thebenedict
Re:A simple API for offering your coding agent a smoke break
on Wednesday July 22, 2026 @03:59AM (#49003251)
Curious how many tokens an agent uses to take a smoke break. (Not a complaint, actually curious and I'm not at a computer)
Re:Top engineers at Anthropic, OpenAI say AI now writes 100% of their ...
on Friday January 30, 2026 @08:51PM (#46832525)
I'd love to hear more about the workflow. Do you open PRs and is there human code review? What scale is your software used at?
Re:Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)
on Sunday December 14, 2025 @05:50PM (#46267971)
I'm building a temperature controlled dough proofing enclosure based on ESP32, an IKEA Samla storage box and an inexpensive silicone rubber heater. It's delightfully impractical-- purely a first hardware/MCU learning project and a holiday gift for a relative who I think will appreciate it.
I'm impressed by how far I can get "vibe making". Most of my professional experience is in high-level software, but AI gets me unstuck quickly when I don't know something specific to ESP-IDF or the hardware. As of today I've got a circuit tested, firmware nearly complete, and a custom PCB en route from JLCPCB.
One limitation I’ve noticed: ChatGPT struggles with the details of part selection (e.g. choosing specific temp/humidity sensors or connectors). Adding datasheets to the context helps a lot, which makes me wonder why this isn’t something the model can do or at least ask for.
Re:Seattle Ultrasonics: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife
on Monday September 22, 2025 @03:38PM (#45338443)
Were they standalone devices, or was the ultrasonic hardware in a separate enclosure connected by a cord?
Re:Seattle Ultrasonics: Ultrasonic Chef's Knife
on Saturday September 20, 2025 @05:11PM (#45317594)
This is nonsense and your cynicism is unwarranted. I personally know Scott. He's worked on food tech in Seattle for decades, and developed the product and fundraised for Seattle Ultrasonics locally.
Ultrasonic knives are historically large footprint devices used in commercial/industrial food prep. The innovation here is making ultrasonic hardware compact enough to fit in the knife handle.
Re:Things Software Developers Should Learn about Learning
on Tuesday December 26, 2023 @09:07PM (#38778301)
I was also pleasantly surprised by the quality of this article, especially the nuance around the value of a growth mindset. It's consistent with my experience of having had to work pretty hard to learn programming.
Re:Ask HN: Can Software Engineering Help Combat Climate Change?
on Tuesday March 28, 2023 @08:27PM (#35350238)
There's plenty of greenwashing in tech, but I don't think it's hopeless. On an ops call this morning I heard about a team switching to a server type that saves ~40% on power, and their fleet is ~50k instances. Opportunities exist if you have the skills and this is an issue you care about.
Re:You now need to do 15% better in technical interviews than at the s...
on Thursday December 01, 2022 @02:00PM (#33820926)
I'm a customer and fan of interviewing.io but I'm also disappointed in this post. It's not actionable information for candidates.
A lot of the interview prep industry deliberately stokes interview anxiety to drive sales. I appreciate that you folks have a product (and marketing tone, usually) that emphasizes results over hype, but I think this post falls short.
Re:Ask HN: Why am I always stuck working on legacy software
on Friday August 12, 2022 @10:55AM (#32439556)
Have you had discussions about this with your manager, and made it clear you're interested in working on different things? How did it go? You probably have more agency in this situation than you think.
Re:Ask HN: A Good Idea?
on Wednesday March 23, 2022 @01:27PM (#30780973)
I did light research into a similar idea, and got stuck linking aircraft registration numbers from ADS-B to businesses. Many aircraft owned by corporations and high net worth individuals are registered to subsidiaries or holding companies. I wasn't able to follow the chain of registrations through opencorporates.com.
I probably didn't exhaust all possibilities -- wonder if this is a solved problem.
Re:Ask HN: Best books for dealing with workplace politics and dishonesty?
on Sunday December 27, 2020 @10:54PM (#25556532)
I've found The Five Dysfunctions of a Team useful. It's a clear description of things that go wrong when people work together, even when everyone has good intentions.
I'll second the suggestion to speak with a professional therapist or coach if it's an option. These situations are difficult to navigate and a neutral perspective can be helpful.
Re:Ask HN: How does WhatsApp make money?
on Thursday October 22, 2020 @02:07PM (#24861166)
They announced in-app purchases a few hours ago: https://www.reuters.com/article/facebook-whatsapp-ecommerce-...
Re:Ask HN: Best Recipe Search Engine?
on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @01:22PM (#24630476)
If you'd consider an (inexpensive) paid option, https://www.ckbk.com/ takes an interesting approach. They partner with publishers to put cookbooks online. Fairly powerful search/filters, and the focus on cookbook content is a good proxy for recipe quality.
I'm not affiliated with them, but Matt (cofounder) has a background in scientific publishing and is passionate about recipe sharing.
Re:The coming IP war over facts derived from books
on Tuesday February 11, 2020 @07:24PM (#22304486)
That means that legally, you could buy a ton of recipe books, and then make your own by copying and pasting just the ones you like. You could use the recipes unchanged...
At the scale of Google Books, we're not talking about using copyrighted recipes unchanged or copying and pasting. If you buy a ton of cookbooks, scan them, make them searchable by the world and derive new information about cooking from analyzing them, can you profit from the derived knowledge? Should that change if the publisher or author made an active decision not to make their content available electronically, or asked you to exclude them from your analysis?
Re:Ember.js Octane Edition
on Friday December 20, 2019 @07:36PM (#21848688)
Love it. Keeping documentation screenshots and code snippets in sync with development has been a headache for me on past projects. This is clever!
Re:Chemistry Nobel Goes to Lithium Battery Innovators
on Wednesday October 09, 2019 @12:34PM (#21204836)
Me too -- studied Materials Science while Dr. Whittingham was department co-chair circa 2005. I never worked with him but it's a happy surprise to see him and Binghamton in the news.
Show HN: Automate Any USSD Service on Android
Re:Ask HN: How to Learn OOP
on Wednesday September 14, 2016 @09:24AM (#12496586)
Seconded. As a self taught generalist ruby/python/java guy, I read POODR two years ago and it stands out as a great investment of time. Lots of "a-ha, that's what I should be doing" moments. Has anyone checked out her new 99 Bottles book?
Re:Ask HN: What are good ways to find startup problems to solve?
on Sunday August 14, 2016 @07:44AM (#12285219)
How is the value of the Tanzanian shilling relative to the dollar a problem to solve with a startup?
Re:7-Elevens Are Becoming Lifelines for Japan's Elderly
on Saturday August 06, 2016 @10:04AM (#12238143)
I'm impressed at how much more gracefully 7-11 handled it than McDonalds initially did in Queens, NY where I grew up [1]. It also helps that a government agency was observant and proactive enough to partner with a private company to build on existing customer behavior, vs trying to start separate initiatives.
[1]: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/21/nyregion/elderly-patrons-e...
Re:Five Years of Recurse Center
on Monday July 18, 2016 @09:38PM (#12119009)
I applied twice and was rejected. I didn't get the impression it was cliquish, but they're in a difficult situation.
They write thoughtful blog posts on self-reflection, building an inclusive community and working hard to improve. These are values I identify with so it's disappointing not to be given an opportunity to participate, and no feedback after putting effort into the application. On the other hand they have a popular program and have to reject a lot of people.
Re:What Brexit Means for Afrika's Tech Giants
on Thursday July 14, 2016 @08:51AM (#12093278)
If you're primarily looking for a cool place to work from or a digital nomad kind of lifestyle, you'd very likely do better in one of those places. Only consider Nairobi or elsewhere in E. Africa if you have a specific reason or interest in the region.
Re:Tech Giants Face Off Against 18F
on Monday July 04, 2016 @11:15AM (#12031223)
Do you know if there is a specific bill or other measure that needs to be supported? Is it useful to write a general message in support of 18F?
Re:Major changes to Mandrill, must be tied to a MailChimp account
on Thursday February 25, 2016 @07:01AM (#11173856)
If you don't mind sharing, include the number of responses you got in your email. I'm curious. Thank you for organizing.
Re:Facebook's Free Basics Shuts Down in Egypt
on Sunday January 03, 2016 @02:22PM (#10831868)
American in TZ here. I'm skeptical of FB motives but the Free Basics user experience is undeniably good -- it just works. I put up a few screenshots from Free Basics on Tigo Tanzania in a recent blog post (link in profile).
Re:Facebook's Free Basics Shuts Down in Egypt
on Sunday January 03, 2016 @01:59PM (#10831760)
How would you prefer poor people in your country get access to the internet? Who should implement it and who would pay?
Re:"Free Basics" - Myths and Facts
on Saturday December 26, 2015 @07:12AM (#10793956)
Agreed, free-as-in-beer internet is a pretty compelling deal for poor people, even if it's limited. And Free Basics has real benefits for governments and internet carriers. Wrote more about it here[1].
It's hard to imagine (but maybe possible?) there could be a comparable quality, net-neutral alternative. What would the model be?
[1]: http://www.thebenedict.com/posts/2015/12/26/free-basics-alte...