Hacker News: ogou

New comment by ogou in "Silicon Valley is in denial in face of widespread backlash"

ogou — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 21:12:32 +0000

I don't think they are in denial. I think they just don't care about public sentiment. American capitalism has proven over and over that people who hate you will still buy your product, at a premium.

New comment by ogou in "Was modern art a CIA psy-op? (2020)"

ogou — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:15:23 +0000

The resistance to abstraction in the early 1900s came from a failed art student named Adolf Hitler (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degenerate_Art_exhibition). It was amplified by post-war Soviet propaganda and that is what the CIA was poking at during late modernism. Hitler and the Soviets wanted social realism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_realism) to offer idealized citizens, not individual expression or any kind of doubt really. They are not the only ones. Post-George Floyd exhibitions pivoted heavily to representation and social realism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Sherald). That is still happening. The latest is none other than Trump and Pete Hegseth, who post classic German propaganda style AI images of young white people in working class contexts.

Abstract Expressionism was the pinnacle of modern art and was much more than a style or aesthetic. It was a total embrace of pure individuality. That's why it has been resisted by every social movement since. It is the essence of non-conformity. Political groups require conformity.

New comment by ogou in "My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup"

ogou — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 23:53:30 +0000

When I tell friends or family I just got a job in AI, they look at me with sympathy and disgust, as if I had told them I have gonorrhea. Nobody says "congratulations."

New comment by ogou in "How art invented humanity"

ogou — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 23:29:00 +0000

One of the most compelling takes on Lascaux is that it isn't art. It's not about idealization, worship, beauty, or being human. It was made by hunters to get closer to their prey. They wanted to become the deer and the buffalo to know them better, so they could ultimately become better hunters of them. Herzog made that point in "Cave of Forgotten Dreams".

New comment by ogou in "How we used to get jobs: A newspaper classifieds story"

ogou — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 20:18:54 +0000

We were told the quality of paper mattered and that the envelope should have the same high-end watermark that the resume sheet had. Inkjet printed resumes were discouraged because the quality back then was low and the resolution made anti-aliasing on the type come out weird. Laser printed only, please.

New comment by ogou in "Retraction: The App Store Rejection of the Week That Was a Correct Rejection"

ogou — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 04:26:07 +0000

And that is how you handle things like this. He ponied up and took the hit. More importantly, he gave the back story. After years of reading so many circular psuedo-responsibility posts (by others) trying to squirm out of awkward situations, it's refreshing to see his thoroughness.

New comment by ogou in "Anthropic CEO reportedly worried new hires only care about money"

ogou — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 06:15:02 +0000

I know a lot of good people that got thrown away by mission focussed companies. They were loyal and put with all kinds of BS for those companies. I was laid off from jobs I went way above and beyond for. They didn't hesitate. They are the ones that turned us all into disposable mercenaries. Why wouldn't we go for the money? What else are they offering, thumbs up emojis?

New comment by ogou in "France is banning unsolicited telemarketing calls starting next week"

ogou — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 22:47:01 +0000

This could be dealt with in the U.S. with simple enforcement, but would also limit political parties soliciting by phone and that is my conspiracy theory for why it isn't enforced. It is trivial to find the VoIP providers that are providing the numbers to these telemarketing companies. NANPA (North American Numbering Plan Administrator) has a tool for finding them. https://nanpa.com/sites/default/files/2025-03/InstructionsFo...

New comment by ogou in "AI poster wins Ohio State Fair contest"

ogou — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:07:34 +0000

Yes. A much better poster. Less busy, reads quickly. Funny and relevant. Here is her website: https://nikkismetters.com/

New comment by ogou in "Anti-fraud tools can't keep pace with robocall scammers"

ogou — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 22:10:59 +0000

My Google Voice number got 37 calls from the same region in the past 2 days. All day, about every 50 minutes, rotating different 404 based numbers. It happens about twice a year from this area code (404). I know exactly where it is from. I had to park in Atlanta once and it required me to create an account on an app for that parking lot to pay. Of course I used my Google number. That service must have transferred or sold my number. Now my account gets bombed by them on a regular basis.

New comment by ogou in "Why skilled workers come to Germany and then leave again"

ogou — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 21:41:41 +0000

Berlin is one the cheapest capital cities in Europe. As such it attracts a huge amount of immigrants. That low cost is reflected in the pay. An experienced full stack developer would be fortunate to get 90-95k euro annually. That is plenty of money if you intend to stay in Berlin, but is not something you can save up and build a future with or transfer to another country. Also, housing is a huge problem there and it can take 6 months to find even a basic flat. I am an American developer that lived there for many years and my co-workers were usually Turkish, Polish, Ukrainian, Iranian, Russian, Lebanese, and now Indian. It was rare to find an actual German coder.

I had a hard time with German work expectations and management style. Also, their engineering approach is thorough but incredibly slow and over-built. The environment is hierarchy and credential based with little room for individual initiative or creative problem solving. I was used to improvising, experimenting, and thinking outside the box. It was not a good fit.

New comment by ogou in "'It's like having a dumb friend': Young San Franciscans hate AI"

ogou — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 08:15:27 +0000

People need to understand just how saturated San Francisco is with ads for AI companies right now. I know what these companies do, but I'm still amazed at how niche and bizarre the ads come across. They use an enormous amount of public space to advertise something only relevant to a few hundred people. Locals have a deep resentment of these companies.

New comment by ogou in "Job application asked for my SAT scores"

ogou — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 22:25:48 +0000

I have seen company descriptions in job ads that list college achievements of founders. They are invariably young Asian men. I understand that it's a cultural signifier and don't judge them. But, I also understand that I will never hear back from them because I don't share that background. So, I never apply to any job listing that references college experience of either side, other than wanting a degree in general.

New comment by ogou in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (June 2026)"

ogou — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 19:32:31 +0000

I have done festivals before, so I knew what to expect. One thing I had this time was accepting credit cards and apple pay through an NFC app on my phone. Most people paid with apple pay and were glad I accepted it. Being in a sales booth is awkward at times, but I made friends with the other exhibitors. I had some good conversations with people.

New comment by ogou in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (June 2026)"

ogou — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 22:17:08 +0000

This is the first year I made more money selling art than I did freelancing web dev. I just incorporated and formalized my web dev business (https://lcdbmg.com). A couple of weeks later I got a booth at an art festival and ended up selling many prints (https://lucidbeaming.com). I think the universe is telling me something.

New comment by ogou in "Discovery of Cold War-era rare Eastern Bloc computers in a German hangar"

ogou — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 20:18:25 +0000

I bet most of these were German government property at some point. Considering the time period they were produced, they were probably under security protocols as well. That doesn't just expire. You are right to wonder what the provenance and legal standing of this transfer was.

New comment by ogou in "Notes from the Mistral AI Now Summit"

ogou — Fri, 29 May 2026 18:07:27 +0000

I've said it before that Mistral is underrated. They are looking at real world use of LLMs and tooling. Bespoke models are very appealing to lots of non-tech centered companies and state agencies. Also, Mistral's actual platform is useful. While others are watching performance leaderboards like this is some eSports stream, they are building real world uses.

New comment by ogou in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2026)"

ogou — Tue, 12 May 2026 00:42:08 +0000

I was working on a site to mashup Spotify playlists. I can't stand the "weighted shuffle" Spotify uses. It is also useless for niche genres or experimental music. Last week, I got it all the way to launch and then had reports of login problems. It turns out that Spotify changed its developer terms last year and I can't accept public users unless I'm in their partner program. That has a requirement of 250k MAU. So, everyone was declined when the tried to login. I'm limited to just 5 users. That sucks, but I invited 5 friends to use it and we just bang out epic playlists.

Spotify announcement: https://developer.spotify.com/blog/2025-04-15-updating-the-c...

The app: https://sprogeny.com/

New comment by ogou in "Show HN: Sprogeny – mashup public Spotify playlists"

ogou — Sat, 09 May 2026 03:55:07 +0000

This turned out to be a huge waste of time. I built this without knowing that Spotify changed their policy for independent projects last year. I can't get it out of dev mode unless I register as a Spotify partner as a company AND maintain a minimum of at least 250k MAUs. So, I'm limited to 5 users that I have to enter their account info by hand. What a bummer. Still, I really like the background animations I came up with.

New comment by ogou in "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (May 2026)"

ogou — Sun, 03 May 2026 03:59:13 +0000

  Location: San Francisco
  Remote: Hybrid or Remote
  Willing to relocate: No
  Technologies: Full-stack web, but recently React Native, Svelte, and RabbitMQ
  Résumé/CV: https://joshuacurry.dev
  Email: (on dev portfolio above)

I offer high yield with low drama. 15+ years experience across the modern web stack. Looking for contract work.

Recently featured on CNBC for an AI project I made: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/30/these-2-job-seekers-built-ai...

0 > 1 project I just launched: https://sprogeny.com