HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

webstrand

1,288 karma · joined June 23, 2013

submissionscomments
webstrand··on On caring for user data: NeoVim caused Vim undo files to be deleted
That doesn't justify its deletion, it might justify warning the user, but unconditionally deleting data not owned by the app shared with other apps?
webstrand··on New type of dice guarantees no tie when deciding who goes first
I didn't read it as dismissive. I think the "Why doesn't this work?" at the end is key, implying they know they're probably wrong, but don't know why. It's pretty common to form and present hypothesis like this, hoping that anyone who knows the actual theory can easily provide a counterexample showing why it's wrong. It's not at all intended to be dismissive.
webstrand··on Linux 7.3 improves performance when running out of vRAM
Its not enabled by default, but enabling MGLRU setting /sys/kernel/mm/lru_gen/min_ttl_ms to 70 has entirely resolved the issue for me. It _does_ usually pick firefox or vscode to kill, but my system remains interactive, with no need for earlyoom.

Docs https://docs.kernel.org/admin-guide/mm/multigen_lru.html#thr...

webstrand··on Show HN: Git-knife – Edit commit messages, authors, and dates like a spreadsheet
Usually its me who has been committing with a bogus email address, because I don't like having my real user/email set in my $HOME/.gitconfig
webstrand··on Tail-call optimization in C is relatively recent (2025)
ES6 class syntax is still mostly just syntax sugar overtop prototypical inheritance.

JS _does_ still have TCO (called Proper Tail Calls), Safari's JavaScriptCore implements it, and is technically the only conforming interpreter.

webstrand··on A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands
You're in luck <https://hnrss.org/threads?id=SirHackalot>
webstrand··on Using a Gaming PC's RTX 5070 from a separate Linux workstation
I'm using linux, and I got access with no issue. CF is having an issue.
webstrand··on My security camera shipped a GitHub admin token in its login page
I also do this, except 7.0.0.0/8 instead. Its great for not conflicting with hotel wifi dhcp.
webstrand··on Every new car sold in the European Union must include a driver monitoring camera
Class D amplifiers use that same trick, just at much higher switching frequencies (pushing quantization noise ultrasonic, where it can be filtered). Since transistors are most efficient when fully on/off, very little power is wasted as heat. That's what made the modern revolution in tiny amps possible.
webstrand··on CS2 Fog Of War: Server-sided anti-wallhack occlusion culling for CS2 servers
Interesting, could it be mitigated by the server doing its own prediction and defogging the peeker early? Or is lag prediction in CS2 not entirely client-sided.
webstrand··on What ORMs have taught me: just learn SQL (2014)
That doesn't sound at all like any ORM I've ever used. I've struggled in the past because The ones I've used are actively hostile to laying out data in the database in a way not proscribed by the ORMs philosophy. Heck of the ORMs I've used, one didn't support parameterized joins and the other didn't support joins at all.

---

It's not usually a DB guy gatekeeping, it's that multiple apps use the same database so layout changes are costly.

webstrand··on Are readers generating fiction with AI models?
Web fiction, freely produced and distributed by "consumers" already existed prior to 2019. There are thousands of novels you can read that people produced for their own enjoyment, some even managed to make money off of it via patreon or Amazon's Kindle direct publishing.
webstrand··on Developers don't understand CORS (2019)
Isn't CSRF about forging mutating requests? CORS doesn't block the underlying GET/POST request, the request still goes through and the server still needs to properly implement CSRF prevention. CORS just prevents javascript from reading the response.

CORS _additionally_ requires OPTIONS pre-flight to succeed, before allowing any kind of request outside of what can be achieved with a HTML form submit action. So it blocks PUT/PATCH/DELETE, specifying most Content-Type, and specifying nearly all other headers. But this is just blocking "non-standard complex requests that might confuse badly programmed pre-javascript-era servers".

It passes all standard requests that you could have made by: embedding the url as an image src, the target of a HTML form, endpoint for csp reports, etc. All still need to be checked methodically by the server for CSRF if it's going to take any mutating action due to the request.

webstrand··on Claude Fable is relentlessly proactive
If anyone's looking to sandbox network, I've had good experience with pasta [1] networking. I make a pasta+bwrap sandbox and expose only specific services via local sockets to cross the boundary.

[1]: https://passt.top/passt/

webstrand··on I Hate (Most) Keyboard 'Fn' Keys
I don't actually know of any? I've long since removed the key from my keyboard, and haven't come across anything that actually used it. What games?
webstrand··on Anthropic requires 30 day data retention for Fable and Mythos
They had similar messages on Opus, they never fixed or relaxed the topic-related safeguards there. I doubt they will here, either.
webstrand··on I Hate (Most) Keyboard 'Fn' Keys
I wish I could remove the insert key, but unlike the caps-lock that no application rebinds, insert does get rebound. I wish there was an OS level control "pressing insert by accident should not turn on mangle-my-text-mode".
webstrand··on I Hate (Most) Keyboard 'Fn' Keys
MMORPGs and games that have many different mechanics might be more prone to it, versus first-person controlled games? In my experience its pretty common.
webstrand··on I Hate (Most) Keyboard 'Fn' Keys
Games often bind skills or other game mechanics to the function keys.

Anecdotally, I switched from `ctrl+shift+i` to F12 for opening the web inspector due to many websites capturing that keybinding for their own purpose (claude and code editors) if I didn't have a function row I'd have to find an even more arcane hotkey.

They're just a nice set of purpose-undefined keys that you or the application can bind to useful functions.

webstrand··on Claude Fable 5
Still unconditionally rejects prompts like

> Are there any wild populations of Tetanus that lack the dangerous plasmid?

useless

webstrand··on Get your passwords out of Bitwarden while you still can
Do you have a solution for auto-merging conflicting changes? Because I think that's the real difference, editing on a laptop and on a desktop before the sync can occur, can cause data-loss (for my potentially naive use of keepassxc anyway).
webstrand··on OpenAI Adopts Google's SynthID Watermark for AI Images with Verification Tool
Its the framing story that implies them committing fraud.

> I immediately said yes, even though I wasn't entirely sure. They wanted to play games, so I decided to play along.

The article never says the generated images were used to make a fraudulent claim, but its implied by the juxtaposition.

A few words to indicate that the challenge to break SynthID was for their own amusement would break this implication.

webstrand··on Everything in C is undefined behavior
I think as compilers got smarter, UB changed somewhat in meaning. Originally the compilers didn't perform such complex analysis, and while invoking UB could break your program, it would still do something reasonable.
webstrand··on Google changes its search box
As a counterexample, I've been seeing more "safety rejections" from Claude. Unlike search, being unable to ask _anything_ about botulinum, or details about the recent Copy Fail vulnerability (without giving my fingerprints to Anthropic to become a "verified security researcher") we're only just beginning to see the ways LLM can be used to distort information and its availability.
webstrand··on Apple unveils new accessibility features
Another fun thing is if you use an extension you can fast-forward through the advertisements too. For some channels I use around 3.5x playback speed.
webstrand··on How to be anti-social – a guide to incoherent and isolating social experiences
I don't think it's been co-opted? Mirroring the emotions of another person you're actively observing doesn't give you insight into why they're feeling that way. It's just mirroring, but its an excellent starting point for learning. To have empathy, for people you're not actively observing, or for future states of people you are observing, you have to be able to model them first, and then mirror the emotions that the model predicts, which can then update the model. This loop is empathy, its both "experiencing other's emotions" and "the ability to understand and predict".
webstrand··on Claude Opus 4.7
Tried it, after about 10 messages, Opus 4.7 ceased to be able to recall conversation beyond the initial 10 messages. Super weird.
webstrand··on jj – the CLI for Jujutsu
If you don't provide it a <tree-ish> it reads from the index (staged files). So you're right its not really pointed anywhere, since the index isn't a ref.
webstrand··on Microsoft hasn't had a coherent GUI strategy since Petzold
Container tabs, independent proxy config (chrome only respects system-wide proxy), vertical tabs, and functional adblockers are the four big features for me.
webstrand··on F-15E jet shot down over Iran
Ah, you mean Empire Earth. I loved that game, it had a great soundtrack.
Page 1 of 14Next →