Hacker News Reader

sdfjklon Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

My Nikon AW1 can't even charge its own battery. I have to take it out of the camera and put it in a (huge, blocky, AC powered) charger.

sdfjklon Django 2.0 alpha

Hmm, I haven't done much with Django in a while, but for a major version this seems a bit... underwhelming.

sdfjklon Ask HN: What is the typical time your contracting invoices are paid?

7 days. I'm not in the money lending business. If you're late, I'll send you an angry owl picture (cute and worked well so far), or if I think you'll get it, a video clip of Malcolm Reynolds saying "I do the job, and then I get paid" (sorry, too slow internet to look that one up on youtube for you).

If a client is regularly very late, I send a more serious email and if they can't get a grip on it, I dump them.

So far I've never not gotten paid and only ever dumped one client who was a pain in the ass in many other ways too.

Oh, forgot to mention, I invoice weekly.

sdfjklon Ask HN: What is the most amazing python script you ever wrote to save your time?

Many moons ago, when I was young and working as a lowly IT service monkey, the client (a huge corporation) decided to migrate from their prehistoric, image-deployed Win95 setup to a centrally managed WinXP setup. This went about as terribly as you can expect and we ended up with a long checklist of things that needed fixing manually, on each of the 1200 computers we were responsible for.

So I stayed an hour or two longer every couple days and each time picked one task from the checklist and wrote a Python script that would do that job for me (such as making sure some .INI file were having the right settings, or some registry settings were set, or some installer was run).

Soon enough, the script was doing enough of my work so that my time could be spent working on the script instead of mindnumbingly editing the same INI file over and over again, and eventually the script did everything. I shared it with my colleagues and soon the 40-point checklist was reduced to: 1. Run the script.

It also provided me with excellent job security and a route into later software development jobs :)

sdfjklon WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton to leave company

Jam Koum already cashed out in 2016: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Koum

sdfjklon Snapchat’s Influencers Are Fleeing to Instagram for Money

> He credits Axe body spray with getting him out of the “friend zone.”

This makes money? It can't die fast enough.

sdfjklon Ask HN: Apple maps vs. Google maps today?

We've been sailing Europe, so had plenty of opportunity to compare maps in different locations.

Google maps is great for navigating cities you're unfamiliar with. It gives you public transport information (not complete, missing buses here in Porto for example, but pretty good), points of interest (with funny gaps though), place reviews with photos and the search is really good. On my aging iPhone 4S both the app and the maps and search results load faster than Apple maps. The web version has recently gotten more horrible and is the usual Javascript overloaded catastrophe that just doesn't work at all on crappy internet connections (which is the norm when traveling). I have a bookmark for the old (now called "lite") version. The phone app is okay but has the horrid habit of nagging you ceaselessly about wanting you to log in and share your everything with Google.

Apple maps search is _atrocious_. Even pasting in an exact address, it will often find some completely irrelevant spot in a small town in the US instead of anything over here in Europe where I am. Searching for things like "library" is even more hopeless, it'll show me something like "Library road" in a village in Cornwall rather than the library in Porto just around the corner from where I'm standing. The only time I ever use it is if I want to show people on a far zoomed out view where we've been, because the OS X client is faster than Google maps web and really nice to navigate by touchpad.

Bing maps has often more recent and higher resolution satellite images than any of the others. I can't speak of any of their other features as I only ever use it via SAS.planet, but when I want to check my nautical charts with satellite images I often end up using Bing's data.

sdfjklon Ask HN: Someone have gotten troubles for not show “We use cookies, Ok?” message?

My solution was to not use cookies. For a static (generated) blog, that's very viable.

sdfjklon The ocean is a strange place after dark

The ocean is a fantastic place. We've recently crossed the Bay of Biscay under sail and have seen many pods of dolphins, bio-luminescence in our wake at night and the stars in a way you can only see far away from any source of light.

Here's some dolphins for you (daytime though): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lWmOhS83kU

sdfjklon DIY Powerwall Builders Are Using Recycled Laptop Batteries to Power Their Homes

From what I've seen (and I haven't really been following this), they're rather using old electric car batteries to do that. Electric cars have been around long enough for there to be old/broken ones available now and most of the cells in their banks are still good.

sdfjklon Quake Champions – Raw Gameplay Trailer [video]

Looks like actual Quake. Well done on that. Not sure why it needed a re-release?

sdfjklon Awesome OS X Command Line

I quite like the badge: https://www.bresink.com/osx/FullSoftware.html

sdfjklon Ask HN: What could disrupt email?

The removal of corporate bullshit signatures and legal disclaimers that are 10x the size of the actual email content.

Oh, and secure end-to-end encryption that is simple to set up and use safely.

sdfjklon Ask HN: Which developers do you closely follow?

I don't really follow anyone, but here's a few whose work I've admired and learnt from (not just their code):

D. Richard Hipp (SQLite, Fossil) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._Richard_Hipp

Guido van Rossum (Python)

Any of the FreeBSD folk. Same goes for the PostgreSQL lot too - I just like their way of doing things in a calm, collected and efficient manner. Well, at least compared to some other dev teams I've seen :)

Donald Knuth of course.

The guy who tried to make Objective-C more Smalltalkish. Uh, Marcel Weiher. Had to look that up.

Bret Victor.

There's more, but that's all I can think of for now.

sdfjklon Just how smart is an octopus?

You're lucky all he wanted was to eat a flounder and then return peacefully to his tank instead of going full Dawn of the Planet of the Octopuses on you.

sdfjklon Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

That is certainly true for boat ownership (although you can save and learn a lot by doing everything yourself). But you don't have to buy a boat just to sail. Plenty around already!

sdfjklon Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

Nope. I do watch a few sailing vlogs though: DrakeParagon, Untie the Lines, La Vagabonde and Sail Life. Each have a very different approach to the subject, ranging from extensive preparation and fitting redundant systems (Drake), to buying a beat up boat and just casting off on a round the world trip, figuring it out as they go (La Vaga).

sdfjklon Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

In the English channel, off the coast of Sussex. I learnt programming by doing it and then reading about it. I learnt sailing by reading about it and then doing it. This is because when programming it hurts less when you screw up, when sailing it's best to have a basic understanding of things before you set out so you're not a risk to yourself and others :)

The actual sailing bit isn't really very difficult. If you have a basic understanding of physics, you'll soon grok it. Navigation is a bit more involved, but not for a programmer, especially if you've done any GIS coding and remember your basic geometry. Oh, I also had to do a very simple radio exam.

Now picking the right boat, that is difficult as hell ;-)

sdfjklon Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

After about 20 years of computer stuff, I've found a new interest - sailing. I spent most of the money gained from computer stuff on a boat, learnt how to repair it and sail it (repairing being the far more extensive subject), and am about to set off for a long trip. While doing this I've been using my newly gained skills and combined with my existing skills (computers, networks, electronics) did some work in the marine sector (mostly for the odd dinner, some of it paid) - turns out boats are full of special purpose computers and most of the "specialists" fixing them are uhm, not the best. My skills found quick appreciation. Might continue down that road once I run out of money.

I guess my advice is to do a bunch of things and see what you enjoy, new opportunities will happen as you do. Having an IT background is helpful almost anywhere, and more valued outside of core IT areas.

sdfjklon Ask HN: Every website wants to send me notifications

To turn it off in Firefox' about:config, switch both to False:

   dom.webnotifications.serviceworker.enabled
   dom.webnotifications.enabled

sdfjklon Ask HN: Every website wants to send me notifications

That's what RSS is for, no? Keeps the subscription under your control, you don't have to share anything with anyone, you can unsubscribe easily and it's trivial to anonymize through a reader that caches/proxies the requests.

Perfect for the end user. Not so perfect for the spam industry, of course, but whenever those guys get to decide how something on the internet should work it always turns ugly, so that really has to stop.

sdfjklon Scientists engineer mice genomes to lengthen their lifespans by 30 percent

Related reading: Misspent Youth and the Commonwealth Saga by Peter F. Hamilton. A series of sci-fi books where "rejuvenation" technology plays a significant role, its impact on society and human risk taking.

sdfjklon Show HN: Godb is a simple Go ORM for PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite and SQL Server

Took me a moment to parse the name correctly. Perhaps GoDB would've been a better choice, although I assume naming conventions prevented that and so the second letter of the alphabet was declared a deity instead.

sdfjklon Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016?

It is if you like to blog anyways.

sdfjklon Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016?

Amazon referrals. I made £40 or so.

sdfjklon Confirmation of the topology of the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator’s magnetic field

Stellarator is a beautiful word. I think it's my word of the year.

  stellarator |ˈstɛləreɪtə|
  noun - Physics
  a toroidal apparatus for producing
  controlled fusion reactions in hot plasma,
  where all the controlling magnetic fields
  inside it are produced by external windings.
  ORIGIN
  1950s: from stellar (with reference to the
  fusion processes in stars), on the pattern
  of generator.

sdfjklon Bose Hearphones

Sounds (no pun intended) like APD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditory_processing_disorder

sdfjklon Oh right, about those LEDs

Those daylight backlight upgrade kits are nice. We boat nerds always lust after stuff like that, because we like to take computers out in the sun (and rain and airborne saltwater) and this is one of the key parts for doing that.

sdfjklon How can I protect myself from government snoopers?

What makes you think Germany is a better exit point for your traffic?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesetz_zur_Beschr%C3%A4nkung_d...

Much more comprehensive German version: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artikel_10-Gesetz#.C3.9Cbermit...

sdfjklon MacOS 10.12 Open Source Components

Does the power requirement change between USB 2.0 and USB 3? If not, I don't see why more power would change anything.

I also don't think a power problem on an attached USB device should give my computer a kernel panic.