simondelacourt's comments

simondelacourt | 6 months ago | on: Exploring Grid-Aware Websites

If we'd really want to lower the energy usage of our applications we probably have to simplify along the whole chain. Using Astro means the whole process relies probably on NPM, the build cycle is probably also more energy intensive. Static HTML hosted on some dirt cheap server is probably more environmentally friendly than hooking up to some API and giving us various experiences based upon the mix of the grid.

To me the savings as mentioned in the article feel rather superficial compared to the energy consumed just getting the basic infra for this up & running. Somehow this feels like greenwashing.

simondelacourt | 5 years ago | on: I no longer build software

As you've laid your judgement of your woodwork on all woodwork, and thus have concluded that all woodwork is less intelligible than all software building. I know this is an interpretation, and not verbatim. But it might be sensible to be a little bit less strongly opinionated on the levels of work being intelligible, as its just an opinion, and would not consider it a fact.

The work I do on software I consider as relatively intelligible, but the woodwork I do, requires as much of my brain as the programming, just in a whole other area of my brain.

Your harsh judgement on the matter is just rather irrelevant, it works for him, it tickles his brain, and was just an honest response on github, no need to get trolled here on HN.

simondelacourt | 5 years ago | on: Power tool manufacturers and who owns them

I would not call it insanely expensive, if you compare a Bosch Glide miter saw with the kapex, yes there is a difference, but it's not insane. The same goes for other festool tools like their sanders, compare them to Rupes, Flex or any other high quality brand and the differences are marginal.

simondelacourt | 5 years ago | on: Power tool manufacturers and who owns them

If you don't care about it being square, durable and trustworthy, than something like TACKLIFE might work, but for a miter saw I would pick something just a bit more expensive, or buy something second hand.

I've owned a cheap one, it failed, bought a festool one, its still square, doesn't fail and the cut quality is great. You don't need to buy a Kapex (the festool miter saw), but something like the bosch, milwaukee, dewalt or makita will survive way longer.

I've bought too many cheap tools to do that ever again.

simondelacourt | 7 years ago | on: Table Saw Accidents

It amazes me how in America the cabinet style table saw is still favoured above the European Slider. I own a European slider, and it allows me to have my hands further away from the blade, it allows for easier support of the workpiece...

In my opinion it's just way safer, especially if you keep the safety guard in tact.

The other culture difference I've noticed with American furniture makers is that they use the table saw for many more operations than we europeans do. For making rabbets, we generally use a shaper. Shapers can be daunting machines, but used with the safety equipment they come with they can be a blessing to work with. Things like kickback if you try to create a rabbet are prevented.

It just feels strange to see that difference between these two continents, maybe OSHA is just way more lenient, or the idea of the importance of employee safety is something totally different..

simondelacourt | 9 years ago | on: Show HN: I built my wedding website using Polymer

It is a website for his own wedding offering a chance to learn something. I don't understand why there is a need to be pedantic about things like the JavaScript only in this context. It is a reoccurring thing on HN and it doesn't invite us to have a good discussion about the dependency to JS. There is also no need to compare it to yourself. It just comes off very self centered. I understand that in many cases you might not need a certain technology but if there is a fun opportunity to learn a certain thing and using it has little to no harm, why not?

simondelacourt | 9 years ago | on: Critical Update on DAO Vulnerability

It does not matter if the money is virtual or not. It matters whether it is regarded as valuable. If a large group of people trust a certain currency to hold a certain value it becomes relevant to those people. They might invest other forms of money or energy in to that currency. If something happens with that money or currency people do panic, because something they have invested in is under attack.

And even with Monopoly, during that game the virtual monopoly dollars hold value. Just during the timespan of the game. They give you certain privileges during that game.

simondelacourt | 9 years ago | on: Jolla C, a new Sailfish OS phone from Jolla

I really do not anymore understand Jolla. I have bought a Jolla Phone in the past followed by backing the tablet. The phone started slowly to annoy me more and more, mainly because of the subpar processor and the lack of memory (I had to keep killing apps to keep my browser handy). Android support is okay but notifications get delayed from time to time (for hours)...

Jolla said to focus more on the software, and now they come up with this?!

I really don't get this. The specs are subpar, the unique selling points (no bloatware, premium jolla support) are no different than before, and it is all made even weirder to get the product via this first come first serve idea with only a 1000 phones.

Jolla has been criticized that they are crappy at opening up and telling the real deal. They really are. In the months following the tablet debacle the updates were just crappy. It was until the rebate email (with a link to get fill in your details) that I discovered that I would actually get a tablet. Somehow it was too complicate to tell the first 1000 backers per email that they would get a tablet.

Jolla, get your communication act together. If you want to get people to believe in you explain your motives, explain your ideas of how the future would be. Skip the marketing bullshit, your target audience is not that much interested in hollow PR words. Be sincere, open and direct. Understand that people might be disappointed and explain the relevance of the Jolla C. But don't just act like nothing happened.

simondelacourt | 10 years ago | on: Chernobyl's legacy 30 years on

But the concept far worse is very... human and emotional.. Chernobyl is uninhabitable for my years to come. But Agra is just really dirty. It is impossible to compare the tragedies of Syria, Agra and Chernobyl.

You can not downplay something just because it does not look as bad.

simondelacourt | 10 years ago | on: The Netherlands is making moves to ban all non-electric vehicle sales by 2025

But it still is incorrect, the Dutch Labour Party is proposing the ban, they are not representative for the Dutch people. Which during the last elections was about 25% of the votes, now more like 10%. There is still a lot of resistance also within our government and political parties. With these proposals a lot of people are quite positive when they are proposed, but down the line they get voted down.

The case against the Dutch government from Urgenda [1] shows how hard it is to get change going.

[1] http://www.urgenda.nl/en/climate-case/

simondelacourt | 10 years ago | on: Ask HN: Who is hiring? (April 2016)

Javascript developer | http://www.a-boss.net | Amsterdam, The Netherlands | Fulltime | Onsite

We are looking for a Javascript engineer that loves to work on a challenging product that is rapidly growing in an expanding market. You can set the standard for high quality development, you are not afraid to make bold choices and are ready to challenge us.

Our stack:

* Rails * React, Javascript, Jquery * SCSS

About ABOSS: ABOSS is a software company based in Amsterdam originating from the music industry. ABOSS aims to help increase professional standards in the entertainment industry with mind blowing back office software.

Drop us a mail at [email protected]

simondelacourt | 10 years ago | on: CloudFlare Watch

It seems weird to target them because their services can be abused for illegal purposes like terrorism. One can use Bic pens also for terrorist purposes, but I don't recall people setting up bic watch websites.

And on http://www.crimeflare.com/cfs.html you can see he accepts payments through Paypal, why rally against CloudFlare but don't mind getting money through Paypal?

The Silicon Valley is the opium of the people quote just makes it feel all in all very goofy, combined with the nineties website, comic sans and under construction gifs just seem to lack.

simondelacourt | 10 years ago | on: Open Source Photography Workflow

I have tried it many times, I wanted to switch several times to Linux, I even bought a laptop suitable for Linux, but shortly after got a macbook.

I find that Darktable is in no way a good competitor for Lightroom. The image processing quality seems to lack, speed lacks, file support is not always good. It looks like a nice clone, but apart from the looks it has to work well.

simondelacourt | 10 years ago | on: The True Cost of an Expensive Medication

Advertising in the Netherlands for prescription drugs is illegal in the Netherlands, and for non prescription drugs it is highly regulated. So most pharamacorps target doctors by putting up nice stands during.

Here there is no need for a big marketing budget to get sales done. Not every market behaves like a regular consumer market. I think most markets are more complicated than the idea of spend $X to get $X + $Y. Especially for pharma, this has been a far more complicated relationship with the market.

Profit margins might resemble other markets, but I think that when it comes to healthcare profit is a very complicated concept...

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