Hacker News: walterburns

New comment by walterburns in "Your phone is an entire computer"

walterburns — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 03:41:29 +0000

I don't understand why the author bought an iPhone. That's the deal - you do things Apple's way in exchange for not having to figure out how you'll do them. For most people this is a massive convenience, and that's why they pay so much for Apple products (and why I don't).

New comment by walterburns in "Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?"

walterburns — Sat, 27 Dec 2025 06:34:31 +0000

On Writing Well, by William Zinsser. Hilarious, enlightening, affirming of everyone's need and ability to write well.

New comment by walterburns in "Dependent types and how to get rid of them"

walterburns — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 01:22:23 +0000

"But we'd like to give a type to this function. In most languages (Haskell, Typescript, C++, Rust, C#, etc.) there is no way to do that.[2] "

Can't you do this with a GADT? With a GADT, the type of the output can be specified by which branch of the GADT the input matches. Seems quite a similar idea.

New comment by walterburns in "The Origins of Wokeness"

walterburns — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 03:35:37 +0000

Oh boy.

New comment by walterburns in "Functional Programming Strategies (In Scala with Cats)"

walterburns — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 03:05:08 +0000

The first five chapters are unrelated to using the Cats library, and are an outstanding, illuminating introduction to how to think about FP in any language.

Functional Programming Strategies (In Scala with Cats)

walterburns — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 03:05:08 +0000

Article URL: https://scalawithcats.com/dist/scala-with-cats.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42546034

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

New comment by walterburns in "Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2024 – Show and tell"

walterburns — Wed, 11 Dec 2024 05:36:14 +0000

Li Haoyi! Thank you for developing your scala ecosystem and Hands On Scala. I just started using Scala again after a few years' break, using Mill, thanks to your recent blog post on the last 12 years. I forgot how easy Scala can be if you don't make it hard, and how just darn pleasant it is to code in. Would love to see Scala rise from the ashes of the FP flame wars and become Python devs' second language. Or even their first. Thanks for leading the charge!

New comment by walterburns in "Dear friend, you have built a Kubernetes"

walterburns — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 04:26:17 +0000

I wish the world hadn't consolidated around Kubernetes. Rancher was fantastic. Did what 95% of us need, and dead simple to add and manage services.

New comment by walterburns in "Windows NT for Power Macintosh"

walterburns — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 15:29:00 +0000

If I had a dime for every person that's asked for this.

New comment by walterburns in "Fast Crimes at Lambda School"

walterburns — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 02:42:40 +0000

I found the article compelling and illuminating, but I wish someone had proofread it for the grammar. Half a dozen times I had to reread a sentence and concluded it wasn't correct English syntax.

New comment by walterburns in "The beauty of concrete"

walterburns — Sat, 18 May 2024 02:40:37 +0000

The invention of the steel core made the stone facade unnecessary to support the building, so most new buildings are covered in glass instead of stone. That's related to less ornamentation, but to me that's the big distinction between beautiful old buildings and ugly new ones.

It also created a tremendous energy efficiency issue. Stone has much higher thermal mass than glass.

New comment by walterburns in "The Myth of the Second Chance"

walterburns — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 04:56:04 +0000

Ay, that's the spirit, lad.

To borrow a phrase from the book Switch, "true but useless".

And only technically true. Of course there are no actual second chances. Time only moves forward. But the implication - and it's only implied - that you're doomed to unhappiness in a cage of past life choices is defeatist, pusillanimous bunk.

As John Lennon said, "I just had to let it go". That takes more courage the older you get. But anyone that tells you that it's hopeless because you majored in accounting instead of art should be escorted quickly and quietly away from anyone impressionable, and then kept away from sharp objects for their own safety.

Pull yourself together!

Or, to quote the Terry Gilliam movie Baron Munchausen, "Open the gates!"

New comment by walterburns in "Ask HN: How to be a manager? Any good sources for learning how to delegate?"

walterburns — Sat, 14 Oct 2023 20:14:11 +0000

Becoming a Manager by Linda Hill. Not a how-to, but it gives you a preview of the challenge and the blind spots you might have as you become a manager.

Another that I haven't read but has been recommended to me is The Manager's Path.

This article is also good: https://charity.wtf/2019/01/04/engineering-management-the-pe...

Conflicting Reports Thicken Nord Stream Bombing Plot

walterburns — Sun, 12 Mar 2023 23:52:04 +0000

Article URL: https://theintercept.com/2023/03/10/nord-stream-pipeline-bombing/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35128392

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

New comment by walterburns in "Poll: What's the best laptop for Linux these days?"

walterburns — Fri, 30 Dec 2022 04:03:33 +0000

I'm on a Framework running Manjaro and i3. Love it. Very lightweight, love the keyboard, very snappy.

New comment by walterburns in "The Identity of Kim Il Sung (1949) [pdf]"

walterburns — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 03:54:31 +0000

This is the CIA's published version of this document: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp80-00809a000...

New comment by walterburns in "DRY is an over-rated programming principle?"

walterburns — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 15:35:07 +0000

DRY is about readability. If DRY makes the system more readable, do it. If not, don't.

New comment by walterburns in "DRY is an over-rated programming principle?"

walterburns — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 15:34:11 +0000

DRY is about readability. If it makes the system more readable, DRY. If not, don't.