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runjake

16,454 karma · joined December 3, 2009

Hi, I'm Rich, not Jake (long story). I am a programmer in the Chattanooga, TN area.
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runjake··on Ask HN: How to recover Google auth after phone stolen?
The only secret option I know of is to have a popular social media account and complain online.

Other than that, I copy/pasted your post into Claude and it had some good ideas.

runjake··on Iran school bombing: grounds to believe US was behind atrocity, UN finds
I think what the commenter meant is that by using the GPS in mobile devices, these devices and their apps report their locations to various other places, including data collectors, which is probably how the US determined there was an Iranian commander at or near the school.
runjake··on Ask HN: How are you managing aging relatives passwords?
A paper notepad with stickies all tucked inside and stored in a safe. Then I try to get them MFA'd.

They ain't going to figure out or tolerate the likes of what 1Password has become. Anything on their Windows PC is going to get pwned.

runjake··on Is anyone else losing their motivation to nerd out and tinker because of AI?
AI is just another tool to nerd out and tinker with. The question was "Is anyone else losing their motivation to nerd out and tinker".

If you're using AI (to wit: another tool) to nerd out and tinker, then you're obviously not losing that motivation.

So my genuine answer to the original question is: No, I nerd out and tinker more than ever.

Right now, I am using AI as a tool to do stuff I otherwise wouldn't do, like reverse engineer a Whoop band for use with Apple Health sans a Whoop subscription.

runjake··on Can we stop with the uptime percentages?
I don't really care about percentages, either. But for some industries, the difference between "two 9s" and "five 9s" can be millions of dollars, so that's why they're published that way to the customer.
runjake··on Hackers Got Inside a Flock Camera
My working assumption based on what I hear out of Flock is that they have a public feature set (mass license plate surveillance for LEO) and a covert feature set (even more mass surveillance, beyond license plates and privacy agreements, for intelligence communities).
runjake··on Giving up on smart rings
Since this is HN: About 25% of US males wear a tungsten wedding band. So, not most, but a sizable amount.
runjake··on Tell HN: Screenshots on macOS don't have to be date named files with spaces
Improve on it, and share it back!
runjake··on Tell HN: Screenshots on macOS don't have to be date named files with spaces
You can create a Shortcuts automation on macOS 27 that fires when a new image is saved to the Screenshots folder that uses Apple Intelligence to view the image and rename the file accordingly (eg: "finder-window.png").

1. Create a new shortcut with Images as the input.

2. Then "Use On-Device model" action with a prompt like:

---

  You are an expert digital archivist.

  Analyze this screenshot and generate a filename for long-term storage and retrieval.

  The filename should:
  - clearly identify what the screenshot is about
  - include product, application, website, or system names when visible
  - include the key task, configuration, event, or issue shown
  - be useful to someone searching for this image years later
  - avoid filler words
  - do not include the time in the filename

  Formatting:
  - lowercase
  - hyphen-separated
  - 30-80 characters
  - no extension

  Return only the filename and nothing else.

  Here is the screenshot: {Item}
---

3. Then, add a "Renamed {item} to {response}" action.

4. Then, save this shortcut and add it as an automation with the "When items are changed in folder" action.

runjake··on Apple's Siri AI Can Be Swapped Out for Claude, ChatGPT, Code Shows
I realized my piping stuff example wasn't good enough. Here's a better one:

  pbpaste | fm respond --instructions 'Summarize in five bullets. Preserve dates, owners, and decisions.'
runjake··on XCancel service is suspended until further notice
These browser extensions still work:

For Chrome: https://github.com/tsvb/post-peek

For Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/dumpster-fire...

For Safari: https://andadinosaur.com/launch-litterbox

runjake··on Apple's Siri AI Can Be Swapped Out for Claude, ChatGPT, Code Shows
> Can we start with Siri for the terminal?

It already exists in macOS 27: fm(1)

It is an extremely powerful tool, but here are the basics:

  # Ask the default on-device model
  fm respond 'Explain this shell error in plain English: permission denied'

  # Start a conversation
  fm chat --instructions 'Let's talk about economics.'

  # Use the larger Private Cloud Compute model
  fm respond --model pcc 'Are zebras and horses related?'

  # Pipe stuff to a model
  echo 'What is Swift?' | fm respond
runjake··on Is it time for a Luddite Renaissance?
Same. I usually sketch diagrams and jot down quick pieces of info. Everything else goes into Obsidian normally.

Though its kind of funny, with my frequent use of agents, my communication skills and ability to articulate ideas has improved quite a bit, so now I use voice dictation a lot more and it's beginning to be faster than keyboard.

runjake··on Google Has Achieved RSI
There's various low quality rumors on X, but here's one quoting Dario that RSI is start to happen across the industry, including at Anthropic:

https://x.com/kimmonismus/status/2098786231534362767

Edit: And here it is directly from Dario:

https://darioamodei.com/post/we-must-pace-the-frontier

"My first concern is that, since roughly this summer, AI has been advancing drastically faster, driven primarily by AI’s growing ability to build the next generation of AI. This dynamic is called recursive self-improvement, and it is starting to happen across the industry, including at Anthropic, as we and others have described. Left unchecked, it could outrun our ability to understand and control these systems, and so must be pursued very carefully, if at all."

Edit 2: An article citing Altman and Musk backing Dario on this post: https://www.ft.com/content/31220b59-b0c6-401c-a146-2b7b5d138...

Elon on X: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2098789109980332057

Altman on X: https://x.com/sama/status/2098811563415150910

runjake··on Is it time for a Luddite Renaissance?
Same. While recognizing this doesn’t necessarily hold true for others.
runjake··on Is it time for a Luddite Renaissance?
I love and use a few of those products and would agree, but I think a bigger component is our relationship to technology.

IMHO, calm technology is both a property of a product and a way of relating to a product. And I think it's quite personal. For example, digital note-taking tablets are anything but calm for me (but I recognize they may be for others!). OTOH, I practically live in Obsidian.

I ask myself:

- Can I have a calm relationship with this product?

- Does the product respect my agency? Can I decide when and how this technology enters my attention?

- Is it configurable? Can I turn off notifications, feeds, recommendations, badges, autoplay, algorithmic prompts, and so one, without crippling the useful parts?

- Is it intentional? Can I open it to get something done and then leave, rather than being pulled into continued use?

- Does it improve my well-being? Am I generally better off? Am I more informed, capable, connected, productive, or am I merely more stimulated (eg. dopamine)?

Some other perhaps non-sexy products: Amazon Echo Dot, my various air sensors, my more reliable home automation components that are already setup and just work, my Kindle and Xteink.

runjake··on Is it time for a Luddite Renaissance?
Yes. If you're exposed to one entrenched end of the spectrum or another, you might notice the rhetoric and threats have picked up quite a bit on both sides. Language and actions are becoming more divisive and more violent.

I increasingly hear insane not-in-passing phrases like "Someone should just [commit some violent act to further the speaker's political beliefs]." Lately, it's about sabotaging data centers and killing CEOs.

And it's not just talk, this stuff starts by motivating the loonier members of a group to commit acts like mass shootings, the Charlie Kirk assassination, violence against LGBTQ people and other targeted groups, and so on.

I feel like some weird outsider, sitting in center-left.

runjake··on Is it time for a Luddite Renaissance?
In the true sense where you're militarizing and committing acts of sabotage on others' property (so-called "monkeywrenching")? And then, getting suppressed and eradicated/killed by the government?

No.

I prefer the "Calm Technology"[1] approach as espoused by Amber Case[2]. I think this is the saner path forward.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calm_technology

2. https://a.co/d/02kdlV3p

runjake··on LG denies TV spying claims, says tracking and snooping concerns 'not true'
> "LG also said that its features like “Automatic Content Recognition (ACR), voice recognition, and interest-based advertising are optional,” and “not enabled by default.”

I am absolutely certain that ACR was enabled on our new TV by default, back some years ago. I am nearly certain their voice recognition, and advertising spying were enabled on our TV by default.

If none of this is truly "enabled by default" then this is a recent development.

I discovered this many years ago and did some deep dives, and unfortunately didn't publish anything about it. Lesson learned.

runjake··on Ask HN: Is GPT-6 Astra worth the 2.5x cost increase over GPT-5.6 Sol?
It depends on what you're having the agent work on, but in most cases no.
runjake··on Matt Mullenweg tells Automattic staff in Slack he's back in control after ouster
> He really hasn't advocated for much

Like him or hate him, he grew WordPress to be one of the most popular open source projects of all time. It seems fair to call him a key advocate.

WordPress is still GPL licensed.

runjake··on Is there a genuine space for the Desktop AI assistant, or its solved?
No, it's not solved. Not even close. We're still in the nascent phases of desktop and mobile agents. We're still cavepeople banging rocks on things.
runjake··on Ask HN: Do you regret using Social Networking apps?
No, I don't regret using social networks, because it's helped me connect and reconnect with countless people.

If I were addicted to social media, I imagine I'd have a lot of regret, though.

I regret that it's turned into "get users to view as many ads as possible" by algorithmically generating what is effectively an unlimited timeline of content.

This "unlimited timeline" thing has caused me to stop using several services and greatly reduce my usage of the services I still find valuable, like X. Actually, I think X is the only one I still use (albeit much less).

runjake··on iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max
Something like DeX is already lying dormant on iOS and it's already enabled on iPadOS.

But, if you modify the MobileGestalt plist on the iPhone, you can enable the "Stage Manager" desktop mode and connect a mouse, keyboard, and monitor and you get a desktop from your iPhone.

Caveat: due to artificial reasons, it's not really usable for daily driving due to the way the hacks work, but Apple could certainly make some trivial changes and get it going.

https://github.com/frs0n/GestaltEdit

runjake··on iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max
Based on supply chain leaks, it's pretty safe to assume 12 GB memory with up to 100GB/sec memory bandwidth at best.

The A19 Pro had 12 GB and was around 77GB/sec memory bandwidth for reference. If I was a betting man, I'd say the memory bandwidth on the A20 Pro is the same.

runjake··on Apple Watch Series 12
Is sync pretty seamless?
runjake··on iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max
There's a lot of misdirected complaining here, so some reminders:

- Apple has this event because it generates buzz, which increases sales.

- You do not need to watch the event.

- You do not need to pay attention to anything about the event.

- You do not need to buy the new device.

runjake··on Apple Watch Series 12
> Coros blows everyone out of the water from a user experience standpoint, and they offer excellent value.

Why? How?

runjake··on Tell HN: OpenAI keeps stealing my money
Looking at your comment history, you could do with practicing a little agency and sense of responsibility in your life, instead of complaining about seemingly everything.
runjake··on Muse: Meta's personal AI agent, features and capabilities
3.6 billion (de-duped) daily users!

https://investor.atmeta.com/investor-news/press-release-deta...

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