Hacker News Reader

stasomaticon Disney+ and Hulu raise prices by up to 13 percent after doubling profits

It was a bear to set up the first time, but smooth sailing after that

FWIW, I didn't want to spend hours or days on the setup, but Claude set the whole *arr stack for me in an hour on an older NUC, under Proxmox.

stasomaticon People hooked on vapes try a new way to quit: cigarettes

tabex

Not available in the US. I quit smoking 8 years ago but can't wean myself off of vaping. Not that I really tried though and I can easily do a transatlantic flight. The problem with vapes is that they become 24x7 pacifiers, my nicotine intake must be a lot higher.

stasomaticon Transit rewards

It's depressing what cluster eff we have in the US regarding public transport (NYC and the like don't count :)) Each time I return from Europe, I want to go straight back.

stasomaticon Samsung accidentally freezes its smart fridges with a software update

Any product from almost any manufacturer has built-in obsolescence - unless you go mid-high end, like Bosch etc.

Sammy/LG/GE business models aren't built on services but volume. If you buy a third party warranty service, that solves the issue somewhat, but they churn out so many models that parts become scarce.

You just got lucky or your models are from a different era. I don't want to drop money on Bosch, so I buy the cheapest ones and just replace them when needed.

stasomaticon I am done with this shit

I am wondering how many devs are putting time bombs in code with AI's help. If I was at the top of the corp pyramid, I'd tell the devs to fix up all bugs and let go everyone except for a skeleton crew. Boom, profit. I mean, what is there left to build? A better Jira? /s

stasomaticon Seattle Bans Rental Junk Fees

Mine did, in North Hollywood, owned a 2 story building, I think 8 units with varying floor plans. Does that qualify as an apartment building? He did all the work himself unless it was something like HVAC or required permitting. He was an IT dude who got laid off by Century Link and diversified. Didn't seem to enjoy the maintenance part though, but was perfectly capable.

stasomaticon The senior engineer death spiral

I left Ukraine in ‘89, so familiar with the concept. Different trade-offs, my point.

stasomaticon The senior engineer death spiral

Bruv! Surf's up.

stasomaticon The senior engineer death spiral

But in communism, you are less likely to need to find a bridge to live under.

stasomaticon Don't Be Nice

It shouldn't even be a term, it sounds fake politically correct, as does "First Nations". It's "indigenous". They were here, someone else came ashore and the Comanche got horses and Winchesters.

Not like the Comanche and the Apache were besties, nor the Iroquois and Mohican. What about the Inuit? They are like Siberian expats, but still indigenous, but somehow not on the list? Just musing here.

What's a native Brit? Robyn Hood? A Viking? :)

stasomaticon I'm Tired of the AI Tone

I quit Claude for the second time because of exactly this.

Sugary, long-winded, praiseful War and Peace levels of replies that sounded intellectual but with no substance, nah. If Codex is 20% worse in code quality, I am fine with that.

No amount of AGENTS.md, SOUL.md helped, too many "Sorry, I ignored your instructions". Couldn't stand it, I want a robot dog that knows how to code and do web searches, that's it. Perhaps, I was holding it wrong, but I don't have that level of patience now.

Plus, all of a sudden they switched my sub from monthly to annual without me opting-in. $200 is not that painful, but I like to jump around, and they gave me a huge runaround without a resolution, so I charged back.

stasomaticon BYD Slashes Price of Electric Car and Becomes Cheapest in Australia [video]

How do you feel about offshoring IT work to countries with much lower cost of living?

stasomaticon The American Religion of Self-Storage Facilities

Without splitting hairs, essentially they are self-storage units that are zoned for multi-purpose use. I don't know the right nomenclature to describe them. Heck, I saw a Jamaican barbecue outfit there. I am sure there is some "farming" going on in more than a few of these. Some photos (these are hosted on my own domain, I can't stand Imgur):

https://i.tinkdeck.com/13eafadad46004a8b366f5d68f7c205a.png https://i.tinkdeck.com/e6204adcf7037830f8dcffab4f2d5a40.png https://i.tinkdeck.com/b8e6a18e1ebc8f056d6eaa93b85cf2bb.png

stasomaticon The American Religion of Self-Storage Facilities

Really I don’t mind, I wish there were more archery ranges but I can deal. People all around are nice, all walks of life. But if someone from another continent were to drop in, their eyebrows would have a heart attack.

stasomaticon Astra for Law

How can we deal with this mental overload? There are only so many things that I can keep in my head.

Your job was to deliver Project X and you did it in half the time. What do you do with the other half? Your job was to deliver X. Now what? Extra vacation time? Just musing.

stasomaticon The American Religion of Self-Storage Facilities

I may have expanded the definition of self-storage, apologies, but here's the place I was talking about. There is definitely storage and there are definitely guns and gunsmith shops. Crazy, hey? There are people living out of these, this part of Florida is bananas.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/iKnViouaU2inoT82A

stasomaticon Astra for Law

For people who program for leisure, self-consumption or otherwise don't have a major income pressure, it is objectively a huge time saver.

I've had much enjoyment recreating my frequently used utilities on macOS. It's not about saving money, it's costing me more than to keep my subscriptions active, it's more about tailoring things to myself and keeping BPMs up.

There's nothing that will save your employment time because any employer will want to maximize what they get from you. This applies to literally any innovation past, present and future.

A personal anecdote from 2 decades ago which hunts me till today.

I was at a smallish firm in NYC, less than 50 people. I ran the "IT department" which included a couple of devs, DTP folks and one customer support underling who I backed up when needed.

We fixed all the printer problems, all the network shares, everything was quiet. I get called into the corner office and am told, "tell the help desk dude to sweep the floors as they are not doing anything". And, I really liked that boss. It's a different mindset.

stasomaticon Fed hikes rates as inflation worries push up bond yields

I think there is more of a physiological component to it on the consumer level. I don't care about the fed rate but I care when I see the price of milk and eggs go up each a couple of months. In 2020, a carton of eggs at Aldi's was $0.79. Now it is $4. My income didn't grow 4x, but I am bit thinner now. Never mind housing.

stasomaticon The American Religion of Self-Storage Facilities

It's his money. Or, are you worried about your inheritance? /jk

stasomaticon The American Religion of Self-Storage Facilities

Not just warehouses. In one facility here in South Florida a family member who is a general contractor, uses the storage just as you described, but a couple of units over, there is a gun range, a gun smith shop, a tattoo shop running out of these "self-storage" units. It's legal too, kind of strange how it would be, but I see cops at the range often enough.

stasomaticon Astra for Law

It's not a time saver in that you, as an employee, don't get more time to yourself. You get to work more. Can you walk up to your boss and tell them that you are going to start working 20 hours a week instead of 40?

I use these things daily, not against this kind of "AI" at all.

stasomaticon Shopify acquires Tailwind

As if CSS is pinnacle of software engineering. You can't learn it, you have to keep up all the damn time. It was an elegant concept for its time but it ran off rails, hence all the hacks. Can't we move on? FE webdev is duct tape over duct tape with chewing gum here and there. These days, when I fire up the inspector, the output is panic-inducing. There has to be a better way.

stasomaticon iPhone Duo

I embrace informed skepticism but most of it is ignorant.

If you read that back to yourself, you don't throw up in your mouth just a tiny bit? No? Tell me your secret!

Skepticism you agree with is "informed" and the rest of us plebs are just "ignorant." Gotcha.

stasomaticon iPhone Duo

That's amazing, happy to read comments like this on HN. NZ is on the bucket list!

on top of all of the workplace culture differences in NZ.

Not sure if I parsed it right, what did you mean? I am a Florida man, by choice but we'll see :)

stasomaticon iPhone Duo

It isn't to me, kind of revolting, physically. Very off putting, likely because of asymmetry when shut closed, but that's not an Apple problem, they all look obnoxious to me. The tech is cool. I do want an iPhone and iPad mini in one, it's that this doesn't do it for me, I expected to be floored :)

Is there a way to do it differently without making it look strange? Perhaps using a different kind of hinge so that the primary screen slides out to a side?

stasomaticon Automattic's board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence

Who uses WP outside of legacy installs? I used to love it 15 or so years ago for side hustle work, but over time it gained weight and vulnerabilities, whack-a-mole. Plug-ins were nice, but that <?php...> inlining wasn't. I don't hate PHP, the things were just clumsy and messy inside the loop and I wasn't smart enough. What's the replacement these days in case I need to set up something simple quickly? Not Square Space or Shopify, although those are good products imo.

stasomaticon The two Christian saints who are the Buddha

Only sometimes?

stasomaticon Asahi Linux on M3

Could you cite a few issues that you've run across, please?

I have used Macs since the late 80s, there have always been teething problems, duds and effups, but nothing that wasn't addressed by independent Mac devs. How can Apple make everyone happy?

But these days? With codex/claude/et al, you can make your Mac sing to whatever tune you prefer. I feel a bit bad for indies, but they still have not-prosumer market to make their living. I now just make my own apps to replace what I've bought in the past.

Cheers

stasomaticon TiVo to charge money for skipping commercials in your own recordings

The ads have changed. Back in my adolescence, I would read the back pages of Byte, Nintendo World, Sega something, Computer Shopper. I devoured them, there was no scorn.

These days it is ads of folks around my age doing a yoga type of a thing on a beach and stretching joyfully at sunrise.

The ads are about some meds that can cause suicidal thoughts and constipation (in small print and quick blah blah blah) but "may" help your arthritis.

Then, a $150K Ranger Rover ad, a thing I'd never want to be seen in even if I could afford it.

I've worked in digital ad tech for many years, I like ads, but I want good ads. Never bought anything from a 180 second long ad on Amazon Prime Video.

One would think that with all PII that's been gathered, a brand could scratch an itch, but nah, it's just useless carpet bombing.

I've been to France and I've seen the ads on public channels on a hotel TV. They were very innocuous compared to merde we are fed in the states.

stasomaticon Watch Los Angeles get built, one building at a time (1880–2026)

I've lived in LA on and off for over a decade cumulatively. If Woodland Hills, Tarzana, Burbank, North Hollywood count as "L.A." :)

I love the climate and nature there, besides the fires. Ocean, lakes, mountains, deserts, all within 1-3 hour drive.

It is a dehumanizing city to commute in, and is expensive, but it's the best one I have lived in (NYC, Brooklyn, NJ cities, Las Vegas, Charlotte, Miami) and I want to return when finances allow.