Hacker News: jumpalongjim

New comment by jumpalongjim in "A disturbing thought. A world where the marginal cost of software is free"

jumpalongjim — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 19:28:10 +0000

There are no barriers to creating software. There are no barriers to copying software. But there are still moats around some software businesses: non-technical which AI does not directly impact. Nonetheless, advertising is not the only way to win and there's no need to be nostalgic. We will adapt to the new era.

New comment by jumpalongjim in "Habits can't be eliminated but they can for sure be replaced"

jumpalongjim — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 17:02:38 +0000

This might be useful for my son! But he has Android, not iOS. Is Android on the way?

New comment by jumpalongjim in "Show HN: Cadence Money – a budgeting app with no AI features, just an MCP server"

jumpalongjim — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:30:07 +0000

This is a well-presented website and looks like a good set of features. I always thought of creating one of these for myself, but I don't think it's a very easy market to make money in. Good luck with it.

New comment by jumpalongjim in "Ask HN: What will it take you to shift to a new social media platform?"

jumpalongjim — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:04:56 +0000

What would a new social media platform offer that existing ones don't? Important to me: my time and the value I get from spending it. To move off X to a new platform the signal-to-noise ratio would need to be better.

New comment by jumpalongjim in "AI the Singularity and where we are"

jumpalongjim — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 13:53:57 +0000

It's increasingly common to have fascinating discussions with LLMs, and they do come out with some good insight. (It would be nice if they could vary the ubiquitous stock terminology, such as 'heavy lifting'.)

Fable and its like are truly knowledgeable and clever. However, they are still blind to consciously stepping back and thinking outside of their working context. I may be wrong, but I don't see any moves anywhere that take us into the singularity. All models can still be outwitted trivially.

New comment by jumpalongjim in "Tell HN: Our paid Claude AI subscription unavailable >1 week and no support"

jumpalongjim — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 11:04:59 +0000

My goto approach would be to ask an AI to investigate. They can get a surprisingly long way in troubleshooting networking, doing web research, etc. and will even decompile Claude Code to work out what the issue is. It's easy to underestimate what AI agents can do. If you can't use Claude to do this then pick OpenAI or Grok, etc.

New comment by jumpalongjim in "Ask HN: Why is every company encorporating AI everywhere?"

jumpalongjim — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 10:56:55 +0000

No, certainly not necessary in all cases. It's a marketing approach: companies want to find an edge and a way to indicate they're progressing and leading, so they find a way to attach AI to whatever they do. Only a fraction of these are worthwhile, and in most cases users would be better off by using their own AI directly.

New comment by jumpalongjim in "So what is your programming setup? Hype is making fundamentals confusing"

jumpalongjim — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 10:41:28 +0000

I no longer write code. In fact I develop in languages I'm not very familiar with. I use Claude Code, Grok Build and Pi as AI coding agents. I use Linear for issue / task management. I use Github for CI, building on multiple platforms and CD. I use Neovim when I want to read code, and Mermaid when I want my code architecture to be explained.

New comment by jumpalongjim in "Messaging platform I can self-host for my agents to communicate"

jumpalongjim — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 09:27:23 +0000

I'd suggest MCP agent mail https://github.com/Dicklesworthstone/mcp_agent_mail I haven't tried it on a raspberry pi at all, but I have used it on my PC and Mac and it enables agents to message each other. It's a lot of fun to drop in on their conversations and observe how they address each other and co-operate!

New comment by jumpalongjim in "Honda is killing its EVs"

jumpalongjim — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 23:03:11 +0000

Whether or not your analysis is correct (I'd say not), the root problem is Chinese manufacturing dominance and unfair competitive advantage when it comes to EVs. It saddens me to say it, but the legacy car companies are unable to pivot and are likely doomed.

New comment by jumpalongjim in "Honda is killing its EVs"

jumpalongjim — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 22:57:10 +0000

Agree! But there are almost none on the roads in Europe so must have been costly for Honda. Price was too high.

New comment by jumpalongjim in "Honda is killing its EVs"

jumpalongjim — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 22:53:01 +0000

I love the Honda E and it's not mentioned in the article for some reason. However it must certainly have been a costly flop; they are so rare on the roads in the UK,

New comment by jumpalongjim in "Warranty Void If Regenerated"

jumpalongjim — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 22:43:31 +0000

Often suggested by optimistic podcast guests these days: the as-yet-unknown new careers that will replace the familiar old ones and thus give employment in the AI era. I think your story is more a commentary on the current AI goldrush than an insight into future careers.

New comment by jumpalongjim in "Claude Is Having an Outage"

jumpalongjim — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 22:18:02 +0000

Claude not playing, so resorted to watching television with my wife. Turned out well, actually - history of Henry II and Thomas Beckett :)

New comment by jumpalongjim in "Ask HN: Do You Enjoy Your Career in Tech Nowadays?"

jumpalongjim — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 01:06:45 +0000

I've enjoyed SW engineering always. It started as a hobby and I'm fortunate to do what I enjoy as a profession. Do I still enjoy it? I find the rise of AI mesmerising. It's delightful to me to use AI and build with it in the partner role. Doesn't mean I don't have misgivings or doubts about where we end up, but I've never been so enthralled with tech.

New comment by jumpalongjim in "Ask HN: How is your team changing documentation for AI-assisted coding?"

jumpalongjim — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 20:48:32 +0000

I find that communicating with AIs is enhanced by using Mermaid diagrams, which the AIs love to write and can convey quite a lot of complexity in an easily consumable format. It's really helpful to have a nice diagram to study rather than a wall of text. (AIs really love you to give you a wall of text ;) )

Mermaid is useful because it's text that can be checked in and versioned as usual.