May be it's just me, but the very first example (contacts form) looks better (easier to read) on the left than text in empty space on the right (which is supposed to be the good design)...

It's not just you, I didn't even open the link and know exactly which two examples you're talking about because I left this same comment on HN a while ago.

So much of modern design is fashion yet the designers pretend it isn't. Like it's some scientifically provable truth or axiom that faint lines between list items is "bad".

Just judging by eye, I'll bet in both of those designs the "Team/Member" text would fail one of the WCAG grades.

Thin, light grey text on a white background is not really very good design.

But not all of us are working in the open air office... Brightly lit office after 5pm in winter (ie after sunset) doesn't mean dark mode is the best option.

Then you switch?

My entire OS, most apps and 90% of websites switch automatically with a single keyboard shortcut.

No, you change your OS preference and then most websites that are coded correctly will follow. I do it by sunrise and sunset but have a key binding to override it.

And what exactly 9-5 has to do with caring for coding or time investment in language learning?

A person that cares for coding will inevitably code more then 9-5 and consequently get familiar with new syntax

A person that invests time into their language knowledge will not have issues handling new syntax because they spend as much time as necessary to get familiar with the new syntax

So the criteria is being a 9-5 who doesn't particularly care about coding and doesn't invest time into their language knowledge

Not GP, but I assume the suggestion is that it's difficult to stay abreast of new developments within the constraints of a typical work day. Especially if your job utilises older technologies, as most do.

if the customer owes $0.001, how are you charging that?

If a customer's balance is under $1 at the end of the month, we delay charging them for up to 60 days and send email reminders. If it's still under $1 after 60 days, we charge at least $0.50 and credit the difference (after fees) to their account for future use.

For anyone not familiar with acronyms (like me), VTOL stands for "Vertical Take-Off and Landing".

Funny nitpick, this definition applies to most drones, because most drones sold are x-copters and do not have wings, they always take-off and land vertically.

This should be "a 3D printed winged VTOL drone"

Yeah it's a strange term because it probably originated relative to fixed wing planes. Ie a VTOL plane. But now multicopters are the predominant species so VTOL can sound redundant to most drone builders today.

Extending this line of thought I wonder why tesla didn't make cars on two legs and insisted on using wheels?

(Just wanted to make sure - this is not a stab at you, I'm well aware that the original argument is from tesla)

We could extend the argument more. Why build a self driving vehicle at all? Build a humanoid robot to drive the car for you! The argument that computer systems can outcompete human drivers, without using lidar, is at least reasonable, although not yet proven

(I didn't just want to just make sure - this is a stab)

> Nothing will compare to the Gmail experience

I think this might be a matter of personal preferences. Personally I find GMail very confusing, and not that user friendly.

FastMail UI is so much more intuitive. For me.

> Sound output? Sure, just set up DMA and IRQ yourself for your Soundblaster card. I mean, you have one of those right?

What has OS got to do with possession of some hardware?

If the OS doesn't provide an actual sound API developers will only write support for the most popular sound cards.

I remember games which had extra features if you had a Gravis UltraSound.

The knowledge gap of the modern js devs is funny, thinking MS-DOS has any concept of what a soundcard is.

Though even first Unixes "it's a file, just write to it" were better but just above the bare minimum

> My biggest piece of advice is don’t be a “ticket taker”. Volunteer to lead larger initiatives.

Sure. But who’s going to do all those boring tickets? I know people need to work for themselves, but this just feels so wrong.

I agree. I don’t know where this obsession comes from. Obsession with resembling as close to humans as possible. We’re so far from being perfect. If you need proof just look at your teeth. Yes, we’re relatively universal, but a screwdriver is more efficient at driving in screws that our fingers. So please, stop wasting time building perfect universal robots, build more purpose-build ones.

Given we have shaped so many tasks to fit our bodies, it will be a long time before a bot able to do a variety/majority of human tasks the human way won’t be valuable.

1000 machines specialized for 1000 tasks are great, but don’t deliver the same value as a single bot that can interchange with people flexibly.

Costly today, but wont be forever.

The shape doesn't matter! Non-humanoid shapes give minir advantages on specific tasks but for a general robot you'll have a hard time finding a shape much more optimal than humanoid. And if you go with humanoid you have so much data available! Videos contain the information of which movements a robot should execude. Teleoperation is easy. This is the bitter lesson! The shape doesn't matter, any shape will work with the right architecture, data and training!

Purpose build robots are basically solved. Dishwashers, laundry machines, assembly robots, etc. the moat is a general purpose robot that can do what a human can do.