Hacker News: pxeboot

New comment by pxeboot in "Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage"

pxeboot — Mon, 25 May 2026 18:09:49 +0000

> I like imessage because businesses cannot easily use it. The people who are most willing to pay for what you provide will do so because they can thereby annoy me in interfaces where other spammers cannot.

I strongly disagree. If I need to chat with a business, an airline for example, why would I want to use SMS instead of iMessage? It’s the same app, but being able to easily send screenshots or photos and know they were received would be a huge improvement.

New comment by pxeboot in "Credit cards are vulnerable to brute force kind attacks"

pxeboot — Sat, 02 May 2026 15:19:10 +0000

> Only digital wallets, or also any merchant that saved the card using a token?

Only digital wallets. Specifically, Apple Pay, Garmin Pay, and Google Pay.

New comment by pxeboot in "Credit cards are vulnerable to brute force kind attacks"

pxeboot — Fri, 01 May 2026 22:49:24 +0000

> I again called the credit card company and this time, told them to cancel all the digital wallets (there were 99 of them!). There is no way to do this online.

This is highly dependent on your bank. For example, Bank of America lets you view and delete any cards that have been added to a digital wallet right on their website.

New comment by pxeboot in "OpenTrafficMap"

pxeboot — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 01:33:21 +0000

It looks like Mapbox Standard [1]. While a free tier is available, most sites are going to need a paid plan.

[1] https://docs.mapbox.com/map-styles/standard/guides/

New comment by pxeboot in "USB Cheat Sheet (2022)"

pxeboot — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 00:11:25 +0000

I still don't understand why MacBooks support USB4/Thunderbolt 4/5, but NOT USB 3.2 Gen 2x2. So you can get 20-40Gb/s speeds with more expensive external disks, but only 10Gb/s with the cheaper, more commonly available ones that advertise 20Gb/s.

New comment by pxeboot in "MacBook Neo and how the iPad should be"

pxeboot — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 22:08:02 +0000

> If you actually go to the used market, it's easy to find a gently used machine that is much better.

A huge percentage of the population (at least in the US) is completely unwilling to buy any used consumer products. For some it is the ick factor, for others it is fear of being scammed.

> Any MacBook Air with an M2 and 16GB of RAM is a better purchase.

Is this really a better alternative if it stops getting macOS updates several years sooner? I wouldn’t buy an 8gb laptop, but they are fine for many use cases.

New comment by pxeboot in "FBI used iPhone notification data to retrieve deleted Signal messages"

pxeboot — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 21:09:55 +0000

This isn't really an issue anymore. All M series Macs (and T2?) are always encrypted by default.

New comment by pxeboot in "FBI used iPhone notification data to retrieve deleted Signal messages"

pxeboot — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 17:02:08 +0000

> I don't think either OS implements notification syncing between devices

iOS does. This is how you can receive Signal notifications on your Apple Watch and other Apple devices that don’t have the app installed.

New comment by pxeboot in "Sports Betting Is Everywhere, Especially on Credit Reports"

pxeboot — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 04:39:34 +0000

> They didn't change any laws, did they? So it was as legal earlier as it is now, isn't it? It's just that someone found the right loophole that was always there.

In the US, it was banned in most places until 2018. The Supreme Court invalidated the ban that had been in place until then.

New comment by pxeboot in "GrapheneOS refuses to comply with new age verification laws for operating system"

pxeboot — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 20:39:29 +0000

> An adult had to pay for the ISP connection

In many countries, it is still possible to buy a prepaid SIM without any ID.

New comment by pxeboot in "The MacBook Neo"

pxeboot — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 17:56:52 +0000

> I don’t know how they do things nowadays, but it used to be the case that the same SKU didn’t even guarantee you the same hardware. Two machines of the same order could even be slightly different, requiring different drivers.

Apple is guilty of this too. For example, two iPhone's purchased at the same time can have displays from different manufactures, with noticeable quality differences between them.

New comment by pxeboot in "Dumping Lego NXT firmware off of an existing brick (2025)"

pxeboot — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 01:34:04 +0000

I have kept all my favorite sets. They don't take up much space. Just two 24x24x24” boxes. Maybe a big deal if you are moving internationally, but I have always been able to find space for them, even in some very small homes.

New comment by pxeboot in "Apple: Enough Is Enough"

pxeboot — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 19:11:34 +0000

> There is no simple way to reset the computer to factory conditions.

This is not accurate. There is a built-in factory reset option on macOS, just like on iOS.

New comment by pxeboot in "Swapping SIM cards used to be easy, and then came eSIM"

pxeboot — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 18:31:48 +0000

> ESim are backed up as part of iCloud backups

You can’t actually backup an eSIM. If you could, they would be easy to clone. I know Apple uses that terminology, but that isn’t what is happening in the background. Same with transferring an eSIM. A new one is issued each time.

New comment by pxeboot in "Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?"

pxeboot — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 19:20:24 +0000

Apple does provide a way to transfer purchases to a different account you control [1].

[1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/117267

New comment by pxeboot in "Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices"

pxeboot — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 02:48:54 +0000

> Have people switched en masse to them? Nope.

Business, sure, but there are millions of consumers who exclusively use Google Docs, iWork, or other Office alternatives.

New comment by pxeboot in "Bootloader Unlock Wall of Shame"

pxeboot — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 18:57:37 +0000

Yes, I have a Garmin watch paired with GrapheneOS.

New comment by pxeboot in "Bootloader Unlock Wall of Shame"

pxeboot — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 18:44:41 +0000

I personally use my smart watch for NFC payments. I find it far more convenient then paying with my phone.

New comment by pxeboot in "Bootloader Unlock Wall of Shame"

pxeboot — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 18:01:23 +0000

Not with Google Wallet.

New comment by pxeboot in "Bootloader Unlock Wall of Shame"

pxeboot — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 17:52:26 +0000

I use GraphaneOS and have had zero issues with the ~10 bank/brokerage apps I use.