marginalien (u/marginalien)

marginalien commented on Making a font of my handwriting chameth.com/making-a-font... · Posted by u/kickofline

marginalien · 11 days ago

This is fantastic. Thank you for sharing. I am currently preparing for a workshop with children in which I want to let them “draw” their own website/web-apps. So far I did not plan to let them create their own fonts, as I did not know how to, but now I know. Thanks to you!

Ps: if you have any other ideas how to make such a workshop for children more exciting, please let me know! For instance, I wanted to let them create paper prototypes and then turn them into working click dummies so to cross the bridge between analogue and digital in way that feels natural to kids. Btw, by “kids” I refer to children at the age of 8-10 years old.

marginalien commented on I've acquired a new superpower danielwirtz.com/blog/spot... · Posted by u/wirtzdan

Lio · 8 months ago

We are all doomed to be forgotten.

Even if you are remembered briefly, what’s remembered isn’t you it’s just some vague representation of you that will fade over time.

Some famous Roman emperor might have said something similar 2000 years ago for all I know but I forget his name. :P

marginalien · 8 months ago

Absolutely not, at least if you don’t think in terms of personal fame but impact you have on the people you live with. It’s something that becomes super apparent when you have kids. You pass on so much and that will live on forever, in a million remixes. I love that idea as it gives a lot of meaning and purpose even on the small little moments and things in life.

marginalien commented on Americans see their savings vanish in Synapse fintech crisis cnbc.com/2024/11/22/synap... · Posted by u/hunter2_

marginalien · 10 months ago

Apparently, the problem is not that the money would be gone but that it’s just somewhere else because only BaaS middleman Synapse has access to the actual reconciliation how these funds distribute across individual fintech end users. According to the article, this is because of „very large bulk transfers“ which did not identify ultimate creditors. I am still puzzled how that can be. If end users top up their digital wallets, they typically send money by means of a real bank transfer to a client money account at a real bank. So at least at this initial point in time it was clear to the underlying banks who owned the money. Apparently, end users then spent money through user-facing fintech apps (I.e., „Yotta“) which is where the problem must have started as reconciliation of funds sat with Synapse only but not with the underlying banks…?

It would be great if someone with more background could comment to clarify as this case is potentially relevant to many other fintech / banking-as-a-service offerings out there.

marginalien commented on Why won't some people pay for news? (2022) diaspora.glasswings.com/p... · Posted by u/dredmorbius

coldpie · a year ago

> I'm with Bryan Caplan's position that most of the news can be safely eliminated from one's consumption with zero loss to one's quality of life

I follow one or two very local news sources[1], who post about three to five stories a week. I find those valuable: new restaurants opening, construction going on, what's going on with local organizations & politicians, some local history. It's up to ten minutes a day. And, I choose to pay a subscription to support each of these.

Outside that, I 100% agree with you. National news? Complete waste of time. World news? Somehow an even bigger waste. Reading random vomit on Twitter? Good lord, taking up smoking is a better use of your life than that. No way in hell I'm wasting my life or money on any of that junk. It's despairing to see so many people I know spending hours every day reading national news junk to absolutely no purpose. You can know everything you need to know about the world in ten minutes a day. More than that is just throwing your time down the garbage.

[1] An example: https://racketmn.com

marginalien · a year ago

I do get the point that following news constantly all day long is a bit like doom scrolling and doesn’t add much to a good life. However, I would not go as far as saying „complete waste of time“. It is Saturday morning and I just read a long interview with Wladimir Kara-Mursa, one of the Russian opposition politicians who was recently released from prison as part of a prisoner exchange. In the interview, Kara-Mursa talks a lot about his time in Russian jails, Putin‘s system, and being a opposition politician in Russia. Does it to relate my everyday normal life here in Germany? Well of course it does not at first glance. But at second and third glance it does and most importantly it helps me appreciate what I consider my normal everyday life in a democracy and it informs my decision making when it comes to the upcoming elections and the way different parties position themselves towards Russia and the war in Ukraine.

That being said, I don’t think it makes much sense to follow any type of news all the time all day long, but I would really miss it if it was no longer available as it helps me put things / my life into context and make more informed decisions at the ballot box. And sure I am willing to pay for that type of journalism.

marginalien commented on European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls arstechnica.com/cars/2024... · Posted by u/mbrubeck

jwr · 2 years ago

I have a VW (ID.4) and they took the touch craziness to another level. There are things that don't look like buttons, but are touch-sensitive, and there are also buttons, that apart from being pressure-sensitive, are also touch sensitive. Like volume buttons on the steering wheel, where if you try to feel for them without looking, you end up accidentally "swiping" and turning your volume up to the max.

The whole touch cluster on the left of the steering wheel, just below the vent, is a disaster, too. If I want to check the temperature of the air that's blowing into the cabin, I end up accidentally turning off the lights, turning on rear antifog lights, and turning on defroster heating for the windshield. The next minute or so is spent trying to get everything back to normal.

The rule should be that everything in the car needs to be a physically actuated button, and touching those buttons without pressing them should only ever light them up or show help messages, never perform any action.

marginalien · 2 years ago

I have been driving an ID.4 for almost three years by now. I consider much of what others criticize here in terms of UI, touch-sensitive buttons etc. to be „not great“ either but it did work for me. I didn’t really care to be honest.

What did not work for me was the re-charging experience on longer trips. I do not want to „subscribe“ to anything just to recharge my car in a reasonable amount of time. But even with a hypercharger it still takes way too long and without the „right“ subscription you feel like they steal your money from you. This is the worst from my POV when it comes to EVs, this is where they felt like inferior technology and business model to me as a consumer. Guess what, even though I was always a fan of EVs and hybrids (even drove three different models of Toyota Prius prior to my ID.4) my next car will be a traditional one (Hyundai Tucson to be precise).

marginalien commented on Why time seems to pass faster as we age invertedpassion.com/why-t... · Posted by u/paraschopra

leokennis · 2 years ago

I am trying journaling as well but most days I don't know what to write...most days I'm not really doing special things, I have no special feelings.

These days are enjoyable because I like my work and love my family, but I don't get further than "went to work, afterwards cooked <some meal> and played <some game> with <one of my kids>, in the evening <watched some movie / read some book>"...

What are you journaling on a daily basis?

marginalien · 2 years ago

3 bullets on „what I‘ve learned today“, followed by 3 bullets on „what I will do next“.

This makes sense to me because a) content-wise I consider learning / making sense of what I experience in my life to be both intellectually and emotionally interesting and b) text-length-wise 6 bullets force you to really boil things down to the core

marginalien commented on Ask HN: Marketing/Branding Programs · Posted by u/tapatio

marginalien · 2 years ago

Have a look at reforge. I once participated in their course on retention and really liked it. Most of the courses are at the intersection of product/engineering/marketing, a good interdisciplinary mix I believe. However, every cohort and course is different and I also experienced a not-so-good one as well.

marginalien commented on Launch HN: Fuse (YC W19) – Unified API for financial data aggregators · Posted by u/tonikami

marginalien · 2 years ago

An aggregator that aggregates other aggregators? Actually it’s even more complex, as many of the established aggregators already collaborate with each other behind the scenes.

Very meta-meta-ish. Exciting, but also a lot of dependencies. Good luck!

marginalien commented on Maybe treating housing as an investment was a mistake goodreason.substack.com/p... · Posted by u/kqr2

marginalien · 3 years ago

Interesting read. However, the author misses some important motivations why people choose to buy instead of renting. For example, I don‘t expect it to generate much value for myself, but for my kids, as they will inherit it one day. Imagine not having to choose between renting or buying a home in the first place. That’s the start I want to provide my kids with. I thinks it’s a good one.

The other reason why I chose to buy is self-discipline. Yes, renting typically leaves you with some money at the end of the month that you can use to invest in the stock market - which oftentimes yields more benefits in the long run over buying (and financing) a home. But that’s just theory. In practice, many people (and I’m including myself here) will use the extra money not to invest in stocks etc. but to consume at a higher level - to buy the more expensive car, to take the more expensive trip, eat out for dinner a lot etc. Knowing that I rather chose to buy and finance a home because that way I am forced to spend my money in something that even my kids will benefit from rather than consuming it.