Hacker News: jpswade

New comment by jpswade in "TODOs aren't for doing"

jpswade — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 11:43:42 +0000

When reviewing PRs, I would always ask about TODOs: How will this TODO get to TO DONE?

New comment by jpswade in "The Startup CTO's Handbook"

jpswade — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 21:41:19 +0000

I've experimented with a two-crew type system before (Red Team for feature development, Blue Team for stability and bug fixes).

Rather than treating these as fixed teams, we treated them as workstreams that people rotated between every sprint (every two weeks).

It worked for about 3 months, until it didn't - by then we had grown enough to organising the teams around the business capabilities or domains instead.

New comment by jpswade in "WASM Wayland Web (WWW)"

jpswade — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 09:42:36 +0000

This sounds like flash all over again.

New comment by jpswade in "It's not a crime if we do it with an app"

jpswade — Sun, 26 Jan 2025 15:47:47 +0000

Feels more and more like we're entering a post-"disruption" era.

New comment by jpswade in "Methodology is bullshit: principles for product velocity"

jpswade — Fri, 08 Nov 2024 12:20:46 +0000

Here we go again. The golden rule I've come to realise is that people don't like what they don't understand. It's made very clear this person doesn't like methodologies.

I don't get the use of midwit meme here. Either you're implying that you're preaching the the choir, in which case it's just an echo chamber, or you're calling your audience idiots. Neither outcome is great.

There's always a balance. Being overly orthodox about methodology is suboptimal, yet equally, having no guard rails when people need them is equally as bad. Going around expecting everyone to work exactly how you work is not the reality and tends to lead you down one path.

New comment by jpswade in "API Shouldn't Redirect HTTP to HTTPS"

jpswade — Tue, 28 May 2024 20:51:52 +0000

Nothing should redirect ever. However, it happens.

New comment by jpswade in "The quietest places in the loudest cities"

jpswade — Sun, 11 Feb 2024 21:55:23 +0000

I don’t think this is exactly what it means, but I recommend if you want some quiet in a busy city, go into a library or a book store. Typically they are quiet and calm places, offering a break from the sensory overload that is a city.

New comment by jpswade in "Tell HN: Bash.org is no more"

jpswade — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 17:26:12 +0000

No doubt now archived forever and available in ChatGPT.

New comment by jpswade in "Software engineering salaries come from one of three budgets"

jpswade — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 13:57:05 +0000

Historically software engineering was part of the IT function, which historically was born out of accounting, a computer literally was someone’s job, before a machine could do it.

Today, for many businesses accounts is still the main driver behind software, and also the budget.

New comment by jpswade in "French was the official language of England from 1066 till 1362"

jpswade — Fri, 22 Sep 2023 06:18:57 +0000

Official yes, common perhaps not. I believe this is why meat from a cow served at a table is beef, because it here it was served to French aristocracy, while cow is the common English, the language used by the servants.

New comment by jpswade in "Throw away your first draft of your code"

jpswade — Fri, 04 Aug 2023 20:00:32 +0000

I like the idea of “Spike and Stabilise”.

Which means, prototyping in this way, but at the point it is actually delivering value, stabilise.

Of course, it’s never as simple as that, but there’s certainly a place for this technique.

New comment by jpswade in "Ask HN: Do Agile 'Sprints' Benefit Software Developers?"

jpswade — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 14:58:51 +0000

> Interruptions and unforeseen tasks will occur.

In a highly interrupted team, sprints don't work. Try lean/Kanban.

You've not mentioned retrospectives, which are an important part of improving your processes, without that how can you make improvements?

There's nothing in agile that talks about deadlines, it's about commitment.

Erlang at Bet365

jpswade — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 09:10:18 +0000

Article URL: https://bet365techblog.com/erlang-at-bet365

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36811680

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

New comment by jpswade in "Amateurs obsess over tools, pros over mastery"

jpswade — Sun, 09 Jul 2023 19:59:26 +0000

A bad worker blames his tools right?

New comment by jpswade in "Let's have a chat about Java licensing, says unsolicited Oracle email"

jpswade — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 13:34:47 +0000

Alternatively, you can downgrade to a version before the license changed, ie: JDK 8u202 and earlier.

New comment by jpswade in "In practice, cool URLs can become inaccessible even if they don't change"

jpswade — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 11:33:41 +0000

What? The URL hasn’t changed, the content has.

New comment by jpswade in "Dear Red Hat: Are you dumb?"

jpswade — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 20:44:59 +0000

This isn’t a RedHat problem, it’s an IBM problem.

New comment by jpswade in "Apple could force a 111-year-old fruit company to change its Apple logo"

jpswade — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 10:30:39 +0000

Trademark law requires you to defend your trademark, otherwise you risk loosing it, therefore by law, to ensure you remain owners of the trademark, you MUST pursue any possible infringements.

New comment by jpswade in "Ask HN: Why would Google sell Google domains to Squarespace?"

jpswade — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 09:40:31 +0000

“In keeping with our efforts to sharpen our focus, we have entered into a definitive agreement with Squarespace for the acquisition of customer accounts of the Google Domains registrar business,” said Matt Madrigal, Vice President and General Manager, Merchant Shopping of Google.

I imagine they've underestimated what it takes to operate as a domain registrar, and presumably there's too much politics and conflict of interest in that space.

New comment by jpswade in "Estimation isn’t for everyone"

jpswade — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 06:57:20 +0000

Estimation, especially story points are just a tool to help you communicate and talk about the size of work.

Most of the time it’s likely to average just under a 5, so you round up, as most work will fit within a week, which is the underlying “effort” you’re getting from velocity.

For a team of seasoned developers you might as well make everything a one and go kanban.