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Ask HN: Things that suck?

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Re: Ask HN: Things that suck?

#41

Post by jrudin »

jonnathanson wrote: post #22

This isn't a "thing that sucks" so much as a thing that will suck, but California needs to gets its act together with water supply and use. Smarter use is one thing, but it's abundantly clear that we'll also need more of it. Desalinization technology exists, but is considered to be prohibitively expensive relative to the benefits -- or at least that's the received wisdom we always hear whenever the subject comes up.…

Thats a great point about California's water supply.

Just wondering, why do you think power grids are so challenged?

Re: Ask HN: Things that suck?

#43

Post by squiguy7 »

na85 wrote: post #28

Javascript. It's possibly the worst language I've ever had the misfortune of coming across, and it's gained this cult-like devoted fan base amongst the startup crowd. Everyone tries to cram Javascript into applications it's completely unsuitable for like desktop non-browser 3D gaming or encryption. It is an enabler of pervasive surveillance by marketers and a huge security risk for the privacy-conscious. Not to menti…

I am so happy I saw this post first. You made my Sunday.

Re: Ask HN: Things that suck?

#44

Post by kens »

Maybe a HN company can fix home automation. Home automation seems to be like personal computers around 1980: you can do it but it's expensive, you don't get a lot of functionality, and you have to do a lot of hacking yourself.

Some specific pain points: walking outside and pushing little buttons to adjust the irrigation timer. Walking outside to turn on the hot tub. Manually putting a light on a timer when traveling. Pushing little buttons on the thermostat (although now there's Nest). Alarm system not integrated with anything.

What I want is that when I buy a $40 irrigation timer from Home Depot, it "just works" with the internet. I shouldn't need to buy a $500 internet irrigation controller with proprietary software (e.g. CyberRain).

(Of course I shouldn't bother responding to threads that will get clobbered by the controversy filter for having too many replies vs upvotes. My explanation http://www.righto.com/2013/11/how-hacker-news-ranking-really...)

Re: Ask HN: Things that suck?

#45

Post by verelo »

huhtenberg wrote: post #37
na85 wrote: post #28

Javascript. It's possibly the worst language I've ever had the misfortune of coming across, and it's gained this cult-like devoted fan base amongst the startup crowd. Everyone tries to cram Javascript into applications it's completely unsuitable for like desktop non-browser 3D gaming or encryption. It is an enabler of pervasive surveillance by marketers and a huge security risk for the privacy-conscious. Not to menti…

Worse than PHP? :)

i wish i could vote this down

Re: Ask HN: Things that suck?

#46

Post by ga2arch »

johnchristopher wrote: post #33

Many times a day I want to share an url with my SO. I use a desktop, she uses a laptop and half of the time I just give up. Opening a mail client, or facebook, wait for the app/website to load, find a textfield on the screen, type her name, correct auto complete, no I don't need a subject, yes I want to send it... half of the time I give up. I wish there was something like her picture in my browser toolbar and when c…

https://www.pushbullet.com/ (scroll till the end of the page, it works in the browser too)

Re: Ask HN: Things that suck?

#47

Post by na85 »

huhtenberg wrote: post #37
na85 wrote: post #28

Javascript. It's possibly the worst language I've ever had the misfortune of coming across, and it's gained this cult-like devoted fan base amongst the startup crowd. Everyone tries to cram Javascript into applications it's completely unsuitable for like desktop non-browser 3D gaming or encryption. It is an enabler of pervasive surveillance by marketers and a huge security risk for the privacy-conscious. Not to menti…

Worse than PHP? :)

Sure. I'd rather use a PHP site with good, lightweight CSS than a site loaded down with AJAX and jQuery. Any day of the week, ESPECIALLY on mobile.

13-year-old kids still in high school styling themselves as "PHP Developers" is what gave PHP a bad rap. They're the reason PHP-Nuke existed. But novice developers produce mediocre code irrsepective of the language.

I'm not saying it's the best thing ever created. I've never used PHP 5 but there's not really anything fundamentally wrong with PHP4 other than clunky syntax and stupid choices in naming some intrinsic functions. It's certainly easier to hang yourself with, say, C than with PHP.

Re: Ask HN: Things that suck?

#48

Post by nilved »

comrade1 wrote: post #31
na85 wrote: post #28

Javascript. It's possibly the worst language I've ever had the misfortune of coming across, and it's gained this cult-like devoted fan base amongst the startup crowd. Everyone tries to cram Javascript into applications it's completely unsuitable for like desktop non-browser 3D gaming or encryption. It is an enabler of pervasive surveillance by marketers and a huge security risk for the privacy-conscious. Not to menti…

Javascript is fine in itself as a language, but no one uses it like it's meant to be used. It's a prototype inheritance language and yet people try to use it like regular java (classes and instances). The problem you probably have is with the DOM, not the language.

No, my problem is definitely with the language. JavaScript has some PHP-level horrors in it, especially when it comes to type coercion.

Re: Ask HN: Things that suck?

#50

Post by na85 »

comrade1 wrote: post #31
na85 wrote: post #28

Javascript. It's possibly the worst language I've ever had the misfortune of coming across, and it's gained this cult-like devoted fan base amongst the startup crowd. Everyone tries to cram Javascript into applications it's completely unsuitable for like desktop non-browser 3D gaming or encryption. It is an enabler of pervasive surveillance by marketers and a huge security risk for the privacy-conscious. Not to menti…

Javascript is fine in itself as a language, but no one uses it like it's meant to be used. It's a prototype inheritance language and yet people try to use it like regular java (classes and instances). The problem you probably have is with the DOM, not the language.

I think I can discern for myself whether I dislike the DOM or Javascript, thank you very much.
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