News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

jakemal

There has to be a law about the permanence of "temporary" code.
Re:Using a mild Twitter addiction to get things done on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @05:00PM (#29801175)
The number of times I've picked up my phone to do something, see a notification, and completely forget what I had picked my phone up to do 5 seconds later is mind boggling.

I started pruning the notifications that I allow quite aggressively because of it, but it's still a very regular issue.

Re:“Play-to-Earn” and Bullshit Jobs on Tuesday December 28, 2021 @03:34PM (#29717762)
Is that the only use of the currency or just one possible use?
Re:“Play-to-Earn” and Bullshit Jobs on Tuesday December 28, 2021 @03:18PM (#29717588)
> It sounds more like a Ponzi scheme in a Gold farming disguise to me.

I would agree with this if the primary income stream came directly from the increase in value of Axies as the game attracted more users. From my understanding, the income comes from acquiring and selling in-game currency rather than from the Axies themselves.

Is this a bullshit job? Maybe. Ponzi scheme? I don't think so.

If people are working this bullshit job, it means that this bullshit job is better than their alternatives. I'm not convinced the existence of these kinds of games is a net-negative.

Is there an equivalent extension to open Hacker News links in an app on iOS? I'm currently using Hacker, but would be willing to switch for this feature.
Re:List of Special Elevator Modes on Thursday July 08, 2021 @05:27PM (#27777805)
Sounds like it was in up-peak mode? https://elevation.fandom.com/wiki/Up_peak_(MIT)
Re:How to Work Hard on Tuesday June 29, 2021 @05:17PM (#27681846)
Hard work is necessary but not sufficient. I agree that the essay glosses over the element of luck that is involved, but I don't think that makes the rest of what Paul is saying wrong. Even if hard work alone doesn't always lead to success, not working hard guarantees that you won't be exceptional.
Really interesting perspective. Thanks for sharing.
I'd like to know the answer to this as well. I'm not sure what I would do if I were to become financially independent before "retirement age", but it certainly wouldn't be getting a job at a BigCo. Really curious to hear the motivations behind it.
Re:A URL Lengthener on Friday May 14, 2021 @03:50PM (#27158957)
I'd bet 30% of the URLs it lengthens are rick-rolls. I did it immediately and sent it to several people on Slack.
Re:Google Docs will now use canvas based rendering on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @02:56PM (#27133847)
It is not unreasonable to request that devs building on top of your platform use an API. They also aren't requiring it, they are simply suggesting it to avoid future breakages when they change the internals of how their application works.

Requiring that they maintain this compatibility would be like requiring the maintainer of an OS library to maintain the contract of a private method because my app relies on grepping their code base to parse the contents of the method.

When you don't have a defined set of public interactions with your app, every change is a breaking change.

Re:The California Exception on Wednesday May 05, 2021 @08:10PM (#27057563)
I was going to temporarily cancel my NYT subscription because I wasn't using it enough at the time. Once I found out I had to talk to a person in order to cancel, I told them that I would never resubscribe because of it. It's infuriating that they try to use inconvenience to hold your dollars hostage. Why not just focus on making a great product?
Re:Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit on Saturday April 17, 2021 @07:59PM (#26848539)
I wonder how it compares to the average salary for an experienced hardware engineer. It may be a ~50% pay bump in 1996 vs a 10-25% bump today.
Yes, only a billion people in the wealthiest countries in the world who are most likely to own an Apple device.
Re:Total Cookie Protection on Tuesday February 23, 2021 @11:31AM (#26239227)
FWIW I use all of those apps on a daily basis with Firefox and have not noticed any performance issues. It may be worth giving it another try if you haven't in a while.
> a legal case can be filed and it can go through the courts before the ban-hammer falls

Once a community that cannot be shut down is declared illegal, what happens? One of the major points of decentralized communities is that there is no effective "ban hammer" to shut them down.

Re:Firefox Was Always Enough on Wednesday December 16, 2020 @11:34AM (#25444547)
If Google decided not to pay Mozilla someone else would. Google would lose traffic and eyeballs in that case.

Though I do think there is some truth to the monopoly hedge as well.

Re:Pfizer Covid vaccine approved for use next week in UK on Wednesday December 02, 2020 @10:36AM (#25277253)
> If they didn't give all participants a Covid antibody test before starting, it is very likely that several participants were previously infected.

Doesn't comparing to a control group account for that?

Re:Affirm Public S-1 Filing on Wednesday November 18, 2020 @10:51PM (#25146023)
I moved about 5 months ago and purchased a few thousand dollars worth of furniture. I could have paid cash but since it was 0% APR, I used Affirm and set the money aside in an investment account that has paid for ~20% of the total cost. Of course it could have gone the other way, but it was a risk I was willing to take.

It's a really great deal as a consumer.

What does this have to do with a car being electric?
Love the product! Since you asked, one request that I would find helpful is having the stat comparisons from the previous day based on the same time the previous day rather than the total. The comparisons almost always show some -X% because you are comparing a 24 hour period yesterday to a 24 - X hour period today.
Re:Income and Poverty in the United States: 2019 on Wednesday September 16, 2020 @09:10PM (#24500076)
Based on the definition of household, it sounds like roommates wouldn't be included in the median income calculation.
Re:Is the web getting slower? on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @11:06AM (#24421837)
> If I owned an iPhone 6 in 2015 and own a Samsung A50 today, and the web is slower and jankier today than it was five years ago, then isn't it fair to say that the web got slower?

Yes. But what do you suggest as an alternative? Refuse to take advantage of technological progress to cater to the small portion of the population who haven't updated their phones in half a decade?

Re:Secret gyms and the economics of prohibition on Wednesday August 19, 2020 @12:25PM (#24212228)
I can seriously relate to this. I have been going to the gym 5-6 days a week for years and absolutely loved it. As soon as the gyms closed down, my motivation to stay in shape plummeted. It was like a light switched off. I did absolutely nothing fitness related for a few months, just waiting for the gyms to open back up.

I finally started biking recently, but I struggle to get motivated and get out of the apartment to do it. That was never a problem when going to the gym.

Re:Google to keep employees home until summer 2021 on Monday July 27, 2020 @12:03PM (#23966381)
Also, South Dakota is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from SV. Today, there is a sizeable population of talented developers living in the suburbs of major cities with a COL of a third or less than the Bay area.
Re:LSD Chemist William Pickard to Be Released from Prison on Saturday July 25, 2020 @11:23AM (#23949849)
The only reason such an inhumane black market can exist is because no one is allowed to produce it legally. I would argue regulators are responsible for the harm caused by the trade.
Re:The global fertility rate is falling on Tuesday July 14, 2020 @11:41PM (#23841037)
Unfortunately that would require political action that would never be accepted by society until they're hurting enough that it's too late. No politician is going to win an election by promising to make your life worse now for the future generations.
Re:The global fertility rate is falling on Tuesday July 14, 2020 @11:32PM (#23840976)
What suggests these are targeted "top down" forces and not just a natural progression of society and technology?

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