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pan69

3,577 karma · joined October 24, 2009

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pan69··on Sloppy Copies
> I think we are seeing the beginning of the end of for-sale software.

We're seeing the end of "simple" for-sale software. Like OPs CRUD app, a UI front-end on-top of a database, of which there are a gazillion examples so some AI can easily synthesize some approximation of whatever requested variation.

The selling of software was always in the "moat", not how fast you were able to churn out CRUD apps. We used offshore that to a more viable economy, but now we're offshoring that to an automated process.

We're not seeing the end of for-sale software, we're seeing the beginning of the end-to-end solo founder.

pan69··on Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs
Elections for executive leadership doesn't sound all that crazy to me. With 30+ years in the business I have witnessed my fair share of executive whackos that wouldn't have passed a basic sniff test if they had convince workers that they should be the one leading them.
pan69··on Building a SaaS in 2026 Using Only EU Infrastructure
This is actually important to understand. What are the dependencies of your dependencies? I.e. if your goal is to be sovereign than knowing how far the turtles go, and who the turtles are, is quite important.
pan69··on A whole civilization might die tonight
As depressing as it sounds, this seems to pretty much sum up the objective of the 2nd Trump admin.
pan69··on Sopwith – 1984 Game (2000)
I remember playing this on my families Olivetti M24. It was very difficult. Maybe because the game was speed sensitive and the M24 was an 8086 running 8Mhz. Good times nonetheless.
pan69··on Weather.com/Retro
But once you unmute, there is no way back...
pan69··on Voyager 1 runs on 69 KB of memory and an 8-track tape recorder
> Video unavailable > The uploader has not made this video available in your country

I'd love to watch this but unfortunately. My country being AU.

pan69··on No AI in Node.js Core
> A 19k lines-of-code Pull Request was opened in January, 2026.

Such a PR should be rejected simply because of the shear size of it, regardless of AI use. Seriously, who submits a 19k line PR? Just make many small ones.

pan69··on The strait of Hormuz blockade will strangle US defense industry
Unfortunately you're flawed to think that rational and evidence based thinking plays a role in the final decision making.
pan69··on RAM kits are now sold with one fake RAM stick alongside a real one
I did the same in 2023. I got the Asus Q470:

https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/motherboards/cs...

I added a Intel Core i7 10700K (with a nice low-profile Noctua cooler/fan) with 32GB of memory and a 512GB SSD and I'm using onboard graphics which is just fine for a daily driver "office" type machine running Linux. Very happy with it.

pan69··on As US missiles leave South Korea, the Philippines asks: are we next?
If I am not mistaken, another part of the equation is that it physically takes years to build a single missile (hence the cost).
pan69··on Ask HN: Is Claude down again?
What? You don't just prompt your kitchen?
pan69··on I resigned from OpenAI
It's easier to defer principled decision making to the future while you can rake in the cash in the meantime.
pan69··on $3T flows through U.S. nonprofits every year
Isn't charity just a business model these days? The first time I came across was about 10 or so years ago where, I think it was a 60 minutes did a report on Movember, how they have some scheme/scam where the guys who started/own the "charity" also have another company that owns the Movember brand and the charity then has to licence the brand from that company. Meaning that for every dollar donated a good portion (can't remember the exact figure) then goes straight into their pockets as license fees.
pan69··on The yoghurt delivery women combatting loneliness in Japan
> Yakult (ヤクルト, Yakuruto) is a Japanese sweetened probiotic milk beverage fermented with the bacteria strain Lacticaseibacillus casei Shirota. It is sold by Yakult Honsha based in Tokyo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakult

pan69··on BBC says 'irreversible' trends mean it will not survive without major overhaul
> By law, each household in the UK - with some exceptions - has to pay if they:

> watch or record programmes as they're being shown live on any TV channel

> The rules apply to any device on which a programme is viewed, including a TV, desktop or laptop computer, mobile phone, tablet, games console or set-top box.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz9k27yy839o

pan69··on [dead]
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/trump-betrayed-us-fleeing-...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/09/trump-syria-...

pan69··on Show HN: Explain Curl Commands
Now do one for ffmpeg :)
pan69··on [dead]
I have been thinking about this and I think it might work well for established code bases that already exhibit specific patterns that are used over and over again. E.g. a CRUD app with a OpenAPI spec, a controller layer, a service layer, a repository layer, or even good old MVC for that matter. With these established patterns it wouldn't be unthinkable to provide an orchestrator agent a set of requirements that are detailed enough for a group of agents to implement, each agent focusing on a different type of task including an Q/A agent. I'd imagine you end up with one or more PRs for you to review and squash & merge when you're happy with it.

Edit: What I mean is that these agents would work autonomously until their task is accomplished. They can ask for clarification if they require it.

pan69··on [dead]
I'd consider myself a very experienced (~30 years), but mediocre dev, and this AI thing has completely transformed my capabilities as a software developer. People compare AI to a "smart junior" or something like it. To me, it's more the mentor I never had. When I have AI review code that I wrote, I will point out things I would either have never thought of, or would have taken me weeks or months of going back and forth to figure out. There are lots of things in software development that I hate doing, such as CSS/HTML, AI is now filling the gap that used to be an obstacle for me. With AI this now has become fun as it feels like I am not alone working on this thing. What it produces, I can understand and I review its work as well as vica-verca. I mostly use it in assistant mode. I do not have an army of agents running (yet).
pan69··on Google Street View in 2026
It does look smooth but for me the killer feature on google maps is still the ability to go back in time.
pan69··on Martial arts robots at 2026 Spring Festival Gala [video]
Can it swap its own battery?
pan69··on AI is going to kill app subscriptions
>something I would ever release or need to share, just a local tool for me to use.

>This also got me thinking about open source might be dying.

Just because you can generate a wrapper app for a very specific use-case doesn't mean open source is dead or dying. As if open source was all just about people sharing their crappy specific use-case apps.

And software isn't getting weird. A part of the software development life cycle is being automated.

pan69··on AI is going to kill app subscriptions
> reverse engineer my grocery store's API

Your grocery store has a free API you can use? Even if that is the case, that will then soon change. If app building becomes "free" then the cost will shift over to the data access.

pan69··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (February 2026)
I am in the early stages on building a passion project called Metric Me - A dashboard for your body.

https://metricme.app/

Over two decades ago I was diagnosed with high blood pressure (for which am I have been on meds for about 15 years). I also have low platelets (red blood cells, basically means that I bruise easily and that small cuts don't heal fast). At any rate, I do blood tests on a regular basis to keep things in check. I have been keeping track of test results, weight and blood pressure result for nearly 20 years, but the data lives in a text file on my desktop. I wanted to build something more substantial for this for quite some time now, so, this is it.

pan69··on Roger Ebert Reviews "The Shawshank Redemption" (1999)
Same here. I got extremely annoyed with the constant ridiculous fight scenes. About halfway through I gave up.
pan69··on Amazon's Spending on 'Melania' Is a Barely Concealed Bribe
The difference here is Melania Trump currently represents the Office of the First Lady of the United States, an official government position in the White House.

When Obama, Harry & Megan made their documentaries, they were private citizens.

pan69··on Painless Software Schedules (2000)
Exactly the reason why such organisations tend to fail.
pan69··on National Guard activated in Minneapolis after Border Patrol agent kills man
My two cents. Trump likes the idea that in the Ukraine they can't hold elections when they are at war as per their constitution. Even though the US doesn't have such a thing, it's not going to deter Trump from creating a "situation" where he can declare a marshall law event of some sort to "postpone" elections, indefinitely. If Americans think that there are going to be midterms, or even a next presidential election, better get ready!
pan69··on Bye Bye Gmail
Another happy Fastmail user here. Other than for email, great perks of Fastmail are that it lets me mount my own domain(s) for email and I can even host simple static websites for those domains.
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