Hacker News: simonmales

New comment by simonmales in "Localsend: An open-source cross-platform alternative to AirDrop"

simonmales — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 12:54:49 +0000

I think nowadays on Android it's called QuickShare, and it works. But I believe the fragmentation and awareness is a part of the problem for Android.

New comment by simonmales in "Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids"

simonmales — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 13:39:08 +0000

Thanks for sharing the "fixed wireless terminal" tip. A HN post a while ago describe hacking a landline to a wireless terminal. But this tip removes the hacking :)

New comment by simonmales in "Czech Man's Stone in Barn's Foundations Is Rare Bronze Age Spearhead Mold"

simonmales — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 12:51:36 +0000

What's the risk?

Personally, I only see benefits.

New comment by simonmales in "Machine Payments Protocol (MPP)"

simonmales — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 15:59:34 +0000

I guess competition with the Bitcoin equivalent https://www.l402.org/

New comment by simonmales in "Motorola GrapheneOS devices will be bootloader unlockable/relockable"

simonmales — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 11:17:59 +0000

Here is my recent history of phones: https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=8972&idPhone2...

The Nokia 6.1 now feels like a monster in my hand at 75mm.

I agree that 70mm is sweet spot.

New comment by simonmales in "Motorola GrapheneOS devices will be bootloader unlockable/relockable"

simonmales — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 11:10:56 +0000

The Pixel 8 might be my next "upgrade" (sidegrade?)

New comment by simonmales in "Motorola GrapheneOS devices will be bootloader unlockable/relockable"

simonmales — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 08:25:03 +0000

The small form factor phones simply do not sell. Some great thoughts on the topic:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR9zBsKELVs * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZdbbN3FCzE Not about small form factor, rather enthusiast phones don't last

Currently running a Sony Xperia 5 V which farm factor is acceptable, and still will get a number of months of updates. And the winning point is that the bootloader can be unlocked and is supported by LineageOS.

New comment by simonmales in "I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard"

simonmales — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 07:54:42 +0000

Good thing about trmnl is you can run the entire backend if the company disappears.

New comment by simonmales in "Rice Theory: Why Eastern Cultures Are More Cooperative (2014)"

simonmales — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 13:45:04 +0000

I made fun of the 'America First' campaign slogan and referred to it as 'America Only'.

Then you can quickly use this idea on people who put themselves in front of others. And the reality is it's not about being first, rather it's only about them, not what comes after them.

New comment by simonmales in "Zulip.com Values"

simonmales — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 08:57:02 +0000

Coming from Slack for a number of years, there is an initial shock of missing out of the 'slack way of things'.

The killer feature is everything is a stream/thread. I argue that is a better UX over Slack, but it takes some getting used it.

As mentioned, Slack is way more polished.

New comment by simonmales in "A decentralized peer-to-peer messaging application that operates over Bluetooth"

simonmales — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 09:14:52 +0000

It's getting movement in tough political environments like Uganda: https://www.archyde.com/bitchat-surges-to-1-in-uganda-amid-p...

And natural disasters like in Jamaica https://www.gadgets360.com/cryptocurrency/news/bitchat-becom...

New comment by simonmales in "Iran is likely jamming Starlink"

simonmales — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 14:17:13 +0000

You might be referring to Bitchat.

New comment by simonmales in "Eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece (2023)"

simonmales — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 16:58:53 +0000

As a fan of webapps, https://yr.no is a good no-frills weather webapp.

New comment by simonmales in "Eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece (2023)"

simonmales — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 16:57:05 +0000

I was a big fan, the original version was called forecast.io.

It was a rare example at the time when it was _the_ webapp better than any existing 'native' apps.

New comment by simonmales in "Stop Doom Scrolling, Start Doom Coding: Build via the terminal from your phone"

simonmales — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 08:11:34 +0000

Whats the cycle time here? This work flow makes sense to me.

New comment by simonmales in "Ask HN: Does anyone understand how Hacker News works?"

simonmales — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 07:53:28 +0000

This is a hard truth. I looked at my own Show HN post history, some are definitely in the graveyard.

New comment by simonmales in "Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options"

simonmales — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 17:12:07 +0000

Savage, but accurate.

But I argue for these projects to have a long tail, they need revenue.

A few have tried by selling hardware, but it never lands mainstream enough.

New comment by simonmales in "Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options"

simonmales — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 17:00:07 +0000

Started on this with OpenELEC. Nowadays LibreELEC.

Just feels the best that it's not a commercial product, rather a project built by cool people.

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

simonmales — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 14:06:29 +0000

I can't find references now, but Gnome or Ubuntu had a phase where they were booting the desktop with under 128MB of RAM.

It would be great if LibreOffice had a spurt of speed-ups. Kind what the browser wars also competed fiercely about.

New comment by simonmales in "Microsoft makes Zork open-source"

simonmales — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 19:29:53 +0000

I love the idea that these can live forever in apt/rpm repositories.