Hacker News: hexmiles

Gboard Conveyor Belt Version [video]

hexmiles — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 21:19:48 +0000

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAn34l_YrUM

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49938731

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by hexmiles in "AI-generated posters don’t have to be horrible"

hexmiles — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 20:13:49 +0000

To me, it seems more to be something about the colors, but other than saying that they are often oversaturated, I can't quite place exactly what it is. I sometimes try to open them with an image editor and zoom in, or use other tools to try to "discover" what it is that I'm seeing, but without success so far. It doesn't help that graphics is not something I have experience with.

New comment by hexmiles in "AI-generated posters don’t have to be horrible"

hexmiles — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 20:10:34 +0000

Hi, thanks.

Yes, I agree that disclosure is important, and yes, some of it is just “habits” of the model and we are a pattern-matching machine.

I still find it fascinating that, in my group of friends with somewhat diverse backgrounds, we are all pretty good at spotting AI-generated images (and also text to a lesser extent), but none of us can quite describe how. Some of the tells are more obvious, but I would love to see someone do a more systematic exploration of AI art to unearth the less common ones. Sometimes it almost makes me feel “crazy” that, to me, something is clearly AI, but I would not have any idea how to explain to someone who can’t recognize it how.

This is a bit of a problem for me when, for example, I try to explain to my parents how to spot it, and I can only show a list of AI images and say, “You know… like that,” instead of giving a real explanation.

New comment by hexmiles in "AI-generated posters don’t have to be horrible"

hexmiles — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 17:47:23 +0000

Is there an explanation for why AI images, or posters, look "AI"? What I mean is that even some of the better ones, that I quite like, have a distinct AI look that I can’t quite put my finger on.

Some elements are, the very saturated color or being overly busy, but not all images have these tells, and not all of them.

For a while I thought it was that sort of very subtle dithering/texture that a lot of the images have, but again not all of them.

Looking online, most seem to focus on things like the wrong number of fingers, things merging into one another, details that don't make sense, etc., but that’s not what I’m talking about.

Does anyone have an explanation for why they are this easy to recognize as AI even when they are decent?

New comment by hexmiles in "Tiny $70 Xteink X3 e-reader"

hexmiles — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 14:22:40 +0000

The Pro has a nice backlight that is useful when reading at night. The only downside is the lack of a USB-C port, so you have to use their magnetic dongle to charge. Also, if you want one, I recommend buying from the official site to avoid getting one with the firmware locked (there may be a way to unlock it, but I'm not sure). Lastly, look at the competition: I'm happy with my X4 Pro, but there are a couple of others with different feature sets that are still compatible with Crosspoint and may be of interest if you want to use it for more than just reading.

New comment by hexmiles in "Tiny $70 Xteink X3 e-reader"

hexmiles — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 12:38:49 +0000

The fact that you can use it one-handed is the killer feature for me, both for reading and as a generic dashboard/remote control for stuff in my home.

New comment by hexmiles in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (July 2026)"

hexmiles — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 07:48:33 +0000

I'm working on TTZ, a sort of, pardon the expression, next-gen terminal protocol.

I wanted a middle ground between web apps and Terminal UI that allows for things like raster images, vector graphics, simple audio support and file transfer; to let me move more apps and workflows from web apps to a lighter experience.

I have an old laptop that I love and is very nice to use, but since it has only 2 GB of RAM, using multiple web apps is out of the question. I live on the terminal and SSH, but it has its own limitations, like spotty support for images, no audio at all, and ReGis (for vector graphics) support is not available in a lot of terminals.

I've recently finished implementing both client and server libraries for multiple languages (with the help of AI), and right now I'm in the process of fully testing and squashing all bugs and inconsistencies. Next, I will port a couple of applications as a proof of concept.

I plan to publish the source code very soon to receive feedback.

New comment by hexmiles in "8086 Segmented Memory was a good idea"

hexmiles — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 09:45:08 +0000

What is the difference between the segmentation model used by Intel and the banking model used by a lot of consoles? I've worked with the code of a couple of NES and GBC games, and while banking could be annoying, I never saw it as a particularly difficult model to follow and use. It did require more planning for the various functionality, but it wasn't even the most complex or difficult thing about developing for consoles.

New comment by hexmiles in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2026)"

hexmiles — Mon, 11 May 2026 20:40:13 +0000

I'm working on two projects:

- TTZ: A sort of next-gen protocol for terminals. The basic idea is to create a dedicated terminal protocol that allows for more features and less legacy cruft (text and commands are cleanly separated). Right now, I’ve defined the protocol and have a couple of implementations ready. It already supports pictures, vector graphics, and file and audio streaming. I love terminals and TUIs, but I found programming and developing UIs against the standard terminal protocols frustrating, so I tried to design a more "modern" version.

- KingD (temp name): A Linux-based OS that tries to unify the roles of router, NAS, and virtualization platform with a single user interface. In my day job, I need to manage multiple FreeNAS, OPNsense, and Proxmox installations, and I wanted something that "encoded" the common workflows I keep repeating and provided a single centralized platform. I’ve been working on this for a while, and I hope to be able to do a Show HN by the end of the summer.

New comment by hexmiles in "Show HN: Drive any macOS app in the background without stealing the cursor"

hexmiles — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 11:55:16 +0000

I did something similar on Windows by creating a "virtual desktop," where I can give the app focus without stealing it from another one. The idea was to basically reimplement RemoteApp without needing a dedicated Windows server. However, in that case, the app is not visible to the user unless you use "connect" to the virtual desktop; to do it, I implemented (WIP) a simple VNC server in C#.

New comment by hexmiles in "Fully Featured Audio DSP Firmware for the Raspberry Pi Pico"

hexmiles — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 19:40:20 +0000

Thanks for the suggestion. I was hoping for something cheaper since I don't need really high quality. For now, I'm using a bunch of cheap USB soundcards that are good enough, but having multiple USB devices makes routing hell.

New comment by hexmiles in "Fully Featured Audio DSP Firmware for the Raspberry Pi Pico"

hexmiles — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:28:12 +0000

I wonder if you could do the same thing in reverse and have a cheap way to get multiple inputs. I would love a cheap way to add 8–16 inputs to my PC; all the audio interfaces I found cost quite a bit.

New comment by hexmiles in "Google Broke Its Promise to Me. Now ICE Has My Data"

hexmiles — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 19:14:00 +0000

Personally, I deleted everything I could but kept the Gmail account for a couple of years with a forward to my new account, and after that, I also deleted it. Google Takeout is a very useful way to quickly create a backup of everything Google.

New comment by hexmiles in "Rescuing old printers with an in-browser Linux VM bridged to WebUSB over USB/IP"

hexmiles — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 22:03:27 +0000

Sorry, I wasn't clear. By old hardware, I meant peripherals connected to the computer via serial or USB. We are at a level of performance where running an entire VM as a driver is kind of feasible, if wasteful.

New comment by hexmiles in "Rescuing old printers with an in-browser Linux VM bridged to WebUSB over USB/IP"

hexmiles — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 21:20:10 +0000

I know that it is a heavyweight solution, but it could be useful for some situations with old driver/devices/applications. I have some old hardware that is compatible only with pre-WinNT OS, and I could do something similar to provide a simple solution for the end user.