nullderef (u/nullderef)

nullderef commented on iPhone Typos? It's Not Just You – The iOS Keyboard Is Broken [video] youtube.com/watch?v=hksVv... · Posted by u/walterbell

skygazer · 9 days ago

I pranked a friend in college by tricking him into installing a “utility” on his Amiga 1200 that swapped adjacent keys into the key stream as he typed, but only above a certain speed. He called and woke me the next morning in a panic about losing the ability to type. He would type slowly and it would work fine. Then at normal speed and he’d get constant errors. He’d quickly pull his hands up to see what keys they were over. Did he have a brain tumor? How could he be a journalist if he couldn’t type! Did he need to change majors?

Apple is unintentionally pranking the world.

nullderef · 8 days ago

Oh my god that’s insanely evil

I would never want to leave my computer open within 300 meters of you

nullderef commented on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (December 2025) · Posted by u/whoishiring

nullderef · 18 days ago

Pushscroll | Full-Stack Mobile Engineer (KMP) | REMOTE (GMT-3 to GMT+4) | Full-time | https://pushscroll.com

Screen-time app that makes you do push-ups before you can scroll addictive apps. 350k+ users.

Looking for someone strong in Kotlin Multiplatform + Compose Multiplatform + Swift/SwiftUI who isn't afraid of platform-specific APIs (Screen Time on iOS, Accessibility/UsageStats on Android) and can ship very fast.

Stack: Supabase (auth/DB/edge functions), Superwall, Amplitude, MediaPipe for pose detection. Good design sense matters - you'll be translating Figma → production UI.

Small team, work directly with founders. It’s a long-term role in an exciting app (help us fight doomscrolling!) where you can have a lot of impact. Reach out: contact@pushscroll.com

nullderef commented on Ask HN: What are you working on? (September 2025) · Posted by u/david927

nullderef · 3 months ago

Building an app where 1 pushup = 1 minute of scrolling allowed [1]. We've fiiinally started to grow and reached a whooping $30k in the last month!!

I was literally thinking about quitting in August. My motivation is now at an all-time high - some users have done >8k pushups :)

As always, the key has been the marketing (10M views on Instagram). But we have to improve the product to make people love it even more. So the roadmap is more full than ever.

[1] https://pushscroll.com

Posted by u/nullderef 5 months ago

Show HN: I built an app that makes me exercise to scroll on social media

nullderef commented on Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2025) · Posted by u/david927

nullderef · 7 months ago

I was building an intentionally annoying app against doomscrolling [1]. Being technical, I tried to focus on product, marketing and more instead of the implementation. But I still didn't ship quick enough. It's so hard. Only after a few months did I start with marketing, and it hit me like a wall.

So I'm giving a try to a project which started with marketing. No implementation, just a TikTok to see if people like it. And holy crap, we got 75k views!

The new idea [2] is easier to explain (1 pushup = 1 minute of scrolling) and already has a community. Plus, not working alone helps me focus on what I'm good at: programming. I don't regret learning about other areas but doing marketing for a living is not my thing.

I'm not getting rid of SpeedBump, though. It's a fun side project and it does help people :)

[1] https://speedbumpapp.com

[2] https://pushscroll.com

nullderef commented on Ask HN: How are you acquiring your first hundred users? · Posted by u/amanchanda

nullderef · 7 months ago

TikTok - you don't need followers to get views. It's not easy, especially if you've never used the platform before. But for B2C it's one of the best platforms.

Do founder stories ("I built this") or demos ("here's this SaaS you'll like"). They get less views than memes or tangential videos. But conversion is much higher and you'll get replies from people who liked it or tried it out. So you can send them a message to ask for feedback.

nullderef commented on Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2025) · Posted by u/david927

colinnordin · 8 months ago

Your app looks cool! I've tried a few other apps doing something things, Clearspace is the one I'm using now. Will give yours a try!

I'm in a similar situation as you (developer having to do marketing) but have not gotten as far, so far I've only posted on a few subreddits and here on HN. Have you found any nice learning resources?

nullderef · 8 months ago

Thank you for the support! I actually wrote an article about it here: https://speedbumpapp.com/en/blog/mobile-app-promotion/. It has the most useful resources I found so far (mostly B2C). I'm also happy to have a chat and help out: https://chat.nullderef.com :)

nullderef commented on Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2025) · Posted by u/david927

nullderef · 8 months ago

I've been building an intentionally annoying app against doomscrolling [1]. I've recently started with marketing, but oh boy is that out of my comfort zone!

I never thought that as an engineer I'd be doing TikToks. And here I am. It's fun to crack the algorithm little by little, but also frustrating because it's like a black box.

So far, I've discovered that going to the point works best. For example, I was sharing student tips and mentioning my app to improve focus. But conversion and engagement were terrible. Instead, I'm doing founder stories and tutorials, which get less views but more downloads. Plus, I can ask people in the comments for feedback on the app!

I'm happy to be doing something that devs overlook so much: marketing. Even if it's tough and slow. It's been an awesome learning experience.

[1] https://speedbumpapp.com/en/

nullderef commented on A guide to reduce screen time speedbumpapp.com/en/blog/... · Posted by u/nullderef

master-lincoln · 8 months ago

Title talks about screentime, but article only focuses on mobile phones and doom scrolling. I was surprised to see the recommendation of max 2h screen time per day for an adult at the bottom. The link leads to a page not mentioning this though.

I spend already ~5h staring at screens for work. At home my biggest screen time is watching videos on TV. I don't think I ever doom-scrolled on my phone. I do read lots of news articles on it though. Article seems to not be addressing people like me.

nullderef · 8 months ago

The link mentions: "Health experts say screen time at home should be limited to two hours or less a day" -- https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/wecan/reduce-sc...

Maybe doomscrolling is reading too many news for you? Or do you think it's not too excessive?

nullderef commented on A guide to reduce screen time speedbumpapp.com/en/blog/... · Posted by u/nullderef

hombre_fatal · 8 months ago

I find that it's hard to waste time on HN after your first salvo of the day since the day's frontpage topics are kinda set early on and they change pretty slowly. (Unless, of course, someone is wrong about one of Your Topics and needs your corrections throughout the day.)

And I don't see the point of going past the frontpage unless you want to bicker with someone on yesterday's topics that nobody will ever see. So just get it out of the way early.

— Suddenly selfaware guy who realizes he writes 5 comments a day on HN, kinda like a fat guy giving you weightloss tips. You see, the trick is to not moderate your intake at all.

nullderef · 8 months ago

I've had issues with checking HN every too often. News overload is definitely a problem, too. It's also fun to go check the new posts sometimes.

u/nullderef

KarmaCake day176January 21, 2024

About

Hi! You can learn more about me here: https://nullderef.com/ :)

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Socials: - github.com/marioortizmanero

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