Hacker News: johntitorjr

New comment by johntitorjr in "Is it possible to write plain C iOS app in 2025?"

johntitorjr — Fri, 18 Apr 2025 01:51:43 +0000

I read about someone doing this in android. The C app wrote directly to the framebuffer. Absurdly small apk.

New comment by johntitorjr in "Sniffle: A sniffer for Bluetooth 5 and 4.x LE"

johntitorjr — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 14:00:32 +0000

There's a plugin for wireshark for sniffing BLE packets with Nordic radios. The HW is cheap and wireshark is top-notch.

New comment by johntitorjr in "Jellyfin as a Spotify alternative"

johntitorjr — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 01:18:41 +0000

I think the unstated assumption is that the reader has an existing music library. Where that library came from is an excercise left to the reader. I use bittorrent, which I admit is a little morally smelly, but I justify it by buying vinyl albums of any artists I listen a lot to. It'd take a lot of Spotify listens to match the money to the artist of buying a single album from the band website. Lots of vinyl comes with digital downloads too. When I'm at home, physical media is fucking rad. I mean, I can unplug the turntable, spin it by hand, and hear the music directly from the needle. No software, no gadgets. It's so primal, like the artist is whispering to me. I hadn't realized how much I lost switching to Pandora until I switched back to physical media.

Given an existing collection - Is there an easy way to auto sort & tag everything? e.g. Merge the artists 'Guns N Roses' and 'Guns and Roses' into the most correct one.

I can't justify the time to do it manually and feel like if I just wait long enough a turn-key AI solution will pop up.

New comment by johntitorjr in "Owning my own data, part 1: Integrating a self-hosted calendar solution"

johntitorjr — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 21:52:18 +0000

same. super convenient to be able to go to photos.[domain].com for my photos. the immich android app is great too.

cloudflare tunnels is a game changer, I can't believe it's free.

New comment by johntitorjr in "What if we made advertising illegal?"

johntitorjr — Sat, 05 Apr 2025 18:54:51 +0000

Some cities have exterior walls of buildings covered in ads. Other cities have them covered in murals. The latter are much more pleasant to be in.

New comment by johntitorjr in "Anyone who trusts an AI therapist needs their head examined"

johntitorjr — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 14:51:45 +0000

There's plenty of bad human therapists. It's hard to vet quality of care when you're in crisis and bad therapists can cause great harm.

Im pretty bullish on AI therapy agents, at least for mechanistic-ish stuff like CBT where emotional attachment to the therapist isn't super important.

TFA is complaining about cloud software, not AI therapists. Totally agree with that complaint. But LLMs can run locally, and cloud software can be wrapped in enough regulations to stay private.

New comment by johntitorjr in "US Government workers and military planners love Signal now"

johntitorjr — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 00:10:58 +0000

If the US government needs a secure messaging app, why don't they make one internally?

New comment by johntitorjr in "The mysterious flow of fluid in the brain"

johntitorjr — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 00:58:48 +0000

>could read papers if they want but choose not to

Journals are expensive.

>catering to your level of literacy?

Lowering the cognitive effort required to acquire the new information makes it more broadly available. Both to people that couldn't comprehend the source material, and to those that could, but don't want to spend the cognitive energy.

I can understand the argument that we should avoid dumbing down our media, but this is a weird battle to pick. Go throw stones at youtube shorts if you're worried about modern media liquifying humanity's frontal cortex.

New comment by johntitorjr in "The unexpected legend of WD-40"

johntitorjr — Sat, 22 Mar 2025 15:09:07 +0000

Using WD-40 in residential applications often results in inhalation of aerosolized particles and injestion/absorption of residue on skin.

How can a consumer make an informed decision about using WD-40 without knowing what it's composed of?

New comment by johntitorjr in "The Continuing Crisis, Part IX: Inside the NIH Now"

johntitorjr — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 01:05:01 +0000

Mass protests and non-violent civil disobedience. I hope that we don't reach a point where going beyond that is required.

New comment by johntitorjr in "Canadian woman sent to Arizona detention for trying to renew her TN visa"

johntitorjr — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 14:00:23 +0000

Why was she detained rather than denied entry?

If someone doesn't have the necessary paperwork to enter the US, don't let them cross the border. ICE needs to get DOGEd, they're wasting a bunch of tax payer money on providing room and board to illegal immigrants.

New comment by johntitorjr in "TI Introduces the Smallest MCU"

johntitorjr — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 00:35:24 +0000

I've used a wlcsp mcu before and sunlight would make it reset. That was a fun one to debug.

New comment by johntitorjr in "Ask HN: How do you have effective 1:1s with your manager?"

johntitorjr — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 23:07:20 +0000

I think you fundamentally misunderstand the manager-report relationship.

It being for the report means it is also for the manager. The success of the report is the success of the manager.

New comment by johntitorjr in "Ask HN: Best Way to Store Files in the Cloud Without Third-Party Sync Apps?"

johntitorjr — Sat, 08 Mar 2025 16:06:23 +0000

If just peer-to-peer syncing between a group of devices is ok, syncthing is great. You could use it as cloud backup if one of the devices is running on a server.

https://syncthing.net/

New comment by johntitorjr in "Pila Energy - Plug-and-play home battery that integrates with Home Assistant"

johntitorjr — Sat, 08 Mar 2025 01:59:51 +0000

Generac backup generators are a good whole house solution, either nat gas or propane.

New comment by johntitorjr in "The gem Apple discontinued: the 11-inch MacBook Air (2019)"

johntitorjr — Sat, 08 Mar 2025 01:34:59 +0000

I'd love a 17" macbook air

New comment by johntitorjr in "Kennedy and influencers bash seed oils, baffling nutrition scientists"

johntitorjr — Fri, 07 Mar 2025 19:49:18 +0000

To be fair, fish oil and a good diet can help your immune system fight off measles. Prevent is a stretch.

I'm 100% on-board with beef tallow french fries, but not for health reasons.

New comment by johntitorjr in "Ask HN: Escaping Difficult Employment Situation?"

johntitorjr — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 20:47:45 +0000

I know what you're going through. It's so incredibly hard to rejoin society after a period of isolation, social skills atrophy. Making a new close friend in middle age is not easy.

You sound like you're where I was 1-2 years ago. I still deeply miss my old life, but I'm no longer at the bottom of a hole that seems impossible to climb out of.

>I think I am so damaged that I just need to live without my needs being met. It's the only way forward but it seems so wrong and painful.

Yes. Put one foot in front of the other and bear the pain. It won't always suck this bad. I struggle with anhedonia and used to think it made life not worth living. Then I experienced psycotic depression, and now that I'm on the other side the anhedonia is bearable by comparison. Life's never so bad it can't get worse, hitting really deep lows gives you perspective on accepting more shallow lows. You may never feel great, but you can feel good enough to make living life better than the alternative.

I'd be happy to chat sometime if you want.

New comment by johntitorjr in "Ask HN: Escaping Difficult Employment Situation?"

johntitorjr — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 14:39:05 +0000

I'm sorry man. I know what you're feeling and it's fucking brutal. It can get better, but it won't be today and won't be tomorrow. Hang in there.

You need to spend lots of time around good people. You need a job that gives you daily positive social connection. You need to actively look for that.

Your life will improve. I'm rooting for you.

New comment by johntitorjr in "Git without a forge"

johntitorjr — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 14:29:00 +0000

A great turnkey forge option is Forgejo in a docker container. I love how light weight this is though.

https://forgejo.org/

It's crazy how many people today think git == github.