om3n's comments

om3n | 5 years ago | on: No More Google

I've de-Googled nearly everything:

Firefox, DDG, protonmail, BitWarden, LibreOffice, etc. I even switched to iPhone.

The only thing I haven't been able to get rid of; YouTube. There's really nothing to replace that. At least I access it without being signed in, and in a browser on both desktop and mobile.

om3n | 6 years ago | on: Tesla Cybertruck

I live in a northern Midwest suburb, in a region that receives a lot of snow in the winter. I have driven older trucks my whole life, in part because of of the 4x4 capability for winter driving. I also enjoy being the guy who keeps a tow strap in the toolbox and hauls people out of ditches. Hard to do that without a heavy 4x4 vehicle.

When you have the bed, you realize there are a lot more uses for it than you might otherwise think. Other than just hauling stuff, the tailgate acts as a bench to sit on- I used to have lunch with my wife every day in the summer like this. At an outdoor event (like fireworks, outdoor concert in a park, etc.) I've lined the bed with blankets and lounged at comfortable height with 3 friends and great view of whatever is going on.

For me, the real key is to own an older truck that you don't mind dinging or using to its potential. I buy used, with cash, and I don't spend more than $15K or so. I don't understand spending $65-75K on a brand new mall-crawling status symbol that will only start being used like a truck in 15 years by a guy like me.

Although admittedly, I really like the look and presumed potential of the new Tesla truck. It's the first vehicle that I'd actually consider buying new. I wonder how well the stainless steel will hold up the salty roads- the bane of vehicles around here.

om3n | 6 years ago | on: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

Very similar experience here, I went through 2 Charge HRs in about a year. I'm on my third now, but I purchased this one new on eBay for $50 iirc (after the Charge 3 was released).

Every Fitbit I've had has felt disposable, and I've been using their products since 2013.

om3n | 6 years ago | on: I tried to hack my insomnia

I'm in a particularly stressful time in my life (just moved, intense new job) where I've been struggling to sleep. There will be some nights where I simply don't sleep at all; just lay awake in bed all night. Of course I'm aware of all the health/safety/productivity issues associated with no sleep, and the anxiety of not sleeping just furthers my inability to fall asleep.

This is what I've been attempting to do to help with my sleep problems, with reasonable success:

  1. Lift heavy each week day.
I'm using a PPL routine with at least one big lift each day. I also trying to burn a significant amount of calories each day in the gym.

  2. Strict evening routine.
I try to go to bed within the same hour each night if I can help it.

  3. Reduce responsibilities.
One of the biggest issues for me is missing my routine. I now try to keep my weekday schedule the same (don't go out at night) so I can have plenty of wind-down time at home before bed.

  4. Wind down time.
I try to do something relaxing before going to bed that will distract my mind (like play a low intensity videogame, read about non work-related topics, etc.)

  5. Supplements.
I drink a cup of chamomile tea and take 5 mg of melatonin before I go to bed, and this seems to help (or might be a placebo)

  6. Listen to something calming and familiar while I fall asleep.
Unlike others in this thread, no Star Trek for me; I like to listen to twitch streamer ZFG speedrun Ocarina of Time. I turn the volume on my phone to the lowest setting, put the phone face-down on the bed next to me, and the audio commentary seems to be helpful background noise.

om3n | 6 years ago | on: Show HN: I made online community for unusual people

Just out of curiosity, who are your target users? What does it mean to be an unusual person?

I'd suggest that you get someone to edit some of the content on your front page. There are a lot of language/grammar cleanup opportunities, for example:

>> How to date someone if you so insecure and nervous when trying to approach a person? Probably you have never even tried it yet. Here, at Holynetr you can easily ask someone for a walk with you knowing that your partner having the same social anxiety disorder just as you are or doesn’t mind to be with you anyway.

om3n | 6 years ago | on: Linux support on Lenovo personal systems

I have an X1 Extreme, and have been really wrestling with moving over to Ubuntu. Other than the fingerprint reader have you had any other problems? Do you think Ubuntu is safe/stable/performant on this machine, or would you recommend others avoid it?

om3n | 6 years ago | on: I Don't Like Smartphones (2016)

> IMO the real reason smartphones suck is that they are attention sucking, dopamine delivery systems.

I think he did make this same argument, in point 1:

> Smartphones are unapologetically devices for consumption

om3n | 7 years ago | on: Ask HN: How do you handle code ownership?

I work for a large global company, and my department is building a fairly large Angular application. My team "owns" the primary project and several shared component libraries, and other teams build features for this project.

These teams are from all over the world, and many of us have never worked closely before this project began.

When we first started the project, we decided to split the UI into feature projects which are packaged and referenced in the common project. Each team owns their own feature projects; however, everyone is welcome to contribute PRs to any of the projects.

Some of our projects are shared and maintained by many teams, but we always have one team that owns each project.

om3n | 7 years ago | on: MIT cuts ties with Chinese tech firms Huawei, ZTE

Here's an anecdotal story.

My team was interviewing engineers last year. We had a Chinese engineer come interview with us. She was in the States on a work visa, and her first job here was for a state government project. She was on a team building a web application that had public-facing and internal-facing UIs, and she was apparently working on both of these.

Anyways, she comes in for the interview, and shortly after our conversation begins she pulls out her work laptop, opens up her work project, and start going through the code with us! I asked "is this open source?" and she said no. I could even see slack messages coming up from her team mates.

I honestly couldn't believe it. We asked her to stop. As you can imagine, she didn't get an offer from us.

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