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dustinmr

227 karma · joined January 27, 2016

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dustinmr··on Kimi Work
The accounting is very similar. The processes are not. Small businesses continue to be special snowflakes in terms of how they do their work. Both for good and bad reasons.

I’m surprised an open source accounting package hasn’t popped up that handles the accounting well. The backend could largely be the same (or at least modular) while the front legitimately needs to vary based on what type of work, how sales are done, whether they hold inventory, local taxes, etc, etc.

dustinmr··on I am directing the Department of War to designate Anthropic a supply-chain risk
It’s the Department of Defense
dustinmr··on Wall Street ruined the Roomba and then blamed Lina Khan
I have one I bought in 2008. My parents still use it. Replace batteries and filters. Works fine.

Gets stuck on cords and in corners. So does the one I bought in September 2025.

dustinmr··on ThinkPad designer David Hill on unreleased models
I have a few of the THINK notepads that I found in my grandfather’s things after he passed away. He was an IBM employee in the 50s and 60s.

I remember picking the first one up and saying out loud, “that’s where the name came from!”

dustinmr··on What if we made advertising illegal?
The author is identifying a technical problem (it’s become so cheap/easy to insert ads they’re everywhere). Technical answers? How about require that it be easy to opt out, or simply remove the ads from the content. Codify ad-blocking software.
dustinmr··on Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate
Here’s a good thought experiment: https://www.thebigquestions.com/2024/07/21/the-next-democrat...
dustinmr··on Ask HN: Where is a nice place to host which is not AWS / GCP types
And I like to give them kudos when I see Digital Ocean mentioned. I run a business in Puerto Rico, and host our ERP and some other services with DO.

After Hurricane Maria in 2017, I wrote off island suppliers asking for any support they could give. DO write back very quickly crediting us 3 months of hosting based on our prior billing.

And besides, the rep sent a very nicely written note wishing us the best. It was a very human response. Good people to do business with.

dustinmr··on iOS 14 will let you change your default email and web browser apps
I believe the complaint is that I have to renew that decision regularly.
dustinmr··on FCC Proposes to Fine Wireless Carriers $200M for Selling Customer Location Data
Also known as not a free market.
dustinmr··on Mate Desktop 1.24
https://regolith-linux.org/ solves much of what you’re asking.

If windows don’t behave, I put them in floating mode with Super-f or Super-shift-f to toggle. As you say, full screen when they shouldn’t be, or vice versa. In practice, the only app I have issues with is Zoom.

The i3bar implementation, includes battery charge, network info, etc. a click takes you to gnome-settings, where you can make changes. One of the few changes I make to i3.conf is to move the bar to the top. Personal preference.

If you tried it and liked tiling before, regolith is worth a shot. It’s pretty well done.

dustinmr··on Ask HN: Anybody else have a hard time transitioning to Linux as daily driver?
Maybe try changing the paradigm completely with a tiling window manager.

Take a look at https://regolith-linux.org/

I tried i3wm, a tiling window manager a few years ago, and it just sort of clicked with me. Eventually I set up a laptop with it, and decided I like it better than Mac. Around that time, Regolith was announced, and I found it to be a great looking, and great set of defaults and starting point. Gnome is still available if you get lost or break something.

Incidentally, I eventually arrived to using PopOS, and then installing regolith from the package manager. Working well so far.

dustinmr··on Ask HN: How do you justify taking unpaid vacation as self employed?
Seems like an important detail to number one is to properly manage the way that gets presented to the client.

In the OPs case it sounds like if they do that, they won’t realize a benefit. Their client will expand the work to fill the available time.

I do the same to myself often. It’s hard to avoid.

dustinmr··on The Great Cannon has been deployed again
Sometimes known as the “Golden Arches Theory of Diplomacy”
dustinmr··on Ask HN: How to Convert HTML to PNG on a Serverside?
This arrived in my RSS feed today. Seems to fit the bill.

https://www.thepolyglotdeveloper.com/2019/12/generate-images...

dustinmr··on Cutting the speed of ships has benefits for humans, nature and climate – report
In the US, you already have to report the cargo’s arrival date before it leaves its origin port. So the information is there.

Graduate the port fees based on average speed for arrival.

dustinmr··on The end of uBlock origin for Google Chrome?
You can also install Crostini and install Firefox inside the container.
dustinmr··on Schneier on Australia's encryption laws and CyberCon speaker bans
The other problem is that even within one government there isn’t really “the” government. There’s office A and task group X and the prosecutor for this area and that special envoy and this law enforcement agency and that law enforcement agency and various courts, etc, etc, etc.

If you haven’t worked much with a large government, you don’t tend to realize just how fractured it all is.

dustinmr··on What the Apps That Bring Food to Your Door Mean for Delivery Workers
I also don’t particularly know if a restaurant pays tips to their wait staff when I pay a bill with a credit card.
dustinmr··on Ask HN: What are some high quality Linux theme resources?
Another Mac refugee to Linux here. I first installed a minimal Debian install, and you begin running into lots of things along these lines: https://cravencode.com/post/essentials/enable-tap-to-click-i...

And you need to configure i3br/polybar, amongst lots of other things.

I ended up on Regolith mostly to see how someone else who’s used i3 for a while sets things up. I’ve found I like it pretty well. It’s a nice middle ground. I may sometime go back to building my desktop from the bottom up, but Regolith has been a good way to get a working i3 setup to build from.

It’s also a very fast way to have i3 setup and use for a week to see if you like it. If you do, then you can build what you like. But if you start from building first, your initial time investment will be much greater.

dustinmr··on Simple words that save lives: lessons from “expert talkers”
Yes, but if your grandmother rebuffs me, I’ll think, “what the hell?”
dustinmr··on The effect of meditation on brain structure (2012)
I’m relatively new to meditation. About 5 months, most days but not all.

The thing is, you don’t notice that those voices aren’t you until someone points it out. And you see it most clearly through meditation. Because when you think your mind is empty, it’s not, you’re telling yourself tales constantly. At least I am. But I never thought I was until I sat back and observed how my mind was working.

It’s like those drawing that ask if you see a cat or a woman and you see a cat. But then someone points out the woman and you just can’t unsee the woman. That’s the best analogy I can find at least.

As I said, I am early in experimenting with meditation, but it really feels like a game changer.

I’ve tried to read a variety on the topic. Being that I’m of the more secular bend, I’ve really enjoyed the Sam Harris book and app, Waking Up. If you want an intro, start with either. If you’re of a more spiritual bend, I’m sure there good other options.

dustinmr··on 42 is found to be the sum of three cubes
Now that we have the answer, I wonder what the question was?

And why is that mouse looking at me?

dustinmr··on Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years
I passed through Toronto twice last week. Had a fantastic meal here: http://www.nourishmoi.com/

And you’re right, I don’t regularly keep vegan. But I do like the option sometimes.

dustinmr··on Ask HN: Is there a project based book or course on Go for writing web APIs?
I got an email about this book the other day: https://gumroad.com/l/kjHSa

From the writer of this blog: https://www.thepolyglotdeveloper.com/

dustinmr··on Startup idea checklist
Examples?
dustinmr··on Puerto Rico energy plan introduces MiniGrids to avoid repeat of Hurricane Maria
I can’t really speak to that specifically. But I can say it doesn’t really fit with either my government contracting experience nor what that particular engineer was explaining to me at the time.

In general, it matters very much how the money is appropriated for whatever you’re going to do with government money. What you might not be able to do under one particular program may not be prohibited at all under another. Or, some official may be empowered to waive some requirements. I would expect, for example, that FEMA might be able to waive the requirement you speak of, if, for example, they found it was less expensive, or even just convenient for the government.

And in terms of what the specific person I was talking with had to say, his bid on work with PREPA included proposals based on getting funding for upgrades as he had previously done in Florida after another hurricane. Which seemed reasonable when he explained. Basically, Florida Power & Light got grants from FEMA to do various upgrades to their grid because the upgrades were likely to save the feds money in a future hurricane. Or at least, that was his explanation. And it fits with my experience in DC early in my career as well.

dustinmr··on Puerto Rico energy plan introduces MiniGrids to avoid repeat of Hurricane Maria
In addition to what everyone else said, about a year ago I was chatting with an engineer who was in San Juan bidding on work with PREPA. One of the things he pointed out was that the entire grid is ancient. And aside from the typical problems that makes, virtually none of the physical pieces can be purchased of the shelf because they've been replaced by new designs everywhere else.

Every replacement part need requires that PREPA either have the part machined specially, or they need to purchase a production run of whatever the part is.

The conversation left me with the impression that its likely less expensive to simply replace large sections or even re-engineer than to incrementally improve the existing infrastructure.

dustinmr··on Matrix 1.0 and the Matrix.org Foundation
Can you point to any tutorials/articles/documentation? I got off Mac for Linux or Chromebook with the whole keyboard horror.

About the only thing I miss is a full keyboard for sms & iMessage. And I have an old Mac Mini laying around that could be put to use if necessary.

dustinmr··on The Collapsing Crime Rates of the ’90s Might Have Been Driven by Cellphones
And they recently published updated results: https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/05/ne...
dustinmr··on Smartphones Are Toys First, Tools Second
You can turn the little red bubbles off.

Go to Settings Search for notifications Go to the specific app and turn off Badges

My normal routine is that turn them all off, then go back and turn on the specific ones I want. But it turn off the badges for virtually all of them.

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