Hacker News: markstos

New comment by markstos in "Tell HN: Docker pull fails in Spain due to football Cloudflare block"

markstos — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 17:51:53 +0000

It appears Cloudflare is responding to a legal requirement to implement this IP blocking.

https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/cloudflar...

New comment by markstos in "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive"

markstos — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 14:31:59 +0000

That's apparently mostly from Google to be the default search engine in Firefox. Diversifying their income streams is a good move.

The MZLA company that makes Thunderbird is also working on improving self-funding by launching a Thunderbird-branded webmail service.

New comment by markstos in "Desk for people who work at home with a cat"

markstos — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 16:04:36 +0000

Also need a split keyboard so a cat can sleep in between the halves.

New comment by markstos in "Despite Doubts, Federal Cyber Experts Approved Microsoft Cloud Service"

markstos — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 15:14:43 +0000

Frustrating that FedRAMP is both a pain to get compliant with and also apparently is not a strong signal of actual security.

New comment by markstos in "Meta’s renewed commitment to jemalloc"

markstos — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 18:41:57 +0000

How is the original author making out in the new arrangement?

New comment by markstos in "X is selling existing users' handles"

markstos — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 21:31:20 +0000

X already owned it.

New comment by markstos in "Building a new Flash"

markstos — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 23:50:09 +0000

But will there be a browser plugin?

New comment by markstos in "MacBook Neo"

markstos — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 15:52:18 +0000

Press release touts "built with the environment mind", but is silent on repairability.

Also this week: Lenovo's new ThinkPads score 10/10 for repairability showing that even popular modules of mainstream manufacturers can build with repairability in mind.

https://www.ifixit.com/News/115827/new-thinkpads-score-perfe...

Apple I imagine is still soldering their storage and memory to the motherboard.

New comment by markstos in "Lenovo’s new ThinkPads score 10/10 for repairability"

markstos — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 03:18:04 +0000

And then the year after this is released, will they sell you new mainboards with the rest of the laptop, so you can upgrade just the parts that need updating?

New comment by markstos in "iPhone 17e"

markstos — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 02:56:35 +0000

That's a great phone for runners who need to carry their phone. Smaller, lighter, pocket friendly.

New comment by markstos in "Zclaw – The 888 KiB Assistant"

markstos — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 19:23:30 +0000

My "smart" gas stove can be turned on over the internet (if I allow it to connect)—perfect appliance to put an LLM in charge of.

New comment by markstos in "Zclaw – The 888 KiB Assistant"

markstos — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 18:39:29 +0000

The examples seem to suggest it would be chatting with your home automation in natural language.

New comment by markstos in "Flock license plate readers cost city big, deliver little"

markstos — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 17:46:48 +0000

So Flock helped solve a case nearly every day of the year?

New comment by markstos in "Bridging Elixir and Python with Oban"

markstos — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 16:15:21 +0000

Ha. The question now is whether the ML industry will change directions or if the momentum of Python is a runaway train.

I can't guess. Perl was once the "800-pound gorilla" of web development, but that chapter has long been closed. Python on the other hand has only gained traction since that time.

New comment by markstos in "Bridging Elixir and Python with Oban"

markstos — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 16:12:09 +0000

Sometimes the "right tool for the job" philosophy leads to breaking down a larger problem into two small problems, each which has a different "right tool".

Choosing a single tool that tries to solve every single problem can lead to its own problems.

New comment by markstos in "Bridging Elixir and Python with Oban"

markstos — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 16:09:42 +0000

Is this part of a web server or some other system where you could end up spawning N python processes instead of 1 at a time?

New comment by markstos in "Show HN: I spent 3 years reverse-engineering a 40 yo stock market sim from 1986"

markstos — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 17:04:09 +0000

To better understand the feedback, see another example that was posted recently, about "Brownie Mary":

https://urbanists.social/@raineyday@beige.party/115793532206...

It's an inspirational true story and well-written. Then notice if the writing style feels familiar. The short sentences. It becomes the visual equivalent of these realistic AI photos, where it looks mostly right, but some feels a little off in the same way that something else you read recently felt a little off.

I'm glad I read the Brownie Mary Story and this Wall Street Raider story as well, but I also don't look forward to a future flooded with content that's "in the style of a professional writer" without some of the details and authentic voice that helps writing really connect.

New comment by markstos in "I want to wash my car. The car wash is 50 meters away. Should I walk or drive?"

markstos — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 14:47:29 +0000

Ah yes, one of those novelty reversible cups.

New comment by markstos in "Show HN: I spent 3 years reverse-engineering a 40 yo stock market sim from 1986"

markstos — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 13:15:29 +0000

It has a particular style I’ve seen lately using more short confident sentences as professional writers do. But it lacks the professional writer’s sense of when to add an anecdote and when to leave out a detail. And it is this juxtaposition that gives it a distinctive LLM feel of being written in the style of a professional writer, yet something is off.

New comment by markstos in "Fix the iOS keyboard before the timer hits zero or I'm switching back to Android"

markstos — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 16:24:28 +0000

If only there were a viable third option besides Apple and the world's largest advertising company.