Hacker News: MegaDeKay

New comment by MegaDeKay in "I'm Working on a FOSS Linux Pinbal Simulation Engine"

MegaDeKay — Fri, 13 Nov 2026 02:12:30 +0000

There are tables like AC/DC and Black Hole with a lower playfield under the main.

New comment by MegaDeKay in "I'm Working on a FOSS Linux Pinbal Simulation Engine"

MegaDeKay — Thu, 12 Nov 2026 14:44:54 +0000

You might be interested in checking out how Visual Pinball does it. The changelong [0] for the current development version discusses all the latest physics updates since the last release and it is very comprehensive. The code is open source so you can dive into the code for it to see how it's done.

[0] https://github.com/vpinball/vpinball/blob/master/docs/Change...

New comment by MegaDeKay in "I'm Working on a FOSS Linux Pinbal Simulation Engine"

MegaDeKay — Thu, 12 Nov 2026 14:40:13 +0000

Check out Visual Pinball [0]. Not on Steam. Thousands of tables. Cross platform and runs on everything from phones to purpose built cabinets. Very advanced physics. Free and open source. It's fantastic.

[0] https://github.com/vpinball/vpinball

New comment by MegaDeKay in "I'm Working on a FOSS Linux Pinbal Simulation Engine"

MegaDeKay — Thu, 12 Nov 2026 14:36:37 +0000

Visual Pinball runs on phones and tablets (and extremely well in fact) but I think the inbuilt accelerometer is not implemented. That's because during play you can't really separate movements while playing from intentional nudging very well. There are other mechanisms built into the mobile version for nudging, like tap zones.

New comment by MegaDeKay in "I'm Working on a FOSS Linux Pinbal Simulation Engine"

MegaDeKay — Thu, 12 Nov 2026 14:31:29 +0000

If you have an interest in virtual pinball, grab the latest release build of Visual Pinball [0]. Nudging is fully implemented (keyboard, gamepad, actual accelerometer boards you can mount in a cabinet, etc) and the overall physics have been substantially updated recently. The current development version runs on Windows / Mac / Linux / iOS / Android / VR Headsets, etc. And there are thousands of tables available from recreations of real machines to original creations [2]. It is all free and open source.

[0] https://github.com/vpinball/vpinball

[1] https://github.com/vpinball/vpinball/commit/faedd951e77ad163...

[2] https://virtualpinballspreadsheet.github.io/

New comment by MegaDeKay in "Jensen Huang said to have had relationship with executive who reports to him"

MegaDeKay — Thu, 12 Nov 2026 03:18:37 +0000

I think these two are better

https://hyperallergic.com/nvidia-ceo-jensen-huangs-situation...

New comment by MegaDeKay in "Ask HN: Which TV do you recommend for privacy?"

MegaDeKay — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 18:27:41 +0000

As their FAQ says

"Will the guide connect me to a botnet?

No. Every linked tool in this guide is open-source. Check it yourself."

I'd imagine you could download all the bits from github and install everything from pristine github sources after a thorough code review, knowing that factory reset returns you back to stock if need be. Just think of it this way: the odds of anything getting past that level of scrutiny can't be worse than stock firmware.

New comment by MegaDeKay in "Ask HN: Which TV do you recommend for privacy?"

MegaDeKay — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 03:09:31 +0000

Nope. The LG AI bluetooth airmouse remote that came with my TV has 11 buttons + scrollwheel / dpad. There's another six dedicated to streaming apps that I can reconfigure to do whatever I want once the TV is rooted.

New comment by MegaDeKay in "Ask HN: Which TV do you recommend for privacy?"

MegaDeKay — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 02:44:57 +0000

The guide I linked offers an offline method. You can click through it and read through the entire procedure.

New comment by MegaDeKay in "Ask HN: Which TV do you recommend for privacy?"

MegaDeKay — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 01:57:18 +0000

Fun fact: you can install Kodi / Jellyfin clients on a rooted TV as just another app.

New comment by MegaDeKay in "Ask HN: Which TV do you recommend for privacy?"

MegaDeKay — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 01:54:44 +0000

Doing so likely tears through a sticker or something that tells them you've opened the TV and, in turn, voids the warranty. And you really want to keep your warranty with these things. Search for "panel uniformity" and "panel delamination" on /r/lgoled sometime.

New comment by MegaDeKay in "Ask HN: Which TV do you recommend for privacy?"

MegaDeKay — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 01:48:53 +0000

Might be dependent on where you live. But regardless, a factory reset puts it back to stock so they'd never know. If the TV is so badly fried that you can't reset it, they likely wouldn't be able to determine it in the first place.

New comment by MegaDeKay in "Ask HN: Which TV do you recommend for privacy?"

MegaDeKay — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 01:46:55 +0000

I don't know but perhaps you could do it the other way around. Glasshouse has a full blown Home Assistant bridge that lets it control the TV. It looks pretty sweet.

https://rorygallagher2024.github.io/glasshouse/#__tabbed_1_4

New comment by MegaDeKay in "Ask HN: Which TV do you recommend for privacy?"

MegaDeKay — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 01:43:17 +0000

They all do it. LG is only the most notorious because of the Gamers Nexus investigation. They've bought other brands of TVs so they'll all have their day in the sun. I can't wait to see what they find with TCL TVs. Cheap TVs made in China that have been doing this forever? What could poosibly go wrong???

New comment by MegaDeKay in "Ask HN: Which TV do you recommend for privacy?"

MegaDeKay — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 01:40:23 +0000

Even stock firmware lets you turn off automatic upgrades. The blocking in apps like Glasshouse add another layer of protection by blocking LG's servers.

Rooting is "permanent" until you factory reset the TV which returns it back to stock. This is handy if, say, you've got a warranty claim and don't want rooting used against you.

A number of people have reported that root sticks across firmware upgrades but I don't think anyone should count on that always working. You never know if a new release might find a way to disable root.

New comment by MegaDeKay in "Ask HN: Which TV do you recommend for privacy?"

MegaDeKay — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 00:51:52 +0000

One less box. One less thing to get something like a Harmony or Sofabaton remote to integrate with. An interface of your choice (there are many frontends), etc. I see a lot of ppl in here advocate AppleTV but that assumes you're part of their ecosystem already.

Or think of it his way: get root for some powerful new features over the stock TV OS and get telemetry blocking as a bonus. I'm planning to set up lg-hue-sync [0] that can read the TV's framebuffer and control an ESP32 connected to a LED string for a dirt cheap AmbiLED setup.

[0] https://github.com/poiedk/lg-hue-sync

New comment by MegaDeKay in "Ask HN: Which TV do you recommend for privacy?"

MegaDeKay — Mon, 02 Nov 2026 02:43:43 +0000

- Buy an LG OLED TV. They're as gorgeous as they are notorious. I just got a 77" LG C6 and it is crazy good.

- Root it [0].

- Install Glasshouse [1] and disable all telemetry. YOU now own the glass. Now you can chromecast to the TV, use Adfree YouTube, access IP TV, etc etc etc. No point crippling your TV by pulling the wireless module and voiding your warranty.

- Install a bunch of cool apps to your TV [2] (there are many more out there besides those listed here)

- Restore to Factory Defaults if you ever want / need to unroot and get back to stock e.g. a warranty claim

The only issue is that LG recently closed the vulnerability that made rooting possible so you don't want any firmware released after 2026-10-10 like 43.21.84. Hopefully a new exploit is found that makes rooting possible once again.

BTW, you might have heard of Dev Mode on these TVs but they don't allow anywhere near the functionality that rooting provides.

[0] https://tv.slada.sk/guides/rooting-guide

[1] https://github.com/rorygallagher2024/glasshouse

[2] https://www.webosbrew.org/

New comment by MegaDeKay in "Root shell on Samsung TV"

MegaDeKay — Sun, 25 Oct 2026 16:19:25 +0000

People were up in arms (and rightly so) when the LG TVs were found out for their spying thanks to the Gamers Nexus investigation. At least LG TVs can be rooted and you can install apps like Glasshouse [0] to disable all the telemetry and add substantial new features that you can't do via the officially sanctioned Dev Mode. The vulnerability that enabled rooting was recently patched so hopefully another can be found.

Hopefully similar apps will come along for Samsung now that root on it can be achieved [1].

[0] https://github.com/rorygallagher2024/glasshouse

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50218633

New comment by MegaDeKay in "Musk's Fake Flying Car and 'CEO Said a Thing ' Journalism"

MegaDeKay — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 19:01:33 +0000

It doesn't fly, but the 2000 lbs of downforce on the McMurtry Spéirling Electric Hypercar means it can drive upside down. Sort of. A bit. [0] Top Gear took the car for a spin around the track in a very entertaining video, where a jaded car reviewer is in disbelief about the cars performance pretty much the whole time [1].

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6LYcgaQ46c

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPZxcfglU2Q

New comment by MegaDeKay in "Chicago O'Hare digs up 50-ton boulder under airfield, asks public for name ideas"

MegaDeKay — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 23:09:02 +0000

Came here with that same name in mind. It would be a stone cold crime if that wasn't picked.