Hacker News: GFischer

New comment by GFischer in "I wish people were more public"

GFischer — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 18:34:01 +0000

Discord feels like this generation's forums (and Reddit).

New comment by GFischer in "I wish people were more public"

GFischer — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 18:33:23 +0000

My father lived through the Uruguay dictatorship in the 1970s and avoids all social media whenever possible.

I was an infant at the beginning of democracy, so I haven't taken that much care.

Now, it seems he'll be vindicated once again, I do plan on visiting the USA and I'm hoping my social media won't be an obstacle (fortunately I don't think I have anything, but who knows, maybe I liked a meme or something).

New comment by GFischer in "I can't upgrade to Windows 11, now leave me alone"

GFischer — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 17:11:48 +0000

It's thanks to Valve that I'm considering switching to Linux (I'll probably still need a Windows machine around for various reasons).

They really did a good job.

New comment by GFischer in "If AI replaces workers, should it also pay taxes?"

GFischer — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 13:55:53 +0000

I don't understand why socialists or communists don't tax the means of production accordingly, if they don't have money, take partial ownership (or complete ownership and turn it into a co-op or something).

Owners of capital and means of production have succesfully gamed the system and most of the tax burden falls on us middle class idiots that pay taxes on our work.

New comment by GFischer in "Show HN: Gemini Pro 3 imagines the HN front page 10 years from now"

GFischer — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 15:43:14 +0000

This is great.

New comment by GFischer in "US airlines are pushing to remove protections for passengers and add more fees"

GFischer — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 19:09:56 +0000

Meanwhile I had a terrible experience with DB (Deutsche Bahn) during the European summer two years ago, although it was partly out of their control (weather related delays and cancellations), I had to take awful detours, had paid for 1st class on ICE and ended up on regional trains up and down and lost one day of my holidays. No compensation whatsoever, although maybe I had to fill some online form for that.

New comment by GFischer in "The $25k car is going extinct?"

GFischer — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 14:53:05 +0000

The used car pricing in the USA used to be bizarrely cheap, it's now corrected or overcorrected.

New comment by GFischer in "WhatsApp introduces ads in its app"

GFischer — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 16:12:15 +0000

Why? Isn't it a closed, non interoperable platform?

Android has 88% market share in Brazil, so it sounds like terrible advice.

New comment by GFischer in "WhatsApp introduces ads in its app"

GFischer — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 16:11:02 +0000

But it gained way more traction in other parts of the world, it's the default messaging platform in South America for EVERYTHING.

I have never seen an iMessage.

New comment by GFischer in "A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen"

GFischer — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 18:42:31 +0000

They're selling ridiculous numbers in Brazil and Uruguay and are opening a factory there.

I think they're the number one brand by sales some months in Uruguay.

New comment by GFischer in "Should more of us be moving to live near friends?"

GFischer — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 18:43:50 +0000

Not everyone, I was given the option to go to the US legally (L1 visa) and passed on it, the person that chose to go instead regretted it and came back.

I am from Uruguay though, which is the best Latin American country, so YMMV, if I was from Venezuela I'd move to the US 100%.

New comment by GFischer in "'I Don't Want to Die.' He needed mental health care. He found a ghost network"

GFischer — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 15:22:04 +0000

It was one of the biggest considerations that made me decide against moving to the USA.

One of my coworkers took advantage of the L1 Visa (which I can still qualify for) and she ended up moving back to my home country Uruguay even though she made 50% higher salary in USA.

She did live some of the worst stuff in USA like Texas electricity failures, 20.000 dollar healthcare bills, etc.

New comment by GFischer in "Just use fucking paper, man"

GFischer — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 19:59:32 +0000

You have somehow reinvented the USENET organization method :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet#Organization

New comment by GFischer in "Panasonic Toughbook 40"

GFischer — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 17:12:48 +0000

A family member has a Toughbook for sailing. There are no repair shops at sea.

New comment by GFischer in "If we want a shift to walking, we need to prioritize dignity"

GFischer — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 13:58:18 +0000

Humidity is the worst part, when it's hot but not so humid it's OK.

And at least here in Montevideo we're literally by the beach. I am two blocks away from being able to swim :)

I do complain a lot about the heat+humidity combination and I use A/C a lot.

New comment by GFischer in "If we want a shift to walking, we need to prioritize dignity"

GFischer — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 13:56:29 +0000

I'm from Montevideo, I wouldn't call it "tropical" but yeah, compared to an US city it's absolutely a million times more walkable.

We do have humidity and heat and I don't enjoy it and I use A/C several months a year.

There's a big push for more cycling-centric and more cycling lanes, and the bus infrastructure is obviously a lot better than the US. I don't have a car by choice.

I haven't been to Houston but I have been to Dallas and it was an extremely frustrating experience and it feels like an awful soulless city to me.

New comment by GFischer in "Microsoft breached antitrust rules by bundling Teams and Office, EU says"

GFischer — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 14:18:15 +0000

The company I work for used Slack, we were happy, but higher ups were looking to cut costs and they noticed they had Teams for free, so guess what... bye bye Slack.

Absolutely a monopoly maneuver.

New comment by GFischer in "The damaging results of mandated return to office"

GFischer — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 18:59:34 +0000

I personally believe some sort of bonding period is great for remote people. I've worked in a kind of "worst of both worlds" setup where I went to an office 8-5 but I worked with a completely remote team (the office was basically a place for me to put on a headset and ignore everyone else).

But we met on a planned company trip (with the excuse of a Vegas trade show, we went and met one week early) and that helped immensely with bonding and team building.

If I manage a remote team, I'll push for a similar team bonding exercise whenever possible.

New comment by GFischer in "The best place to drink is the emptiest bar in the city"

GFischer — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 17:08:57 +0000

I heard of someone well off being a part-time Uber driver in SF because he got to interact with interesting people...

New comment by GFischer in "The end of the accounting search"

GFischer — Mon, 22 May 2023 16:43:57 +0000

One of the pieces of software I was most proud about was a data entry system for a P&C insurance company, the old policy subscription terminal-based system allowed for about 200 policies/hour by user, then they "upgraded" to a GUI that slowed them to about 20/hour and I built a desktop application that allowed them to go back to 200 policies/hour but with stuff like auto-filling, geolocation, error correction so the data quality was much higher.

I worked with the end users a lot to make sure the UI matched the workflow, iterated over several versions and it definitely paid off.