Hacker News Reader

occamschainsawon Ask HN: Teach me something new

“Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is, everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you … the minute that you understand that you can poke life … that you can change it, you can mould it … that’s maybe the most important thing.” – Steve Jobs

occamschainsawon Ask HN: Teach me something new

I agree that we have little control over our thoughts. But we are the "haver" of these thoughts. There is some system that the thoughts are originating from. I like to think (hehe) of it as the (real-time) operating system, with thoughts originating from different subprocesses and actions being in the user land. The primary function of this OS (not the thinking part "me") is to survive. We can't control the OS directly, but we can facilitate our actions and environment in accordance with our OS.

occamschainsawon Framework Laptop Mainboard

Hi Nirav, This might be a tangent. Do you have any plans for eink display modules for the Framework laptop? I know it’s a niche and the eink panels are expensive, but it would be amazing for a portable machine.

occamschainsawon Framework Laptop Mainboard

This might be a tangent. Do you have any plans for eink display modules for the Framework laptop? I know it’s a niche and the eink panels are expensive, but it would be amazing for a portable machine.

occamschainsawon Ask HN: Share your personal site

https://karan.sh

Basically my extended academic CV. I generate the html from markdown with pandoc and use a css library that makes it look like Latex (https://github.com/vincentdoerig/latex-css).

occamschainsawon Switching from macOS to Pop_OS

I have been using the Magnet app[0] since 2013 for window management on Mac. You can use it to position/resize windows using mouse gestures (dragging to edges etc) and shortcuts. BetterTouchTool is another powerful tool that can be used for window management along with many other things.

[0] https://magnet.crowdcafe.com/

[1] https://folivora.ai/

occamschainsawon Djokovic's PCR test was manipulated?

No it recalled one specific test that had been granted emergency authorisation. There are now better tests that can also detect influenza in addition to covid. The older tests could only detect covid.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cdc-recall-pcr-covid-19-te...

occamschainsawon Show HN: Minimalist offline journal app with a chat interface

Love the idea! I am installing it right now and will get the pro to support you. I have a question about backup/restore. What is the backup format? A markdown/plain text would be best for archival purposes, especially for a journal that might be read far into the future. I get that it is offline, but having a journal on one device only without is a double edged sword. If I lose my phone, I lose my journal. Would it be possible to sync it to iCloud? Then it would be easier to have it on multiple devices as well. Thanks for making this!

Edit: After playing around with the app, I see that the backup is a zip with a json file and images. That is great for archival.

occamschainsawon Why are cross-country train tickets in EU still so complex?

Try bahn.com, it is English by default. There is a language selection menu in bahn.de as well.

occamschainsawon Netflix intensifies VPN ban and targets residential IP addresses

I move between three countries but have to keep my account region to my family’s because of family sharing.

I keep three accounts for the three regions, two dummy and one main. One inelegant solution I found is to sign out of the main account, sign in with a dummy account and install the apps I need from that region and signing back in with the main account.

occamschainsawon NASA can't figure out what's causing computer issues on the Hubble telescope

When we power our quantum computers with room temperature superconductors and sustainable fusion.

(all 20 years away ofcourse)

occamschainsawon Brave, the false sensation of privacy

You can get similar functionality in any browser by setting DuckDuckGo as your default search engine (so you can search from the URL input field and using bangs. So "!yt search term" in the input field (without quotes) would search YouTube. DDG is sufficient for 99% of searches for me, and when it fails I just use the !g bang for Google search. You can check all the bangs available here: https://duckduckgo.com/bang

Edit: !m or !gmap for Google Maps, !a for Amazon

occamschainsawon How Indian Zoroastrians helped shape modern Iran

I find the anecdote(?) of how the first Parsi refugees convinced the ruler of the port city of Surat to let them immigrate wholesome.

The ruler summoned the Parsi representatives to his court. When asked how would they assimilate in the local society, the Parsis asked for some sugar and milk. They mixed it in front of the ruler and said that this is how they will assimilate, not changing the society but making it sweeter.

Even today the Parsi dialect of the Gujarati language is polite and sweet.

occamschainsawon The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air

There are "specialized" dual screen eink tablets for sheet music, but they are extremely expensive(~$2000)!

https://www.padformusician.com/en/products/19-21-padmu-3-lum...

https://www.gvidomusic.com

occamschainsawon iOS 15 Humane

Thank you for the suggestion. I just set up Friendly+ for a couple of time sinks like Instagram (hide stories, go straight to chat page), Facebook (hide stories, disable suggstions), Youtube (go straight to Subscriptions page), Twitter (disable promoted tweets) and even HackerNews. I also like that you can save tweets and other media posts easily.

occamschainsawon Amazon Sidewalk

I am worried that even if you disable it, it might act as a bridge between two Sidewalk networks. For example, if you and neigbors on both sides of your house have Alexa devices, and you disable Sidewalk on yours, it is still serving as a bridge between your neigbors' devices.

occamschainsawon A billion for every chip-maker who 'makes in India,' sources say

Slightly off the topic, but from my limited knowledge, I think that amending the constitution is not as big a deal in parliamentary democracies as it is in the US. The UK doesn’t even have a codified constitution[1]. These living constitutions are much more flexible.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_Kin...

occamschainsawon Earth’s magnetic field broke down 42k years ago, caused sudden climate change

This one? https://what-if.xkcd.com/29/

occamschainsawon Achieving 11M IOPS and 66 GB/S IO on a Single ThreadRipper Workstation

I love articles like these, taking a deep dive into achieving the absolute best on neglected metrics like IO. I am trying to get very high resolution (~ 2 * 10^6 samples/s) voltage and current measurements of a sensor for a control system. Has anyone tried that? Should it be done through PCIe?

occamschainsawon Apple targets car production by 2024, eyes ‘next level’ battery tech: sources

Not to be pedantic but Volvo already makes atleast one model of an EV (XC40) that runs purely on Android. The android system also allows you to run CarPlay if you connect your iPhone.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/9/20906777/volvo-xc40-suv-e...

occamschainsawon All problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone (2014)

Another corny metaphor I use for my mind is: Most of my thoughts are runaway processes that are just burdening my system. You don't want your CPU going at 100% for extended periods of time, same for the mind.

occamschainsawon All problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone (2014)

This quote has fascinated me for a long time. It seems that this is a skill that can be sharpened with deliberate practice.

I went to a 10 day silent meditation retreat (Vipasana) abs felt I got much more comfortable sitting by myself just observing my thoughts. The practice part was difficult, probably one of the hardest things I have ever done. 10 days of no talking/reading/writing, sitting in a room, observing your sensations, for hours on end, punctuated by 5 minute breaks. I felt the world temporarily go from HD to 4K after a couple of days.

Anyways, this really made me reconsider my relationship with thoughts. I feel I can separate the sense of my being from my thoughts some times. This helps me with my anxiety.

occamschainsawon AirPods Max

I was in the same boat as you, normal Airpods stayed in my ear while running but the Pro Airpods kept falling off. I then found some third party foam tips on Amazon and that made the Pros feel invisible like normal Airpods.

occamschainsawon The True Size Of Countries: Mercator projection

Obligatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/977/

occamschainsawon The New York Times' first article about Hitler's rise is stunning

I went into a rabbit hole exploring race relations in US and Europe after watching this opening scene from Watchmen the TV show[1]. Powerful stuff. History being written by the victors and all that.

[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xijkosNCzTg

occamschainsawon HomePod Mini

A very limited version of this feature is used in AirDrop with U1 equipped iPhones. Just point your phone to the phone you are transferring to and it shows up in the AirDrop share sheet.

occamschainsawon One Guy Ruined Hacktoberfest 2020

I am not sure if it was entirely good faith. In the video he explicitly states (in Hindi) that this is an easy way to get a free t-shirt in few clicks, you don't even need to know anything about GitHub.

occamschainsawon Google TV

This webpage is worse than Apple ones for side scrolling and just bad at conveying information in general. The videos are too distracting, and it doesn’t seem to be very clear what the product is.

Not the page’s fault (maybe), but it kept triggering reader mode on my phone multiple times as I scrolled down.

occamschainsawon Show HN: A simple way to set goals you actually follow

This is something I would definitely try if you had a free tier (just to get a feel of the app, maybe restricted to 1-2 goals) or at least a free trial without CC info/commitment.

occamschainsawon Astrophysicists detect the strongest magnetic field in the universe

The concept of “still there” in time is not very meaningful for cosmology. All of our observations are in ~space-time~ not just space or time.