miikavonbell's comments

On: Software engineers hate code

[miikavonbell]

I've been a software developer for almost 10 years and during that time I've questioned many times why I keep on going.

A while ago I realized that the biggest thing that I like about software development is the simplicity within it's complexity.

What I mean by this is; software either works or it doesn't. In many other professions this is not the case.

So while there are many things that could be done better and more efficiently, at the end of the day, your code either works or it doesn't.

So simple, but yet, so ruthless.

[turdprincess → miikavonbell]

I find it to be more nuanced. Your code has to work correctly in a bunch of scenarios. Some are very simple to see, others are nuanced corner scenarios.

A good developer will write code that passes many of these scenarios, but even the best will miss some. And an inexperienced developer might write code which passes some basic scenarios.

So, “this code works” is really a range, not a binary condition.

[miikavonbell → turdprincess]

"Code either works or it doesn't" is more like a mindset and a pholisophy rather then truth or a fact.

In the context of this article and this thread, I was just reminded about this approach.

Hating or loving software development, other peoples code, or approach is sort of meaningless.

At the end of the day, we all get paid to build software and it is our job to make the software functional.

As long as the code works and does what it is supposed to do, thats all that matters.

[jowdones → miikavonbell]

My high school computer science teacher (almost 30 years ago that is) used to say: "A program that 'almost works' is like a plane that 'almost flies'".

[falcor84 → jowdones]

Now I'm just trying to mentally picture what a mode of transportation that almost flies would work like via animal metaphors - would it almost fly like a chicken? or like a flying squirrel?

[akira2501 → miikavonbell]

> software either works or it doesn't

You don't use threads in your software, do you?

[jononomo → miikavonbell]

If you like ruthless simplicity you should try functional programming.

On: Ask HN: Could you share your personal blog here?

[miikavonbell]

Here is my personal blog I've been running for a few years now since the pandemic:

- English: https://miikavonbell.com/

- Finnish: https://miikavonbell.com/fi/

Sometimes I get excited about different topics and niches which I unload by writing in my blog so it's a collection of whatever I find interesting. Here are some categories and tags to try to keep everything organized:

- Categories (English): https://miikavonbell.com/categories/

- Tags (English): https://miikavonbell.com/tags/

- Categories (Finnish): https://miikavonbell.com/fi/categories/

- Tags (Finnish): https://miikavonbell.com/fi/tags/

[MongoTheMad → miikavonbell]

Do you have an RSS feed? I am currently trying to consume more Finnish text to aid in my language learning. I feel that your blog would aid me as I also have interests in what you blog about.

Bonus points if you can incorporate https://github.com/andrewwippler/Suomi-Tavu.

[miikavonbell → MongoTheMad]

Yes, my blog has RSS enabled on all list-pages. Just add /index.xml to path and it should work, for example:

- https://miikavonbell.com/fi/index.xml - https://miikavonbell.com/index.xml

Best of luck with learning Finnish! It is a hard language to learn for foreigners.

[MongoTheMad → miikavonbell]

Suomen kieli on helpompi kuin englanti. On vaikeaa ainoa koska opiskelee kaksi kieltä samalla - kirja- ja puhekieltä.

On: How to set up a blog with Hugo and Cloudflare, and...

[miikavonbell]

You can also couple Hugo with Netlify CMS or Forestry.io.

Those add a CMS UI for your SSG website that can be accessed for example from yourblog.com/admin/.

On: Reddit can't build a better search engine

[miikavonbell]

I haven't seen much discussions about solving the entire "search sucks" mess by simply introducing rich filtering for the results.

The way I see it is that Google is still some weird magic box that throws a bunch of random results out based on some black magic logic.

It's beyond my comprehension that there are no filters on any on the search engines (at least I don't remember seeing any).

By having some filtering options, such as "No JavaScript", "No ads", "SSGs only", "Page size < 1MB" and so on, search would be much better.

On: The End of Social Media

[miikavonbell]

OP Here.

Wasn't really expecting this much discussion and attention for my article, but I am quite happy to see so much people having similar thoughts like I have, which I wrote in my article.

I wrote a follow up post to my blog to share some of my afterthoughts: https://miikavonbell.com/posts/front-page-hacker-news/

On: Small B Blogging (2018)

[miikavonbell]

This blog is very relatable and I really like the idea of Small b blogging for smaller audiences.

I recently started my first own blog as a software developer and I decided to build my blog completely from scratch.

I used to do consulting for building WordPress and other CMS websites and I could never imagine myself using one of these tools for my personal needs if I were ever to start a blog myself.

There is so much code bloat and overhead when using any CMS or framework for the purpose of blogging. All I really need for my blog is a simple interface for adding some text and images to a database and a simple server that wraps everything together for the end-user.

This is my blog that I have built completely from scratch: https://miikavonbell.com

I really like the minimalistic approach of Tom's blog and will take some notes to improve my own platform.