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pascalo

258 karma · joined March 3, 2013

[ my public key: https://keybase.io/pascalopitz; my proof: https://keybase.io/pascalopitz/sigs/bT4XzIKEJtlV3UeH11qj-Ih4OO4HbvdYdzrK4pG-YbA ]
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pascalo··on Fed up with the Mac, I spent six months with a Linux laptop
I'm a Linux user on my own hardware and was just put onto win10 at my current gig.

WSL has made this workable, really. Not the nightmare I expected. But the rest of windows still sucks.

As for apple stuff, I used to use Macs for a decade, starting with a colour iMac right down to MBP 2013 ... The platform felt like it got and more in the way. I hated the app store. Firwire transfer from old to new machine also didn't work properly between two OSX versions. Set up took long. Everything was a forced login. The straw that broke the camel's back was shitty support when I came home after closing the brand new laptop to find a cracked glass screen when I opened it up again.

Been using Dell's xps series and Nuc barebones since then, and moving some crucial things like keyPass files onto Google drive. I can spin up a new Dev ready setup in about 15-30mins. Everything works out of the box. Bliss.

Dell btw gave me great support every time I had a hardware issue.

pascalo··on We live in an age of distractions, dealing with constant mental stimulus
Came on here to say it's exactly what I use cycling for. 5 hours on the bike means 5 hours not looking at my phone or laptop. Just turn the legs over and let your mind wander or stare into the landscape (or deal with traffic, which sucks).
pascalo··on Sonos is spying on me (and you)
Me too. The most infuriating bit is the settings that require a login. That should never be needed.
pascalo··on Sonos is spying on me (and you)
Yes please to the API bit. I'm maintaining the "unofficial Sonos controller for Linux" and it'd help a great deal if I didn't have to Wireshark the protocol all the time.

https://github.com/pascalopitz/unoffical-sonos-controller-fo...

pascalo··on New material that cannot be cut
Freeze and shatter? Car jack?
pascalo··on The saddest “Just Ship It” story
For vaccines, the clinical trials are basically customer feedback collection via closed alpha and beta releases, no?
pascalo··on Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows
I use use a git-like cli binary to sync my google drive (https://github.com/odeke-em/drive). Really like it, and there's no weird background process or automatic syncing going on that's chewing up resources.
pascalo··on Amiga Music Tracker in JavaScript
That shadow of the beast track ... oh man!
pascalo··on When hiring senior engineers, you’re not buying, you’re selling
I think you're spot on with that observation. One reason for me to never ever consider going back to Germany.
pascalo··on Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended
I seriously wonder how that would work in practice?

"Hey Joey, will you work on the fizzibizzi feature that does xyz?"

I can't, I have other stuff to do?

"What kind of stuff? This feature is the top priority for the whole team?"

I JUST CAN'T TELL YOU OKAY!!!

pascalo··on Australian parliament passes encryption laws unamended
He was a push over on metadata retention, why would it have been different this time? What a joke!
pascalo··on What cracking open a Sonos One tells us about the Sonos IPO
I don't think the earlier Sonos models even had a microphone built in?
pascalo··on What cracking open a Sonos One tells us about the Sonos IPO
Also, I forgot to say: There is no way I'd put an Amazon alexa or similar device in my home, period. I take a "speaker company" instead any day.
pascalo··on What cracking open a Sonos One tells us about the Sonos IPO
I've got lots of Sonos speakers, one in every room of my house. Before Soundcloud was an option I wrote my own SMAPI service to get that going for myself. Then, when I switched from Mac to Linux I created my own client app [1] to control my speakers.

I feel Sonos have really missed a trick by not opening up their API more. Most of the features I had a reverse engineer or check from other libraries. Their own apps have also not exactly gotten better. For example, I _HATE_ the unified search feature, it makes the search slow and sluggish. Controlling the speakers from Spotify directly also never worked glitch-free for me. Other niggles have to do with the grouping features, which are also a tad flaky and sometimes time out or only partially group. Most of all I am annoyed by the frequent updates asked for, without the ability to "pin" the speakers to a version and download a specific version of the client app.

All that said, I love their speakers because they sound good. The old Play 3 and the Amp especially. I feel they should focus their efforts on making the apps snappier and faster, not much more feature rich.

[1] https://github.com/pascalopitz/unoffical-sonos-controller-fo...

pascalo··on South Australia teams with Tesla, Neoen to build world's biggest Li-ion battery
The really big 2016 blackout in SA also wasn't caused by wind or solar energy, but that doesn't mean that stabilising the network isn't something that won't be required if the energy production develops more towards renewables.
pascalo··on South Australia teams with Tesla, Neoen to build world's biggest Li-ion battery
I should qualify why: The South Australian power network, due to its increasing reliance on Wind and Solar, struggles with fluctuations in the network. The battery will aid to stabilise the grid in peak demand times.
pascalo··on South Australia teams with Tesla, Neoen to build world's biggest Li-ion battery
When it comes to power generation, tried and tested also means to rely on something like gas or coal fired power plant. Do not want.
pascalo··on South Australia teams with Tesla, Neoen to build world's biggest Li-ion battery
This is certainly a step in the right direction for South Australia.
pascalo··on GitHub.com down?
Same in Adelaide, Australia
pascalo··on GitHub.com down?
Just when I was doing my pull request.
pascalo··on Ask HN: What do you want to see in Ubuntu 17.10?
+1 ... plusa nice command to clean out unused kernels
pascalo··on ThinkPad X1 Carbon
Got the previous generation (9333) running Ubuntu 16.04, no troubles.
pascalo··on Preact rendering in a web worker
Exactly my use case[1]. Switching from React was trivial, and the performance increase was really noticeable.

[1]http://pascalopitz.github.io/unoffical-sonos-controller-for-...

pascalo··on Show HN: Unofficial Sonos Controller for Linux
Maintainer here. I'd really love some feedback, but even better would be people contributing, especially if you know about Sonos and the way it deals with Services, auth tokens etc.
pascalo··on A Letter to the Berlin Startup Scene
Berlin has had a nasty culture in its labour market for a long time. People working low paying or even unpaid internships to get a foot in the door would get sucked dry by digital and advertising agencies. I knew people in their mid 30s still technically being student and working in their 10th or so internship position, never making it.

Where I worked, the way us junior people were treated was horrible, and I declined a full time position after completing my vocational training because of it. But talking to my mates in the industry back then we all encountered similar shitty exploitative attitudes.

I left in 2004 and have never looked back really.

pascalo··on Congratulations You’ve Been Fired
In German law there is. In Australia unfair dismissal can only be claimed after 6 months of employment. Not really sure about the UK, but I am fairly sure it's not just cut throat firing like in the US, and you can claim unfair dismissal.
pascalo··on Congratulations You’ve Been Fired
To provide an outside US perspective, it's not that easy to fire someone in Germany, the UK or Australia. Once you're past the probation period, you'd probably have to get one or multiple sorts of negative reviews and written warnings from HR or your superiors before being let go, otherwise you'd have ground to sue for unfair dismissal. That, or you'd be given a redundancy package.
pascalo··on Congratulations You’ve Been Fired
The way I read it he used the age and gender info in his comment to illustrate that it would be harder for the person to get a job. Hence it being extra cruel to use the weird lingo and act like it wouldn't be hard for her.
pascalo··on Congratulations You’ve Been Fired
Would you say companies the size of Amazon, Netflix and HubSpot still fall into that bucket?

To me they are large tech companies that have kept some sort of startup canon in place, and not in a good way.

pascalo··on Congratulations You’ve Been Fired
I think he doesn't need to imply it, firing someone without explanation is bad management, no matter how young or old you are.
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