Hacker News: famahar

New comment by famahar in "Catch a Bird – I made it for my own sanity"

famahar — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 03:50:23 +0000

This is wonderful. Making this my homepage

New comment by famahar in "Japan moves to tighten rules for foreigners"

famahar — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 14:09:50 +0000

You're right. I was primarily thinking of the Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services Visa category. It's another common visa category.

New comment by famahar in "Japan moves to tighten rules for foreigners"

famahar — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 00:22:30 +0000

A politician can spin it that way sure, despite foreigners owning 0.12 percent of property and most foreigner jobs (at least the ones my friends have) requiring fluent English. It's not a threat to Japanese people, but with the right populist figure, anything can sound like a threat. What I find so sad about this is the lack of empathy for people that worked hard to build a life here, paid their taxes, and followed the law. They did nothing wrong, but are the targets of a population primed to take their economic woes and anger out on people simply living their life peacefully.

New comment by famahar in "Japan moves to tighten rules for foreigners"

famahar — Sat, 26 Sep 2026 23:54:03 +0000

It's really unfortunate that they have approved these changes. I know at least 7 people that have decided to leave Japan because of it. They were making enough money to support themselves, but under the rule they basically gave no chance of ever reaching that new income requirement. Some jobs just don't have that much upward financial mobility. Which is fine if you live outside the city without a large family, but these rules are harsh to anyone that isn't working a high pay job. Permanent recidency would have allowed them to work outside their visa category, easily start a business, and utilize their Japanese language skills in a larger market.

Its quite a shock since historically the government has moved extremely slow when implementing policies that have a large impact. But the last 6 months have been extremely anxiety inducing with a new immigration change being announced and approved every month.

New comment by famahar in "No Man's Sky Cosmos"

famahar — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 14:21:55 +0000

That's completely valid. I was just curious. Sorry if it sounded like a harsh question. My tolerance is quite low when it comes to games. If I notice I'm not enjoying something I just drop it. Everytime I've tried to push through something boring, I end up with countless hours wasted hoping for it to get better. Like a slot machine waiting for a good hit. I feel like many modern games are just stuffed with features, but a boring core. It's only when I play the game in an unconventional way that I start to appreciate it on my own terms.

New comment by famahar in "No Man's Sky Cosmos"

famahar — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 01:42:48 +0000

What made you play a game for a couple of hundred hours to then conclude that it is boring? I played the first release and put in roughly 100 hours. The first 90 hours were wonderful. Eventually I realized that I wasn't enjoying it as much so I put it down. But I would never call those 90 hours boring.

I felt like I got a lot of value out of it, and have fond memories of discovering interesting planets. I really view NMS as an artistic experience. I don't care for the gameplay loops. I played this game like an curious explorer. There are infinite planets, many feel the same but occasionally you land on something so special that no one else has ever seen.

New comment by famahar in "Smartphone LED detects hidden cameras with AI"

famahar — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 07:37:06 +0000

This is great. Hopefully this device becomes so ubiquitous that it deters anyone from putting up hidden cameras.

New comment by famahar in "Fastpotify"

famahar — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 05:15:19 +0000

If it was a site made with AI it would be stuffed with way more ad copy, components, UI toggles, and small text. If this was made with AI, they seem to have restrained it from going on the gaudy UI mess of most AI generated sites that are what I like to think of as "Maximalist Minimalist". A hodgepodge of a design library.

New comment by famahar in "Air Theremin – A browser theremin you play by waving at your webcam"

famahar — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 01:25:35 +0000

Yeah, it's really easy to spot an AI made app. I don't want to discount the project for being coded with AI, but you can tell when the UI is basically one shotted due to all the clutter and bloated features. I don't think AI understands that "less is more" when it comes to UI. It always seems overly eager to expose every single control and add UI flourishes to the point of being gaudy.

New comment by famahar in "Completing a computer science degree on Coursera"

famahar — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 05:26:10 +0000

Can't speak for masters or PhD, but I feel like the most valuable part of my undergraduate was being exposed to many opportunities constantly. I saw a table looking for study/work abroad near one of my classes. I applied, got a job, met my now wife overseas, and have moved to a different country as a result (have been here for 5 years and very happy). All because a student group was sharing a cool oppurtunity with low friction to sign up.

I learned everything I use on my job in the first year of studies. The other 4 years were theory I never use or think about. But those 4 years exposed me to sooo many different people from all walks of life. University is a space to learn and unlearn. If you are lucky enough to make that your complete focus, you leave the institution a different person.

New comment by famahar in "Japanese verb conjugation the simple hard way"

famahar — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 04:50:00 +0000

The comments to this article are another example of something I see so often in Japanese language learning dicussions I see online. It's always filled with debate, disagreement, arguements over incredible subtle things, and everyone trying to optimize the best method. It can be really discouraging space for early learners.

New comment by famahar in "The Beauty of Bonsai Styles"

famahar — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 17:18:24 +0000

Interesting seeing this thread. I just bought a bonsai yesterday at a market in Tokyo. They were selling it for only 1000 yen. It's only after I bought it that I realized that it takes a lot of attention and care to keep these alive. The seller said this it was 10 years old. Felt the sudden immense pressure to keep it living. It has been a nice week of tending to it in the mornings though. No longer use the phone in the mornings. It's strait to the balcony to check up on the bonsai. Much better for the mind.

New comment by famahar in "The “small web” is bigger than you might think"

famahar — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 07:03:09 +0000

I noticed that Kagi Small Web tends to lean towards more tech focused blogs. So it feels more like you've captured that subset of the small web, especially if your main source is hackernews.

Not sure if you've used this as a source too but there's a lot of tiny personal sites in this directory too. https://melonland.net/surf-club

New comment by famahar in "Willingness to look stupid"

famahar — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 07:05:35 +0000

I feel more motivated to write now because a "badly" written text made by a human to me is always better than a "perfect" text completely made by AI. Everyone has their own way of writing. Embracing that in these times is something to find motivation in.

New comment by famahar in "Nintendo DS code editor and scriptable game engine"

famahar — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 01:20:24 +0000

Which is why I love this. Extreme constraints. Takes a lot of creativity to make something interesting, without feeling overwhelmed with possibility. I'm considering making tiny arthouse game projects with this.

New comment by famahar in "Ask HN: How can we solve the loneliness epidemic?"

famahar — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 06:21:09 +0000

Start a community or join one. I have a friend that started a social community where they host discussion groups, sharing circles, art marking, picnics, field trips, cooking club, etc. The whole focus is on creating connection. I myself run an experimental games meetup where our small niche share what were working on each month. I also have a book club each week with some friends (although we chat more about life than books). I think 2026 is the year of community. Make an intentional effort. Show up in the same space repeatedly.

New comment by famahar in "AI generated music barred from Bandcamp"

famahar — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 04:45:32 +0000

I don't think they're arguing about personal use of AI to make something silly shared between family and friends. It's when those songs you made in an instant start to flood platforms where people took weeks, months or years to release an album they crafted by traditional methods. I don't want to discredit the joy you have in making fun songs with your family. I'm curious what is also gained if you made the songs by making instruments out of strings and pans, and performing / improving your own song from scratch. I'm sure the end result is the same, lots of joy and laughs. But something is definitely lost when the slow process of humble hand made creativity is exchanged for polished instant results. But maybe instant gratification is just the new mode of consumption. Ai promises that with a "good enough" button and my fear is that it will be extended to every facet of life.

New comment by famahar in "The unbearable joy of sitting alone in a café"

famahar — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 17:45:53 +0000

Lots of cafés and restaurant in Tokyo have seating designed for just one person. It's usually a cozy spot in the corner. It's not uncommon at all to go to cafés alone. Many people study, read, or just quietly sit. I feel like bars are a place where people go to socialize. Anyways, I'm happy for him. Some people never feel comfortable being alone. I personally view solitude as a key factor in my creative and personal growth. Even better when it's in nature.

New comment by famahar in "Show HN: Ez FFmpeg – Video editing in plain English"

famahar — Sat, 27 Dec 2025 13:14:13 +0000

Do most devs even look at the source code for packages they install? Or the compiled machine code? I think of this as just a higher level of abstraction. Confirm it works and not worry about the details of how it works

New comment by famahar in "I program on the subway"

famahar — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 11:05:31 +0000

I do the same with language learning. Makes me actually enjoy commuting to work since I find it hard to study at home. I just pop in the headphones, take a seat, and sit for 40 mins twice a day. Sometimes I even intentionally take the non-rapid so I can study a bit more (plus the train is less packed so I'm always guaranteed a seat)