<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: grumblepeet</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=grumblepeet</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Wed, 21 Oct 2026 14:25:25 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=grumblepeet" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by grumblepeet in "What's in a PowerPoint File?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Don’t know if anyone else here has mentioned it, but there is a JavaScript object model that you can call against <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/powerpoint/core-concepts" rel="nofollow">https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/powerpo...</a> And a reference for that <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/javascript/api/powerpoint?view=powerpoint-js-preview" rel="nofollow">https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/javascript/api/powerpoint?...</a> I was involved in a project where we were trying to use all of this to build PowerPoints and Word documents programmatically and in the end we moved to a simpler approach (this was before LLM times). But knowing how the PPTX is constructed is a useful starting point for anyone.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 23 Aug 2026 06:26:22 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49406469</link><dc:creator>grumblepeet</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49406469</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49406469</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by grumblepeet in "Health benefits of Tai Chi"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Well it had to happen sometime. Im in this video.<p>Fajin or the explosive use of power is practiced (after a few years of training the moves slowly) and is necessary from time to time to help remind the body the actual speed of the martial application as well as to test that you are standing right, not overreaching etc. It is very easy if you do the moves for a one time slowly to get into bad habits very gradually and have poor posture, resetting with the faster moves helps to expose those weaknesses. We always warm up a lot before doing those moves or you can hurt yourself.<p>Should also look up the spear form, which is also done quite quickly.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 16 Aug 2026 08:19:25 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49318001</link><dc:creator>grumblepeet</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49318001</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49318001</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by grumblepeet in "Ask HN: What was your "oh shit" moment with GenAI?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>My bath hot tap suddenly broke apart and was spilling hot water into the bath. I photographed everything and ChatGPT told me step by step what bits to get to fix it, and how to reassemble it.<p>A few weeks later some kids in the area were bending the wiper arms in cars in my terraced street, including my car. I thought, I wonder if ChatGPT can help? It explained to me where to get the parts online, an indication of a decent price, and how to fit the replacement parts.<p>In work we had struggled with filling out the myriad of forms that we need to do to get enrolled on a government framework to apply for contracts. Not only did it do that and explained what we needed to say, but it also told us in detail the steps we needed to follow to get the certification that was a prerequisite. It has genuinely transformed our business as a result.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 06 Jun 2026 06:58:48 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48422177</link><dc:creator>grumblepeet</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48422177</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48422177</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Emacs Bra Size Calculator]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Article URL: <a href="https://pulusound.fi/blog/emacs-bra-size-calculator/">https://pulusound.fi/blog/emacs-bra-size-calculator/</a></p>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48304836">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48304836</a></p>
<p>Points: 5</p>
<p># Comments: 0</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 28 May 2026 05:13:37 +0000</pubDate><link>https://pulusound.fi/blog/emacs-bra-size-calculator/</link><dc:creator>grumblepeet</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48304836</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48304836</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by grumblepeet in "Apple Just Lost Me"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>They have just done the same to me. I spent nearly two hours on the phone with Apple support before I find they will not accept a UK passport as valid ID. They will only accept the national ID card that I also don’t have. I don’t have or want a credit card. I’m 65 so me being now unable to verify my age is embarrassing and insulting. And the way Apple messed me about earlier has put me off them now. I won’t buy another product or service from them ever again.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 25 Mar 2026 16:04:24 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47519256</link><dc:creator>grumblepeet</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47519256</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47519256</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by grumblepeet in "Training Center for Maneuvering on Manned Model Ships"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Tom Scott visited a similar facility in Poland, Port Iława, where he got to pilot one of the scale models there under the guidance of the instructor. <a href="https://youtu.be/jplrbxI5GN8" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/jplrbxI5GN8</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 22 Mar 2026 07:14:58 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47475197</link><dc:creator>grumblepeet</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47475197</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47475197</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by grumblepeet in "Bandit: A 32bit baremetal computer that runs Color Forth [video]"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I would love a full sized keyboard made with those keys.<p>That aside, I will probably buy one of these. It is the ultimate nerd fiddle toy. Brilliantly done.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 16 Mar 2026 10:31:16 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47397231</link><dc:creator>grumblepeet</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47397231</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47397231</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by grumblepeet in "Dear Time Lords: Freeze Computers in 1993"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Two years before I moved across into IT. This was when I was a graphic designer making magazines and nursing journals using tools like Aldus PageMaker and QuarkXpress. Those were fantastic times. It felt like we could do anything with computers.<p>I was eyeing a career in IT and moved across soon after, and was dumped into Novell Netware 3.12 land which was an eye opener (Fire Phasers anyone?).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 27 Feb 2026 08:13:00 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47177959</link><dc:creator>grumblepeet</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47177959</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47177959</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by grumblepeet in "Find a pub that needs you"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I live in south Bristol where the “Bristol stool scale” and the “pubs that need your help” overlap distressingly.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 14 Jan 2026 19:58:08 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46622039</link><dc:creator>grumblepeet</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46622039</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46622039</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by grumblepeet in "Show HN: HN Wrapped 2025 - an LLM reviews your year on HN"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>That was hilarious, the XKCD-esque comic was funny however it did me with a beard (im a woman) but I did belly laugh at the jokes.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 21 Dec 2025 09:56:18 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46343635</link><dc:creator>grumblepeet</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46343635</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46343635</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by grumblepeet in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Building an app that scans file systems prior to being migrated into M365. Looks for common governance issues and file and folder trees that won’t play nice in SharePoint. Not a migration tool as such, just something to scratch a consultancy itch. Python and Tkinter for now until I hit something that requires more complexity. Also a command line version that I’ll use more often. This probably could have been a PowerShell script but this is more fun.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 14 Dec 2025 22:17:23 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46267660</link><dc:creator>grumblepeet</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46267660</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46267660</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by grumblepeet in "Ask HN: How many people got VPNs in response to laws like UK Online Safety Act?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I did despite being quite resistant to the idea at first. Eventually I didn't have a choice, as many things I wanted to read were suddenly hidden. I am paranoid however and worry that the VPN maker is tracking me, but there is only so much I can be paranoid about in the day.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 06 Dec 2025 10:07:53 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46172104</link><dc:creator>grumblepeet</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46172104</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46172104</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by grumblepeet in "John Giannandrea to retire from Apple"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>‘Siri turn on torch’. Used to work, now all I get is “sorry, Torch isn’t available right now” this is at night when it is plugged in and I need to work as a nightlight to go open the bedroom door to let the dog in or out without blasting myself awake with the main phaser array next to my bed.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 02 Dec 2025 06:03:37 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46118113</link><dc:creator>grumblepeet</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46118113</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46118113</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by grumblepeet in "Lateralized sleeping positions in domestic cats"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Ahh thanks. I see it in the article now.  This why I’m not a scientist!</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 26 Jun 2025 20:26:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44390967</link><dc:creator>grumblepeet</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44390967</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44390967</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by grumblepeet in "Lateralized sleeping positions in domestic cats"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I came here to say the same thing. I’ve seen this multiple times today in several places and thought exactly that. Maybe they should have said clockwise (starting at the head) or counterclockwise?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 26 Jun 2025 19:00:20 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44390279</link><dc:creator>grumblepeet</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44390279</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44390279</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by grumblepeet in "Microsoft brings 365 suite on-prem as part of sovereign cloud push"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I wonder what will break as a result of this?<p>Will it be possible I wonder to have a M365 that doesn’t have annoying CoPilot forced down our necks in every app and screen?<p>And interested to see how the licences and costs pan out.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 17 Jun 2025 20:29:04 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44303583</link><dc:creator>grumblepeet</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44303583</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44303583</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by grumblepeet in "The History and Legacy of Visual Basic"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I totally agree with this. When I worked at a University (mumbles) years ago I wrote a build system for rebuilding the OS and apps on student lab PC's and I used VB6 as the front end. It seemed in those days we could do anything, and nobody told us we couldnt do it.<p>I also made a simple two button menu app for use on repurposed 386's that we were using as thin client pc's. Years later I went back to see they had been replaced with tiny HP thin client devices but my menu was still being used!</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 11 May 2025 08:43:01 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43952370</link><dc:creator>grumblepeet</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43952370</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43952370</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by grumblepeet in "The second birth of JMW Turner"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>As an artist Turner has inspired me not just with his use of colour, which was masterful, but with his readiness to break normal painting rules. We would scratch at his paintings with a specially long fingernail, stab at them with brushes, use watercolour almost like oils, do anything to get the image that he needed. We get most of this from looking at the paintings and from anecdotal evidence because as the article says he painted in secrecy behind closed doors.<p>His later works are truly amazing, given the time in which they were made. Many of the later images we know him for were from sketchbooks and studies, and not necessarily for sale or to be seen by others (code snippets?) but are impressionist years before that became a thing.<p>You can go to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and go to the Print Room (you have to book) and ask to see some. I'm told by a friend I've not done that.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 11 May 2025 08:33:57 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43952333</link><dc:creator>grumblepeet</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43952333</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43952333</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by grumblepeet in "Playful Drawings That Charles Darwin's Children Left on His Manuscripts"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Some of those drawings are copies of Edward Lear illustrations. I recognised the style. I didnt see that mentioned in the article although I might have missed it. I like the little drawings though very cute.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 18 Jan 2025 20:50:24 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42751316</link><dc:creator>grumblepeet</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42751316</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42751316</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by grumblepeet in "I ditched the algorithm for RSS"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Ha! I had forgotten that message.Thank you for reminding me. I used to read comp.lang.lisp for the extensive and increasingly bizarre flame wars and for the wider philosophical discussions. Eventually I got to the point where I thought "OK I'm done now" and left and never went back.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 17 Jan 2025 07:22:17 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42734939</link><dc:creator>grumblepeet</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42734939</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42734939</guid></item></channel></rss>