Hacker News: 0xmattf

New comment by 0xmattf in "Vercel April 2026 security incident"

0xmattf — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:22:06 +0000

When I said landing page, I had contact forms and more in mind, not documentation sites.

But that is news to me. Interesting. Although for static sites, I always use Netlify or even GitHub pages.

New comment by 0xmattf in "Vercel April 2026 security incident"

0xmattf — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:19:05 +0000

Static pages, sure. But what do you do if you want a contact form or something? Yeah, you can use services like formspree, but then you may end up paying $20/month for that alone. Perhaps I'm just ignorant.

New comment by 0xmattf in "Vercel April 2026 security incident"

0xmattf — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 23:00:29 +0000

It could be $0 on Render too, but then there's going to be a 3 minute load time for a landing page to become visible, lol. So if you don't want your server to sleep, you're going to have to pay $20/month.

Does Vercel do the same?

New comment by 0xmattf in "Vercel April 2026 security incident"

0xmattf — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 18:43:18 +0000

Personal projects/MVPs/small projects? Absolutely. For what I'm running, there's no reason to need anything beyond that.

The point is, I used to just throw everything up on a PaaS. Heroku/Render, etc. and pay way more than I needed to, even if I had 0 users, lol.

New comment by 0xmattf in "Vercel April 2026 security incident"

0xmattf — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 16:57:07 +0000

> The only reason to dramatically overpay for the hosting resources they provide is because you expect them to expertly manage security and stability.

This and because it's so convenient to click some buttons and have your application running. I've stopped being lazy, though. Moved everything from Render to linode. I was paying render $50+/month. Now I'm paying $3-5.

I would never use one of those hosting providers again.

New comment by 0xmattf in "Ask HN: Building a solo business is impossible?"

0xmattf — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 14:52:46 +0000

Some of them, yes. It seemed like they'd use it. I don't know. Maybe bad execution, or something. Although, maybe I should try again. Perhaps they were busy. I also didn't market beyond reaching out to people (which involved the people I know + cold email outreach).

New comment by 0xmattf in "Ask HN: Building a solo business is impossible?"

0xmattf — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 15:40:23 +0000

I don't think it's impossible, but absolutely incredibly difficult. I tried everything.

Shopify stores, blogs (even owned a #1 tech blog), local job boards, global job boards, dating sites (which were shut down due to payment providers refusing to service these types of sites), various SaaS sites, etc.

Nothing made any real money. I don't know if it's just me - perhaps I'm just not meant to succeed here - but I'm still trying. Still building.

I think the biggest downer was when I built the coolest SaaS for martial arts academies. I thought it was guaranteed success, as I am involved in these communities, know a ton of owners. I reached out to all of them. Offered a free setup/trial. None of them cared, or even attempted to use it.

Likewise, I just built the coolest browser extension for chess players (in my opinion). I run a local chess club. Thought everyone would want to at least try it out. Maybe 2 users installed it. Lol.

I just stopped caring, and I look at it in a new way. Yeah, I may not have paying customers for projects, but I am expanding my portfolio. These are real assets that I own. The process is fun. Abandon the idea of making money, and it becomes more enjoyable.

New comment by 0xmattf in "Isaac Asimov: The Last Question"

0xmattf — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:31:37 +0000

One of my all-time favorites. Almost every time I'm involved in a conversation about books, I always mention this. It amazes me how many people have never heard of it.

New comment by 0xmattf in "Ask HN: What are you building that's not AI related?"

0xmattf — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 16:00:14 +0000

I just built a Google Chrome chess extension. It is a new tab page full of chess puzzles. It has various difficulties, and a speed run game (solve as many puzzles as you can in 60 seconds). I personally think it's the coolest browser extension I have ever seen (being objective as possible).

It works on Chrome and Brave for now. Planning a Firefox release soon.

If you're a chess fan, you'll probably love it, but if not, let me know why (I'll try to improve it).

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/leetchess/hogbcffpf...

Show HN: A Chrome extension that gives you chess tactics on new tab pages

0xmattf — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 20:17:29 +0000

Hello,

This is something I've wanted to build for awhile (first bought the domain in 2020 (then lost it for a year+)). It's a tactics solver on each new tab page.

There are 5 modes of play:

Easy (<1200 elo)

Medium (1200-1800)

Hard (1800-2400)

Expert (2400+)

Speedrun (solve as many puzzles as possible in 60 seconds).

I'm having a ton of fun with it, and definitely noticing improvements with actual games (definitely solved the most puzzles in my life while developing this extension).

If you check it out, please let me know what you think. Any feedback is good!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47666431

Points: 5

# Comments: 0

New comment by 0xmattf in "Show HN: LeetChess – Solve Chess Puzzles on New Tab Pages"

0xmattf — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 18:57:44 +0000

Thank you! I think so as well, haha. it's something I personally wanted.

And oh no! really hate to hear that. I thought it was responsive, but didn't fully test on smaller devices. Sorry for that. I will work on a fix as soon as possible!

Show HN: LeetChess – Solve Chess Puzzles on New Tab Pages

0xmattf — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 16:28:20 +0000

Article URL: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/leetchess/hogbcffpfhmcagfjbpiofabechljdflk

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47589836

Points: 4

# Comments: 2

New comment by 0xmattf in "Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability"

0xmattf — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 14:53:49 +0000

I'm at work, on a work computer, so can't fully test, but yes.

I saved this as test.md, opened it in notepad, clicked the link, and it popped open a command line:

[Click me](C:/Windows/System32/cmd.exe)

Can definitely go further than this; just a quick test.

To be fair, though, it's not just a click -> open/run. The user has to `ctrl+click` and will see the source of the link (at least I do).

New comment by 0xmattf in "What Is Stoicism?"

0xmattf — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 14:30:59 +0000

Honestly, most modern books on Stoicism read like that; I tend to avoid them altogether. Although I will say that Donald Robertson has done a great job with the two books I've read of his (Stoicism and the Art of Happiness, How to Think Like a Roman Emperor).

The best modern book, in my opinion, is Pierre Hadot's The Inner Citadel. It's primarily about Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, but does a really good deep-dive into Stoicism (and frequently mentions other Stoics).

New comment by 0xmattf in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (February 2026)"

0xmattf — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 14:07:15 +0000

I've been working through the pwn.college curriculum, as well as building https://stoacentral.com. It's meant to be a place to chill, discuss philosophy (Stoicism), and improve yourself. I built it after becoming annoyed with Facebook groups, really.

If you're interested in Stoicism, feel free to join and start some discussions.

New comment by 0xmattf in "What Is Stoicism?"

0xmattf — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 18:24:20 +0000

Yeah, because, as you said, those are the most widely-known. There's not much literature existing beyond them.

However, I did mention Zeno...

I'll probably write an update to at least mention the others. That's a good point, thank you.

New comment by 0xmattf in "What Is Stoicism?"

0xmattf — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 18:03:16 +0000

I haven't read that, but I bet it's good. Massimo has been writing on the subject since I learned what Stoicism was.

If you're interested, feel free to sign up to Stoa Central. Really, I would love to have some intelligent people to have discussions with.

What Is Stoicism?

0xmattf — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 16:06:07 +0000

Article URL: https://stoacentral.com/guides/what-is-stoicism

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46924891

Points: 25

# Comments: 16

New comment by 0xmattf in "Silver plunges 30% in worst day since 1980, gold tumbles"

0xmattf — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 14:32:35 +0000

I'll never forget when silver went down to $11/oz. I immediately went to my local metals dealer to make a purchase. I watched the two owners through the glass windows carrying a huge tote to the back room.

When they opened the door, they said "so many people came in and bought everything", both sweating and breathing heavy. Lied right to my face. They left out like five generic 1oz silver bars and a small gold coin.

And again, when the price was high, they don't want to pay anywhere near the spot price.

I learned this: silver/gold is definitely not something you buy to "flip", at least in the short term. It's something you buy and hold for as long as you live, if possible, perhaps passing it down to your kids.

New comment by 0xmattf in "The Enchiridion by Epictetus"

0xmattf — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 15:00:20 +0000

No worries! For UX, I would personally add the Greek text by default, and remove the hamburger icon from "Compare Translations". I don't know, my brain is trained to see that icon strictly as a site navigation item.

If you wanted to, perhaps at the top of the page, you can add