<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: snielson</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=snielson</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 02:21:29 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=snielson" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by snielson in "Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>My wife runs a food blog and sometimes uses AI to come up with recipes she tests on us first. One of the best dishes she’s ever made (and one of the best I’ve ever eaten) was pork with an apricot sauce. The pork was fine, but the sauce was absolutely incredible! I’d put it on any kind of meat. Funny thing is, I don’t even like apricots, but the sauce was amazing.
My wife does have one advantage, which is that she knows when the AI has hallucinated something crazy and makes appropriate adjustments. I guess it's like anything. AI can be a big help to those who already have a threshold level of background knowledge in a field but can cause big problems for those who don't.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 10 Apr 2026 19:55:31 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47722891</link><dc:creator>snielson</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47722891</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47722891</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by snielson in "The Reason Windows Hate Is Exploding: It's the End of Personal Computing [video]"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Yeah, I really like Windows 11. I'm not a developer; just an ordinary user. I guess the difference is that I fully embrace the MS ecosystem—i.e., OneDrive, M365 Family account (the storage alone is worth the cost), Power Toys, Edge (sync'd across computers), etc. It works great.<p>The only problem I’ve had was with a family member who refused to restart the computer. Eventually, something got corrupted. Fixing it was simple—I just reinstalled the current version of Windows. It was so much easier than in the past, when it meant reinstalling everything from scratch or reverting to a saved snapshot.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 20 Mar 2026 15:47:55 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47456296</link><dc:creator>snielson</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47456296</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47456296</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by snielson in "Everyone hates OneDrive, Microsofts cloud app that steals and deletes files"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The "Files-On-Demand" feature of OneDrive makes it possible for everyone in the family to login into any computer with OneDrive and quickly access all their files (I have 500/500 fiber). Because some/most of the files are stored on the cloud and only downloaded when they are accessed, the hard drive of the computer can be smaller (1TB) than the total sum of all the files stored by all the users (6TB). It's very nice. I can also turn off Files-on-Demand and everything will be stored locally on my computer. It sounds like many people are bothered that Files-on-Demand is enabled by default.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 07 Jan 2026 17:50:09 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46529707</link><dc:creator>snielson</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46529707</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46529707</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by snielson in "Everyone hates OneDrive, Microsofts cloud app that steals and deletes files"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I love OneDrive. I don't know why everyone hates it. I save things in OneDrive, and they are backed up to the cloud and synced with the other computers I use.<p>Some computers are shared by six family members, each with their own MS account and 1TB of storage. OneDrive makes it so the computers can have a 1TB hard drive but still give everyone ready access to their files by not storing them all on the hard drive.<p>If I don't want something synced to Onedrive then I usually save it in my downloads folder or another separate folder I create outside Onedrive. I've never had any problems.<p>The comments by people who hate make me wonder why my experience is so different than theirs.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 07 Jan 2026 15:19:18 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46527380</link><dc:creator>snielson</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46527380</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46527380</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by snielson in "2025 was a disaster for Windows 11"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm not a developer, but I consider myself relatively tech literate. That said, I really like Windows 11 and many other MS products such as M365, Edge, new Outlook, One Drive, and even Teams is tolerable (maybe not as polished as Zoom). Copilot is still struggling to find relevance, but I just chalk that up to MS pivoting rapidly to figure out how to make it useful (I currently use the enterprise version solely to draft emails, which is a huge time saver even if it is a bit pricey at $30/mo).
The complaints I see on here so frequently just don't register with me. For example, I never see any ads. Maybe there is a setting I turned off long ago, but I cannot recall ever seeing an ad. The setting must be persistent with my Windows backups because no ads show when I reinstall Windows and restore the settings and configuration from a backup.
Things are not always perfect, but the issues I have encountered are relatively minor all things considered.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 31 Dec 2025 23:50:24 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46449620</link><dc:creator>snielson</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46449620</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46449620</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by snielson in "The immortality of Microsoft Word"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> Additionally, every colleague, counterparty, outside-counsel, and client a lawyer ever works with uses docx. To introduce a new format into this ecosystem would introduce friction into every single interaction.<p>As an attorney, this is what kept me from switching to LibreOffice or Google Docs. I gave it a shot, but since the other attorneys I work with (both in and outside the US) and my clients all use Word, I ended up wasting a lot of time fixing files after converting between formats. In the end, it just wasn’t worth it.<p>I’m fairly tech-savvy, but many of my coworkers struggle with the mental effort required to switch to new software. Two colleagues I greatly respect still use WordPerfect and Word 2003 because they dislike change so much. It's too much of a lift for these people to wholesale switch word processors.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 19 Dec 2025 03:49:55 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46322102</link><dc:creator>snielson</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46322102</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46322102</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by snielson in "Firefox is the best mobile browser"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Ublock origin can be installed in Edge mobile.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 11 Oct 2025 17:27:29 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45550961</link><dc:creator>snielson</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45550961</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45550961</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by snielson in "I spent the day teaching seniors how to use an iPhone"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Assistive access mode for an iPhone is fantastic for the elderly. It's the only way my 85-year-old father can even use a phone. One of the best features is that it can be set to allow incoming calls only from people in his contacts. It's such a lifesaver.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 03 Oct 2025 05:36:40 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45459362</link><dc:creator>snielson</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45459362</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45459362</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by snielson in "US vs. Google amicus curiae brief of Y Combinator in support of plaintiffs [pdf]"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The solution proposed by Kagi—separate the search index from the rest of Google—seems to make the most sense. Kagi explains it more here: <a href="https://blog.kagi.com/dawn-new-era-search" rel="nofollow">https://blog.kagi.com/dawn-new-era-search</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2025 16:05:07 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43946721</link><dc:creator>snielson</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43946721</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43946721</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by snielson in "LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I use Paint.net for simple tasks like those you listed. I paid $10 for it in the Microsoft store but I think you can get it for free from the website.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 28 Mar 2025 04:36:04 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43501587</link><dc:creator>snielson</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43501587</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43501587</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by snielson in "Ask HN: In 2024 what's the best way to manage contacts?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I use Contacts+. It's not free, but it syncs Google and Microsoft contacts nicely, which is my primary need.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 22 Oct 2024 10:42:06 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41912992</link><dc:creator>snielson</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41912992</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41912992</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by snielson in "Ask HN: Any GenAI project that moves the business needle?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>According to my testing, Claude 3 Opus makes drafting patent applications about 50% faster.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 11 Jun 2024 05:10:45 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40642594</link><dc:creator>snielson</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40642594</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40642594</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by snielson in "Utah Locals Are Getting Cheap 10 Gbps Fiber Thanks to Local Governments"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>T-mobile business has a backup plan for $30/mo ($15/mo on a promo a month ago) that can be used for up to 7 days of internet per month. I signed up for it so I will still have internet if my fiber goes out (my router will automatically switch over in an outage).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 16 May 2024 17:38:35 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40381060</link><dc:creator>snielson</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40381060</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40381060</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by snielson in "Utah Locals Are Getting Cheap 10 Gbps Fiber Thanks to Local Governments"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Lehi offers 1Gbps fiber for $80/mo, which is about the same as Utopia. The pricing seems pretty good for dinner in Utah.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 16 May 2024 17:30:15 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40380945</link><dc:creator>snielson</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40380945</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40380945</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by snielson in "Utah Locals Are Getting Cheap 10 Gbps Fiber Thanks to Local Governments"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Utopia provides an active ethernet connection to each subscriber with the specified bandwidth. This is superior to most fiber deployments, which are passive optical networks (GPON) where groups of 16-32 homes share a connection (usually 2.4 Gb down and 1.2 Gb up).<p>I live in Utah and actively worked to get fiber in my small city. Utopia requires cities to guarantee a take rate (40% if I recall correctly) and taxpayers must make up any deficiency. I've never heard of taxpayers actually doing that but it was enough to scare people from adopting Utopia in my city.<p>Ultimately what brought fiber to my city was covid. The monetary tsunami unleashed by the federal reserve and the government made it possible for a local private company to build a fiber network. I just got hooked up last week. It is great.<p>The other thing that happened is that the wireless companies offer high quality internet service. For a time I had both Comcast and T-Mobile home internet. I regularly got speeds of 1.2-1.4 Gb down on T-Mobile (100 Mbps up). Verizon also offers home internet but it was too unstable when I tried it.<p>All this is to say that I have three high quality Internet connections at my home (fiber, T-Mobile, and Comcast), one marginal connection (Verizon), and one garbage connection (Century Link; however, they have also been installing fiber in the area). Competition is great!</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 16 May 2024 05:31:45 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40375493</link><dc:creator>snielson</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40375493</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40375493</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by snielson in "Our biggest ever river catch?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Having been to Guatemala, the culture is to throw most trash on the ground. The trash is then washed into the rivers during heavy rains. It's sad to see. The country has a lot of natural beauty, but there is trash everywhere.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 19 Apr 2024 00:54:34 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40082367</link><dc:creator>snielson</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40082367</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40082367</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by snielson in "Kagi and Wolfram"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Set kagi as the default search engine in edge on android (you need to install edge) and add the edge search widget to your home screen. I also switched to the MS launcher so I could get rid of the Google search bar.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 06 Mar 2024 05:40:34 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39612679</link><dc:creator>snielson</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39612679</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39612679</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by snielson in "Comcast, CenturyLink fail to derail Utah community-owned gigabit fiber network"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I live a little north of Bountiful. I was a big advocate of municipal fiber and pushed my city to build a network. In hindsight, I'm glad the city didn't do it.<p>The neighboring city (Kaysville) voted down a municipal fiber network in 2019 (the vote was super close). The fiber contractor (Connext) Kaysville planned to use to build the network decided to build it themselves (they were a small WISP in the area).<p>Covid happened and suddenly there was a lot of money for infrastructure like fiber networks. The fiber contractor expanded and it's now installing fiber throughout many cities in northern Utah including mine (the fiber is in the box in front of my house but hasn't been run inside yet).<p>I'm the meantime, T-mobile and Verizon began offering home ISP plans for low rates.<p>All of this means that most people in my area have a choice between five ISPs--Comcast, CenturyLink, T-mobile, Verizon, and Connext. Our city has also granted a franchise agreement to another company (Allwest) to build a second fiber network. I'm doubtful it will happen, but who knows.<p>If my city built a fiber network, I don't think its prices would have been low enough to get the required take rate for it to be self sustaining, especially with the entry Tmobile and Verizon as ISPs. The fiber contractor, on the other hand, is able to offer low prices because it is building the network at cost and making profits off the subscriptions. The end result is great for our community. Lots of competition and low prices.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 05 Aug 2023 12:15:39 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37011264</link><dc:creator>snielson</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37011264</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37011264</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by snielson in "Kagi raises $670k"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Thanks for this! The summarizer is great for quickly getting the gist of legal cases.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 29 Jun 2023 12:01:57 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36519289</link><dc:creator>snielson</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36519289</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36519289</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by snielson in "Ask HN: Best search engine alternatives to Google?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Kagi is great. I've had to find some obscure things recently and it was fantastic. No ads, no irrelevant garbage designed to make money for the search engine. Instead my interests and that of kagi are aligned - find the best search result - and it is great.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 16 Jun 2023 02:27:21 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36350267</link><dc:creator>snielson</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36350267</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36350267</guid></item></channel></rss>