Hacker News: branislav

New comment by branislav in "Ask HN: Who is using MCP in production?"

branislav — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 06:03:29 +0000

I’m curious, how do you handle authorization of the user without leaking tokens/api keys to model context without an MCP server (which supports OAuth, in principle)?

New comment by branislav in "Advice for a friend who wants to start a blog"

branislav — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 09:15:04 +0000

I echo the other responses to your question. Just recently I had two instances where an old blog post of mine contained a solution to a problem a coworker encountered. I publish these notes mostly so that I don't forget about them, but it's an added degree of satisfaction when it proves helpful to others. I wrote a bit about this in one of my recent posts [1]. Don't be afraid of the rabbit holes!

[1] https://branislavjenco.github.io/rabbit-holes/

New comment by branislav in "So you wanna write Kubernetes controllers?"

branislav — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 10:50:55 +0000

Controllers are a complex topic, but as the linked talk describes, it all comes down to some basic control theory concepts. I wrote about them in my Desired state systems post https://branislavjenco.github.io/desired-state-systems/ if somebody wants a high-level overview of how to think about them.

Basically, declarative state implies value semantics which makes it easier to reason about. Underlying complexity is high though, and you need to judge how necessary it is.

Don't be afraid of rabbit holes

branislav — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 22:19:26 +0000

Article URL: https://branislavjenco.github.io/rabbit-holes/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42808635

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by branislav in "Ask HN: Is maintaining a personal blog still worth it?"

branislav — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 06:35:02 +0000

I’ve found that getting traffic through organic search isn’t that difficult, if you have a post which is quite specific. For example, some years ago I wrote down how to upload assets to an already existing GitHub Release [1] as a small note to myself, so that I remember it next time. That is one of my best performing posts, majority of traffic via search engines, and I didn’t advertise it anywhere.

It by no means gets thousands of views per day, more like single digits, but people keep finding it, which gives me hope it’s been useful for others as well.

[1] https://blog.br4.no/github-actions-release/

New comment by branislav in "Ink: React for interactive CLI apps"

branislav — Sat, 02 Nov 2024 06:05:45 +0000

One way to look at React is as an open loop desired state system, where you have a declarative way (js/jsx) of describing what you want to render and the reconciler figures out what operations to do (in the DOM), ideally in an effective way. But you could swap out the render target to other things. I wrote about it some time ago https://branislavjenco.github.io/desired-state-systems/

Ask HN: What can programmers do to help with the coronavirus?

branislav — Sun, 15 Mar 2020 19:04:19 +0000

Apart from helping getting groceries or medicine for the quarantined, what can programmers do to help in this health crisis? How can we use our skills to aid the effort to prevent spreading of the virus, effort to help the affected or the effort to put the economy back on track when we're through this?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22585768

Points: 24

# Comments: 29

New comment by branislav in "Black Hole Evolution Traced Out with Loop Quantum Gravity"

branislav — Sun, 13 Jan 2019 17:59:06 +0000

I also highly recommend this [1] episode of the Omega Tau podcast which touches on black holes, holography and quantum gravity.

[1] http://omegataupodcast.net/191-string-theory/

New comment by branislav in "Functional core, imperative shell (2012)"

branislav — Sat, 22 Sep 2018 06:08:13 +0000

It's also how something like React.js works. Wrapping stateful DOM manipulation in a functional shell, made performant thanks to the Virtual DOM diffing algorithm.

List of unsolved problems in mathematics

branislav — Mon, 17 Sep 2018 06:35:16 +0000

Article URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_mathematics

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18003668

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Ask HN: Good non-fiction books without filler?

branislav — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 16:56:26 +0000

As probably many of you, I notice my attention span being diminished by the usage of internet and social media.

I set a goal for myself to focus on reading more books and long-form articles, but I'm finding it harder to find those which don't spend a lot of words on filler. (as discussed in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17803873)

What are some books/authors which are straight to the point and the reader doesn't have to wade through pages of personal stories to illustrate a simple point?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17910565

Points: 24

# Comments: 15

New comment by branislav in "Learning from Terminals to Design the Future of User Interfaces"

branislav — Sat, 04 Aug 2018 13:24:58 +0000

Incidentally, I am on Xubuntu, and I would love to have the workspace switching transition that macOS has. Switching workspaces on xfce is lightning-fast but I would love to have an indication on whether I moved left or right. (other than the small indicator in a Panel) Ubuntu solves this with a HUD (or at least did with Unity).

New comment by branislav in "Learning from Terminals to Design the Future of User Interfaces"

branislav — Sat, 04 Aug 2018 13:21:18 +0000

I agree with the article in that designers can be too focused on the shiny and non-functional aspects of interfaces.

Personally I would treat design as being purely about function and anything superficial is about aesthetics.

But I think the author is throwing the baby out with the bathwater by wanting to restrict all animations. Fast, subtle animations, especially in the form of transitions between states/screens are extremely important for keeping the user informed about where they are in the context of the system.