Hacker News: astafrig

New comment by astafrig in "John Ternus to become Apple CEO"

astafrig — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:47:21 +0000

> Your statement uses the presence of bugs to indicate a product is worth using.

This is not correct; "If a product is worth using, then it has bugs." (P→Q) does not imply its converse "If a product has bugs, then it is worth using." (Q→P). Buginess is presented as a necessary condition of being worth using, not a sufficient one.

It does, however, imply "If a product has no bugs, then it is not worth using.".

New comment by astafrig in "How many products does Microsoft have named 'Copilot'?"

astafrig — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 02:47:22 +0000

The thing they “didn’t want to [do]” was infringe on the Linux trademark.

New comment by astafrig in "Apple Business"

astafrig — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 23:16:29 +0000

> including a new option coming this summer that will enable businesses in the U.S. and Canada to place local ads in Maps during key search and discovery moments.

The enshittification knows no bounds.

New comment by astafrig in "“This is not the computer for you”"

astafrig — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 05:21:22 +0000

What else is a shame is claiming that some single language feature supports a foregone conclusion that the writing's been 'molested'. It's hard to imagine what a constructive comment this could've been with the minimum of effort to know that the author has written this way consistently since at least 2021, before the first public release of ChatGPT.

New comment by astafrig in "“This is not the computer for you”"

astafrig — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 05:13:41 +0000

I think this’d be a good comment if it weren’t for the superiority complex :/

New comment by astafrig in "“This is not the computer for you”"

astafrig — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 05:11:19 +0000

I’m fairly confident that the Venn diagram of (a) nine-year-olds that are playing with a computer and (b) people who claim that access to kernel source code is a prerequisite to “learning about computers” is two circles that are barely touching.

New comment by astafrig in "MacBook Neo"

astafrig — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:43:47 +0000

> about money in the bank?

Yes, generally. That's the entire idea behind the stock market.

New comment by astafrig in "New iPad Air, powered by M4"

astafrig — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 10:59:27 +0000

as an end user it is my problem when trying to complain in the right place

New comment by astafrig in "What your Bluetooth devices reveal"

astafrig — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 01:01:55 +0000

Not what iBeacon does but an entertainingly dramatic description nonetheless.

New comment by astafrig in "Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device"

astafrig — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 12:12:15 +0000

It is trivially easy to know that this isn’t true.

New comment by astafrig in "Grid: Free, local-first, browser-based 3D printing/CNC/laser slicer"

astafrig — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 07:31:56 +0000

The API surface becomes the lowest common denominator of all the platforms it supports, possibly with a path to support platform-native features, but probably in a way that’s necessarily not as good as native.

I think we already have plenty of avenue in ‘solutions’ like Electron to let people build bad apps.

New comment by astafrig in "Grid: Free, local-first, browser-based 3D printing/CNC/laser slicer"

astafrig — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 07:27:49 +0000

> locally-installed software you own is usually a better choice.

It’s a good thing that’s exactly what this is, then.

New comment by astafrig in "The Vietnam government has banned rooted phones from using any banking app"

astafrig — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 00:51:23 +0000

Up Bank provides an API that enables these use cases: https://developer.up.com.au/

New comment by astafrig in "John Giannandrea to retire from Apple"

astafrig — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 00:24:22 +0000

Making privacy some end-goal that PMs cut to meet targets is how you end up with Google redefining privacy to mean "only we have access to every aspect of your life, now and in the future".

If Apple takes the position that the UX has to fit in around the privacy requirements, so what? Privacy is a core pillar of their product identity—a built-in hallucinating compliments machine isn't.

New comment by astafrig in "Android developer verification: Early access starts"

astafrig — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 13:22:34 +0000

> nominally "selling" plots to people but with terms of service attached that restrict what you can do with the land you bought and that allow the company to change the terms at any time.

So, a lease.

New comment by astafrig in "Analyzing the Performance of WebAssembly vs. Native Code"

astafrig — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 23:43:35 +0000

It’s not misleading to measure the performance of WebAssembly in a web browser.

New comment by astafrig in "How Apple designs a virtual knob (2012)"

astafrig — Sat, 11 Oct 2025 23:06:40 +0000

Then you can only adjust one thing at a time—so you’ve just created the worst of both worlds with a multi-touch display and live music software.

New comment by astafrig in "Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account"

astafrig — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 09:42:51 +0000

Cool, great. That’s got nothing to do with Activation Lock.

New comment by astafrig in "Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account"

astafrig — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 01:02:48 +0000

> I own this iPad, as in: it's mine. Why should I, and why would I want to put MY device's access and security on the whims of company?

Great question! You did configure it that way, so it might be worth asking yourself.

New comment by astafrig in "Microsoft Surface Pen Compatibility / Interoperability FAQ (2024)"

astafrig — Sun, 05 Oct 2025 09:19:17 +0000

The 10th and 11th generation iPads work with _both_ the Lightning Apple Pencil and the USB-C Apple Pencil.

The Lightning Apple Pencil was sold at a time when you could plug it directly into the compatible iPad, and it *came with the adapter*.

The current iPad is compatible with both, so you could use your old Apple Pencil with the new iPad.

You cannot buy a Lightning Apple Pencil anymore because Apple doesn’t sell them.

who knows what third-party retailers are doing.