Hacker News: xaqfox

New comment by xaqfox in "Kimi K3: Open Frontier Intelligence"

xaqfox — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 19:38:06 +0000

Residential proxies are too prevalent for IP address limits to work effectively.

New comment by xaqfox in "ePub-utils: A Python library and CLI tool for inspecting ePub from the terminal"

xaqfox — Sat, 03 May 2025 14:27:26 +0000

For better or for worse, Mupdf has a more restrictive license (AGPL VS Apache).

New comment by xaqfox in "FDA Authorizes First Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Software"

xaqfox — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 21:05:49 +0000

There is a noise canceling mode that let's you hear what is received by the microphone array and an option to "filter in voices while suppressing noise" (they call that voice passthrough). That section of the app is called "Ambient Sound Control" if that helps your research.

New comment by xaqfox in "GM to Cut More Than 1k Software Engineers, Mostly in US"

xaqfox — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 19:58:47 +0000

The method I've seen is to run a carputer with Android installed and use the Tesla web browser to connect to it (no jailbreak needed). https://teslaandroid.com/

New comment by xaqfox in "Link-Busters Sent a Billion DMCA Takedown Requests to Google Search"

xaqfox — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 17:54:08 +0000

It is genre specific, but you can find amateur LitRPG authors on royalroad.com

New comment by xaqfox in "Reddit is removing moderators that protest by taking their communities private"

xaqfox — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 15:56:23 +0000

I am one of those users who doesn't quite know who to support. I absolutely support the end users generating and consuming the content. There are seemingly regular examples of both, admin and mods abusing these users.

What kind of mod tools do the apps allow that Reddit does not?

I do not know if these are mod tools I would agree are necessary (e.g. bans for repeated spam) or are these tools that I would agree allow mods to abuse their power (e.g. ban users are who mere followers of other subreddits).

Frankly, I fear unofficial mod tools could lead to much worse problems if at least portions of the API are not carefully rate limited. Here I include pricing as a type of rate limiting and this could be Reddit's attempt at reeling in this abuse (even if only for IPO reasons). A particular egregious example of such an abuse would be to download all new users' history of posts to make a race determination and ban a new user because of that. Sure, a mod could do this manually using Reddit's UI, but it would remain more difficult to automate this on a large-scale.

New comment by xaqfox in "Now offering 2TB SSDs for Steam Deck in the Framework Marketplace"

xaqfox — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 16:15:45 +0000

My Amplifi wifi started working with my Steam Deck when I lowered the 5 GHz frequency to 20MHz (I was otherwise stuck working around the issue by using a slower 2.4 GHz SSID).

New comment by xaqfox in "Zero rupee note (2015)"

xaqfox — Mon, 07 Mar 2022 18:41:50 +0000

The non-local places around the USA will take your card when starting a tab and many automatically add gratuity if you walk out without closing it (unsure if they place credit holds based on each order). At venues like concert arenas you may not see this, but I always suspected it was more due to the logistical challenge arising from people all wanting to leave at the same time.

New comment by xaqfox in "Italy fines Amazon record $1.3B for abuse of market dominance"

xaqfox — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 14:10:58 +0000

It looks like Medicare spending was also included to arrive at $1.5T. A portion of "veteran's benefits" should probably also be included for the VA medical system.

New comment by xaqfox in "Perseverance Rover lands on Mars [video]"

xaqfox — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 15:34:25 +0000

Luckily, we have great minds working on this problem: https://www.appliedeschatology.com/

New comment by xaqfox in "Zoom executive charged with disrupting meetings commemorating Tiananmen Square"

xaqfox — Sat, 19 Dec 2020 14:28:53 +0000

I don't know how new it is, but Teams has a lecture-hall view option that displays more than 9 people.

New comment by xaqfox in "French bar owners arrested for offering free WiFi but not keeping logs"

xaqfox — Sun, 04 Oct 2020 15:17:33 +0000

Android version 10 or over uses randomized MAC adresses by default, as well.

New comment by xaqfox in "A mix of hidden standards make the ubiquitous USB-C cable a pain to deal with"

xaqfox — Tue, 15 Sep 2020 17:17:06 +0000

I believe it was a failure by USB-IF to not require that USB-C ports and cables be labeled or color-coded as to what standard(s) they support. As a consumer you are lucky if the manufacturer provides accurate speed or wattage specifications to allow you to decode this information on your own.

New comment by xaqfox in "Tim Sweeney on Apple and Google"

xaqfox — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 15:12:39 +0000

There are now more store-wide sales available ("Fall Sales" and whatnot). While at the developer's choice a game may have the same retail and sale price at different stores, since the sale dates are different, I the consumer am more likely to find and buy the game at the lower sale price. If you the consumer only want to purchase from one store it is still your choice to wait (just like timed exclusives).

Others have complained about Steam's lack of curation causing discoverability problems. It was at the height of this controversy that Epic launched their store promising better curation. Again, this helps consumers because not all consumers are alike. Some consumers do not want arbitrary moral decisions to block game availability, while others want this so that they do not have to wade through "garbage". Others, still, want to make that decision for all consumers.

New comment by xaqfox in "New things in Android 11"

xaqfox — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 22:31:04 +0000

I saw an adapter might make it work for vehicles already supporting wired connections: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/aawireless#/

I am not affiliated or even saying it actually works. I just saw it posted on xda developers the other day. https://www.xda-developers.com/aawireless-dongle-enable-wire...

New comment by xaqfox in "Google, the Stupidity Amplifier (2016)"

xaqfox — Mon, 31 Aug 2020 16:10:34 +0000

I would also recommend Charles Stross' Accelerando for an interesting take on the post-singularity universe where "others" can be in control of the simulated worlds. Sorry for the limited details, but I do not want to spoil the ending for others.

New comment by xaqfox in "The demise of the second-hand bookshop"

xaqfox — Sun, 23 Aug 2020 18:18:31 +0000

This is similar to the use case that OPDS is marketing itself with. It was featured on HN a week ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24178548

https://opds.io

New comment by xaqfox in "ReMarkable MicroSD (2019)"

xaqfox — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 14:59:34 +0000

The story link may have been hugged to death: https://web.archive.org/web/20200821083714/https://www.davis...

New comment by xaqfox in "ReMarkable MicroSD (2019)"

xaqfox — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 14:34:58 +0000

Being able to write left handed without making ink smudges is a big reason why I now prefer digital notes. G2 gel ink is mostly okay, but I think fountain pens are out of the question for most left handers.

New comment by xaqfox in "The Unraveling of America"

xaqfox — Sat, 15 Aug 2020 16:20:04 +0000

How many sources would you expect if there is no possible way to detect the fraud, unless the perpetrator confesses to committing it?

Previously mail-in ballots were generally limited to specific conditions in order to limit the effectiveness and opportunity of this type of fraud (e.g. coercion and voting for others).

That said and in my opinion it should be left up to the states to decide, but I also think there are better alternatives to limit the spread of covid (e.g. early voting by letter of last name; increased number in general and availability of outdoor polling locations; drive-thru polling locations; ticketing system where they message you when you are next or near next in line). I would also agree with federal grants to states to help fund such initiatives that actually provide a way to limit these types voting fraud that mail-in ballots do not.