Hacker News: m4ck_

New comment by m4ck_ in "Aspartame is not that bad? (2022)"

m4ck_ — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 13:31:44 +0000

I felt the same way, they used to taste awful to me, now I only notice a slight difference between Dr Pepper zero and regular. Maybe I just got older and my taste buds degraded?

New comment by m4ck_ in "Aspartame is not that bad? (2022)"

m4ck_ — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 13:22:07 +0000

It's probably not great if you're drinking dozens of cans of sugar free soda every day.

All I really know is don't take health advice from influencers, especially if they're selling something, and don't take health advice from people who support deregulation (less industry transparency, oversight, and consequences won't make food or anything safer.)

New comment by m4ck_ in "I am building a cloud"

m4ck_ — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 11:30:22 +0000

And if you need a cluster, Hashicorp Nomad seems like a more reasonable option than full blown kubernetes. I've never actually used it in prod, only a lab, but I enjoyed it.

New comment by m4ck_ in "US Bill Mandates On-Device Age Verification"

m4ck_ — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 14:01:33 +0000

I agree, but the law is pretty vague. Root is a user on an operating system on a general purpose computer after all.

New comment by m4ck_ in "US Bill Mandates On-Device Age Verification"

m4ck_ — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:49:42 +0000

I look forward to having to age verify the dbus and chrony and root accounts on every linux-based "smart" device in the future. That should be fun.

Will my children be able to use my smart oven/thermostat after I verify I'm 18+ on those devices?

I also wonder what verification will look like for containers and and VMs that might have a short life. Maybe that's how we keep IT jobs for a little while longer? Human age verification on every local account every time a container or VM is spun up.

New comment by m4ck_ in "YouTube now world's largest media company, topping Disney"

m4ck_ — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 21:25:29 +0000

And it's seemingly the only large platform where you have some control over the 'algorithm' - meaning if I tell it I'm not interested in something, or not to show me content from a creator, it actually works. On Facebook or Instagram the "not interested" button doesn't seem to do anything and it takes several clicks and a wait to block an account.

New comment by m4ck_ in "The Windows equivalents of the most used Linux commands"

m4ck_ — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 14:53:59 +0000

It's 2026, you should not be using command prompt (or batch.) In powershell ls is a built in alias to get-childitem and has been for years, and in recent versions of windows you'd have to go out of your way to get a command prompt (you would have to open a powershell terminal and then run cmd.)

New comment by m4ck_ in "The Windows equivalents of the most used Linux commands"

m4ck_ — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 14:44:42 +0000

You could just one line it too:

  Get-Item "C:\some path\having spaces.txt" | select DirectoryName, Name, Basename

New comment by m4ck_ in "The Windows equivalents of the most used Linux commands"

m4ck_ — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 14:29:39 +0000

rm only removes files and directories right? Remove-Item can be used for any powershell provider, such as environment variables, active directory, certificates, and registry. And of course you can implement your own providers that utilize *-item cmdlets. I don't know that i'd call either superior, or that i'd even say that they're equivalent. rm is a utility for removing files, remove-item is a little more than that.

New comment by m4ck_ in "The Windows equivalents of the most used Linux commands"

m4ck_ — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 14:10:04 +0000

The verbosity especially in cmdlet names kind of sucks but having everything be an object with properties and methods, vs having to chop up and parse and pipe text is quite nice. I haven't had the pleasure of being a linux admin professionally so I don't have much experience on the linux side.. but just like a really simple example of getting in interface's IP address.. Grabbing a property from get-netipaddress is easier/faster/simpler to me than chopping up text output from ifconfig.

This applies to errors of course, there are a number of properties for an error that you can look at (and use in scripts to handle errors) if the full output is too much or unclear.

New comment by m4ck_ in "Online age-verification tools for child safety are surveilling adults"

m4ck_ — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 13:58:57 +0000

Pre-trump's attempts to eliminate the department, almost $20 billion.

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/enforcement/enforcement-by-t...

New comment by m4ck_ in "Palantir and other tech companies are stocking offices with tobacco products"

m4ck_ — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 16:13:26 +0000

If companies are going to start giving us free drugs to boost productivity, they should at least give out the good stuff. Give me a modafinil (/provigil) vending machine, forget nicotine.

New comment by m4ck_ in "Could Canada and Australia form a critical minerals supergroup?"

m4ck_ — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 14:35:57 +0000

The question should be is Canada willing to extract or ship those minerals? In the case of oil, they're mostly only willing to do that if the US absorbs all of the risk - such as piping it across US farmland and aquifers to ship from ports in the Gulf of Mexico. I don't think they really have the appetite for any heavy industry.

New comment by m4ck_ in "Mac mini will be made at a new facility in Houston"

m4ck_ — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 02:30:51 +0000

It's not just loans and banking. Bad credit severely limits your housing options, even rooms for rent are running credit checks these days. Some employers too, even in roles where you aren't directly handling money or anything close to it.

New comment by m4ck_ in "Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport"

m4ck_ — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 12:07:42 +0000

Anything to distract from Congress getting unredacted access to Trumps good friend's files/emails and naming 6 of their potential clients.

New comment by m4ck_ in "AirPods Pro 4 Could Feature Cameras to 'See Around You'"

m4ck_ — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 17:00:06 +0000

Get memory foam tips for them. Mine rarely fall out if I sleep with them in.

New comment by m4ck_ in "We tasked Opus 4.6 using agent teams to build a C Compiler"

m4ck_ — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 03:28:11 +0000

Didn't you hear? We're heading towards a workless utopia where everything will be free (according to people who are actively working to eliminate things like food assistance for less fortunate mothers and children.)

New comment by m4ck_ in "It's 2026, Just Use Postgres"

m4ck_ — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 03:14:30 +0000

but mongo is webscale.

New comment by m4ck_ in "Wisconsin communities signed secrecy deals for billion-dollar data centers"

m4ck_ — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 14:26:36 +0000

Aside from the initial construction, you need a few shifts of dc techs (for remote hands, running data cables, escorting vendors), electricians, and security. Not much else really needs to be done onsite.

New comment by m4ck_ in "[dead]"

m4ck_ — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 03:21:16 +0000

I wonder if the "agents" that carried out the execution were involved in the first scuffle, and if he started carrying to protests after that? Nasty situation all around.