sloped's comments

sloped | 2 months ago | on: Ask HN: How do you find the "why" behind old code decisions?

The honest answer is you probably won't find it. Historical documentation is hard, it is the first "features" cut when teams are scrambling to meet a deadline. There is no malice in this, it's just something that the end user doesn't need or see so when shit hits the fan, it get skipped.

Commit logs, slack/email/etc, documentation silos, or issue trackers are your best bet, other than actually being able to talk to the author(s) of the code.

But in general, the decision was made because in the time the developer had to implement the feature or fix, this was the best solution they could come up with. Hopefully if there were clear tradeoffs, there is some comment as to what they might have done with more time. Likely though they were rushed, told their team they wanted to go back and fix this, and then were ushered into a new project the second this one stabilized.

I think gghhjnuhbb has the best alternative to finding actual documentation and that is sitting and putting yourself in their headspace. That can sometimes lead to insights you might have missed.

sloped | 3 months ago | on: Is 2026 next year?

Funny, I am taking an American Sign Language course, and one of the components is talking about dates/days/weeks. Next Week, Next Monday, Last Tuesday, etc. I was talking to some of my classmates who were all struggling to fully understand when to use what sign(as was I), and I pointed out that talking about next Friday in English can get confusing depending on how each participant thinks about things.

Not surprised an LLM gets this wrong, lots of content consumed with various ideas on how these things should should work.

sloped | 4 months ago | on: Two billion email addresses were exposed

Not really any places where things get sold, but opt-in in the background for newsletters is bad in certain sectors. Ticket platforms are terrible. I like to use a new email for every event and boy does that lead to new round of clicking opt-out until I can deactivate the email after the event has concluded.

sloped | 4 months ago | on: Two billion email addresses were exposed

I switched to using masked emails with Fastmail primarily so I could see who sold my data. The potential security benefit was not really a driver. Having 1Password be able to generate a unique email makes it a no-brainer these days. For those services that require a username that is not your email, they can usually be used without the domain part. Works really well.

I even wrote a tiny little local only web app that I can use to generate a masked email on my phone, so when I need an email for an in person thing I can just show them my brand new weird email directly on my phone.

sloped | 7 months ago | on: The fundamentals still matter

Basically the same as cleaning up after they hired the cheapest dev they can find. Something our little shop has been doing for 4 years now. Can't wait to charge to debug a 100,000 line vibe coded WordPress plugin.

sloped | 10 months ago | on: Linkwarden: FOSS self-hostable bookmarking with AI-tagging and page archival

This looks nice, I like how many of these tools have been surfacing. I recently started using https://readeck.org/, which aims to solve some of the same problems and really like it. Much better than a "bookmark" tool for things like articles.

My two favorite parts of Readeck are:

- it provides a OPDS catalog of your saved content so you can very easily read things on your e-book reader of choice. I use KOReader on a Kindle and have really enjoyed reading my saved articles in the backyard after work.

- you can generate a share link. I have used this to share some articles behind paywalls with friends and family where before I was copying and pasting content into an email.

sloped | 1 year ago | on: Stop Using and Recommending React

I am currently maintaining and adding to a React app started in 2016. React is fine. 9 years of decisions by numerous people that are no longer working on it, and I can still improve and update it. I can even bring in developers with no experience on the code base to change things. I would change 75% of it now, but that is not a React problem, that is a normal development problem.

React is fine, it is stable, standard, and still works for almost any use cases. There are not many JS libraries that have stood that test of time.

sloped | 1 year ago | on: The Rise of Malört, an Unexpected Midwest princess

I’ve noticed an increase in small distilleries creating their own versions of Malört over the past five or so years. It reminds me of the renaissance Fernet experienced 7 or 8 years ago. Malört is definitely an acquired taste—taking a shot of it feels like punishment—but if you enjoy bitter liquors, sipping some chilled Malört after a heavy meal might not be unpleasant.

I’d guess that bitterness is the flavor most people are least interested in exploring, and that makes sense. It doesn’t seem to have the same endorphin payoff as other tastes. It’s an interesting flavor, and I think you need to have an interest in digging into unusual flavors before diving into the world of bitter-forward spirits. I think it makes sense that the rise of better cocktails has led to spirits like Malört seeing growth.

sloped | 1 year ago | on: Show HN: Temp.now – A free temporary disposable email generator

I think a quick blurb about what this does, either above the form or in help, would be useful. It was not clear to me at all. I expected something related to weather based on the domain name. Had to visit the HN page to grok it.

Otherwise this is a great idea, love the idea of using temp.now as a temporary email address.

sloped | 2 years ago | on: The humble brilliance of Italy's moka coffee pot (2018)

I just received a Moka Pot for Christmas. After spending a few weeks taking notes and adjusting the grind size and amount I am very happy with it. I found that the 7 setting on my Induction stove leads to very little bitterness.

I think that the Moka pot on the induction range to be a nice demo of induction's benefits over gas or electric(resistant) ranges. Extremely accurate and reproducible heating, decently fast, and basically no waste heat. Instant off as well without needing to move the pot.

sloped | 6 years ago | on: Ask HN: How do you start spending money?

Start a budget.

That might sound odd, but a budget isn't just a way to limit your spending/saving, it's a way to prioritize it. Choose some things you want to explore spending money on and budget for that. Then when you have saved enough do it. It could be an experience, a new set of saucepans(seriously, upgrade your pans if you enjoy cooking! You'll still love your cast iron but you'll be able to do so much more), a trip, or a donation.

I somewhat agree with other commenters who are saying don't change, but you clearly want to. So setting up a budget to allow yourself the permission to spend the money you are earning in ways that make sense to you seems like one possible solution.

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