benmarks's comments

benmarks | 1 year ago | on: Secure Custom Fields by WordPress.org

Not a fork. They just took over the account/listing, which preserves 1200 reviews, etc. As fascinating as it is deplorable.

benmarks | 4 years ago | on: Exiled from the Metaverse before it even started: Facebook bans are for life

Are forums like HN not also a social medium?

benmarks | 4 years ago | on: Bitcoin ‘may not last that much longer,’ academic warns

Always a fair question, but I don't see how that applies to his point one way or the other. There's an ounce of meat AT BEST in this article.

benmarks | 4 years ago | on: The brain can recall and reawaken past immune responses

There's a fantastic book which addresses this - "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" - https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780805073690

benmarks | 4 years ago | on: Hydrogen: React-based framework for building custom storefronts

BigCommerce allows adult products. Other than that there are open source platforms which do the trick.

benmarks | 4 years ago | on: Hydrogen: React-based framework for building custom storefronts

Looks like BigCommerce, Magento, or Shopware are better options.

benmarks | 4 years ago | on: Hydrogen: React-based framework for building custom storefronts

Thanks for saying it so I didn't have to. I'm hard-pressed to see how Shopify are significantly harmful. They deserve their success.

benmarks | 4 years ago | on: The surreal experience of my first developer job

"I grew fed up of being stuck in this e-commerce framework – having to work with its hyper-normalised MySQL database (the EAV model)"

2011? Had to be Magento. Not a great fit with what they were trying to accomplish. Not that they seemed to have a clear understanding of how to accomplish what they wanted, which was to throw spaghetti at a wall and hope something made them rich.

benmarks | 5 years ago | on: Light turned into exotic Laughlin matter

Sure, this place is loads better.

benmarks | 5 years ago | on: Light turned into exotic Laughlin matter

And that's no laughing matter (seriously though, kind of a big deal!)

benmarks | 5 years ago | on: I'm resigning from my job at Facebook

Technically, no, and then they would probably terminate the employee.

Maybe this is better stated as "If you resign from a hugely visible platform, because it's bad, but you don't tell anyone, have you really maximized the impact of your resignation for good?"

benmarks | 5 years ago | on: Introducing Facebook Shops

Multi-Level Marketing, e.g. that person from grade school who messages you out of the blue to ask how you're doing, and then tell you how much better you'd be doing with daily injections of IsoLeanIonigenTonicWater which you will also want to sell once you feel amazing/thin/virle/whatever.

benmarks | 6 years ago | on: WeWork sells Meetup

It depends on the PE firm. We thought the same at Magento (eBay > Permira Funds), but in the end it was a pretty good ride into Adobe. Ryan does not strike me as a corporate raider - he seems to genuinely like building companies (e.g. MongoDB)... curious if others have more to add.

benmarks | 6 years ago | on: Dyson has announced it will develop a new type of medical ventilator for NHS

How much does that cost? /j

But seriously, good to see so many companies stepping up to just get things done, and to see (more or less) regulations being set aside or handled speedily.

benmarks | 6 years ago | on: Shelter in place for Bay Area counties

The people who will start flooding the hospitals in the next few days are infected now. This action assumes these emergent cases are about to hit and will be followed by a leveling off of demand and increase of resources (e.g. temp hospital space).

benmarks | 6 years ago | on: United hides cheapest flights from passengers affected by Coronavirus

I’m not going to divorce my wife so I can run away with United, but I hope this crew has a lot more than the single example to level these charges I hope they are taking care buckets into consideration (right or wrong, changing this at the IT level can’t be quick or easy). It will be curious to see others replicate this and if so, United’s response, because that would be egregious and certainly something for them to resolve.

benmarks | 6 years ago | on: WASP II flying platform

A different type of WASP than I was thinking!

Another aviation-related WASP program was the essential WWII-era Women Airforce Service Pilots, which ran from 1942-44. These women "became trained pilots who tested aircraft, ferried aircraft and trained other pilots [including towing firing practice targets]. Their purpose was to free male pilots for combat roles during World War II."[0]

They were recently awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and granted internment rights at Arlington.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_Airforce_Service_Pilots

benmarks | 6 years ago | on: Ask HN: Licensing a CSS Framework

Your timing is auspicious. You might reach out to Adam Wathan, who just launched the paid component to Tailwind CSS. https://twitter.com/adamwathan/status/1233134358388781080?s=...

benmarks | 6 years ago | on: Wildcard: Spreadsheet-Driven Customization of Web Applications

My favorite example from the (ecommerce) domain in which I work is https://www.cobby.io/ - I know the team behind it, and while it perfectly solves the problem of product data for shops of a certain size, the live-editable cell idea always sparks conversation about the broader applications. Years later and we still see the genius of spreadsheets.

benmarks | 6 years ago | on: Tell HN: I used to be homeless and want to work as a software developer

You might reach out to Michelangelo van Dam. He knows this story well, and continues to be an inspiration in the PHP community. He’s @dragonbe on Twitter.