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skittleson

77 karma · joined July 12, 2015

Software engineer and hobbyist at https://docodethatmatters.com
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skittleson··on Ask HN: Who is using MCP in production?
Its a mixed bag of usage. Work i use a few for otel and some custom workflows for older systems that have heavy apis.
skittleson··on That time when I failed the Microsoft interview
I really loved to work there. I knew alot of friends, toured the campus, and even worked with prior employees that had good experiences. Every product before 2015 was beautiful (i still miss my Zune).

Then they broke me. I tried to give feedback on the products, interviewed, and really tried to reach out to them. Mostly ignored (except Outlook team, thanks ). The heavy marketing and tech debt within Windows is what did it for me. Rant over.... the interview felt like some trick questions at that time.

skittleson··on Running local models is good now
i've been running qwen 3.6 35B A3B with llama.cpp on a 3090ti. i have found it better then sonnet in many ways. Speed and iterations was key. here is the gist of my current configuration: https://gist.github.com/spencerkittleson/5e44b6895a17ca45161... I use this with tailscale so all my devices have full access to it. That machine get toasty....
skittleson··on Ask HN: What are tools you have made for yourself since the advent of AI?
I made a bunch of silly projects at first to help me manage daily life. For example, automating saving important emails based on prior history. Extracting text and putting it into csv files, downloading finance reports, reminder scripts, watchdog scripts. All the boring stuff pretty much what was done at first.

Now, i have gotten to point where i am replacing actual useful applications that I need to get stuff done. Plugs here: https://github.com/skittleson/mqtt_broker_esp and https://github.com/skittleson/WyzeBridge.

skittleson··on My two light switches got stuck in an infinite echo loop
I did write it the first few drafts but after that it was mostly rewritten by AI. Fair point tho, I'll do better
skittleson··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2026)
Mqtt broker on esp32 for long term deployments https://github.com/skittleson/mqtt_broker_esp
skittleson··on What podcasts are you listening to?
https://thespaceabove.us/ extremely good listen with a lot of details in the early years of the space program. I found renewed interest in the area. Even started replicating some of the missions in KSP
skittleson··on Ask HN: Share your personal website
https://docodethatmatters.com It was a way for me to build, optimize, and enrich my skills around the web standards. Also, a place for me to document some of the fun projects around DSLR camera hacking, Raspberry PIs, home automations and 3d printing
skittleson··on Self-hosting my photos with Immich
One thing I really like is the performance... its smooth and fluid. The api is really useful as well: I wrote a small job to auto add descriptions and tags to the images.
skittleson··on Show HN: Wealthfolio 2.0- Open source investment tracker. Now Mobile and Docker
There is a few problems with the site docs, the app image for linux (missing libs) and docker instructions. Otherwise its a great idea.
skittleson··on Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (Nov 2025)
Moved from nodered only to a hybrid of nodered and home assistant. Added some new sensors, nfc tags, modes and automations for multiple tenants / cost savings. Its been fun to automate some boring tasks.
skittleson··on Canal Boat Simulator
It just screams as the start of joke but end up finding it's a quick quirky game you wanna share with ppl. Great job!
skittleson··on Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (October 2024)
Still working on the bluetooth "wall of sheep" app. https://github.com/skittleson/bluetooth-wos . im hoping to put more insight on each device and receive avaliable notifications from the devices. I even figured out a rough estimate of how far devices are away with just RSSI and other available devices that have TX Power and RSSI within a few meters.
skittleson··on Show HN: Bluetooth "Wall of Sheep"
A fun toy project that shows some Bluetooth devices around me. Inspired by a Defcon "Wall of Sheep".
skittleson··on Ask HN: What are you working on (September 2024)?
Still tinkering with a bluetooth "wall of sheep" terminal app. https://github.com/skittleson/bluetooth-wos
skittleson··on Kids who use ChatGPT as a study assistant do worse on tests
Agreed. I dont want kids to use this until they are much older... it's a crutch. They are not applying critical thinking skills when using a LLM. The value is when children try->fail->try->fail->try->succeed. It builds up problem-solve abilities.
skittleson··on Ask HN: What are you working on (August 2024)?
Bluetooth low engery "wall of sheep" toy app https://gist.github.com/skittleson/705624a8f6967187096091cbd...
skittleson··on Boeing wants FAA to exempt MAX 7 from safety rules to get it in the air
Same, I've had colleagues do the same process to get a foot-in-the-door. It does work based on observation alone.
skittleson··on Drop Table “Companies”;– LTD (2016)
Naughty but very informative to their devsec team . I think that should have been a given you a reward for finding that issue.
skittleson··on Ask HN: How do you “clean” Windows from all bloatware?
I really love using Windows. I spend a good amount of time getting it perfect for me then image it. Alot of tools listed in this thread are good as well as Group policy changes. It can get pretty close. Using choco also helps.I redo my Window environment ever 6 months tho. I'm starting to consider something else if I can make it work tho.
skittleson··on Lastpass Security Incident
I did it over the course of a few months. My choice was keepass since is opensource, battled test, and works everywhere as if it was lastpass.
skittleson··on Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?
A PBX extension to remind customers of a renewal they opted into. Highly successful but also no ability to determine time zone... so not great
skittleson··on WinPopup (2001)
I got in trouble for using this in 10th grade. It was such a problem they had hire an IT guy to prevent this from happening. Being labeled as a hacker was odd for using a tool that seemed easy to use.
skittleson··on Ask HN: Devs with ADHD do you use specialized tooling?
Get OSD on your environment then optimize for workflow with the least amount of distractions and immediate feedback. Unit/integration tests help to keep me in one place as well. Auto testing on file changes as well as autohotkey automations. Text to speech for reading emails and docs
skittleson··on Internet Explorer 11 has retired and is officially out of support
I remembered these days as well. There wasn't a lot of resources out their either. Getting everything pixel perfect was the goal. HTML emails were extra tricky since they displayed differently in each client.
skittleson··on Nvidia releases open-source GPU kernel modules
I believe everyone is the comments are like, "Omg! They finally took us seriously telling they are horrible at writing drivers for Linux". Good job Nvida
skittleson··on Show HN: Pi Router with USB Adapters
Just some quick stats: https://twitter.com/skittleson/status/1522612275923722240?t=...
skittleson··on My take on Elon's offer for Twitter
Let him do it. Skake up that board a bit
skittleson··on Ask HN: Have you created programs for only your personal use?
I tend to do many throw away apps. Stuff I do in 30 mins to 6 hours are considered prototypes or for personal workflows.
skittleson··on Ask HN: Share your personal site
https://docodethatmatters.com mostly raspberry pi, microcontrollers, and software development practices
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