Hacker News: bmaupin

New comment by bmaupin in "Ask HN: Are there any antifeature-free power tools you can still buy new?"

bmaupin — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 01:56:49 +0000

Maybe something like https://ceenr.com/ ? I've never used them personally.

Ask HN: Have you been falsely accused of AI-generated content?

bmaupin — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 01:52:24 +0000

I was accused for the first time of my writing looking AI-generated. I tend to be overly verbose and use a lot of ordered and unordered lists. On top of that I'm used to documentation systems like Confluence with "info" and "note" macros so I'll often sprinkle in a limited set of emoji for emphasis when I'm writing elsewhere.

In this case the accusation was insignificant; it's for a stack exchange answer that could be deleted and my life wouldn't be negatively impacted at all. But now I can't help but wonder for the first time if the AI witch hunt is going to potentially have real consequences for some people. Has anyone experienced this in any meaningful way?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46494486

Points: 5

# Comments: 7

New comment by bmaupin in "You’re a slow thinker. Now what?"

bmaupin — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 13:57:47 +0000

Here's the original: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20281420

Gitlab 18.0 Released with Gitlab Duo for Premium and Ultimate

bmaupin — Thu, 15 May 2025 18:55:28 +0000

Article URL: https://about.gitlab.com/releases/2025/05/15/gitlab-18-0-released/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43998136

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by bmaupin in "Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update"

bmaupin — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 15:01:00 +0000

Google has finally pushed the source of the Pixel 4a battery update: https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/msm/+log/refs/heads/...

New comment by bmaupin in "Google Pixel 4a's ruinous "Battery Performance" update is a bewildering mess"

bmaupin — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 14:05:32 +0000

[dupe]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42892352

New comment by bmaupin in "Google Pixel 4a's ruinous "Battery Performance" update is a bewildering mess"

bmaupin — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 14:05:20 +0000

[dupe]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42892352

New comment by bmaupin in "Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update"

bmaupin — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 15:20:30 +0000

You can run this:

  adb shell cat /sys/class/power_supply/battery/serial_number

Requires adb: https://developer.android.com/tools/adb

New comment by bmaupin in "Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update"

bmaupin — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 14:11:42 +0000

Wow, that is exactly what I was hoping to do, but I wasn't able to figure out more than 1 or 2 of those steps. Thanks!

New comment by bmaupin in "Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update"

bmaupin — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 22:47:05 +0000

Image.lz4 is definitely a Linux kernel, and it's definitely changed: https://android.googlesource.com/device/google/sunfish-kerne...

Would changes to external closed-source binary files change the kernel image itself? There are kernel modules in that commit but it looks to me like they all come directly from here: https://developers.google.com/android/drivers

Google does provide detailed instructions for downloading all sources for the kernel, and I didn't see any changes since 2023 to any source files: https://source.android.com/docs/setup/

Thanks for the extra places to look. I'll check them out.

New comment by bmaupin in "Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update"

bmaupin — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 22:29:41 +0000

Why not? The kernel seems to handle low level charging and battery logic, for example: https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/msm/+/refs/heads/and...

I'm not hoping to argue, only to learn. This isn't my area of expertise.

New comment by bmaupin in "Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update"

bmaupin — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 21:27:48 +0000

I'm going through the kernel with Ghidra but not very good at it and not having much luck.

I do have an idea about what it's checking to determine if a battery is affected, but I don't have enough data yet to know if it's just a coincidence.

New comment by bmaupin in "Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update"

bmaupin — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 19:37:47 +0000

I looked through all the sunfish repos first, which is how I found this: https://android.googlesource.com/device/google/sunfish-kerne...

But apparently sunfish-kernel only contains binaries.

Given there's an update to Image.lz4, that seems there's an update to the kernel. I also compared the binary to the previous version and found some new strings possibly related to battery charging profile.

Next I checked out the source using Google's documentation but the latest commit is here: https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/msm/+/refs/heads/and...

But maybe I'm looking in the wrong place.

New comment by bmaupin in "Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update"

bmaupin — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 18:34:14 +0000

I'm trying to figure out what the actual latest update is doing regarding the battery. I found an update to the kernel binary but it doesn't seem the source has been updated.

Can I submit a GPL request to Google to get the kernel source?

https://github.com/bmaupin/pixel4a-battery-research

Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update

bmaupin — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 14:59:59 +0000

Article URL: https://www.androidcentral.com/phones/google-pixel-4as-old-firmware-is-gone-trapping-users-on-the-buggy-battery-update

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42865619

Points: 315

# Comments: 362

New comment by bmaupin in "Pixel 4a Battery Performance Program"

bmaupin — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 13:55:38 +0000

The closest I've found is the Pixel 8. Surprisingly, the 8a and 9a are bigger. But the 8a is still bigger than the 4a: https://m.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=10123&idPhone2=...

I'm planning on replacing the battery in my 4a and making it last as long as I can. It's still a great phone.

Unihertz also just launched a 5" phone but I'm not sure how good it would be; I'm sure the camera won't be great: https://www.unihertz.com/products/jelly-max

Pixel 4a Battery Performance Program

bmaupin — Mon, 06 Jan 2025 20:51:52 +0000

Article URL: https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/15701861?hl=en

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42615633

Points: 8

# Comments: 5

Ending support for OverDrive's desktop apps and website MP3 downloads

bmaupin — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 16:26:14 +0000

Article URL: https://help.overdrive.com/en-us/2324.htm

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42043060

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Google's Smart TV software will have a "dumb TV" mode (2021)

bmaupin — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 15:09:22 +0000

Article URL: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/02/the-best-feature-of-google-tv-you-can-turn-it-off-for-a-dumb-tv-mode/

Hacker News: bmaupin

New comment by bmaupin in "Ask HN: Are there any antifeature-free power tools you can still buy new?"

Ask HN: Have you been falsely accused of AI-generated content?

New comment by bmaupin in "You’re a slow thinker. Now what?"

Gitlab 18.0 Released with Gitlab Duo for Premium and Ultimate

New comment by bmaupin in "Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update"

New comment by bmaupin in "Google Pixel 4a's ruinous "Battery Performance" update is a bewildering mess"

New comment by bmaupin in "Google Pixel 4a's ruinous "Battery Performance" update is a bewildering mess"

New comment by bmaupin in "Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update"

New comment by bmaupin in "Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update"

New comment by bmaupin in "Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update"

New comment by bmaupin in "Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update"

New comment by bmaupin in "Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update"

New comment by bmaupin in "Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update"

New comment by bmaupin in "Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update"

Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update

New comment by bmaupin in "Pixel 4a Battery Performance Program"

Pixel 4a Battery Performance Program

Ending support for OverDrive's desktop apps and website MP3 downloads

Google's Smart TV software will have a "dumb TV" mode (2021)

Firefox is adding a weather widget to the New Tab page