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AndreasBackx

593 karma · joined April 18, 2017

https://github.com/AndreasBackx
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AndreasBackx··on PingCap TiDB Leaks
Where does one go for a trustworthy pentest or security review? Especially, where do smaller companies perhaps go that aren't at the multi-million level.
AndreasBackx··on Codex CLI installs a persistent, self-updating background daemon by default
I feel like so many of the new AI tooling is reinventing the wheel. We've figured out how to update software via package managers. Do we need a daemon to continually check for updates and do we need shell scripts to circumvent package managers?

Have a look at https://chatgpt.com/codex/install.sh. It's managing the installation by itself not using existing package managers. There's a good point to making it easy to install, but it leads to managing an installation when you shouldn't need to. Time would be better spent elsewhere and better solutions exist.

Am I the only one thinking this?

AndreasBackx··on Can I start using Wayland in 2026?
> Instead of my usual choice maim(1) , I tried grim(1) , but unfortunately grim’s -T flag to select the window to capture is rather cumbersome to use (and captures in 1x scale). >Does anyone have any suggestions for a good alternative?

You might want to give wayshot a "shot"? https://github.com/waycrate/wayshot

AndreasBackx··on Free DDNS with Cloudflare and a cronjob
I guess this is something people have to make? I wrote one 6 years ago in Golang and rewrote it in Rust last year. I have stopped using it, but I had them running for 6 years without issues.

https://github.com/AndreasBackx/update-dns

AndreasBackx··on The problem with OpenTelemetry
I have been trying to find an equivalent for `tracing` first in Python and this week in TypeScript/JavaScript. At my work I created an internal post called "Better Python Logging? Tracing for Python?" that basically asks this question. OpenTelemetry was also what I looked at and since I have looked at other tooling.

It is hard to explain how convenient `tracing` is in Rust and why I sorely miss it elsewhere. The simple part of adding context to logs can be solved in a myriad of ways, yet all boil down to a similar "span-like" approach. I'm very interested in helping bring what `tracing` offers to other programming communities.

It very likely is worth having some people from the space involved, possibly from the tracing crate itself.

AndreasBackx··on Obsidian Sync now starts at $4 per month with the new Standard plan
> Can I downgrade from Plus to Standard?

> Yes. To downgrade you must first make sure that your account meets the constraints of the Standard plan — meaning that you have only 1 remote vault with less than 1 GB used.

Based on how other subscriptions do this: "downgrading means downgrading at the end of your subscription or on renewal". Is this not a bit unfair? Users (me included) have already paid for the full subscription and even if one decides to downgrade, content is being taken away that was already paid for. I wanted to move down to the standard plan because I am not using it fully using and now changed to the standard plan thinking I'd keep plus at least until the end of what I've already paid for. Though that's not the case and now my pro subscription for the remainder of the time period was taken away.

Can this stance be changed so existing users can either double the remaining time or keep pro for the remaining time and downgrade once the paid for period is over?

AndreasBackx··on Show HN: macOS Reminder Sync for Obsidian Tasks
Is it possible to introduce a trial? I'd want to make sure that the features work as described and am curious how smooth this works when not using your Macbook often. Like whether it will sync them in the background when the laptop is closed. Should I simply buy and go for a refund via Apple if it doesn't work out? Though I feel like this might be worse for you.

Tried it out just now as a free user and it synced thousands of completed reminders as `- [x] ...` for each. It's hard to make the jump to pay for this when I cannot test it out fully.

AndreasBackx··on Lapce Editor 0.3
I wonder whether it's achievable to have a plugin system similar to how web extensions work where you could write a plugin and have it work across different editors. I see how getting people to move to this editor might depend on people moving over once a sufficient amount of their current editor's features are supported, some of which might be contributed by extensions.
AndreasBackx··on Griffin – A fully-regulated, API-driven bank, with Clojure
I've always been interested in these fintech APIs but wonder what competitive advantages the companies that build on this have compared to one another. What differentiates a company building on this from another company building on the same API? It seems like the execution would differentiate them the most? I feel like I am missing something here. Could someone enlighten me?
AndreasBackx··on Python: Just Write SQL
It might be worth mentioning LiteralStrings from [PEP 675](https://peps.python.org/pep-0675/) and how you should use them to prevent SQL injections. I'm not sure this blog adds much to the discussion when it comes to when to write SQL and when not to. It does not cover the struggles, the benefits, and the downfalls.
AndreasBackx··on Hacking Your Keyboard with Karabiner
Why not use QMK [1]? Both of the author's keyboards (Anne Pro 2 and a TADA68) support QMK, there's a lot more to do with QMK, and it's on the keyboard itself.

[1]: https://qmk.fm/

AndreasBackx··on FlyZolo – Youngest Woman Solo
That is a very pessimistic way to view and discredit someone else's great achievement. I can definitely say that at least in Belgium, it is very possible to do this as a middle class family. Also to note that there are still sponsors who do help out as well.

Focusing on the important part again, hugely proud to see Belgium represented like this and to see the ambition of Zara.

AndreasBackx··on Changes in Dutch streets throughout the years (photo album)
I think this is due to how car dependent North America is. There are so many aspects that are missed in these pictures or what you are for example experiencing. It's not that you're situation is improving, it's most likely not. But that's not due to car independent cities being bad, it's because changing from being car dependent to car independent is hard and takes time.

I would recommend you have a look at Not Just Bikes on YouTube, a Canadian that moved to the Netherlands. He talks about car independent cities in Europe, more specifically The Netherlands and compares it to car dependent North America. Here is a video that talks about how these "car independent" countries are still the best to drive in compared to others: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8RRE2rDw4k.

Regardless, I would recommend you check out a few other of his videos, most importantly his series on the US non profit organisation "Strong Towns": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_SXXTBypIg&list=PLJp5q-R0lZ.... It think it's about sharing the message that placing public transport, cyclists, and pedestrians in the forefront is better for almost everyone involved, including drivers, and especially people who live in cities and towns.

AndreasBackx··on Elementary OS 6.1
> You can currently find over 90 curated apps in AppCenter, [...]

I don't think this is as impressive as they think it is. On the contrary, this seems to be a very very small number that I wonder why it's mentioned in the first place. I don't use these GUI frontends, but if we ever want any Linux distro to be more user-friendly. Almost everything should be available.

Also I noticed that Elementary is taking a 30% cut (with a 50c minimum) which I find obnoxiously high. We have been complaining about Apple and Google, yet "we"(?) cannot seem to be doing better ourselves. It's a bit disappointing.

AndreasBackx··on Culdesac Tempe: The first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the US
Definitely agree! I would recommend the YouTube channel "Not Just Bikes" which has a series about the book Strong Towns and in general focuses on better city planning: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0intLFzLaudFG-xAvUEO-A

The terrible layouts of US cities and neighbourhoods are what keep me in Europe. There is nothing you can do in the US without a car because it's so car dependent and it wastes so much time compared to walking or biking places. The beautifully walkable cities you find in Europe are so much more enjoyable to live in.

AndreasBackx··on macOS Big Sur
I am currently using Yabai without disabling system protection as my company would not approve of disabling system protection. I wish many of its features were possible without it. It's _better_ than nothing, but it's still pretty bad without disabling it.
AndreasBackx··on We Don't Hate PHP
Those all seem like features any modern programming language has. Nothing here particularly distinguishes PHP from the rest of the crowd. I don't think anyone is surprised by the fact that PHP has classes and some niche methods integrated in most standard libraries.

I would like to go one further and say most other more modern programming languages do each of these better. It's always a good idea to look what is beyond the horizon.

AndreasBackx··on Apple crushes one-man repair shop in Norway’s Supreme Court
From what I hear, this isn't only about repairing iPhones. In a previous court proceedings the man was ordered to remove the logos from Apple because he imported the parts from China to refurbish iPhones. These were not genuine parts and they were being sold as refurbished iPhones.

This court case bas brought on by Apple because he did not properly remove the Apple logos. He used a permanent marker to "remove" them from the parts. Apple did not agree that this was a proper way to do it.

As much as I am for the rights to repair. I would say that Apple has some grounds here.

AndreasBackx··on Show HN: Terminal Multiplexer Inspired by I3
I have been thinking about something like this as well. My idea however was to integrate sway/i3 and your terminal of preference (kitty here) with your server over ssh or using eternal terminal. My idea was to simply open new terminal windows already attached to the session and remember their location. I haven't thought about it thoroughly, but this seems like a good alternative for the time being. Might give it a shot on Tuesday at work :)
AndreasBackx··on Ask HN: What are you learning?
Did you happen to use this? https://bfnightly.bracketproductions.com/rustbook/ If not, what did you use?
AndreasBackx··on Ask HN: What are you learning?
I'm currently trying to get into game development and Rust so I'm trying out Amethyst: https://book.amethyst.rs/master/. I wanted to follow along with a roguelike game tutorial for Rust, but there was a problem. I would love to make some games that you can play co-op with some friends as I feel like there aren't enough games like it out there.
AndreasBackx··on Linux 5.6
You can use networkd to make it easier, if you like using systemd that is.
AndreasBackx··on Show HN: SpicyPass – A free and open-source minimalist password manager
Too bad that the owner/maintainer doesn't really like an open API. The only way to interact with the backend seems to be using the cli or trying to figure out the API yourself.
AndreasBackx··on Go + Services = One Goliath Project
No, Go does not need this and I do not want it to get these useless "features". Go is simple and it gets things done with an amazing standard library. Use a different programming language if this does not suite you. Every programming language ends up with its own implementation of these "concepts" that it is hard to keep track. What is so difficult about for loops? It's simple for everyone and you don't need to learn new concepts because it works.
AndreasBackx··on Show HN: I made an open-source anonymous email forwarding service
This looks interesting. For now I've been using the + suffix on my G Suite account: name+alias@example.com. The only downside to this is the fact that some websites don't have proper email validation and say that this email address is invalid.
AndreasBackx··on Tmux Tutorial
I tried to use tmux as a terminal multiplexer on sway just so I could make it remember a setup of terminals for specific projects. That way I could simply do `tmux-command start project-name` and have it automatically open a setup of windows and panes. Though I found it unfortunate that I had to learn new shortcuts that are different for shortcuts elsewhere. A simple example but which was a deal breaker was in order to work with its clipboard system, you had to use different commands. Does someone with more knowledge of tmux know whether it's possible to get rid of the prefix command somehow? I know about the i3 version of tmuxinator, but it doesn't support sway unfortunately. I might make something to automatically open a list of windows on a specific workspace for sway.
AndreasBackx··on GPT-2 is not as dangerous as OpenAI thought it might be
Could we talk about how horrible Tumblr's "privacy form" is? It is literally impossible to decline.
AndreasBackx··on Thunderbird 68.0
I wholeheartedly agree with you. I'm not using another email client because I don't want a dumbed down version. I simply want a less buggy and faster feeling Thunderbird. Just some polish here and there.
AndreasBackx··on Thunderbird 68.0
I use Thunderbird on Linux.
AndreasBackx··on Show HN: Lunch Money, a personal budgeting tool with multi-currency support
I'm moving soon and could use the multicurrency support. I'm also graduating college so got to do all of this on my own now, I guess I'm your perfect new customer. Compared to all of the other apps, why would I for example choose you? Do you also have some more information on the credit card linking? Do you support debit cards? This is crucial to be honest. And what about UK bank accounts?
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