Hacker News: Walf

New comment by Walf in "A dumpster arrived behind my university's library"

Walf — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 16:34:03 +0000

Yes, exploration, discovery. One doesn't stumble across items available on inter-library loan.

I could not count the number of books I picked up and enjoyed, even if only for a short while, whilst I was studying at uni.

New comment by Walf in "Thunderbird Littering My Home"

Walf — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 05:06:31 +0000

Ctrl + Shift + O opens a threaded conversation in a new tab.

Settings > Composition > Use paragraph format… set to unchecked

Search has always worked pretty well for me, with the exception of not searching message bodies in a folder that's set to only download messages on demand. If the folder is set for offline use, the bodies are there and searchable. I use the Quick Filter bar 99% of the time, anyway, it's great.

Still my preferred client.

New comment by Walf in "1worldflag: A blue dot on a transparent background"

Walf — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 03:01:21 +0000

Anteaters will be more likely, apparently.

https://phys.org/news/2025-07-mammals-evolved-ant-eaters-din...

New comment by Walf in "Shell Tricks That Make Life Easier (and Save Your Sanity)"

Walf — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 14:16:44 +0000

The utility of $_ is often voided by tab-completion in the subsequent command, at least in bash. You won't know what it contains, which makes it dangerous, unless you first check it in a way that also carries it forwards:

printf %s\\n "$_"

New comment by Walf in "I can't upgrade to Windows 11, now leave me alone"

Walf — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 06:56:56 +0000

>The terms and conditions are simple. Every time you perform any network access, you have to send a copy of the payload and response back to my server. Either that, or you're in breach of my terms.

That's not how contracts work, at all. MS hasn't bought anything from him, nor was he able to require them to agree to anything in order for him to install the OS.

New comment by Walf in "Try and"

Walf — Mon, 11 Aug 2025 02:47:34 +0000

It's an exception that English doesn't need, and it only adds to the difficulty of learning the language. You being used to it doesn't make it good.

I'm going to try and learn English. I'm trying and learn English. I tried and learn English.

vs.

I'm going to try to learn English. I'm trying to learn English. I tried to learn English.

New comment by Walf in "Show HN: Bedrock – An 8-bit computing system for running programs anywhere"

Walf — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 03:26:45 +0000

Not quite. Programs normally need to be compiled per system type, and sometimes per system, due to differences in the OSes' versions, APIs and hardware. The idea behind this type of emulator is that you need compile it only once, and the emulator takes care of those differences for you. The Bedrock program would always ‘see’ the same OS and hardware.

New comment by Walf in "German court rules Meta tracking technology violates European privacy laws"

Walf — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 09:13:12 +0000

The positive of that approach (for users) is that it relies on client-side scripts, so it's possible for privacy tools to target those.

New comment by Walf in "German court rules Meta tracking technology violates European privacy laws"

Walf — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 06:29:16 +0000

It's not just pixels. They strongly encourage site owners to send (normalised and hashed) personal data from every interaction to them, with the promise of better targeting for the site's ads. You cannot block this or opt out because it's server-side.

New comment by Walf in "Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels"

Walf — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 19:10:43 +0000

So, knowing how much time and effort is required to maintain such responsibilities, you think someone with a similar situation, but who also has trouble being organised in general, has extra time to twiddle their thumbs for half an hour or something, before every single obligation with a time attached, just to be sure they don't get distracted? Do you have any comprehension of how ridiculous that sounds? If you're less capable of completing tasks you need more time than a typical person to do so, not less. They don't give students with ADHD less time in exams to ensure they can break task and put their pens down on time.

Still pushing those preconceptions, eh? Is this how you approach everything you could learn from? Assume you know all the answers before actually studying? Your teacup is full.

New comment by Walf in "Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels"

Walf — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 18:58:29 +0000

That's a good assessment, but it misses the fact that the person with the effective dysfunction genuinely believes they will 'be there in a second', because they cannot accurately assess time. The lack of forthcoming contrition is not difficult to explain, shame discourages people from drawing attention to their faults. If it's happening frequently, one would always be feeling 'faulty'. Aversion to that is expected.

New comment by Walf in "Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels"

Walf — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 18:44:49 +0000

You can't see how, in response to a comment that was primarily about whether "time blindness" is real, which you quoted directly, your comment comes across as dismissing any self-diagnosis as Munchausen syndrome? Did you read about that either?

>Patients with FDIS intentionally falsify or induce signs and symptoms of illness, trauma, or abuse to assume this role. These actions are performed consciously, though the patient may be unaware of the motivations driving their behaviors.

I'm not convinced 'I have that!' statements quite meet the criteria for that. You may be thinking of malingering.

New comment by Walf in "Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels"

Walf — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 06:22:08 +0000

Why is it that you think you're offering life-changing advice? What makes you think I don't use repetition? What makes you think I've never tried timers? What makes you think I'm the exact same as person as your friends and family? What makes you think I don't also 'just get on with it'? Do you even think about what you're writing?

New comment by Walf in "Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels"

Walf — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 06:01:08 +0000

So you didn't think they were dismissive or trivialised the issue? I mean, I can sympathise with the frustration of people somewhat 'giving up' after labelling their own issues, but it's not a logical conclusion to assign it all to a trend. That's what they appeared to be blaming and I didn't see them say otherwise, in any of their comments.

New comment by Walf in "Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels"

Walf — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 05:49:38 +0000

Omfg. A timer, for everything! Why didn't I think of that? And I'd set this timer for getting dressed, and showering, and making coffee, and conversing with my children. "Sorry, son, I can't help you any further with practising shoelace-tying this morning, I only allotted 90 seconds for that." I should probably set a timer for setting timers, too. Don't want to take too long doing that. Undoubtedly, this will also solve the distraction issue because the proximity of a time measuring device to my neurons will rewire them all to be "normal".

You're so ignorant.

New comment by Walf in "Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels"

Walf — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 05:46:06 +0000

What a fuckwit. No, not everyone else manages it. I decided no such thing, you're just fabricating bullshit to feel better about being an arsehole to people who weren't born neurotypical. I have a career with pretty good pay and benefits, and you obviously didn't read anything else I wrote about managing my issues. I'd rather be late than a sociopath.

New comment by Walf in "Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels"

Walf — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 05:41:49 +0000

Yes, you are, and punctuality ≠ productivity.

New comment by Walf in "Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels"

Walf — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 05:39:52 +0000

Another one that just doesn't get it. In that scenario, if you texted Jimmy, it would be a choice, if someone with ADHD did, it wouldn't. Again as stupid a response as telling someone in a wheelchair they chose not to walk upstairs.

Not everyone's experience is the same as yours. Denying that only makes you look like an idiot.

New comment by Walf in "Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels"

Walf — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 08:05:40 +0000

Some of us have families to take care of, and shit to do. I guess that's not you.

New comment by Walf in "Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels"

Walf — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 07:33:36 +0000

You clearly don't have these issues, and I doubt you care about anyone who does, because your "Oh, come on." response positively reeks of 'that's not my experience, so other people's can't be that different.'

It's never just one thing like travel time, it's scores of steps in a routine, which aren't always the same, and can easily be derailed by anything unexpected. You can estimate how long something you do frequently will take, based on how much time it took previously, and still get an inapplicable answer because distraction is a constant problem, and the executive function deficit means you literally do not think 'don't do that, get back on task' in the moment. You know how long everything should take, and still struggle to apply that when you're doing the routine.