Hacker News Reader

imwallyon Senior Engineers Are the Next DRAM Shortage

Lots of em dashes.

“Read that clause again”

“That’s the whole thing in one sentence”

“Here’s why that breaks”

“Same shape, exactly”

“Here’s the cruel part”

“But look at the shape of it”

imwallyon I'm not addicted to the internet or my smartphone. I'm addicted to information

I had to stop reading the first paragraph because of how bad it is.

imwallyon Ask HN: Why were OpenAI, Claude, and Grok simultaneously down?

It’s a frequently used metaphor in LLM responses.

imwallyon Run OpenBSD on DigitalOcean for $4/month

I made an edit to my post because you're not the only one to point this out. Just wanted to say thanks again!

imwallyon Apple Silicon's Surprisingly Speedy SIMD

Why can’t I scroll on mobile Safari on this site? What in the world are we doing with websites these days where a user can’t even scroll?

imwallyon Run OpenBSD on DigitalOcean for $4/month

Dang, I didn't know that. I thought it was decent enough to get people exposed to doas(1), pkg_add(1), syspatch(8), etc... from which they could then read the man pages.

Thanks for pointing this out and I appreciate the other recommendations in this thread. Massive +1 for @jcs. That dude is awesome and puts out great stuff.

imwallyon Show HN: An interactive map of Tolkien's Middle-earth

Anyone know a decent place where I can buy a giant print of this for my wall?

imwallyon SSH Secret Menu

I blew a few minds a week ago when I told my younger coworkers about man pages. I hit ‘em with the `man man` and one dude was like “whoa!”

imwallyon MacBook Neo

It’s 60Hz. “Pro Motion” is Apple speak for 120Hz, which as of right now, is only reserved for the MacBook Pro machines.

imwallyon Tiny C Compiler

Anyone know a good resource for getting started writing a compiler? I'm not trying to write a new LLVM, but being a "software engineer" writing web-based APIs for a living is leaving me wanting more.

imwallyon Apple MacBook Pro order deliveries delayed until mid March

There is supposed to be some event "creators" were invited to from Jan 27-29 [1]. I have yet to hear anything about it.

[1]: https://www.macrumors.com/2026/01/23/apple-invites-creators-...

imwallyon The longest Greek word

Well this certainly mucked with the width of the mobile HN site.

imwallyon Light Mode InFFFFFFlation

Yes, I do!

imwallyon Light Mode InFFFFFFlation

I’m not a big fan of dark mode and I seem to be in the minority these days. Probably 99% of my colleagues at work use dark mode and when I screen share I get the usual “ah, my eyes!”

The interesting thing is, I’ve noticed when I read white on black and look elsewhere I see horizontal lines in my vision. So really I’m the one who should be shouting about their eyes. Maybe that’s just me, though?

I guess I want my computing experience to be like that of reading a book. Not sure I’d like white text on black paper.

imwallyon ManusAI Joins Meta

I never heard of manus so I clicked the About Us page. Wow, it is insufferable.

imwallyon Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729

I’d be interested in this as well. I want a quiet machine with a decent display and a long battery life. Right now the MacBook Air checks those boxes but I’d be very interested in an alternative that I can throw Linux / OpenBSD on.

imwallyon The Computer Church – Pennsylvania Computer and Technology Museum

I had no idea this existed and it’s not too far from me. This is cool as hell.

imwallyon A software conference that advocates for quality

You would think a conference that advocates for quality software would have a better website.

imwallyon Ask HN: Best way to simultaneously run multiple projects locally?

If you want to go the k8s route, it’s worth checking out https://tilt.dev/.

imwallyon Ask HN: I want to learn to use the terminal, where do I start

Manual pages will be your best friend. Run the following command.

    man man

imwallyon ViHN: Vim for Hacker News

There’s Vimari for the dozens of us that use Safari.

imwallyon Japan bets $67B to become a global chip powerhouse once again

I’m only 100 pages in but I’m hooked! I never took the time to understand just how complex the logistics are behind the silicon that powers basically everything we rely on. Totally worth picking up.

imwallyon Japan bets $67B to become a global chip powerhouse once again

Anyone else reading Chip War?

imwallyon Who makes the most reliable new cars?

If you use Apple CarPlay or connect your iPhone to Bluetooth Apple Maps will remember where you parked your car once you disconnect. I use this feature quite a bit to know how far I have to walk back to the car when I’m out on a hike.

Though, I imagine an AirTag will give you more precise location.

imwallyon I Hacked the Magic Mouse

Still use this one every day.

imwallyon Can Dell’s 6K monitor beat their 8K monitor?

Which 24” 4K did you get her? There doesn’t seem to be many on the market?

imwallyon The story behind OS X’s Unix compliant certification

A list of certified UNIX operating systems: https://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/

imwallyon Caffeine and theanine exert opposite effects on attention (2017)

I’m addicted to matcha. Just so happens to have high levels or l-theanine.

imwallyon CoffeeShopWifi.com – An HTTP website for connecting to guest WiFi

Yeah, captive portals are annoying. I got so frustrated with trying to connect to Starbucks' WiFi that I ended up writing my own script [1] that would allow me to authenticate from my terminal. I even wrote about what happens behind the scenes when you connect. [2]

1: https://github.com/imwally/coffeeconnect

2: https://nil.wallyjones.com/what-happens-when-you-connect-to-...