<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: kowbell</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=kowbell</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Tue, 16 Jun 2026 00:53:19 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=kowbell" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kowbell in "CrankGPT"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>As an average male who is ~175lbs and untrained at cycling, this is hugely validating for my terrible idea; 140 watts is the max charging speed for 16" M5 MacBooks. I can finally stop thinking for myself and have my computer do it all for me, powered by my big beefy legs.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2026 15:18:30 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48542560</link><dc:creator>kowbell</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48542560</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48542560</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kowbell in "CrankGPT"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>My partner just got a rowing machine that offered "watts" as a unit of how hard you're going (like "calories" or "mph") and got me wondering if they made rowing machines that could slowly charge a battery, and how much I'd need to row to power one of them fancy newfangled M5 Max MacBooks answering prompts.<p>All that to say, CrankGPT, I am your target demographic and if you don't respond to my request for a demo I'll be cranking my keyboard with bad reviews online. Or cranking a rowing machine that powers an LLM to do it for me. Wait...</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2026 14:32:19 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48541879</link><dc:creator>kowbell</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48541879</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48541879</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kowbell in "I Hate (Most) Keyboard 'Fn' Keys"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I encounter that from time to time on my old Microsoft ergonomic too, you're not alone and its always confusing!</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 10 Jun 2026 23:08:26 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48484030</link><dc:creator>kowbell</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48484030</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48484030</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kowbell in "Time to talk about my writerdeck"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I install syncthing on ~all my devices and haven't yet touched rsync. Some reasons I prefer it:<p>1. It's automatic (sure, scripting regular rsync syncs probably isn't hard, but...)<p>2. It's p2p across all my devices (which from what I understand is not how rsync operates)<p>So as long as my laptop and my desktop are both turned on I can trust they're always fully up-to-sync with each other, and in my experience they always are.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 24 May 2026 14:38:54 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48257622</link><dc:creator>kowbell</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48257622</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48257622</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kowbell in "Time to talk about my writerdeck"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm really, really curious why though? I'm not gonna try to dig at you, I just don't understand and want to know.<p>Is your "writing job" one where the end goal is like short random articles on some giant aggregate, or something like instructional content for businesses or something? Where a human typing things was just a means to an end, rather than what I'd assume OP's doing where they're writing for their own joy and/or because people love their specific voice? Because that's the only way my brain can rationalize it right now.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 24 May 2026 13:11:17 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48257007</link><dc:creator>kowbell</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48257007</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48257007</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kowbell in "MacBook Neo Deep Dive: Benchmarks, Wafer Economics, and the 8GB Gamble"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>My 2019 MacBook Pro (the last year of Intel) is now 7 years old and runs "frustratingly" well ("frustrating" in the sense that I can't justify replacing it yet, despite how badly I want to get a new one!)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 14 May 2026 15:11:56 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48136611</link><dc:creator>kowbell</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48136611</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48136611</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kowbell in "Apple accidentally left Claude.md files Apple Support app"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>In my personal and professional experience CLAUDE.md will be set up with workspace/project specific info that any agent on anyone's computer needs to know:
* what the repo actually is ("this is a rust application that does XYZ", "this is a internal tooling platform")
* how it's structured so the agent knows where to look
* code and review standards
* rules ("don't automatically run formatters/linters", "don't touch dependencies")</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 01 May 2026 14:53:48 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47975493</link><dc:creator>kowbell</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47975493</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47975493</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kowbell in "Using coding assistance tools to revive projects you never were going to finish"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I admittedly haven't done a ton of research lately on AI capable PC hardware because of how nuts prices are right now, so I might be missing something...<p>...but all the AMD 395+ machines I can find are even more expensive than the aforementioned cheapest Mac Studio. Mac Studio starts at $2,000 (only 32GB), AMD 395+ 128GB machines seem to start at $3,000 from what I can see.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 26 Apr 2026 03:30:42 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47907053</link><dc:creator>kowbell</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47907053</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47907053</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kowbell in "Using coding assistance tools to revive projects you never were going to finish"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>OP never said Claude made a whole game from scratch though, nor are they saying Claude is doing everything without any human contributing to the project, nor are they saying they haven't spent a lot of time and effort on it. Just that it's made it fun and more accessible and it's gotten them excited about something they abandoned.<p>Here's a bullet point list of the things Claude's done according to OP:<p>* it picked up the general path immediately<p>* he explicitly pushed into "lets have V0 game play loop finished, then we can compound and have fun = not giving up".<p>* [I gave him game design ideas,] he comes with working code.<p>* [I gave him papers about procedural algos,] and he comes with the implementation<p>* brainstorm[ed] items<p>* create[d] graphic assets<p>* he created a set of procedural 2d generators as external tools<p>* he even helped me build the lore.<p>Every one of these are plausible in isolation.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 26 Apr 2026 01:42:53 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47906502</link><dc:creator>kowbell</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47906502</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47906502</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kowbell in "Using coding assistance tools to revive projects you never were going to finish"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I had a <i>ton</i> of fun setting up and trying it out locally (also opencode and one of the qwens.) I still don't have hardware powerful enough to feel like it's meaningfully productive, but all the learning I had to do (and all the bonus things I got curious about as the curtain peeled back) got my nerd brain all worked up, and finally seeing it work was exciting in that cool-new-experience way you don't often get to enjoy :)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 20:55:00 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47904474</link><dc:creator>kowbell</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47904474</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47904474</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kowbell in "Using coding assistance tools to revive projects you never were going to finish"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I did tinker a lil with mine! RTX3080 with 10GB VRAM, 5600x with 64GB DDR4 - not very good but it was very fun and exciting to tinker with :)<p>My partner on the otherhand has an M3 Max 64GB which I've had way more success with. Setting up opencode and doing a tiny spec-driven Rust project and watching it kiiinda work was extraordinarily exciting!</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 20:49:34 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47904445</link><dc:creator>kowbell</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47904445</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47904445</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kowbell in "Using coding assistance tools to revive projects you never were going to finish"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Are any LLMs suited at directly modifying game scene/asset/prefabs for <i>any</i> engine?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 20:41:51 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47904407</link><dc:creator>kowbell</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47904407</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47904407</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kowbell in "Using coding assistance tools to revive projects you never were going to finish"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> And when you inevitably get bored with it, well, you've not done much anyway.<p>I'm very interested in Local LLMs but the <i>cheapest</i> Mac Studio right now is more expensive than <i>8 years</i> of a Claude Code Pro subscription, and incomparably slower/less capable. If I get bored with it, I will have a piece of unused hardware and a couple grand less in my bank account.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 20:29:42 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47904317</link><dc:creator>kowbell</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47904317</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47904317</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kowbell in "Google plans to invest up to $40B in Anthropic"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> there will be a reckoning when open weight models are good enough<p>Will you have the hardware to run them? Perhaps. Will enough of Anthropic's/OpenAI's large enterprise customers have the hardware to run them and the money/desire to have their own internal teams set up and maintain them?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 15:47:52 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47902310</link><dc:creator>kowbell</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47902310</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47902310</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kowbell in "Over-editing refers to a model modifying code beyond what is necessary"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> In terms of limits, I usually find myself hitting the rate limit after two or three requests.<p>I'd absolutely <i>love</i> to see exactly what you're doing (...well, maybe in a world where I had unlimited time or could clone myself...) because as tight as the usage limits are I absolutely cannot fathom hitting them THAT early.<p>What are the requests like, and have you noticed what is Claude doing during them? Is it reading an entire massive codebase or files that are thousands of lines long? Or are you loaded up with many MCPs or have an ever-growing CLAUDE.md?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 23 Apr 2026 18:51:17 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47879921</link><dc:creator>kowbell</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47879921</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47879921</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kowbell in "The Orange Pi 6 Plus"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I dunno, I hear it‘s easy to put in your pocket and let the computer is everywhere</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 14 Apr 2026 23:11:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47772648</link><dc:creator>kowbell</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47772648</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47772648</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kowbell in "Live: Artemis II Launch Day Updates"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>If it's <i>15</i> years behind budget and many multiples over budget, it wouldn't be DOGE's fault then?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2026 23:55:38 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47608230</link><dc:creator>kowbell</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47608230</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47608230</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kowbell in "Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I was so mad when they removed the fourth option. I can't remember which one was which, but one meant "open in a webview inside this app" and the other was "open in a new tab in your default browser". It was still terrible UX but I liked at least having that choice.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:41:29 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47448699</link><dc:creator>kowbell</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47448699</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47448699</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kowbell in "AI coding is gambling"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Perhaps part of their portfolio is the code they've hand written, and part of it is demonstrating they are able to use this new tool to make something that works (despite how imperfect the tool is, as we see so many people point out)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 19 Mar 2026 13:05:03 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47438713</link><dc:creator>kowbell</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47438713</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47438713</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kowbell in "US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Hey, that still means it's higher than the median annual rise AND higher than most years!</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 17 Jan 2026 15:59:14 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46659034</link><dc:creator>kowbell</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46659034</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46659034</guid></item></channel></rss>