Hacker News Reader

Aleman360on CEO Larry Page defends Google on the stand: “Declaring code is not code”

Not sure if I agree. I find that coming up with good interfaces is often more of a creative challenge than the implementation. API's are worthy of some sort of protection since ease of use is a definite competitive advantage.

Also, you can easily screw your perf with bad interfaces (especially in C++). E.g., not templatizing, requiring extra allocations, type impedance mismatches, vtable bloat, etc. The interface certainly affects how the machine executes your code.

Aleman360on Play Store and Android Apps Coming to Chromebooks

Sounds like Windows 8 where the desktop was an "app" on the Start screen.

Aleman360on Theranos Voids Two Years of Edison Blood-Test Results

They can just change their name.

Aleman360on Why I don't spend time with Modern C++ anymore

In a word where most new code is JavaScript, just use auto everywhere. It will be OK.

Aleman360on Why U.S. Infrastructure Costs So Much

> If it were only localism, there would be localities that were fantastic at investing in their own infrastructure.

Seattle. Great water, renewable energy, lots of transit investment.

Aleman360on A Guide to Naming Variables

I love it when people use generic names and then add a two word comment describing what it is.

I also love it when people use primitives for time spans along with the units in the name or comment instead of TimeSpan/std::chrono.

Aleman360on Why the Media Fixation on “Transit Is Failing” Stories?

You may be paying for it even if not using it, but you have to account for the environmental savings. But people care less about stuff that's harder to measure.

Aleman360on This Is Your Brain on Podcasts

Agreed, they're all same-ish now.

Aleman360on Infinit announces Project Dropboxe

Seems like a leaky abstraction. Did their interfaces have a way to account for differences in latency and failure modes, or was that hidden?

Aleman360on The average size of Web pages is now the average size of a Doom install

> Say if I press Cmd+Space on a Mac and type "Facebook" in Spotlight, it immediately begins downloading the native OS X Facebook app

That's exactly what Windows 10 does.

http://imgur.com/EqvATwL

Aleman360on Microsoft is ending Xbox 360 production more than 10 years after its debut

That's more likely explained by the fact that PS4 launched $100 cheaper and is more powerful.

Aleman360on React Native: A year in review

UWP has XAML which is native and declarative. It's what the Windows version of React Native targets.

Aleman360on Visual Studio Code 1.0

Silverlight is actually a descendant of WPF.

WPF > Silverlight > UWP

All your skills are transferable.

Aleman360on Visual Studio Code 1.0

UWP has the latest version of XAML, implemented natively this time and with a faster rendering backend. WPF lives on in spirit.

Aleman360on Introducing Kindle Oasis

Because the grip and weight balance will make one-handed reading more comfortable.

Aleman360on React Native on the Universal Windows Platform

Performance should be a pretty big concern for UI frameworks. Would be interesting to see some benchmarks.

Aleman360on React Native on the Universal Windows Platform

https://github.com/ReactWindows/react-native/blob/ReactWindo...

Looks like it evaluates the JS and creates XAML elements programmatically using C#.

Aleman360on Introducing Kindle Oasis

Yea, looking at this made me realize how uncomfortable my Paperwhite is one-handed. When laying down I usually end up holding it awkwardly with my thumb underneath and my pointer finger straight up the bezel. It's fallen out of my hand too many times to count.

Price aside, this is a worthwhile upgrade simply for the ergonomics.

Aleman360on React Native on the Universal Windows Platform

Runtime heap usage.

Aleman360on React Native on the Universal Windows Platform

Runtime memory usage and startup perf is better for C++ XAML apps.

Aleman360on React Native on the Universal Windows Platform

Why does this generate C# instead of C++?

Aleman360on Facebook Messenger Platform

And now your messenger app needs a launcher, switcher, notification manager, search, per-app settings pages, etc. And maybe its own process model/scheduler, to prevent rogue apps from slowing down the messenger app. And apps within the messenger app now need to be cross-messenger-platform on top of being cross-webview-platform.

Aleman360on Facebook Messenger Platform

Let me get this straight.

- The phone OS has a shell, usually written in native code.

- The messenger app runs on top of the shell, usually written on top of some type of VM.

- The messenger app contains a web browser that renders other apps, written in js.

Aleman360on Facebook Messenger Platform

First browsers became OS's, now you want messenger apps to become OS's?

How many layers of cruft do we need?

Aleman360on Moleskine Smart Writing Set

I just use a scratch piece of paper and toss it at the end of the day.

Anything that's useful enough to keep is useful to other people too, so that goes into the team wiki.

Aleman360on When Is the Singularity? Probably Not in Your Lifetime

Presumably it would plug into legal data to estimate which option would be less financially risky to the car company.

Aleman360on Reddit for iOS and Android

The definition of MVP doesn't really depend on how big the development team is.

Aleman360on The future is arriving too fast

Hold down Apple TV mic button, say movie name, rent movie from cheapest available service and start streaming instantly.

The future is here, it's just a different business model than music.

Aleman360on The future is arriving too fast

But why buy a movie when you can just rent it on demand? That way you're not locked in to a particular format or quality level and don't have to worry about backups.