Hacker News: mmsimanga

New comment by mmsimanga in "Home Assistant waters my plants"

mmsimanga — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 12:12:51 +0000

I dabbled in hydroponics for some years. Due to my inability to get my Rasberry Pi and Arduino working I ended up using a 12V pump and one of those cheap $10 electric timers on Aliexpress. I estimated how much time it took for my hydroponics system to drain and that's what I set on the timer. Other people I followed had all sorts of sensors rigged up, which I would have done if I had the time and skill but I failed, so in the end it was just the timer. I too had single solar panel and battery and the system worked for over 7 years with no issues. I just replaced the pump once or twice.

New comment by mmsimanga in "Danish government agency to ditch Microsoft software (2025)"

mmsimanga — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 13:03:38 +0000

Yes. The key point of view being from someone outside the US. I cannot speak for those in the US. But the point is techies outside the US had been reduced to merely configuring US products. Speaking where I am from IT organisations were now being led by accountants and lawyers because there wasn't any decision to make, just go with Office 365. The hardest part was negotiating the often opaque licensing. There has been a revitalization of the craft of software development and I think in the long run this will be good for the industry. Yes there might be fragmentation but hopefully standards start getting adopted to counter this fragmentation and interoperability.

New comment by mmsimanga in "Danish government agency to ditch Microsoft software (2025)"

mmsimanga — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 12:41:06 +0000

I am often amused at how people outside the US don't like the current US government yet if it wasn't for the current US government the whole world would have been sleep walking into Office 365 and Teams. I don't hold any political opinion but do like that we are now going to have alternatives and true competition.

New comment by mmsimanga in "Converting a $3.88 analog clock from Walmart into a ESP8266-based Wi-Fi clock"

mmsimanga — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 17:24:58 +0000

+1 I have a couple of digital.clocks from Temu. They look nice but cannot keep the correct time. They slowly edge ahead and in a month they are about a minute ahead. It is annoying having to correct the clock and would be great if they time from WiFi connected source.

New comment by mmsimanga in "How to carry more than your own bodyweight (2025)"

mmsimanga — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 19:22:47 +0000

African women often carry a 25l water can on their heads which is 25kg/52pounds. Often they have another 25kgs in one hand. They navigate narrow paths up and down hills, duck under branches without spilling a drop. Usually maintaining a casual conversation the whole time with whoever they are with.

New comment by mmsimanga in "The time I didn't meet Jeffrey Epstein"

mmsimanga — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 05:13:16 +0000

Reminds me of that academic paper that was generated by a computer, this was before current wave of AI agents. The paper was just word soup but was accepted into a journal. Apologies I don't have link typing on mobile.

New comment by mmsimanga in "Ask HN: How locked down are your work machines?"

mmsimanga — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 04:09:19 +0000

I can't even send attachments using Gmail. The restrictions opened up the world of KVM switches for me. I have a personal mini computer and at the touch of a button I switch between my work laptop and home mini computer using the same keyboard and screen.

New comment by mmsimanga in "‘ELITE’: The Palantir app ICE uses to find neighborhoods to raid"

mmsimanga — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 02:58:12 +0000

Another nuance I would like to add, being an immigrant myself, not in the US. There should be more discussion about fixing the source of the migrants, the countries people are running away from. What is it that makes people leave their families behind and how can it be fixed. I know it isn't up to the US to fix other countries but it should be a point of nuanced discussion. We cannot all end up in the US.

New comment by mmsimanga in "As AI gobbles up chips, prices for devices may rise"

mmsimanga — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 14:57:24 +0000

Ah that makes sense. Thanks for the insight.

New comment by mmsimanga in "As AI gobbles up chips, prices for devices may rise"

mmsimanga — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 11:19:17 +0000

It is even worse for those of us in Africa. The equivalent phone I can buy for USD$150-250 back home is absolutely shocking in terms of how bad it is in ram ,disk space and often an outdated version of Android. I buy my phones on Amazon US which delivers and I get a much better phone for the same price range.

New comment by mmsimanga in "Yep, Passkeys Still Have Problems"

mmsimanga — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 18:04:58 +0000

I dropped my phone and it literally fell apart. As a result I have been locked out of my AWS account. The get a phone call verification just does not work. Only saving grace is that it was an account I used to test things.

New comment by mmsimanga in "He set out to walk around the world. After 27 years, his quest is nearly over"

mmsimanga — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 10:09:55 +0000

Absolutely. I have social media accounts primarily to view links people send me but I am not an active user. A quieter world works for me.

New comment by mmsimanga in "He set out to walk around the world. After 27 years, his quest is nearly over"

mmsimanga — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 08:23:49 +0000

Not OP and not an expert but seems the aim is outrage which leads to more engagement and more advertising clicks, more followers and so on. Distorting news and social media from reality. I must say I too have found that people are nicer than what news portrays. I had the pleasure of being able to visit New York a few years and the people were just people and pleasant.

New comment by mmsimanga in "Screenshots from developers: 2002 vs. 2015 (2015)"

mmsimanga — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 05:20:21 +0000

IMHO, speaking from a data engineer perspective. Excel is used excessively by industry specialists who aren't in IT or but IT people who are being constrained by environment. As in they don't have a better tool to work in. It is a great tool to quickly mock up a report.

Why am I am not good at excel, it is because I am the person who tends to fetch the data from the different systems and consolidates it for the analysts to analyse and some do use Excel to analyse the data.

New comment by mmsimanga in "Screenshots from developers: 2002 vs. 2015 (2015)"

mmsimanga — Sun, 07 Dec 2025 13:27:39 +0000

You could be right but I would like to put forward another possible reason. They could be telling the truth. I studied computer science late 90s and to this day I cannot use MS Excel beyond summing a column of numbers. To make matters worse I work in data engineering space. So people often assume I do not want to help them when I tell them I cannot help them with their fancy spreadsheets. I have never owned a Mac book and sometimes I get asked for help and I haven't a clue how to help. The answer is how come but you have been working with computers for all these years.

New comment by mmsimanga in "Over-regulation is doubling the cost"

mmsimanga — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 05:47:10 +0000

Typical structures in the villages are bungalows built by people you know. Sounds like the crisis in the link you shared is from corrupt approvals and poor construction of commercial properties sold to people. People build houses they will live in in the villages and for me this is a big enough incentive to build it properly. You will have no one to blame when your own roof falls on your head. The builders are also known and it would be a business ending move to build a rubbish house for your neighbour. Word would get out pretty quick. One thing people do in the village is talk as they have plenty time. I think all these other factors make up for the lack of regulation.

New comment by mmsimanga in "Over-regulation is doubling the cost"

mmsimanga — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 05:41:24 +0000

In my village there is no regulation for building residential property. You don't have title deeds either. You get allocated a piece of land by the local chief or headman/woman and you decide where and what you can build. The only regulation is you must have a toilet. Which tends to be a no brainer and one of the first things most people build. A simple Blair toilet.

New comment by mmsimanga in "Over-regulation is doubling the cost"

mmsimanga — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:20:28 +0000

In my country in Africa there is a huge shortage of homes in cities where building is regulated. Not enough homes are being built and many people live in shacks. Building in the villages has literally no regulations and amazing houses are being built at an amazing pace in the villages because you don't need any regulatory approval.

I don't think all building regulations should be put aside but we have a crisis something needs to give.

New comment by mmsimanga in "The history of Casio watches"

mmsimanga — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 08:06:42 +0000

I absolutely loved the tiles interface and held onto my Windows phone for as long as I could. I eventually had to switch to Android when apps I depended stopped working on Windows phone.

New comment by mmsimanga in "GNU Midnight Commander"

mmsimanga — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 09:19:47 +0000

This looks interesting but is a 1Gig download.