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pointerpointer

87 karma · joined October 4, 2019

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pointerpointer··on How we failed, then succeeded, at migrating to TypeScript
Thank you for your reply.

My comment was indeed a little edgy, I have my reasons for that. But the intent was not a personal attack, although I now see that some of the words used were indeed on that edge.

I see in the history of your comments that it is not normal for you to ban an account just right away without any warning. I have no clue why you made this exception for me, I see much worse around on HN. My account was never blocked btw, it's still working. Feel free to try to block it again if you wish so, I won't use it anymore anyways.

I truly hoped I was able to shed a light on things many people normally don't see, the intent was positive but apparently I failed to do so rightly. I am human and cannot promise to always be kind. Therefore this better concludes my contribution to HN. Wishing you all the best.

pointerpointer··on How we failed, then succeeded, at migrating to TypeScript
It would definitely help if you tell me which rule I broke that made you ban this throw away account in the first place. Without that I think it's more convenient for me to create a new account instead of sending an email as you suggest.
pointerpointer··on How we failed, then succeeded, at migrating to TypeScript
> It’s always people first, code is a far distant second.

I'm afraid that's kinda political. In order to get the migration successful, hmm.. I assume developers did not have much of a choice, either accept it or leave. You can try to brainwash them by impose your subjective point of view in a friendly way, but in the end it's all about power, that's the untold story.

pointerpointer··on How we failed, then succeeded, at migrating to TypeScript
If you've learned to appreciate the elegance, expressive power, readability and overall speed of development of Coffeescript, tell me, are you going to drop that for some virtual type safety that doesn't even exist at runtime? There's no way you'll write a medium to large codebase in TS without the use of 'any' or 'undefined', otherwise you'll get completely stuck. Don't believe the hype.

When you are not writing critical code where lives or huge amounts of money depend on, then I'd say stick to Coffeescript. And when you find a type related bug in your code, fix it and write a test so the bug cannot occur again. Otherwise, first check out Elm, Dart and Livescript. TS is really the last on my list, I've had my share of pain there.

pointerpointer··on How we failed, then succeeded, at migrating to TypeScript
> Reading my old code, I was surprised by how clean it looks. How easy it is to digest. There is a certain sense of calm when your brain doesn't have to process all the visual clutter of a C-style syntax. I miss that.

Indeed, Coffeescript is one of the finest languages I wrote in. Consider that 95% of the time we are reading code, what is the win of TS with a linter? The TS codebases I've worked on really hurt my eyes and brain, and that for some stupid website where type safety hardly makes any difference at all. And all those average web developers I've worked with bragging about type safety while the code they are producing is full of wrong constructs, bad naming, dependent on heavy tooling, etc..

pointerpointer··on How we failed, then succeeded, at migrating to TypeScript
So tell me what's constructive in your comment? Oh, and downvoting is about the least constructive you can go, I won't downvote you :)

Tell me honestly, what point I made you don't agree on? Try to make your point please.

pointerpointer··on Computer Files Are Going Extinct
I can imagine corporations totally like the idea of users not being able to save their own precious data to a file. In the end they want to own and control your data as much as possible for profit and power. And they sell that idea by telling you it's more convenient. As if it were not possible to create great file management tools or maybe even your own files as a database that you can manage easily.

Same with the 'cloud'. What's the difference between running your own FTP server and a cloud server? Technically not that much IMAO, only the latter means the data is controlled by some corporation running that server. And why is there hardly any progress in the area of building a private turn-key 'cloud' server so you don't need gmail, dropbox, github, etc..? I'm sure it can be made, easy to setup, robust, with backup, you name it, just like a Mac pc that's made for non technical people. We know how to build it, but we don't do it, we build for corporations instead.

The further we go down this road the less control we will have, and the ramifications of that don't look pretty to me to say the least.

pointerpointer··on Apple's list of 235 apps that are incompatible with macOS Catalina
The scheme behind the lack of downwards compatibility was always a pain with OSX. It's great for the app developers because they can offer you a paid upgrade to a new compatible version. But UX wise it's so bad it makes you consider moving to another OS.

I once had ProTools on a MacPro and found it out the hard way. I thought I could just upgrade to the next OSX version like with almost any other OS. But after the upgrade many apps including ProTools didn't work anymore and could only get up an running again after paying thousands of euro's to upgrade not only ProTools, also all it's plugins and a lot of other unrelated apps as well. That was my last MacPro, and I never bought and never will buy any OSX app again.

pointerpointer··on What You Can't Say (2004)
I don't have accessibility issues and I don't make this up. I've seen comments with a text color of #eee, I had to go into the inspector to make it readable.. Maybe that has been changed/fixed already which would make my entire comment pointless indeed. Personally I think grey out text should not exceed about #ccc.
pointerpointer··on What You Can't Say (2004)
> Marking opinions is not censorship.

You mean when a comment is not readable anymore it is 'marking' instead of censoring? So if China hides peoples opinion it is 'marking', like being a good thing? I don't get this.

> more people will write pointless responses

Is that scientifically proven?

pointerpointer··on Why Enterprise Software Sucks
Well, not enterprise software only unfortunately, IMAO most software sucks.
pointerpointer··on Why is Middle School so hard?
Excuse me for the misunderstanding, I live in Europe where middle and high school are one. It is not compulsory anymore after reaching 18yrs old or after getting a diploma.

Still then, having a high school diploma doesn't make any difference at all in the job market, it's a worthless paper most people never need. Almost everything learned in middle and high school is worth 0$, while in real life pretty much only the dollars count. When people come to my company looking for a job I only hire them when they have the skill and are nice persons to be around, I'm not interested in whatever diploma or certificates.

pointerpointer··on Why is Middle School so hard?
> Why is Middle School so hard?

Because it's mandatory, and you are forced to be around lots of people you don't really want to be with. You are forced to learn things you are not interested in at all, while being punished for not performing well. And all that, while your body goes through a major transformation sexually. There can only be very few people enjoying that. For most it is a horrible way to end their childhood.

And we (parents, governments) think it is beneficial, until the kids come from middle school and cannot find a job that easily, often ending up doing completely stupid work like cashier or whatever else for the rest of their lives.

pointerpointer··on Open Libra: An open platform for financial inclusion
If you want to present yourself as an alternative for FB's libra, this is way too cheap. Even the worst alt coins have a better website and more info.

> Our core team and community

I mean, how can anyone take this serious? The core team could easily be just 1 person in the list. And the 'community', are that some far relatives who said "yeah good idea!"?

The website is made within an hour or so, writing the text has taken longer for sure. This is a scam. Just some smart guys trying to launch and cash in on an alt coin that is a made up solution for FB's libra coin.

pointerpointer··on Adobe deactivates all Venezuelan accounts
I've quit Adobe when they moved to the cloud, what a horrible scheme. Now I'm using Inkscape already for years for all my digital graphics work. It's not on par with Illustrator, but still an amazing open source project we should cherish.
pointerpointer··on Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age
The lack of money gives people with lower income a problem that the brain cannot solve. Not everyone can 'just get a job' that easily. I've experienced periods in my life where I kept thinking in circles to find a way to get some money for our basic needs. The only solution was to simply keep trying and waiting for some luck or fate. Of course that fucks your brain! I knew a professor in Berlin who was living in the streets, homeless. Try to imagine his mind. After all his work, passion and skill this simple but ridiculous money problem is in-solvable. And no one will help him, he is lost for life. Most rich people have no clue about this problem. They think everybody can work and create a future, while at the same time this professor in the streets has no chances. Who has a thinking problem here?