Hacker News: Markstar

New comment by Markstar in "LLMs are eroding my software engineering career and I don't know what to do"

Markstar — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 12:29:27 +0000

It's not even limited to SWE - there are so many regulations in almost every trade (which sometimes contradict each other) that it often eventually boils down to your experience and your decision which rule to follow and which to 'bend' (for example in "traditional" architecture there are so many rules that the building authority itself has to compromise on following the law by the book).

New comment by Markstar in "Claude Opus 4.8"

Markstar — Fri, 29 May 2026 08:32:34 +0000

Haha, yeah. I tried for it to create a SVG with scissors and it was hopelessly overwhelmed. I think at least the SVG design niche will be safe a little while longer

New comment by Markstar in "Most vibe-coded tools are not for you"

Markstar — Fri, 15 May 2026 06:20:51 +0000

...and that is okay.

Unfortunately, I have to say that I disagree with almost every statement and sentiment in your post. Your three fundamental qualities? These are meaningless. Even 10 years ago, reach was based on advertisement and luck. Whether or not other people find it and think it is useful is a very brittle sequence of events. Sociality is the same thing. A loyal following is certainly not a sign of a good software and vice versa. And you there a so many examples of large projects with open betas and community event that still suck when they finally come out. And finish? Oh my - my wife has to use this popular software for analyzing sound data and it is a badly built Java application that constantly crashes and is not intuitive at all. Windows itself has been a mess for 30 years and has been "maintained" all this time. Do I need to go on?

And just like art, sometimes you look at it and might say: "I could have done that."

New comment by Markstar in "Show HN: Get your website copy and design roasted"

Markstar — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 07:26:30 +0000

Wow, I felt that.

Thank you for that! Not that I was questioning my skill beforehand, now I have to reconsider all my life choices. :)

New comment by Markstar in "Unlocking the Duron and Athlon using the pencil (2007)"

Markstar — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 06:42:37 +0000

Yep, those were the days. I still have the Thunderbird CPU that I overclocked using the pencil method sitting on my desk because it was such an awesome CPU.

Tangible progress every year that made it worth upgrading your parts and tech news were actually exciting back then (I still remember upgrading from my 386 with 33MHz to a 486 DX4 with 100MHz). Now the tech media is making a big deal about 10% improvements. :/

New comment by Markstar in "Ask HN: What side projects landed you a job?"

Markstar — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 11:42:41 +0000

My wife is a researcher in Germany and because of something called the "Wissenschaftszeitgesetz", she is looking for a job outside of Germany for her next research project.

With having 2 kids, the US is definitely on our blacklist despite both of us having gone to school there, still keeping in touch with friends from that time and even professors actually offering her a position. We know many others who feel the same, so my impression is that for most Europeans, the US is not a desirable place to live anymore.

New comment by Markstar in "ChatGPT Plus"

Markstar — Thu, 02 Feb 2023 07:36:40 +0000

Yep, easy. I pay 8€/month for 3GB, which is plenty since I'm connected to Wifi most of the time.

And I paid 220 for my phone, which easily lasts 2 years.

That said: As a self-employed programmer, I think 20$/month for increased productivity is a steal!

New comment by Markstar in "The year of C++ successor languages"

Markstar — Mon, 02 Jan 2023 18:47:52 +0000

Yep, I totally agree. I took a long break from C++ after I learned the basics at university. I got into it again one and a half years ago when I needed really fast code and I was pleasantly surprised how easy it is. I'm exclusively using smartpointers and I very rarely run into scenarios where I have problems with memory leakage, etc.

Since I had written the prototype in Java and now interface with Javascript/Typescript, I'm really amazed how clean and well-reasoned my C++ side of the program is. So yeah, I'm also really happy with the state C++ is in right now.

New comment by Markstar in "Disk Prices"

Markstar — Sun, 30 Oct 2022 20:47:20 +0000

Yeah, geizhals is great (having idealo as a backup is also nice).

Back in the old days I used pricewatch.com for the US, but it's offline now and I can't find a proper alternative, which I find really odd. :/

New comment by Markstar in "Tell HN: A Demo Day without the investors"

Markstar — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 08:13:33 +0000

Very cool, I love the idea!

New comment by Markstar in "Mandated diversity statement drives Jonathan Haidt to quit academic society"

Markstar — Mon, 03 Oct 2022 20:26:34 +0000

Hmm, while I was an exchange student in the US, I got that exact speach house from a friend's father ("hands on the wheel unless asked to do otherwise, stay friendly, no sudden moves"). However, I was very white (a geek who didn't get out much) and he was a white Mormon. That was in 1997 and since my friend had obviously heard that speech many times before, I just assumed that's what all kids are taught over there...

New comment by Markstar in "Pirate Library Mirror: Preserving 7TB of books (that are not in Libgen)"

Markstar — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 13:07:34 +0000

I understand your point but it is time for the system to change. Most writers in traditional publishing get 50 cents or a dollar for every sold book. My wife wrote a chapter in a science book that is being sold for over $100 and she received...nothing!

Everybody deserves to be paid for their work and I would argue that this is more about preserving knowledge than it is about not having the writers get what they deserve.

New comment by Markstar in "A C++17 thread pool for high-performance scientific computing"

Markstar — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 06:52:44 +0000

Yeah, I agree that they should have touched more on that. Something definitely is going on when your result exceeds what should be possible.

That said, I'm currently struggling with managing threads with my algorithm, so I'm looking forward to giving this a go.

New comment by Markstar in "Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious"

Markstar — Tue, 17 May 2022 07:09:00 +0000

Interesting. The latter reminds me of a book ("Drop Dead Healthy"), where the author tests a similar technique to incentivize productive behavior. There it goes a step further, though: If you miss a deadline, break a promise, etc., you must donate a specific amount to a cause that you despise.

New comment by Markstar in "The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)"

Markstar — Thu, 12 May 2022 15:22:59 +0000

Again, thanks for taking the time to write! It is certainly good advice!

Luckily the situation is in this specific case is that I don't have to worry about it - I'm 100% sure of it. My nightmares come more from the fear that I will finish one day and find out that I took too long and I missed my window of opportunity.

New comment by Markstar in "Ask HN: Important nonobvious startup/business lessons you've learned?"

Markstar — Thu, 12 May 2022 14:59:45 +0000

You can't please everyone.

Whether it is implemented features or design choices (e.g. product logo, etc.), the more people you ask, the more differing opinions you will receive.

New comment by Markstar in "The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)"

Markstar — Thu, 12 May 2022 14:48:23 +0000

Thank you for the heads up, but I don't see how.

They were not part of the development and have no financial involvement. Hmm, now that I think about it, I am going to the conference as affiliate of the university... :/

New comment by Markstar in "The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)"

Markstar — Thu, 12 May 2022 14:11:06 +0000

I'm a bit in a similar boat: My wife's department (university) asked me for a 'little' favor, which I programmed in Java to get back into programming after ~4 years of being a stay-at-home dad. After finishing the prototype in 2019, we made the life-changing decision to focus on making it a program that we want to sell. Decided to go C++ and Electron, but with the corona virus and me taking forever to learn all the skills, I still haven't released it as of now. :(

However, I'm still working on it and hope to release it in time for a conference that I signed up for, so this will be a 'make or break' year for me.