The original drop flap board I remixed this from (also one I did as a demo) I added a couple more rows and cols. I played with a few things but felt like this was more in-line with what I wanted the result to be but it still feels like it could be better.

The idea here is that people (like me or you) can create something neat like this, and others can remix it, change it and publish their own version. This is that all in action and it worked great. I wrote a blog about it (the blog is dogfooding, it's just an app hosted on quickish that uses the built in db lib).

For the HN version of this flip board I use their firebase api via the built in quickish server functions that make use of the fact that the front-end can get realtime updates (now that you mention firebase) from cloud function db updates. Of course that's over-kill but I wanted to show something fun. You can remix and host your own version for free, just need a google oauth login that's it.

OG flip board I built (Portland Based - Current Weather): https://popflame.quickish.space/flipboard-preview

Blog post that dives a tiny bit deeper: https://popflame.quickish.space/blog/hacker-news-on-a-split-...

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48693912

Points: 114

# Comments: 28

TLDR on Quickish: A super easy to use site hosting service inspired by Shopify's internal Quick service. You can host a React app or a simple HTML page, generated from AI or written by hand. It's free to use for a single live site and has some cool workspace oriented features.

One of the very first things I wanted to add was a replacement for ngrok that was a little smarter and could pair well with AI agents (not just code ones, but Co-Work, ChatGPT, etc). This post is to announce Step (version?) 1 of it!

`quickish --localish` and `quickish dev`.

- Localish is a local dev proxy that detects what services your project runs and starts a web reachable proxy for it. It also has built in screenshot support so your CLI agent doesn't have to waste tool calls on playwright. It publishes so only you and your agent can see it but can be opened up by sharing to more people (not made public yet) within your org on workspace accounts or individually on personal accounts.

- dev is a local running quick.* tool stack so you or your agents can also build against that without needing to make external calls. One of the neat things about Quickish is that it has built-in tools for devs to use to make fun apps / sites (quick.db, quick.sql, realtime, etc), `quickish dev` brings that all up locally.

Just as before, to get a things running it's a simple npm package and a login with Google: `npm i -g quickish && quickish --localish` and boom, there you go, your local dev is live.

Smart edge caching and other purpose built features are in the pipeline already.

Hope it's as useful to others as it has been to me!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48635812

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Then I saw Shopify's blog post about Quick (https://shopify.engineering/quick), an internal intranet with simple HTML page hosting and was inspired. I wasn't sure I could get buy-in to host it at my day job so I spent my own time coming up with Quickish. Now I can share all my beautiful presentations.

Originally I wanted it to be tied to Google Drive / Workspaces, you share the folder with quickish and put your HTML in, quickish hosts it while respecting the privacy of the folder (workspace only, etc). However, as I worked through building I realized I could make it easier to use and add that part in. Actually, it already works behind the scenes I just need to get the app verified.

And now, you have what you see. Everyone gets 1 free live site at a time (you can push multiple, just your latest one via CLI or whichever you choose one the web UI is active at a time unless you opt for the cheap unlimited plan). Just run `npm i -g quickish && quickish` in a directory with your HTML file and that's it, one Google OAuth away from the page being live. You can keep them private and only invite other users (only google for now) as well.

If you use a work e-mail sites you publish are auto-gated to only people within your org. Again, only Google Accounts for now (more coming, OneDrive, Dropbox to start).

Pages do get access to JS DB scoped to your account / workplace which is fun (imo) - I am in the process of touching up the live pub-sub (think claude made live dashboard fed by API posts to your quickish db).

Hope you enjoy!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48544203

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

Here is how I personally define good software engineering:

- Does it do the job? - Is there low cognitive load in regards to following the code? (Can you jump back in the code in 6 months and get your feet quickly... AKA: Don't over-abstract). - Is it performant? - Can you easily make changes?

If those 4 things are true, the rest doesn't matter from my experience.

Nobody cares what your code looks like. Nobody cares what your architecture looks like. As engineers we should worry about creating forgettable experiences (at least in enterprise). They care that it does the job well, with low load times and an easy to use UX. That's it. If you did your job right they'll forget that software helped them do their job or complete their task faster / better because the experience was so seamless they spent the entire time focused on their own goal, and not how to navigate your software to get there. How you get there is irrelevant. Now it's your job as an experienced and intelligent engineer to make quick, thoughtful decisions on how to get your product to where it needs to be so that your _customers_ can create more impact on their own business / lives faster.

The second side of the regulation miss is that carriers have to self-report much of the time. These centers pay into the 6 figures monthly to their carriers. The carriers know exactly what kind of traffic is being sent through and many times aide these scammers in shaping the traffic to look more legit. Auto-warranty scams in the past? Huge amounts of that traffic were routed through the likes of Y-Tel and a couple others. Regulators knew this but enforcement took years to happen. It's the same right now.

Lastly is the issue of what happens once enforcement occurs? The answer is not great: The scammers change numbers and keep going. They aren't local and it's not cut and dry when it comes to continuous enforcement against foreign entities. Their carriers still support them and the fines are typically less than a month's revenue from the larger outfits (think Uber).

Better meta-data helps aide robo / scam / spam blockers. IMO, we should just shut down these carriers who knowingly aide these scammers. We know who they are, they aren't hard to find.

Their scams are purposefully asinine. It's not profitable to spend time and effort into tricking the wise into an unwise act. It's far more profitable searching for the unwise to act in kind. So when you throw your hands up asking "Who would fall for that!?" The answer is typically: Someone who'd be willing to buy a gift card or share bank account info. This contradicts your last point that a given locale is more or less likely to be scammed given the native language.

Language barriers are a part of the issue, yes, but these centers are capable of calling and speaking a number of languages. Cost and regulation are the big factors here. Just like any other business model. I got out of the business (telecom / direct marketing saas) right when EU started raising fees and coming down on some of the bad actors. Unfortunately for the US, that meant those bad actors focused even more in the US.

Also, the scams really aren't as profitable as you'd think most of the time. They generally can't afford more than a $50 CPA at best. Again, they have to turn heavy volume to get to their target market. They also rotate "offers". You hear about the big "wins" a lot (Grandma scammed for 50k+) but those are outliers. Typically it's $20 here, $100 there. Again, volume.

The reason carriers -- from the local exchange carriers and up -- ignore it is because just a single scam operation can mean 10s of thousands of dollars in volume a month, and sometimes more. Since they have to self-report for the most part they're not very incentivized to stop it. There are a few easy to implement regulatory / technical mechanisms that could nearly axe all of it, but carriers push back hard on those regulations and they never stick.

I know from experience dealing with this that it's absolutely not ignorance that's at play on the regulatory and commercial side. It's disgusting, and as fueled with greed and red tape as you'd fear.

We are actually competing but it's important to understand that companies like Booz Allen have fought (successfully much of the time) to have a number of qualifiers put in these RFP's that would prevent any start-up from being accepted. Things like "You need X years in this specific market for your proposal to be accepted". Obviously the only ones who can possibly have that are the existing vendors which virtually eliminates the possibility of fresh competition. We've successfully got a few states to change their requirements however, which is the first time that's been done in a quite some time.

Those running the parks hate their options, I don't see them as a crook here. The industry for park management software that fits the needs of a public land is stale. Fees for fees is normal. The process to become a vendor for a state is long and drawn out, and is riddled with red tape that was created in large part by the very same stale old vendors who've been in it the last 30 years.

After speaking with multiple states and now being in the proposal process for a number of them, hopefully we can be a step further in the right direction (think things like opening up 3rd party integrations, better bot prevention, etc).

Another thing I'd like to pass on from talking to a number of states including the national parks people: They are really trying to move in a more equitable direction when it comes to park access. They are very aware that many park experiences aren't as accessible (hard to get a reservation) to certain demographics and from my perspective they are making an effort to figure some of those things out.