Hacker News: paulhallett

New comment by paulhallett in "A desktop made for one"

paulhallett — Mon, 04 May 2026 06:32:13 +0000

I agree. I’ve noticed this phenomenon too as I’ve been building more and more tools for myself, and I’ve started calling it hyper personal software: https://paulwrites.software/articles/hyps/

Hyper Personal Software

paulhallett — Fri, 01 May 2026 12:41:08 +0000

Article URL: https://paulwrites.software/articles/hyps/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47974113

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

New comment by paulhallett in "Has electricity decoupled from natural gas prices in Germany?"

paulhallett — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 14:53:25 +0000

The irony is at the time of me writing this; gas is down to 4.6%[^1] and renewables are a whopping 88.5% and yep - the cost is based on the 4.6% of gas.

^1 https://grid.iamkate.com/

New comment by paulhallett in "Htmx: High Power Tools for HTML"

paulhallett — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 14:03:07 +0000

For a start, it doesn't have to be a replacement. You can progressively add it in. I work at a very very large organisation with a multi-million line codebase and we splash htmx here and there where it is useful (and where a full blown SPA would be too much to set up). We don't have to ditch any other FE tooling in favour of htmx - htmx "just works" nicely alongside everything else.

Show HN: Build Python API clients as easily as you build API servers

paulhallett — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 16:02:04 +0000

Hey HN. I've been building my dream API client for Python. It's a project I've been working on for a few years now, but only recently had the "moment" when it all clicked about what I was trying to solve.

The newest version introduces a high-level abstraction around HTTP that lets you write an API client as quickly as you can write an API server, and still gives you hooks into configuration if you need it.

Someone told me it feels like "FastAPI but for API clients", which I'll take as a compliment (I'm also aware of how tired we are of "FastAPI for X" comparisons!).

Check out the beta release announcement here: https://github.com/phalt/clientele/discussions/130

The project documentation can be read here: https://phalt.github.io/clientele/

And if you could star the project on GitHub and give me feedback it would mean a lot to me: https://github.com/phalt/clientele

For more insight into why I am building this and the frustrations I am trying to overcome, I have written a blog post: https://paulwrites.software/articles/python-api-clients

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46489195

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

A different way to think about Python API Clients

paulhallett — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 21:03:25 +0000

Article URL: https://paulwrites.software/articles/python-api-clients

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46469311

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

My lack of attention for AI art

paulhallett — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 08:20:07 +0000

Article URL: https://paulwrites.software/articles/lack-of-attention

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43579580

Points: 2

# Comments: 1

New comment by paulhallett in "A Decentralized Dead Man’s Switch"

paulhallett — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 22:19:24 +0000

I like this idea, but this is suffering from too many buzz words that it's almost too difficult to understand. Embalmer, Curse, Archeologist? There's some pretty thin analogies to draw from. This won't make the system easier to understand, and it might actually affect adoption.

I once heard about a team that rebuilt a whole suite of micro services using names from Lord of the Rings, but the names didn't reflect the service's functions at all, so the system was instantly unusable due to the confusing terminology.

Keep the terminology simple.

New comment by paulhallett in "Quitting Twitter"

paulhallett — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 20:54:13 +0000

I quit about six months ago. The majority of people I followed, I felt obligated to follow, in order to keep ahead of social issues. But the toll of "doom scrolling" constant negative/angry/depressed posts really hammered my own mental health. I also developed a habit of refreshing the feed on my phone every five minutes.

I quit, and I found myself lost when I picked up my phone, like a lingering habit (I see someone mentioned it being similar to quitting smoking).

On reflection, I think the reason I felt an obligation to keep up with social issues etc, was because I was using my real name (ironic that this HN account is also my real name!). I felt like I had to show I was caring and keeping track of it. I do wonder, if I create an account without my real name, I can just use it how I like, and maybe it will be a different experience.

New comment by paulhallett in "UN votes to remove cannabis from strictest drug category"

paulhallett — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 21:41:46 +0000

It's slipping and sliding faster and faster. I'm keen to see the end of this stupid episode in history. The plant has so many positive and environmentally-friendly uses that it is completely absurdity to keep it banned.

New comment by paulhallett in "MixedName – Bilingual baby name finder"

paulhallett — Wed, 26 Aug 2020 22:25:36 +0000

You should add Māori names too.

Here is a resource with years worth of popular Māori names: https://smartstart.services.govt.nz/news/baby-names

New comment by paulhallett in "Plant-based diet can fight climate change – UN"

paulhallett — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 09:59:00 +0000

It's always worth remembering that you can have an impact and still eat red meat. Cutting out meat on two or three days a week makes an impact. Most of my non-veggie friends treat meat like a treat, and only eat it on weekends.

New comment by paulhallett in "The Whanganui River in New Zealand is a legal person"

paulhallett — Tue, 23 Apr 2019 09:16:39 +0000

This is the second place in Aotearoa New Zealand to be given this status, the first being Te Urewera. The NZ government grants these rights due to their Tapu for the Maori people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Te_Urewera

New comment by paulhallett in "Let’s Talk Concurrency: Panel with Sir Tony Hoare, Joe Armstrong, Carl Hewitt"

paulhallett — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 11:56:16 +0000

Do they all talk at the same time?

New comment by paulhallett in "Alcubierre drive"

paulhallett — Mon, 13 Aug 2018 08:49:36 +0000

The frame shift drive in the ELITE video game series is based on this technology: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/2nqtzp/fram...

New comment by paulhallett in "Django 2.1 released"

paulhallett — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 15:49:34 +0000

Django is the only web framework where I see consistently positive discussions about it on HN.

Bravo Django, and congratulations on another release!

New comment by paulhallett in "Ask HN: Were you happy moving your API from REST to GraphQL?"

paulhallett — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 15:02:07 +0000

Protip: ignore the docs on the website, use the docs on the github package / in the examples instead. They're much better!

New comment by paulhallett in "Django Newbie Mistakes"

paulhallett — Thu, 28 Jun 2018 15:18:47 +0000

Up until 90 minutes ago the previous change to this was 8 months ago. Before that it was 4 years ago.

I think you might be complaining about out of date documentation :)

Given django's docs are impressive, I doubt this is used actively by people.

New comment by paulhallett in "Django Newbie Mistakes"

paulhallett — Thu, 28 Jun 2018 15:17:05 +0000

Django in 2018 is still a very vibrant and active community. The project is actively developed, there is a lot of sponsorship from big companies (instagram etc) funding a dedicated fellow who's job is to work on Django full-time.

The plugin ecosystem is very rich and active too - almost always a pre-made package for some feature or implementation you want to add to Django.

New comment by paulhallett in "Decrypting Amber Rudd"

paulhallett — Wed, 02 Aug 2017 16:21:19 +0000

Well, don't forget this is written by a man know for drumming up sensationalist products like the Indie Phone (crowd funded but never delivered, try google it), pissing off people, and even becoming a meme - https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/29521388/Indie-Phone-Aral-...

So the fact there is hyperbole is par for the course.