mcdow

This is the primary reason Lua is interesting to me. As high level as JS/Python but embeddable.

Only problem is I have language ADHD. I use way too many to pick up another like Lua.

I liked this post, and I can totally understand where you’re coming from…

But couldn’t anything you say about Lua also be said about JS? You mentioned how Lua wasn’t batteries included, so you try to limit your libraries. Couldn’t you say the same for JS? JS itself doesn’t change much, it’s the ecosystem. Couldn’t you just pick out some small and stable libraries the same way you could with Lua?

I'm working on a notes app that is as simple as Apple notes, but has native markdown support and uses semantic search.

Uses SwiftUI for the UI, and Zig does most of the heavy lifting on the backend. It's inspired by ghostty which uses a similar setup[1].

Right now it only works for Mac, but I'll be porting to iOS as soon as I get the markdown renderer polished. It's not available to the public yet, but I'm using it as my daily driver and hope to release it later this year. I've open sourced it so you can see the source code here[2].

1. https://ghostty.org/

2. https://github.com/emmettmcdow/nana

I bet it wouldn’t be too hard to build a nice UI over a mailing list. You could make it as nice as Slack. Has this been done?

Switched to Helix about a year ago and haven't looked back since. Has almost everything I need in it(with a few exceptions). With Vim I would've had to have installed some janky plugins.

I really recommend it if you find Vim motions unintuitive and want some of the basic features of IDEs like VSCode.

My biggest gripes: - No plugin system (yet). - Configuration documentation is not the best. - Hasn't reached enough popularity to where other apps have "Helix mode" like how a bunch of apps have "vim mode". I find myself wanting to do Helix motions in other apps.

Only a matter of time before someone makes something better than Artifactory. It’s a low bar to hit imho.

Came here to say this. I was able to get an omz featureset from vanilla zsh with a handful of lines of config. It works for the features I was using from omz.

Followup question: what’s it like to write COBOL? It’s so ancient as this point you never hear anyone actually talking about what the developer experience is like. How performant is it? What features does it have (or not have)? How bad is it really?

Small world! Searched 'effect oriented programming' and one of your talks was one of the first results on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/EHtVADr-x94

Anyone have a good primer on what effect-oriented programming looks like and how it’s used? Feel free to shill your own blog!

Zoomer terminal maximalist here.

My thing is that most UIs use such poor use of the screen real estate. I get it, pretty is the priority. But when I want to do work, the padding on everything gets to be excessive. Additionally, it’s really nice to be able to host my dotfiles in GitHub and I can be in a 100% familiar environment within a couple minutes. I have a variety of machines I work on. Same thing goes for mouse usage. I’m much faster operating the keyboard, whereas I switch between mice and trackpads and sensitivities when I switch devices. Keyboards are mostly the same. Maybe it’s a skill issue on my part but oh well ;)

I can see why that might be frustrating. What about this problem makes it the best fit for the government to handle? Is it prone to natural monopoly? There are lots of things that the government can handle and shouldn’t. Just because the government handled something in the past isn’t a reason in-and-of-itself for it to resume handling it in the future. I’m genuinely curious as I am ignorant of the space.

Super cool. What did you use to build the interactive bits?

Oh cool, thanks!!! I’ve heard of other people getting good value out of Shortcuts. Now I can give it a shot.

So first of all, I like Apple notes for its simplicity and ability to sync with iCloud. I don't really care if it's exportable using markdown, I only really care that it is exportable. Because I'd like to migrate to the notes app I am working on.

Kinda stoked for this. Been working on a notes app and apple notes is my current daily driver. Apple notes stores the notes in a proprietary and opaque format atm. I’ve been scheming ways to break the notes out without luck. Now I can just wait for this feature to come out.

So the things we call "REST" in 2025 are not quite the same as the original specification of REST. One key aspect that has been abandoned is that sent data should be self-describing. That is, it shouldn't require any additional information to be useful. i.e. API documentation for JSON endpoints.

There's a great chapter on this in Hypermedia Systems[1]. Talks about both this and HATEOAS(Hypermedia as the engine of application state).

1. https://hypermedia.systems/components-of-a-hypermedia-system...

My bad! Updated the link.

Dude this is super cool! What made you decide to open source it?

I had a similar idea that I never followed through with(even down to using an ESP).

Basically you could make a Harry Potter talking painting with basically your device + an e-ink display that displays some 3D modeled character.

For others, here’s a direct link to a demo video:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o1eIAwVll5I

Stop listening to the hype and doomers. Both of them are wrong. Go outside, live your life, build whatever you want to build, spend time with family. Stop reading stuff by people you don't know. Everyone online is trying to sell you something. Many sell fear.

We're gonna be fine <3

Rob Pike is in shambles after this devastating betrayal

I would argue the original post is talking about stamina on a different scale. Stamina over years. Not over the course of a day or week, fueled by stimulants.

Nope, I'll check it out. Thanks!

I am also an unknown with a startup and a pitch, so take it with a grain of salt.

I don't think you're gonna get useful answers here. I would imagine it really depends on who you're pitching to, and how you're pitching. Lets say in aggregate 1% of people get an investment from cold calling. That doesn't imply you have 1% chance. Your pitch could suck so your chances are 0%, or you could be Elon Musk and you have a 100% chance. But the fact of the matter is that you don't know what your chances are. So the only way to find out is to try and see how it goes.

(I don't remember where this idea came from, but it was either from a PG essay or something put out by YC.)

Another thing is that one founder's route to success looks very different based on the strengths and weaknesses of that founder. You can't follow the lead of another founder. You have to play to your own strengths. If you think its a good idea, do it.

Point is, just do it. Start calling people. You'll learn way more than asking other people about it.

I started using Perplexity as my primary information-finding tool because of the progressive worsening of Google search results.

Philosophically Kagi resonated with me, but Perplexity just gave me better results and it won out. This move into an ad-driven-revenue model may tip the scales back in Kagi's favor.

For those that aren't aware, (part of)the Kagi hypothesis is ad-driven-revenue ultimately leads to enshittification, and that the solution is a subscription model. I don't question the first part of this hypothesis(ads -> enshit.). But the second depends on many factors. In this particular case, how long does the enshittification take? What if we just move to a world where every 10-20 years, there is a new VC-subsidized but ultimately ad-funded organization that kills the previous incumbent? And we just jump from ship to ship, never realizing the cycle we are in because it takes 10-20 years for the ad model to rot at the core of the product.

Super cool.

One improvement: get a different bike saddle. One that doesn't put pressure on the perineum. There's evidence to suggest extended time spent in a bicycle saddle can cause ED.[1]

1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S17436...

Great post. But something not expounded upon by the author, and not addressed much in the comments here, is that asceticism is not a binary. Sometimes you really have to get-shit-done, and in that case, yeah use something fully featured. But a lot of the time, you'd probably be better off accepting a bit of slowness and pain in order to learn more. It's the classic framework vs. scratch debate. Use the framework if you want to go fast, build from scratch if you want to get better.

I agree with this take. Blogging is a the first step towards writing a book.

However, through blogging I've realized just how impressive book writing is. I work really hard to build coherent blog posts, I cannot begin to imagine scaling that to a book.

It's kind of like software in a way. Anyone can code a toy, not everyone can build a product.

Assumption: the dream primary value of something like this is the ability for individuals to fab chips on their own. Like 3D printing, it’s for rapid iteration in prototyping. Then once you have a design you have one of the big players manufacture it in the traditional manner.

If my assumption is true, how is this better than FPGAs?

Been a while since I first watched the video. I would imagine the ice cream machines are a relatively small part of the McDonald's business. As evidenced by the fact that McDonalds ice cream has been an issue for quite a while. I would imagine franchises of a similar caliber to McD's also exploit their owner-operators on a similar scale because they can, we just don't necessarily hear about it because McDonalds is the largest.

McDonald's isn't known for its quality anyway. I've had my fair share of sketchy McDonalds experiences. McDs is as large as it is because it is cheap, convenient, and ubiquitous. McDonalds has no qualms with cutting corners on quality, as evidenced by its entire menu.