Hacker News: drnick1

New comment by drnick1 in "Green card seekers must leave U.S. to apply, Trump administration says"

drnick1 — Sun, 24 May 2026 06:12:29 +0000

> Think one step further: What stops the next "immigrants" from renaming your cute "society" that you currently have there, and declare a proper, civilized society, with a proper culture for once?

Nothing, but it is our right, as Trump does, to call that an invasion and forcibly reject it.

New comment by drnick1 in "Green card seekers must leave U.S. to apply, Trump administration says"

drnick1 — Sun, 24 May 2026 06:04:45 +0000

So what? No one is forcing you to come to a country you deem hostile to foreigners.

New comment by drnick1 in "Oura says it gets government demands for user data"

drnick1 — Sat, 23 May 2026 18:06:19 +0000

I wouldn't use Apple TV, Shield or other proprietary black boxes if you want a private setup. Linux on a mini-PC with Plasma Bigscreen, your own over-the-air antenna for local TV, VacuumTube for YT, and the high seas for other content.

New comment by drnick1 in "Dumb ways for an open source project to die"

drnick1 — Wed, 20 May 2026 04:03:43 +0000

This is why is like pure C/C++ projects with zero dependencies beyond the standard library, and this is certainly what I do for my numerical work. If some external library is needed, the source files of the dependency are downloaded, compiled, and kept as part of the project itself, so that it can always be rebuilt and reused if necessary. Of course, depending on what you do, this may not be practical, although LLMs certainly have made it much easier to generate the dependencies in house, so to speak.

New comment by drnick1 in "CUDA Books"

drnick1 — Sun, 17 May 2026 21:45:35 +0000

That advice seems like nonsense. It's like saying avoid C because you can use Python, or avoid writing a graphics engine because you can license Unreal.

New comment by drnick1 in "Removing the modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 hybrid"

drnick1 — Fri, 15 May 2026 20:10:53 +0000

No, because some apps are mobile only, and only work on phones "certified" by Google or Apple.

New comment by drnick1 in "Removing the modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 hybrid"

drnick1 — Thu, 14 May 2026 21:47:24 +0000

The Graphene community maintains a list of compatible banking apps.

Another possibility is to keep an old/cheap, stock Android phone at home with WiFi only for apps like this.

New comment by drnick1 in "Removing the modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 hybrid"

drnick1 — Thu, 14 May 2026 21:31:58 +0000

Good point, but in practice I think the only way onboard data could be exfiltrated is by a dealer while the car is being serviced. If you DIY or hire an independent mechanic, this seems unlikely.

New comment by drnick1 in "Removing the modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 hybrid"

drnick1 — Thu, 14 May 2026 21:26:52 +0000

> Some brands take software very seriously. This isn't an "entire industry" problem.

This does not change the fact that Tesla is shamelessly spying on you. In fact, Tesla takes the software so seriously that it can probably fully remotely control your car. This is not something that I would want, and, if I were to be gifted a Tesla, the first thing that I would do is unplugging the cellular modem. If the car becomes unusable because of this, I would get rid of it.

New comment by drnick1 in "Removing the modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 hybrid"

drnick1 — Thu, 14 May 2026 21:18:41 +0000

> And once you've gotten rid of Google and Apple, your telecom company tracks you, your CC payments help track you and even cameras in public do.

Maybe, but what happens without the mod described is that Google and Apple track you in addition to the telecom company. That, of course, assumes that you carry a cell phone tied to your identity. Some people refuse to carry cell phones altogether because of the privacy implications, or use them mostly in airplane mode with an anonymous SIM for backup.

New comment by drnick1 in "Removing the modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 hybrid"

drnick1 — Thu, 14 May 2026 18:18:26 +0000

Older Toyotas also had a DCM fuse, and this was the easiest way to get rid of telemetry. I am not sure if partially disassembling the dash and physically removing the DCM is now necessary.

New comment by drnick1 in "Removing the modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 hybrid"

drnick1 — Thu, 14 May 2026 18:14:26 +0000

You need GrapheneOS to sever the link to Google. You can also deny specify apps and services Internet access.

New comment by drnick1 in "I moved my digital stack to Europe"

drnick1 — Wed, 13 May 2026 15:19:43 +0000

What makes you say that wars are unnecessary? You don't get to see what would have happened in the absence of a war. Keeping some countries like Iran in check by restricting their arsenal, or weakening their economies and military capabilities seems absolutely necessary for world peace for example.

New comment by drnick1 in "Googlebook"

drnick1 — Wed, 13 May 2026 01:08:49 +0000

Maybe you can install Linux on one of these things, and turn it into something useful and not choke-full of spyware.

New comment by drnick1 in "Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message"

drnick1 — Tue, 12 May 2026 00:35:20 +0000

I self-host an email server and can definitely send email to Gmail addresses.

New comment by drnick1 in "Google broke reCAPTCHA for de-googled Android users"

drnick1 — Mon, 11 May 2026 20:17:10 +0000

Not very often at all, but it did happen at least once. Note that even email sent from Google itself can be marked as spam depending on the message.

New comment by drnick1 in "Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message"

drnick1 — Mon, 11 May 2026 19:16:41 +0000

> They've essentially gotten roped into maintaining a huge chunk of internet infrastructure, for free.

In exchange, Google gets to surveil half of the world's population, extract personal information from their email, and resell that information to governments and ad companies.

New comment by drnick1 in "Making Julia as Fast as C++ (2019)"

drnick1 — Sat, 09 May 2026 16:53:38 +0000

Came here to say that. It's just easier to write C++ in the first place, and LLMs now make this easier than ever.

New comment by drnick1 in "Google broke reCAPTCHA for de-googled Android users"

drnick1 — Sat, 09 May 2026 01:25:36 +0000

I have access to a commercial (non-residential), fixed IP. You could also use an outgoing relay as a compromise, since presumably the issue you are facing is other servers rejecting email that you send from a disreputable IP. That being said, you really want a fixed IP as a matter of convenience if you are going to self-host anything.

New comment by drnick1 in "Google broke reCAPTCHA for de-googled Android users"

drnick1 — Sat, 09 May 2026 01:22:06 +0000

So Stallman was right, after all?