<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: innocentoldguy</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=innocentoldguy</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Tue, 07 Apr 2026 00:42:26 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=innocentoldguy" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by innocentoldguy in "VitruvianOS – Desktop Linux Inspired by the BeOS"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I just found my BeOS 5 and BeProductive CDs from the late 90s. I wish I had something to run them on.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 25 Mar 2026 06:58:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47514172</link><dc:creator>innocentoldguy</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47514172</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47514172</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by innocentoldguy in "What's the difference between a "disc" and a "disk"? (2023)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Philips is the company that came up with the term "Compact Disc" for CDs, so we can blame them for goofing up the regional spellings and making the world more confusing.<p>I think Alan Shugart (or at least his team at IBM) started calling portable data disks "floppy disks," and then "hard disk" emerged to differentiate rigid disks from bendy ones. Maybe we can also blame him and his team.<p>The important thing is that someone gets blamed. :D</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 21:30:33 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46995503</link><dc:creator>innocentoldguy</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46995503</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46995503</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by innocentoldguy in "I started programming when I was 7. I'm 50 now and the thing I loved has changed"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I have been around for a similar amount of time. Another change I have seen over the years is the shift from programming being an exercise in creative excellence at work to being a white-collar ditch-digging job.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 10 Feb 2026 21:07:08 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46966938</link><dc:creator>innocentoldguy</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46966938</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46966938</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by innocentoldguy in "Microsoft account bugs locked me out of Notepad – Are thin clients ruining PCs?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm currently using Niri+Noctalia just to try them out, but I typically use Gnome and like it quite a bit for its simple, clean interface.<p>I use macOS and Linux, and the way GNOME works makes switching between them easier for me than when I run KDE, for instance (I'm sure others have a different experience, and that's what is so great about Linux).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 08 Feb 2026 04:32:02 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46931343</link><dc:creator>innocentoldguy</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46931343</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46931343</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by innocentoldguy in "France's homegrown open source online office suite"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Django is perfectly capable. I'd use Phoenix for its scalability and performance, if it were me, but I've built large-scale projects in Django before, and it worked well.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 07 Feb 2026 15:56:40 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46924827</link><dc:creator>innocentoldguy</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46924827</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46924827</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by innocentoldguy in "Employee commits suicide after MongoDB fired her during mental health leave"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I feel sorry for this woman. Meta did this to me because they're discriminatory dicks, so I know how she felt. Fortunately, I have a tremendous amount of family support.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 27 Dec 2025 21:55:06 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46405672</link><dc:creator>innocentoldguy</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46405672</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46405672</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by innocentoldguy in "T-Ruby is Ruby with syntax for types"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I have the same question. I've been in the software industry since the early 90s and I've seen the "static types are the best thing since sex" fad fade in and out repeatedly during that time.<p>Having used plenty of strongly-typed and dynamically-typed languages, I really can't say strong typing has had any effect on me whatsoever. I honestly couldn't care less about it. I also can't remember ever having a type-related bug in my code. Perhaps I have an easier time remembering what my types are than others do. Who knows?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 27 Dec 2025 04:03:05 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46399016</link><dc:creator>innocentoldguy</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46399016</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46399016</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by innocentoldguy in "Japan to revise romanization rules for first time in 70 years"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>No worries, and I forgive you for the sardonic Japanese. I wish you the best.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 17 Dec 2025 08:51:59 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46299662</link><dc:creator>innocentoldguy</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46299662</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46299662</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by innocentoldguy in "Japan to revise romanization rules for first time in 70 years"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Hi, ursAxZA. Yes, you're describing an "elision," which is where speakers drop or blur sounds together to make speech more fluid, like the way some people say, "Sup?" when they mean, "What's up?" or replace the T with a glottal stop in the word "mountain," as they do in Utah.<p>I wholeheartedly agree that it is fine to write things like "Sup?" when appropriate, such as dialogue in a novel. You see this all the time in Japanese TV, books, magazines, manga, etc. However, I disagree that elisions should dictate how we spell words in regular written communication, especially when discussing a tool meant to help non-native Japanese speakers learn the language. And as the parent poster pointed out, when singing, you would sing "se n se i" rather than "se n se e." The same is true of haiku and other instances where the morae (linguistic beats similar to syllables in English) are clearly enunciated.<p>As I said, sensei is technically four morae and different than "sensē," and, in my opinion, should remain that way in Romaji, it being a writing system and one method for inputting Japanese text.<p>Thanks for the respectful conversation. I appreciate the points you brought up.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 17 Dec 2025 08:49:48 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46299653</link><dc:creator>innocentoldguy</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46299653</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46299653</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by innocentoldguy in "I tried Gleam for Advent of Code"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>You're welcome.<p>I'm sure at some point, Gleam will figure it all out.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 17 Dec 2025 08:13:14 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46299444</link><dc:creator>innocentoldguy</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46299444</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46299444</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by innocentoldguy in "Japan to revise romanization rules for first time in 70 years"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>We are talking about writing/spelling, aren't we?<p>Why would you want to confuse the hell out of those learning Japanese by spelling せんせい (sensei) using an E with a macron, a la "sensē," when that is not at all how you spell it or type in phonetically in an IME? Having a one-to-one romanization for each Hiragana phonetic is far more logical for learners, who are essentially the target of romanized Japanese, than creating a Hooked on Phonics version that is completely disconnected from writing reality.<p>I also think your comment, written in Japanese, saying, "This stupid nonsense isn't going to be of any use to anyone," is both ignorant and uncalled for.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 17 Dec 2025 08:07:33 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46299401</link><dc:creator>innocentoldguy</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46299401</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46299401</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by innocentoldguy in "Japan to revise romanization rules for first time in 70 years"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> In Japanese, an E column kana followed by I sometimes makes a long E, like in 先生 (sen + sei -> sensē).<p>While it is sometimes difficult to discern the combined E and I sound, especially for non-native speakers, the word 先生 (sensei) is technically pronounced "sensei" and should be spelled that way to distinguish it from words with long E sounds, such as ええ (ee) and お姉さん (oneesan). Similarly, the OU in 東京 (toukyou) and the OO in 大きな (ookina) are different and should be spelled differently. I hope this helps.<p>EDIT: Added a comma.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 17 Dec 2025 06:13:46 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46298797</link><dc:creator>innocentoldguy</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46298797</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46298797</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by innocentoldguy in "I tried Gleam for Advent of Code"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>- No state machine behaviours. Gleam cannot do gen_statem.<p>- Limited OTP system messages. Gleam doesn't yet support all OTP system messages, so some OTP debugging messages are discarded by Gleam.<p>- Gleam doesn't have an equivalent of gen_event to handle event handlers.<p>- Gleam doesn't support DynamicSupervisor or the :simple_one_for_one for dynamically starting children at runtime.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 14 Dec 2025 23:44:23 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46268413</link><dc:creator>innocentoldguy</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46268413</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46268413</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by innocentoldguy in "I tried Gleam for Advent of Code"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I don’t mean to minimize the huge effort by the Gleam team; however, Elixir cannot become Gleam without breaking OTP/BEAM in the same ways Gleam does. As it stands now, Elixir is the superior language between the two, if using the full Erlang VM is your goal.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 14 Dec 2025 01:07:53 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46259903</link><dc:creator>innocentoldguy</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46259903</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46259903</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by innocentoldguy in "Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>And, he delivers the line with such perfection.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 11 Dec 2025 20:06:28 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46236432</link><dc:creator>innocentoldguy</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46236432</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46236432</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by innocentoldguy in "Thoughts on Go vs. Rust vs. Zig"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I find Elixir and Erlang easier, but I'm still a neophyte with Rust, so I may feel differently in a year.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 05 Dec 2025 07:50:48 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46157789</link><dc:creator>innocentoldguy</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46157789</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46157789</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by innocentoldguy in "How good engineers write bad code at big companies"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> I'd love to hear more about this!<p>He deployed our applications using Kubernetes and refused to implement <i>libcluster</i>. There was something else, too, but I can't recall what it was. It was seven years ago.<p>> Yeah, this is weird...<p>I kept telling this developer that you're supposed to test your private functions through your public interfaces, not expose your private functions and hope nobody uses them (which they did), but that fell on deaf ears. He was also a fan of <i>defdeligate</i> and used it EVERYWHERE. Working with that codebase was so annoying.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 29 Nov 2025 00:31:19 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46084148</link><dc:creator>innocentoldguy</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46084148</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46084148</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by innocentoldguy in "How good engineers write bad code at big companies"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I worked for a company writing Elixir code several years ago. Prior to my arrival, the ignorant architect had deployed Elixir in a way that broke the BEAM (which he viewed as "old and deprecated"). Furthermore, one of the "staff" engineers—instead of using private functions as they're intended—created a pattern of <i>SomePublicModule</i> and <i>SomePublicModule.Private</i>, where he placed all the "private" functions in the <i>SomePublicModule.Private</i> module as public functions so that he could "test them."<p>I tried <i>almost</i> in vain to fix these two ridiculous decisions, but the company refused to let code fixes through the review process if they touched "well-established, stable code that has been thoroughly tested." After being there for a couple of years, the only thing I was able to fight through and fix was the BEAM issue, which ultimately cost me my job.<p>My point in all this is that, at least sometimes, it isn't good engineers writing silly code, but rather a combination of incompetent/ignorant engineers making stupid decisions, and company policies that prevent these terrible decisions from ever being fixed, so good engineers have no choice but to write bad code to compensate for the other bad code that was already cemented in place.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 28 Nov 2025 21:54:03 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46083113</link><dc:creator>innocentoldguy</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46083113</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46083113</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by innocentoldguy in "Gleam OTP – Fault Tolerant Multicore Programs with Actors"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Wouldn't you just `cast` instead of `call` if you thought this was going to be an issue?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 20 Oct 2025 09:36:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45641888</link><dc:creator>innocentoldguy</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45641888</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45641888</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by innocentoldguy in "Gleam OTP – Fault Tolerant Multicore Programs with Actors"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I wholeheartedly agree with you that gleam_otp is janky. Still, actor message passing is only part of the picture. Here are some issues that make static typing difficult in OTP:<p>• OTP processes communicate via the actor model by sending messages of <i>any type</i>. Each actor is responsible for pattern-matching the incoming message and handling it (or not) based on its type. To implement static typing, you need to know at compile time what type of message an actor can receive, what type it will send back, and how to verify this at compile time.<p>• OTP's GenServer behaviour uses callbacks that can return various types, depending on runtime conditions. Static typing would require that you predefine all return types for all callbacks, handle type-safe state management, and provide compile-time guarantees when handling these myriad types.<p>• OTP supervisors manage child processes dynamically, which could be of any type. To implement static typing, you would need to know and define the types of all supervised processes, know how they are going to interact with each other, and implement type-safe restart strategies for each type.<p>These and other design roadblocks may be why Gleam chose to implement primitives, like statically typed actors, instead of GenServer, GenStage, GenEvent, and other specialized OTP behaviours, full supervisor functionality, DynamicSupervisor, and OTP's Registry, Agent, Task, etc.<p>OTP and BEAM are Erlang and Elixir's killer features, and have been battle-tested in some of the most demanding environments for decades. I can't see the logic in ditching them or cobbling together a lesser, unproven version of them to gain something as mundane as static typing.<p>EDIT: I completely missed the word "actor" as the second word in my second sentence, so I added it.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 20 Oct 2025 09:28:46 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45641820</link><dc:creator>innocentoldguy</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45641820</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45641820</guid></item></channel></rss>