HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

Pheter

202 karma · joined March 14, 2010

Software Engineer
submissionscomments
Pheter··on Bullshit
But it works, which is why they do it.
Pheter··on HTML and CSS Learning Tool Recommendations
I used 'CSS: The Missing Manual' to learn how to build CSS based layouts several years back. It obviously doesn't cover CSS3 (unless it has been updated). Reading it from cover to cover was enough for me to get started, and then going back to it occasionally (and google) as a reference.

It's sitting in a stack of books that I need to dispose of so if you're interested then I'll send it your way.

Edit: Although the book doesn't cover CSS3, the book teaches you what you will learn anyways (as CSS3 builds on existing concepts (as well as adding some new ones)); so you don't have to worry about learning outdated 'dis-information' (I think!).

Pheter··on Amazon Will Pay Shoppers $5 to Walk Out of Stores Empty-Handed
Apple still get the money if you buy their products elsewhere.
Pheter··on MemShrink progress report, week 23
Does Firefox plan to use the same style of forced updates that Chrome does? As a web developer I am very grateful that Chrome is not only updated regularly but that these updates are forced on the end user. IE10 could be the best browser ever, but unfortunately there will still be people using IE7.
Pheter··on Kodak's long fade to black
"Lytro's light field is a bullshit product that very few photographers and even fewer consumers will actually give a shit about."

You're underestimating how the technology can be used to simplify the process of taking an image for the average consumer. With the right marketing and UX Lytro could sell their camera as one that 'just works'.

No one wants to bother focusing an image. Everyone is disappointed when a photo comes out blurry. Yeah sure they could invest time into learning how to take better pictures but for a lot of people who just want nice pictures of their friends when they're on holiday/at a club/out for dinner, they don't want to waste their time doing that.

A camera where focusing an image is abstracted away so that the consumer doesn't have to think about it would be a huge step forward. (Think post-shot auto-focus with optional tweaking for when the camera doesn't get it right). Combine this with features already available such as automatic red-eye reduction and the barrier to entry for taking decent quality pictures is much lower. A lot of people would buy that camera.

Pheter··on Who is the real Mark Zuckerberg?
Of the many, many people using Facebook it's unsurprising that some tourists who were nearby thought it would be cool to get a picture infront of the Facebook sign. I'm sure the same goes for Google and other internet businesses.
Pheter··on Turn Your iPhone Into a Walkman a cool Kickstarter Project
I use a jailbreak app called activator to set up skipping songs by holding down the volume up and down buttons and it works great!
Pheter··on Why Not to Make an iPhone App
Although the app store is filled with crappy apps.
Pheter··on Anonymous Cancels Operation Cartel as Los Zetas Track Hacktivists
Because they need to earn money to buy the drugs. By your logic anyone with a hobby wouldn't bother going to work because they also have a legally acceptable ticket to happiness.
Pheter··on Ex Google PM criticizes new Reader layout
Reeder for mac is an amazing piece of software; I cannot recommend it enough.
Pheter··on I Make Dreams Come True
I agree; this is the gist of what I was trying to say but I got carried away. I really need to work on getting my ideas out in a more focused manor!
Pheter··on I Make Dreams Come True
I think the reason why we are drawn to simple things is down to, among other reasons, something that I've observed with how the human mind fills in blanks.

Ever noticed how someone looks attractive from behind but then they turn round and are not so much? It seems to me that when our brain fills in the gaps it assumes that the subject is aesthetically pleasing. (Well, either our brain defaults to expecting something to look nice, or it fills in the blanks with an average and we find the average to be attractive.)

So coming back to simplistic design and why it evokes a positive emotional response from us: Perhaps it's because with a simple design our brain has more 'blanks' to fill in.

If anyone knows of a name for this phenomenon and further information exploring it I would love to learn about it. Same goes for if what I'm saying is nonsense and there is an alternate theory disproving mine!

Pheter··on Steve Jobs to Obama: “You’re headed for a one-term presidency”
Jobs exhibited his notorious attention to detail, telling venture capitalist John Doerr that the menu of shrimp, cod and lentil salad was "far too fancy".

Attention to detail and a certain bluntness has been attributed as part of Steve Jobs' immense success, but this come across as plain rude. It doesn't matter if Jobs is right or not, it's bad etiquette to criticise another's work in this context.

Of course, I am assuming that his opinion wasn't asked, and I know nothing of the relationship that Jobs and Doerr shared.

Pheter··on A reboot of PHP: keep the philosophy, improve the syntax with the jvm
While true, it's a very minor deal because the scenario you've described:

- Happens very rarely - Is trivially solved, even in a large codebase

Pheter··on Play around with HTML,CSS,JS,Haml,Sass,Coffeescript
This is really cool but unfortunately I can't type a '#' which is pretty essential.

I'm using a Macbook with the UK keyboard which for some rather odd reason dispenses with the # key and instead one must type option-3 to display a #. This conflicts with the applications hotkey which maps alt-3 (aka option 3) to switching tabs.

Pheter··on ASK HN: Is there room for a new search engine?
Yes. My ideal search engine would return answers rather than a list of links to answers.

Brain dump of ideas follows:

Search for: "Best cheesecake recipe?" Result: Ingredients, step-by-step guide, perhaps a video too.

The search engine would adapt to my knowledge and, if I do not know much about baking, and/or cheesecakes, it would inform me that cheesecake's can be broadly categorised as baked or unbaked. It would recommend the recipe for one type to me based on which is easier for a beginner to bake, but with the option of overriding the default.

Search for: "Best steak"

Now this is a little ambiguous, so I would be prompted for further information such as "price range, distance, the time that I would like to eat at".

Result: x restaurant, which is y distance from you, serves the best steak at z pounds.

If applicable the search engine would inform me that if I am willing to travel half a mile further then I am able to get an even better steak for half the price!

It would also be great if I could make a reservation from the same page displaying the results.

----------

Now I realise that the above is pretty much impossible for a variety of reasons, but I would love to be able to pay for something like this.

Pheter··on IPhone 4S with iPhone 4 design, leaked by iTunes
Note that the iPhone is running iOS5
Pheter··on Facebook Timeline
So true; I welcome the addition but I don't expect it to revolutionise Facebook!

Though I disagree that any new feature is a good thing :P

Pheter··on Facebook Timeline
It will be interesting if/how this affects Facebook as a platform for apps.

Apps appear to be more visible in this design, as well as having more of a purpose. Perhaps part of the motivation of this design was to encourage developers to make use of the Facebook platform.

It may be a good opportunity for web apps to make their users more public about their choice of apps. While apps can currently publish to a user's wall, I prevent this from happening because it seems spammy and pointless, but I wouldn't have an issue with an app having a dedicated space on my profile where it displays specific information.

Pheter··on Facebook Timeline
I often receive friend requests from people who I have recently met through work, going out, friends of friends, etc.

It seems like it would be a good way for these people who know a little bit about me to quickly learn a little more about me.

Pheter··on Facebook's Newest Problem: Being Boring
You're right, I should have said that at the moment, reliability is not directly critical for the success of the service.

However, I do not have any issues with the reliability of Facebook chat. Not to say that there are no issues, they just haven't affected me ...yet.

Pheter··on Facebook's Newest Problem: Being Boring
Reliability doesn't matter. What matters is who's using what. If all my friends are on AIM, then I'll be on AIM. But they're not, everyone's on Facebook, and uses txt/whatsapp/bbm when they're away from their computer. What I am saying is that I would like to see Facebook become the universal communication method between my friends and me.
Pheter··on Facebook's Newest Problem: Being Boring
True. I should have worded it differently, stating that it is possible for them to turn the situation around.
Pheter··on Facebook's Newest Problem: Being Boring
The article claims that Facebook's messaging features are a failure. I disagree; they have massive potential.

Facebook chat is the primary real time chat system that I use these days and has replaced MSN for me and my friends. I recently installed the Messenger app on my iPhone and it certainly has the potential to kill off whatsapp and similar apps due two reasons: all my contacts are already available, and that I can use either my laptop or phone, depending on whichever is available to me when I need to communicate.

Unfortunately I doubt that this potential will be realised. Why? Because I haven't seen Facebook advertise the app AT ALL. (I heard about the app through HN.) None of my friends are aware the app exists and it's such a shame. It wouldn't be hard for Facebook to push their chat service as an alternative to txt/bbm/whatsapp, they already have an ad network in place that they can use for free.

I really hope to see Facebook push their messaging service as a way to communicate not just when you are browsing facebook.com but instead as an alternative to text-based communication methods on phones.

Pheter··on Show HN: Hacker News Mobile - A fast and readable mobile HN website
I love them! It helps with scanning the front page. Due to the location/fact that it is text/text colour I never look at the URL of an article when looking at the front page on news.ycombinator.com.
Pheter··on HN Lament
It seems ironic that a lot of users moved from Reddit to HN, and now HN users may move to Reddit.
Pheter··on Sublime Text 2 (Build 2111) gets vi key bindings, indent guides
If you do decide to try and get it compiling then I would really appreciate it if you could let me know how you get on!

My email is in my profile.

Pheter··on Web Design is Product Design
To produce a good design, one must have a solid understanding of what it is that they are designing for and the medium that they are working with.

There is often an overlap with coders and people who have a good grasp of what is involved in front end development, including all the limitations and properties of the web, for obvious reasons. However, this does not make coding a necessity.

Pheter··on Sublime Text 2 (Build 2111) gets vi key bindings, indent guides
Code Browser has a really interesting approach to organising your code. Does anyone know of any text editors/IDEs that implement code folding in a similar fashion for Mac OS X?
Pheter··on Why must you laugh at my back end?
I wouldn't consider discussing Ruby vs. Python 'fluff', but either way my comment above was about people arguing passionately, not having an intelectual discussion.
← PreviousPage 2 of 4Next →