Hacker News: willmacdonald

New comment by willmacdonald in "Shingles Vaccine Linked to Slower Biological Aging in Older Adults"

willmacdonald — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 12:26:11 +0000

I'm about to get my second shot of Shingrix. In the clinic it says it lasts for about 12 years. I think it just means you can return in 12 years.

New comment by willmacdonald in "Shingles Vaccine Linked to Slower Biological Aging in Older Adults"

willmacdonald — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 12:21:52 +0000

In Sweden the Shingrix vaccine is associated with reduced stroke and dementia.

https://sveavaccin.se/vaccinationer/baltros/

New comment by willmacdonald in "Oolite: An open source open-world space opera"

willmacdonald — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 08:19:49 +0000

It doesn't mention anything on the main github page, but this can be installed with:

brew install oolite

New comment by willmacdonald in "TOTP Codes in the Terminal"

willmacdonald — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 09:01:42 +0000

If you have a M1/2/3 Mac you can install the iPad version of Authy which works as a replacement.

New comment by willmacdonald in "Ask HN: Alternatives to the Pomodoro technique?"

willmacdonald — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 20:17:08 +0000

Thanks for mentioning FocusMate! I used it many years ago, but had since forgotten it's name. No amount of googling found it.

New comment by willmacdonald in "Your last name contains invalid characters (2010)"

willmacdonald — Wed, 10 Jan 2024 09:12:39 +0000

My last name is Macdonald, however most banks in the UK change it to MacDonald, which is incorrect.

New comment by willmacdonald in "Left-sided Cancer: Blame your bed and TV? (2010)"

willmacdonald — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 14:33:48 +0000

Couldn't this be related the side of the car you drive on? In Sweden & America your left arm would be more exposed to sun.

Here is an example:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trucker-accumulates-skin-damage...

New comment by willmacdonald in "Learner drivers forced to buy tests on black market as companies blockbook slots"

willmacdonald — Sun, 03 Sep 2023 13:39:46 +0000

We had a similar problem in Sweden when trying to renew passports. A black market developed as covid eased. Everyone was trying at the same time. Some one made a browser extension which repeatedly tried to book appointments. The government implemented a governement ID system before making any bookings. The problem disappeared!

We still have a similar problem trying to get a driving test time. The driving schools book every slot for months ahead. They are commonly referred to as a mafia. You basically cannot get your license without paying a driving school a ton of money.

New comment by willmacdonald in "Golang disables Nagle's Algorithm by default"

willmacdonald — Fri, 30 Dec 2022 07:59:53 +0000

In the article the author talks of WiFi interference.

Try using MAC filtering. In previous experiments it drastically improved through put.

I know the mac address can be spoofed, provides no security and can be a pain to set up when everything is WiFi enabled, but it really helps.

All those other WiFi gadgets that belong to your neighbours are continuously try to login, and being rejected, all the time!

New comment by willmacdonald in "Maids trafficked and sold to wealthy Saudis on black market"

willmacdonald — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 13:40:07 +0000

Slavery is definitely not abolished in the West. It is rife in the UK and Europe.

New comment by willmacdonald in "Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)"

willmacdonald — Wed, 12 Oct 2022 19:48:12 +0000

I had frequently ran into problems trying to receive SMS 2FA tokens using Signal. Had to switch back to the default app on Android.

New comment by willmacdonald in "Notes: Fast note-taking app, open-source, without Electron, built in Qt C++"

willmacdonald — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 19:58:08 +0000

I loved Simplenote, however from I could see the notes were not encrypted on the server.

I have moved to Standard Notes, which looks VERY similar to OP notes app.

Just this this: https://simplenote.com/help/#sync-encryption

New comment by willmacdonald in "Dark Sky iOS app will no longer work from Dec 31"

willmacdonald — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 06:53:05 +0000

I'm in Stockholm too. I find klart.se, SMHI or yr.no to work pretty well.

New comment by willmacdonald in "Losslessly Optimising Images"

willmacdonald — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 04:56:17 +0000

There is a great mac app called https://imageoptim.com/mac

It tries - zopfli - PNGOUT - OxiPNG - AdvPNG - PNGCrush - JpegOptim - Jpegtran - Guetzli - Gifsicle - SVGO - svgcleaner

And picks the best result. You can tweak a few other settings too.

It is a great tool which allows you drop a folder of mixed images, and just wait for the result.

New comment by willmacdonald in "Meatless meat is nothing new"

willmacdonald — Sun, 14 Aug 2022 10:28:53 +0000

In Sweden you get frozen raspberries, strawberries, cherries, passion fruit, mango, lingon, black berries plus other unusual berries. Frozen avocado too!

New comment by willmacdonald in "Show HN: I created a collection of useful websites"

willmacdonald — Wed, 20 Apr 2022 21:36:21 +0000

Super Agent works great! What a difference it makes.

New comment by willmacdonald in "Recalbox – Retrogaming Open Source OS for Raspberry Pi, Odroid and PC"

willmacdonald — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 08:42:35 +0000

I experimented with a few of these retro gaming systems. This one really stands out in terms of the UI. Lovely retro graphics, wallpaper, loading screen etc.

All of the systems are still FAR too confusing for the casual user.

Installing Recalbox, then the emulator, then the game machine BIOS and then the games. So many opportunities for parts to not work together. (I'm very familiar with Linux, networking, ssh etc. Mounting the shared folders on my Mac from Recalbox was easy)

Trying to work out which Nintendo BIOS works with which emulator, and games was horrendous. Have only managed to get a few machines working so far.

New comment by willmacdonald in "Ask HN: What is your “I don't care if this succeeds” project?"

willmacdonald — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 08:20:39 +0000

Making marmalade, no tech angle, just nice to work your hands!

https://marmageddon.se/

New comment by willmacdonald in "The 'impossible' crane shot from Soy Cuba (1964) [video]"

willmacdonald — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 13:02:34 +0000

Le Haine (95) had a great flying camera scene: https://youtu.be/4qo3EwozH0Y (about half way through) Great Film too!

New comment by willmacdonald in "Ask HN: How do I get fit and healthy as a software engineer?"

willmacdonald — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 06:43:56 +0000

I would suggest finding something that is fun, that you _want_ to do. Something you look forward to doing!

I just started playing badminton, which is great fun! Already planning my next few matches. (It is cheap, easy & accessible.)