Hacker News: spacemanspiffii

New comment by spacemanspiffii in "Uber's $1,500/month AI limit is a useful signal for AI tool pricing"

spacemanspiffii — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 10:02:56 +0000

It is also possible that capping at $1500 will give you ~99% of the benefits. So even with gains that are much higher, a cap could be a rational decision. Also, most decisions, especially around AI aren't exactly rational, so I wouldn't read to much into this number.

New comment by spacemanspiffii in "Teach, Don't Tell (2013)"

spacemanspiffii — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 14:21:48 +0000

It can be hard to find the thing you're looking for in documentation, especially if you're not too familiar with the piece of software you are currently looking at. Saving your coworkers a couple of hours by spending ten minutes of your time can be a good trade - even though it's annoying for you.

New comment by spacemanspiffii in "Why Computer Scientists Consult Oracles"

spacemanspiffii — Mon, 06 Jan 2025 12:25:03 +0000

This has nothing to do with LLM's. An 'oracle' is a hypothetical construct that is used in proofs. As the article outlines, useful in complexity theory.

New comment by spacemanspiffii in "On Good Software Engineers"

spacemanspiffii — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 10:36:59 +0000

A developer that ticks all these boxes is certainly a Good Software Engineer, but the reverse relation doesn't necessarily hold. There are many that have made very valuable contributions while not even working on a team, or perhaps even being an asshole to everyone around them, ignoring stakeholders, everything. Or just something less extreme, such as maybe they didn't at all times know their organization that well. That is fine, if it works at their time and place. To call those "Bad Software Engineers" is unhelpful.

New comment by spacemanspiffii in "TypedDicts are better than you think"

spacemanspiffii — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 08:44:25 +0000

You can add `mypy` to your CI pipeline https://mypy.readthedocs.io/en/stable/running_mypy.html. Pyright is an alternative, and there are more.

New comment by spacemanspiffii in "Excel will allow certain auto data conversions to be turned off"

spacemanspiffii — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 07:47:38 +0000

I mean, some are claiming that AI will be capable of anything. But I don't think extracting Excel formula's is currently a focus of LLM applications? Do you know of startups or other attempts at exploring this?

New comment by spacemanspiffii in "Excel will allow certain auto data conversions to be turned off"

spacemanspiffii — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 07:42:53 +0000

Yes I recognize this problem in my organization as well. I think this is feasible, and tools in this direction exist already, like https://formulas.readthedocs.io/en/stable/doc.html. I think one challenge is that the variable names in Excel (B3, B2-10 for a list) are not easily converted to descriptive names.

New comment by spacemanspiffii in "Can't be fucked: Underrated cause of tech debt"

spacemanspiffii — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 07:47:37 +0000

Let me ChatGPT that for you ;)

* Sisu (Finnish): Though not a direct equivalent, "sisu" refers to a blend of determination, resilience, and courage in the face of adversity. It's doing something against the odds, putting extra effort, and not giving up.

* Gaman (Japanese): A term that loosely relates to enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity. It can apply to doing meticulous, quality work even when situations are challenging.

* Jugaad (Hindi): Jugaad speaks to a creative or innovative fix; essentially finding a low-cost solution to a problem in an intelligent way. It reflects a spirit of resourceful improvisation and can indicate a pride or savvy in being able to solve problems with limited resources.

* Arbejdsglæde (Danish): This word directly translates to "work happiness" and denotes finding joy and satisfaction in the work you do.

* Mānawa (Maori): This is used to describe patience and perseverance, particularly in working toward a goal or mastering a skill.

New comment by spacemanspiffii in "Show HN: Codon: A Compiler for High-Performance Pythonic Applications and DSLs [pdf]"

spacemanspiffii — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 10:46:01 +0000

It depends on the nature of your compute. If it is dominated by IO, or if you are actually calling native libraries (like `numpy` does, or it is something that is handled by `arrow`), there is no reason to switch away from Python. If you are writing custom algorithms, I think https://julialang.org/ is a great option.

New comment by spacemanspiffii in "Show HN: Decentralised Twitter – Microblogging on the Ethereum Blockchain"

spacemanspiffii — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 12:21:31 +0000

Can't be too big! That could be a great project, perhaps an easy entrance for many into Ethereum technologies.