<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: nichol4s</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=nichol4s</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 08:40:17 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=nichol4s" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by nichol4s in "After Pornhub left France, this VPN saw a 1,000% surge in signups in 30 minutes"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Another service which tries to fill this gap with a unique offering is <a href="https://getadultpass.com/" rel="nofollow">https://getadultpass.com/</a><p>They basically add 'verification headers' to the original website through a proxy solution, allowing visitors to browse sites with some level of age verification regardless of their location. They are more focused on the 'privacy aspect'.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 07 Jun 2025 18:50:22 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44211696</link><dc:creator>nichol4s</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44211696</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44211696</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by nichol4s in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2025)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I love the 'coffee stain'indicator! 
How do you rank results?<p>Can you give some rough indications of how many pages you index in total? How many page you crawl each day? Size of the machine(s) in RAM and HDD?<p>Sorry, many questions, just genuinely intrigued!</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 26 May 2025 12:14:29 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44096700</link><dc:creator>nichol4s</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44096700</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44096700</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by nichol4s in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2025)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm working on a MCP Server to get Starlight API documentation quickly connected to any model.  I have the initial stuff setup, doing some experiments now to figure out how to optimize performance (reduce number of roundtrips, don't overload the context).<p>For example, if during the conversation someone asks, "tell me how this API call works". It should be able to. 1. find the right API document (requires search) and then 2. 'retrieve' that API document. But if that API document also requires other content (eg Authentication is separate) that will require ANOTHER roundtrip. So I'm currently trying to figure out what the best flow would be for this.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 26 May 2025 11:52:35 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44096513</link><dc:creator>nichol4s</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44096513</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44096513</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by nichol4s in "Show HN: Scalex Guitar Toolkit (from 30 years ago)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>That blinking cursor gives me nostalgic feelings.Nice. 
For anyone checking this out, this is not a video, you can actually 'play' with it, just use the keyboard and hit 'p'.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 26 May 2025 08:28:20 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44095253</link><dc:creator>nichol4s</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44095253</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44095253</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by nichol4s in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2025)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Nice - would you be interested in making this into a saas service? We are starting to open up our "automation API" and could maybe work together on bringing your extension to something that does not use playwright and a remote browser.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 26 May 2025 07:55:53 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44095058</link><dc:creator>nichol4s</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44095058</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44095058</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by nichol4s in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2025)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Holy shit, so you are uh building a search engine from scratch. 
Do you crawl yourself? What is your infrastructure? What is your goal for search.marginalia ?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 26 May 2025 07:54:04 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44095049</link><dc:creator>nichol4s</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44095049</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44095049</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by nichol4s in "Show HN: DaedalOS – Desktop Environment in the Browser"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The 'per user' pricing is only for the number of admins/devs they'd need to give access to the platform, beyond that you can scale to unlimited users.<p>And also for this specific need case (just proxying and embedding) the 'spark' plan at €19 will be enough though. Also for these non-for-profit usecases I'm happy to sponsor access.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 26 May 2025 07:47:13 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44095012</link><dc:creator>nichol4s</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44095012</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44095012</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by nichol4s in "Show HN: DaedalOS – Desktop Environment in the Browser"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Wow - indeed. I see you made something like this already back in 2012. Impressive: <a href="https://github.com/Lerc/notanos">https://github.com/Lerc/notanos</a> That is more than 13 years ago when websockets where about to become generally available. Impressive!<p>Don't be discouraged by people that argue what you should or should not do. The world is full with people with their own agenda or that simply have a too narrow view of how their world should operate.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 25 May 2025 20:42:43 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44090917</link><dc:creator>nichol4s</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44090917</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44090917</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by nichol4s in "Show HN: DaedalOS – Desktop Environment in the Browser"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>This is amazing - well done, and indeed runs oh-so smooth - even on mobile!<p>I see that the browser is somewhat limited as most sites try to prevent 'embedding'. However, we have a solution where we can proxy any web content in such a way to still allow you to embed it: <a href="https://www.webfuse.com/use-case/embed-unembeddable-content" rel="nofollow">https://www.webfuse.com/use-case/embed-unembeddable-content</a><p>Lmk if you would like to try this out and I can help you set this up.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 25 May 2025 19:08:47 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44090155</link><dc:creator>nichol4s</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44090155</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44090155</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by nichol4s in "Show HN: HNRelevant – Add a "related" section to Hacker News"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>This is useful - thank you.
I'll try to see if I can make this into a Webfuse extension.<p>Edit: that was actually pretty easy you can see it here: <a href="https://webfu.se/+hn/" rel="nofollow">https://webfu.se/+hn/</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 24 May 2025 16:23:02 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44082059</link><dc:creator>nichol4s</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44082059</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44082059</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Web Augmentation: Change the web through virtual web sessions]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Article URL: <a href="https://www.webfuse.com/blog/web-augmentation">https://www.webfuse.com/blog/web-augmentation</a></p>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43545660">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43545660</a></p>
<p>Points: 1</p>
<p># Comments: 0</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 01 Apr 2025 11:53:08 +0000</pubDate><link>https://www.webfuse.com/blog/web-augmentation</link><dc:creator>nichol4s</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43545660</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43545660</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by nichol4s in "Webfuse – The Web Augmentation Platform"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>TL;DR: We built Webfuse, a Web Augmentation Platform that lets you modify, automate, and collaborate on any web app — without changing the source code. Think “programmable browser session” where you can inject custom extensions, share sessions, record, automate, and more. It’s built on 10+ years of co-browsing tech from Surfly.<p>Hi HN,<p>I’m Nicholas Piël, founder of Surfly — we’ve been building co-browsing solutions since 2012. Over the years, we've developed a technology that allows us to take any web session and convert it into a virtual web session that can be shared and interacted with by multiple participants — all in real-time, and without touching the original app.<p>This led us to build Webfuse, which we’re now opening up publicly. Webfuse is a Web Augmentation Platform — it lets you modify, automate, and collaborate on any web application, without installing extensions, modifying code, or owning the underlying app.<p>Why we built it
We realized our core tech — real-time rewriting and virtualization of web sessions — was more powerful than just co-browsing. A few of our customers figured this out too, and used our APIs to build completely new tools on top of third-party apps. But until recently, the infrastructure wasn’t mature enough to make this accessible to a broader audience.
Now, it is. Webfuse is the product of over a decade of work in this domain.<p>What’s different
Existing solutions like browser extensions, edge code injection, or remote browsers all fall short when it comes to modifying third-party apps securely and scalably. We took a different route: on-the-fly, domain-level rewriting of existing apps inside a secure virtualization layer. This lets us expose a consistent API to developers, while maintaining full compatibility with modern web apps.<p>You can:
Launch virtual sessions that wrap any web app
Add custom extensions (browser-extension-like API)
Share sessions with multiple users (like multiplayer mode)
Inject automation (bots, testing, RPA, etc.)
Record sessions, enforce auth, block tracking, etc.<p>How it works
You create a Space — essentially a URL that opens one or more web apps in virtualized form. From there, you can add security, extensions, or UI changes. All of this is configurable through the Webfuse API or UI.<p>We expose:
- REST API
- JavaScript session API
- Webhooks
- Magic Link (JWT-based) API
- Extension API (based loosely on browser extension standards)<p>Why this is interesting
If you’ve ever wanted to: Turn a legacy internal tool into a modern frontend, Saasify a browser extension, Inject AI into third-party apps, Or just hack on top of software you don’t own.
...this might give you that ability. Webfuse acts as a programmable overlay on the web.<p>Site: <a href="https://www.webfuse.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.webfuse.com</a>
Docs: <a href="https://docs.surfly.online/category/webfuse-beta" rel="nofollow">https://docs.surfly.online/category/webfuse-beta</a><p>Happy to answer anything here.
— Nicholas</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 01 Apr 2025 08:09:49 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43544085</link><dc:creator>nichol4s</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43544085</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43544085</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Webfuse – The Web Augmentation Platform]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Article URL: <a href="https://www.webfuse.com">https://www.webfuse.com</a></p>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43544063">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43544063</a></p>
<p>Points: 1</p>
<p># Comments: 1</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 01 Apr 2025 08:07:03 +0000</pubDate><link>https://www.webfuse.com</link><dc:creator>nichol4s</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43544063</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43544063</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by nichol4s in "CrowdStrike will be liable for damages in France, based on the OVH precedent"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The exec just follows the instructions provided by their CISO, who adheres to the information security standards used in audits.<p>These standards are influenced not only by actual threats but also by lobbying from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) systems like SentinelOne and Crowdstrike. For instance, in 2021, the White House issued Executive Order 14028, which mandates the Federal Government to implement a robust EDR solution. Consequently, standards such as those from NIST and ISO27001 have increasingly emphasized malware detection and response.<p>When onboarding any large enterprise, you will encounter these requirements before the enterprise can proceed with procuring your service. This compels B2B organizations to implement this software to be successful.<p>^1 <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?cycle=2022&id=D000095316" rel="nofollow">https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary...</a><p>^2 <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?cycle=2023&id=D000084079" rel="nofollow">https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary...</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 25 Jul 2024 11:26:13 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41067274</link><dc:creator>nichol4s</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41067274</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41067274</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by nichol4s in "Launch HN: Hyperbeam API (YC W22) – Multiplayer embeds of any website"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Interesting! Something pretty similar to what enable at <a href="https://www.surfly.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.surfly.com</a> the difference is that we focus more on B2B types of integrations and stream the actual DOM instead of a WebRTC videostream.<p>Good luck!</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 22 Feb 2022 21:42:33 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30434282</link><dc:creator>nichol4s</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30434282</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30434282</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by nichol4s in "Automatic dark mode on HN without browser extensions"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The nice thing about this, is that it even keeps the 'dark mode' when you click through to a different link.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 17 Sep 2021 09:11:09 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28562978</link><dc:creator>nichol4s</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28562978</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28562978</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Exploring middleware superpowers with our proxy technology]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Article URL: <a href="https://www.surfly.com/blog/exploring-middleware-superpowers-with-surfly-proxy-technology/">https://www.surfly.com/blog/exploring-middleware-superpowers-with-surfly-proxy-technology/</a></p>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27689792">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27689792</a></p>
<p>Points: 2</p>
<p># Comments: 0</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 30 Jun 2021 15:34:39 +0000</pubDate><link>https://www.surfly.com/blog/exploring-middleware-superpowers-with-surfly-proxy-technology/</link><dc:creator>nichol4s</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27689792</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27689792</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by nichol4s in "Uber used 50 Dutch shell companies to dodge taxes on $6B in revenue"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>My understanding is as follows: the Dutch shell company is a parent (holding) company which basically holds shares in a subsidiary. If the holding company owns more than 95% of the shares of its subsidiary it acts as a single fiscal unit, allowing it to be taxed as one. Now, if the parental company has multiple subsidiaries it enables the holding to settle costs of the one, with the profits of the other.<p>But, the main thing that the Dutch tax system enable, is that you can sell the shares of a subsidiary and hold the profits within the parental company (for the purpose of re-investing) without the need to pay taxes. This enables companies to quickly 'move' subsidiaries around the world without any tax consequences.<p>This opens up an enormous amount of opportunity for creative tax lawyers who thrive in this grey area. International tax rules are so complex and the stakes so high that in the end they can just negotiate an 'acceptable' tax rate on a government level. Where, in the end, if the government does not agree, they can just 'move' their business somewhere else.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 13 May 2021 11:28:29 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27140904</link><dc:creator>nichol4s</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27140904</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27140904</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by nichol4s in "Launch HN: Cohere (YC S20) – Real-time user support for web apps"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Nice work guys! We do something similar at Surfly but we start the session through our proxy so no extension or changes to the application are required.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 29 Oct 2020 17:07:05 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24932669</link><dc:creator>nichol4s</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24932669</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24932669</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by nichol4s in "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (August 2020)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Surfly | Frontend Engineer, Full stack engineer, Support Engineer | Amsterdam, NL | VISA, ONSITE <a href="https://www.surfly.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.surfly.com</a><p>The ideal engineer for us has Python, Javascript and Go experience, deep knowledge about the web (caches, proxies, event loops, browser rendering).  But, we're looking for a variety of different roles, all talent welcome. Please take a look at <a href="https://jobs.surfly.com" rel="nofollow">https://jobs.surfly.com</a> or shoot me a message directly: nicholas AT surfly.com<p>What we offer:<p><pre><code>  - Market conform Salary
  - Ability to participate in stock option plan  (you'll join pre-series A)
  - We'll arrange tax benefits for migrants
  - Developer focused (sitting/standing desk, multiple screens, good hardware)
  - Nice office located in the centre of Amsterdam (at the Singel)
  - Reimbursement of costs for conferences etc.
  - We'll help with VISA and relocation
  - New laptop of your choosing

</code></pre>
About Surfly<p>Surfly allows you to surf the web together with others. Unlike traditional screen sharing it requires no installation or browser plugins. By using a smart content-rewriting proxy we allow any website to be shared, without website owners having to change them in any way.<p>Joining now is the perfect time: proven business model, primed for growth, but still early enough to still be able to define the culture and join prior to our series A.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 04 Aug 2020 07:12:53 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24047495</link><dc:creator>nichol4s</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24047495</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24047495</guid></item></channel></rss>