Hacker News Reader

graham-milnon Go 1.11 Beta 3 is released

I used Go for the web server in Miln Beyond: https://miln.eu/beyond/

The choice between writing the server in Objective-C or Swift, versus Go was easy. For servers, Go is a natural fit.

Beyond's front end is a traditional macOS Cocoa application but the hard work is all handled by a Go binary.

graham-milnon Andy Gross has died

Andy's CV/resume offers some insight into his career: https://github.com/argv0/resume/blob/master/andygross-resume...

graham-milnon German judges explain their decision that ad-blocking software is legal

A little good news, a Safari fork now exists: https://github.com/el1t/uBlock-Safari

graham-milnon The Rise of Return-Anything Culture

Within the European Union (EU) returns for online sales are affected by the Distance Selling Directive: http://www.columbia.edu/~mr2651/ecommerce3/1st/Statutes/Dist...

graham-milnon Animated SVG vs. GIF

Yes, SVG appears widely supported. See http://caniuse.com/#search=svg

graham-milnon Polari, the Lost Gay English Dialect

You can listen to Round the Horne and The Navy Lark today on BBC iPlayer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00c7q4l/episodes/player

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00bfvkd/episodes/player

Liverpool's Maritime Museum has an insightful exhibit on gay life at sea; the exhibit includes a section on the polari:

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/visit/floor-plan...

graham-milnon Show HN: Font Awesome to PNG

I put together Font Pestle for this purpose: http://miln.eu/fontpestle/

graham-milnon Peter Molyneux Blames Success on Baked Beans

Peter Molyneux talks about how his software business began and recalls the humous baked bean story in his Game Developer Conference (GDC) postmortem of Populus:

http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem

The GDC classic postmortem talks are well worth watching.

graham-milnon There is no place for just shitting all over other people's work

Who is hoping to gain from the public ridicule? I doubt it is the target.

With this in mind, it would be wise to direct critical feedback privately to the creator. I believe feedback delivered directly and privately is more likely to see the desired change.

Praise in public, criticise in private.

graham-milnon A warning to hackers: be careful building on Twitter's API

chime, sharecropping in terms of software development is a topic that Tim Bray has an interesting take on:

http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/07/12/WebsThePla...

graham-milnon Fake - Mac OS X Web Browser Automation and Webapp Testing Made Simple.

With regard to b) support for languages other than AppleScript, ruby and python support is likely to work through Apple's Scripting Bridge.

Most AppleScript aware applications can be made to support ruby and python through this bridge:

http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/Cocoa/C...

graham-milnon On Incorporation - Hold Off Until You Have The Cash To Spare

To provide an idea of just how easy it is to incorporate a limited liability company (Limited / co.uk) under English and Welsh law, visit Companies House:

http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/infoAndGuide/companyRegistr...

http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/

Impressively, they even offer same day incorporation.

graham-milnon Paypal is evil

It is worth noting PayPal's activity is regulated within the EU:

"On May 15, 2007, PayPal announced that it would move its European operations from the UK to Luxembourg, commencing July 2, 2007 as PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. & Cie, S.C.A.[33] This would be as a Luxembourg entity regulated as a bank by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), the Luxembourg equivalent of the FSA.[34] PayPal Luxembourg will then provide the PayPal service throughout the European Union (EU)." -- PayPal's Wikipedia page.

This status, within the EU, provides some protection for both businesses and customers.

graham-milnon IPhone Developers: We use our iPhones in bed, allow us to disable landscape

tlrobinson is right; give Apple feedback. Ask for a iPhone wide setting to lock the orientation:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

graham-milnon Steve Jobs Preparing His Farewell?

Is sharing the stage an easy means of diluting the impact of stories about Steve Job's health?

Given the jittery stock market prices each time a Jobs health story is written, this seems like good business sense.

It will take some time to bring home the message to stock holders; Steve Jobs is not Apple, and Apple is not Steve Jobs.

It does not need to indicate Steve Jobs is leaving.

graham-milnon Ask YC: I need a world-friendly bank

Consider Citibank or HSBC. Both banks offer an international perspective.

graham-milnon Good Automatic FAQ Style User Support Software?

A FAQ is warning your user support material is failing.

Consider rewriting, augmenting, or restructuring your user guide. How about adding a 'getting started guide', assistants, wizards, or sample walk through documents?

Visit http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/ and browse the posts on technical support and manuals.

Depending on your users, the very acronym FAQ is a hurdle. The majority of potential users have no idea, or desire to learn, what FAQ means.

With every significant release of DssW Power Manager http://www.dssw.co.uk , we have been improving, refining, and adding to the user experience. The core functionality has remained fairly constant but sales increase with each release; more 'get' the concept thanks to better documentation and experience.

Hope this helps,

Graham