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c0nsumer

2,407 karma · joined February 14, 2012

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c0nsumer··on Software may be getting worse, but it used to be horrible
If the system BSODs you really want to get the memory dump and look at that. The driver faulted immediately isn't always the cause. So this also helps with not faulting something that might not actually be the cause.
c0nsumer··on Dayjob: Tax – evaluating AI agents on 50 professional tax assignments
I recently did something similar, using Claude Code to formalize a set of rules for a sporting event as part of building a computer-based scoring system. It's worked very well.
c0nsumer··on MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display and Touch
I'm working on a very niche sports scoring app and designed it to have nice, clickable buttons. But when trying it out in the field one of the officials had a touch-screen laptop, and it was pretty nice for clicking/tapping to enter finishers of a race in order. So much so that I reworked the rest of the UI to allow for touch.

It's not a tablet-doable thing, really, and I don't really want to take the effort to get it in an app store. But adding touch-able buttons made it a bit nicer UI overall, so I'm glad I did it. Now this person, and anyone else, can also use it with a touch screen if so desired.

c0nsumer··on Software may be getting worse, but it used to be horrible
All of this is logged just the same in event logs. It's just not displayed right on the blue screen message.
c0nsumer··on Air Purifiers as White Noise Machines
I've got a Blueair one that I was given, which thankfully has cheap filters available for on Amazon. These are otherwise REALLY expensive. The noise is nice, and it helps with dust in the bedroom.

But I recently got a Yogasleep Dohm Classic [1] and it really does sound better. Placed across the bedroom, with the two controls adjusted just... right... it makes that really nice water-rushing proper white noise sound. I do not like electronic ones at all, but there's something about this one which uses an actual fan + ports for the noise that is great.

I've also put it on a smart switch that I control from Home Assistant and this has made it even better. Specifically, I have an automation which gradually fades in some lights beginning 15 minutes before my alarm actually goes off [2]. I added turning off the white noise machine to the start of lights fading, and between the gradual light and sound change, I just sort-of wake up rather naturally a few minutes before the alarm noise starts.

(Just the lights were fine before, but the cessation of white noise adds a little more. And a "Bed Time" automation shuts off all the lights in the house, turns on the white noise machine, etc.)

[1] https://yogasleep.com/products/dohmclassic [2] https://nuxx.net/blog/2026/01/28/hue-a-better-sunrise-bulb/

c0nsumer··on Americans' social activity has steeply declined in the past 30 years
What the others have said, and also, there are folks who take and implement the advise wrongly. Like, one of the other points is that people like knowing their name was remembered and hearing it used. I take this as "remember people's names, and when you haven't seen them in a while, say 'Hi, name!'" or so.

Some folks take this over the top and do a weird, false-feeling thing like sprinkle the person's name into conversation over and over, or at the start/middle/end. And it makes the conversation feel stilted, fake, and like a situation is being forced. And that casts a negative light on the overarching idea that people like being remembered, and their own name is a big part of that.

c0nsumer··on Americans' social activity has steeply declined in the past 30 years
Interestingly, this is what the book "How to Win Friends and Influence Others" gets at. While it's ostensibly a sales book, the very basis is how to be genuinely nice to people so they want to talk to you and be around you. And from those relationships come sales opportunities.

As another person for whom relation stuff does not come naturally, this was incredibly helpful because little pieces of advise really do work, because they really are nice things to do/say.

A favorite example of mine, when starting to talk to someone who probably already doesn't care for you is to find something -- anything -- that it's clear they like or chose, which you also happen to like, and pay it a genuine positive complement. And perhaps talk about it a little bit.

c0nsumer··on Jellyfin 12.0
This is promising. Thanks! I'll check it out. I hope it gets the major features and works well.
c0nsumer··on Jellyfin 12.0
I'm fortunate that somehow I ended up with a lifetime PlexPass for... I want to say like $50 a bunch of years back?

Because yes, the remote stuff -- and PlexAmp just working the same wherever I am -- is the huge part of it. Music sits on my NAS and things... just work.

I also really like how easy the caching and offline mode is, because I frequently find myself driving in areas without mobile data service. I keep a couple favorite albums downloaded to my phone, then knowing the app will cache the next ~2 albums of queued tracks generally makes it Just Work.

c0nsumer··on Jellyfin 12.0
Yes, this is the big one for me. Seemingly unlike a lot of folks, Plex is my main music server. Years ago I ripped all my CDs (1800+, IIRC) and Plex + Plexamp is really, really, really good for listening. I haven't yet found anything else that works as well.

I use Plexamp on desktop/laptop computers and then the Android and iOS apps for on-the-go music. I tried Symfonium [1] because it seemed promising and would give me a Jellyfin path, but it was weird and kinda buggy and ate my phone's battery.

I'm hopeful there'll be a good replacement available eventually, but for now, I just have to stick with Plex.

[1] https://www.symfonium.app/

c0nsumer··on Apple caught off guard by AI demand for Mac Mini and Mac Studio
I personally use Apple Photos for this. It stores the original, plus makes them nicely searchable, so I have a Hazel action that takes screenshots from the desktop (and from my NAS where mobile devices back them up) and imports them.

Works out really well.

c0nsumer··on State of the Map 2026
This.

I build and maintain trails for hiking and mountain biking. We build a new trail or change a route and I can just put it in OSM and off it goes into all the other systems. And then I can pull the data back and use it to make maps for planning, signage... whatever.

Google you just give them data, in their format, without all the nice OSS tools that have developed around OSM and... Let them use it. I'm wholly uninterested in contributing to Google, most especially because the barrier to entry is so high.

c0nsumer··on State of the Map 2026
I absolutely love OpenStreetMap. Back when I first started building (legal) mountain bike trails I realized that without a map they aren't the most useful. OSM gave me the system in which to document them, and then from there I was able to reuse the data to make print maps and eventually my current project: https://trailmaps.app
c0nsumer··on CoMaps: The Offline App That Guided Rescuers Without a Signal in Venezuela
100% this. I use OsmAnd very very frequently (it displays on my dash via Android Auto whenever I drive), but try and do something like load a GPX and show the line in a given color... Or add a pin at a specific point... It's not straightforward at all.

Powerful, but very not straightforward.

c0nsumer··on The Tariff Cost: analysis of the costs to Americans from new tariffs on Canada
For more movies about the ridiculousness of having a fight with Canada, of all places, see Canadian Bacon: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109370/

Summary quote from IMDB: "The U.S. President, low in the opinion polls, gets talked into raising his popularity by trying to start a cold war against Canada."

c0nsumer··on Migrating a Synology NAS to a UniFi UNAS Pro 8 with Robocopy, SMB Multichannel
I love this kind of step-by-step solving post, but it bothers me that the author didn't track down what the JPEG in the Alternate Data Stream (ADS) was for. Something put it there... Might it be a surprise when it ends up not being there later?

Also, it kinda sounds like the UNAS might not be supporting ADS' for some reason? That alone could be a problem later on...

c0nsumer··on ESP32 Firmware Development with Docker Sandboxes
Not ESP32, but development in general with (let's just say) "AI", I've gone to a dedicated machine. I'm not sure how many peers have told me, or articles I've read, saying to use containers/VMs/whatever, but taking an old-but-still-decent business class laptop, slapping Ubuntu on it, and running right in the native OS has so much less admin overhead.

I can just turn it off. I can unplug it from the network if I'm worried. I can easily isolate it network-wise using just a VLAN and normal firewalls. Hardware connectivity (ESP32 stuff I'm doing this weekend) -- as you describe -- is just easier.

c0nsumer··on Unlocking a locked/deactivated e-waste Cricut Maker
I tend to think this comes from the Cricut being a cutter first, with the pen stuff a sort of also-can-do add-on. I suspect that very, very few of the device owners are expecting it to be a plotter.
c0nsumer··on Unlocking a locked/deactivated e-waste Cricut Maker
> This is this is one of those situations of knowing their audience. The machine is nice and does some impressive things for the price. Their software works fine for the people that the hardware was designed.

Very much so. When she (my wife) was first looking at getting one I went down the whole "maybe you should get an X, Y, or Z instead..." and then began thinking about her having to learn a more complicated design package, seeing how cheap some of the different Cricut tools can be when bought on sale, and I realized that it probably was just fine.

Sure, it's not a pro level device, but it did allow her to easily get shapes cut out of vinyl or cardboard or whatever with very little ease. The software worked for someone without a background in traditional design software. And it really didn't cost that much.

Few years on she still uses it, it works well enough... And that's it.

I sometimes/often think/realize the HN crowd falls hard into the technical perfect-is-the-enemy-of-good, and a number of the replies here clearly illustrate that.

c0nsumer··on Unlocking a locked/deactivated e-waste Cricut Maker
Maybe it's just me and I haven't used it much, but my fairly non-technical wife has a Cricut and the few times I've wanted to use it I had absolutely no problem creating a vector in whatever program (Illustrator or Affinity Designer, IIRC) and getting it to separate the color layers and cut at the desired size.

The Electron app felt a bit weird, but I was able to accomplish the goal of cutting out my design at a desired size, so I didn't think any more about it. <shrug>

It seemed more to me that their app leans hard into getting people to buy vector designs through them, and making it easy for those who might not even understand what a "vector" graphic is, but it didn't seem to preclude me from cutting out my own stuff.

c0nsumer··on What I learned selling 2,500 MIDI recorders: Hardware is not so hard
Reading your comment it sounds like you're asking the author to do more work to potentially/likely undercut their own sales. They are already offering a quality device at a reasonable price without any untoward restrictions.

If you want a Free work-alike, why don't /you/ put in the work and make it happen?

c0nsumer··on Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)
I got most of this done in Opus (dunno version, started in early spring) but yeah. Having something to do the heavy lifting was damned helpful.
c0nsumer··on Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)
If you're interested, reach out. Depending on the scale of your system(s) and how much is already in OSM I might be able to spin one of these up for you without much work. (https://cramba.org is my local club, but I work with pretty much all of them in Michigan.)
c0nsumer··on Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)
If I have good service their mobile app is actually pretty quick, but I don't want to join their wifi so... Yeah. :\
c0nsumer··on Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)
Gosh, having tried to use the Home Depot app (to find products in store) while IN their stores... It's so bad. I can't even imagine what you dealt with in trying to handle those things.

(And so, so many little bugs in my map thing from upthread were these odd timing quirks when a user didn't have good service and one check would run and leave something else hanging resulting in a blank map. <sigh>)

c0nsumer··on Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)
Thanks! Sorta kinda... But also different.

The main idea was to solve the gap of how many trail systems have colored loops, or signed/colored loops made up of multiple "trails", and Trailforks (et al) has no concept of that. So the situation a user finds themselves in is being at a trail, with Trailforks up, wanting to follow the "Orange" loop (for example), and Trailforks doesn't show that.

Hopefully the "Orange" loop is documented as a route, but this stuff often gets missed, and is still awkward since the image of the map still doesn't match the signs.

So my goal was to show the map close to what's physically there, use OSM data as much as possible, and filling in gaps for what OSM doesn't capture, rendering it all into a static map that also happens to work offline. For some specific examples, compare these two systems and their print, Trailforks, and trailmaps.app maps:

RAMBA: [1], [2], [3] Shelden Trails: [4], [5], [6]

There is the same kind of gap when compared to RideWithGPS, Strava, Gaia, etc.

And also, I'm a volunteer with our local trails non-profit. I want anyone and everyone to be able to find maps so they can enjoy the trails. A /lot/ of trail clubs are starting to replace maps with a link to Trailforks, which I believe does riders a disservice because it both requires an app and account and (if a user is trying to view a map out of their home area on a phone) payment. It's literally locking the basic info about a trail -- the map -- behind a semi-paywall. By making a system like this for our local trails I've helped completely avoid that mess. And so I made the map generator open as well so other techy folks can do the same or build on this.

This generated-static-map system does have the downside of being single-person-ish manually managed, and the maps do NOT update automatically. But I also see this as a feature, just like the print maps and in-person signage they are designed to complement.

I've prattled on a little more about the what-why-etc over here on my personal blog if you're interested: https://nuxx.net/blog/2026/06/25/trailmaps-app-map-generator...

--

[1]https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9d19d2_b85c5684f54a4fdc85...

[2] https://www.trailforks.com/region/ramba-trails/

[3] https://trailmaps.app/ramba/

[4] https://www.metroparks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/2022-S...

[5] https://www.trailforks.com/region/stony-creek-metropark/

[6] https://trailmaps.app/shelden/

c0nsumer··on Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)
Thanks!
c0nsumer··on Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)
Thanks for that pointer. I have, but I just really don't want to do it... With my current architecture -- that I like -- it'd be an app per map. Which I guess could make a little pocket money, but they are so hyper-local it wouldn't earn much. So I may as well just keep things going the way they are.
c0nsumer··on Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)
This actually handles that, at least for my use case. Specifically, on first load of the page (in a browser, or the stripped-down browser that runs the app-like PWA install) a service worker gets installed, that caches the entire site/app/map locally, and runs it from there. Then every 24 hours, or on new page load, it checks the live site for content changes and pulls down the changes if they exist. If there's no network connectivity it just silently runs the map.

Each map is 16MB - 20MB in total, so this is all nice and simple to do. Even on a slow 3G connection it's only a minute or so for a full map update to stream in.

The whole point of this system was to take a snapshot of data (mostly OSM), add on some local things that can't really be represented in OSM (like WHICH parking lots are most appropriate, stylistic overrides, system descriptions, etc) and display them. Because of issues I've had in the past with well-meaning-but-misguided OSM mappers wrongly editing trail systems I did not want anything that pulls live.

And then by having purely static content the hosting is very cheap and easy, there's no security concerns around... well... anything dynamic on the site. And each map is portable were I to want someone else to host them. And literally in a couple of years if I haven't updated the map it won't change yet still will work, and that's fine and accepted for this use. Sort-of like a mobile version of a traditional print map. Kinda like the print workflow of editing/design/etc and then rendering the PDF, but web.

This all aligned nicely for me to have a tool that works this way, with each map generated by a tool.

(Sort-of disclaimer: It was also a big personal project in learning to work with AI stuff for development. I knew and understood the inputs and outputs, was able to design the UI, handled/managed all the testing... But I didn't have to worry about the actual-code part. I was able to make pretty quick progress and iterate nicely on my ideas.)

Happy to talk, etc, more about it too. Either here, or contact info is on the site.

c0nsumer··on Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)
Hello! And yeah... :\ The Android/Chrome/Edge support for it is great, and on iOS it's actually nice, but you have to do all the hoop-jumping of clicking Share, whatever, and getting the icon to actually appear.

Also, apparently Apple really doesn't like approving apps that are basically wrapped PWAs (Google will, I guess?) so that is yet another check against bothering with an app.

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