peer alternative to GitHub
Very cool design. Matches well with the name. In my mind, Radicle invokes the design of the 90s (skids, grunge, hip-hop). This isn't quite that but it still works.
madoublet··on AWS Lambda – Functions with Up to 10 GB of Memory and 6 VCPUs
I love this stack. I recently added AWS SAM to the mix as well so that I can automate deployments. I have always wondered why Route 53 was so expensive relative to the other services. I have a collection of low traffic sites that I run for local businesses and this is always the most expensive part. I guess it's hard to complain about $0.50. But, given I could probably run them all on $5 DO droplet, it ends up costing a little more.
madoublet··on Google to end the “top stories carousel” benefit to AMP next spring
Exactly. Google enables these content farms making it more difficult for actual people to make money from their knowledge. It is a mess with an easy solution.
madoublet··on Google to end the “top stories carousel” benefit to AMP next spring
They certainly don't. They are a private company and can do whatever they want. But, Google was much better before content farms. You could find unique, original content by actual people. Google could easily fix this by devaluing sites that mass produce content. But they don't and we are left with the mess we have today.
madoublet··on Google to end the “top stories carousel” benefit to AMP next spring
Technical docs seem to be pretty safe for now. But, any popular search produces a lot of web farms: recipes, how-to articles, best of, etc.
madoublet··on Google to end the “top stories carousel” benefit to AMP next spring
Google search is broken and it has fundamentally broken the web. Every search now is just pages and pages of content farms. If I can tell a content farm within a few seconds of loading a page, surely Google can as well. So, unless this new "page experience ranking" blocks content farms, then I am not sure how it will be better for end users.
madoublet··on Vanilla-todo: A case study on viable techniques for vanilla web development
My opinion comes strictly as an indy dev with very limited time and resources. So, any breaking change is frustrating.
madoublet··on Vanilla-todo: A case study on viable techniques for vanilla web development
I can't speak to React. But, both Vue and Angular have seen dramatic changes over the last few years.
madoublet··on Vanilla-todo: A case study on viable techniques for vanilla web development
Framework churn is real. I no longer recommend JS frameworks simply b/c the opinion of the framework developer drastically changes over time. So, you are constantly re-writing completely valid and working code to keep up with the latest version of the framework. The JS language itself, on the other hand, seems to be very stable with long deprecation cycles and steady improvements. So, it is much easier to build on.
madoublet··on Vue.js 3
I think what is not mentioned with any of the big SPA frameworks is the amount of time you invest in the churn between versions. After dealing with this in Angular for a number of years, I ended up going with stock JavaScript for my recent projects and could not be happier. Performance is much better. I have a better understanding of what goes into the product. And, I am not constantly dealing with a new version and breaking changes every 3-6 months.
madoublet··on Google’s top search result is Google
I think it is just nostalgia for when the Internet was still young and interesting. Google made it easier and much faster to get to good, useful content. Now, it is just a mess. SEO/SEM folks beat Google. Now, no matter what you search, you either get content directly from Google or one of the thousands (maybe millions?) of content farms hoping to scrape a few pennies from your search.
madoublet··on Microsoft to permanently close its retail stores
I don't think the announcement has anything to do with the Surface lineup. I expect that to be around for awhile.
madoublet··on Ask HN: Dear open source devs how do you sustain yourself
I recently shutdown my open source project (respondcms.com). I spent over 5 years building it and was able to scrape some revenue out of support contracts, installations, and theme sales (~$100-300 /month). But, I never got to the point where it was sustainable. I do think that it helped me a lot in my 9-5 job as I was constantly solving problems and developing new skills. It also gave me a unique skillset that I used to development a new product called Profit Pages (https://profitpages.io/). In terms of tips to turn it into a full-time career, I would recommend (1) open source libraries, not complete products, (2) keep it small and sell the parts that make it complicated, (3) do not sell customizations (anything that does not scale past 1 person), (4) have a revenue plan from day one.
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