Hacker News: imathew

New comment by imathew in "Why Is Claude Turning into an a**Hole?"

imathew — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 22:32:34 +0000

I thought this was going to be about its logo.

New comment by imathew in "Every Frame Perfect"

imathew — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 23:45:29 +0000

As a user of software I find myself disabling most transition animations when the OS or application supports it, desktop, mobile and web. Very rarely I find myself turning something back on - either it's actually useful in the situation, or it's done so well that it's pleasant even to an old like me.

New comment by imathew in "Winapp, the Windows App Development CLI"

imathew — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 11:02:35 +0000

Winapp, it really whips the LLMas ass

New comment by imathew in "Life Happens at 1x Speed"

imathew — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 22:51:14 +0000

1.1x is my default setting in pocket casts, with a couple at 1.2x and others at 1x.

I don't need to hear more content more quickly, it's just that some readers/presenters talk very slowly and my ears find the cadence - not the slower reveal of information - a bit frustrating.

New comment by imathew in "I spent a week without IPv4 (2023)"

imathew — Sat, 20 Dec 2025 21:56:54 +0000

My ISP has good IPv6 support. I was using it for a while and recently disabled it across my home network for simplicity of maintenance, cutting my vyos config in half. When I need to access something not available on IPv4 I'll set it up again but I'm not convinced that will happen in my lifetime.

New comment by imathew in "An opinionated critique of Duolingo"

imathew — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 02:46:34 +0000

The removal of the forums that the author mentions was what finally ended my 1000ish day streak. It was the most important part of the app for me, the way each question would link to a forum topic and users would discuss the various subtleties.

My assumption, despite plausible claims of moderation issues, is that they removed it so that their expensive AI addon provided more value. But it was the last straw for me.

New comment by imathew in "Ask HN: How have you integrated LLMs in your development workflow?"

imathew — Sun, 29 Sep 2024 08:31:22 +0000

I haven't liked any integrated tooling at all, but that's not such a surprise since I generally disable autocomplete and autocorrect since, like tinsel, I find them distracting.

I do really like to use the plain web browser tools, though (currently claude), for generating boilerplate code that I then review and integrate carefully into my code. It has sped up my workflow in that way.

New comment by imathew in "Last hours of an organ donor"

imathew — Tue, 28 May 2024 01:55:15 +0000

I found this a very beautiful story, I was moved to tears and I learnt a lot I didn't know about the process.

I would like to assure the author that there is little to no risk that "AI" will perform that job any time soon, though. It's handy for certain things but those of us who use it every day know how limited it is, and will be for a long time.

New comment by imathew in "Windows 98 Icons (2015)"

imathew — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 09:15:43 +0000

In around 1997 I installed I think Red Hat 4.x because I'd seen screenshots of the Enlightenment window manager and wanted that beauty on my desktop.

Now all I want is the Windows 98 look and feel back, when icons and user controls were clear and legible and consistent and you could drag a window from anywhere on a title bar.

New comment by imathew in ""Where do you want to go today?""

imathew — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 14:18:17 +0000

I didn't realise that the campaign was considered a fizzer. As a 14yo in a regional area who had just started connecting to the Internet (and hadn't yet developed distrust of Microsoft), it was one of very few ad slogans that ever inspired me. I think about it often.

New comment by imathew in "Building an economy simulator from scratch"

imathew — Sat, 16 Sep 2023 02:32:36 +0000

"If you wish to build an economy simulator from scratch, you must first invent the universe."

New comment by imathew in "Finding an Optimal Keyboard Layout for Swype"

imathew — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 01:37:58 +0000

I'm the same - I have been using Dvorak for twelve years, but that's all about muscle memory with both hands, I struggle to type with it without two hands in place. When I jump onto a colleague's computer I can use QWERTY OK because my brain reverts to the old four-finger typing I used to do. I'm much faster at Swyping on a QWERTY keyboard, though, because it's a different paradigm entirely - it's more about movement than keypress.