Hacker News: windthrown

New comment by windthrown in "A better way to tie gym shorts (or any drawstring) [video]"

windthrown — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 00:43:59 +0000

It's here: https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/ianknot.htm

New comment by windthrown in "Noise infusion banned from statistical products published by Census Bureau"

windthrown — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 19:24:08 +0000

I did similar and you summarized the feelings well. It's really sad and hard to rebuild that trust

And disheartening that people continue to gravitate to a political party that proudly announces desires to abuse this data.

New comment by windthrown in "Show HN: Free alternative to Wispr Flow, Superwhisper, and Monologue"

windthrown — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 05:44:49 +0000

I installed Whisper+ through FDroid and it works well for my basic needs. Only 30s at a time but you can append multiple recordings to the same transcript: https://github.com/woheller69/whisperIMEplus

New comment by windthrown in "Ian's Shoelace Site"

windthrown — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 18:00:44 +0000

If you read his support page it's apparent why not. This is a labor of love which he can still hardly keep afloat after trying a variety of income sources such as ads and direct sponsorships.

https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/support.htm

Why Support Ian?

I've devoted two decades of mostly altruistic labors to the niche topic of shoelaces. I spend probably 60 hours a week continuously improving this website, answering visitors' questions, solving their shoelace problems – even granting permission for my material to be re-used by other educators.

All of this effort earns me less than 1/5 of the Australian National Minimum Wage.

I'm thinking of calling this my “Million Dollar Website” – not because it's worth a million dollars but because it has cost me a million dollars compared to what I could have earned at a regular job (based on an average Australian annual wage of $50,000 × 25+ years).

Any support that you can give will be gratefully accepted and warmly appreciated.

New comment by windthrown in "OTranscribe: A free and open tool for transcribing audio interviews"

windthrown — Sat, 10 Aug 2024 14:07:24 +0000

Thanks! I've had good results with Turboscribe (paid plan) and appreciate having this as a service. I typically use it for 2-3 hour long video recordings with a number of speakers and appreciate the editing tools to clean things up before export.

New comment by windthrown in "After 10 years, Yelp gave my app 4 days"

windthrown — Sat, 03 Aug 2024 14:46:44 +0000

https://lib.reviews/ is one I've used but none of the open options seem to be able to gain significant traction.

New comment by windthrown in "Turn Your iPhone into a Dumb Phone"

windthrown — Sun, 26 May 2024 16:50:55 +0000

A specific app which displays mapping data from OpenStreeetMap: https://organicmaps.app/

New comment by windthrown in "KPMG Fined Record $25M in Exam-Cheating Scandal"

windthrown — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 02:46:03 +0000

You're starting with the assumption that ethics are a priority for clients. While certainly and extreme case, don't forget that Enron was happy with Arthur Andersen's auditing for quite a while...

New comment by windthrown in "Thanks FedEx, this is why we keep getting phished"

windthrown — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 23:49:30 +0000

Why couldn't they threaten to stop delivering? I was under the impression that only the Postal Service (USPS) had a regulatory mandate to serve all US addresses.

New comment by windthrown in "Bard is now Gemini, and we’re rolling out a mobile app and Gemini Advanced"

windthrown — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 20:21:40 +0000

Ah I see, thank you! Thankfully I am not on an unlimited plan.

New comment by windthrown in "Bard is now Gemini, and we’re rolling out a mobile app and Gemini Advanced"

windthrown — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 04:58:56 +0000

I'm a Google Fi user but have not tried to sign up yet. Would you mind expanding on your point about Fi affecting the ability to upgrade?

New comment by windthrown in "FCC rules AI-generated voices in robocalls illegal"

windthrown — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 02:58:38 +0000

In theory sure but have you been following Congress for the past decade? They can't even come to terms on continuing resolution funding bills, let alone pass complex rules related to new contentious technologies. Perhaps I'm just a pessimist but is something that makes you think this might drastically change?

New comment by windthrown in "YouTransfer: Self-hosted file transfer and sharing solution"

windthrown — Sun, 14 Jan 2024 00:54:29 +0000

I'm still bitter that abuse brought down Firefox Send

New comment by windthrown in "System76's Cosmic Desktop Working Toward Its Alpha Release"

windthrown — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 00:22:14 +0000

They have done a pretty solid job with PopOS, so I am inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.

New comment by windthrown in "Elon Musk breaks world record for largest loss of personal fortune in history"

windthrown — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 02:28:40 +0000

Do you just mean existing as rich as the stories depict? My understanding is that there is ample evidence Mansa Musa existed and ruled Mali: it's just the measure of his wealth that is questionable.

New comment by windthrown in "Signal Public Username Testing (Staging Environment)"

windthrown — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 02:06:25 +0000

That's a valid concern! At the bottom of signal.org, under "Help", Community" links to signalusers.org

New comment by windthrown in "Reasons to fight cashless contagion"

windthrown — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 20:03:17 +0000

What is your basis for "It’s more costly to handle cash than to pay credit card companies."? It seems much more likely that they are encouraging cash with lower prices to avoid paying the typical ~1-5% transaction costs to Visa/MasterCard/Amex rather than a large scale tax evasion scheme.

I understand your point about handling cash requiring more labor (no self serve, armored trucks, etc) but I'd be surprised if the cash sales were less profitable than credit cards.

New comment by windthrown in "I've overlayed stays on a light pollution satellite map"

windthrown — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 04:19:50 +0000

I completely agree with your overall point about the fantastic night sky but it should be no surprise that people suggest sunrise, as the Hawaiian Haleakala literally translates to "house of the sun".

New comment by windthrown in "Sucking carbon dioxide out of the sky is moving from science fiction to reality"

windthrown — Sun, 10 Sep 2023 04:57:18 +0000

And in the US in 2023, we're still busy whittling down what little regulatory protections our wetlands still have (Sackett v. EPA)

New comment by windthrown in "‘This Is a Big Deal’: How College Towns Are Decimating the GOP"

windthrown — Sat, 22 Jul 2023 02:10:12 +0000

Yeah while the recent Dane County turnout was impressive I am similarly not convicted that it can be extrapolated to WI statewide elections generally. The Supreme Court race had huge spending and happened as the Dobbs decision was very fresh - it remains to be seen if that's an anomaly or maintainable.