May your pagers be silent.
May your pagers be silent.
This has been an awful year for me. Unable to find work, having to sell off important assets. And for some reason iOS autocorrect is still terrible.
Here's to hoping next year will be better.
Take heart.
My wife almost died early this year from a hospital deciding to rush her Sodium level restoration because beds were scarce and profitable. She now suffers from extreme anxiety, her previous life as a happy, well-balanced mom is over, and as I write, she’s in the next room chattering in nonsense to herself because it’s how her brain copes. It’s worse in the mornings, gets better, briefly, in the afternoons as she gains more higher-level function, until her loss and grief for that overwhelm her, and she reverts again.
I won’t go into the litany of pain and suffering she continues to go through, suffice it to say she has had a variety of terrible-to-observe, worse to endure, symptoms throughout the year. Screaming in agony for hours, in first or third person, in hospital or at home, when painkillers just don’t work is not an experience anyone should go through.
The highlight of today is that a friend has invited us around for an Xmas meal. It’ll be our first social engagement since it happened, so there’s some risk. It’s at 4pm, which is usually her best time of the day, so we’re hopeful things can play out “normally”. I guess we’ll see, sometimes you have to risk things, just to make progress. I don’t think my friend actually realises just how much it means to us what his family have done, but I am so grateful that I cried on getting the invite. It can be hard to struggle alone.
So again, take heart. There is always something worse that could have happened, even for us. Don’t let the past dictate the future - you can’t change the past, but you can influence the future.
And I will join you in hoping that next year will be better.
That sounds awful, I’m so sorry to hear that and do hope that she can make progress.
If I may, this is a point I’ve been thinking a lot of lately though - as in, is the “oh there’s many people out there who have it way worse, so be thankful for what you have” mindset actually healthy?
Of course there will always be others worse off… and the inverse advice is also widely accepted: “never be the smartest person in the room”, “always look up, not down, to grow”, etc
I’ve been processing this in the context that I’m on the cusp of needing to give up on some life dreams, at least for a long while.
I’m glad to be shut down if this isn’t the right place for this discussion
I’m not going to shut you down. I’m just going to say that when things are truly bad, you need something to cling onto. When hope is crushed, over and over; when the light at the end of the tunnel is in fact an oncoming train that will also kill you if you fail to dodge; when your view on life turns to thoughts like “is it even worth it ?”, in these sorts of situation, realizing that life could in fact be worse, that you have something to be grateful for can be a crucial life-line to someone who thought they had none left.
Is it healthy for a person living under normal circumstance ? Probably not. Is it useful for someone in extremis? From personal anecdote only, I would say so. YMMV.
Praying next year is better for you and your family
SwiftKey is still the only keyboard with an autocorrect that's actually really helpful, instead of actively messing up what I'm writing. But only if you (counterintuitively) turn off the "autocorrect" checkbox in the settings. Because then you will always have 3 distinct options to choose from (instead of middle and left sometimes being the same). Apparently you can install SwiftKey on iOS too (although I've never tried it).
confirming SwiftKey works brilliantly on iOS. have been a user since before it got acquired, then abandoned, and then picked up again
It also lets you pick more than one language at the same time, which is amazingly useful
(sadly "more than one" is strictly 2, but 3-4 would be even better)
I hope things turn around for you. Here are two sayings that I lean on when times are tough:
“Keep your highs low and your lows high.”
“When you’re going through hell, keep going.”
Fingers crossed for next year
And totally with you on iOS autocorrect!
Things can turn around. In 2016 I felt the same way as you. It was the nadir of my life, and was interspersed with suicidal thoughts. We barely kept our Chicago apartment.
Don’t give up hope, and keep trying. Also, one key for me was to get properly medicated. Prozac was a turning point, but everyone is different. There was a clear step function from "before Prozac" to "after Prozac". The suicidal ideation stopped, among other things, which let me get my life in order.
Mostly just remember to enjoy each day in small ways. The only thing I regret from 2016 is not taking the time to appreciate the small things. There’s an interesting mental exercise to snap you out of this: pretend you’re on your death bed at 80, and then you were magically transported back in time to the present day. What would you do? Even being able to run is a blessing I don’t remember to appreciate until I can’t.
You’ll figure it out. Or at least, the chances of you figuring things out is much higher than things going downhill forever. It’s the default path, even if it doesn’t feel like it when things are going wrong.
This, too, shall pass. Finding a calming peace and disconnect from material things in a low period of my life has stuck with me even as things have gotten much better. Not to say I know what you need, but I bet the positives will shine through all of this in the long term. Find a way to smile today - Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays!
At least one can just turn off iOS autocorrect, if it's more terrible than one's typing ability (which it typically is).
I can't hire you, but I'm in a similar boat. I'm lucky to have a client I'm billing, but other than that the job search has sucked. I can code, and also have product/g2m experience. Happy to collaborate remotely. Want to try to build something together? If interested you can reach me through metaluna.io.
I've been there. The biggest struggle I had was with the constant self-doubts and cynicism. Just when you need the most motivation it seems that everything is against you. All I can say is it's normal to feel like trash during the job search and sometimes things aren't as bad as they seem. It can obviously be hard to believe that after spending like 6 - 12 months unemployed but its true. You're not any more or less as a person. The economy is just brutal at the moment.
In ex USSR we celebrate New Year. So the first several years of remote work with Western folks, I was always surprised to see no colleagues some day in December. Only later in the evening, I would remember they had Christmas that day. :)
Merry Christmas!
Western folks
I'm from Eastern Europe and we celebrate already on 24th.
I know, it depends on whether the churches are on Gregorian or Julian calendar.
And not everybody in ex-USSR were on the old calendar.
Who wasn't? I guess Cechnya?
Estonia/Latvia/Lithuania and other catholic and protestant communities.
Greek Catholic and for the first time Ukraine.
I understand Ukrainians celebrate Christmas officially now for the first time.
(If I understand correctly last year it was some kind of transition.)
Almaty is such an incredible city!
Thank you! Have you visited it as a tourist?
Not the original poster, but I visited Almaty and Shymkent in Kazakhstan this summer. I met a lot of nice and warm Kazakh people. Would love to visit Almaty again and explore other parts of the country this time.
S Novim Godom!
Don't forget Old New Year!
oh wow, this is the first time I've seen someone else in almaty on hn
There have been many, many variables in my life. And throughout all of that chaos, the one constant that remains is HN. I appreciate each and everyone single one of you who make this site what it is. Merry Christmas and cheers!
Leave it to a member of HN to talk about variables ;)
Merry Christmas!
We are going in loop about them for sure!
Merry Christmas!
Really a constant behaviour around here.
Merry Christmas!
variables and constants too
Same! I can't believe I've had my HN account since 2014. Almost ten years!
Been here since 2009. HN has been a comfort during so many times of transition. Merry Xmas!
2010 here. I’ve even posted one or two love letters to HN on here. What a great community!
Merry Christmas, thank you all for being a wonderful taste of the old Internet. Let's all turn our engineer brains off and enjoy family and friends.
Too busy min/maxing oven space and coordinating efficient wrapping paper disposal
Deployed several concurrent Workers
Dad, is that you?
Well said.
I've been a daily lurker since I was 18. And I do 100% mean daily since the time I started. I've never frequented any other URL so consistently.
I have thousands and thousands of screenshots of highlight posts and comments (highlight to me of course), that I dream about organizing with tags for future access, whether I use any of the information or tools, refresh myself on something, or just want to walk down memory lane... A lane that just keeps getting longer and longer. A lane I'm happy to have at least left a bread crumb trail on to retrace in the dark if I feel like it.
In hindsight, screenshotting them has been more of a personal act I do for myself, knowing very well I may never meaningfully do anything with the majority of them. Every screenshot taken was something important or impactful to me in the moment though. The process of screenshotting is just a part of the ritual it seems .
I thank the individuals, and community as a whole, who have been responsible for making my life better, enabling growth I'd have never anticipated or foreseen , enabling countless echoing feelings of comradery and connection that have been hard to find in meat space consistently.
This place was like discovering a magic land when I was 18 given my rather humble background. I still had a lot of learning and growing to do. Hacker News has been invaluable.
Not to get too gushy... But I do love this site, and I love the fact there are people willing to take time out of your days to participate in it. People of all creeds and credentials being civil, yet unafraid to agree to disagree. Willing to have some fun. Willing to be candid. Willing to dive into the deep end depending on the post...
Merry Christmas everyone:)
Always wish I could wave a magic wand, and somehow reciprocate back all the good I feel like I've just freely consumed and co opted from others over the years ... The giants whose shoulders I stand on.
I'll never forget or downplay the people and exposures that are integral to who I am.
Were I born and raised on some far removed island... Id have been grown off of whatever arbitrary cultural and informational scraps that I could gets my mits on from my local hierarchy, and that's about it. I don't like the sounds of that.
Modern life has its downsides and contraindications for sure, but Hacker News is not one of them. Hacker News is one of modern day phenomon that I am thrilled to have been alive for.
Hope you all have a solid day!
Sometimes I hope HN would have a forum, a real old forum, about life itself, not only tech.
It would be amazing to have such a high quality community able to contribute to everlasting threads. About life, decisions, and of course, curiosity.
P.S: Merry Christmas!
<3
You could share them on twitter: @InterstingHNposts
I’ll follow you.
Marry Christmas. At this point I’ve lived longer with HN than without HN.
Let’s see… HN launched in 2006, I was 18, I’ll be 36 next year, so this is actually an off by one error. Oh well, if you squint a little or drink too much eggnog then it’s true.
Remember to focus on yourself this year, and especially to give yourself permission to be selfish. It’s ok not to live your life for others.
I hadn't put that idea together until your comment. I'm about the same age and only have a few more years before this "milestone" myself. Thanks for making me feel older hah.
Welcome to the club.
Here’s something depressing, or uplifting. When you ask older people which age they’d most prefer to re-live, the most common answer is 36. So remember to live this year to the fullest, even though it doesn’t feel like you’re in your prime. You actually are.
Бажаю вам всім приємного різдва :)
Merry xmas. PS Don't they usually celebrate Christmas a bit later in Russia?
Today is Western Christmas, January 7th is the actual feastday, we call it Nativity.
You can have the festal greeting anyway: Christ is born!
Merry Christmas to all those that celebrate.
and especially to those who don't
Why especially?
I may be a scrooge, but I hope everyone enjoys whatever they celebrate. There is a lot of suffering in this world, so if any event helps people in any way, even if it’s just emotionally, I’m all for it.
Sounds like you're not a Scrooge after all.
"Merry Christmas, I don't want to fight tonight." -The Ramones
"I'm waiting Santa Claus You will come on a bison sleigh I'm waiting for Christmas gifts I want to get a space ship"
Space Christmas, Shonen Knife
Merry Christmas
Happy Movie and Chinese food day to some of you. ;-)
Many of us celebrate both!
Merry Christmas !!!!!!
I'm taking a break today and playing call of duty all day long. Tomorrow I will go for a hike or a walk, and then 26th is back to the business/grind.
I hope y'all take a good time to rest.
I'm thankful for the folks who are working over the break. Thankful for the gas station attendants, the police officers, healthcare professionals, on-call engineers and customer support, and so many others to whom I am eternally thankful for making our society.
Happy Thanksgiving
Merry Christmas Everyone! Reflecting on the past few years, I've faced some of life's toughest challenges. In 2020, we lost my father-in-law to Multiple Myeloma, a difficult time for our family. The following year, my dad's battle with Pancreatic Cancer came to an end, leaving us with the task of closing his business and resolving financial matters. Then, in November 2022, my mom was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer. After enduring multiple rounds of chemotherapy, I'm grateful to say she's doing much better.
Through these hardships, I've learned about strength, resilience, and the importance of true friends who have your back. I also learned that I am strong and can deal with difficult hardships. As I look forward to 2024, I'm hopeful for a return to normalcy and better health. Here's to a year of healing, growth, and brighter days ahead.
That's rough. Best of luck for the new year!
Merry Christmas! Was wondering what broke my color scheme but then realized what the actual colors were :D
what the actual colors were
worst ?
Merry Christmas!
I'm on call and already had my first intervention. How's your Christmas going?
I hate to be a stick in the mud, but they're right; you shouldn't drink so much when you're on call.
<3333333333333333 have good time everyone!!!
iOS is convinced 3333333333333333 is a phone number, but only when it’s prefixed by <3333333333333333. Mildly interesting.
Merry Christmas! I have been lurking for years and never contributed myself. Nonetheless, I appreciate all the users and their productive discussions that make this site a joy to browse.
Merry Christmas, welcome.
Stay with us. We need more joy.
Apologies if this is old stuff for you:
The mystery of Santa's sleigh has been solved. Santa is a quantum phenomenon, meaning that he is in everyone's house at once. BUT if anyone observes him, then the probability function collapses and only one house gets toys.
So have a Merry Christmas, and don't look.
When you observe Santa, you get entangled with that Santa, and others get gifts in the rest of the multiverse. So don't worry, and have a Merry Everettian Christmas!
Merry Christmas to all you beautiful people.
And happy 8 year anniversary for my account, made on Christmas Day 2015. LOL
Merry Christmas!
I appreciate this place as a refugee for intelligent people, first and foremost. Most of the world is less intelligent and unable or unwilling to think for themselves. It gets infuriating.
I love the interesting links, articles, discussions; and I very much appreciate the moderation philosophy. Though I work in tech and hold a certain technical literacy, I’m in a management role and don’t have a background in software development. Nonetheless, there’s plenty here for me, and I wind up learning a lot from reading the technical discussions.
Merry Christmas!
:)
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas!
Happy xmas nerds :D
Merry Christmas!
Merry every day, nor just xmas.
Happy holidays in whatever form you all celebrate!
May your bugs be solvable and enlightening.
Aye, merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to you too. Hope you have a great holiday :)
Happy hoolidays!
Merry Christmas! I dropped Reddit and all other social media except for YT a couple years back after I found HN. It's not perfect, but probably the best you can find out there in terms of etiquette, curiosity and interesting and generally respectful and benevolent conversation. So thanks to y'all for making this a corner of the internet that I'm truly grateful for.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Merriest possible Christmas!!!
Merry Christmas! I wish you health and joy in life.
Have a Merry Christmas, too, everyone! :D
God jul!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.
Merry Christmas everyone! It's still my favourite time of the year despite all of the things that happened throughout the year.
Merry x-mas, hn.
Some of you might not celebrate it but that just means I'll have to eat your share of cakes \(^_^)/
Merry Christmas! (And again on January 7).
Merry Christmas everyone! Thanks everyone for you great contributions to the community and thanks to the dear moderators for the great job they are doing!
Merry Christmas all
I don’t celebrate Christmas but Happy Holidays.
Jeez. Happy Birthday.
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas :)
May you spend good time with loved ones, be it over a tree, a treat or a tree.
Life being just a ride, may it be pleasant, or at least pass the hardest bump quickly.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all.
Merry Christmas!!
Merry Christmas ya filthy animals!
Happy Holidays. I’m still finding 3-5 new and really interesting things to read via HN daily, and want to thank everyone for submitting and commenting in 2023.
Wishing you and yours a fantastic holiday season!
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone, whatever you celebrate. Nice being on Earth with you all!
Here's hoping everyone associated with Hacker News a joyous holiday season. I discovered HN this past year and wonder how I ever lived without it. Merry Christmas mostlysimple
Merry Christmas from Vietnam :)
I read HN most days. It’s great to see people from so many places around the world in this thread.
All the best for 2024!
Merry Christmas everyone! And here's to an incredibly happy and prosperous 2024 to come! May you all find the things you're looking for, and the peace and happiness you deserve.
Merry Christmas und Frohe Weihnachten everyone. :)
Merry Christmas HN Community!
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas ! Life is hard but HN always felt like home for me.
Merry christmas
Buon Natale everyone. Wish you all the best.
Merry Christmas all :)
Merry Christmas from Romania to the best community on the internet!
Merry Christmas to you all.
Merry Christmas to all! 2023 was a fantastic year, so happy to be over the Covid mountain and over the inflation hills that followed. Wishing everybody here a creative, prosperous, and exciting new year!
Merry Christmas, everyone!!!
Merry Christmas everyone!
Happy Christmas, everyone!
Merry Christmas! Thanks again everyone on HN for being a great source of inspiration and interest
Merry christmas
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
I appreciate the banner color update as well.
Merry Christmas! Hope you feel valued and loved today.
Merry Christmas. I am very grateful for this community, I hope everyone has an amazing 2024.
Merry C:\hristmas (the PC term for Christmas ;-)
And Happy Holidays!
Happy holidays and better next year fellows.
Happy Monday!
Merry Christmas everyone! Haveagoodun.
Merry Christmas all. Thank you for this thread.
Merry Christmas to the HN community!
Thank you for your work; Dan, Scott, Paul, anyone who reads, or contributes, or detracts.
Merry Christmas to all!
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to everyone on HN! May 2024 be a happy and successful year for all of us and may it also bring us more to read and learn. Reading is fundamental and on HN there is always something to read about. I have been on HN for 2 years, 7 months and 23 days and I look forward to remain a part of this wonderful community :).
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to all men of goodwill
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas! Thanks for all of the great reading over the last year.
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
Merry Christmas yall, here's hoping that the HN crowd has an above average 2024.
merry christmas!
And a jolly Christmas to you too, kind stranger!
Merry Christmas HN! Thank you all for inspiring so many of us!
Merry Christmas HN!
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Merry Christmas bros
Barry Crumbus!
Merry Christmas! May the code fixing prod compile on the first try
Merry Christmas!
Merry dang Christmas! :)
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to a wonderful community!
Merry Christmas to you as well
Merry Christmas HN!
Merry Christmas, Boldog Karácsonyt, Fröhliche Weihnachten, Feliz Navidad, สวัสดีวันคริสต์มาส, et al!
Merry Christmas!!
Merry Christmas HN!
Merry Christmas to everyone here and their families!
I wish you a merry christmas and a happy new fear.
Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you get some time to reflect on the year that’s been, the crazy change we’re going through and the great community we all work to better.
Merry Christmas HN!
I remember being a CS student years back and my lab partner told me be about HN. I didn’t know what it was, but since then I basically skimmed every day since. Thanks for all the great memories!
Thanks for making me have great news to read every day. And the hours spent here this year. Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas everyone. However you choose to spend this day, and whethet or not you hold it to be special in any way, I hope it is peaceful and good for you.
Merry Christmas all. Like many of the posters have said, I really treasure this site as this is what I still believe the Internet should be (yep, I’m old). Love all the nuggets I find here and the number of threads and articles I share out. Also, seriously appreciate dang!
Merry Christmas All!
Happy tree day!
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas!
Merry Xmas!
Merry Christmas
Merry christmas HN!
Merry Christmas all <3
Merry Christmas y'all. Dodged two rounds of layoffs in 2023, things seem to have stabilized a bit in tech in 2024, so let's hope everyone gets a new job who's looking for one, or holds onto one they like!
bah humbug! /s :)
Merry Christmas, and a joyous 2024 to all!
Merry chrystler (source: i miss vine)
I'm just here for the chaos & disorder.
Merry Christmas, my friend
Merry Christmas! This was a tough year for me personally but I’m optimistic for 2024.
Merry Christmas everybody!
I don't remember when I first learned about HN, I think maybe when I was in high school(I'm 36 now). I have found an uncountable number of interesting and imo mentally valuable things through here. When I share them (which I often do) my friends always ask "where did you find that?". This is such an awesome group. Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
Humbug. Humbug, I say!
No, seriously, have you ever tried humbugs? They're a delicious molasses-y mint candy, and I always try to pick some up at this time of year.
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas HN!
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas with from Bali
Merry Christmas to everyone, especially to the GOAT of moderators, dang, seen today moderating HN.
Turning 1 year older nearly broke me,
There were lots of important things in life I couldn't see,
But I got a wonderful realization that set me free,
Oh how wonderful it is to let my actions be made by me!
Merry yuletide everyone!
Pagers?
I'm not sure how many companies still use "pagers" aka "beepers", but this person is talking about the device you carry that would alert you when there is a problem with one of your systems. https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=593535494&q=pager&tbm=...
Yes I know what a pager is but was surprised the word is still in use.
The name will live on in "PagerDuty" at a minimum.
Before mobile phones and beepers, institutions would use a public address system to announce “paging dr. whoever.” Makes me wonder whether the word comes from sending a “page” (an errand boy) to go look for dr. whoever and bring him back.
I guess now “carrying the pager” is a metaphor like “copy and paste” (from the glue used in newspaper layout).
"paging dr. whoever"
Can't help but think of that epic line in The Hangover
"Paging doctor F.....!" - Phil
There’s a website for people like us.
Merry Christmas!
https://www.etymonline.com/word/pager
Pagers are still in use. They receive signals much better (UHF) than GSM two-way devices.
https://americanmessaging.net/
Amazing range, and battery life (often weeks) as well.
Not to mention being robust against all kinds of physical abuse, which may itself be a useful characteristic for an on-call comms unit.
More months than weeks
I think they're still prevalent in hospitals due to their reliability and higher connectivity.
They're coming back you know, just ask Dennis Duffy, Beeper King.
Well played. Technology is cyclical, after all.
I will admit that I paused after typing that, but then I figured, as another commenter mentioned, that with PagerDuty being popular, it wasn't too much of a stretch.
Admittedly, I'm someone who has carried an honest-to-god pager, the "start the number with 911 if it's an emergency" sort of 10 digit segmented LCD ones. Even remember enjoying the freedom of getting upgraded to one of the national ones when traveling!
Though I'm currently thinking about switching from PagerDuty to ntfy.sh/pushover, as it's really hard to justify almost $50/mo per person with Pager Duty for the use my small team makes of it.
I work for a globally remote organisation, so I voluntarily took the on-call rota for the last week of the year. This way, my colleagues can enjoy Xmas with their families without any pager anxiety, and they made sure I could have the same experience this past month over Diwali ;)
Wholesome <3
So nice to hear you and your colleagues can make the work/life balance out for each other!
Marry Christmas to all HN readers from me too!
Not on rotation, but one never knows how much something escalates, therefor and for the team members silence if of course preferred ;)
And the queries flow through.
'hi, we're contacting you about a brand new insurance--' AHHHHHH----