Hacker News: anthonj

New comment by anthonj in "Fixing a bricked Framework laptop"

anthonj — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 20:24:47 +0000

ah, you mean after the accident. Well for starter I would acknowledge the issue (thing that according to the liked thread did not happen, maybe it did not affect enough customers?). Then they should either provide an official recovery guide instead of letting customers figure it out themself on the forum (I can see various pictures of people hooking clips to the flash chip and wondering want to flash exactly), or repair it pro-bono since it's a job that probably take ~10 mins for affected customer and it's an issue caused by a design flaw.

New comment by anthonj in "Fixing a bricked Framework laptop"

anthonj — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 19:17:27 +0000

"Bricked" is a bad term for system without a proper software/firmware update path. A LOT could have been done here to improve "repairability" (with quotes, because this is a software issue on a perfectly fine mainboard).

A/B updates automatically recovering the bios is case of failed update, recovery from usb in case that somehow fails as well (InsydeH2O call it "crisis mode" I think). Lenovo support both. Dell too afaik. This is very much realistic to have, and I would expect it from a decent product. A computer without this feature is pretty much designed to fail more easily.

If for some very weird reason framework was unable to offer this, then at very least they could have placed a header on the board with flashing instructions on the website, instead of advising to buy new hardware.

New comment by anthonj in "Fixing a bricked Framework laptop"

anthonj — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 16:32:50 +0000

I see your point, but what i'm talking about is the company generating a strong incentive to people to buy upgrades or replacements.

This whole submission is about a user going extra length to recover a perfectly functioning main board (with price between 400 and 800 eur depending on model) after an official update went wrong and was suggested to buy a new one.

Mind that I am planning to buy one as well, so I don't have a bias against it. But those suspicious "features" pulled me away from the 16" model for example.

New comment by anthonj in "Fixing a bricked Framework laptop"

anthonj — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 15:19:11 +0000

My conspiracy theory is that selling parts is pretty much their main business case.

A modular gpu using a new standard that is form-factor specific for only a specific model? Matte panel released a few months after the first 13.5 model was released with glossy panel as only option?

It sounds a bit fishy to me. But maybe I'm just a bit too cynical .

New comment by anthonj in "Fixing a bricked Framework laptop"

anthonj — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 15:10:45 +0000

I heard a lot of talk about porting to coreboot (they even sent some motherboard to some coreboot developers I think). Not sure what is stalling there, but sounds like a priority.

For the EC, I feel like a team of a single developer could arrange something there?

New comment by anthonj in "Fixing a bricked Framework laptop"

anthonj — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 14:17:30 +0000

I really don't understand how in 2025 a competent company can't implement a trival A/B flash update. Do they depend on some obscure contractor for the firmware and have no power here?

New comment by anthonj in "Printytron – Describe a part, get a printable STL"

anthonj — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 21:25:26 +0000

Refused to design a dragon dildo :(

New comment by anthonj in "I'm Done with Mullvad"

anthonj — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 09:55:54 +0000

I would not call Mamdani a populist, but I don't follow the political situation in usa that closely

New comment by anthonj in "I'm Done with Mullvad"

anthonj — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 08:21:54 +0000

Every populist party works that way, by promising very "sensible" thing. They work like an echo chamber for trendy political ideas.

Whether or not they are actually capable or even plan do any of that it's a different matter. Typically, they only end up being a coverup for political extremism. In then other cases they fumble and somehow mess up the situation even more.

New comment by anthonj in "SPCX is now Wall Street's most shorted new stock"

anthonj — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 18:31:19 +0000

Tbh I'm no5 sure I've even seen an IPO where the price didn't collapse initially.

New comment by anthonj in "What `for x in y` hides from you – From Scratch Code"

anthonj — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 14:09:59 +0000

I don't really get the point of the article. Even if I knew little about python, would be it surpsing that a language with no real basic types is probably abstracting a lot?

Even a simple i=0, i=i+1 is "hiding" a lot in python then.

New comment by anthonj in "Quadrupling code performance with a "useless" if"

anthonj — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 09:47:43 +0000

I think this call for something similar to "__builtin_expect" or linux' likely()/unlikely().

Not very clean, but better than inserting obscure optimisations in the source.

New comment by anthonj in "Why skilled workers come to Germany and then leave again"

anthonj — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 06:52:08 +0000

Some level of english is required in every country. And you are exposed to it quite frequently in a way or the other (which european country doest start teaching it from elementary school? ). My uni required me to follow course in english and write and defend a thesis in English. You are exposed to english a lot. And on top of that it's a simple lanuge.

Try to lean polish, or chinese. Or german as a Japanese native. Won't be that easy.

New comment by anthonj in "Why skilled workers come to Germany and then leave again"

anthonj — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 15:46:01 +0000

I know some electronic and mech engineers with no german skills, but it's always in young startup in major cities.

New comment by anthonj in "Why skilled workers come to Germany and then leave again"

anthonj — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 11:36:30 +0000

I think there is also a chicken-egg problem in almost every country that doesn't use English as official language:

If you are not an engineer you must have an almost excellent level of local language --> an excellent level of a language is only possible if you are immersed daily over a long time and have the time to study --> to live there you need a job --> back to start

Different counties have different tolerances regarding how quick you pick up the local language. For Germany and France this tolerance is almost 0, for Netherlands it's much higher.

New comment by anthonj in "Sick leave: Germany rising but not the worst in Europe"

anthonj — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 11:41:47 +0000

My friend if my thermometer reads 38-39 I don't need a walk to the doctor to confirm I need to rest for the day.

New comment by anthonj in "Sick leave: Germany rising but not the worst in Europe"

anthonj — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 18:36:16 +0000

"As part of Merz's proposals, from January next year, workers will no longer be able to get a sick note over the phone. They must visit a doctor in person and on the first day of illness."

Can't wait to share the sbahn with feverish people or seeing a live diarrhea attack.

New comment by anthonj in "The end of the AArch64 desktop experiment"

anthonj — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 15:48:22 +0000

Ahh that's true, I forgot how badly prices are raising

New comment by anthonj in "The end of my AArch64 desktop experiment"

anthonj — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 13:26:47 +0000

Well it's also more than double the price

New comment by anthonj in "The end of my AArch64 desktop experiment"

anthonj — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 10:59:54 +0000

I imagine, be he mentions video playback on youtube making things worse, and he does have a dedicated amd gpu.

But iirc for both Firefox and chromium on Linux desktop hw acceleration is tricky so maybe it's that.