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thomasrognonon Ask HN: Most people find browser tabs confusing?

In my case, users need to switch back and forth between multiple tables often (maintaining things like state and scroll position). So if I don't leverage browser tabs, I'll have to implement tabbing within the app. Of course, users could still choose to open tables in new tabs also, but that would result in two levels of tabbing.

thomasrognonon Ask HN: Most people find browser tabs confusing?

Maybe many people do not use multiple tabs within one site/app

I'm thinking this may be the crux of the problem. I figured since G Suite did it, it would be common enough and fine, but maybe not.

There's probably some research out there

Everything I found was about how some people never close tabs and how to deal with hundreds of open tabs. This is also part of what led to me assume that people are comfortable with the concept of tabs.

look and feel too different from a browser or other tabbed environment. Does it clearly communicate where a new tab is opened

I'm personally biased towards this answer. Maybe it works for G Suite because people understand "documents" as being self-contained in separate screens and that does not intuitively carry over to other things. Leveraging browser tabs is so powerful and useful, so I'm hoping some extra communication effort will solve it.

thomasrognonon Ask HN: Most people find browser tabs confusing?

We don't have many users yet (private alpha), so I'm trying to get ahead of the ball. I'm wondering if this is a broader trend other people have seen or maybe a symptom of something else. Does it work for Google Sheets/Docs/etc because people are used to relating "documents" to separate windows and that is unlikely to carry over to "database tables"? These are hard answers to get up front from users, but maybe other developers/startups have insight.

At the end of the day, I will absolutely listen to our users (and definitely not argue with them). Always a great reminder, though, thank you!

thomasrognonon Tips for Founders Sales: Lessons from Starting Two B2B Startups

I just started a B2B software startup and my cofounder and I are looking for all the sales advice/mentorship we can get. Is there any chance we could talk to you sometime? My contact info is in my profile.

thomasrognonon Breathing and Exercise: Strength Training for Your Diaphragm (2018)

I'm interested in this also. Would love to hear if you find something/someone good.

thomasrognonon Cryptocurrency in the 2020s

I don't think Satoshi's opinion would be any different now. Decentralization as a primary goal and maximizing it at all costs is a narrative that grew after he left. It was originally a means to an end and things just needed to be decentralized enough to be resilient. Relevant Satoshi quote:

The current system where every user is a network node is not the intended configuration for large scale. That would be like every Usenet user runs their own NNTP server. The design supports letting users just be users. The more burden it is to run a node, the fewer nodes there will be. Those few nodes will be big server farms. The rest will be client nodes that only do transactions and don't generate. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=532.msg6306#msg6306

thomasrognonon Ask HN: Who is hiring? (August 2019)

Can you add a way to contact you in your profile?

thomasrognonon The latest trend for tech interviews: Days of unpaid homework

Thanks for this, I added this essay to my reading list. Breaking people out of the OOP worldview is currently one of my biggest professional challenges.

thomasrognonon JavaScript: prototype vs. class

If it's not clear, the issue isn't about the keywords, which are clearly an improvement compared to ES5. The issue is about doing OOP in JS. Much has already been written about OOP vs functional/procedural so I'm not going to rehash that. The OP's point is that you don't have to write OOP code in JS and that he believes JS code is cleaner without it. I think it's a good point to bring up because many developers have difficultly imagining non-OOP code and bring in patterns from C++/C#/Java because it's what they know.

thomasrognonon JavaScript: prototype vs. class

He's not telling people to not learn things or advocated changes to the language. Nor is he advocating the code you strawmanned above. He's saying he's found that `this` and `class` are best avoided. And I agree. I also agree that it's easier to test and reason about functional/procedural code or, more generally, code with fewer side effects and implicit state than OO code.

People usually share these thoughts, not out of desperation or ulterior motive, but because they've had experience with many paradigms and they've found these the most effective.

thomasrognonon How to dismantle a compiler bomb

This is common knowledge for C programmers. In the embedded/firmware space, I've seen #define UINT_MAX (unsigned int)(-1) very often. It's convenient because it is always the maximum unsigned integer value regardless of whether int is 8/16/32/64 bits.

thomasrognonon Show HN: Lightning Network Search and Analysis Engine

That's an incredibly misleading statement, regardless of what side of the community you're aligned with.

thomasrognonon Four companies dominate our daily lives unlike any other in human history

I don't agree with the idea that any type of company is a body in itself, or that it should be considered a person under law. It's a group of people who work together to achieve common goals.

The concept of rights doesn't even apply, in the same way that "society" doesn't have rights. Individuals have rights. Taking money from a company means taking money from the people who own it. It doesn't exist apart from them. Making it seem so just makes it easier to violate the rights of the individuals involved.

To me, it's as ridiculous as things like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._$124,700_in_U...

thomasrognonon Four companies dominate our daily lives unlike any other in human history

A company is a group of people. Why should a group of people be treated differently than an individual?

thomasrognonon Dow plunges 1000 points

There's more than just Democrat and Republican out there.

thomasrognonon Ask HN: What benefits does the blockchain provide?

You are thinking of operations within a centrally controlled, trusted entity. This is useful for things that happen between entities that don't necessarily trust each other and don't have control of each other's data. Data interoperability, dealing with sketchy vendors, and chain of ownership through many companies, nations, or even departments within large organizations are huge problems that an insane amount of money is thrown at. There is a lot of value in a database of facts that no-one controls and everyone can trust.

thomasrognonon Ask HN: What benefits does the blockchain provide?

Supply chain logistics and proof of ownership is a non-currency use case of blockchain technology.

thomasrognonon Ask HN: What benefits does the blockchain provide?

What's the general use case of the internet? Any answer to that still leaves you to connect the dots with real-world effects. It sounds like you wants some of those real-world effects for blockchain technology listed for you. Here are some far-reaching possibilities...

* Puts the whole world on the same level of financial freedom and participation - farmer in Africa without an internet connection permissionlessly invests in a Chinese tractor company via text.

* Solves the problem of ownership - no need for house, car, etc title companies.

* Brings a new level of honesty to the financial world - auditing industry goes away because it's not possible to cook the books.

* Every movement of value becomes near-instant and doesn't require trusted middlemen - elimination of clearing houses.

* Breaks down national borders - vastly improved supply-chain logistics.

It has the potential of reshaping almost every corner of the underlying structures of modern economies. Just like the internet, it's the foundation for a new chapter of innovation. Who knows what will come of it?

thomasrognonon Dozens of Companies Are Using Facebook to Exclude Older Workers From Job Ads

My title is "architect". I use scare quotes because I agree with what you wrote and I dislike being associated with the type of people and the jobs that make it true. I, also, only work at places where the interview is sufficiently technical and there are no separate design-only roles.

It's been surprising to me how much I've had to fight people on this issue in the past.

thomasrognonon What Really Happened with Vista

To be fair, drivers are a much more difficult problem for Microsoft because they don't control the hardware like Apple does. There are way more devices out there for Windows machines, and an insane number of combinations that have to work together without ever having been tested together.

thomasrognonon Visual Studio Code: Shipping One of the Largest Microsoft JavaScript Apps

That was a bug in Chrome (http://crbug.com/361587), it's not inherent to the technology. VS Code ended up implementing the logic in JS to work around it.

thomasrognonon Visual Studio Code: Shipping One of the Largest Microsoft JavaScript Apps

Does that include VS Code? VS Code feels very responsive to me. I even replaced notepad++ on my Windows machines with it.

thomasrognonon Why Capitalism Creates Pointless Jobs

It's interesting that slavery existed for millennia, and then virtually disappeared within a century or so of the emergence of capitalism.

thomasrognonon Why WebAssembly Is Faster Than Asm.js

You're in a bubble. I've used QBASIC, C, C++, various .NET languages, Java, Python, list goes on and on. I've led desktop app, firmware drivers, kernel driver, security architecture projects, list goes on and on.

And guess what? I've been doing a ton of web dev over the past 5 or so years and I love it. I use React/Webpack/Node/ES201x/Typescript/etc. It's great.

When you're in a bubble, you like things for the beast you know, and hate things for the beast you don't know. There are a ton of devs out there that do not hate JS, and it sure as hell isn't out of inexperience.

thomasrognonon The Uber Bombshell About to Drop

"(A) Each TNC operating in the City of Austin shall pay an annual fee calculated by the department based on one of the following methods of that TNCs choosing:
(1) The total of the permit fee paid by taxicab companies times the number of persons driving for the TNC;
(2) One (1) percent of the TNCs annual local gross revenues, or a comparable percentage of a TNCs portion of driver fares; or
(3) Based on total miles driven.

(B) Except for any TNC participating in the Safety Assurance Program, each TNC shall pay an additional fee of one (1) percent of the TNCs annual local gross revenue for the Compliant Driver Education Fund to be used to assist and incent drivers to become compliant."

Also, it was about much more than just fingerprinting. Fingerprinting was emphasized because it would have affected Uber and Lyft's business model the most by reducing the supply of drivers due to higher onboarding friction.

Here's the ordinance: https://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm%3Fid=245769

Some more interesting parts:

- "A TNC shall establish a driver-training program designed to ensure that each driver safely operates his or her vehicle prior to the driver being able to offer service"

- "during periods of abnormal market disruptions, dynamic pricing shall be prohibited."

- ...and the whole reporting section where they have to hand over all their internal operating data to the city

thomasrognonon What makes WebAssembly fast?

You can make the sourcemaps refer to the TypeScript code. I set breakpoints in TypeScript files and step through it all the time.

thomasrognonon Brilliant Jerks Cost More Than They Are Worth

The article claimed he was a 10x and that he was usually right in any disagreement, so he probably built up resentment towards them, too.

thomasrognonon Brilliant Jerks Cost More Than They Are Worth

You found the perfect words for how I currently feel.

thomasrognonon A Low-Cost Solution to Traffic

I-35 visually looks like it's about 1/4 to 1/3 large trucks transporting goods. I've heard a lot of it is goods going to and from Mexico. I wonder if it would be just as crowded without all the trucks.

thomasrognonon How much does employee turnover really cost?

Wow, same here. I relate to every point, which has never happened with any "culture and values" brief before.