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nagarjun

274 karma · joined May 20, 2011

Moving the web forward since 2002. I blog at nagarjun.co.
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nagarjun··on Cantonese Font with Pronunciation
This is great! Desperately need this for Japanese!
nagarjun··on Personal newsletters as a calmer alternative to social networks
I love the idea in principle but, this is a tough sell. As much as I want to delete traditional social network apps (Facebook, Instagram, etc) from my device, I simply don't see that happening. Most people willing to pay $8 / month will want something out of it and as a result, it will be used mostly by professionals and content writers (as evidenced by the showcase in the home page). IMO, this is better suited to compete with public social networks like Twitter and LinkedIn. I wouldn't use it as an alternative to Facebook or Instagram, which IMO is far more detrimental to society than Twitter or LinkedIn. In an ideal world, I would like my friends and family to get off of FB and IG to use something like this but, I don't see that happening.
nagarjun··on Writing down what I do in Obsidian
I use an iOS Shortcut to create a daily note in Bear. It's simple but, works surprisingly well!
nagarjun··on A simple system I’m using to stay in touch with hundreds of people
I'm curious to hear your results from using this system. How long have you been running it for and what did you get out of it? I understand that the point of doing this is to not expect anything in return but, that's a little misleading because it's hard to have honest conversations in regular frequencies with people you barely know (B, C, D list). What do you do when people don't respond? Do you take them off the list?
nagarjun··on When is the revolution in architecture coming?
Bangalore Airport (BIAL) Terminal 2 looks promising: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB2xF5ta0UA. From the renders, the airport is unlike any other in India. While T1 is a large glass structure, T2 pays homage to Bangalore's image as India's "Garden City". Trees and natural materials are a central element of the terminal's design.
nagarjun··on Brave Search beta
> Or if you're search for a restaurant, add in your home town too.

This definitely doesn't help in India. If you live in the US, Brave/DDG can probably serve you better local results. It's abysmal in India. Google local results in India are orders of magnitude better here.

nagarjun··on Ask HN: How can I improve my intelligence?
Personally, I think "intelligence" means different things to different people. Some people are intelligent in their specific domain because they spend a lot of time working in that domain. Others are generalists, they know a little bit about a lot of things. To me, both are intelligent in their own right.

This article had a huge impact on me: The T-Shaped Information Diet - https://junglegym.substack.com/p/the-t-shaped-information-di....

Here's the basic idea:

> The T-shaped talent model suggests that the best way to grow your abilities is to build a shallow understanding across a breadth of domains and a depth of expertise in whichever domain is most relevant to your profession.

nagarjun··on ClearURLs – automatically remove tracking elements from URLs
Instead of it being a default feature, I wonder if this makes more sense as a default in Incognito/Private browsing mode?
nagarjun··on iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro
No USB-C, no fast charging, no high-refresh rate display, same large notch, mediocre battery life, expensive 5G chip that is useless in India, higher prices this year compared to last year, no charger included. There isn't one good reason to buy the iPhone 12 in India this year!
nagarjun··on Show HN: Lofimusic.app, an open source Background Music Progressive Web App
+1 for pause button
nagarjun··on 'Coup 53' tells the story of 1953 campaign by MI6 and CIA to oust Iran's leader
This deserves more attention that it is getting in this thread
nagarjun··on Ask HN: What are some available force multipliers that most people don't know?
Here are a few that I find especially helpful:

1. iOS Shortcuts - Lets you perform repeatable actions in the tap of a button. Most of us do the same thing over and over again every day. The few seconds you save not having to re-do something everyday really adds up over time. I'll give you a personal example. I've been trying to maintain a journaling habit for a while. None of the existing tools fit my need. I now have a Shortcut that creates a journal entry in Bear (https://bear.app) every afternoon for me to fill in. This simple automation helps me maintain my journaling habit because I don't have to use another journaling tool. I already use Bear for everything. Bear doesn't have an in-built journaling feature but Shortcuts lets me use it the way I want.

2. Learn keyboard shortcuts - you probably use a bunch of different software every day. Take some time to learn and get used to using keyboard shortcuts. The instant gratification you get from being able to rapidly navigate through the UI boosts your productivity.

3. Use checklists - checklists are useful for your personal and professional life. I have a Todoist project called #checklists where I store a bunch of different checklists like: start of the month, everyday checklist etc. In my everyday checklist for example, I have tasks like "Drink 3 litres of water", "Read for 30 minutes", "Workout", "Top 3 priorities for today", etc. I set these lists to repeat monthly, every day etc. (something you can do very easily in Todoist). This helps me form habits easily. A huge part of habit forming is to have someone (or some tool, like Todoist) nudge you to get started or remember to do something.

nagarjun··on Ask HN: What are some available force multipliers that most people don't know?
How do you deal with FOMO? I don't particularly care about Facebook/Instagram updates but RSS/HN/Twitter have been vital in my learning process. I learn something new every time I'm on these platforms. Personally, I think it's better to moderate your usage of these platforms than completely quitting them.
nagarjun··on Why NetNewsWire Is Fast
Telegram for Mac is the benchmark to beat for chat apps IMO. If Telegram can do it, why can't Slack/others?
nagarjun··on Things I hate about Rust
As a Rust beginner, the point about strings really resonated with me.
nagarjun··on Ask HN: What's your quarantine side project?
Interesting! I'm a big fan of spaced repetition. Are you building it as a native desktop/mobile app or as web app?
nagarjun··on Google Pixel Buds
A. I can't even access the Pixel Buds landing page in India. I think launching the product worldwide is asking for too much.
nagarjun··on Ask HN: What scientific phenomenon do you wish someone would explain better?
> Sorry, I got a bit off-topic. But I love finance, so please forgive me.

You really didn't have to apologize! I thoroughly enjoyed your explanation. I can't recall how many times I've searched Google for "How are stock prices determined?" and come back with nothing. Your answer was better than 100% of everything else out there.

I'd love to learn more about this. Are there any books, blogs, etc. that you could recommend? Also, YOU should really consider blogging about this!

nagarjun··on Ask HN: What scientific phenomenon do you wish someone would explain better?
This deserves to be upvoted all the way to the top!
nagarjun··on Seinfeld Adventure
I would buy this game instantly, no questions asked. I grew up watching reruns of Seinfeld (I was too young to understand it in the 90s). To this day, I stream a few episodes every month when there isn't anything else to watch. I think I've watched every episode at least 5 times and some, even more than that!
nagarjun··on Launch HN: Paragon (YC W20) – Visually Build API Workflows
Great product! I was part of a team that wanted to rapidly test different marketing approaches using data in Salesforce etc. My colleagues were mostly non-technical so I had them try out Zapier and they loved it! I can see how Paragon can be useful to them.

Quick question - are you using some kind of UI library to power the graphical builder? I recall coming across a JS library in the past that looked very similar but I can't remember what it was called.

nagarjun··on MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy
My experience has been similar. I upgraded from the 2014 MBP (which is a glorious machine) to 2018. The day I got it, I realized it had issues with the keyboard (several keys repeating). Took it back to the store, got a new device. The issue wasn't as widely acknowledged back then. When I complained to the store that I was experiencing the same issue again, the gave me yet another device, same issue. Went back to the store and they got annoyed at me. They complained that none of their other customers reported this issue.

They accused me of installing apps that were causing this issue although I had nothing of that sort installed. I am a web developer and like to think that I know computers well enough to not install sketchy apps. I had installed all the same apps that were in my 2014 MBP so when I confronted the store, they just gave me a random reason and sent me away. I got so fed up trying to convince these people that there was an issue. I ended up buying a Magic Keyboard and using that instead.

Mind you, all this happened in India where Apple doesn't have a direct retail experience. 3rd party retailers have zero training procedures in place. Their staff isn't nearly as knowledgeable as their US counterparts about the products they are selling. This whole keyboard fiasco has been my worst Apple experience.

nagarjun··on Launch HN: Dockup (YC W19) – On demand staging environments for dev teams
As a manager of a remote team, I can see how this can be doubly useful to me! We already use Docker for development too but reviews still involve stopping what I'm doing to pull another developer's code to test and merge. I couldn't find any documentation for Dockup on your website. Is documentation available only if I'm signed in? I was just curious to see how it can be setup before signing up for an account.
nagarjun··on Evernote lost its CTO, CFO, CPO and HR head as it eyes another fundraise
It's sad because it's a genuinely good but rusty product. I've tried all other note taking applications - OneNote, Notion, Bear etc. and each has their own problems. I don't like OneNote's strict "notebook" organizational structure. Notion also forces you to put notes into notebooks, the interface is annoyingly slow, mobile app is just a web app that's packaged for your device, no Chrome extension, no handwriting support etc. etc. but it has a TON of amazing formatting features that I would love to see in Evernote. Bear, Google Keep etc. in my opinion are just toys.

To me, Evernote would be just perfect if it could combine the handwriting flexibility of OneNote with the advanced formatting features of Notion. Also, is it really that hard for the Evernote team to add templates?

nagarjun··on Ask HN: How do you organize/track your personal goals?
I use this really simple app on Android - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.isoron.uha...
nagarjun··on WWDC 2018
I understand your sentiment but I switched from iOS to Android 2 years ago and the first thing I noticed was how powerful Android's notifications were. I still own an iPhone which I primarily use for testing web apps etc. and I keep notifications off on that device purely because I hate how it works on iOS. Once you get used to the Android way, you start to realize everything you're missing on iOS.

Here are a few things I like about Android notifications: - Grouped notifications and notification channels make swiping away unnecessary alerts a breeze - One tap to clear all notifications - Reply to text messages through the notification - Ability to take action on a notification without additional swipes (for example, you can "Archive' an email from Gmail's notification without having to swipe left like in iOS - this small UX improvement makes a huge difference if you get a barrage of notifications) - Notification priority - system notifications like alarms etc. are smaller indicating that it isn't as important. You can always expand if you need to. - When you play a song on a music app, the notification changes color to match the most prominent color in the album's artwork. Little fun stuff like this adds some character. - Swipe to mute notifications from an app for a few minutes, an hour etc. without having to poke around settings.

I am sure I am missing a few points but in general, the UX is just a LOT better than iOS's one-style-fits-all design. I know this is a matter of personal preference and that there are surely iOS users who prefer a simple notification list. Worst case, it'd be nice if iOS had the option to toggle between simple listed notifications and a more advanced version that works like Android.

nagarjun··on WWDC 2018
WWDC's website feels so bland compared to the Google I/O website. Monotone design, awkward text positioning.. there's just no excitement. Ditto for recent Apple keynotes.

There isn't anything new anymore. This isn't the Apple we knew a decade-or-so ago. It feels like Apple peaked around then, sad! They just don't try anymore.

I for one, really want to see Apple do something creative (but before they do anything new, PLEASE FIX IOS NOTIFICATIONS.. THEY'RE A JOKE COMPARED TO ANDROID)!

nagarjun··on SailsJS 1.0 – Rails-like JS Framework
I owe a great deal of gratitude to the Sails team. I've built numerous projects over the last few years using Sails. Congratulations on the big 1.0! I do somewhat agree that documentation is sparse and Waterline is a hit or miss but for most things, Sails has served me very well.
nagarjun··on Ask HN: Simple tools/hack for small project management
I've used https://trello.com/ for most of my projects even when I am working with a team. We love it. Here are some basics on how to manage a project with Trello: https://trello.com/inspiration/project-management.
nagarjun··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (December 2017)
Remote ok? I've worked on Ember and Node for the last 3 years or so.
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