Hacker News: olsondv

New comment by olsondv in "Googlebook"

olsondv — Tue, 12 May 2026 18:44:27 +0000

It’s a poor example. Recently, I did have to email myself photos taken with my phone to access them on my laptop. Would be nice if they were automatically synced. It’s work phone and laptop so I could have gone through OneDrive or Box but just as inconvenient as email.

New comment by olsondv in "EU Parliamentary Research Service calls VPNs "a loophole that needs closing""

olsondv — Sat, 09 May 2026 12:11:54 +0000

The article gave one anecdotal example of a person who misdiagnosed themself and then tried to make a broader point by disregarding the definition of addiction. Addiction is not just how many times a compulsive behavior is done. It’s the inability to regulate oneself for the behavior often at the expense of relationships or other responsibilities. If you’re looking at porn when you should be working, that could be addiction, for example. Apply that to relationships too. If you’re looking at porn and masturbating instead of being with your spouse, that’s addiction too.

New comment by olsondv in "What we lost the last time code got cheap"

olsondv — Fri, 08 May 2026 20:36:33 +0000

When I generate code with AI, I will read through each change as it makes them (babysitting). If I don’t understand it, then I ask for explanation right away. At least by the end I have a grasp on what each change does and the reasoning. Then, I can make a PR and highlight the same info for my reviewer and for longevity. Our codebase style is not to litter comments everywhere. We go back to the code review for details and discussion. Obviously, this only works if the changes are small.

New comment by olsondv in "When everyone has AI and the company still learns nothing"

olsondv — Tue, 05 May 2026 12:47:23 +0000

May not have been clear. My job is not AI development. I have features to deliver. The ask from employer is to add the AI knowledge sharing on top of it. They don’t pay for that. When layoffs come, it wouldn’t save me from missed deliverables.

New comment by olsondv in "When everyone has AI and the company still learns nothing"

olsondv — Tue, 05 May 2026 11:18:33 +0000

The post hits the nail on the head with the messy middle. There is simply no motivation to develop this sort of intelligence loop as a dev who has their own responsibilities which their job depend on. Management can ask as nicely as they want, but I’m not going to selflessly share my productivity gains with the broader company for free. I might share a tool if it’s useful. All the learning of how to wrangle AI or set up agents is better kept to myself if there is no recognition for sharing.

My company set up a “prompt of the week” award and brown-bag sessions to help spread adoption. We also have teams meant to develop these workflows. Clearly, they set these events up to play it off as their own productivity. Without a real (read “monetary”) incentive or job security, the risk and cost of spreading the knowledge falls squarely on the developer.

New comment by olsondv in "Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores"

olsondv — Sun, 03 May 2026 13:20:09 +0000

It’s likely just posturing for political support. No nation-wide law that I’m aware of exists in the US. In my state, the lowest advertised or displayed price is the honored price. They have to update the shelf price before the register’s. Any difference gets a refund which unfortunately is not automatic. Requires vigilance by the consumer but it would prevent this type of AI pricing.

New comment by olsondv in "Windows quality update: Progress we've made since March"

olsondv — Sun, 03 May 2026 12:51:05 +0000

For my dual monitors, they have a conflict with this feature where they do not detect signal and then switch inputs and eventually power down. Then windows sees a different config and switches again causing an endless spiral. I have to turn both monitors on to the correct input while plugging in the laptop to the dock. I wish there was a way to save specific monitor setups and manually toggle them.

New comment by olsondv in "The economics of software teams: Why most engineering orgs are flying blind"

olsondv — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 10:29:09 +0000

On the other hand, I’ve also seen single developers create a tool or dashboard off-the-books that had widespread adoption. Things that would never have breached the top 100 features list since they are entirely internal. The irony is then they are expected to maintain it indefinitely without official effort allocation.

New comment by olsondv in "Coding after coders: The end of computer programming as we know it?"

olsondv — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 12:51:08 +0000

I don’t see middle managers taking the initial brunt unless they truly are just pushing papers around. At companies of sufficient size, they do play a role of separation between C suite and the grunts. To me, certain low-performing grunts will be the first out. Then a team reorg to rebalance. Then some middle managers will be out as fewer of them can handle multiple teams.

New comment by olsondv in "Coding after coders: The end of computer programming as we know it?"

olsondv — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 12:40:49 +0000

At least at my company, we have never really cared how it gets done, even before AI. It just has to work (ideally bug-free and maintainable) by the deadline. If you can keep up with shorter deadlines, more power to you. It’s basically a modern John Henry vs the steam drill.

New comment by olsondv in "Coding after coders: The end of computer programming as we know it?"

olsondv — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 12:34:12 +0000

That is why I do not use the multi agent team technique. My code generation has atrophied, but my code review skills have only gotten stronger both for human and AI code. If I handed over both, it hurts my employability and will definitely lead to that hangover.

New comment by olsondv in "System76 on Age Verification Laws"

olsondv — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 08:30:19 +0000

Sure, age restrictions played a part. But the larger reasons are the increased awareness of direct health effects, banning it in public spaces, and taxing the hell out of tobacco. I’d bet if they restricted app usage in specific locations, that alone would break the habit for some people. And imagine if you charged them each time they logged on.

New comment by olsondv in "I rendered 1,418 confusables over 230 fonts. Most aren't confusable to the eye"

olsondv — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 12:20:36 +0000

Not to mention it would only apply to clicking spoofed links. Unless the keyboard mapping was compromised, those letters won’t be typed.

New comment by olsondv in "10 years of personal finances in plain text files"

olsondv — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 15:17:18 +0000

The mortgage payments always confused me and that link has a good explanation of how it works. Have you used that code base in your own system or just the principles? I don’t know Haskell so not sure how much I can/need to modify.

New comment by olsondv in "10 years of personal finances in plain text files"

olsondv — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 15:00:43 +0000

Depends on how many different financial systems you need to import from. It took me a weekend to set up the importers alone between checking, savings, investments, mortgage, pay slips, and all the credit cards. Some don’t have csv output so had to do pdf to text conversion. There are examples in beancount but each bank was different for me.

New comment by olsondv in "I misused LLMs to diagnose myself and ended up bedridden for a week"

olsondv — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 22:21:47 +0000

As a kid, I had a bulls-eye rash which is the tell-tale sign of Lyme disease. My dad snapped a Polaroid since we were on a trip and couldn’t get to my pediatrician for a week. The rash cleared up before I went in. My doctor didn’t want to diagnose it as anything or write an antibiotics prescription…until my dad pulled out the photo. She then immediately wrote the antibiotics for it. The danger of under diagnosis for Lyme disease versus antibiotic resistance tilts so far towards writing the prescription that I will never understand her reasoning. Point is we knew to go in and to advocate for my own health. Doctors are fallible humans too.

New comment by olsondv in "Sharper MRI scans may be on horizon thanks to new physics-based model"

olsondv — Sat, 22 Nov 2025 13:30:16 +0000

Advanced diffusion certainly benefited from the acquisition speed ups. That is its biggest challenge in my opinion preventing it from wider clinical adoption. It takes too long to get enough images for the models. Hyperpolarized MR will run into issue of lack of expertise in clinical imaging centers. There is already a shortage of good techs and MR companies are working to further automate the workflows. Unless there is a major benefit of the advanced techniques, people will stick to the bread and butter FSE and DWI.

New comment by olsondv in "Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright"

olsondv — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 20:10:33 +0000

The improved reflectivity of street signs is an under appreciated issue with brighter headlights. It’s like the designers of each expected the other to not change. Now they overshot each other making the street signs unreadable at night.