Hacker News: mdotmertens

New comment by mdotmertens in "Zed DeltaDB"

mdotmertens — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 20:06:44 +0000

Not only this. I'm also shuddering at the thought of how much more noise this adds which can only be filtered through LLMs.

New comment by mdotmertens in "Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license"

mdotmertens — Thu, 07 May 2026 10:52:11 +0000

No, it only takes effect upon release. Before you're free to refund whenever you want.

New comment by mdotmertens in "Am I German or Autistic?"

mdotmertens — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 13:28:50 +0000

I can verify this. I am autistic and german. The tests also said I am both.

New comment by mdotmertens in "2002: Last.fm and Audioscrobbler Herald the Social Web"

mdotmertens — Sun, 14 Dec 2025 22:20:26 +0000

I left Spotify when their CEO made a military investment.

Breaking free from their recommendation algorithm and dedicating time to discovering music has been a transformative experience.

I am delighted that numerous tools still utilize scrobbling. My favorite recent discovery is Tapmusic. [0]

[0] https://www.tapmusic.net/

New comment by mdotmertens in "PeerTube is recognized as a digital public good by Digital Public Goods Alliance"

mdotmertens — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 09:57:52 +0000

This is acceptable. We now understand that privacy-focused solutions are not appropriate for individuals with average technological literacy, and we cannot depend on companies to self-regulate.

At present, the emphasis is on the potential of large language models (LLMs) and the related ethical considerations. However, I would prefer to address the necessity for governments or commissions to assume responsibility for their citizens concerning "social" media, as this presents a significantly greater risk than any emerging technology.

New comment by mdotmertens in "Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros"

mdotmertens — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 12:35:35 +0000

As someone who has recently begun exploring physical media, I find this quite disappointing. The volume on 4K Blu-Rays is often low, prices are high, and Netflix isn't doing much to support physical media.

When you're just unwinding in front of a 65-inch screen, you might not notice the quality loss from compression. However, if you're actively watching on a 110-inch projector with an excellent sound system, every little detail becomes clear.

And that doesn't even address the most frustrating part: owning less and less.

I mean, no one needs to become a physical distributor, but it's disheartening that we lack consumer-friendly ownership of entertainment media when it comes to movies. I would love to see something like Bandcamp, but specifically for studios to release their movies to.

New comment by mdotmertens in "How elites could shape mass preferences as AI reduces persuasion costs"

mdotmertens — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 09:26:21 +0000

It's not only about efficiency. When AI is utilized, things can become more personal and even more persuasive. If AI psychosis exists, it can be easy for untrained minds to succumb to these schemes.

Ask HN: What is your favorite book that you've read this year?

mdotmertens — Sat, 25 Dec 2021 20:36:15 +0000

I am wondering what did you read this year and what did you take away from it?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29686739

Points: 6

# Comments: 4

New comment by mdotmertens in "Linux on Chromebooks just might get me through a masters in computer science"

mdotmertens — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 07:07:25 +0000

Looks like the Graph View in RoamResearch.

New comment by mdotmertens in "Show HN: Save, annotate and organize podcasts, blog posts, newsletters, videos"

mdotmertens — Tue, 11 May 2021 06:27:36 +0000

If you’re on iOS (there is a Android waitlist), I might have an even better workflow:

I use Airr[0] to listen to podcasts. It has a feature which enables you to save the last x amount of seconds (default is 45) and has transcriptions for popular podcasts. If there isn’t a transcription you can request one within minutes.

From there on I share my quotes via email to have them on my desktop(there are integrations with some services, but I don’t use them). Once I have them on my desktop, I will put them into my Obsidian notebook and organize them there.

[0] https://www.airr.io/

New comment by mdotmertens in "Woice.me – async voice communication for teams: work, at your own pace"

mdotmertens — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 09:32:33 +0000

This seems to be awesome.

I have so many meetings „that could have been an email“ but the thing is text has in my opinion a higher barrier to quickly and fluidly describe loose concepts and ideas. Every time I write an email or a message, I feel like something gets taken away.

But I think you have to be careful how to use this tool. If you just go ahead and start rambling, I think there is going to be a lot more noise than before and that’s what people usually do with voice messages.