<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: simmschi</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=simmschi</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Tue, 30 Jun 2026 22:18:40 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=simmschi" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by simmschi in "MapComplete: Maps about various topics which you can contribute to"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Thanks for the pointer! I posted here before properly exploring the other themes.<p>Really nice project. Thank you for contributing to the OSM community.<p>>Editing geometries is out of scope for this project.<p>Out of curiosity, may I ask why?<p>It's not that I have this use case regularly, cycling-related it mainly comes up dealing with tracks through forests and fields.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2026 20:42:46 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48496145</link><dc:creator>simmschi</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48496145</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48496145</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by simmschi in "MapComplete: Maps about various topics which you can contribute to"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Hmmm, I love OSM, consume their data in my small cycling project and regularly contribute smaller fixes.<p>But I also shy away from anything more complex than fixing attributes and meta data of existing objects. Especially editing relations, ways and nodes - is this possible with MapComplete? I loaded the Cyclofix map, but I can't even select cycle paths or roads, just edit POIs.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2026 15:44:42 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48491945</link><dc:creator>simmschi</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48491945</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48491945</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by simmschi in "Looking Forward to Postgres 19: Query Hints"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>FINALLY!<p>I never understood the issues PG had with hints. Running a non-trivial DB with a non-trivial schema and scale is, well, non-trivial at all. At some point the DB stops being a black box and starts being a tool that you have to know inside and out to avoid performance issues.<p>>The optimizer is usually smarter than you think.<p>Except for when it isn't, and moves heavy calculation inside a nested loop inside a nested loop to avoid an index scan. Nothing is perfect.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 09 Jun 2026 08:06:08 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48458098</link><dc:creator>simmschi</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48458098</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48458098</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by simmschi in "Three of our worst VC stories"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>So, how long did it take you to go 100 customers after this pitch?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 06 Jun 2026 07:47:10 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48422487</link><dc:creator>simmschi</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48422487</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48422487</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by simmschi in "Daily pill can double survival time for deadliest cancer, trial shows"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Well, I am in the situation you are so afraid of. Chemo, radiation and other treatments suck big time, let alone the effects of the cancer itself.<p>BUT ... this is not a binary situation, where suddenly life becomes unbearable. There's so much worth living for. And not just the obvious big things in life (kids, family, friends), but also many many small things. Man, that first cup of cappuchino once the effects of chemo wear off alone is almost worth all the puking beforehand :) Or having a nice piece of cheese. Seeing my small herb garden grow. Etc. etc.<p>The trick is to live a peaceful, content life. Be grateful for what you have. Enjoy your short time on earth.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 31 May 2026 20:34:19 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48349472</link><dc:creator>simmschi</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48349472</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48349472</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by simmschi in "New bill would let New Yorkers hang solar panels from windows"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Totally agree, the current state of the German grid is not ideal. But I have the naive gut feeling that storage prices will also come down and we will see a similar non-political quiet revolution here as well. I.e. people and companies will simply install more and more storage because it is economically viable, not because of ideology. We'll see.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 15 Apr 2026 14:30:08 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47779521</link><dc:creator>simmschi</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47779521</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47779521</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by simmschi in "New bill would let New Yorkers hang solar panels from windows"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>We have a similar approach here in Germany. Anyone has the right to install a small solar system on their balcony or similar and feed up to 800W into their local grid. You just mount it and plug it into your house/apartment grid. Technically you have to get it registered, too.<p>The sky is not falling, buildings are not crumbling and the grid is not burning.<p>It's not revolutionary either, but slowly picking up traction. You see more and more installations here in Berlin. On the country side where people have their own house and enough space it's a total no-brainer to set up one of those mini solar systems.<p>The typical systems you can buy off the shelf (800-1000W panels + inverter) amortize after a few years already, and are getting cheaper every year. I have the feeling the main limitation in the city is having a nice balcony with good mounting points.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 15 Apr 2026 13:33:35 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47778749</link><dc:creator>simmschi</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47778749</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47778749</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by simmschi in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (February 2026)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm working on Cyclonauts (<a href="https://cyclonauts.net" rel="nofollow">https://cyclonauts.net</a>), an addon for Strava to make your commute more fun.<p>It maps your cycling activity data against the OpenStreetMap catalogue to generate all kinds of exploration statistics.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 09 Feb 2026 13:54:04 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46945224</link><dc:creator>simmschi</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46945224</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46945224</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by simmschi in "OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Fully agree. I've been through a number of code red panics in my career.<p>But somehow, even in startups with short remaining runway, "code red" rarely means anything.<p>You still have to attend all the overhead meetings, run through approval circles, deal with HR etc etc.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 03 Dec 2025 13:40:33 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46134361</link><dc:creator>simmschi</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46134361</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46134361</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by simmschi in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2025)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm working on a cycling app that analyzes your Strava data and matches your activities to the OSM street grid. You get cool statistics which paths in your city you've already taken. The goal is to make your commute more fun :)<p><a href="https://cyclonauts.net" rel="nofollow">https://cyclonauts.net</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 27 May 2025 12:54:46 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44106490</link><dc:creator>simmschi</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44106490</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44106490</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by simmschi in "Lessons in creating family photos that people want to keep (2018)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>These points are also useful for your own photo library. Forget about your relatives going through your stuff after you die, that doesn't matter. But which of the hundreds of photos you took over the past few years would you look at again?<p>Right, it's the same kind of pictures mentioned in the article. Life happening. The kids helping you cooking, mom goofing around, the family hiking etc etc.<p>It's not the landscape, some flowers, fireworks, a beach usually. What you care about are people and the moments you spent with them.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 27 Jan 2025 09:27:27 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42839078</link><dc:creator>simmschi</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42839078</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42839078</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by simmschi in "Ask HN: How can I learn to better command people's attention when speaking?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I know exactly what you're talking about and have been in similar situations many times. For me it's not just limited to speech, but lots of other aspects. Sometimes it feels like being a ghost or some weird Star Trek like phase shift. E.g. one person walks out of a board game night to get some food, everyone stops playing to wait for the person. I walk out, things just continue.<p>What helped me a lot were 2 things:<p>1) There are ways to improve your conversation skills. Big topic, with lots of branches. Your speech matters. Your tone. Keep collecting interesting anecdotes. Culture some depth to your personality that is unrelated to work (e.g. interesting hobbies). Essentially train your charisma.<p>2) The big eye opener for me was the discovery that different groups of people actually react differently to me. I.e. I was simply friends with people who ... didn't care as much about me as I cared about them. The blunt fix here is to change your social circles. Not easy, but doable, slowly, over time.<p>The "interesting hobby" part of the charisma training actually helps there to connect to different groups of people.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 09 Jan 2025 09:59:11 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42643632</link><dc:creator>simmschi</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42643632</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42643632</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by simmschi in "PR process killing morale and productivity"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Have you tried the code owners feature (assuming you're on Github).<p>IMO a good approach is to have the actual code owners (i.e. the team responsible for a specific service or library) review the PR. If they think a shallow LGTM review of 3k LOC is enough, they can also deal with the bugs :-)<p>If you don't have specific ownership in your code base I'd start there.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 29 Nov 2024 17:50:08 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42275582</link><dc:creator>simmschi</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42275582</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42275582</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by simmschi in "A network engineer in search of greener pastures"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>"I noted, too, that some of these rejections came instantly after turning in an application. [...] I determined that I was automatically being filtered because I didn't have a college degree. Sure, the job posting says it's required, but you do know I have more experience than the average college student my age, right?"<p>Sure, I never studied medicine and the hospital stated that they are looking for a doctor, but the experience should count no?<p>Oh man. I keep thinking about Software Engineering as a craft. Only in our profession is it considered completely acceptable to work without any professional education.<p>Lawyers, doctors, nurses, even tax accountants go to jail if they practice without being licensed.<p>You wouldn't get your house wired by some random dude, instead you're looking for a proper, licensed electrician.<p>But in tech? Somehow we normalized random kids just building critical architecture.<p>I wonder if that's an anomaly from the exponential, chaotic growth that happened to software engineering since the 60s. I wouldn't be surprised if things normalize, like in a lot of other, mature fields of professions.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 01 Aug 2024 18:56:57 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41132326</link><dc:creator>simmschi</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41132326</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41132326</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by simmschi in "Difference between running Postgres for yourself and for others"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I enjoyed reading the article very much. Thanks for the write up!</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 23 Jul 2024 14:24:35 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41046304</link><dc:creator>simmschi</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41046304</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41046304</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by simmschi in "SQL is now 50 What is coming next to the query language?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Is there really anything missing from SQL? I guess adding a few semantic shortcuts like Postgres' SELECT DISTINCT ON (x) are useful.<p>But otherwise this feels like asking what's coming next for Algebra.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2024 06:12:45 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40386943</link><dc:creator>simmschi</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40386943</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40386943</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by simmschi in "Ask HN: My Cofounder was diagnosed with cancer, what should I do?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I have been in a similar situation and am sorry to hear about your cofounder.<p>From a personal perspective things should be pretty clear, no? Understand that your cofounder suddenly has a very different perspective on life and must change his priorities immediately. If he is going through chemo or surgery there will be long stretches where he will not be able to support you or the company. He may or may not come back. He may not recover. Cancer sucks.<p>From a company perspective things should also be clear? This is exactly why you have clause upon clause in your contracts, notarized, lawyered and signed. Life happens. People die, have accidents, quit, become sick. If you are unsure about your legal obligations get a lawyer.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 28 Mar 2024 10:16:09 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39849402</link><dc:creator>simmschi</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39849402</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39849402</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by simmschi in "Infinite Craft"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Well if you ever run into the 'Fresh Prince of Bel Sashimi', that's my world first combination :-D</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 01 Feb 2024 10:56:29 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39214654</link><dc:creator>simmschi</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39214654</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39214654</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by simmschi in "Endurain: Self-hosted Strava like service"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Looks like it. Which is a problem, because the Strava API Agreement (<a href="https://www.strava.com/legal/api" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.strava.com/legal/api</a>) specifically prohibits you from replicating features that Strava has.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 23 Dec 2023 15:21:30 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38744814</link><dc:creator>simmschi</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38744814</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38744814</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by simmschi in "Why do programmers need private offices with doors?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>In my whole professional life (last 15y) there was not a single time where I had anything resembling a private space where I could just close the door and work in peace.<p>The norm here in German startup world seem to be open floors. And if you do have rooms they get crammed full of people.<p>It's not the end of the world though. A room full of engineers is tolerable, and if they're on your team this is even desirable.<p>The trouble only comes when the CEO wants to see everyone sweating, so you get stuffed together with Sales or Ops.<p>Working from home made things a lot easier though. And if the company is big enough it's usually also possible to just book a meeting room if you need to work in silence for a while :-)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 19 Dec 2023 07:54:35 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38693004</link><dc:creator>simmschi</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38693004</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38693004</guid></item></channel></rss>