Hacker News: kulahan

New comment by kulahan in "The unreasonable effectiveness of simple HTML (2021)"

kulahan — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 09:11:13 +0000

Like 99.998% of software problems are due to incompetence. What’s your point? That government software is somehow immune to this problem or something?

You seem to agree with me, but refuse to admit it because you wish the world was different. I do too, but it’s pretty irrelevant.

New comment by kulahan in "The unreasonable effectiveness of simple HTML (2021)"

kulahan — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 00:52:22 +0000

Right, and I’m positing that you don’t need to support 20 year old devices that receive zero updates because everyone has access to libraries in an absolute last resort.

There are limited resources when developing software. This is a pretty bad resource sink.

New comment by kulahan in "The unreasonable effectiveness of simple HTML (2021)"

kulahan — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:10:13 +0000

I guarantee libraries do not have the shiniest new devices. So trying so hard to be offended.

New comment by kulahan in "The unreasonable effectiveness of simple HTML (2021)"

kulahan — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 11:10:32 +0000

“Go to a public library” is elitist? I am on my hands and knees begging you to reconsider this position. I cannot imagine a worse take.

New comment by kulahan in "The unreasonable effectiveness of simple HTML (2021)"

kulahan — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 01:25:29 +0000

The article and commenters are both complaining about JS in favor of HTML - I'm really just talking about it in this context.

Anyways, I disagree with the idea that we should make something simple enough for PSPs and car browsers. Just go to a library.

New comment by kulahan in "The unreasonable effectiveness of simple HTML (2021)"

kulahan — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 23:15:06 +0000

It feels like every week someone discovers that code closer to the metal is faster, and ignores the fact that it’s easier to write higher-level code, and that this is the specific tradeoff everyone is making. Why do these articles keep getting posted? Who is this a revelation to?

New comment by kulahan in "You Can Run"

kulahan — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 23:09:46 +0000

If I was being absurd and disgusting, I’d call you a name. Not every disagreement is a personal attack, even if you’re dedicated to being a victim.

>Explicit contradictions aren't the only basis for that, but for those, bible-defending pedants can see password4321's comment that started this subthread as well as his followup.

Right, you’re talking about the one that explicitly is not a contradiction, it’s a misunderstanding of new vs. Old Testament, which I specified in my first response.

This is the worst thing about discussing religion on the internet. People pretend to be so disgusted by it they simply CANNOT POSSIBLY discuss it, despite being just… completely wrong.

And of course the explicit contradictions are needed. If all you’ve got is “this seems backwards” and nothing more, that’s a sign you don’t actually have a contradiction - you have anger born of ignorance.

New comment by kulahan in "A new era for software testing"

kulahan — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 23:05:23 +0000

Isn’t this explicitly the one place you’d never want to use AI? Like, the only actual problem with AI is that it sometimes ignores errors in output like it has a PHD in Blindness To Problems. I always figured the path forward was strictly enforced and managed tests written by hand, because who gives a shit about the code behind it as long as you can prove that the output is real?

Ten million blackboxes with ten billion tests or whatever. Otherwise it’s literally the blind leading the blind

New comment by kulahan in "You Can Run"

kulahan — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 01:40:35 +0000

Then say the argument for what it is - “the text is often misunderstood and/or misrepresented”, not “the text itself is somehow hypocritical because people misuse it”.

I don’t even disagree with you, I just don’t get why you’re so purposely mislabeling it.

New comment by kulahan in "You Can Run"

kulahan — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 00:40:39 +0000

I think it's extremely possible to be familiar with the criticism without ever having seen specific examples. I certainly haven't. I guess I assumed it was something to do with people misunderstanding the difference between new and old testament, or something to that effect.

Your comment also does not seem to present any examples of this. You start talking about it, but then you move on to complaining about cherry-pickers instead of showing some other part of the old testament which happens to encourage wearing clothes woven of two different types or not killing adulterers or something.

New comment by kulahan in "Stop Killing Games"

kulahan — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 21:09:47 +0000

This is cool and all, but it’s been proven a million times over that surviving on donations sucks. One of the reasons a new field gets innovation in partly because it brings so many people hungry for profit in to give it a go. If your only motivation is art and “maybe someone will toss me a buck on occasion”, we’ll have as many software devs as we do street performers.

New comment by kulahan in "Corporations can vote in some Delaware elections, judge says"

kulahan — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 07:19:43 +0000

Ah, so "essentially none because this was a pretty bad attempt at a retort". Gotcha!

New comment by kulahan in "Corporations can vote in some Delaware elections, judge says"

kulahan — Thu, 28 May 2026 21:59:46 +0000

Cool, we’re not discussing authoritarian dictatorships - we’re discussing company towns.

New comment by kulahan in "Corporations can vote in some Delaware elections, judge says"

kulahan — Thu, 28 May 2026 06:38:50 +0000

The same can be said about literally anything in existence, from this incredibly inane point of view. Lots of things are historically dangerous and only work well when people who don't suck is running it.

Most things suck when someone shitty is running it. This is the worst argument of all time. There's really no reason, based on the very bad argument you've presented here, to assume a local, state, or federal government would be any better than any corporation. Please, I beg of you, come up with some argument that takes more than two seconds to disregard.

New comment by kulahan in "Corporations can vote in some Delaware elections, judge says"

kulahan — Thu, 28 May 2026 06:37:56 +0000

Oh? Which industry regularly uses this as a part of standard business for consumers? Unless... you're just pretending to be too obtuse to understand the extremely obvious implication here.

New comment by kulahan in "Corporations can vote in some Delaware elections, judge says"

kulahan — Wed, 27 May 2026 19:09:25 +0000

Asbestos is still used today in some instances. Should’ve used heroin or something

New comment by kulahan in "Corporations can vote in some Delaware elections, judge says"

kulahan — Wed, 27 May 2026 19:04:56 +0000

There’s really nothing inherently profane about the concept, it’s just often abused. I’d love to see a few working examples out in the real world, personally.

New comment by kulahan in "India's hottest district shuts at 10 am as mercury breaches 48 C mark"

kulahan — Wed, 20 May 2026 06:10:16 +0000

We’re looking at an unprecedented El Niño this year - the event may be closer than we think.

New comment by kulahan in "Googlebook"

kulahan — Wed, 20 May 2026 05:57:20 +0000

The only reasons people logically buy an apple are twofold: first, you know it’ll still work mostly fine in a decade. Second, it gets you further into the walled garden. That’s really only nice if you’ve got a computer that will last long enough that the garden isn’t painful. That’s the only reason they can command such a high price. This will be a piece of shit in 4 years TOPS, while commanding 80% of the price. And again, Apple has made them impossible to upgrade or repair, shortening the lifespan even further.

Bro stop with the copium

New comment by kulahan in "Google changes its search box"

kulahan — Wed, 20 May 2026 05:49:29 +0000

Nobody is reasonably expecting perfectly unbiased information, just reasonably unbiased, and that’s pretty easy to find