Hacker News: BasilPH

New comment by BasilPH in "ChatGPT Atlas"

BasilPH — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 18:06:17 +0000

Atlas feels like a Dia clone. I’ve used Dia for a couple months, but rarely touch the ChatGPT integration—quick answers go to Kagi with “?”, and deeper work goes to Claude or ChatGPT directly. The “reference a bunch of open tabs” workflow just isn’t common for me. Dia’s free-tier limits don’t help, and since I already pay for Claude and ChatGPT, I’m not adding another $20/month for overlapping features.

Curious how Atlas stacks up against Dia.

It also makes me think the right approach is AI at the OS level. At the end of the day, it’s reading text and writing it back into text boxes. Surprised Apple hasn’t gone further than a hidden right‑click “writing assistant.”

New comment by BasilPH in "Airbus B612 Cockpit Font"

BasilPH — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 18:54:07 +0000

> Apparently, the link to Intactile DESIGN - intactile[dot]com - in the README file is now redirecting to a gambling site, probably due to Intactile going out of business?

https://github.com/polarsys/b612/issues/37

Lena

BasilPH — Thu, 15 May 2025 13:07:28 +0000

Article URL: https://qntm.org/mmacevedo

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43994642

Points: 11

# Comments: 3

New comment by BasilPH in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2025)"

BasilPH — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 14:56:52 +0000

I'm still developing podcast websites with transcripts[^0] while maintaining a part-time job.

This thread made me realize I've made no progress in acquiring new clients since posting about this 6 months ago. However, my part-time job ends in May, which will allow me to focus exclusively on Fanfare. It's somewhat intimidating, but I'm also looking forward to it; the prospect of resolving this uncertain situation (either through success or failure) feels liberating.

[^0]: https://www.withfanfare.com/

The cybersecurity implications of a clean-energy grid

BasilPH — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 18:57:41 +0000

Article URL: https://www.volts.wtf/p/the-cybersecurity-implications-of

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42953373

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by BasilPH in "Useful built-in macOS command-line utilities"

BasilPH — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 16:14:10 +0000

I got this trick from someone on the Internet:

$> long_running_command && say "Witness me, for I am done"

New comment by BasilPH in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (October 2024)"

BasilPH — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 14:35:57 +0000

I'm building a service for podcast websites with transcripts[^0]. I have paying customers, including Volts[^1], and I'm genuinely passionate about serving them.

What's holding me back from scaling is primarily my own resistance to marketing, plus some pending improvements to the ChatGPT-based transcript editing system. Once I finish optimizing the LLM integration, I'll have no more excuses to avoid sales outreach. One thread I want to pursue is a magazine of podcast transcripts that I inherited: https://podread.org

I'd appreciate advice on authentic outreach strategies for reaching knowledge-focused podcasters. If anyone here has experience in this space or wants to collaborate, I'm open to connecting.

[^0]: https://www.withfanfare.com/

[^1]: https://transcripts.volts.wtf/

New comment by BasilPH in "How a Gas Compressor Station Works"

BasilPH — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 13:17:17 +0000

It's definitely impressive. However, natural gas outages do happen. For example Winter Storm Uri in Texas led to gas outages.

Sadly, the outages and possible the loss of life connected to it could have been prevented if the gas companies hadn't fought back against stricter weatherization rules[^0].

> they made recommendations to the Railroad Commission to implement weatherization rules on the natural gas supply chain because there had been water coming up from the formations — it's called produced water, it's naturally occurring — and it was freezing at the top of the wellheads and restricting gas flow both at the wellheads and in pipelines.

And yes, the Railroad Commission is not in charge of trains, but oil and gas in Texas.

[^0]: https://www.volts.wtf/p/whats-the-deal-with-the-texas-railro...

New comment by BasilPH in "The Death of NYC Congestion Pricing"

BasilPH — Fri, 28 Jun 2024 13:29:52 +0000

The Volts podcast dove into this recently (with transcript): https://www.volts.wtf/p/new-yorks-congestion-pricing-fiasco

New comment by BasilPH in "Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (May 2024)"

BasilPH — Wed, 01 May 2024 17:48:02 +0000

SEEKING WORK | Full Stack | Data Engineering

Location: NYC

Remote: Only

Technologies: Python/Django, TypeScript/Javascript/React, GraphQL, Docker, Celery, prompt engineering

Resume/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/basil-philipp-a6a2b182

E-Mail: basil@withfanfare.com

Previously, I co-founded and led a company developing ML solutions for TV stations and TV measurement companies, with projects like automated goal detection in ice hockey and a system for processing daily TV ratings in Switzerland. Currently, I am fully focused on my solo venture, https://www.withfanfare.com/, which provides transcripts for knowledge-dense podcasts. I'm seeking work to extend my runway and to keep learning and improving.

New comment by BasilPH in "Vigilante Hacker Took Down North Korea's Internet. Now He's Taking Off His Mask"

BasilPH — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 16:23:22 +0000

I think the assumption is that North Korea already knows who he his: He didn't make a big deal of hiding who he was when he hacked them in the first place. Some people within the scene quickly figured out it was him, so it's fair to assume that North Korea figured it out too.

New comment by BasilPH in "A podcast about the xz backdoor with the guy who found it"

BasilPH — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 15:54:21 +0000

I made a transcript: https://www.withfanfare.com/p/hacker-news-collection/risky-b...

Andres Freund starts speaking at 5:09.

I'm not affiliated with the podcast. I only did a very cursory review of the S2T results, so expect mistakes.

New comment by BasilPH in "Why Scientists Are Calling for the Moon to Be Better Protected from Development"

BasilPH — Thu, 28 Mar 2024 13:46:16 +0000

I can highly recommend "A City on Mars"[^0], which I recently read.

The authors go into fascinating detail about what it takes to build planetary settlements, and they not only focus on the engineering questions but make a point to talk about the legal aspects of space settlement as well.

[^0]: https://www.acityonmars.com/

New comment by BasilPH in "Pilot of Boeing flight says he lost control after instrument failure"

BasilPH — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 21:55:34 +0000

Fascinating article. Some interesting anecdotes:

> The victims even included several survivors of the Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 402 crash. (Note: A plane that crashed the day prior, with only 8 out of 72 people on board surviving)

> Several booked passengers cancelled their tickets at the last moment to see a ninja demonstration. These passengers, Albert R. Broccoli, Harry Saltzman, Ken Adam, Lewis Gilbert, and Freddie Young, were in Japan scouting locations for the fifth James Bond film, You Only Live Twice (1967).

Coincidences like this are of course bound to happen with large enough numbers of people traveling, but I still find this interesting.

New comment by BasilPH in "The Ruby on Rails Podcast Episode 508: YJIT with Maxime Chevalier-Boisvert"

BasilPH — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 18:23:09 +0000

I made a transcript: https://www.withfanfare.com/p/hacker-news-collection/episode...

It might be a bit rough around the edges, since I didn't do any manual editing.

Nuclear? Perhaps Talking with Jigar Shah, Head of DOE's Loan Programs Office

BasilPH — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 17:52:45 +0000

Article URL: https://transcripts.volts.wtf/nuclear-perhaps

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39457072

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

The New Yorker of podcast transcripts opens its archive

BasilPH — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 17:05:51 +0000

Article URL: https://www.withfanfare.com/podread/archive/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39443756

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by BasilPH in "Groq runs Mixtral 8x7B-32k with 500 T/s"

BasilPH — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 06:42:26 +0000

Bard/Gemini gets it wrong the same way too. Interestingly, if I tell either GPT-4 or Gemini the right answer, they figure it out.

New comment by BasilPH in "Capital One to buy Discover Financial in $35B stock deal"

BasilPH — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 06:32:12 +0000

As a foreigner without a credit score, Discover was the easiest credit card to get started with. They made things easy and predictable and I love that you get cash back and not some points that you need to convert back to dollars.

I hope they keep that spirit of being straightforward.

New comment by BasilPH in "My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)"

BasilPH — Mon, 19 Feb 2024 19:19:19 +0000

I'm doing something similar with Obsidian daily notes[^1]. I also have a weekly note that I use to plan the next week.

Similar to how the author talks about scheduling their next day the evening before, I've started planning the big tasks for next on Friday afternoon, as this gives me momentum on Monday morning.

Related: I've found the 3/3/3 technique from Oliver Burkeman[^2] and the concept of open and closed lists to be a great complement for this type of organization. It hits the sweet-spot of flexibility and consistency for me.

[^1]: https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Daily+notes

[^2]: https://ckarchive.com/b/e5uph7hx43mn