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activescotton How we rebuilt Next.js with AI in one week

It would have been cheaper to just ask Claude to port it to react-router :)

activescotton Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (February 2025)

Scott Willeke

Location: Seattle, WA

Remote: Open to remote or hybrid

Willing to relocate: No

Technologies: TypeScript, JavaScript, React, Node.js, Kubernetes, C#, SQL (PostgreSQL, Snowfalke, Red Shift, MySQL, BigQuery), AWS, GCP Node.js, Python, Go, Java, LLM integration (OpenAI models & Realtime API, Replicate, Flux, Groq, etc.)

Résumé/CV: https://scott.willeke.com/experience

Email: scott[at]willeke[dot]com

I am a motivational leader with strong sense of ownership, always building trust with others. After developing software for 10 years in a zero-to-one startup, I served as a Product and Engineering Leader in Daptiv (acquired by Planview), AWS, and Smartsheet. I care as much about developing people as I do about developing products customers use and love. I still can’t stop coding in my spare time. I am a regular open source contributor and a top 4% overall contributor on Stack Overflow.

activescotton Sunlight and Vitamin D (2013)

Interesting about "supplementation of vitamin D-replete individuals does not provide demonstrable health benefits". The OP article does clearly call out that the benefits of vitamin D are in cases of _vitamin D deficiency_. It goes on to state that there is a "worldwide vitamin D deficiency pandemic" and mentions that 32% of children and adults have a circulating concentration of 25(OH)D < 20 ng/mL (i.e. vitamin D deficient).

So I think the broader point of the article was that many of us are vitamin D deficient, and those of us that are, have increased health risk, and that's why we need to supplement our vitamin D.

activescotton Sunlight and Vitamin D (2013)

The OP article basically concludes the same thing for those of us above and below 33° latitude.

activescotton The Internet Is Full of AI Dogshit

You have to wonder now… How do the machines really know what tasty wheat tastes like?

activescotton Self-hosting a high-availability Postgres cluster on Kubernetes

What sharp edges are you referring to with statefulsets?

activescotton Ledger's NPM account has been hacked

Shouldn't this be considered an incident at https://status.ledger.com/ ??

activescotton Epic vs. Google: Google Loses

For accuracy all apps under $1M in revenue can get 15% since 2020: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/small-business-program...

Also, subscriptions are charged at 30% for the first year, which then drops to 15% for subsequent years.

When we sold software through resellers years before the App Store we often paid 40%-45%. We found it absurd at first too, but we learned that large businesses only bought from certain resellers or the resellers could sell into businesses we couldn’t reach (a sales staff in business or marketing to consumers). In some rare cases we negotiated to 30% so I don't find these fees out of the norm.

activescotton Reasonable GPUs

I had a similar question and after reading far too much I put together https://coinpoet.com

I'd love to have others here try it out and give me some feedback on how I could make it useful. It's only a couple weeks in but already seems valuable to me. What am I missing?

activescotton Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (December 2023)

SEEKING WORK: Available: Seasoned Product/Engineering Leader Ready to Elevate Your Team

Greetings,

I am Scott Willeke, a seasoned engineering and product leader with a background in guiding teams through technological transformations and growth. My journey includes pivotal roles at Smartsheet and Amazon Web Services, where I've honed my expertise in product management, leadership and DevOps operational excellence.

What I Bring:

- Extensive Experience: Over a decade of software development experience with substantial leadership roles, enhancing product quality, and driving continuous improvement.

- Technical Mastery: Proficient in a variety of technologies, including BI (Python, Jupyter, Pandas, SQL, Snowflake, etc.), TypeScript (React), Node.js, AWS, GCP, C#, and more ensuring your team stays ahead of the curve.

- Strategic Leadership: A track record of overseeing large teams and complex projects, from system design to deployment, with a focus on operational excellence and innovation.

- Engaging Communication: My leadership is rooted in clear, effective communication, fostering a culture where every team member’s contribution is valued.

I am excited to explore opportunities where I can contribute as a Fractional Head of Engineering or a similar role. My goal is to drive quality development practices, shape technology roadmaps, and ensure the delivery of scalable, reliable, and secure applications. Let's connect to discuss how my expertise aligns with your needs.

Scott Willeke https://scott.willeke.com

activescotton Investing in new vector database development vs enhancing existing databases

Very useful for me to read this (and look up some of the mentioned concepts). Thank you!

activescotton AIConfig – source control format for gen AI prompts, models and settings

Well done. Now that I've seen your getting started video (https://aiconfig.lastmileai.dev/docs/getting-started) this seems obvious. I feel really silly that I copy & paste from the browser back into a file just so I can save different prompts and results to see what I liked best. Thanks for sharing and for open sourcing!

activescotton Privacy is priceless, but Signal is expensive

Thanks. I hadn't dug into that link, but I did based on your comment. It is a Congressional investigation that is rooted on a report from The Markup [1] that, as you note isn't about an accidental breach by Google, but one where multiple companies send extensive PII to Google about site visitors. While not necessarily a "breach", I think this lead of personal data plays to Signal article's point though. The Markup article's git repo with HAR files of what was sent to Google was convincing.[2]

[1]: https://themarkup.org/pixel-hunt/2022/11/22/tax-filing-websi... [2]: https://github.com/the-markup/meta-pixel-taxes

activescotton Privacy is priceless, but Signal is expensive

I almost skipped reading into this article because I love Signal and it's mission (and their rare commitment to stick to it) and would have known it's good. Yet, the details on expenses and infrastructure was a good read. $1.3M/yr for temporary storage! $6M for verification codes during sign-up!? Toll fraud!? GOOG & FB data center spend, data breaches from GOOG, MSFT, et. al 50 full-time employees vs 3K or 4K for similar apps! All interesting.

activescotton I'm (Slowly) Disengaging from Medium – Launching the Kaitchup, My Newsletter

Following on the heels of a recent thread about the downward spiral of small websites due to Google and other factors, Medium was a savior for some of these small writers. It seems Medium is contributing to the attack on small websites now to. The article mentions:

> I have been writing for Medium for more than a year. It has been a great experience and I was fairly compensated for it. > It all changed on August 1st when Medium decided to modify its Partner Program. Before, Medium’s writers were compensated given the time that readers spent reading their articles. It seemed fair and correct to me. Now, we are only compensated if readers clap, highlight, or reply to an article, and if they stay on the article for more than 30 seconds. > ... > The consequence is that, while I’m writing for Medium behind its paywall, I’m now only paid a few cents a day for it.

activescotton The Small Website Discoverability Crisis (2021)

Google buying up Feedburner only to shut it down didn't help the small websites federated via RSS/Atom either. Seems like it was replaced with centralized medium now. BTW Is there a good feedburner alternative out there?

activescotton Write Right Now: How Engineers Can Innovate, Influence, and Lead in Business

Managers and marketers have more say on the software that you write than you do, but why? It’s easy to shrug and move on to the next incremental improvement. They are easy and gratifying to complete, but you won’t influence and you won’t innovate. Making an argument about a bigger, better idea is risky. Although you and I both know that you have a great idea in there somewhere (not good, but great) it’s hard to prove it, heck it’s hard to explain it, even to yourself.

activescotton Google's Open Culture Collides with the Israel-Hamas War

Most compelling argument of the whole thread:

> Would you approve of the IDF bombing occupied Israeli apartments, schools, hospitals, etc if Hamas tunnelled under those?

activescotton Google's Open Culture Collides with the Israel-Hamas War

I have cited sources that include a balanced account of Jews living alongside Arabs in peace throughout the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years. Neither I or the source I cited indicates there was zero violence. If you read into it, you'll find violence started escalating in the 19th century after nationalism was introduced. Over hundreds of years, is there anywhere where anyone didn't encounter "multiple" violent confrontations? If zero violent confrontations is the standard we're judging by, I don't think any country will meet that standard.

I'm not sure why a factual account of history is "bizarre" because it starts in 1885. The "Jews were there first" argument, the idea that we should redrew the world as it was 2000+ years ago (but ignore the subsequent ~1000 years), isn't a new one. I just always wonder why the logic only applies to Palestine, but somehow not the rest of the world.

activescotton Google's Open Culture Collides with the Israel-Hamas War

Anyone else find it ironic that this post was flagged?

activescotton Google's Open Culture Collides with the Israel-Hamas War

This is a bit more complicated. Jews were in Palestine before 1948 and lived alongside Arabs in peace throughout the Ottoman Empire. They often fled persecution in Europe to the Ottoman Empire: https://en.wikipedia.orgt/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_the_Ot...

The historical timeline of Palestine leading up to and since 1948 is https://www.un.org/unispal/historical-timeline/

The timeline is good overall, but the four-minute video there is a good summary. A direct link to the video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBjMbe24Vu0.

activescotton Google's Open Culture Collides with the Israel-Hamas War

It is question number 70, not 70%.

Below copied from page 25 of the document you linked:

Q70) Concerning armed attacks against Israeli civilians inside Israel, I.... Total West Bank Gaza Strip 1) Strongly support 23% 16% 34% 2) support 34% 32% 36% 3) oppose 27% 34% 17% 4) Strongly oppose 11% 10% 12% 5) DK/NA 11% 10% 12%

It is notable that "Strongly support" is twice as high in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli military has built a wall around it and has maintained an indefinite ongoing land, sea, and air blockade on since 2007.

activescotton Google's Open Culture Collides with the Israel-Hamas War

Talking about how bad a war is seems always misleading to me. Does "Israel retaliated with a bombing campaign" convey that in the last 32 days since October 7, 10,328 people were killed in Gaza. Does it convey that 67% of those killed were children and women? It is all barbaric.

activescotton New models and developer products

I think it's more about finding places to add value than "lock in" per se. It seems they're adding value with improved developer experience and cost/performance rather than on the models themselves. Not necessarily nefarious attempts to lock in customers, but it may have the same outcome :)

activescotton New models and developer products

It is interesting that the updates are largely developer experience updates. It doesn't appear that significant innovations are happening on the core models outside of performance/cost improvements. Both devex and perf/cost are important to be sure, but incremental.

activescotton 1Password detects "suspicious activity" in its internal Okta account

Good point. I would have paid too had they just asked.

activescotton 1Password detects "suspicious activity" in its internal Okta account

A regular public audit by security firm would help increase confidence in a close source system. In fact, it would help in an open source system too.

activescotton 1Password detects "suspicious activity" in its internal Okta account

Yes, 1Password's end-to-end encryption model (explained at https://support.1password.com/1password-security/) should be secure to this even if an attacker penetrates some layers of access. The model of other password managers may or not hold up though.

With that said, there is a lot of rebuttals to this that begin with "but, that assumes..." that I'm sure some of our fellow HN peeps will point out here :)

activescotton Uber migrates microservices to multi-cloud platform running Kubernetes and Mesos

OP here... @s3p: FWIW, I didn't take issue with your comment. Surprised it was down voted. I do find that often people to reply to such comments though with something like "Uber team member here..." so it didn't seem ridiculous, but your suggestion seemed authentic and fair to me.

activescotton 1Password detects "suspicious activity" in its internal Okta account

Seems like 1P took the right steps and is being transparent about the incident. It wasn't even an on their systems - but one of their vendors support systems. A lower quality organization would just conveniently not disclose the incident at all - justifying it by saying something along the lines of nothing was breached, it wasn't even our system. I think we should applaud 1P's transparency here. Or am I missing something?