Hacker News: hussong

New comment by hussong in "Fastpotify"

hussong — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 14:47:05 +0000

I really like qobuz for music, great apps for iOS, Android, and web.

New comment by hussong in "Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?"

hussong — Tue, 09 Apr 2019 10:59:19 +0000

This. I was hanging on to Ubuntu 16.04 until a month ago just to keep Unity. After finally upgrading to 18.04, I spent a week on Gnome 3 and it was quite a frustrating experience.

Found Ubuntu Mate and am loving it! MATE Tweak gives you so many options to make the UI work like Unity, even better in some ways. The only thing I missed were application shortcuts, but now the fancy dock works just as well for me.

New comment by hussong in "Germany lays out a path to quit coal by 2038"

hussong — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 10:45:12 +0000

France and Germany have had very different energy strategies for ages.

Germany still has significant domestic coal reserves.

France pretty much ran out of coal decades ago and therefore invested heavily in nuclear technology and access to uranium ore (mostly in Africa), they are #2 in uranium consumption worldwide.

New comment by hussong in "Ted Talk Review Why people believe weird things"

hussong — Wed, 05 Apr 2017 02:54:19 +0000

(Next moon landing I hope the mission lays down an enormous silver blanket that can be seen by amateur astronomers and ordinary people are encouraged to come out and look through a 'scope for themselves!)

OT, the old moon landing joke comes to mind:

  Astronaut: “Houston, we have a problem.”
  Houston: “What?”
  Astronaut: “The Russians painted the moon red!”
  Houston: “Well, do you guys have white paint with you?”
  Astronaut: “Yes. Why?”
  Houston: “Write Coca-Cola on it.”

New comment by hussong in "Google Fiber Was Doomed from the Start"

hussong — Wed, 15 Mar 2017 22:18:34 +0000

I had a lecturer in a class on infrastructure policy at (German) university who was an ICT exec and always said that the first rule of the business was "Wer gräbt, verliert." (you dig, you lose).

New comment by hussong in "New XPS 15 Laptop"

hussong — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 15:17:50 +0000

Seeing the same here (German IP), maybe GeoIP blocking?

New comment by hussong in "New XPS 15 Laptop"

hussong — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 15:12:13 +0000

I was surprised how light the T-Series models have become, hadn't looked at them in years and only remembered the heavy clunky units that made me go for the X-Series.

The current model T460s is also interesting, quite a bit more performance than its predecessor, albeit in a different price bracket.

I'm mostly going for the 450 because there's tons of decent refurb available and I'm frugal that way ;-)

New comment by hussong in "New XPS 15 Laptop"

hussong — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 14:36:11 +0000

Thinkpads are generally a safe bet.

I've been using different models from the X-Series with Ubuntu since 08.04 and am currently looking at the T450s (14", but still an Ultrabook and light enough for me).

The X1 Carbon looks damn sweet as well.

New comment by hussong in "The “432 Hz vs. 440 Hz” conspiracy theory"

hussong — Mon, 24 Oct 2016 17:31:14 +0000

There's also the argument that 432 Hz is more in tune with our planet, see "Cosmic Octave" by Hans Cousto.

New comment by hussong in "Chrome removes Backspace to go back"

hussong — Thu, 19 May 2016 18:07:29 +0000

Why swipe around when you could just press a button?

New comment by hussong in "Chrome removes Backspace to go back"

hussong — Thu, 19 May 2016 18:03:44 +0000

I think this is an idea worth exploring and I wish I'd thought of that :-)

New comment by hussong in "Chrome removes Backspace to go back"

hussong — Thu, 19 May 2016 17:57:03 +0000

Not all keyboards are the same. Think Laptops, international keyboard layouts etc.

New comment by hussong in "Chrome removes Backspace to go back"

hussong — Thu, 19 May 2016 17:50:05 +0000

Not everyone is using a desktop keyboard, or a US keyboard layout.

FWIW, on my laptop, ALT+Left would be a full spread of the hand and I have to move my torso to get the hand in position.

New comment by hussong in "Chrome removes Backspace to go back"

hussong — Thu, 19 May 2016 17:43:10 +0000

> If you're accidently clicking on things, maybe learn to use a mouse better.

Not everyone uses a mouse all the time.

New comment by hussong in "Chrome removes Backspace to go back"

hussong — Thu, 19 May 2016 17:41:35 +0000

Call me supremely lazy, but I use the spacebar all the time (Thinkpad), since my thumb already rests on it and it's so big that I can't miss it. I even prefer it over scrolling.

Page-Down means I have to almost move my hand away from the keyboard (middle finger to the top right corner, can't hit it with other fingers because display) -- that feels like grabbing for the mouse...

New comment by hussong in "Merkel Grants Turkish Request to Prosecute German Satirist"

hussong — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 17:00:20 +0000

It was used a couple times in recent times: Chomeini, the Pope, and others.

New comment by hussong in "Merkel Grants Turkish Request to Prosecute German Satirist"

hussong — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 15:18:10 +0000

Most people seem to focus on the political side of this whole affair, but at the same time it is clearly a legal case as well (and a rather interesting one) with hundreds of pending legal complaints

New comment by hussong in "Merkel Grants Turkish Request to Prosecute German Satirist"

hussong — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 15:04:44 +0000

For those interested in some of the finer legal aspects of the situation, here's an interesting article in German (excellent discussion there as well): http://verfassungsblog.de/erlaubte-schmaehkritik-die-verfass...

Böhmermann may have gone a little bit overboard on his exemplary "Schmähgedicht" -- unneccessarily long and nasty just to make a point, other indicators are the music, the flag in the background and subtitles only for the poem (making the example much stronger than the context / introduction) -- but given the context, he should be fine.

New comment by hussong in "Erdogan’s Attempt to Suppress German Satire Has the Opposite Effect"

hussong — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 17:59:35 +0000

Side note: as someone who pays that fee, I would never think of myself as a 'customer' of public broadcasting, since it's a public service -- just like I wouldn't think of myself as a 'customer' of hospitals, schools, communal waste disposal, the fire department or law enforcement.

New comment by hussong in "Spotify raises $1B in debt with devilish terms to fight Apple Music"

hussong — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 14:58:31 +0000

I'd argue that engineering improvements would be key for user acquisition.

Where is that massive growth supposed to come from if the app is too complicated for users older than 30 years and too bloated for devices older than 2 years?