Hacker News: bsammon

New comment by bsammon in ".self: A new top-level domain designed to support self-hosting"

bsammon — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 05:19:04 +0000

I think they're describing a scenario where the cash was stolen by a postal worker or for some other reason didn't make the full trip.

New comment by bsammon in "Segmented type appreciation corner (2018)"

bsammon — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 22:44:43 +0000

I'm reminded of Chuck disabling a bomb by surfing to a malware-infested webpage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddtpyR6WIlY

New comment by bsammon in "Segmented type appreciation corner (2018)"

bsammon — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 20:38:11 +0000

I'm guessing when you say "ask frontend developers" you mean "at job interviews". But I like to think you mean something like "at cocktail parties" or other social situations.

New comment by bsammon in "I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA"

bsammon — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 18:08:12 +0000

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Netflix

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia#Controversies

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_Systems_USA#Anti-union...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intuitive_Surgical#Lawsuits

Depending on your political leanings, you may pick and choose which of these you consider "awful".

Didn't find anything in my five-minute scan for Old Dominion.

New comment by bsammon in "Building an HTML-first site doubled our users overnight"

bsammon — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 17:56:44 +0000

That would be "60 year olds who have been office workers most of their working life"

60-year-olds who worked blue-collar for a significant part of their life, this is not so obviously true for.

Also probably not true for 60-year-olds who worked in other non-office jobs, like acting or sports.

There have been a variety of well-paid jobs that didn't use computers that a 60-year-old might have done over their life, meaning that this can't even be broken up along class/income lines.

New comment by bsammon in "Changing how we develop Ladybird"

bsammon — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 19:57:36 +0000

Okay, I'll bite: How many time has that happened? I'm definitely not an avid follower of such things, but I've never heard of that happening. I'm not arguing that it doesn't happen, but I'd like to hear/read details.

I've heard of people within the argument directing SWAT raids at each other, or contacting employers, but I've not heard of it being driven by uninvolved observers.

Now... I've heard of people posting things on social media that others found offensive, and losing jobs/gigs over it, so that sorta supports what you're saying, but even in these "edgy" social media cases (which weren't "arguments" per se, in the cases I've heard about), I've not heard of SWAT/police reactions.

New comment by bsammon in "A Man Who Reads Books for a Living"

bsammon — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 22:56:51 +0000

sorta piling on here, but it's also worth noting that this problem goes away (and the article is quite readable) in a browser with javascript turned off (and no adblocker).

New comment by bsammon in "Preparing for KDE Plasma's Last X11-Supported Release"

bsammon — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 19:09:30 +0000

Is that "reactionaries" in the "we object to certain technology decisions" sense, like the anti-systemd crowd, or in the "software compatible with our political views" like the xlibre project?

A quick search (in which I found no evidence of heated controversy) suggests to me that it's the first one.

New comment by bsammon in "The real cost of owning a home"

bsammon — Wed, 27 May 2026 01:41:05 +0000

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_purchase_order

The USA (and other countries?) equivalent appears to be "Eminent Domain": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminent_domain

New comment by bsammon in "Googlebook"

bsammon — Tue, 12 May 2026 19:17:00 +0000

When I was actively hacking my chromebook, there was tons of advice like this, and 90% of it didn't work on both arm and intel-based chromebooks, and the advice-givers never mentioned which category it worked on. Sometimes it was buried 5 paragraphs into the webpage you were sent to for downloads, sometimes not.

Has any of this changed?

Also, I tend to take with a grain of salt any comment that starts with "it's easy/simple/obvious", especially if it doesn't provide details or a link.

New comment by bsammon in "Canadian fiddler sues Google after AI Overview claimed he was a sex offender"

bsammon — Fri, 08 May 2026 22:50:44 +0000

His wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_MacIsaac) mentions (with citation) a particular kink he has self-reported.

New comment by bsammon in "PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading"

bsammon — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 17:27:01 +0000

Actually, this is based on my personal experience. I don't use a smartphone for internet. Many of the places where I've tried it, the "free wifi" doesn't work. Maybe the wifi is there, but the uplink is 2G speed, or it has a web sign-in that doesn't work any more. Or maybe an employee accidentally unplugged the router. Days/weeks ago. And "no one complained about it".

I've traveled Greyhound and Amtrak recently. They both advertise free wifi, but it's quite clear they no longer prioritize keeping it working.

Libraries are (probably/hopefully) an exception. But, seeing as Starbucks has been wanting to discourage people from hanging out in recent months, I wouldn't count on Starbucks wifi being reliable.

New comment by bsammon in "PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading"

bsammon — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 23:58:12 +0000

I think you may be a bit out of date. There was free WiFi in basically every town. Now it's frequently a vestigial, no-longer-maintained free WiFi that works like crap, because there's no maintenance, because "everyone has cellular data nowadays".

New comment by bsammon in "Playing Arcade Mahjong at Home? Or is it just a Mirage?"

bsammon — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 05:16:08 +0000

If the sibling comment isn't enough detail, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperGun

New comment by bsammon in "Tiffany lamp coveted by Steve Jobs sells for $4.4M"

bsammon — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 19:08:13 +0000

Ah... okay, some quick research says the Apple IPO was in 1980, so he was (at least somewhat) rich in 1982.

New comment by bsammon in "Tiffany lamp coveted by Steve Jobs sells for $4.4M"

bsammon — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 19:02:42 +0000

The article says that Jobs owned a lamp like this in 1982.

Questions that come to mind:

Was Steve Jobs rich in 1982?

In 1982, was the cost of a "real" Tiffany lamp within the reach of someone at Jobs's 1982 wealth/income level?

What are the chances that the item Jobs owned was a knockoff or a mass-produced item?

I imagine that Steve Jobs was the kind of person who would buy a $5000 lamp even if he was only making $20,000 a year.

New comment by bsammon in "Tiffany lamp coveted by Steve Jobs sells for $4.4M"

bsammon — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 18:53:55 +0000

This headline sounds like "this specific (one-of-a-kind?) item that Steve Jobs owned/wanted to own" when the article is really about "this lamp that is the same design as one Steve Jobs owned"

So not the "someone paid $4million for an (specific) item with a celebrity connection" that I thought it was.

New comment by bsammon in "A 4k-Room Text Adventure Written by One Human in QBasic No AI"

bsammon — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 21:09:59 +0000

However, it should be playable on Linux or OSX, both of which are (reportedly) supported by QB64.

New comment by bsammon in "Ruby core team takes ownership of RubyGems and Bundler"

bsammon — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 17:53:50 +0000

A very specific denial. "I didn't propose this specific type of monetization". Would be better if he followed up with "Yes, I proposed monetization, but what I had in mind was this more specific, benign form of monetization:"

New comment by bsammon in "Gem.coop"

bsammon — Mon, 06 Oct 2025 18:08:11 +0000

I think a lot of people don't know why being Danish is relevant. Is there some reason why controversial views on immigration might be less suprising coming from a Dane?