Hacker News: TheKnack

New comment by TheKnack in "Show HN: Claude-File-Recovery, recover files from your ~/.claude sessions"

TheKnack — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 22:00:40 +0000

Could snapshots via tmutil be used to protect against this kind of thing on MacOS?

https://derflounder.wordpress.com/2019/05/08/creating-managi...

New comment by TheKnack in "Ask HN: Where do you save links, notes and random useful stuff?"

TheKnack — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 11:43:01 +0000

I used to keep everything in Obsidian, but I recently switched to keeping notes in Obsidian and links and articles in Karakeep (self-hosted).

https://karakeep.app/

One of many things that I like about Karakeep is that when you save a link it captures both a screenshot and text from the page, and uses AI to create tags and a summary for the link. Basically it automatically categorizes everything that you save.

New comment by TheKnack in "Show HN: Showboat and Rodney, so agents can demo what they've built"

TheKnack — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 22:20:09 +0000

I second the request to make the site responsive. When I load the page the CSS constrains the main content to 560px and the whole page is constrained to 940px. Here's how it displays on my system:

https://i.postimg.cc/zDMD9nYD/Simon.png

New comment by TheKnack in "Show HN: Daily-updated database of malicious browser extensions"

TheKnack — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 16:26:44 +0000

It appears that some of the extensions in your block list originate from a supply chain attack which compromised some extensions, but which have since been fixed and are no longer compromised and have returned the Chrome store. This post discusses matching both the ID and version to detect compromised extensions without creating false positives.

For example, only v4.00 of Bookmark Favicon Changer was compromised. Earlier and later versions are clean.

https://www.elastic.co/blog/how-to-detect-malicious-browser-...

New comment by TheKnack in "Show HN: Movieagent.io – An agent for movie recommendations (with couple mode)"

TheKnack — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 20:54:27 +0000

How difficult would it be to add Trakt as an alternative to Letterboxd?

https://trakt.docs.apiary.io/

New comment by TheKnack in "Tell HN: AI coding is sexy, but accounting is the real low-hanging target"

TheKnack — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 15:29:42 +0000

I've been doing this for 20+ years, not with AI but just with code and taking time to understand the important parts of the processes. I still see many companies and especially educational institutions spending way too much manpower on payroll and accounts payable in particular. This is often because of unnecessary bespoke processes that people in the organization believe are necessary and are afraid to change.

New comment by TheKnack in "$30 Homebrew Automated Blinds Opener (2024)"

TheKnack — Sun, 18 May 2025 18:41:21 +0000

I have these on all of my blinds and they are amazing. You can sometimes get them on sale for $50-60 each. They come with a solar panel that keeps them charged. You can add a hub that makes them work with HomeKit.

https://us.switch-bot.com/products/switchbot-blind-tilt

New comment by TheKnack in "[dead]"

TheKnack — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 23:05:40 +0000

My Mac started telling me that I need to update Apple ID settings about 30 minutes ago, but when I click "Continue", System Settings freezes and can't be closed. I think it's because gsa.apple.com isn't responding. When I ping that address, it resolves to Akamai, which makes me wonder if this is an Apple outage or Akamai outage. Neither company's status dashboard reports any issues right now.

    PING gsa.idms-apple.com.akadns.net (17.32.194.34): 56 data bytes
    Request timeout for icmp_seq 0
    Request timeout for icmp_seq 1
    Request timeout for icmp_seq 2
    Request timeout for icmp_seq 3
    Request timeout for icmp_seq 4
    Request timeout for icmp_seq 5

New comment by TheKnack in "VW is putting buttons back in cars"

TheKnack — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 20:42:01 +0000

The Tesla interface reminds me of the iOS settings page. A huge list of options and you have to drill down multiple levels to find the setting you want to change. Definitely not easy to use while driving, IMO.

There have been lots of complaints because there are no physical controls for things such as windshield wiper speed on some Tesla models. They just put out a software update in response to complaints about that, but people don't seem to like the "fix".

https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaModelY/comments/1305970/finall...

I test drove a Model S but ended up buying a RAV4 Prime plug-in hybrid instead. The controls are much better on the RAV4. There are physical buttons for almost everything.

New comment by TheKnack in "Addressing the community about changes to our API"

TheKnack — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 19:16:07 +0000

What I don't understand about both this and Twitter's dislike of third party apps is why they don't just require third party apps display the same ads as their own app, and maybe support whatever paid features they have. It seems like that would be a win-win for both them and the app developers.

More people use Reddit because of Apollo because the experience is so much better than their own app. They should take advantage of that by coming up with a mutually beneficial solution instead of killing it. They would make a lot more revenue by requiring that Apollo display ads than killing it and losing some percentage of users or traffic in the process. Are they that confident that all of the Apollo users are just going to switch to their own app on July 1st? (they won't)

I understand why the status-quo isn't sustainable. Reddit has to figure out how to be profitable eventually, but this seems like a tone deaf way to try to get there which probably won't have the intended result.

New comment by TheKnack in "Ask HN: Do you subscribe to print magazines anymore?"

TheKnack — Mon, 06 Feb 2023 12:30:39 +0000

Yes, only one and it’s because it doesn’t “work” electronically. I re-subscribed to Games World of Puzzles a couple of years ago. It’s a high quality print magazine of clever puzzles that require writing the answers in the magazine. It has everything from many variations of crossword type puzzles to completely new genres they seem to invent every month. I was introduced to it my my elementary school gifted and talented teacher in the early 80’s. Back then I couldn’t wait for it to come in the mail, but stopped subscribing for about 30 years until a few months into the pandemic.

It’s not like the puzzle “magazines” that are in the magazine section of most stores now, it’s way more than that. It used to occasionally show up at my local Barnes and Noble, but I haven’t seen it there for a while.

https://gamesmagazine-online.com/

New comment by TheKnack in "Ask HN: Do you have any experience asking to be down-leveled at $Corporate_Job?"

TheKnack — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 22:51:10 +0000

I have experience trying to get a down-level job for a different employer. I think that might be even more difficult than staying with the same employer. I was trying to down-level for more or less the same reasons - burnout from 20+ years of 50-60 hour weeks managing an I.T. department with mission critical systems and too few staff.

I interviewed for several "down-level" positions, a couple where I subsequently found out that I was clearly the most qualified candidate. One HR person more or less told me that they didn't understand why I was willing to take a ~30% pay cut. I think they thought it seemed suspect... because who would do that?

New comment by TheKnack in "Appliance makers sad that 50% of customers won’t connect smart appliances"

TheKnack — Tue, 24 Jan 2023 20:28:13 +0000

This. My parents have several smart appliances but were completely unaware. Even if they were aware they wouldn't care. Regardless of one's opinion of the privacy aspect, none of the "smart" functionality their appliances have is worth the time it takes to set it up. It's mostly pointless.

New comment by TheKnack in "Ask HN: Which sites do you spend your evenings on? Where is the “real” Internet?"

TheKnack — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 02:02:18 +0000

I was setting up something on my daughter's laptop last weekend when I made a startling discovery. For context, she will graduate this year with a degree in Computer Science and Computer Engineering. When I added a URL to the Bookmarks in her browser, I noticed that it was the only thing in her Bookmarks. When I asked her why she didn't have any sites Bookmarked she said she keeps tabs open for everything she uses regularly (Gmail, Blackboard, and a few other things). I didn't know how to process this information. I guess she uses phone apps for just about everything and on the rare occasion that she needs to use a web site for something she finds it with Google.

I don't know if she is typical for people her age, but for her the answer to your question would be "none".

New comment by TheKnack in "The Steam Deck wasn’t born ready, but it’s ready now"

TheKnack — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 01:54:20 +0000

One aspect of the Steam Deck that hasn't gotten as much attention as I think it deserves is that it costs about half as much as any competing device with comparable specs. Why? Valve is subsidizing the cost like Sony and Microsoft have done in the past. Sell the console at cost or even at a loss, because you're going to make a 30% commission on every game sold. Gabe Newell said that the pricing is "painful", especially for the 64GB model. I suspect this won't be an issue in the long run, if others' Steam purchasing habits are similar to mine since getting a Steam Deck.

New comment by TheKnack in "MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max"

TheKnack — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 01:35:29 +0000

I managed a big fleet of iOS devices (hundreds) around the iOS 6 to iOS 10 time period when battery drain was a common complaint (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13054056). Completely wiping the phone and setting it back up without restoring the backup fixed those battery drain issues 100% of the time. If you wiped the phone and restored the iCloud backup the battery drain would persist because you restored whatever glitched config file was causing it.

New comment by TheKnack in "MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max"

TheKnack — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 01:33:34 +0000

Battery drain. I managed a big fleet of iOS devices around the iOS 6 to iOS 10 time period when battery drain was a common complaint (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13054056). Completely wiping the phone and setting it back up without restoring the backup fixed those battery drain issues 100% of the time. If you wiped the phone and restored the iCloud backup the battery drain would persist because you restored whatever glitched config file was causing it.

New comment by TheKnack in "MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max"

TheKnack — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 15:38:16 +0000

For both iOS and Macos (and Windows for that matter) it's a good idea to backup everything and reinstall the OS from scratch for each major version. Yes it's a headache but it will prevent 10x more headaches that result from upgrading from a previous major version. Many of the problems people have with Apple OS upgrades are issues that happen during the process of converting configurations from one version to the next. This is especially true if you've done multiple major version upgrades without starting from scratch at some point.

If you upgrade from Catalina -> Big Sur -> Monterey -> Ventura, for example, it becomes like a game of telephone. Small issues that happen with converting configurations accumulate. This makes me wonder if Apple tests new versions installed from scratch rather than upgraded over multiple generations like what happens in the real world.

New comment by TheKnack in "MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max"

TheKnack — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 15:24:56 +0000

Apps like Keyboard Maestro or BetterTouchTool can resolve almost every Macos usability complaint that I've heard. Keyboard Maestro can move windows between desktops with a keyboard shortcut, for example, and there are multiple ways to disable mouse acceleration. For almost every missing feature or annoyance in Macos, someone else has had the same thought and developed a solution.

https://forum.keyboardmaestro.com/t/move-frontmost-window-to...

New comment by TheKnack in "Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch"

TheKnack — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 01:42:14 +0000

I agree that Garmin watches are not good general purpose smart watches for most people, but their UX is actually perfect for their intended users. Once you develop the muscle memory, it's possible to perform many functions without being able to see the screen. This is necessary when it's cold and layers are covering the screen. I have cold weather running shirts which have sleeves that mostly cover your hands, and can press the buttons on my Fenix 6 easily through the fabric and do whatever I need to do without stopping to pull my sleeve up (which is awkward since those shirts have thumb holes).