Hacker News: adiabatichottub

New comment by adiabatichottub in "Plain text is still one of the best technologies we have"

adiabatichottub — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 21:18:30 +0000

Text is wonderful, but note that the one keyword not found in this text is 'parse'. How much extra work is generated writing parers for text that would have been so much easier to deal with if it had just been generated in a structured binary format? You still get the pleasure of designing a new wheel with every format.

New comment by adiabatichottub in "Plain text is still one of the best technologies we have"

adiabatichottub — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 20:46:17 +0000

And then you add RFC2045 headers so you know what the encoding is...

New comment by adiabatichottub in "How to set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for your sending domain"

adiabatichottub — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 21:08:42 +0000

I think a better resource is http://www.open-spf.org/

New comment by adiabatichottub in "How to set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for your sending domain"

adiabatichottub — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 21:00:58 +0000

SPF doesn't check the reply-to address, only that the host sending the mail is allowed to send mail for the domain in the MAIL FROM: header.

See: http://www.open-spf.org/FAQ/What_it_does/

Edit: for those unfamiliar with the intricacies of SMTP, the first three lines sent are HELO, MAIL FROM:, and RCPT TO:. The From: address that you see in your mail client is actually another header that gets sent once the server provisionally accepts the message based on the first three headers. It's the difference between the return address on the envelope of a paper letter, and an address printed on the letterhead of the actual letter.

New comment by adiabatichottub in "How to set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for your sending domain"

adiabatichottub — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 20:53:59 +0000

I'll have to ponder the method you describe. I know I could implement that on my own mailboxes and some automated endpoints, but not sure how that would work for other users on our domain.

New comment by adiabatichottub in "How to set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for your sending domain"

adiabatichottub — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 20:26:34 +0000

Indeed. Ultimately we're still relying on blacklists, Bayesian filters, and hueristics to detect actual SPAM.

New comment by adiabatichottub in "How to set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for your sending domain"

adiabatichottub — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 18:46:04 +0000

I recently tried bouncing mail during the header phase when DMARC didn't align, but it rejected more legit emails than SPAM. Most of the junk we've been getting passes DMARC and has an unsubscribe link.

New comment by adiabatichottub in "Dystopian Surveillance Is Becoming a Reality"

adiabatichottub — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 17:59:17 +0000

We just have to make it the cool thing to run your own mail server. B-)

New comment by adiabatichottub in "Where has Construction Automation been successful?"

adiabatichottub — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 16:37:05 +0000

The big changes I've seen over my lifetime have been tooling and materials. I remember when framers did everything with a hammer, a circular saw, and a speed-square. Now we have nail guns and cordless impact drivers and miter saws. Fiberglass batt insulation is still a thing, but now there's also urethane spray foam. We have engineered beams and OSB sheathing pre-coated with a moisture barrier. There's a lot of things that all add up to better performance and less manual labor.

New comment by adiabatichottub in "Hackers Had a Live Feed of Every ID Verification Company Scanned for over a Year"

adiabatichottub — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 07:40:52 +0000

CADMV claims on their web site that they cannot accept a P.O. box as a residence address. I have yet to find anything in California state law supporting this policy, though IANAL. Their enforcement seems to be quite lax.

New comment by adiabatichottub in "Yes/No/Cancel causes Aspirin sales to soar (2007)"

adiabatichottub — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 15:27:08 +0000

As I remember, standard operating procedure was to retry 4 or 5 times, then turn off the computer and walk away in frustration.

New comment by adiabatichottub in "The Hacker's Renaissance (2025)"

adiabatichottub — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 22:58:27 +0000

I'd accept that challenge, but I can't now because it's been edited out. For what it's worth, I remember somewhat agreeing with it.

New comment by adiabatichottub in "The Hacker's Renaissance (2025)"

adiabatichottub — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 22:16:14 +0000

> The "hacker spirit" doesn't require being a Luddite

Just to be pedantic, the Luddites weren't anti-technology, they were fighting against a means of production that they could never hope to own and which was ruining their livelihoods.

New comment by adiabatichottub in "The simple elegance of the integrated timing belt loopback fastener"

adiabatichottub — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 19:51:34 +0000

Or just forego the pin and put a countersunk machine screw, washer, and nylock nut in it's place.

New comment by adiabatichottub in "Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year"

adiabatichottub — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 16:21:10 +0000

Well... Wikipedia has content that some would consider offensive or unsuitable for children. I'm not in favor of limiting any access to Wikipedia, but I'd consider it a certainty that the day would come when Wikipedia had to decide whether to implement age restrictions or try to police content. I believe that event would change it's governance and social structure in a negative way and significantly degrade it as a public resource.

New comment by adiabatichottub in "Stop Killing the Internet: No Digital ID and No Age Verification"

adiabatichottub — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 03:06:38 +0000

I consider such rights to be my natural rights, regardless of statute. This is a product of my personal ethics and philosophy. In that sense, it is a right that I have. Whether I can successfully exercise that right without proscription is what I am concerned about.

New comment by adiabatichottub in "Stop Killing the Internet: No Digital ID and No Age Verification"

adiabatichottub — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 23:56:03 +0000

A decade ago I used to joke that Google should have it's own dating app. "NOTIFICATION: See that person at the other end of the bar? They share the same interests as you and like to frequent some of the same places. They share your political views. You even have some friends in common. They are recently single. Go over and say hi, here are some suggested conversation topics..."

It just seems too obvious now

New comment by adiabatichottub in "Stop Killing the Internet: No Digital ID and No Age Verification"

adiabatichottub — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 23:26:28 +0000

It's just a different game. A web site is much easier to instrument than a physical place.

Say I go to a bar, I show my ID to the bouncer. My identity isn't recorded (unless they scan it with a device that records the scan data). Maybe they have cameras, my image isn't immediately associated with my identity, somebody would have to do a bit of work to connect the two. Maybe I pay with a credit card, now my name is stored in the point-of-sale system.

But I can still go to a bar with no scanner, no cameras, and pay in cash, and it's not a problem. Not suspicious at all. None of the above record-keeping is required, nor should it be.

Now, if a web site says I need to be provably 18+ to view their content, that's fine. I can take it or leave it. I have a choice.

When the law tries to mandate the software that can or must be run on my device, or tries to limit how I can communicate with my friends and family, now I have a problem. I consider my rights to personal computation and personal communication to be sacred. And I also believe in my right to privacy in these matters. I never needed an ID to send a personal letter, and my right to privacy regarding such communication is protected by law.

Finally, I see gathering of access data by a central authority (which I assume would eventually happen if social media sites started requiring validated ID) to be a concentration of power, and a dangerous one.

New comment by adiabatichottub in "Please stop the AI confidence theater"

adiabatichottub — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 14:43:29 +0000

Ah, the plea for sanity dollar! Huge Market!

Sadly, he was never able to rid the world of all these fevered egos tainting our collective unconscious and making us pay a higher psychic price than we imagine.

New comment by adiabatichottub in "ICE denies having a protester database. A letter to Congress sheds more light"

adiabatichottub — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 15:49:31 +0000

If somebody calls you like this, immediately ask them for their name and supervisor in the calmest, most business-like tone you can muster. A good tactic is to tell them you can't talk just this second and ask for a name and number you can reach them at to discuss the matter further. If they're going to try to dox you then you should try to dox them right back.