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ChrisKingWebDev

Re:Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (July 2026) on Wednesday July 01, 2026 @02:08PM (#48750932)
Full Stack Web Developer with over 15 years of shipping useful things. Broad-scoped human who also owns a music school, performs as a percussionist with improv groups, and gives bike and walking tours in the summer. I’m currently looking for part-time dev positions that will allow me to maintain my other interests.

My most recent project is an idle/incremental game I’m building with Claude to try out 3D graphics in JS and to have an opinion on AI coding. You can try it here: https://chriskingwebdev.gitlab.io/shard-game/

Location: Vancouver BC

Remote: Yes

Willing to relocate: No

Technologies: Nearly all the full stack web technologies.

Résumé/CV: https://chriskingwebdev.com/

Email: [email protected]

Re:Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (June 2026) on Tuesday June 02, 2026 @06:43PM (#48377323)
Full Stack Web Developer with over 15 years of shipping useful things. Broad-scoped human who also owns a music school, performs as a percussionist with improv groups, and gives bike and walking tours in the summer. I’m currently looking for part-time dev positions that will allow me to maintain my other interests.

My most recent project is an idle/incremental game I’m building with Claude to try out 3D graphics in JS and to have an opinion on AI coding. You can try it here: https://chriskingwebdev.gitlab.io/shard-game/

Location: Vancouver BC Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Nearly all the full stack web technologies. Résumé/CV: https://chriskingwebdev.com/ Email: [email protected]

I like async standups on slack. Everyone just post what you are doing today, and if anyone has any questions they can follow up.
If there are fewer cars on the road because the people who can work at home are doing so, then the commute becomes smoother for anyone who can't work from home.
Re:What Are 'Mini-Retirements,' and Who Takes Them? on Tuesday August 20, 2024 @01:20PM (#41301964)
Is it a death sentence or do the higher ups just want you to think that? If many people start doing it, the people hiring will just have to accept it. When I was a kid, they said people shouldn't get tattoos because you'll never get a real job. Now everyone has tattoos, even people with real jobs.
I was working for a fintech startup and hating it. It was boring and the upcoming work was about 6 months of incorporating a credit card system into the code.

I quit that so I could open a music school with two of my friends and bandmates, with the idea that I could go back to part-time dev work to pay the bills while the school gets going.

And that's what happened. I got a part-time front-end job at an online game, which I had already been playing for about 3 years. They had a "come join the team" posting in the news ticker of the game. I'm making about the same hourly, but only working 20 hours a week, which is the perfect amount. The rest of the team is on a different continent so I basically just pump out my code as I see fit. No morning status calls, no scrums, etc. And I'm pretty sure I can work more hours once if needed, depending on what happens with the school.

I'm an edge case, but I recently found a part time dev job at a web game that I had been playing for about 2.5 years prior. In the news header of the game they had an headline that came up every few weeks that said "We are always looking for good devs to join the team". When I was finally ready to commit, I emailed them, had a couple email exchanges and two interviews. One interview over slack and one video interview with the two people I'm most directly working with. Now I'm working there, very happy to be part time, and I'll work there for as long as the game stays popular.
Re:Bike lanes are good for business on Thursday March 07, 2024 @01:54PM (#39633098)
There are places in Finland where half the kids cycle to school, even in the winter.

Here is a great video on the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhx-26GfCBU

Re:Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (September 2023) on Friday September 01, 2023 @01:53PM (#37354103)
SEEKING WORK Location: Vancouver BC Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Full stack web, React and React Native most recently Résumé/CV: chriskingwebdev.com Email: [email protected]

I’m a full-stack developer with over 15 years of professional experience, ranging from small web shops to a six month contract at AWS. Two years ago I opened up a music school. I’m currently looking for part-time, contract based work that will be flexible with my music school commitments. Check out VanWalks for a recent example of my dev chops. My full portfolio is available at chriskingwebdev.com. Vancouver BC based.

Re:Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (September 2023) on Friday September 01, 2023 @01:51PM (#37354080)
Location: Vancouver BC Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Full stack web, React and React Native most recently Résumé/CV: chriskingwebdev.com Email: [email protected]

I’m a full-stack developer with over 15 years of professional experience, ranging from small web shops to a six month contract at AWS. Two years ago I opened up a music school. I’m currently looking for part-time, contract based work that will be flexible with my music school commitments. Check out VanWalks for a recent example of my dev chops. My full portfolio is available at chriskingwebdev.com. Vancouver BC based.

Re:A Vancouver neighbourhood fought, and defeated, a daycare on Thursday August 17, 2023 @04:22PM (#37167416)
What far left source was pushing Ken Sim?
I am very interested in this. I have a walking tour app with English content narrated by me. I have a French text auto-translation in the app, but no audio content in other languages yet. This could be a game changer for me. I'll definitely try it out in the next few days and get back to you with feedback.
Re:Cyclists Now Outnumber Motorists in City of London on Monday March 20, 2023 @01:44PM (#35235523)
Luckily there is already a video about that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhx-26GfCBU

The quick takeaways are that there are cities in Finland that are colder than any Canadian city where 50% of the kids rides bikes to school. Also, a test project in Montreal gave a bike path a dedicated snow removal budget and ridership was up 30% in one year.

My pandemic project is VanWalks. It's a walking tour app of Vancouver. There are currently 5 routes around the downtown area. Working on a freemium model, Chinatown and Coal Harbour are free, the rest are in app purchases.

Available in both app stores and the site is vanwalks.ca

I'm currently working on making a web version of the app because my sales model is in a very grey area as to what Apple allows in their store. I want to be prepared in case Apple takes my app down.

I'm working with the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame to provide a free walking tour of the Star Walk on Granville Street. I'm also working with the Vancouver Police Museum to digitize the walking tours that they offer and have them in the app as part of your admission to the museum. Those will both be launched this spring.

Re:Ask HN: Where Are All the Parties? on Friday January 20, 2023 @01:01PM (#34457019)
Rain water isn't even safe to drink anymore.
Re:Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (August 2022) on Monday August 01, 2022 @01:45PM (#32309561)

  Location: Vancouver BC
  Remote: Yes
  Willing to relocate: No
  Technologies: React, React Native, All the FE, Most of the BE
  Résumé/CV: On Request
  Email: [email protected]
Long time full stack developer looking for interesting challenges, preferably mid-short term, part-time contracts. I'm very adept at jumping into existing code bases or launching new ideas from scratch. My two most recent positions were a six month contract at AWS making a new console and two and a half years with a new fintech startup called Philanthropi. During the pandemic I also created a walking tour app of Vancouver called VanWalks.

Back End I'm familiar with all kinds of BE stacks. I have experience with php, .NET, Rails, WordPress, and SharePoint (but please, no SharePoint). VanWalks uses DynamoDB and a serverless stack from AWS.

Front End Websites have been my bread and butter for 13 years. I started making sites for my bands before the MySpace era, and never looked back. From static sites to full single page apps, if it's in the browser, I can work with it. I also have experience with SEO and Web Marketing. Most recently I've done a lot of React. VanWalks also uses React Native and Expo.

I recently have opened a music school with some partners, so I need some flexibility around that. I also want to block off time to continue work on my app. I’m hoping to find a position that will see these projects as assets, not distractions. I’ve also been doing bike tours over the summer, and will continue with that until the tourist season calms down. So I probably won’t start any contracts until late September.

I've been doing rock and roll cross-stitch. Keeps my hands busy during online D&D sessions. I've finished Freddie Mercury and The Ramones. Next up is Spinal Tap.
Re:Music Tuned to 440 Hz versus 432 Hz and Health Effects (2019) on Wednesday February 16, 2022 @12:14PM (#30362605)
Does anyone know how they got a soundtrack tuned to 432Hz? If it was just an existing soundtrack slowed down a bit, that's not going to sound right. Did the study get an orchestra to record a whole soundtrack at 432Hz?
Re:App store payments will have increased competition on Friday August 27, 2021 @01:51PM (#28330911)
Freedom of speech only refers to your ability to criticize the government. A private company can do whatever they want with their platform.
Re:Ask HN: Does your job make the world a better place? on Monday August 23, 2021 @02:50PM (#28280279)
If the world were a better place, my job wouldn't need to exist.
Re:Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years? on Thursday May 20, 2021 @01:19PM (#27224043)
I've tried just about every musician earplug on the market, including custom molded electric ones. For any amount of money, the best results I've had were with https://www.earasers.net/products/earasers. If I were to re-purchase these, I would consider the EU rated ones, which have a few extra DBs of protection.

If you aren't singing or don't need to hear your own voice as well, you can also get away with cheaper percussion earplugs like these: https://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/vater-earplugs

I would say these are both good enough for the casual musicians / audience members. I would only upgrade back to electric ones if I were buying actual in ear monitors, but I doubt any of my bands will get to that point.

Re:How Uber Deals with Large iOS App Size on Friday February 26, 2021 @01:58PM (#26278392)
I would agree with this. At home I walk, ride my bike, get on transit, rent a carshare etc. When I'm travelling, I'm walking or calling an Uber/Lyft. I'll take a train or bus only if it's super easy to navigate.
Revolution it is then!
Re:Why PWA Is the Future on Tuesday February 09, 2021 @02:11PM (#26081352)
Does building a PWA this way support In App Purchases? I would much prefer keeping my app as a PWA, or in my case, a managed Expo React Native app. But eventually I'll have to break it apart to support IAP.
Re:Why PWA Is the Future on Tuesday February 09, 2021 @01:03PM (#26080602)
There is a major point missing from the cons list about PWAs. Most people don't know what they are and it's a major pain to install them on iOS.

I'm at the point where I want to start monetizing an app I have, but realistically I have to use iOS In App Purchases. If I told the average person on the street that my app is a PWA and they can install it on their home page, they wouldn't know what to do.

Very noisy. I've flown on them a couple times from Nanaimo. They pass out earplugs to every passenger, and you need them. I think the electric ones will be much quieter.
Re:Ask HN: What are you working on? on Thursday January 14, 2021 @06:08PM (#25784268)
I'm working on a walking tour app of Vancouver Canada. It went live on the stores in December, now I'm making some tweaks before I push it more. AMA.

https://vanwalks.ca

Re:Bootstrap 5 Beta 1 on Monday December 07, 2020 @04:24PM (#25337763)
I found React Bootstrap way more complicated than just using React and Bootstrap classes. React Bootstrap just adds more overhead to accomplish the same thing.
Re:App Store Small Business Program Developer on Thursday December 03, 2020 @05:51PM (#25296452)
I just launched my first free app and was struggling with an approach to monetize it. I just didn't want to pay Apple 30% for displaying in app purchases, when I don't even want in app purchases. I really just want to direct users to my website and handle the payments that way, but that's not allowed. Paying 15% rather than 30% is much more palatable.
I watch Netflix on my Chromecast and it will play to the end of a movie, and the last episode of a series. I know I've reached the end of the series when I see the names of all the voice actors that did the overdubs in other languages. I haven't tried disabling auto-play.

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