Hacker News: simondanerd

New comment by simondanerd in "Automatic U.S. military draft registration planned by December, filing shows"

simondanerd — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 00:13:42 +0000

What's the difference between that and what's in place now? I thought every male had to register within 30 days of their 18th birthday.

New comment by simondanerd in "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (April 2026)"

simondanerd — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 15:24:34 +0000

Location: Bloomington, IN

Remote: No (not preferred)

Willing to relocate: No

Technologies: Linux (Debian, some RHEL) & Windows Sysadmin, TAK, Docker, RF, LAMP development

Résumé/CV: https://cv.lucasburlingham.me

Email: hn47601858@lucasburlingham.me

Looking for a Systems Engineer-adjacent position, focused on building from the ground up in innovative ways. Active clearance.

New comment by simondanerd in "Automatically generate all 3D print files for organizing a drawer"

simondanerd — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 02:52:57 +0000

Wait long enough and it popped up for me. (Android, also basically Linux but using Vivaldi)

Took about 10 secs.

New comment by simondanerd in "First 6 days of Iran war cost $11.3B"

simondanerd — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 16:33:14 +0000

Anything to keep ourselves comfortable. That's one of the reasons I see that we have representatives - so the population at large doesn't have to bear the burden of doing dirty work.

We then in the same breath complain about government but put forth no effort to fix it.

New comment by simondanerd in "Bell Kiosk makes websites by hand for humans"

simondanerd — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 13:53:28 +0000

I may not be in the business (and this is not an ad), but I could likely build the same site in about 30 minutes and charge a tenth of the price to recover the cost of Copilot in VS Code for a year.

Human-built has its place, but it's hard to justify when the price is so much higher for a relatively repetitive task that produces the same results.

New comment by simondanerd in "Show HN: A website that proves you are richer than everyone else"

simondanerd — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 11:51:56 +0000

In this economy? I'd better start my own!

Hope you enjoy the coffee money.

New comment by simondanerd in "Chromebook Tricks (with a small magnet)"

simondanerd — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 23:05:24 +0000

The link presented me with a request for access, would you mind opening it to the public so individuals don't have to request access?

New comment by simondanerd in "Ask HN: Advice for creating a USB device linking 2 computers"

simondanerd — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 20:04:08 +0000

It usually runs a Debian based image. And you would probably just have to reboot the script, or write a wrapper around the keyboard functions.

But yes, it's overkill for an overkill solution. Buying another keyboard may be easier.

New comment by simondanerd in "Ask HN: Advice for creating a USB device linking 2 computers"

simondanerd — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 19:21:11 +0000

Sounds like a cool project, but you may find that using SSH or RealVNC to be a bit easier and cheaper.

ChatGPT isn't wrong - this sounds like what you need: https://pypi.org/project/zero-hid/.

New comment by simondanerd in "Bitchat – A decentralized messaging app that works over Bluetooth mesh networks"

simondanerd — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 12:51:37 +0000

I'd like to point you towards Meshtastic [1]. It's off-grid, decentralized text messaging that allows for encryption, and is inexpensive to get into (a basic node is about $30 or less), and don't require a license to operate.

The firmware on these devices is open source (minus proprietary blobs for ESP32 WiFi, etc.) and the community is active. Check the Meshmap [2] to see some nodes that have made their location public in your area.

[1] https://meshtastic.org/ [2] https://meshmap.net/

New comment by simondanerd in "Best Buy is selling a $400 "digital Ethernet" cable for "cleaner, clearer sound""

simondanerd — Wed, 28 May 2025 16:12:40 +0000

Is this not the advantage of an optical sound cable? A 10 foot cable is $8 on Amazon.

1.25% silver doesn't qualify as "solid" in my mind either.

New comment by simondanerd in "Selling your old laptop or phone? You might be handing over your data too"

simondanerd — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 14:02:58 +0000

I second this, cheap SSDs are in the $35-40 range and won't contain your data, easy enough to swap out.

Whenever I buy pre built devices I usually swap out the drives for something more premium as the manufacturer probably was optimizing for cost.

New comment by simondanerd in "The April Fools joke that might have got me fired"

simondanerd — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 21:06:09 +0000

Snook boom five seven supercalifragilisticexpialidocious bum fortnite.

This post has been removed by Redact for HN.

New comment by simondanerd in "Cover Your Tracks"

simondanerd — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 11:58:24 +0000

The Librewolf browser (and I suppose most Mozilla based browsers could as well) does something like this - https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Fingerprinting.

New comment by simondanerd in "Yes, in the 1980s we downloaded games from the radio"

simondanerd — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 11:41:52 +0000

Also check out rtty and FT8/FT4 for those interested in other "digital over analog" modes.

New comment by simondanerd in "NSA F9T53 Opsec Special Bulletin: Signal Vulnerability"

simondanerd — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 02:47:53 +0000

What's ironic is that the document is marked For Official Use Only, and typically shouldn't be distributed without being officially released.

New comment by simondanerd in "How secure is Signal? Cyber experts weigh in on Trump admins use of the app"

simondanerd — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 16:28:54 +0000

Even if all individuals are properly cleared and have a need to know, Signal is not an authorized method of communication for work-related materials.

New comment by simondanerd in "Plex price increases for 2025, remote streaming of personal media no longer free"

simondanerd — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 23:00:28 +0000

After trying Plex, I found Jellyfin [1] to be a complete replacement when paired with a VPN for remote devices. I haven't had a single issue with a library over 2TB and thousands of files.

[1]: https://jellyfin.org/

New comment by simondanerd in "Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment"

simondanerd — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 02:15:36 +0000

So a bit of background - generally techy young guy who's done a bit of everything from web development to getting deep into LFS/remixing Arch Linux to rock climbing and shooting. I was trained as a 25U Signal Support Specialist in the US Army and got my first dip into RF communications there, though we focused primarily on using the systems, not necessarily the theory behind them.

Fast forward a couple years, and I was told to study for and take a test to become certified and get into HF as there were a slew of contests coming up I could help out with (Winter field day, state QSO party, etc.) Coincidentally, I was asked to teach a class for my company and spearhead radio maintenance for the unit the same day I got my Technician license, which, after doing a week-long deep dive into the FCC's test, helped a lot.

So yes, I am now certified as a Technician in the US (Callsign KR4AUW, [1]) and am working on upgrading to General class at the end of the month. It's been good to get back into radio stuff after being focused on an IT help desk, and nearly 100% of the material carries over to better job performance. Plus it's a good hobby, and it's shown me what valuable training is out there, primarily RACES, SKYWARN, and the FEMA incident response method.

[1]: https://kr4auw.us

New comment by simondanerd in "Microsoft paywalling features in Notepad and Paint"

simondanerd — Sun, 16 Mar 2025 22:49:33 +0000

I've kept every version of Windows and major releases of popular Linux distros, but didn't know exactly what to do with them other than test certain things when I'm teaching someone an ecosystem.

Add binary storage and versioning to the list of reasons I keep my NAS going.