Hacker News Reader

pawelkomarnickion iPhone Duo

I was skeptical until they whipped out the pencil support. Then the price… not that bad for Apple device. Replacing both my iPhone and my iPad mini would be nice

pawelkomarnickion iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max

I am sitting on my 15 Pro Max and I don’t feel compelled to upgrade apart from the mild flex of having a mobile camera with aperture. But then, I can take my camera with me when I want to take more ambitious photos rather than point and click I usually do with my phone. It’s nice to see the progress though because one day I might upgrade and it will feel nice.

pawelkomarnickion Ask HN: Show your micro-SaaS

https://journal.cubitoo.com

Making journaling as easy as texting your friends thanks to human-written inspirational prompts.

Made as a Ruby on Rails web app.

It doesn’t contain any AI, nothing to leak your entries, just you and a bunch of carefully crafted prompts for self reflection and mental health improvement.

pawelkomarnickion Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (August 2026)

Location: Berlin, Germany

Remote: Preferred

Willing to relocate: Maybe (English speaking countries)

Technologies: Ruby, JavaScript, SCSS, anything else (I programmed in many languages)

Resume: https://cubitoo.com

Email: pawel@cubitoo.com

I am a Ruby on Rails developer with strong product skillset — I prevent problems before they have a chance to cost you money.

pawelkomarnickion Don't be a meat proxy

Responding with “Claude said:” is a sign of either a “I don’t care” or incompetence. Do what you will with that

pawelkomarnickion Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)

Guided journaling web app: https://journal.cubitoo.com

pawelkomarnickion Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice

You can also use the stammkapital right away but there are certain rules when you have to prevent insolvency. It’s really not that hard unless you want something wild

pawelkomarnickion Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice

I never had any issue with Finanzamt being slow, they take my money with a proper disclosure ahead and also as quickly pay whatever I’m owed back

pawelkomarnickion Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice

Germany is a different kind of joke but everything OP listed smells fishy and scammy to be honest. I have a German company and there costs are not that massive. It took one notary meeting and some bills but the way he sets everything up looks… weird and convoluted. So he had to pay arm and a leg.

pawelkomarnickion Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2026)

Cubitoo journal: https://journal.cubitoo.com — a journaling web app with cool guided journaling programs

pawelkomarnickion Claude for Legal

It will be hilarious to see this one play out because ChatGPT and Perplexity already do wonders for small-claim issues like tenancy laws, various personal letters, etc.

pawelkomarnickion [dead]

It's a not a real tarot deck but a set of 70 tarot-inspired journaling prompts. One of the 20 Guided Journaling programs in the Cubitoo Journal.

pawelkomarnickion Free guided journaling during the Mental Health Awareness Month

To celebrate the Mental Health Awareness Month, all new accounts registered before the 17th May will have their trial extended until the end of May 2026 for free. I want to let everyone improve their mental health and be more mindful

pawelkomarnickion Show HN: Cubitoo Journal, your web journaling app

I'd like to clarify that "18+ guided journaling programs" means in here "18 and more coming", the app itself does not include anything NSFW :-)

pawelkomarnickion Ask HN: What are you building that's not AI related?

I see your point and connecting places and people (and of course the ultimate goal of opening my own place) is on the roadmap. The thing is that I don’t want to either tie myself to a specific place or be dependent on specific area (apart from starting up in Berlin of course).

pawelkomarnickion Ask HN: What are you building that's not AI related?

I’m not particularly worried about any stigma or anything. So far most people understand that it’s not “yet another another gaming club” but a community/place that is also for this particular purpose. Worst case scenario I can rebrand it later into something else.

pawelkomarnickion Ask HN: What are you building that's not AI related?

I have realized that playing board games with other people makes my mental health better and started work on a community platform and at some point physical space to connect: https://GamesAgainstLoneliness.org

Also working on a journaling app but it’s still in the works.

pawelkomarnickion The profitable startup

Large teams were a norm because VCs REQUIRED IT, telling things like “we invest in people” and demanding founders to hire rooms full of “the talent”.

pawelkomarnickion Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (June 2025)

SEEKING WORK

A full-stack Ruby on Rails developer with experience in digital health, adtech, information systems architecture. Available for anything from small consulting to full-time, remotely from Berlin, Germany.

Location: Anywhere remotely

Technologies: Ruby on Rails (16+ years), JavaScript, Hotwire, CSS/SCSS, Postgres (too many to list each one)

Website: https://cubitoo.com

Email: pawel@cubitoo.com

pawelkomarnickion Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (June 2025)

Ruby on Rails full-stack developer here, available remotely for anything from short contracts to full-time. More about me: https://cubitoo.com

Location: Berlin/EU

Remote: Yes

Willing to relocate: No

Technologies: Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, Hotwire, CSS/SCSS, Postgres, mostly anything that has API ;-)

Résumé/CV: https://cubitoo.com

Email: pawel@cubitoo.com

pawelkomarnickion Ask HN: Would you still choose Ruby on Rails for a startup in 2025?

Yes I would. I’m running my single product building agency https://cubitoo.com and it often blows my clients’ minds how easily we can incorporate advanced features with high level work Rails enables. I’m with Rails since v2 and never looked back.

pawelkomarnickion Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (March 2023)

SEEKING WORK - REMOTE, PART-TIME

Location: Germany / EU Remote: Yes, not willing to commute Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, Swift (iOS) Email: pawel@cubitoo.com Website: https://cubitoo.com

I am a Digital Product Builder, able to make a napkin idea into a production-ready product for my clients. Design, engineering, management.

pawelkomarnickion Show HN: The Howdy: Journaling and Self-Reflection app is now free

To celebrate the release of 7 new journaling programs (reaching 18 in total) and the Christmas season, the app is free to try until the end of the year (down from the usual $4.99).

Give yourself some mental health support and enjoy clarity, mindfulness, and self-awareness this holiday season.

pawelkomarnickion Ask HN: What is the most impactful thing you've built?

I feel like my app Howdy (https://howdy.cubitoo.com) has the most POSITIVE impact from all the things I have built lately — it's something that improves my life, my family's lives, and my friends'. I am not only using it myself but also super proud to do so and ABSOLUTELY LOVE working on it.

pawelkomarnickion Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?

I found out that disconnecting from full time job and focusing on my own projects for a while (like a working sabbatical) does wonders to my enjoyment of work

pawelkomarnickion Removal of Heroku free product plans

If you are dealing with a lot of "empty databases" you can basically make something like a "core app" — attach cheapest paid redis and postgres to it, then copy the credentials between apps.

I have done this before — had one "X-core" app and "x-whitelabel-1", "x-whitelabel-2", and so on, connected to the same database while each app used different database name.

pawelkomarnickion Removal of Heroku free product plans

I have some experience with AWS ElasticBeanstalk that I used to migrate to my Heroku apps at some point.

With their Amazon Linux 2 they use the Procfile and it feels VERY close to Heroku with deployments (it has its own quirks though, like they have those managed upgrades that are sometimes breaking the app for some reason, etc.) but I am pretty happy with how easy it is compared to the previous AWS EB platform.

The problem is only the cost, i.e., when you have to pay for everything it is a bit more pricey (and settings are pain, those VPCs and security groups and whatnot, not fun)

pawelkomarnickion Removal of Heroku free product plans

I used to start my projects on Heroku because the first few iterations of the prototype can run on the free dynos, then hobby tier for the first production, better database when needed, and so on — slowly growing as it should be.

Now I will either replace it by some DigitalOcean droplet or Fly.io or Railway.app or whatnot. Whichever makes most sense for the growth of the project.

I am pretty sure some of my clients will stay on Heroku just because it's easier and they already pay for most services (so no free tier already) but it means NO NEW clients are coming to Heroku from me.

pawelkomarnickion Removal of Heroku free product plans

I don't mind paying their fees for production resources (e.g. they ALREADY force that for the Team accounts where no free tier dynos are available) but now they effectively killed any kind of experimentation and pipelines — now EVERY single app will have to use the paid Postgres, paid Redis, and paid dynos and that can add up quickly (basically $29 per app, no matter if it's production, staging, or a review app...)

pawelkomarnickion VP of Engineering Hiring Cheatsheet

Some of these concepts sounds like “management from hell” handbook. Sure it’s great if people want to follow you but that also makes you a massive liability to any company hiring you: people will FOLLOW you. How that is considered something positive is beyond me: one day you hear “yeah I got a new job, here’s my notice + 6 different people are leaving too, lol”. I have seen this happen, it really shook the “old team” when one of the guys took all his work friends and moved to another company.