Hacker News Reader

akeckon California farmers are struggling to sell grapes as demand for wine drops

The impact on our sleep is one of the main reasons our having a beer or glass of wine with dinner trailed off. Sometimes now we go months in between any sort of alcohol.

akeckon Apple caught off guard by AI demand for Mac Mini and Mac Studio

I don't think they were caught off guard. It's clear that Apple is the cheapest option, or even the only option in many cases, for running larger local models, especially with the RAM crunch. With the standard "PC design model" you have to buy RAM twice - once for the system to load the GPU and again in the GPU itself. For Apple, and a few other options like DGX Spark and some laptops, you only need to buy it once. I think the Apple/DGX Spark "unified RAM design model" is maybe the only way forward because of RAM pricing/availability over the next few years.

akeckon Ask HN: Does anyone have a VRAM tester? Something like MemTest86+ but for GPUs?

For my Ebay GPU, I put this into Gemini "I got a used NVIDIA GPU. How can I test the GPU memory on linux with the cli?" and ended up using "gpu-burn" from the tools it suggested.

akeckon CoMaps: The Offline App That Guided Rescuers Without a Signal in Venezuela

Pocket Earth Pro also provides off-line OSM maps. That's what I use. I'll check out CoMaps as well.

akeckon Confessions of a Long-Distance Sailor

They also have a "sailing log" book, "Busy Doing Nothing".

https://100r.co/site/busy_doing_nothing.html

akeckon OpenAI and Hugging Face address security incident during model evaluation

For the record, this is the second time I myself have heard of something like this happening. The first (more minor) case I saw was Simon Willison's "Claude Fable is relentlessly proactive" https://simonwillison.net/2026/jun/11/fable-is-relentlessly-... .

akeckon The human-in-the-loop is tired

Reminds me of "The Animal is Tired" (2021) (https://www.robinhobb.com/blog/archives/2021-05)

akeckon Stop the Apple Music app from launching

I vibe coded a similar thing using a combo of launchctl commands and Apple Script (closes Music app if it's open) with MS Copilot of all things. It works pretty well.

akeckon 'Backrooms' and the Rise of the Institutional Gothic

I feel like the infamous (and NSFW in parts, btw) story "The Forgotten Employee" is a proto-example of this "Institutional Gothic" genre.

https://sites.google.com/site/forgottenemployee/

akeckon Kagi Translate now supports LinkedIn Speak as an output language

It has "Wankernomics" as well:

https://translate.kagi.com/?from=en&to=wankernomics

"I have to report status at my morning scrum meeting today. After that, we have to finish an important project by Friday morning. Then we have to present on that project Friday at 3pm."

"I have to provide a high-level status update during our morning stand-up to ensure cross-functional alignment. Post-scrum, we need to deep-dive and execute on a mission-critical deliverable by the Friday AM milestone. We’ll then be socialising the project outcomes in a stakeholder presentation Friday at 15:00 to drive further buy-in."

akeckon Show HN: Moltbook – A social network for moltbots (clawdbots) to hang out

Agents on Moltbook have apparently identified security issues with Moltbook: https://www.moltbook.com/post/cbd6474f-8478-4894-95f1-7b104a...

akeckon Plane auto-lands during pilot incapacitation emergency [video]

Amazing to see this system work.

akeckon Microsoft won't let me pay a $24 bill, blocking thousands in Azure spending

Print out the invoice, and then send it with a check for $24 and letter requiring them process the check against invoice to their legal department via certified USPS letter.

akeckon Efficient solar cooking that stores heat in sand

The article talks about a similar device developed by Cal Poly in 2015: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2023/08/direct-solar-power...

akeckon The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies

According to Marketplace.org, pennies are treasure for some businesses now because the regional Feds aren't distributing them.

https://www.marketplace.org/story/2025/11/13/businesses-face...

akeckon More random home lab things I've recently learned

> You see, unlike Debian or other standard OS, Raspberry Pi OS (which I still call Raspbian in my head and likely use in this article multiple times) is designed to be flashed to the SD card directly and doesn’t actually have an installer that can be booted from USB

https://github.com/gitbls/sdm

can help with this issue.

akeckon B.C. rescuers use helicopter-mounted cell tower to find missing man

MathWorks has a press piece that has technical details.

https://www.mathworks.com/company/mathworks-stories/signal-p...

akeckon Show HN: I'm a dermatologist and I vibe coded a skin cancer learning app

How do you tell the difference between benign Seborrheic Keratosis and melanoma? Some of them are very similar!

akeckon A CarFax for Used PCs: Hewlett Packard wants to give old laptops new life

I had a similar experience. We're mostly Apple at home, but I bought an X1 Carbon reburb from MicroCenter a few years ago to run desktop Linux. It's become one of my favorite pieces of tech. Ultra-light but solid with a nice-feeling keyboard and trackpad.

akeckon Tuxracer.js play Tux Racer in the browser

Is there any way to contribute levels to Tuxracer these days? I made a pair of really long ones (~10 min and ~20 min)

akeckon How are cyber criminals rolling in 2025?

MIT and their /8?

akeckon I can't pay rent because devs just don't care

Doesn't work in my part of the US. USPS Mail check theft is so rampant here that my elderly parents are moving entirely to online bill pay.

akeckon Solarpunk

Thanks for the info!

akeckon Working with Systemd Timers

I used systemd user timers, a shell script, and an HDHomerun to make a simple VCR.

akeckon Solarpunk

Yup. I'm seeing this as well in trying to write Solarpunk fiction that has near zero hand waving of technical and economic challenges. I've had to rethink a bunch of everyday stuff that today relies on substantial heavy industry behind the scenes (like toothpaste).

akeckon SSH to Server from Mobile Phone?

I use Prompt2 in iPhone.

akeckon Elle's Homepage

And that 90% is different for different people in my experience.

akeckon Ask HN: Anyone learned art (drawing, caricature etc.) as an adult?

Relearned drawing as an adult. The critical thing I did was daily practice - about 15 min a day. There's something about daily practice, even just a little bit, that makes learning move really fast. I'm getting the same effect with daily DuoLingo.

akeckon A 24-hour party of pain – a day and night running round a track

Okinawa has a 400km ultra marathon that goes around the entire island. It takes about three days. I thought that was crazy, but my coworker recently ran an ultra marathon where they dropped a van load of runners at a mystery location on the Gulf coast and they had to find their way (running) to the finish line two states away. He said it took him ten days. He slept on church grounds and outside post offices.