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nikodunk

1,996 karma · joined February 26, 2017

Software Engineer in SF into surfing and the environment.

Portfolio at https://nikodunk.com

Engineer at https://www.pilaenergy.com

submissionscomments
nikodunk··on Firefox for iOS now has a native adblocker
Not available to me yet. I'll re-download and switch from Brave when it is.
nikodunk··on Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?
Was just about to say Roomba too! Next up IMO is Philips Hue, which don't support Matter and cost $25, vs. Matter-enabled Amazon brands that cost $7.
nikodunk··on Ask HN: Is page 2 HN better?
Somewhat negative tone, but I like lobste.rs for HN page 2 style content.
nikodunk··on Show HN: A device for never missing the surf turned into something more
Nice piece, very cool product! This is smart home tech that would actually improve my home. Congrats on the launch!
nikodunk··on Measuring Input Latency on Linux: X11 vs. Wayland, VRR, and DXVK
I use Bazzite for development bc it works like a Mac with sane defaults and a just works approach:

- IDEs are no problem. Editors will "just work" for anything you type into the app store - Bazzite handles the special cases for you and installs them through brew taps or Flatpaks.

- For development it's basically just like a Mac where you also can't install system-level packages: Node, Python etc work through brew / nvm / uv same as on Mac. Development that involves containers will be unchanged from a Mac. For compilers specifically, same as on Mac: Install it through brew, or if you need a Debian or Fedora base you do `distrobox create` and you can apt-install in a transparent podman container.

nikodunk··on Can a $1,500 Battery Replace a Powerwall? [video]
The Home Assistant integration mentioned in the video: https://github.com/PilaEnergy/pila-home-assistant

The product: https://pilaenergy.com

nikodunk··on The local LLM ecosystem doesn’t need Ollama
Having read above article, I just gave llama.cpp a shot. It is as easy as the author says now, though definitely not documented quite as well. My quickstart:

brew install llama.cpp

llama-server -hf ggml-org/gemma-4-E4B-it-GGUF --port 8000

Go to localhost:8000 for the Web UI. On Linux it accelerates correctly on my AMD GPU, which Ollama failed to do, though of course everyone's mileage seems to vary on this.

nikodunk··on Pocketblue – Fedora Atomic for mobile devices
It's a new-ish project FYI. But to answer your questions:

- Apps: It's Linux (like desktop or server), but "image-based" so you install apps in containers like iOS or Android do (and therefore OS updates basically-never break). https://flathub.org is generally the main app store for Linux containerized phone apps.

- Screenshots: It'll look the same as other Linux-on-phones, so like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PostmarketOS for instance. It's just built differently.

nikodunk··on Pocketblue – Fedora Atomic for mobile devices
I'm sure PRs would be welcomed if you have those devices to test on.
nikodunk··on Pocketblue – Fedora Atomic for mobile devices
Updating without worries has made it much more daily-drivable for me on a Oneplus 6 (ie. it has rollbacks and image-based updates), despite being so new. It's fun that image-based OSs - which were arguably popularlized by phones - are now coming back to phones on the Linux side too.
nikodunk··on Pocketblue – Fedora Atomic for mobile devices
This is based on bootc (bootable containers), so note that the OS build is described in a normal Dockerfile: https://github.com/pocketblue/pocketblue/blob/main/Container... which is then run by the Github action (or locally).

Very similar to how Universal Blue, Bazzite, Bluefin etc. build at https://github.com/ublue-os/bazzite (see their Containerfile), but for mobile.

Has a similar mission to https://postmarketos.org, but with a different build system AFAICT

nikodunk··on An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened
I really hope _this_ quote is not fabricated - because what a fantastic quote!!
nikodunk··on Direct File won't happen in 2026, IRS tells states
https://chrisgiven.com/2025/06/saying-goodbye/
nikodunk··on Direct File won't happen in 2026, IRS tells states
Fascinating repo, thank you for sharing!
nikodunk··on Pomelli
Hot take from an AI skeptic: between this, Nano Banana and generative AI integrated into Gmail for repetitive emails, I’m starting to actually use Google’s AI for tasks I hate most.

Google appears to have their AI product game together!

nikodunk··on Bazzite Fall Update: Fedora 43, Xbox Allies, Legion Go 2, Nvidia GTX
Agreed! It's my default recommendation now for a "just works" Linux system nowadays.

It's also really great for development btw - been doing all of my development on it with Homebrew and Flatpaks for over a year now.

nikodunk··on Today is when the Amazon brain drain sent AWS down the spout
Boeing?
nikodunk··on Migrating from AWS to Hetzner
If you’re big, invest in this. If you’re small, slap Dokploy/Coolify on it.
nikodunk··on $912 energy independence without red tape
You’d need a bigger kit. WIll Prowse has many guides on these. https://youtube.com/watch?v=rRqV8BHE8lY
nikodunk··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (September 2025)
I'm working on a super-simple budgeting app called https://4keynumbers.com, which is based on Ramit Sethi's Conscious Spending Plan. It currently syncs my expenses from Plaid and cooks it down into a single chart, with only savings, investments, bills/fixed, and "safe to spend" as categories.
nikodunk··on Bluefin LTS Is Released
As soon as Fedora/Centos updates their images (pretty much immediately usually as it's upstream of EL), and the CI runs to re-layer the Bluefin changes. They also have Dependabot set up. https://github.com/ublue-os/bluefin/actions

It's just OCI images, like any web-scale project.

nikodunk··on Bluefin LTS Is Released
Yes! I used to use Silverblue too. Things like Tailscale, Docker, Davinci Resolve, nvidia drivers, and all codecs are a button-click away or already properly set up for you out of the box on the universal blue projects.
nikodunk··on Bluefin LTS Is Released
Same here! Been developing embedded, server and frontend stuff all fron Bluefin/Bazzite for 2 years now. Having Homebrew and Tailscale all set up for me is super clean, and the system is just set-and-forget. Gaming works great too.
nikodunk··on Benjamin Button Reviews macOS
Great article. Loved the bit where they decided to split off their desktop OS from their phone OS.
nikodunk··on Rails on SQLite: new ways to cause outages
Very well written and reasoned article. I’ve struggled with a lot of the same issues with SQLite prod deployments. They appear simple, but then after you’ve ensured your file is on non-ephemeral storage, sorted out backups, and thought about vertical scaling or having separate dbs for jobs and models, a lot of the benefits over psql disappear IMO.

The main benefit over psql of course being that you don’t need to pay for a hosted db like RDS, or have a separate database server.

I’ve found a happy middle ground in simply self-hosting psql and my apps on the same VPS with something like dokploy. Local development is still easy enough, and remote deployment in containers is 1-click with Dokploy, and ends up being simpler to reason about IMO. My take below, if anyone’s interested.

https://nikodunk.com/2025-06-10-diy-serverless-(coreos-+-dok...

nikodunk··on Amazon has mostly sat out the AI talent war
Hey! Your words echo this IMO! If not, strongly recommended :) https://www.notboring.co/p/the-electric-slide
nikodunk··on Do not download the app, use the website
I also hate obligatory mobile apps, especially when they’re linked to hardware: At the battery company I work for - pilaenergy - we’re aware that our hardware may well outlive our software, so we’re providing a mobile app that’s accessible over an WiFi access point or over your local WiFi, as well as the traditional mobile apps. This way - the software comes bundled with the hardware and can’t be sunset. Something that has long been an issue with IoT products.
nikodunk··on lsr: ls with io_uring
Same! Just signed up and will be following tangled and this repo. I like how tangled is built on atproto (bluesky).
nikodunk··on Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (June 2025)
Looks great, and smart differentiation!
nikodunk··on Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (June 2025)
An app to train optimism. Daily questions help you think more positively, all answers saved locally in your device. It’s called Daily Optimist. Feedback appreciated!

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/daily-optimist-think-positive/...

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