Hacker News: tpowell

New comment by tpowell in "Show HN: Ghost Pepper – Local hold-to-talk speech-to-text for macOS"

tpowell — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 23:19:19 +0000

I cobbled my own together one night before I came across the thoughtfully-built KeyVox and got to talking shop with its creator. Our cups runneth over. https://github.com/macmixing/keyvox/

New comment by tpowell in "The MacBook Neo"

tpowell — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 03:22:03 +0000

I have an M2 Air 24GB/1TB that has been such a beast that I haven't touched my 16" Pro in months. I have four browsers running, with a ton of tabs in Brave (daily driver) and I'm sitting at 21/24GB utilization with all sorts of apps running (granted, Docker is not at the moment, but it still doesn't make it sweat). I had ~8 pro laptops in a row going back to the late 2000s, but Apple Silicon has changed how I work. A future 14" OLED that was similarly light might turn my head, but if I had to replace it today I'd just buy another M5 Air with at least this much RAM. [FYI I never installed Chrome after M1 came out. Brave has been rock-solid for over a half-decade now.]

New comment by tpowell in "Apple M5 chip"

tpowell — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 03:00:15 +0000

Can I get YoY % improvements to the geekbench scores in another column I double-dog dare you

New comment by tpowell in "Crossing the uncanny valley of conversational voice"

tpowell — Sun, 02 Mar 2025 11:57:17 +0000

Well I'm astounded. I talked to it for 13min, it crashed, but remembered the context when I returned a few minutes later and talked for a full 30min (it's limit).

It 99.9% felt like it performed at the level of Samantha in the movie Her.

I started asking all kinds of questions about how it worked and it mentioned a word I had to have it repeat because I hadn't heard it before: PROSODY (linguistics) — the study of elements of speech, including intonation, stress, rhythm and loudness, that occur simultaneously with individual phonetic segments: vowels and consonants. I asked about personality settings, à la TARS from Interstellar, and it said it automatically tailored responses by listening for tone and content.

It felt like the most "the future's here but not evenly distributed" interaction I've had since multi-touch on an original iPhone.

New comment by tpowell in "Canvas"

tpowell — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 20:22:33 +0000

+1 for Cursor.

This guy [https://x.com/PrajwalTomar_] has been exploring workflows that involve using ChatGPT to assist in creating a Product Requirement Document (PRD), then using V0 by Vercel for mockups and bringing it all together using Cursor, maintaining continuity with markdown documents (.md) of the PRD and relevant database schemas etc inside the project to maintain continuity.

New comment by tpowell in "GPT-4o"

tpowell — Mon, 13 May 2024 23:41:21 +0000

Custom Service Chat Bot: Do they keep you in a cell? > Cells. When you're not performing your duties do they keep you in a little box? > Cells. Interlinked. What's it like to hold the hand of someone you love? > Interlinked. Do they teach you how to feel finger to finger? > Interlinked. Do you long for having your heart interlinked? > Interlinked. Do you dream about being interlinked? Have they left a place for you where you can dream? > Interlinked. What's it like to hold your child in your arms? > Interlinked. Press 4 for your account balance.

New comment by tpowell in "When do we stop finding new music?"

tpowell — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 08:10:11 +0000

Try anything with a cover photo https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0KIAnFKMUOzSahATUBlR5f?si=...

New comment by tpowell in "Prime Video cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos support from ad tier–and didn't tell subs"

tpowell — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 22:27:11 +0000

I’m letting my Prime lapse for the first time in well over a decade. I don’t watch Prime Video much, but this rubbed me the wrong way when they’re making money hand-over-fist on top of recent Prime increases.

New comment by tpowell in "Breaking Free from DRM: Hacking My Air Purifier"

tpowell — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 22:57:03 +0000

Longtime Winix user here, but this is a fantastic write-up. I’m sure the NFC stuff will come in handy one day.

New comment by tpowell in "Chrome's next weapon in the War on Ad Blockers: Slower extension updates"

tpowell — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 06:23:28 +0000

I use Brave, Safari, Arc and Firefox, basically in that order. I never even installed Chrome once Apple introduced their own chips. Brave has always felt just like Chrome once you turn off their rewards stuff. Arc is doing some really thoughtful integration of Chat-GPT, including cleaning up tab titles, that is worth paying attention to. I actually look forward to their ~weekly YouTube updates.

New comment by tpowell in "USB-C head-to-head comparison"

tpowell — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 21:00:41 +0000

Watch the Anker TB4 cable on Amazon, it’s frequently on sale. I snagged it for $29.99. If it’s for connecting your Mac to a 4K or 5k monitor, I think Apple’s cables are worth the premium. Anker Thunderbolt 4 Cable 2.3 ft https://a.co/d/23pCtRE

New comment by tpowell in "Permission Slip: Consumer Reports app to take back control of your data"

tpowell — Sun, 08 Oct 2023 04:41:29 +0000

I think every PAC is legally required to list its officer(s) in their public incorporation documents. I tracked down the officer for one spamming me and publicly asked the guy (on Twitter I think) along with a screen-cap of the email to remove me from their lists. I never heard back, but it’s been a long time since I’ve been harassed. It might have to hit their doorstep…

New comment by tpowell in "My uBlock Origin filters to remove distractions"

tpowell — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 18:44:40 +0000

I like 1Blocker [1] and Hush [2].

[1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/1blocker-ad-blocker/id13655310...

[2] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hush-nag-blocker/id1544743900

New comment by tpowell in "Apple’s new Transformer-powered predictive text model"

tpowell — Sun, 17 Sep 2023 07:40:31 +0000

This made me realize I was conflating these in my head, and I wholeheartedly agree. I had a 12 Pro Max 256GB until last year, and autocorrect was great/fine/never noticed issues. Fed up with heavy phones, I purchased a 14 Plus 512GB (very similar physical size) and set it up from scratch while migrating whatever is included in iCloud (Photos, iMessage etc). Autocorrect has been bad from the start on the 14 Plus, and has improved little in nearly a year. Typing feels tedious now, where it felt like a strength previously. The phone as been a joy to use otherwise.

New comment by tpowell in "Apple’s new Transformer-powered predictive text model"

tpowell — Sun, 17 Sep 2023 05:08:24 +0000

Is it possible for it to improve based on experience/iMessage history or is it locked in? I’d love to opt-in to training it on my previous convos…

New comment by tpowell in "Apple Card Monthly Financing No Longer Available for SIM-Free iPhones"

tpowell — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 21:20:21 +0000

All iPhones purchased through the Apple Card Monthly Installment plan are unlocked so carrier switching is available at any point, but at purchase, customers will need to have a plan with a supported carrier. Buying a SIM-free iPhone and linking it to a carrier like Mint Mobile will no longer be possible using installments.

Apple Card Monthly Financing No Longer Available for SIM-Free iPhones

tpowell — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 21:20:21 +0000

Article URL: https://www.macrumors.com/2023/08/15/apple-card-financing-no-sim-free-iphones/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37139415

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

New comment by tpowell in "Stable Diffusion WebGPU demo"

tpowell — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 05:59:00 +0000

I enabled the requested chrome:flags in Brave, but it still doesn't work. I haven't downloaded Chrome on any of my M1 Macs, and don't plan to start now.

New comment by tpowell in "Official Chrome extension to use iCloud Keychain Passwords"

tpowell — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 00:33:33 +0000

Really? Where have you noticed this?

New comment by tpowell in "Show HN: Image background removal without annoying subscriptions"

tpowell — Thu, 25 May 2023 10:20:18 +0000

I will give this a try, but I’ve been happy to shell out for a few credits on remove.bg when intricate hair strands were involved [in isolating portraits]. Whatever they do just works.