HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

tommypalm

571 karma · joined January 25, 2011

submissionscomments
tommypalm··on Show HN: WeUseElixir - Elixir project directory
This is a great idea. I'd like to make a few suggestions though:

- Allow filtering by companies and libraries. I'm interested in both, but I wanted to look at just the list of companies to see if there were any I didn't recognise.

- Adding a company seems to be just adding _your_ app. It would be good to suggest companies to be listed as long as you have some evidence that they use Elixir. I know that Apple has Elixir in their Environmental team, but I'm not sure how I would go about adding that.

- Move the category filtering to the directory page. It would be more interesting to see the whole list at once and filter by category.

tommypalm··on Ask HN: What is the best code base you ever worked on?
I worked at GOV.UK for a few years on what was effectively specialised CMSs all written in Rails. Mostly basic CRUD stuff. A contractor came along and built the most insane CMS I've ever seen. I found out later it was flavor of the Java Repository Pattern using dependency injection. It became so difficult to work with that the last thing I worked on there was to delete it and rebuild it using standard Rails patterns.

The KISS philosophy exists for a reason and that includes over-using advanced language features just to show off.

tommypalm··on British Post Office Scandal
If you're in the UK, the Panorama documentary on this from 2022 is really worth watching - https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0016t20/panorama-the-...
tommypalm··on Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (October 2023)
Location: London

Remote: Yes, or hybrid. Have EU passport.

Willing to relocate: Potentially

Technologies: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript, Elixir, Ruby

Résumé/CV:

- Lead Engineer on a DJ streaming platform: Mux, Twilio/LiveKit, Phoenix, and React

- Frontend Engineer at a green ecommerce store: Phoenix and Tailwind

- Senior Engineer at Deliveroo: Rails, Go, React

Email: hi@tommyp.org

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommy-palmer-b64a0a53/

tommypalm··on Someone keeps trying to reset my Facebook password
I was early enough to get my first name on Twitter and didn't, but did get it on Instagram.

The @tommy on Twitter was a dev at Gameloft who gets constantly harassed in his mentions to give it up. I had a similar problem on Instagram. I've mostly stopped using it, but when I did post and had an open profile I constantly got comments offering money for my username.

Eventually someone set up a follower bot on my account and I was getting hundreds of new followers a day. I made my profile private and don't post anymore, but it's still hundreds of new follower requests per day.

tommypalm··on Britain Is a Developing Country
But most people in the UK can afford to go to them, which is maybe by design.
tommypalm··on Ask HN: Could you share your personal blog here?
I'm a huge fan of your blog. _Part Time Creator Manifesto_ inspired me to start on side projects again and _Svelte for Sites, React for Apps_ was the first intro I had to Svelte.

Thanks for your great writing!

tommypalm··on Before he was the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski was a mind-control test subject
I really recommend everyone listen to the 4 part series on MK Ultra from Behind The Bastards[1]. Its absolutely insane that the government did this and BTB really delves deep on how it all came about.

[1] https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/part-one-mkultra-when-...

tommypalm··on Ceephax Acid Crew
I always go! I've been lucky enough to play a few times. It's a very special festival.

Never thought I'd see it mentioned here.

tommypalm··on Why does Google use location for language rather than browser settings?
I listened to a Podcast and one of the hosts was a British guy living in America. He had to speak in an American accent to his Xbox One in order for it to understand him. It seemed the voice recognition was based on your location setting and not independently configurable.
tommypalm··on 1Password 8 will be subscription only and won’t support local vaults
I gave up with 1Password around version 7 because of the push for subscriptions and switched to Secrets (Mac and iOS) - https://outercorner.com/secrets-mac/
tommypalm··on Ask HN: How to attract perm Snr Engs when the contract market is so lucrative?
20 days is standard in the UK but most companies will give you 25. Some also give you the option to buy more.
tommypalm··on Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (June 2020)
Location: London

Remote: Yes

Willing to relocate: Depends

Technologies: Ruby, Rails, Sinatra, Elixir, Phoenix, Go, Elasticsearch, Postgres, GraphQL, Kafka, Javascript, React, Next.js, Redux

Résumé/CV: https://tommyp.org / https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommy-palmer-b64a0a53/

Email: hi@tommyp.org

tommypalm··on Asimov’s Empire, Asimov’s Wall
IIRC he also used "queer" to describe things as strange. I listened to some audiobooks of his works and it always threw me off.
tommypalm··on Y Combinator invests in Monzo through its Continuity Fund
> it's to pay my CC bill

Most people in the UK don't put regular spending on a Credit Card. Nearly everyone will use their Debit Card for day to day spending.

A lot of the traction it has got has been with the 18-30 age bracket who are wanting better budgeting tools than what larger banks have offered.

tommypalm··on Samsung states that broken Galaxy Folds are due to user error
"You're folding it wrong" - Someone at Samsung, probably.
tommypalm··on In Almost Every European Country, Bikes Are Outselling New Cars
If you've ever been to Amsterdam, it's amazing to see how the people move around that city. Bikes everywhere and they have the right of way. Not cars.
tommypalm··on Hyperloop lets you travel on a resonant acoustic wave?
Except that Musk has said it's the 5th mode of Earth Transport after Trains, Cars, Airplanes and Boats.
tommypalm··on Girl buys water, spends night in jail
In Northern Ireland, all Police Officers are armed. I may be wrong in this but in recent years it hasn't led to many shots being fired mistakingly and I don't think there has been any deaths.

Even still, why would a unit that polices underage drinking need firearms?

tommypalm··on Ask HN: Data on job market for entry-level Rails devs?
I've worked with Rails for 2 years after finishing University. One email to the London Ruby User Group got 15 replies and out of those I got 6 interviews and 2 job offers.
tommypalm··on Gimme Bar: Don't bookmark the web. Save it. Forever.
I've been a Gimmebar user for months. Pro user for about 1 month. The redesign (currently available to Pro users) is great.

The difference between Gimmebar and lots of other similar services is your ability to bookmark anything you find, which is great for doing things like a moodboard for a project.

tommypalm··on Django People has returned
Europe is awake already and has had a chance to register?
tommypalm··on Would you switch to Coda2?
As someone that works on Rails projects almost all of the time, no, for a few different reasons.

1. Coda (1+2) are geared towards one file = one file output to preview. Obviously Rails doesn't work this way.

2. Starting a project from the CLI, I often open it in Sublime 2, TM, etc from the same window. I don't see the value of adding all my settings for project folders, remote servers and git details a second time in Coda, when they're all in the folder already. I deploy everything on Heroku and store them on Github.

3. Haml, Scss and Coffeescript largely eliminate the need for validation. If your code is wrong, they won't compile it.

4. Keyboard Shortcuts. I use Sublime on a MBA without a mouse or trackpad most of the time. I much prefer working through shortcuts than I do by clicking on stuff, which the majority of the Coda UI is geared towards.

5. Quick Open/Peepopen. I saw nothing about Coda 2 having this. It's absolutely necessary IMO. All text editors should follow the same behaviour as Peepopen, something that Chocolat doesn't do (but it should).

Coda is a great editor for designers and for lightweight PHP devs, but I don't see it's value for people who spend all day looking at code.

tommypalm··on Sublime Text 2 Beta released with Auto-complete and Improved UI
Anyone know how to get the Soda Theme working again?
tommypalm··on Power user replacements for OS X default apps
Launchbar over Alfred as a replacement for Spotlight. I just prefer the 30 day trial model over limited free usage and then pay for 'power user' features.