Hacker News: omg_ketchup

New comment by omg_ketchup in "Typepad is shutting down"

omg_ketchup — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 01:36:47 +0000

The link has a typo. It should point to: https://help.typepad.com/shutdown-faq.html

New comment by omg_ketchup in "A network engineer in search of greener pastures"

omg_ketchup — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 19:05:56 +0000

I just started to fill out a job application from the HN "Who's Hiring" thread, and it required a Loom video of me describing why I'd be a good fit for that specific position. The fuck? Abandoned the application process at this step. I'll do an interview, but creating a video just to get rejected for each job? That's a bit much.

New comment by omg_ketchup in "Driver.js: Product tours, highlights, contextual help and more"

omg_ketchup — Mon, 24 Jul 2023 14:21:42 +0000

I think this is great at what it does. The only issue I have with it is the fact that if a targeted element is offscreen, it snaps to it instead of scrolls to it. Otherwise very, very slick.

New comment by omg_ketchup in "Software Disenchantment (2018)"

omg_ketchup — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 21:08:10 +0000

RIP Flash

New comment by omg_ketchup in "It's VHS vs. Beta all over again, but worse"

omg_ketchup — Sun, 07 Apr 2019 16:46:18 +0000

I miss being able to cast things to my Fire Stick. Like a lot.

New comment by omg_ketchup in "It's VHS vs. Beta all over again, but worse"

omg_ketchup — Sun, 07 Apr 2019 16:45:51 +0000

Library of Congress?

New comment by omg_ketchup in "It's VHS vs. Beta all over again, but worse"

omg_ketchup — Sun, 07 Apr 2019 16:27:30 +0000

Sure, but why wouldn't they get paid based on streams of their copyrighted materials, or some other payment scheme? I mean, hey, it was good enough for video stores in the 90's, right? The equivalent of* Wolf of Wall Street sat on the shelf in Blockbuster for 15 years after it came out. They didn't have to hide it in the back because of an availability window.

New comment by omg_ketchup in "It's VHS vs. Beta all over again, but worse"

omg_ketchup — Sun, 07 Apr 2019 16:20:07 +0000

That's pretty nitpicky. The DVD-burning is a hack to get around the lock-in, not their actual problem.

New comment by omg_ketchup in "It's VHS vs. Beta all over again, but worse"

omg_ketchup — Sun, 07 Apr 2019 16:18:24 +0000

I really don't understand why everyone doesn't just offer all the movies all the time. These availability windows on shit is ridiculous. You wonder how pirates stay in business, it's because of availability windows and that region-locked bullshit.

The Wolf of Wall Street came out like 10 years ago, and you're telling me the only way to watch it is to buy it for $15 on Amazon? Keep dreaming.

New comment by omg_ketchup in "Farewell from Paradise Bay"

omg_ketchup — Fri, 22 Mar 2019 20:48:21 +0000

Seems like a lot of angry people in that thread, but I'm not sure what they expected?

New comment by omg_ketchup in "Is it creepy when brands pester you on social media?"

omg_ketchup — Sat, 16 Feb 2019 15:04:46 +0000

Competitors offering you free stuff in public might be the future though.

"Sky Media sucks? Move to Virgin Media and we'll give you 6 months free if you tweet that you did."

I could see that being a more effective strategy.

New comment by omg_ketchup in "Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?"

omg_ketchup — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 18:40:47 +0000

You mean... make software for the people who use it, not the people who make it?

New comment by omg_ketchup in "Thoughts on Modern C++ and Game Dev"

omg_ketchup — Sat, 05 Jan 2019 17:31:46 +0000

Sure, menus and networking. Maybe loot distribution, level generation, etc.

Not so much actual gameplay though. That does constantly get tweaked.

New comment by omg_ketchup in "Ultima Online spent years developing a system that was destroyed by players"

omg_ketchup — Mon, 24 Dec 2018 01:28:55 +0000

That was Abyss, not Siege, right?

They were so ahead of their time with pretty much everything. Abyss was cool and all, but do you remember Santa's Slay?

New comment by omg_ketchup in "Ask HN: Which abandoned proprietary software would you resurrect?"

omg_ketchup — Sat, 08 Dec 2018 16:03:45 +0000

Flash.

New comment by omg_ketchup in "Why do all websites look the same?"

omg_ketchup — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 17:08:39 +0000

I'm not even talking about the consumption side of Flash. I'm just talking about the tooling for creating Flash content.

Did you ever use Flash? It was incredible. Draw right there on the canvas with basically Illustrator-esque tools (or just File->Open whatever .jpg you want). You can add a keyframe in the timeline, and just drag the image to wherever you want. Then you hit play, it looks right, then you hit publish, and it would play exactly the same in any browser ever.

Also, ActionScript 3 was basically typed javascript, back in like 2004.

New comment by omg_ketchup in "Why do all websites look the same?"

omg_ketchup — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 17:05:25 +0000

> the mission is to sell a widget, deliver a service or provide information

But why? What about a site about art? What about a site about me? What if I don't want you to get "information" about me, but to see the world through my eyes, with the website as my lens? Sure, I guess I could post my non-interactive photos to Instagram, but that seems so... uniform.

Not every website has to make money. They can entertain just by the virtue of being interactive. And I'm not saying it's impossible to do in 2018. I'm just saying it was a much more creative-friendly experience 10 years ago, and when we killed Flash, we lost it.

We did gain apps though. So I guess there's that.

New comment by omg_ketchup in "Why do all websites look the same?"

omg_ketchup — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 15:43:40 +0000

For a website that's about UX, the actual UX of trying to read each of their articles is actually infuriating. I don't want to scroll. Why isn't the definition next to the name?

New comment by omg_ketchup in "Why do all websites look the same?"

omg_ketchup — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 15:39:01 +0000

I'm actually gonna have to go ahead and blame the demise of Flash for the current lack of interesting web design. I know there were technical reasons to get rid of it. Security. Mobile. Proprietary. etc. Whatever.

Some flash sites were horrible. But there were some real gems. That Hacker News design by Tyrion's brother is probably inspired by a bunch of old Flash sites that followed that template.

Flash was so easy to work with. Draw some neat stuff with their tools, animate it in the same program with their timeline, then make it all navigable and smart, still in the same program. You test it, in that same program. Then you publish it, and it works exactly how you made it work, in every browser, ever. One file. So easy for artists, designers, and non-technical people.

That's why we don't see cool shit on the web anymore- it's too hard/boring to make.

New comment by omg_ketchup in "My Amazon Interview Horror Story"

omg_ketchup — Sun, 04 Nov 2018 15:00:22 +0000

I'm sure they mean "What's a bad work situation you were in, and how did you deal with it"