HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

interlocutor

1,095 karma · joined March 31, 2015

submissionscomments
interlocutor··on Bootstrap 5 will remove jQuery as a dependency
>>However, to do that, you have to have the entire JQuery library loaded as well.

But you didn't have to write that code or debug it.

interlocutor··on Bootstrap 5 will remove jQuery as a dependency
jQuery still does a lot of useful stuff. The best advertisement for jQuery, ironically, is this site: http://youmightnotneedjquery.com/ Look at how simple things are in the left column, and how much more code is needed in the right column.

jQuery has many convenience features such as chaining, for example: item.addClass('selected').siblings().removeClass('selected'); and you don't have to check for nulls after each selection.

Many functions such as closest() and remove() have no equivalents in IE11, and other things such as replaceWith() and before() are not available even in Edge.

For simple sites it is easy enough to remove jQuery, but for more complex javascript applications, especially apps that have a lot of interactivity, removing jQuery will result in more code, or you will end up writing a lot of utility functions thereby creating your own little clone of jQuery.

interlocutor··on Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry
If EssilorLuxottica was an American company the EU would have fined them a few billion dollars, and split them up a long time ago.
interlocutor··on Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry
The reason glasses cost so much is because one company owns: (1) nearly all brand name frames including Ray-Ban, Oakley, Prada eyewear, Armani eyewear and so on, (2) nearly all retail stores such as LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Sears Optical and Target Optical and (3) EyeMed, one of the largest vision insurance companies.

See this eye-opening 60 Minutes story on Luxottica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDdq2rIqAlM

Luxottica retail brands: http://www.luxottica.com/en/retail-brands

Luxottica eyewear brands: http://www.luxottica.com/en/eyewear-brands

Luxottica vision insurance: http://www.luxottica.com/en/node/6336

In the US, only Costco and Walmart's optical departments are independent of Luxottica.

interlocutor··on $1.2T in risky corporate debt showing similar warning signs to subprime crisis
Whoever is determining credit worthiness needs to have skin in the game. This is what Dodd-Frank did. It required security bankers retain 5% of the overall risk of the security. Known as the Volcker Rule, it is now being rolled back: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trump-signs-...
interlocutor··on $1.2T in risky corporate debt showing similar warning signs to subprime crisis
This is the key phrase in the story: "packaged into securities and sold to investors". This is exactly like the mortgage crisis. Back then banks knew many of the borrowers are not being truthful in their loan applications but lent to them any way (look up "liar loans"). Banks didn't care because they packaged these mortgages into securities and sold them to investors as "mortgage-backed securities", so defaults are someone else's problem. Banks are back at it again.
interlocutor··on Best Display for Programming? (2017)
>I think also the author is showing off his nice keyboard

I think I have a better keyboard. This is what it looks like: https://www.svethardware.cz/klavesnice-acer-future-keyboard/... What is great about this keyboard is the touchpad in the center. This is great because you don't have to stretch you arm to reach the mouse. This reduces RSI for me. Unfortunately my keyboard is getting old and they don't make this (or anything like this) anymore. Keyboard-touchpad combinations are still being made but the touchpad is to the side which doesn't solve the problem of have to stretch your arm.

There are some laptop keyboards like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkPad-Compact-Keyboard-Trac... but I want a desktoppy split keyboard with a touchpad in the middle.

interlocutor··on Programming Fonts – Test Drive
No one has mentioned Lucida Sans Typewriter. It was the default console font on Solaris, and it was may favorite code font for more than a decade. I even made a Windows version of that font, for my own use, using a bitmapped font editor. Here's a screenshot of Solaris showing that font: http://agilo.acjs.net/files/screenshot_solaris.png You can buy it from Adobe: https://www.fonts.com/font/adobe/lucida-sans-typewriter/regu...
interlocutor··on Guy Says He's the First Person to Attempt Editing His DNA with CRISPR
Yes, highly concerning but not because biological organisms are more complicated, but because biological organisms reproduce. Any "hacking" mistake will reproduce for eternity.
interlocutor··on The US spends more on healthcare for no gain says new report from Johns Hopkins
The reason healthcare costs so much more in the US than other countries, is health insurance. When insurance pays for everything patients don't care how much the medical providers are charging, or whether they are providing unnecessary services. When somebody else (i.e., insurance) is paying, the individual consumer is encouraged to consume without any restraint. When all consumers behave this way, healthcare providers are able to charge sky-high prices and unnecessary services, which in turn causes insurance premiums to go up. (Look up "tragedy of the commons").

The solution is to make the consumer participate in driving costs down. One employer I know of has an excellent solution to the problem: Make employees pay 100% of the bill up to a certain amount, such as $6000. That's a large amount, but the employer then contributes a large amount to your Health Savings Account (HSA), such as $4000. This amount is for you to keep regardless of whether you have any health bills or not. (This money can be used for medical expenses only, but can be used any time, including after retirement). So the maximum you will spend out of pocket per year is $2000. How does this encourage the consumer to scrutinize and control medical expenditure? Because the first $6000 of medical spending in a year is "your money". This is money you'd be able to keep in your HSA if you didn't have any medical expenses. This gives the consumer a strong incentive to reduce costs, question charges, avoid unnecessary services, and so on.

interlocutor··on The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR
Facebook is launching their own satellites to beam down high-speed internet. (See https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/21/17598418/facebook-athena-... ) Why isn't Apple doing that? More than anyone else Apple needs it.
interlocutor··on The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR
> wasn't Jony Ive largely responsible for leading many of the great designs at Apple, including the iPhone

Steve Jobs was the tastemaker. Without Steve's input Jony is apparently not able to produce insanely great designs.

interlocutor··on The Phone That’s Failing Apple: iPhone XR
Apple's problem is that their rate of innovation has slowed down. iPhone generates over a 100 Billion dollars in revenue. Per year. If any company has the resources to innovate it is Apple.

Apple, here are some free ideas. Some of these ideas go beyond the phone and into cell networks. If Google can do that ( https://fi.google.com ) why can't Apple?

- Improve cellular reception. We are now heavily reliant on our cell phones, yet half the time our cell phones don't work because we are inside a building or not close to a tower and so on. This needs to be fixed ASAP. Apple has the resources to do something about this. Here are some ideas: https://www.wired.com/2014/02/steve-perlman-pcell/ and https://www.artemis.com Quote: "pCell delivers 5G performance to standard LTE devices"

- Improve cell plans. Why are we paying for voice, text and data separately? The only thing we should be paying for is data. Voice and text should go over data. Apple needs to disrupt.

- Improve user experience. Here are some really cool ideas from Microsoft: https://www.theverge.com/2016/5/5/11595564/microsoft-3d-touc...

- Improve TV. There is a TV app on my iOS, but it doesn't seem to do anything interesting. This needs to be more like tv.youtube.com

- Fix design. Fire Jony Ive's a$$ and hire some real designers. Apple used to be insanely great at design. Now they are a nobody. Take a look at HomePod. It is an amorphous blob. Every single Bose speaker looks better than HomePod.

- Get rid of flat design, it is an unusable mess (see http://uxcritique.tumblr.com/ ). You don't need to bring back leather and stitches, but you absolutely need to bring physicality back into UI design in order to improve usability.

interlocutor··on The Inevitability of Apple's Current Predicament
"Now, if the market isn’t growing fast enough anymore that means that there are generally only two ways to continue to grow — either increase your market share by drawing the customers away from competitors, or raise prices."

Incorrect. There is a third way: reinvent the smart phone.

Back in 1899 the Commissioner of US patent office stated that "everything that can be invented has been invented." No doubt there are plenty of people thinking the same thing about the smart phones we have today. i.e., every feature that can be added has already been added. They are wrong.

Keep in mind that right before Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone people thought the same thing about the mobile phones we had then. Then Jobs reinvented the phone. Can Apple do it again?

interlocutor··on Ask HN: How do you keep track of your creative thoughts?
The problem with OneNote is that its file format is proprietary (though documented). I have random notes that are 20 years old. Notes I take today need to be readable 20 years from now. Will OneNote be around 20 years from now? I prefer to store my notes in plain text because it is guaranteed to be readable decades from now.
interlocutor··on Ask HN: Go-to web stack today?
If you like Web Components and TypeScript, think this 200-line library gives stiff competition to LitElement: https://github.com/wisercoder/uibuilder UIBuilder brings JSX to Web Components.
interlocutor··on Ask HN: Go-to web stack today?
There are simpler ways to do global state management than redux. The scenario you described is nothing new. Redux is new. How do you think people solved this problem before Redux? Does redux have a better way of solving this old problem? How would you solve this problem in an ASP.NET or JSP application that has server-side rendering? How would you solve it in an iOS app? My point is that this is a pedestrian, every-day problem that doesn't need a complicated solution. Redux is unnecessarily verbose and makes you jump through hoops without giving enough in return. Yeah, I know about time-travel state debugging, but YAGNI.
interlocutor··on Letter from Tim Cook to Apple Investors
As an AAPL investor, I want Apple to raise prices for their top-of—the-line phones, otherwise the cheaper phones (like the one I purchased) will lower the average selling price. Of course people are not going to pay higher prices without getting something substantial in return. This is where Apple is lacking at the moment. The pace of innovation in both hardware and software has slowed down. There is plenty of room for improvement.

EDIT

Take a look at this video from Microsoft where they show how hover and squeeze gestures can dramatically improve the phone experience: https://www.theverge.com/2016/5/5/11595564/microsoft-3d-touc... This shows there is plenty of room for innovation, Apple just isn't innovating fast enough.

interlocutor··on Letter from Tim Cook to Apple Investors
> Smartphone market is nearly saturated. It's time for more realistic pricing.

Just before Christmas I bought an iPhone 6S for $99 from AT&T. That’s a very realistic price for a very nice phone!

Fine print: I had to pay $145 plus tax but $45 is credited to me for monthly charges. The phone is locked to AT&T for 3 months. After Christmas the price has gone back to $199.

interlocutor··on Flat Design vs. Traditional Design: Comparative Experimental Study (2015)
Here are some examples of how flat design has made things worse in MacOS and iOS: http://uxcritique.tumblr.com
interlocutor··on Why We Sleep, and Why We Often Can’t
"Supplementation of 500 mg of Mg has been associated with significant improvement in the insomnia severity index, sleep time, sleep efficiency, sleep onset latency, serum cortisol concentration, serum renin, and melatonin" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5637834/

More: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3703169/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23853635 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8232845

interlocutor··on Why We Sleep, and Why We Often Can’t
I have seen many doctors, including sleep specialists, regarding insomnia. They all pointed to one source as the reason for the sleep issues: stress. And they all wanted to put me on prescription sleeping pills. I said no to that. Sleeping pills are addictive and you have to take them for the rest of your life. As a software engineer, I am used to finding and fixing the underlying problem as opposed to the quickfixes these doctors were offering me.

After much research I figured out the underlying problem, and the fix for it. The underlying problem is magnesium deficiency. As a software developer I am using my brain more intensely than most people. This is the stress the doctors are talking about. Stress depletes magnesium. The cells in our body depend on two essential minerals for normal function: Calcium and magnesium. Cells go into ON state when calcium goes in, and OFF state when calcium goes out. Calcium doesn't go out on its own: magnesium has to go in and displace the calcium. When you are low on magnesium, cells can't go into OFF state. When that happens your muscles become stiff and you need massages, and your brain can't turn off and you can't sleep. The solution is magnesium supplements. This fixed my muscle stiffness issues and my sleep issues. A special compound of magnesium called magnesium l-threonate is especially helpful for sleep because it can penetrate the "blood brain barrier".

Scientific sources for this are hard to come by. I had to piece together all this from multiple sources. Here are some: https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/abcs-of-nutrition... http://www.drsinatra.com/benefits-of-magnesium-supplements-f... http://paleoforwomen.com/soul-crushing-stress-and-the-miracl...

interlocutor··on Facebook Applied for Patent to Predict Who’s in House Based on Family Photos
Yes.

Steve Kroft: "You signed on. You made the deal."

Max Schrems: The individual doesn't have the power, the time, the legal expertise to understand any of that. And then you're sitting at home at your desk and have the option to only say yes. This is not what any reasonable person would consider a fair deal.

Read more here: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gdpr-the-law-that-lets-europe-t...

interlocutor··on Facebook Applied for Patent to Predict Who’s in House Based on Family Photos
>> Which country do you live in and specifically which "right to privacy" do you mean?

All European countries. If you live in Europe you own your data.

>> Are you sure you haven't already given it to them?

"And then you're sitting at home at your desk and have the option to only say yes. This is not what any reasonable person would consider a fair deal." -- from 60 Minutes.

You clearly didn't watch 60 Minutes last Sunday. But you can still read the transcript here, where every point you raise has been addressed: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gdpr-the-law-that-lets-europe-t...

interlocutor··on Facebook Applied for Patent to Predict Who’s in House Based on Family Photos
This should be illegal because I have a right to privacy. Corporations should have my permission in order to store, process and sell information about me.
interlocutor··on Facebook Applied for Patent to Predict Who’s in House Based on Family Photos
Yes, it is naive. Is it acceptable for Target (or FB or Google) to know that a girl is pregnant before she has shared the news with her family?

https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/06/big-data-whats-even...

Human beings have a right to privacy and right to control who knows their personal information.

interlocutor··on Private messages from 81,000 hacked Facebook accounts for sale
No, not secure enough. Remember ActiveX? The security policy of ActiveX was, the browser asks the user if he wants to install the ActiveX. If the user says yes, anything that happens afterwards is the users responsibility.

What you're suggesting is not that much better. Do you expect your grandma to be able to review the permission list for the browser extension?

Browser extensions are the modern day ActiveX. Yes, lots of them are very useful. But you could say the same about ActiveX controls too.

interlocutor··on Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers
>> Given hundreds of acquaintances, this is a pain, and made me give up on Facebook altogether.

Sounds like you need https://circles.app

interlocutor··on The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It
You can use a real database and have Excel like UI, plus data entry, with good reporting tools, here's one: http://pebblereports.com/
interlocutor··on Three Levels of Wealth
Why can't we have a combination? Basic free healthcare for those who can't afford to pay for it, and premium care for those who can afford private insurance.
← PreviousPage 4 of 7Next →