Lol all these things work via the web. You just log on via the browswer. Not everything needs an app.
The 2FAs require their mobile app sometimes.
Readit Newskovac commented on Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android 9to5google.com/2025/08/25... · Posted by u/kotaKat
>live like an outcast that can't access essential services?
I don't own a smartphone and I am happy as ever. I used to own one a while back, but it wasn't worth the effort and the rage when it was slow.
If a service can be accessed only with a smartphone, I complain (which is of little use).
Do you not have to use a 2FA app for things like banking? In Singapore, they are phasing out 2FA options other than the banking app. The banking apps only work on iPhones and Google-approved Android phones. It's pretty bad.
kovac commented on Show HN: Fractional jobs – part-time roles for engineers fractionaljobs.io... · Posted by u/tbird24
Screw part time. The whole economy is moving towards part time, gig work, etc and it's terrible for most employees who need good wages and benefits.
The wages listed there are pretty reasonable. Someone who wants more could work more hours/jobs. Life a little more on your own terms.
kovac commented on Live coding interviews measure stress, not coding skills hadid.dev/posts/living-co... · Posted by u/mustaphah
Do these live coding interviews lead to better hires? I haven't noticed a difference between the teams at jobs I had to pass live coding interviews to get in and those that didn't.
I haven't worked at a FAANG, but I've heard they have such gruelling interviews. Is that how they build technically superior teams, or do they just have access to a strong candidate pool to begin with and use these tests to eliminate candidates to get the number they need?
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kovac commented on The bewildering phenomenon of declining quality english.elpais.com/cultur... · Posted by u/geox
I owned a Nokia in 2003. The battery lasted a week and they were virtually indestructible. The phone never crashed or reset, the keys were so reliable and well placed that I could text without looking at the screen. The phone did not get slower with age. None of these things can be said about my current smart phone. Granted it does a lot more, but the quality of the things it does do is much worse.
I bought my dad a Nokia phone in 2008. A dumb phone, with just texting and calling features. It continues to work to this day, so, 17 years (the markings on the buttons are fully erased now, other than that it works). It outlived him. I don't know how they managed to build stuff like that. I would expect some electronic part to fail sometime along the way.
kovac commented on Self-taught engineers often outperform (2024) michaelbastos.com/blog/wh... · Posted by u/mbastos
As a self taught developer who has spent most of their career in the big corporate world surrounded by computer science graduates my experience is this:
The self taught developer will eventually figure it out, if they are intelligent enough to approach the given problem.
The computer science graduate will generally not even try to figure out a problem in completely unfamiliar territory. Of course this varies by personality, so this is probably only true for about 85% of the computer science graduates. They cannot proceed in the face of high uncertainty.
What that ultimately means is that the computer science graduate is way more compatible in the big corporate world where they are an interchangeable cog that can be replaced at any moment. They operate in a world on known patterns just like their peers. The self taught developer, however, is constantly innovating and doing things in somewhat original ways because they have learned to not waste their personal time on unnecessary repetition, and that cavalier lone gunman attitude scares the shit out of people. Yet, those self-taught people tend to deliver vastly superior results.
Most developers don’t seem to care about superior code. They care about retaining employment and lowering anxiety in the manner that emphasizes least disruption.
> The self taught developer will eventually figure it out, if they are intelligent enough to approach the given problem.
As would someone with a CS degree and "are intelligent" in the sense you describe. Early hackers who gave us fine software were computer scientists.
kovac commented on Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA ostechnix.com/linux-reach... · Posted by u/marcodiego
After installing Arch / Gnome on my laptop last week, I can see why. Everything works completely fine and feels 3X faster than Windows 11. I have Linux on my desktop machine but always hesitated for laptops due to past bad experiences with power management (i.e. something always eventually went wrong when closing the lid). So far, all of that is working perfectly.
Windows 11 is exceptionally slow. I installed it on a ThinkPad Carbon X1, it was quite unusable. Unresponsive after starting up, copilot and O365 trying to run stuff and i had to wait for them to comolete. I was very surprised that they think this is acceptable. I spent about an hour going through processes and installed programs list, and uninstalling many things. At that point it was more tolerable.
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