Hacker News: melvyn2

New comment by melvyn2 in "Debunking Zswap and Zram Myths"

melvyn2 — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 15:25:14 +0000

  echo 1 > /sys/module/zswap/parameters/enabled

It's in TFA.

Recovering LUKS keys from running system

melvyn2 — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:58:36 +0000

Article URL: https://jfr.im/blog/2025/03/recovering-luks-keys/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45256792

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by melvyn2 in "New book-sorting algorithm almost reaches perfection"

melvyn2 — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 22:21:48 +0000

These are sometimes called Galactic Algorithms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_algorithm

The very first example on the page has a pretty good quote describing their usefulness:

>>> An example of a galactic algorithm is the fastest known way to multiply two numbers, which is based on a 1729-dimensional Fourier transform. It needs O(n log n) bit operations, but as the constants hidden by the big O notation are large, it is never used in practice. However, it also shows why galactic algorithms may still be useful. The authors state: "we are hopeful that with further refinements, the algorithm might become practical for numbers with merely billions or trillions of digits."

New comment by melvyn2 in "Apple will soon receive 'made in America' chips from TSMC's Arizona fab"

melvyn2 — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 19:34:55 +0000

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/996_working_hour_system

New comment by melvyn2 in "Stop making me memorize the borrow checker"

melvyn2 — Sun, 17 Nov 2024 00:36:56 +0000

The borrow checker exists to force you to learn, rather than to let you skip learning. To make an analogy, I think it would be weird if I complained that I had to "memorize the rules" of the type checker rather than learning how to use types as intended.

New comment by melvyn2 in "How is the SSD installed – M4 Mac Mini (2024)"

melvyn2 — Fri, 08 Nov 2024 14:01:48 +0000

Obtaining a custom storage module seems to involving reverse engineering the PCB, printing it and sourcing the NAND modules, and then BGA soldering that all together: https://youtu.be/HDFCurB3-0Q

Not a user-friendly process, I think.

New comment by melvyn2 in "Cats are (almost) liquid"

melvyn2 — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 16:23:18 +0000

> Cats are also aided by their large and sensitive vibrissae, which are positioned on such locations of their head that the cat can detect nearby obstacles in closer encounters. Vibrissal sensation can compensate for the somewhat weaker vision in cats from closer distances or in poorly illuminated environments. Therefore, it is possible that cats approached the narrow openings in our experiment without differential hesitation, and they could use their vibrissae to assess the suitability of the apertures before penetrating them.

New comment by melvyn2 in "Comma.ai: Refactoring for Growth"

melvyn2 — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 04:54:36 +0000

How many of those accomplishments were truly his, I wonder ? https://social.treehouse.systems/@marcan/109561314682149814

New comment by melvyn2 in "Tick-killing pill shows promising results in human trial"

melvyn2 — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 16:31:33 +0000

Here's a case study of 42: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1016/j.jfms.2009.09.018 And there's certainly many more cases than just those at a "referral hospital in Sydney, Australia."

New comment by melvyn2 in "Apple announces ability to download apps directly from websites in EU"

melvyn2 — Fri, 15 Mar 2024 01:23:41 +0000

AltStore is a bad joke, you can only install 2 apps (three, minus the altstore app), and you have to connect your phone to a MacOS computer and run the app every week.

Just let me click on an IPA to install it, it's really not that deep!

For Nearly 10 Years, I Operated a Satellite TV Hacking Network (2020)

melvyn2 — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 18:28:01 +0000

Article URL: https://anons.ca/p/i-used-to-operate-a-dss-hacking-network/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39683062

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

New comment by melvyn2 in "Incognito Darknet Market Mass-Extorts Buyers, Sellers"

melvyn2 — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 04:36:43 +0000

For dark-net markets, server-side encryption is already seen as a failsafe rather than a feature, and smart users ALWAYS encrypt client side (PGP). That said, for activities like these, smart users are not necessarily the majority...

New comment by melvyn2 in "VirtualBox KVM Public Release"

melvyn2 — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 15:56:44 +0000

Could you link the change? At least a few days ago virt-manager still seemed to have scaling issues with guest displays, on nixos-unstable. I had viewer scaling on though as a workaround, so maybe I just didn’t notice.

New comment by melvyn2 in "totally_safe_transmute, Line-by-Line (2021)"

melvyn2 — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 00:02:44 +0000

Calling C functions like process_vm_writev from libc requires unsafe code.

New comment by melvyn2 in "There is an OOM kill count in Linux"

melvyn2 — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 13:40:04 +0000

For desktop use, nohang does what the name says.

https://github.com/hakavlad/nohang

New comment by melvyn2 in "To revive Portland, officials seek to ban public drug use"

melvyn2 — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 01:05:47 +0000

Prohibition increased alcohol-related deaths and created a black-market of products so much worse than the regulated market before or after[0]. I would say that, in fact, prohibition did not work.

And neither does current drug prohibition. Fentanyl deaths are directly caused by the black-market supply of drugs in the US, and it isn't "decriminalized" cities like Portland that are leading these charts[1]. The current drug prohibition just means that the demand that will always exist is being supplied by mis-dosed poison instead of a well-regulated market like modern alcohol (and marijuana in some states).

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consequences_of_Prohibition [1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/drug_poisoning_mor...

New comment by melvyn2 in "18-year-old built a computer monitor that doesn't strain your eyes"

melvyn2 — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 01:04:12 +0000

6500K is not really “extremely” blue, it approximates the color temperature of midday daylight. Most color specifications including Rec. 709 (basically sRGB) specify this color temperature through the D65 white point [1], so to display colors reliably close to spec you actually need this specific temperature/spectrum.

It’s certainly cooler than most indoor lighting, but 6500K bulbs in stores are as common as warmer ones (IME). Variable-temperature bulbs work well enough to output it too, and I would actually recommend using them to get a good matching daylight white when indoors during midday, while still being able to have warmer colors in the evening or at night (just as night color modes do for your monitor).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminant_D65

New comment by melvyn2 in "Google vs. the Open Web"

melvyn2 — Wed, 26 Jul 2023 16:34:16 +0000

No, Valve is specifically noted for not having a kernel-driver anticheat in a landscape where most competitive games do use them. Notably, Easy Anti-Cheat, BattlEye, and Valorant's Vanguard all use kernel drivers, but no Valve Anti-Cheat has, because they've focused on server-side heuristics and crowed-sourced detection instead of trying to force the client to rat itself out.

New comment by melvyn2 in "Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake"

melvyn2 — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 13:12:32 +0000

The pixel, for example, already has a secure yet user-unlockable bootloader. So do modern x86_64 PC's. Statements like these, claiming that only apple can properly secure a device (and hence that users deserve to be locked out), simply show astounding ignorance.

New comment by melvyn2 in "Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake"

melvyn2 — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 13:04:19 +0000

As surprising as you may find it, Apple doesn't have a monopoly on good hardware. The stereotype of any non-macbook being a toaster is practically a strawman at this point (while people are so quick to forget the atrocity of the i9 macbook).