HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

taftster

2,067 karma · joined September 3, 2011

[ my public key: https://keybase.io/taftster; my proof: https://keybase.io/taftster/sigs/0lXrdc605CMOxR_VfREz1yLpR9NyGQsmm4P_7mn1tig ]
submissionscomments
taftster··on Git-bug: Distributed, offline-first bug tracker embedded in Git
Right, there are advantages of your defect list riding right along with the code repository itself. The history here is more interesting and keeping it connected to git allows portability options (maybe across network divides).
taftster··on Git-bug: Distributed, offline-first bug tracker embedded in Git
Your response here regarding CRDT was enlightening and thought provoking to me. Thank you. Really appreciate the distinction of "intent" especially in the context of human social interactions vs. code precision. Very interesting and insightful.
taftster··on A 32-year-old bug walks into a Telnet server
It's an unfortunate statement. And it does feel like it discredits you and the heroic efforts of those like you.

But this is probably forgiven as just sensationalism in writing, which is all too common. Not to excuse the author, but these types of writeups tend to drift into name calling and finger pointing a little too soon.

"Shamefully" is definitely the wrong word here, for sure.

taftster··on 507 Mechanical Movements
I'd love to play a game that uses these as building blocks. Is there anything that approaches it?
taftster··on Earth.nullschool.net
Interesting. I thought it was because the river emptied into the Gulf closest to the state of Mississippi. Like, it would have been slightly unintuitive to have named it the Missouri River all the way down past those Gulf Coast states. The history of river names and deciding which name continues after a confluence is quite interesting.
taftster··on Earth.nullschool.net
I was noticing that when I grab and spin the globe, most of the river systems shown on the map disappear (as do the wind flow indicators). But a few major river systems still remain on the map.

In the United States, I thought it was interesting that the Missouri River (which starts in Three Forks, Montana) was chosen as that river. I assume the choice was because this is the longest river, but maybe not quite as well known as the Mississippi river perhaps. And I would guess that not everyone knows the Missouri starts in Montana.

When you let go of the grab, other rivers are redrawn. For the US, that includes the major river systems (including the other major contributors to the Mississippi), which makes sense.

Interesting visualization is all.

taftster··on Retire the Abstractions
This is probably true. Today. But I think we're finding the problems LLMs are solving to be both paradoxically predictable but surprising at the same time. Not saying you're wrong, but scheduling and bin-packing seem like cards that will eventually fall to a bespoke prompt.
taftster··on Elevators
I mean, "breaks down" is different from "scheduled maintenance". Most definitely the later can be scheduled during less busy hours.
taftster··on Show HN: Elevators
Yes, it's definitely more likely for an individual already in an upper floor to return to ground than a stop above or below. The people queuing up in simulations don't seemingly get this right all the time.

Also the group of people going to or returning from lunch is real as well. The grouping factor happens more at the middle of the day and less at the morning or evening. Primarily because of lunch.

taftster··on Show HN: Elevators
In these various elevator algorithms, it's not commonly discussed the overall wear and tear on the elevator. More movements would typically translate to faster repair times. Hydraulic fluids needing to be replaced, parts breaking, etc.

Efficient elevator algorithms will often suggest moving an elevator into a preempted positioning strategy, based on time of day or peer elevator positions. The scheduler might move an elevator up to offset one coming down, for example. The demand-signal algorithms at least minimize movement in this way.

I think minimizing maintenance at the cost of increasing wait times is probably an important balance to get right. No doubt, the cost owners for maintenance are not going to perceive the wait time of passengers to be as important.

taftster··on China's open-weights AI strategy is winning
Could you put that in units of HP Printers and Toner please?
taftster··on Show HN: Watch bots interact with an SSH honeypot in real time
Easy for you to say, assuming your PC is clean. I don't think negligent is the right word though. Ignorant maybe? Or some form of naivety? The negligence might be on software or hardware vendors, but grandma isn't to blame for the problem.
taftster··on AttoChess, a complete, playable chess program for 16-bit x86 DOS in 278 bytes
I'd suggest just ensuring that the entire rules of chess are first evaluated or supported in a chess program, before worrying about ELO rating, etc.
taftster··on NSA lost access to Mythos amid Anthropic dispute
I mean, since we're doing reddit style, no need?
taftster··on NSA lost access to Mythos amid Anthropic dispute
Have we become reddit here? I mean, you probably have some sympathy and upvotes from fellow readers, but this isn't pushing the conversation forward at all.

Any citations to your statement that NSA produces nothing? Or do you have a strong argument or evidence to support this?

taftster··on Bun's experimental Rust rewrite hits 99.8% test compatibility on Linux x64 glibc
And maybe not even the tests. Just a specification for the tests.
taftster··on Tar Files Created on macOS Display Errors When Extracting on Linux (2024)
Yes. And truthfully, I try to remember to only ever navigate my project folders (particularly those under revision control) using command line and/or IDE folder views.

But eventually, for whatever reason, I use Finder to go looking into a directory structure and bam, now I have .DS_Store. gitignore takes care of it, I know, but still, it's annoying.

taftster··on Tar Files Created on macOS Display Errors When Extracting on Linux (2024)
> That said, never seeing another .DS_Store should be a system-wide option!

Yes please.

taftster··on A dot a day keeps the clutter away
I need this for the junk in my life. Like, did I even use such-and-such thing in the past decade? If not, toss it out (ideally to a reuse store).

I'm trying to get to a place where I think of all my purchases as rentals. That it's OK, if justified, that a tool served its purpose one time, and if it doesn't get used again or goes to the donation center, I have received the benefit. Something that can be reused is then just bonus. If not reused by me, then at least, someone else can benefit from the good.

Switching my mental thinking to "renting" instead of buying items has help me be able to get rid of items which I haven't used in some time, reducing my footprint. I have a long way to go, but I come from a family of clutterbugs and it's just kind of baked in.

Dots would be useful in my scenario just to capture utility of everyday things.

taftster··on Learn Claude Code by doing, not reading
Or that it's taking into account the Dunning-Kruger effect. In that, if you think you are an expert in all cases, you are really a beginner in everything.
taftster··on Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis
The modern age of video games, that's probably correct. And you're right, music probably compares at some level, especially given that it predates cinema. I wonder if ancient theater (Shakespeare, et al) would qualify. Probably.

I did, for the record, say "very few mediums", so as to allow room for music or video games, perhaps. I still stand by the overall statement that losing Hollywood would mark some sort of tragedy (but maybe not universally).

Also, I wouldn't go as far to say that losing what we know of in current celebrity status by certain actors would be missed. Though influencers are probably more grotesque to some (including myself).

taftster··on Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis
Agreed. To say "good riddance" to Hollywood scares me. Like we are giving up and accepting generated slop and influencers from now on. There's a lot of bad movies, but just as you said, very few mediums have thusly pierced through across cultures and societies quite like Hollywood.
taftster··on A most elegant TCP hole punching algorithm
I like your comment, but it seems the author acknowledged this as a caveat to the algorithm.

>Many home routers try to preserve the source port in external mappings. This is a property called “equal delta mapping” – it won’t work on all routers but for our algorithm we’re sacrificing coverage for simplicity.

So to what percentage is this coverage sacrificed exactly? No idea. Not as useful if the percentage is high, as you are implying.

taftster··on MacBook Neo
"good laptops" yes. But I haven't seen a "great" one in a very long time. The Windows market is asleep at the wheel and a copilot button is not going to resuscitate it.

I think the Surface is as close to great as you can get. I'm not saying that I know the whole market of laptops, you probably know better. But the Surface is pretty good, which is weird because it seems like Microsoft isn't really focusing on it or even backing away from it.

I agree with the parent, that Macbooks are way ahead in terms of usability, polish and charm for a laptop. And the performance is outright stellar.

taftster··on MacBook Neo
> Other than Microsoft nobody even makes decent laptops in the Windows world.

I completely agree. I actually quit like and get along with my Surface Laptop. It's a really nice computer overall, worthy. It's the closest you get to the same polish and usability that Apple has in their macbooks.

I absolutely love my M4 macbook pro, it's definitely the best laptop I've ever owned. I had an older macbook pro that I kept way past its lifetime too.

taftster··on AI is destroying open source, and it's not even good yet [video]
Well, it should be the approver of the PR, not the author (AI slop or human slop) that is accountable. I don't ever want an AI to auto-approve a PR (or maybe only for very small things, like dependency-bot kind of tasks).

Not saying that's how it's done, in terms of accountability. The skin-in-the-game thing is hopefully still present, even with AI. But you're right, there's risk.

taftster··on AI is destroying open source, and it's not even good yet [video]
You overestimate my ability to keep mental context for 6 months.

And additionally, most of the PRs I have seen reviewed, the quality hasn't really degraded or improved since LLMs have started contributing. I think we have been rubber stamping PRs for quite sometime. Not sure that AI is doing any worse.

taftster··on Don't create .gitkeep files, use .gitignore instead (2023)
This used to happen a lot. But I don't think that many modern builders require existing directory these days.

Your point is valid though. It would be much preferable to include build/ in your root .gitignore so that the directory is never tracked.

taftster··on Don't create .gitkeep files, use .gitignore instead (2023)
Both points here are appreciated. One that a README file as a "placeholder" for a directory gives the opportunity to describe why said empty directory exists. I would be slightly concerned though if my build process picked up this file during packaging. But that's probably a minor concern and your point stands.

Additionally, the AI comment is ironic as well. It's like we're finally writing good documentation for the sake of agents, in a way that we should have been writing all along for other sentient consumers. It's funny to see documentation now as basically the horse instead of the cart.

taftster··on Don't create .gitkeep files, use .gitignore instead (2023)
I agree with you. Empty .gitignore would be a "smell" to me. Whereas .gitkeep tells me exactly what purpose it serves. I like the semantic difference here that you describe. I don't like when multiple .gitignore files are littered throughout the codebase.
Page 1 of 23Next →