HN user
hackernews1.z.ecognito@recursor.net
Watching my mum's descent into dementia, if (when?) I ever go down the same route, I plan to have, "You have dementia, be calm," tattooed on one arm, and pictures of my loved ones tattooed on the other.
Yeah, I'll add the abbreviated day ("Thu 3 Jul 2026") where it makes sense to.
Although my (AU) locale is dd-mm-yyyy, I'll use yyyy-mm-dd anywhere I have to write a date in all numbers to avoid any ambiguity. It also has the advantage of sorting correctly in things like file names.
For something more likely to be read by a human and not parsed by a computer (and is not locale or i18n/l10n flexible) I'll use d mmm yyyy, e.g., 3 Jul 2026. To my thinking, for English speaking this is the friendliest unambiguous format (although I'm sure opinions will differ).
Australian's use mostly the same, except for the time format where AM/PM is still predominant. Also Celsius for temperature and 1,000.0 for number formatting.
Only reacting to the title and/or the first couple of paragraphs instead of reading the whole thing?
The ctrl-tab tab switching behaviour being round-robin instead of stack[1] is what is keeping me on Konsole. None of the newer consoles (for Linux) seem to have this.
Truth social is unsuccessful?
Humour — it's so subjective.
Update: I am sorry. In case it's not obvious — I could not help it.
FTFY
This is why I find using speech-to-text tools quite difficult to use: because the parts of my brain that I use for writing and the parts of my brain I use for speaking are a little different — although with significant overlap.
With writing I find I'm drafting the flow for readability and clarity as I'm writing, so I go back and rework bits and pieces — sometimes even while I'm in the middle to typing a sentence. Maybe it's because I write code for a living.
Speech only moves forward and you have to state your retractions or clarifications on the go. You can't go back and edit what you've said.
I've been trying to use speech-to-text a bit to: a) give my hands a bit of a break when I'm writing prose, and b) see if it's faster than typing.
I find there are long pauses while I'm struggling to draft what I'm going to say to what I want written, so I'm not sure if it is faster (given that I'm a ten finger touch typist so can type pretty fast is short bursts, and the time spent going back and tidying up the output which is somewhat tedious). It might improve with more practice.
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It's possible you have a touch of prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness. It would make sense as you would recognise people you interact with more regularly by other things (e.g.: voice, or even body or posture as the grandparent comment mentioned), but unfamiliar people tend to me harder to identify.
Welcome to the crazy lolly shop that is Hacker News. Be warned though, as is written on many a candy wrapper: may contain nuts.
Also, it is positively charming that you think most of us took the time to properly read something before coming here to espouse an opinion. :-)
I still clearly remember in my early twenties being stunned to discover that the Astérix comics are originally written in French and then translated. Coming up with names like Getafix in English for the druid — incroyable.
You'd be full of shit.
Oh, sorry, I thought you said colon…
First personal little thing was a little mobile friendly website for taking coffee and tea orders. Two pages, one for someone to enter orders, second for listing orders and marking them as done. Was a bit of a gimmick idea I'd had in the back of my head for family lunches to save me running around with a scrap of paper and a pen asking what everyone wanted. Thought it would make a good little exploration of "vibe coding".
Second is a utility that will take a text file export from Wallabag, and use text to speech to convert it to an MP3 file. I then integrated it into a utility that I already wrote for managing articles so if I tag an article with listen it automatically gets converted and gets shunted to the podcast listening app on my phone.
Last was to recreate a little directory listing utility that I've had a 32-bit binary of for ages, but no longer (if ever) have the source code for. I'd always promised myself I would write it once I learned Rust, but decided try using AI as I was getting impatient to have it now. The utility lists all files, including hidden, in a directory, grouped by type. Below is an example listing the directory for the project itself:
Directories:
.hg src target tests
Files:
.hgignore AGENTS.md ARCHITECTURE.md CONTRIBUTING.md
Cargo.lock Cargo.toml GEMINI.md README.md gemini-log.html
I've been saying this about Amazon with ebooks, and DRM'd goods in general for years.
I think comparing American AI to OnlyFans is in extremely poor taste. If I were OnlyFans I would sue. /s
Bear in mind that beacon is something of a hail Mary, though. No way to tell if it was successful or not or react if it wasn't.
I'm not blaming it on misogyny. I thought I was very clear that "medical misogyny" is a commonly used term, and was very specific on the definition.
Also, in this sibling comment thread[1] to yours I discussed with haldujai why we both dislike the term, specifically because of the animus is implies, which is inaccurate.
It is however, a term you will hear in discussions like this, so it is good to know what it means, and the fact that the problem as defined exists, no matter what you call it.
Agreed. Disability, physical as well as intellectual. Age. Neuroatypicallity. The list goes on.
Honestly, I think when you're facing any sort of potentially serious health issue you need a wingman coming to the appointments with you. Someone who can hopefully be a little more emotionally removed. Who can ask the questions you didn't think of to make sure you've covered everything. Who you can debrief with afterwards to make sure you've taken in all the important information you were just scrambling to wrap your head around while you were in the room. And sometimes to argue on your behalf.
Done this with my kidult for most of their life, obviously. Did it with my dad's oncologist visits for prostate cancer. Had it myself with cancer and other times. You just need someone you trust in your corner when you're vulnerable.
Yep. Humans are gonna do human things anywhere you find them.
FYI I’m not American.
Whoops. Guess that was an assumption on my part. Here I am, doing human things…
This is a loaded UK-centric policy/humanities term
Yes, the implication of animus is the chief reason for my dislike of the term. The main failing of most alternatives is they don't roll off the tongue as easily or succinctly.
this hasn’t been the case in clinical research for the past 15 years or so which in aggregate leans a bit more female than male if anything.
Oh yes, I didn't mean to imply the situation isn't improving (and an overcorrection in research at this point in time is probably a good thing, IMO (if it is in fact happening, which I struggle to believe (but that's my issue))).
The body of knowledge in medical science is a lot older than 15 years though, so I would think it will take a lot of time and effort to equalise.
Thanks for your response. I found it constructive and informative to my own thinking.
including an appalling “it’s all in your head” from her family MD at the time
Oof. That one resonates so much for me - even living in a country with far better healthcare.
There's a term I dislike but is apt: medical misogyny. Basically it's, "systemic, conscious, or unconscious gender biases [which] affect how a patient is treated by the healthcare system."[1]
Systemic in particular is that basically the vast amount of knowledge amassed in the medical sciences has come from studying men. Comparatively little for those not assigned male at birth.
One of my kids has complicated health issues, pretty much from the time they hit puberty. If they hadn't had me (someone born with a penis) advocating for them and attending most medical appointments throughout their teenage years I'm pretty sure they would be dead now.
My most appalling memory is a gastroenterologist who patronisingly told my kid with a diagnosed anxiety disorder which exacerbated awful gut pain from irritable bowel syndrome that, "If you weren't anxious all the time you wouldn't be in so much pain." We both had a good cry in the car park after that appointment. It certainly set treatment of their IBS back a couple of years at least.
(Fortunately after a string of bad ones, we found a GE that treated them with compassion, and not as a gastrointestinal tract with an annoying human around it.)
Whew, yeah, touched a nerve there. So, medical misogyny. It's a thing.
[1] https://australiainstitute.org.au/report/medical-misogyny-in...
Why does this feel worse?
I know some authors in particular never, ever want to be sent story ideas. The potential of being accused of or sued for plagiarism down the track for something even vaguely similar is non-zero.
You first, Larry, you first.
And also ctrl-+ to increase the minuscule text size.
Sigh.
Bless your heart.
the codebase doesn't really matter
Sigh.
I’m sure the viewpoint from being in mergers and acquisitions is quite different (and to me, often comes across as quite callow). I’ve been a software developer for 35 years (closer to 45 if you include my pre-professional life, aka adolescence) and have deliberately stayed “on the tools” in my career with working in codebases and product development as I’ve found that is where I am happiest and can make the best contribution, rather than move up the managerial ladder to my level of incompetence, to quote Peter.
To create a successful product in IT, or any industry really, it takes a lot of different skills, facets and (often competing) priorities. And those priorities do change over time. I’m sure by the time a product or service crosses your desk, the codebase quality is not as big of a priority. Earlier in the life cycle a shit codebase makes for a shit product that is a lot harder to grow and maintain — so much so that most of them have probably folded before they reached the stage of looking to be merged or acquired. I’ve dabbled in sound mixing for live performance and when training others I’ve mentioned the fact that it very hard to make a bad singer or musician sound good, but very easy to make a good singer or musician sound bad. Same goes for trying to make what would otherwise have been a good product or service with a bad codebase. That’s really hard and creates a hell of a lot more work for every part of the business.
I’ve had sales people tell me to my face that they are the most important part of the business and the actual product or services is not that important. And in my more callow stages of life experience I’m pretty sure I’ve reciprocated with words like useless and parasitic, and that I could replace them with a small bash script. But in reality what we all do is important to the complex endeavour of developing and maintaining a successful product or service. The existential threat of AI is moving up the ladder of incompetence and changing the face of what we do. It may even jump a few rungs in the process. But it’s not there just yet. Keep making good sales, keep making good mergers, good products, good acquisitions, good services, and good codebases.
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That's a common misquotation of 1 Timothy 6:10 from the bible, which is that the love of money is the root of all evil. Not to get theological, but I reckon it's an important and informative distinction.
Here's a link to the verse in many translations: https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/1%20Timothy%206:10