Hacker News: smag

New comment by smag in "Fifteen Years"

smag — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 01:22:32 +0000

Yes, this is true.

New comment by smag in "ELIZA Reanimated"

smag — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 16:01:21 +0000

When I was a kid I discovered ELIZA at a museum and spent hours chatting with her, trying to figure out how it worked. It was a lot of fun. Maybe I'll get a second chance.

New comment by smag in "Egoless Engineering"

smag — Wed, 04 Dec 2024 17:19:33 +0000

I actually saw this happen at Google: no one could pinpoint the cause of the broken build for a while, and then it turned out to be a UX designer who broke the build. He was apologetic, like McFunley's example. But unlike the example, this guy never made another commit.

New comment by smag in "Ask HN: What are the underrated newsletters you like reading?"

smag — Sun, 09 Feb 2020 16:21:17 +0000

Money Stuff by Matt Levine is a gem. You don't need to work in finance to appreciate Matt Levine's insider take on the people and ideas that are in the news.

New comment by smag in "Nothing Fails Like Success"

smag — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 03:43:22 +0000

This editorial makes sense: once a company takes outside investment that demands outsized returns not in 10 years, but tomorrow, founders and employees will feel pressure to take larger risks and act in ways that might not be moral or ethical. VC-backing is definitely a factor in fraud, anti-competitive tactics, and unethical behavior. But what's the alternative to VC-backing? Doesn't seem possible for everything to be bootstrapped.

New comment by smag in "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (December 2018)"

smag — Tue, 04 Dec 2018 17:52:20 +0000

About me: Product manager who appreciates design and code. Helped to create successful new products at Google and startups. Looking for an organization where I can help create software that "augments human intelligence."

  Location: Austin, Texas, USA
  Remote: Will consider
  Willing to relocate: Not initially
  Technologies: Self-taught HTML, CSS, Sketch, Abstract, Origami, Processing, some basic Ruby, Jekyll, Git
  Résumé/CV: See https://ssmagula.github.io/
  Email: stefan.smagula[at]gmail dot com

New comment by smag in "Security without Identification (1985) [pdf]"

smag — Sun, 21 Feb 2016 22:08:39 +0000

This makes a lot of sense to me. Why don't we use this system? The main risk I see is that an individual might lose both the "computer card" (today it'd be your mobile phone) and the backup version of the look up table of pseudonyms and service providers / partners. Another question: if a bank needs to report interest or capital gains to the taxing authorities, would they report using a unique pseudonymous identity? If that's so, then how would the taxing authority know from whom to collect the tax?

New comment by smag in "Designers, how do we get you guys to contribute to open source projects?"

smag — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 05:25:19 +0000

Here's what it would take to get me to make bring my product design/interaction design skills to open source software: * Easy way to and keep track of 'what projects are underway now and which need HCI or UX expertise'? * Way to speak with the team over email or IM about what UX challenges there are, and learn the constraints * Confidence that designers will be adequately recognized for their contributions

Reading the thread here makes me realize that we're all so specialized--and this is a big part of the problem. UX designers need to learn to use a command line, need to learn to do at least some coding. Likewise, software engineers (including open source contributors) need to become more discerning about the basic principles of human-computer interaction and user interface design (not just visual styling). Once both roles start to become generalizing specialists, better collaborations will just happen.

New comment by smag in "Drupal 7 Released"

smag — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 04:58:37 +0000

Congratulations to everyone who helped create Drupal 7. I took a quick look at it, and the Admin UI looked much improved.

Explain This, crowdsourcing journalistic questioning and answering

smag — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:57:24 +0000

Will http://explainthis.org prove to be a useful way to crowdsource journalistic questioning and answering?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1078441

Points: 2

# Comments: 1