Hacker News: rondini

New comment by rondini in "Why can't you tune your guitar? (2019)"

rondini — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 15:35:17 +0000

You’re assuming that the goal for a guitar player is to have perfectly optimal instrument when in reality many players want an instrument that feels and sounds like the artists that inspire them. Aesthetics is part of that but if they enjoy the sound of the instrument then who’s to say that another one is “better”?

New comment by rondini in "The UI future is colourful and dimensional"

rondini — Tue, 27 May 2025 14:02:01 +0000

How is photoshop a classic example when all of the icons and controls are quite literally grey in grey like the person you quoted was denouncing?

New comment by rondini in "You wouldn't steal a font"

rondini — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 01:56:34 +0000

You’ve been combative throughout this thread, and it's clear that you don’t see typography or design as disciplines that warrant serious thought. I don't think you're actually willing to engage with an explanation of why it matters but I'll try anyway.

System fonts are the absolute bottom of the barrel. Some are well designed but using any of them is a visual shorthand that you didn't care enough to put thought into your design. You're associating your product with the ocean of amateur work on the internet, giving the impression you copy pasted a template.

There are some high quality free fonts typically backed by massive organizations with actual typographic expertise. Most free fonts however, are amateur work that are technically and functionally lacking. Professional fonts are well designed at all weights, they're carefully spaced, they include much larger character sets to support more languages, contain features like lining and non-lining figures, variable font weights, small caps... are those all slight differences?

There’s a reason so many articles exist with titles like “Google Fonts That Don’t Suck”. Most of them do. If you are a professional whose job requires working with type, then choosing a font is foundational to your product. Arguing that all design is BS is just lazy; it's not a coherent argument.

I highly recommend practicaltypography.com, a free web book that discusses all of this and more, including why system fonts are bad and why a professional typeface is worth paying for.

New comment by rondini in "'Dogequest' Site Claims to Dox Tesla Owners Across the U.S."

rondini — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 14:39:54 +0000

What a ridiculous bad faith deflection. No other auto maker is explicitly and aggressively aligning itself with the current administration and their policies. Tesla’s CEO wants to associate his company with a political vision and is vocal about using his money to further that vision.

New comment by rondini in "Is the world becoming uninsurable?"

rondini — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 16:26:51 +0000

Let's just consider Los Angeles for a second. For decades working class immigrants were pushed to the foothills in Altadena by redlining policies which placed them at risk for wildfires. Today their risk is exponentially greater due to the effects of unchecked climate change, and many cannot afford insurance even now.

How exactly do you expect these people to adapt? Many live in multigenerational households and could never afford to rebuild their house or move without uprooting their communities to another state.

Why are the victims made to adapt to the atrocious actions of the wealthy and powerful? Maybe our policy discussions should start from a place of compassion and work towards solutions from there.

New comment by rondini in "So thieves broke into your storage unit again"

rondini — Sun, 06 Oct 2024 17:18:32 +0000

Having a preference for large suburban homes is fine, but your view of vulnerable people in your community is gross. It sounds like you'd rather insulate yourself from the failures of your local gov't, which is a privilege many people don't have.

New comment by rondini in "Web components are okay"

rondini — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 14:29:33 +0000

Vue also does this! https://vuejs.org/guide/extras/web-components

New comment by rondini in "Boxed – Things I learned after lying in an MRI machine for 30 hours"

rondini — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 17:55:28 +0000

There are lots out there, but a popular model you could check out is the Loop Engage. They suppress certain frequencies more than others to help distinguish speech from background noise.

New comment by rondini in "High-end racing bikes are now vulnerable to hacking"

rondini — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 21:38:37 +0000

I would imagine the sporting body would be concerned that any crowd member with a flipper zero could remotely shift gears on a racer's bike and possibly render it immobile.

New comment by rondini in "Apple's requirements are about to hit creators and fans on Patreon"

rondini — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 20:02:54 +0000

Except they're stepping far over that line! You can use a Patreon subscription on all platforms, same as a Spotify or Netflix or Kobo... and yet they want a cut even when they have no part in the payment processing. Totally indefensible imo.

New comment by rondini in "The fishy death of Red Lobster"

rondini — Fri, 24 May 2024 18:28:11 +0000

For who? Was that the best option for the employees who relied on the income? Or the customers who enjoyed the food? There are plenty of actions that are rational from an economics standpoint as long as you don't care about any of the externalities such as human dignity.

New comment by rondini in "U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone monopoly"

rondini — Thu, 21 Mar 2024 18:29:42 +0000

In the U.S. where this lawsuit was filed, Apple controls 50-60% of the smartphone market, where the next largest competitor Samsung holds only 20-25% [1]. Among U.S. teenagers the iPhone has a massive 87% market share [2]. That is indisputably dominant.

[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/620805/smartphone-sales-...

[2] https://www.pipersandler.com/teens

New comment by rondini in "Oh shit, my app is successful and I didn't think about accessibility"

rondini — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 18:51:06 +0000

I strongly discourage anyone to use such tools. More often than not they make the user experience even worse for users with disabilities, and they paint a huge target on your back that litigious users will take advantage of. The majority of a11y lawsuits target companies that use these overlays[1].

[1] https://www.accessibility.works/blog/avoid-accessibility-ove...

New comment by rondini in "Oh shit, my app is successful and I didn't think about accessibility"

rondini — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 18:47:16 +0000

1/6 is 4/24 or 16.6%, I don't see why we have to be so pedantic.

That aside, the work of prioritizing accommodations is already done. Just read through the WCAG criteria, start with level A, then AA. They already determined what the most critical issues are to accommodate everyone who uses your app. I find it extremely callous to frame people's ability to use your product in terms of the revenue they have to offer you. A storefront has to build a ramp because everyone deserves basic human decency, not because they want wheelchair users to spend money inside.

New comment by rondini in "Google to pause Gemini image generation of people after issues"

rondini — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 14:38:28 +0000

Are you seriously claiming that the actual systemic racism in our society is discrimination against white people? I just struggle to imagine someone holding this belief in good faith.

New comment by rondini in "Cable companies, automakers try to derail FTC, FCC quest to kill misleading fees"

rondini — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 21:30:52 +0000

How does consumer protection === higher prices? And anyway I would rather that nobody be scammed out of money instead of a select few with the means to play the game (who could afford to pay more anyway) coming out on top.

New comment by rondini in "Apple announces changes to iOS, Safari, and the App Store in the European Union"

rondini — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 18:54:22 +0000

The EU already has robust digital privacy laws and is likely to continue passing laws to protect their citizens. I think it's much better to take control away from Apple and place it in the hands of regulators that represent the people directly.

New comment by rondini in "How AI is changing gymnastics judging"

rondini — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 15:34:03 +0000

I shouldn't be surprised given what website I'm on, but it's crazy that people will litigate the finer points of replacing human judgement of human arts rather than reject the premise outright.

New comment by rondini in "Nightshade: An offensive tool for artists against AI art generators"

rondini — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 14:55:38 +0000

I sounds like you don't value art as the purest form of human expression but you'll never be able to convince others to think like you with logic. For my part I think you fundamentally misunderstand the value of creativity but I know I won't change your mind either.

New comment by rondini in "Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars"

rondini — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 19:50:18 +0000

As a second anecdote, I also rented one from Hertz (Polestar 2) and while it could navigate me to charging stations, at least 50% of the time I was unable to charge at a given location due to technical issues. It was bad enough that I had to divert 30 minutes off my planned route to find a working charger.

I look forward to owning an EV someday but the rental experience right now and in my state was VERY stressful.