Hacker News: truetraveller

New comment by truetraveller in "Measuring Claude 4.7's tokenizer costs"

truetraveller — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 19:49:10 +0000

Your estimate of "6-7 month project for a 9 FTE team" was probably waaay off. I mean, what is this mobile app? Without even seeing your app, I would say 2 months TOPS with 2 devs. So, the "AI" version is really not that much better, and probably even worse.

New comment by truetraveller in "DIY Soft Drinks"

truetraveller — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 01:04:48 +0000

Could you do the math for the raw material cost of 355ml?

New comment by truetraveller in "Instant 1.0, a backend for AI-coded apps"

truetraveller — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 00:44:44 +0000

Moose here, congrats! This is the real "firebase alternative", not Supabase. Supabase is good, but it's just hosted Postgres + user login. People who are asking "why would I need this" don't get how difficult scalable data storage is with user permissions. Would absolutely recommend this if it's good. Been in this space for ~7 years, and made a high-perf realtime DB as well. Will contact you guys directly. Some concerns for everyone's benefit:

1) Transparency on pricing: This builds confidence. Need to know exactly what I pay for additional egress/ops (read/write). "unlimited" is not sustainable for the provider (you). For example, Firestore has detailed pricing that makes scaling sustainable for them. see https://cloud.google.com/firestore/pricing.

2) Transparency on limits: Req/s, max atrributes, max value length, etc. What about querying non-local non-indexed data (e.g. via server-side call), that's costly for you guys. So, what's the limit?

3) Simpler code in the docs/examples overall. Currently, they're not bad, but not great. For example, change the "i" used everywhere to "inst" or "idb". Assume dev is a noob!

4) Change simplify/terminology used. This is probably the most important, but hardest thing. Internally, keep the same triple structure. But dev just cares about tables/key/val. Or tables+rows. Namespaces/entities are confusing. Also, be consistent/clear. For example: "Namespaces are equivalent to "tables" in relational databases"..Perhaps you meant "namespaces are just a list of tables/entities"..slighly different, but far clearer I think? "Attributes are properties associated with namespaces"...I though attributes are associated with entities? Please keep in mind, I am completely new to InstantDB, so need to study the architecture more.

5) Simplify docs BIG TIME. And add an API REFERENCE (super important). Right now, you have: Tutorials, Examples, Recipes, Docs, Essays. These are all essentially "docs".

6) Simplify the "About" section. Should be 1/10th the size. Right now, it's like a fruit salad of docs, and re-iterating the features/benefits. Instead, put pics of both founders. Maybe investor list. Pics of your office?

New comment by truetraveller in "I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok"

truetraveller — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 18:17:25 +0000

SaasS or one-time? Did people pay via native App Store integration? Or pay via the desktop website? App price? Answers would be super helpful. Thanks!

New comment by truetraveller in "I wanted to build vertical SaaS for pest control, so I took a technician job"

truetraveller — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 06:24:42 +0000

Hey! I have no absolutely no clue who OP (BigBalli) is. I checked this guy's profile out. He's a member since 2012, I don't think he meant bad at all.

I'm personally anti-AI. I checked out his app, and whether vibe-coded or not, it looks very well done. And the app actually has both offline mobile apps + web apps. And it's free? And FWIW, pestpro.app was registered ~1 month ago.

New comment by truetraveller in "Show HN: I took back Video.js after 16 years and we rewrote it to be 88% smaller"

truetraveller — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 05:16:02 +0000

Okay, what about non-streaming vid? I think the vanilla html5 tag is solid, correct?

New comment by truetraveller in "I wanted to build vertical SaaS for pest control, so I took a technician job"

truetraveller — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 22:55:03 +0000

Congrats, and genius move. And great hustling, show's there's no way out of hard-work.

Reminder to myself to pick an industry that's always gonna have demand. We recently paid ~$200 for a 30 minute visit to seal off like 3 tiny holes around the perimiter of our house because of mice (actual cost of materials ~$5).

New comment by truetraveller in "We indexed the Delve audit leak: 533 reports, 455 companies, 99.8% identical"

truetraveller — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 11:34:08 +0000

Thanks!

New comment by truetraveller in "We indexed the Delve audit leak: 533 reports, 455 companies, 99.8% identical"

truetraveller — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 11:33:45 +0000

Great info, thanks!

New comment by truetraveller in "I built an AI receptionist for a mechanic shop"

truetraveller — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 11:11:01 +0000

£150/mo for each? Do these receptionists actually answer? Has he "tested" them with test calls? Any recommended site to get this?

New comment by truetraveller in "White-collar AI apocalypse narrative is just another bullshit"

truetraveller — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 11:04:38 +0000

This I can somewhat agree to. But how much time is saved vs just skimming a support request by an agent? Or, just having filters for "keywords" like "sales" / "purchase" to increase priority?

New comment by truetraveller in "White-collar AI apocalypse narrative is just another bullshit"

truetraveller — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 09:27:54 +0000

"Top customer service" and AI do not mix. People hate an AI response more than a late, real response.

New comment by truetraveller in "We indexed the Delve audit leak: 533 reports, 455 companies, 99.8% identical"

truetraveller — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 23:42:48 +0000

Thanks!

New comment by truetraveller in "We indexed the Delve audit leak: 533 reports, 455 companies, 99.8% identical"

truetraveller — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 21:13:35 +0000

Since you know a lot about SOC: is SOC2 Type I (point in time) enough to close enterprise sales? Is it worth getting for a new startup (seems super simple)?

New comment by truetraveller in "We indexed the Delve audit leak: 533 reports, 455 companies, 99.8% identical"

truetraveller — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 21:09:40 +0000

What about enterprise customers / sales?

New comment by truetraveller in "Ask HN: Latitude.sh / datapacket.com for bare metal servers?"

truetraveller — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 23:57:47 +0000

Ok thanks!

New comment by truetraveller in "Ask HN: Latitude.sh / datapacket.com for bare metal servers?"

truetraveller — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 23:55:46 +0000

Yup! I always say I'm "Launching now". But now I'm launching for real (God willing)!

Ask HN: Latitude.sh / datapacket.com for bare metal servers?

truetraveller — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 22:53:16 +0000

Anyone have any experience with latitude.sh / datapacket.com? How is the network quality + downtime? Thanks!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47472365

Points: 2

# Comments: 4

New comment by truetraveller in "Lies I was told about collaborative editing, Part 2: Why we don't use Yjs"

truetraveller — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 09:48:13 +0000

Apologies. Was it at all edited by an AI?

New comment by truetraveller in "Lies I was told about collaborative editing, Part 2: Why we don't use Yjs"

truetraveller — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 06:08:56 +0000

Very likely AI slop, very hard to read. Too many indications. HN should have another rule: explicitly mention if article was written (primarily) by AI.