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Maximal

100 karma · joined January 5, 2011

Independent software developer, based in Switzerland.
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Maximal··on Ask HN: Data diff tool for tabular data?
I use xlcompare for comparing Excel. It creates very good diff reports of Excel features (including formatting, formulas and Macros). I often use it for simple CSV compares. Be warned, it does crash occasionally

https://www.xlcompare.com

Maximal··on Stop Drinking Bottled Water
Ca 468mg/l Mg 74.5mg/l

Percentages are RDA.

Maximal··on Stop Drinking Bottled Water
I drink Contrex bottled water, because its mineral content provides me with 58% Calcium and 19% Mangnesium per litre.

I balance the negative impact of bottle water (which I acknowledge and dislike) with the fact I am vegan.

Maximal··on Visual Studio database project migrations
We use liquibase (http://www.liquibase.org/) for our postgresql and SQL Server databases. It works very well.
Maximal··on Ask HN: Which Macbook is best for development?
I have used a Macbook Air 13" (i7 2GHz, 512GB SSD, 8GB RAM) for over a year exclusively for software development. The machine has been great, except I am frequently swapping windows back and forth, because of the screen resolution (1440x900).

I develop using numerous tools including Emacs, Xcode, IntelliJ, WebStorm and Visual Studio (running inside VMWare Windows 8 Pro). I have never noticed any lag whilst coding

Would I buy the same size machine again? Yes. The trade off is weight against screen size, although I think a higher resolution screen might put a strain on my eyes considering how long I use the laptop.

For me desktop was never an option, because I code on the train often. I also do not use either an external monitor nor a keyboard.

Maximal··on Ask HN: Can anyone recommend a good security auditor / pen tester?
https://www.htbridge.com/ Swiss-based, but international operations
Maximal··on Ask HN: I'm done with Gmail (a.k.a. NSA-Mail). What's the best alternative?
If you want a non-US service: runbox.com
Maximal··on Poll: Freelance developers in London, how much do you charge per hour?
What type of freelancer, because the rates can differ by a large margin for different roles? Web designer, technical writer, developer, architect, SAP, Oracle DBA, etc.

I also find that generally, in Europe, today's rates are daily. With the assumption that the working hours are at a least the same as those of an employee; but, often expected to be one or two hours more (banks, I'm looking at you).

Maximal··on Ask HN: Best websites for finding freelance jobs?
www.jobserve.com
Maximal··on FastMail’s servers are in the US – what this means for you
As Australia is a member of the five eyes group, I do not see any added protection from FM being incorporated there rather than in the USA.

This is why I use a email service in Norway (runbox.com), which, as far as I know, is not sharing information by default.

Maximal··on Do we need a new PDF reader?
My 2-cents: highlighting and extracting my notes is fundamental for me. The best PDF readers that I have found are:

OSX: Skim (with an honourably mention to DevonThink) iPad: PDFExpress

Maximal··on Ask HN: Poll for long-term contractors, what is your hourly rate?
I am Swiss-based and for senior software developer roles my freelance daily rate is equivalent to USD1000 (one thousand) per day. The contract duration has no relation to my rate.

Although, I agree with zacharyvoase that I do not see the point of your question.

Maximal··on Ask HN: Software Engineering Jobs in Zürich
Start-up jobs at http://jobooh.ch Other jobs at https://www.jobagent.ch/login.html

Switzerland is great, so good luck. Although, Basel might have more bioinformatics jobs than Zurich.

Maximal··on OSX apps that keep you hooked to your Mac?
DevonThink: I put everything in it. Great for my MSc research into concurrency.