Hacker News: mholt

New comment by mholt in "Grok 4.5"

mholt — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 22:38:18 +0000

Thank you! I'm glad you like it.

Sure. I'm not sure if I will actually publish this thing, but I can show you: https://x.com/mholt6/status/2074986102428139754

I wanted a phone app rather than yet another electronic device. Phones do not have great screens in bright sunlight, and they run hot, so it's not ideal for a bike computer in the first place. But I can't deny the convenience of the multipurpose tool that is my phone.

This app will have a few UI/UX modes. The default is the futuristic-looking HUD, but it has a low-power mode that's mostly monochrome on black, and an even lower-power "Cruise mode" that removes the map entirely and just shows you speed, approximate heading, and nav directions. Still very WIP and mostly for my own amusement!

New comment by mholt in "Grok 4.5"

mholt — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 22:14:40 +0000

Wonderful, glad it was helpful for you!

New comment by mholt in "Grok 4.5"

mholt — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 18:07:43 +0000

Of the 3 models I tried, Grok did the best at making an iOS app I wanted for personal use (a bike computer with specific qualities). (Claude just gave up and did an HTML/CSS implementation but I insisted on native SwiftUI+Metal.) Grok definitely fumbles sometimes, but I have been surprised what it CAN intuit versus me having to micromanage it.

(I am not an iOS developer, so getting something specific that I needed in a few hours/days was really helpful instead of spending months/years learning the language, APIs, etc.) (I am absolutely not "vibe-coding" Caddy btw, just tinkering with it for personal projects.)

New comment by mholt in "RFC 10008: The new HTTP Query Method"

mholt — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 17:23:15 +0000

Too many servers ignore/drop/reject body in GET requests. RFC 9110 does allow it, but is only recommended if server documentation states that it is supported.

New comment by mholt in "Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test"

mholt — Fri, 29 May 2026 04:18:37 +0000

Is it normal to load ALL the propellant when doing a static fire? (I presume that's the case, anyway, given the sheer magnitude of the kaboom.)

I know a WDR typically would, but I don't think they perform an ignition for those.

New comment by mholt in "Understanding Singleflight in Go"

mholt — Mon, 18 May 2026 22:47:17 +0000

First I've heard of this. Lazyweb, why would I use this over sync.Once?

New comment by mholt in "Googlebook"

mholt — Tue, 12 May 2026 18:22:04 +0000

This page crashes in my Google-based browser. I can't scroll down more than ~50 pixels.

New comment by mholt in "Yet Another GitHub Incident"

mholt — Tue, 05 May 2026 15:58:22 +0000

We get it.

We should probably take a break on these. It's probably more newsworthy now when GitHub is "up".

New comment by mholt in "Using the internet like it's 1999"

mholt — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 15:47:15 +0000

It was FUN though.

New comment by mholt in "NASA had to train Apollo 11's astronauts to not use profanity (2019)"

mholt — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 20:27:04 +0000

Using profanity indicates a weak vocabulary. A lack of discipline. A degree of unrefinement unbecoming of astronauts representing the "best" of humanity and their country.

Depending on the type of profanity it can divide societies by reinforcing social schisms/prejudices. Such words typically cluster around areas of cultural discomfort such as religion, sex, and hygiene, causing polarizing emotional reactions. It's biological as well as cultural.

Seems like the "best and bravest humanity has to offer" can probably represent a little better than that for one of the most significant feats of history.

New comment by mholt in "GitHub's Historic Uptime"

mholt — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 19:34:09 +0000

Even better IMO is this status page: https://mrshu.github.io/github-statuses/

"The Missing GitHub Status Page" with overall aggregate percentages. Currently at 90.84% over the last 90 days. It was at 90.00% a couple days ago.

New comment by mholt in "Starlink Mini as a failover"

mholt — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 22:51:41 +0000

Yeah but if you need Internet failover, cell phone towers are likely flooded. Starlink will be much more available (probably).

New comment by mholt in "Your phone is an entire computer"

mholt — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 19:51:15 +0000

And yet, try getting a full backup of your Google phone onto your own computer. (Without rooting/wiping the whole thing.) Heck, try getting just your text messages off (without a separate app)!

You can't. (Last time I checked.) The backup is encrypted in the cloud, and the only way to download it is to restore it to a phone.

Whereas I can just plug in my iPhone and get a full backup, complete with sqlite manifest, completely accessible. Text messages, photo library, everything.

New comment by mholt in "TUI Studio – visual terminal UI design tool"

mholt — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 12:42:52 +0000

tbf that's Apple's fault, not the choice of the free, unpaid open source developer.

New comment by mholt in "Google Safe Browsing missed 84% of confirmed phishing sites"

mholt — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 16:04:48 +0000

I never loved the idea of GSB or centralized blocklists in general due to the consequences of being wrong, or the implications for censorship.

So for my masters' thesis about 6-7 years ago now (sheesh) I proposed some alternative, privacy-preserving methods to help keep users safe with their web browsers: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/7403/

I think Chrome adopted one or two of the ideas. Nowadays the methods might need to be updated especially in a world of LLMs, but regardless, my hope was/is that the industry will refine some of these approaches and ship them.

New comment by mholt in "RFC 9849. TLS Encrypted Client Hello"

mholt — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 15:40:49 +0000

But does it automatically provision the DNS records and rotate the keys?

I'm actually kind of furious at nginx's marketing materials around ECH. They compare with other servers but completely ignore Caddy, saying that they're the only practical path to deploying ECH right now. Total lies: https://x.com/mholt6/status/2029219467482603717

New comment by mholt in "Caddy Server Release Process"

mholt — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 17:49:55 +0000

Thanks for sharing this, we like it a lot. Mohammed Al-Sahaf implemented this for us so that releases can be made by a quorum of maintainers rather than being blocked by me every time.

Here's the first release done with it: https://github.com/caddyserver/caddy/releases/tag/v2.11.0-be...

And you can see the PR flow where the action happens: https://github.com/caddyserver/caddy/pull/7383

New comment by mholt in "Hear the "Amati King Cello", the Oldest Known Cello in Existence"

mholt — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 04:35:11 +0000

That is one beautiful instrument. What does the front look like?

And I know we can't hear it in its "original glory" anymore, but is the sample only like 10 seconds long because it's proprietary, or is the cello too delicate to play a full number on, or...?

Edit: Found the museum piece with full pictures: https://emuseum.nmmusd.org/objects/6684/violoncello?ctx=7735...

New comment by mholt in "Rivian R2: Electric Mid-Size SUV"

mholt — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 03:33:55 +0000

If you look at the R1 pages, you'll see those pages, though scroll-heavy, at least contain more useful info. I'm hoping that after R2 is actually available to order, that they'll update the page with more information. It's still early.

New comment by mholt in "GitHub is down again"

mholt — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 16:53:16 +0000

We can of course host our code elsewhere, the problem is the community is kind of locked-in. It would be very "expensive" to move, and would have to be very worthwhile. So far the math doesn't support that kind of change.

Usually an outage is not a big deal, I can still work locally. Today I just happen to be in a very GH-centric workflow with the security reports and such.

I'm curious how other maintainers maintain productivity during GH outages.