Hacker News Reader

throwaway0071on Computer History Museum 2018 Fellow: Guido van Rossum

<HN> hold my beer!

Just wait a few minutes. I can already see one.

throwaway0071on Google’s Fuchsia OS on the Pixelbook

> How many of the core devs don't work for Google? How much of the overall project direction is decided by people who have nothing to do with Google?

This is why some developers are starting to hate open source. There's no technical excitement, it's all about community and governance and who has power and corporations and codes of conduct, etc... If not, you're going to fail. You get an army of experts scrutinizing your project and it's unexciting.

throwaway0071on Launch HN: Mirror (YC W17) – turn a selfie into emoji that look like you

Thanks for explaining it in more detail. This is very interesting (and if it doesn't pan out, you got the hottest skills in the market right now). All the best.

throwaway0071on Launch HN: Mirror (YC W17) – turn a selfie into emoji that look like you

I don't get it. The technology looks super interesting but the end result maybe is more targeted at teenagers?

> AI needs data that informs it whether its decisions are right

Well, aren't the emojis all out there for you to analyze? Isn't there a lot of videos with real faces for you to analyze?

> VR characters that look like you in the gameworld

XBox does this today, doesn't it?

> personalized advertising that has your face in it the way you like

I couldn't care less about advertising. Maybe you're pitching to investors?

> Everyone asks us why after starting a big “serious" company, we decided to work with emoji, and this is the reason.

What's the reason? It's not clear.

As an user of this, it looks like a gimmick (like Tom The Talking Cat).

throwaway0071on We’re sorry, and we’re not rolling out the fees change

You're complaining that a company is framing a certain situation in a given way and yet that's exactly what you're doing here, framing it in a different way trying to convince us of your point. I don't see the difference.

throwaway0071on Show HN: Work at a Startup – Find a Job at a YC Company

I'm assuming this is US-centric. What's the approach to visas?

throwaway0071on A plane flying over Germany drawing a Christmas tree

Are you this person?

https://twitter.com/JamesNicollV/status/940964868110381057?s...

throwaway0071on Larry Ellison allegedly tried to have a professor fired for benchmarking Oracle

It's the first time I read this blog post (thanks for sharing) but it's not surprising to me.

I always cringe when I see people quoting Bryan because that's exactly my experience interacting with him on mailing lists or watching him give talks.

At this point I don't have the energy to deal with people like him. I just accept him as a natural occurrence in our field. I certainly praise does who do have the energy for fighting that.

throwaway0071on Why we never thank open source maintainers

Let's not forget companies that provide free services to open source projects.

throwaway0071on Brilliant Jerks in Engineering

I think Brendan must have worked with quite a lot of brilliant jerks in the ZFS appliance days at Sun/Oracle. The Fishworks team was excellent but some of the top heads were quite toxic.

throwaway0071on ACME Support in Apache HTTP Server Project

> mod_md builds are not yet available for all platforms.

Do you have reason to believe they won't be? Are you betting your business on the failure of Apache to do basic release engineering?

> Where did I say it was the "single advantage"?

That's fair. Because you listed it then I think that's the "major" advantage. Is that right?

> ou forgot "by default" -- and probably never, not on Apache's main release tree. Or at least not for a long time.

Why? Let's Encrypt and HTTPS by default being something that a lot of people want, why do you think Apache will ignore that and not include mod_md in Apache "for a long time"?

Competition is good. I don't have major reasons to be afraid but I would like Caddy/Traefik and others to succeed. From the very basic mistakes they're making in coming up with a business plan, I don't think they will. And no, being open source alone is not reason enough to ensure project survival.

If you re-read your own comment, I think you're the one spreading FUD about those other projects (and their implied inability to outpace Caddy).

throwaway0071on ACME Support in Apache HTTP Server Project

They are absolutely comparable and the advantages each one have don't exclude the others from attaining the same features.

Traefik cross-platform? All others are. Highly dynamic. What does that even mean? All are "dynamic".

Apache has widespread use and market saturation... how's that the single advantage it has? It's been evolving a lot.

Caddy is the only server to have fully automatic HTTPS? How much longer mod_md get that?

I think you've missed all of my single point and kind of confirm my fears.

The link which I posted has everything to do with this discussion. It's about Caddy thinking a bad business plan will work because "caddy is the only server to have fully automatic HTTPS by default".

Last question, is Caddy thinking of hiring a CEO or sales person? I think it should.

throwaway0071on ACME Support in Apache HTTP Server Project

This is why I think projects like caddy/traefik shouldn't get too comfortable thinking Let's Encrypt / HTTPS support by default alone is going to differentiate them too much. They're one PR away from having their major selling point becoming irrelevant in the face of the competition.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15433463

throwaway0071on Adding Kubernetes support to the Docker platform

"which is a lot of Swarm"

I think that's an overstatement. I talk to a lot of professionals in this area and never seen Swarm deployed to production (from small to big corps). Anecdata warnings apply.

Could you share some numbers?

throwaway0071on The Realities of Being a FOSS Maintainer

Caddy's mholt holds some similarities to Docker's shykes in that both lack business and open source acumen.

throwaway0071on Ask HN: At what company were you happiest and why?

I was pretty happy in my first job as a system administrator for a small B2B ISP in my hometown. Full autonomy, engaged coworkers and challenges that kept increasing.

Unfortunately, I like getting paid and I've been let down in that regard. I was there for 5 years and left for a job at a big 3-letter corporation and then some other corporations. I've been soul searching for a decade now.

throwaway0071on Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant

> bribe anyone in their way

Do you have a source for this claim?

throwaway0071on Google Issuing Refunds to Advertisers Over Fake Traffic, Plans New Safeguard

That's the usual mental gymnastics I often see on HN.

throwaway0071on Going Multi-Cloud with AWS and GCP: Lessons Learned at Scale

Off Topic: it's frustrating that these companies spend quite a lot of time and money learning about the complexities of their infrastructure but when you're interviewing at such companies, you're expected to have answers for everything and a complete strategy for the cloud.

/rant

throwaway0071on Uber's Travis Kalanick punches back against the Benchmark lawsuit targeting him

We're seeing some of his principles are what landed Uber in this situation in the first place. So I'd be more careful with idolizing him. This is not the first or last drama from Uber. There are many other companies having similar impact in the world (or better) without using illegal methods.

throwaway0071on Docker Is Raising Funding at $1.3B Valuation

Except you don't need Docker Inc. for that. Many container runtimes exist now, the user experience is very easy to replicate. Plus, their cloud doesn't seem to be making any money. So I too have trouble understanding where this valuation is coming from.

throwaway0071on I Bought a Book About the Internet from 1994 and None of the Links Worked

https://stumbleupon.com

throwaway0071on Quitting Caffeine

I'm having a hard time figuring out your point for this specific situation. Are you saying the list of symptoms I described would eventually go away by itself?

throwaway0071on Quitting Caffeine

Sodas.. of course? Expressos, no.

I didn't stop taking sugar. I only dropped coffee and stopped taking caffeinated sodas... I didn't stop taking sodas.

throwaway0071on Quitting Caffeine

I have a fairly unhealthy lifestyle. When I started getting panic attacks, trembling, palpitations, skin rashes, walking up 5x during the night, feeling exhausted all day, etc, I stopped taking caffeine... And did not change a single other thing.

It took me over a month to few "normal" again.

First week: headaches, back pain, vomiting, nausea, cramps, etc.

Second week: feeling like shit. Had no energy for anything.

Third week: a resemblance of being normal again.

Fourth week: feeling like I was at 60% of my previous energy levels and thinking "this sucks but if this is the new normal, I can get used to it".

Second month: energy levels are back, never feel sleepy again, focus is back completely, etc. I'm even thinking about gym, running, etc.

So this is my data point. From 3-4 expressos and of caffeinated sodas to zero.

throwaway0071on Letter from Benchmark to Uber Employees [pdf]

Could you elaborate how exactly? What would you rank lower than Uber?

throwaway0071on Letter from Benchmark to Uber Employees [pdf]

The fact that Travis doesn't want to let go of Uber is completely normal. He is the founder, the boss, the guy with lots of money. There's a power play in place and people don't know who will win.

It's normal that employees at all levels will still give him some leverage. It doesn't say anything about employee loyalty or Travis being the leader they want.

throwaway0071on Ask HN: I'm late to the crypto currencies boom, what are my options?

There are so many news theories for that every year that it's hard to keep track of. I'd also be interested in what's the newest one.