Hacker News: dbrgn

New comment by dbrgn in "Wired headphone sales are exploding"

dbrgn — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 20:31:12 +0000

Latency doesn't matter for music and Fiio supports both LDAC and aptX.

Keeping the battery charged is a weak point though, agreed.

New comment by dbrgn in "Wired headphone sales are exploding"

dbrgn — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 23:43:42 +0000

An alternative to a wired dongle is a high-quality bluetooth amp, e.g. from Fiio. It's reliable, keeps your phone free from cables, but you can keep using your high quality wired headphones.

New comment by dbrgn in "Proton CEO Andy Yen Explains the Withdrawal from Switzerland with the VÜPF"

dbrgn — Sat, 20 Dec 2025 20:02:29 +0000

Dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46329654

New comment by dbrgn in "Swiss voters back e-ID and abolish rental tax"

dbrgn — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 22:27:33 +0000

Fair, this may be a legal option for ordering alcohol. I really don't see the pure cryptographic hash "is older than 18y" as a big privacy issue though, as long as it is properly salted, does not provide other information on my identity and is unlinkable (i.e. multiple such signed claims are different).

The last time I opened an account for a financial service, as well as when creating an account with a service for digital document signatures, I had to do a video ident process with a private third party company. There was no other option, and I felt quite uneasy about it. I would have preferred the E-ID by far in both cases.

Both companies will inevitably store information about me to provide their service, independently of the identity verification. That is legitimate and inevitable for their service. That other, third party company storing a video of me holding my ID and my face into the camera is now not inevitable anymore.

New comment by dbrgn in "Swiss voters back e-ID and abolish rental tax"

dbrgn — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 20:52:04 +0000

Quite a few actually do require ID-scan-through-email (which is horrible). Or, they simply delegate to a third party video ident service, often in another country (because cheaper).

How exactly is the status quo not much worse than "I give you a cryptographic hash proving that I am over 18, but nothing else, and without the state knowing that this transaction happened"?

New comment by dbrgn in "Swiss voters back e-ID and abolish rental tax"

dbrgn — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 20:45:43 +0000

Companies can already request and will still be able to request a PDF scan of your ID. Or worse, video ident through a private third party.

This is the status quo for ordering alcohol online, or if you want to open a bank account.

The new E-ID based on SSI (self-sovereign identity) is so much better than the status quo from a real-world privacy perspective towards companies that must verify your identity or age.

New comment by dbrgn in "Swiss voters back e-ID and abolish rental tax"

dbrgn — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 20:40:21 +0000

The Swiyu team dropped the Play Integrity requirement on Android: https://github.com/swiyu-admin-ch/eidch-android-wallet/issue... This means that the E-ID will be officially supported on AOSP based secure ROMs like GrapheneOS, without any requirement for Google services.

Preview of LibrePCB 2.0's Next-Gen UI

dbrgn — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 18:03:46 +0000

Article URL: https://librepcb.org/blog/2025-09-12_preview_of_next_gen_ui/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45224806

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

Building Income Through LibrePCB: A Personal Story

dbrgn — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 18:07:21 +0000

Article URL: https://librepcb.org/blog/2025-08-05_building_income_through_librepcb/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44801884

Points: 6

# Comments: 0

A new open LLM built for the public good (by ETHZ/EPFL/CSCS)

dbrgn — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 21:06:34 +0000

Article URL: https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2025/07/a-language-model-built-for-the-public-good.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44514752

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by dbrgn in "Show HN: A website for comparing Nespresso capsules"

dbrgn — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 21:33:12 +0000

This is interesting.

How did you measure the caffeine content in the capsule? Also, I assume that is the total amount of caffeine present in the capsule, and not the caffeine dissolved in a cup of coffee (since that would depend on the amount of water running through it, and possibly on temperature and mineral contents as well.)

New comment by dbrgn in "Proton threatens to quit Switzerland over new surveillance law"

dbrgn — Sun, 18 May 2025 05:18:53 +0000

Downside: Sometimes laws can be delayed for 1+ years due to a referendum. The political process is slower and big reforms are much harder.

Upside: Lawmakers need to write balanced laws or they face threats of referendum signature collection from other parties or civil organizations. Often in political discussions you hear that "position X won't stand a chance in a referendum". That is a good thing.

New comment by dbrgn in "I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)"

dbrgn — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 17:01:52 +0000

Many people in Switzerland love to buy used cars with cash, even if they cost a few thousands.

(But we can also just scan the QR code of the recipient's bank account with the e-banking app and initiate a transfer that way.)

New comment by dbrgn in "Frustrated YouTube viewers seek explanation for hour-long unskippable ads"

dbrgn — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 08:59:43 +0000

If you look at the price tiers per country (https://www.theworldranking.com/statistics/671/youtube-premi...), you'll be able to see why - as a user in Switzerland - so far I wasn't willing to pay 250$ every year for YouTube Premium, it"s simply not worth the price to me. With less steep pricing, I'd pay.

LibrePCB 1.2.0 released with KiCAD import

dbrgn — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 18:43:10 +0000

Article URL: https://librepcb.org/blog/2024-12-01_release_1.2.0/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42289898

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

LibrePCB receives second grant and plans moving towards Rust

dbrgn — Sun, 20 Oct 2024 09:46:54 +0000

Article URL: https://librepcb.org/blog/2024-10-17_roadmap_2.0/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41894248

Points: 5

# Comments: 0

Online Privacy: An Endangered Species

dbrgn — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 12:53:22 +0000

Article URL: https://threema.ch/en/blog/posts/online-privacy-endangered-species

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40645659

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

New comment by dbrgn in "LibrePCB 1.1.0 Released"

dbrgn — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 18:15:07 +0000

The EAGLE project import is quite relevant, now that this product will be discontinued by Autodesk: https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/future-of-...

New comment by dbrgn in "Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia will be completed in 2026"

dbrgn — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 15:00:12 +0000

> It's hard to find a building build after WO2 that's actually pretty, let alone an entire neighborhood.

Hold on, we're talking about Barcelona... The phallus tower (Torre Glòries) certainly has a certain aesthetic ;)

A bit on the more serious side: If you ask city planners, they will probably be able to list thousands of examples of beautiful neighbourhoods in modern cities. They do exist, but I agree that a lot of modern buildings appear quite "soulless" and exchangeable.

New comment by dbrgn in "The baffling intelligence of a single cell: The story of E. coli chemotaxis"

dbrgn — Thu, 21 Mar 2024 12:11:25 +0000

The random spin followed by a run reminds me a bit of the first-generation Roomba logic...