Hacker News: pif

New comment by pif in "Devtools must be open source"

pif — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 20:12:08 +0000

> Several times a day I'll prompt regular Claude chat to "Clone x/y from GitHub and tell me how Z works".

In principle, you should not need the source code: the AI should be able to answer by examining the binaries.

New comment by pif in "Golang proposal: container/: generic collection types"

pif — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 08:03:06 +0000

People still calling themselves developers and choosing a language that was created for poor programmers...

New comment by pif in "UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions"

pif — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 14:55:58 +0000

OK, just forbid commencial during those 3-minute breaks. Have some other kind of entertainment organised.

New comment by pif in "UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions"

pif — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 14:53:47 +0000

> About increasing teams to 48, now to 64?

I still hope we Italians will eventually be able to participate again, thus I approve the 64 team formula ;-)

New comment by pif in "Netflix employee fired for sharing personal details in retreat trust exercise"

pif — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 08:59:37 +0000

> classic problem of "Engineering isn't shipping features fast enough" and "Sales is selling features before even consulting with engineering"

That's not a problem, in the sense that there was never any possible debate: if I make a promise on your behalf, I am a di*k.

New comment by pif in "Netflix employee fired for sharing personal details in retreat trust exercise"

pif — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 08:56:54 +0000

> I think most people think of it as a free vacation.

I'm shocked that someone does NOT think so!

New comment by pif in "Why do we think we understand the world more than we actually do?"

pif — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 07:37:51 +0000

> pockmark the landscape of their knowledge with exploratory boreholes

I've got a PhD in particle Physics. I develop the geometry module of machine tools.

I got lost when an auntie tried to explain crochet to me.

New comment by pif in "Why do we think we understand the world more than we actually do?"

pif — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 07:34:37 +0000

> the meaning of existence, universe, and the like

And the child will be too young to accept 42 as a satisfactory answer...

New comment by pif in "If coding has been solved, why does software keep getting worse?"

pif — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 16:07:09 +0000

> Nothing works

It depends on whose perspective you consider the problem. An enterprise produces software for one reason only: make money out of it. And it works great!

if you are a paying customer, and if you can choose among a few different solutions, then you will get the good stuff. But for the rest...

1. Free apps? They just need to take ads in front of your eyes.

2. Software embedded in cars? You choose the car based on other merits, the software just needs to not by horrible.

3. Automated customare support? When was the last time you choose a fridge over another because of the quality of its customer support?

New comment by pif in "I wrote an bash enumerator because I was sick of xargs"

pif — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 12:55:09 +0000

> Or maybe you pipe into xargs and pray your filenames don’t have spaces

So they wrote a new tool and posted it on HN before checking the manual about null character termination... Not trustable at all, what a waste of time!

New comment by pif in "The family keeping watch over a 52-year-old pot of soup"

pif — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 15:30:30 +0000

This Italian here has never heard nothing like that. Tomato sauce can be simmered for several hours, but there is no refill.

New comment by pif in "98% Isn't Much"

pif — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 15:18:24 +0000

The author is confusing visitors with customers. Refusing entry to 2% visitors? No, no! Forgetting about non-interesting 2% visitors? Not even a blink!

New comment by pif in "CERN bids farewell to the LHC and enters Long Shutdown 3"

pif — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 07:53:09 +0000

Luminosity, not power!

New comment by pif in "The 'papers, please' era of the internet will decimate your privacy"

pif — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 14:37:32 +0000

> This issue here isn't surveillance as per a signed warrant. I don't think anybody's really arguing against that.

Everybody who talks about cryptography is arguing about that! With the digital technology we have, the options are very simple: either every man in the middle can read (even the villain), or nobody can (not even the justice departments). There's no middle ground.

New comment by pif in "The 'papers, please' era of the internet will decimate your privacy"

pif — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 14:35:16 +0000

> every time someone wandered a week by feet from home

Remote privacy means that you don't have to move from home.

> or sent a letter

Which anybody could just intercept and read.

> Famous authors published for a whole lifetime under pseudonyms.

But someone had to know who they were and where they lived, and they could be convinced to share such information.

New comment by pif in "The 'papers, please' era of the internet will decimate your privacy"

pif — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 12:58:57 +0000

You see, when someone talks about "the governments" without realising that they do represent the people in a democracy, their ignorance show so much that it is difficult for them to attract any sympathy in those places where the laws are discussed.

New comment by pif in "The 'papers, please' era of the internet will decimate your privacy"

pif — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 12:19:39 +0000

And any phone could be tapped with a signature by a judge.

New comment by pif in "The 'papers, please' era of the internet will decimate your privacy"

pif — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 12:02:00 +0000

I am always surprised that people get shocked when online privacy is put at risk, as if it was a fundamental human right.

REMOTE PRIVACY NEVER EXISTED BEFORE A FEW DECADES AGO!

And what happened in these decades are enough for the societies to wonder whether this new possibility in human connections (i.e. remote privacy) is globally a good thing. Just stomping your feet because the new toy may be declared illegal is not helping anyone. Governments are expressing serious doubts: this discussion needs serious interventions, not temper tantrums.

New comment by pif in "8086 Segmented Memory was a good idea"

pif — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 13:34:09 +0000

> Need more than 64KB? Allocate two blocks.

How is that compatible with an array and a simple implementation of the index operator?

New comment by pif in "Why do commercial spaces sit vacant? (2025)"

pif — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:54:55 +0000

Say what you want, but a law that lets you pretend that the value of a building is based on what you ask, rather than what you can actually obtain, is a stupid law.