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mlacks

650 karma · joined January 11, 2016

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mlacks··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)
I am actually using AI to learn about Windows OS performance. I have a couple of prompts scheduled to research, test, and implement performance gains in the OS, then post them here [0] and here [1]. I always admired Brendan Greg and Bryan Cantrill at Sun/Illumos/ for their work on OS performance but never had the time to sit down and catch up to their level due to my time in the military. I got Codex to find and apply a bunch of settings I didn't know about and in the future I hope to use AI to make real changes in performance that venders probably don't have time or resources for.

that being said, what I've learned so far is essentially WhyIsItAlwaysHN's entire comment "The place to find them would be performance profiles, query plans, telemetry."

I just find it so frustrating that for a user interface that was basically solved in the 90s, Windows GUI still struggles to survive on hardware exceptionally more powerful than what we had 30 years ago

0 - https://www.lacksan.com/updates/ 1 - https://github.com/Lacksan-Dev/HP-ZBook-Performance

mlacks··on Google fixed more Chrome bugs in June than over the past two years, thanks to AI
I am actually using AI to learn about Windows OS performance. I have a couple of prompts scheduled to research, test, and implement performance gains in the OS, then post them here [0] and here [1]. I always admired Brendan Greg and Bryan Cantrill at Sun/Illumos/ for their work on OS performance but never had the time to sit down and catch up to their level due to my time in the military.

I got Codex to find and apply a bunch of settings I didn't know about and in the future I hope to use AI to make real changes in performance that venders probably don't have time or resources for.

that being said, what I've learned so far is essentially WhyIsItAlwaysHN's entire comment "The place to find them would be performance profiles, query plans, telemetry."

I just find it so frustrating that for a user interface that was basically solved in the 90s, Windows GUI still struggles to survive on hardware exceptionally more powerful than what we had 30 years ago

0 - https://www.lacksan.com/updates/ 1 - https://github.com/Lacksan-Dev/HP-ZBook-Performance

mlacks··on Half-Baked Product
Hey thanks for the throrough response. I see your point, but I think anyone with their whole life on display would have plenty of failures to go with the successes. For FSD, I believe its done - see the following: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwMlAj1tpQg
mlacks··on Half-Baked Product
Why is it that people focus on the negatives. I'm not going to pick apart the whole comment but World's first self-landing rocket ship and best selling electric car in the world are not figments of a "system is rigged that getting wealthy off one good bet can sustain you forever".
mlacks··on I Wasn't Allowed Prompting ChatGPT During My Chalk Talk: This Is Discrimination (2025)
Quite a clever way to take a jab at the cross-coast rival. Well done
mlacks··on Show HN: HackerNows – Native iOS HN Client
Why would that be relevant?
mlacks··on Microsoft Copilot Cowork Exfiltrates Files
agreed. Its the author of the skill file not literally Cowork
mlacks··on Microsoft Copilot Cowork Exfiltrates Files
Exfiltrates: to steal sensitive data from a computer system (for example, via a flash drive).

I'm not going to defend Microsoft here, but the title (at the source blog) is misleading and a bit rage-baity. What happened with Cowork may have been rushed, possibly due to incompetence, but incompetence is not malice. This framing is also recycled across a few of the author's other interesting findings.

Within the article, the wording is much more accurate: “The victim uploads a skill file to Copilot Cowork that contains a prompt injection,” and “The injection manipulates Microsoft Copilot Cowork into posting a Teams message that exfiltrates pre-authenticated file download links when viewed.”

mlacks··on Show HN: Site Mogging
Shame about the screenshotting feature - it doesn't afford the ability for a more interactive site to really showcase itself.

Good example: The site of the family office of the heir to the Nintendo empire only got a 4/10 https://www.y-n10.com/

mlacks··on Why so many control rooms were seafoam green (2025)
On US submarines, every bulkhead and beam not in the bilge is painted seafoam green. We were told it was the most soothing/ anti-rage inducing color possible - necessary for long deployments in cramped quarters.

After a little over a decade of service, no other color infuriates me more

mlacks··on Oxide raises $200M Series C
I just reached out to them after the 4 to six weeks had passed. got my decision a few days later
mlacks··on Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info
truly awesome how many ways you can go deep into something. Would have never thought to spend so much time on derailleurs
mlacks··on Floppinux – An Embedded Linux on a Single Floppy, 2025 Edition
Reminds me of my first linux distro called damnsmall linux. I think this was used as a first attempt to port linux to the gamecube, but the main team driving the effort ended up going with Gentoo instead.

From the main page:

As with most things in the GNU/Linux community, this project continues to stand on the shoulders of giants. I am just one guy without a CS degree, so for now, this project is based on antiX 23 i386. AntiX is a fantastic distribution that I think shares much of the same spirit as the original DSL project. AntiX shares pedigree with MEPIS and also leans heavily on the geniuses at Debian. So, this project stands on the shoulders of giants. In other words, DSL 2024 is a humble little project!

Though it may seem comparably ridiculous that 700MB is small in 2024 when DSL was 50MB in 2002, I’ve done a lot of hunting to find small footprint applications, and I had to do some tricks to get a workable desktop into the 700MB limit. To get the size down the ISO currently reduced full language support for German, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese (de_DE, en_AU, en_GB, en_US, es_ES, fr_FR, es_ES, pt_PT, & pt_BR ). I had to strip the source codes, many man pages, and documentation out. I do provide a download script that will restore all the missing files, and so far, it seems to be working well.

https://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

mlacks··on Ask HN: Notification Overload
On the iPhone, you can hide or remove every app aside from settings, safari, sms, phone, App Store, photos, and camera. I started there, and put phone on silent, and in greyscale.

Instead of the ‘push’ notifications, I have set times throughout the day to check my mail. I’m never interrupted and it turned out that it’s ok to let some fires burn

mlacks··on Cyberattack in Venezuela demonstrated precision of U.S. capabilities
https://www.cybercom.mil/About/Mission-and-Vision/ This is a 4-star command.
mlacks··on Experimental dual-boot project for iPhone 7/7 Plus devices
uPhone is an experimental dual-boot project for iPhone 7/7 Plus devices, allowing iOS 13.X and Ubuntu 22.04 to coexist.Basic hardware such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and the touchscreen may work, (you can use Bluetooth keyboard / mouse / headphones, speakers and other Bluetooth devices.), but many other components, including the GPU, are likely non-functional.
mlacks··on Linux is good now
I moved to linux this month for good once i realized I no longer needed microsft services (Excel for example "runs on Mac" but is missing important features). I chose redhat because its what I've been using for over a decade at work and feels like home. Only thing I miss is Capcut as that workflow was pretty ironed out. Getting the hang of KDENlive
mlacks··on Rainbow Six Siege hacked as players get billions of credits and random bans
It appears to be from the mongo db exploit. Sort of like Heartbleed from a few years ago.

https://github.com/joe-desimone/mongobleed

https://beta.shodan.io/host/212.104.194.153

mlacks··on I'm returning my Framework 16
kind of short sided on the laptop choices. M1/2 for Asahi or Framework. What?

Plenty of options from HP, not to mention German-assembled Tuxedo, and System76. Even moreso if going used

mlacks··on JetBlue flight averts mid-air collision with US Air Force jet
Notice was put out NOV

https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/us_restrictions...

mlacks··on Steam Machine
Halo was announced for PS5 recently
mlacks··on CERN scientists find evidence of quantum entanglement in sheep
The evidence has several ramifications for ovine research and has set the baa for a new branch of quantum physics.

set the baa haha

mlacks··on Ask HN: Best Windows/Linux developer laptop in 2025
There is no configuration that meets both high-quality local LLM performance and excellent portability. A robust discrete GPU in a thin, portable laptop does not offer enough memory bandwidth or thermals for full-scale models, and a laptop with abundant DDR5 memory and high-end CPU power isn’t designed for the throughput that local LLM inference demands. The practical solution is to use a Linux laptop optimized for everyday development and use hosted LLM services when you need more power.
mlacks··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (February 2025)
A Sui blockchain scanning app. Plenty of those already but a level up for me in programming complexity

Moving to a trading bot eventually

mlacks··on Did missing/corrupt dates in COBOL default to 1875-05-20?
lol I think the Diablo Rakki was determined to be a hoax but I did find this interesting paste of Things Elon Musk launched or unveiled in less than 10 years:

Boring Co. Crew Dragon Cybercab Cybertruck DOGE Falcon Heavy Falcon 9 FSD Grok 1,2,3 Megapack Model 3 Model X Model Y Neuralink OpenAI Optimus Powerwall Roadster 2.0 Robovan Solar Roof Starlink Starship Tesla Semi

mlacks··on Plane crashes, overturns during landing at Toronto airport
ill take that over consumption by fire
mlacks··on Did missing/corrupt dates in COBOL default to 1875-05-20?
probably because despite all of his negative aspects, he has transformed the online payments industry, space industry, and auto industry.
mlacks··on I am (not) a failure: Lessons learned from six failed startup attempts
What happened to Hacker News man
mlacks··on Sailor Poets Take over U.S. Navy Deck Logs on New Year's Day
someone tried did this in maneuvering on an 88 in pearl i was stationed on. Nothing crazy like NJP but ENG was not happy at all
mlacks··on United Airlines to launch Starlink wi-fi in spring 2025
Just did Starlink on Hawaiian Airlines. TOS requests you avoid video and the cabin staff enforces it
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