kmoser (u/kmoser) - Readit News

kmoser commented on Sütterlin en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C... · Posted by u/anonu

crussmann · 2 days ago

I was never officially taught Sütterlin, but through family and other circumstances I can read it fairly well after a bit of a "warm-up" period.

What's interesting is that it's pretty much impossible for me to read if used for a non-German language. Sütterlin for English text? My brain cannot parse this at all - the script automatically flips my brain to German!

kmoser · 2 days ago

My (German) grandmother used to write me letters in English using this script. I didn't find it too difficult to read, probably because I understood the context (names of other family members, questions about my day-to-day activities, updates on her life in Germany).

kmoser commented on Vibe coding creates a bus factor of zero mindflash.org/coding/ai/a... · Posted by u/AntwaneB

bigiain · 3 days ago

I wonder how soon (or if it's already happening) that AI coding tools will behave like early career developers who claim all the existing code written by others is crap and go on to convince management that a ground up rewrite is required.

(And now I'm wondering how soon the standard AI-first response to bug reports will be a complete rewrite by AI using the previous prompts plus the new bug report? Are people already working on CI/CD systems that replace the CI part with whole-project AI rewrites?)

kmoser · 3 days ago

As the cost of AI-generated code approaches zero (both in time and money), I see nothing wrong with letting the AI agent spin up a dev environment and take its best shot. If it can prove with rigorous testing that the new code works is at least as reliable as the old code, and is written better, then it's a win/win. If not, delete that agent and move on.

On the other hand, if the agent is just as capable of fixing bugs in legacy code as rewriting it, and humans are no longer in the loop, who cares if it's legacy code?

kmoser commented on Vibe coding creates a bus factor of zero mindflash.org/coding/ai/a... · Posted by u/AntwaneB

bigiain · 3 days ago

> I think the article underestimates how much intent can be grasped from code alone.

That's very scale related.

I rarely have any trouble reading and understanding Arduino code. But that's got a hard upper limit (at least on the common/original Arduinos) of 32kB of (compiled) code.

It's many weeks or months worth of effort, or possibly impossible, for me to read and understand a platform with a hundred or so interdependent microservices written in several languages. _Perhaps_ there was a very skilled and experienced architect for all of that, who demanded comprehensive API styles and docs? But if all that was vibe coded and then dropped on me to be responsible? I'd just quit.

kmoser · 3 days ago

No disrespect for your ability to read Arduino code, but no amount of experience will tell you why the code was written a certain way. Did the programmer not know of any alternatives? Did they specifically choose this one method because it was superior to the alternatives? Did they just run out of time? Is it due to regulatory requirements? The list goes on. To expand further:

FTA:

> but ultimately reading code remains much more complex than writing it no matter what.

I disagree. If reading code is complex, it's because that code was not documented well. If you've written a complex algorithm, that presumably took you hours or days to develop, the proper documentation should allow somebody to understand it (or at least grasp the major points) in a few minutes.

If you're not documenting your code to that level, i.e. to allow future devs to take less time to read and understand than it took you to write--let alone add additional information went into why you made the decisions you did--then you're doing something wrong.

kmoser commented on How to stop feeling lost in tech: the wafflehouse method yacinemahdid.com/p/how-to... · Posted by u/research_pie

kmoser · 3 days ago

This may work for the author, and for other people, but I would never give this advice. It supposes you are able to articulate where you want to be in five years, and have the ability to break that down into actionable tasks. Most people just want to have a stable job, apartment/house, and good relationship. Any further breakdown is often guessing, unrealistic, or outright fantasy.

My advice to people in this situation varies tremendously given their background and what they're trying to learn, but it tends towards the same general method: start with something ultra simple and achievable, repeat it a bunch of times (perhaps with some minor variations) until you're relatively comfortable doing it on your own, then begin to branch out. If you're stuck for ideas, show it to somebody else and see what they think; having a training partner or mentor can help you feel less overwhelmed.

kmoser commented on Left to Right Programming graic.net/p/left-to-right... · Posted by u/graic

astrange · 5 days ago

I agree with this, but it leads to another principle that too many languages violate - it shouldn't fail to compile just because you haven't finished writing it! It should fail in some other non-blocking way.

But some languages just won't let you do that, because they put in errors for missing returns or unused variables.

kmoser · 5 days ago

How is it supposed to compile if you've written something syntactically invalid? You can make the argument that the compiler could interpret it in (perhaps even arbitrary) valid way that constitutes a valid syntax, but that's almost worse: rather than being chided with compiler warnings, you now end up with code that compiles but executes indeterminately.

kmoser commented on Anna's Archive: An Update from the Team annas-archive.org/blog/an... · Posted by u/jerheinze

crazygringo · 5 days ago

> Authors and rights holders are supposed to just take it?

If it's judged as fair use, then yes. And then it's not flouting anything.

Remember the whole point of fair use is to benefit society by allowing reuse of material in ways that don't directly copy large portions of the material verbatim.

For example, nonfiction authors already "just take it" when reviews describe the main points of their book without paying them a cent. The justification is that it's for the greater good, and rights are limited.

kmoser · 5 days ago

If I was a writer, I'd consider publishing my works under a license that explicitly bans AI training. What happens when those works inevitably get ingested by an LLM?

kmoser commented on Left to Right Programming graic.net/p/left-to-right... · Posted by u/graic

kmoser · 5 days ago

> Programs should be valid as they are typed.

That would be nice if devs always wrote code sequentially, i.e. left to right, one character at a time, one line at a time. But the reality is that we often jump around, filling in some things while leaving other things unfinished until we get back to them. Sometimes I'll write code that operates on a variable, then a minute later go back and declare that variable (perhaps assigning it a test value).

kmoser commented on The Photographic Periodic Table of the Elements (2017) periodictable.com... · Posted by u/surprisetalk

kmoser · 5 days ago

I have this in placemat size. Bonus: the images are 3D!

kmoser commented on Ask HN: How do you tune your personality to get better at interviews? · Posted by u/_swfb

_swfb · 9 days ago

In this particular case I actually have a phone call with the recruiter scheduled today to ask why they passed on me.

In general they don't tell me when I do ask though. I understand that; they don't want to risk me suing them if they divulge anything that could be even construed as illegal, I probably wouldn't give feedback either honestly.

kmoser · 7 days ago

What did they say?

kmoser commented on PuTTY has a new website putty.software/... · Posted by u/GalaxySnail

kmoser · 8 days ago

https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/ says: 2025-08-14 New website, putty.software