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crimsontech

423 karma · joined December 27, 2022

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crimsontech··on AirPods Max 2
Does it? I haven't used the case since I bought them and don't feel like I'm missing anything.
crimsontech··on The emergence of print-on-demand Amazon paperback books
I remember getting some questionable quality books from amazon which didn't match up to the usual standard of a publisher. No Starch Press called this out in the past saying amazon sell counterfieght books. https://x.com/nostarch/status/1183095004258099202

I'm not sure what actually happens, but I mostly stopped buying paperbacks on Amazon a good while ago, and if I do, and I'm unhappy with the quality I'll return it.

crimsontech··on UK House of Lords Votes to Extend Age Verification to VPNs
In the UK all mobile phones default to no adult content on the mobile networks, if you want to access adult content you need to request it with the mobile network provider. They could have gone the same route with consumer internet access. Most ISP supplied routers support content blocking, it could have been turned on by default with a simple update pushed by the ISP.

Kids here in the UK get educated about online safety in school, schools have sessions for parents covering this stuff too. My own kids have had age appropriate internet access all their lives, its not been difficult to control it, we have had the tools and knowledge for years.

This stuff really isn't about child safety in my opinion.

crimsontech··on Using a laptop as an HDMI monitor for an SBC
I use a Cytrence Kiwi myself, really handy bit of kit, I just wish it could do higher resolution, even if it meant dropping the frame rate.

I also have a PiKVM with the switch for network level access which works really well too.

crimsontech··on Ask HN: How do you fight YouTube addiction and procrastination? I'm struggling
I love this, I block sites during certain times to stop me wasting time but I might add this too.
crimsontech··on ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes
I've done a huge number of hours on sentry duty (unmedicated) and the the hour would either pass by in an instant and I wouldn't even realise it, or it would seem to drag on for hours.

One thing I certainly couldn't do was pay attention to nothing happening for an hour just incase something happened.

crimsontech··on Objects should shut up
My rice cooker does the same, but my microwave beeps a harsh tone until I open the door, which is very annoying.

The rice cooker gives me a notification and requires nothing from me.

The microwave sounds an alarm that requires me to attend to it like an emergency.

crimsontech··on ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 – Lenovo’s rollable laptop
Finally, someone is trying to tackle the huge taskbar problem in Windows 11!

I like this idea, I wouldn't buy one but I always want more vertical space on a laptop screen.

crimsontech··on Ubiquiti launches UniFi OS Server for self-hosting
I stopped buying them when I saw users posting on reddit that they were logging in to their systems and seeing other peoples camera feeds and networks.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ubiquiti-user...

crimsontech··on Vibe code is legacy code
> Was it worth it? Yes, it is terrible, shoddy, insecure code, but he proved out a viable business with just a few hundred dollars of investment.

Was it worth it to put all his customers at risk like that?

He is honestly lucky, the "hackers" could have done much worse, it would have been much more profitable for them to go after his customers via his software than to demand money from him had they been financially motivated.

> Third, the hacker has been trying to inject XSS attacks into app

> Now he's hiring a developer to shore it up.

So this is an ongoing attack? He should probably also hire some incident response and get some security consultancy.

crimsontech··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (July 2025)
I'm making a personal app to help me visualise time passing.

I get "time blind" when I'm fixated on something like work, programming, reading, research, etc. While it can be a good thing, it also means I forget to eat, don't take breaks, miss meetings, or just spend way too long doing one thing and end up wondering where the day went. Typical notifications don't seem to snap me out of it either.

The app creates a thin, always visible line at the bottom of my screen that shrinks inwards as time passes, at the end of the allotted time the screen will blur preventing me from doing whatever I was doing and snapping me out of my hyperfocus state. I can choose how long the timer runs for and how long the screen blurs for. Tonight I added a loop feature so I can use it like a pomodoro timer with enforced breaks.

It's a simple menu bar app for MacOS and could be better, but it does what I want it to do. I've been using it for the past week and found it really helpful.

I haven't used Swift before so it was a good learning experience too.

It's the same principle as a Time Timer (timetimer.com) which I used previously but I find my app works better as the screen blur actually prevents me from just continuing whatever I'm doing, and the bar is always in my line of sight.

crimsontech··on Do not download the app, use the website
These apps were recently found to be collectind a huge amount of personal browsing data from the device, regardless of whether private browser mode was used or permission settings.

https://localmess.github.io/

This technique was discovered, makes me wonder how many undiscovered techniques are still in use.

crimsontech··on Google confirms more ads on your paid YouTube Premium Lite soon
Unhook and Channel Block also make my youtube experience much better. I did pay for Premium at one point but they kept pushing "features" that couldn't be disabled, I provided feedback, but I imagine it goes nowhere, so I stopped paying them.

I put a youtube video on the TV last week and all the adverts were deep fakes of famous people saying you can get rich with this one trick and a QR code to scan. One of the videos was a deep fake of the UK PM Keir Starmer saying thousands of people can claim an unknown benefit. How are these adverts not considered harmful?

crimsontech··on I built a native Windows Todo app in pure C (278 KB, no frameworks)
Can you recommend any good alternatives for someone looking to learn programming using windows APIs?
crimsontech··on Why Apple's Severance gets edited over remote desktop software
I really want to find a good solution for this. I used to use low powered devices like Intel NUCs but ended up with a bunch of them so my employer bought me a workstation, it makes so much noise in my office that I barely turn it on so I'm not getting good use of it.

I think some kind of KVM over IP solution would probably be what I need so I can put the workstation in another room.

crimsontech··on Windows 11 is closing a loophole that let you skip making a Microsoft account
I've mostly dropped it, I have a couple of windows machines for dev stuff but I really don't enjoy using the OS, each time I log in there is a new annoyance.

If I got to a point where I couldn't use it without a Microsoft account I would just drop it entirely.

crimsontech··on How the UK Is Weakening Safety Worldwide
But from their internal position they fully compromised the system used for wiretapping. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_telecommuni...
crimsontech··on Ask HN: What's an appropriate compensation counter offer in London 2024?
I suspect a lot of that data is from job advertisements which go unfilled so they keep getting reposted.
crimsontech··on Post Office Horizon scandal explained: Everything you need to know
I always wonder, as it is known these software issues caused phantom losses for postmasters, was there also a number of phantom gains?

I would find it difficult to believe that these wouldn't have been reported by at least most of the postmasters, but I've never seen any mention of it.

crimsontech··on Read Hacker News on Kindle (2022)
I got one but ended up returning it. My use case was for reading technical books, PDFs and taking notes. I went back to using an iPad when I realised the scribe was heavier.

I read normal books on the kindle, PDFs on the iPad.

crimsontech··on Microsoft blocks even more customization apps in Windows 11 version 24H2
> That's why there's no way to drag the taskbar around -- because Apple OSX doesn't allow this either.

It does though.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mchlp1119/mac

crimsontech··on You won't find a technical co-founder
> So that's Apple products for you.

Makes you wonder why they are so popular if this is the average user experience right?

crimsontech··on Giphy is sharing your IP address and private data to 816 partners
Isn’t it used in MS Teams, Slack and other messaging and chat apps?

I expected they had some kind of API and deal with these companies.

crimsontech··on The window for great-grandmothers is closing
I had my first daughter when I was 20 and grew up very quickly, I can distinctly remember it hitting me like a bus that I was now wholly responsible for a human.

She is an adult now and I couldn’t be any prouder of all she has achieved in life so far.

I also had two more kids in my 30s. It’s harder when you are older, but I’m financially better off so they can have things I couldn’t afford in my 20s. I do have more work responsibilities but it’s balanced by working from home so I get to be a big part of their lives, taking them to school, here when they get home, etc.

There are benefits either way, but I think if you are committed to being a decent parent, having them younger has more benefits in the long term. You get to be around for more of lives too.

crimsontech··on Apple Is in Talks to Let Google's Gemini Power iPhone Generative AI Features
Odd, I just tried it and it still works normally for me. I say “Siri” and the device says “uh huh?”
crimsontech··on FDA clears first over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor
Sorry I should have mentioned that in the post. I’m in the UK, so National Health Service.
crimsontech··on FDA clears first over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor
At the age of 45 I had never had an HbA1c test. I found out I had T2 diabetes from getting a CGM as part of a health study I applied for, and seeing my blood glucose was at 22mmol (it should be under 10). I ordered a finger prick test kit from Amazon assuming the GCM was faulty but it wasn’t. After this I went to the doctors who confirmed with an HbA1c and put me on Metformin.

It certainly should be part of routine checkups in my opinion, but I had never had more than blood pressure check and a weigh in from my doctor.

crimsontech··on FDA clears first over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor
I tried different tapes, Kinesiology tape didn’t stick for me but Hypafix did, I can’t get this stuff off without soaking it.

If you ever want to give it another go, try Hypafix. I tore my skin the first time and quickly learned to soak it and use soap to remove the GCM.

crimsontech··on FDA clears first over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor
I did it for fun about a year ago and found out I had T2 diabetes.

I was shocked but obviously glad I found out. I use them from time to time just to see how I’m doing and how different foods (and amounts of them) impact me.

I found I can control it through diet alone and exercising when there is a spike by using a GCM for the constant feedback.

They are very expensive here though (UK) and my doctor won’t prescribe me one because metformin is cheaper, so it’s not something I can use all the time.

I hate needles, this really isn’t like a needle though, it’s a small filament which sits just under your skin, you can’t feel it, I thought it hadn’t gone in until I saw the reading appear on my phone.

Some things I found out besides what foods and amounts give me big spikes are that I have a blood glucose spike in the morning just before I wake up, and that if I eat a small enough portion of white rice, ice cream, bread, whatever I can reduce the spike quickly by going for a walk. If I had a lot though, a walk isn’t going to help.

crimsontech··on Microsoft Security-101: Open-Source curriculum
Wow I had no idea this was on YouTube.

This book is the one I always recommended for someone getting started in security.

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