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nsbk

688 karma · joined September 1, 2017

Head of Engineering
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nsbk··on MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display and Touch
I was on the market for a 128Gb M5 Max and went with the Studio + an Air for about the same money
nsbk··on MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display and Touch
My god the prices. Good thing I lost interest in high-end laptops. Beefy desktop + light laptop is how I roll nowadays
nsbk··on Solar power is becoming bigger than nuclear
Well, it's solar and sits in my balcony sooo...

Just kidding, I know what you mean. I actually started with true balcony solar and evolved into the battery+inverter setup and couldn't be happier

nsbk··on Solar power is becoming bigger than nuclear
Definitely! I'm using a Zendure SolarFlow 800 Pro [0] and two solar panels. That unit is the battery and micro inverter all in one. It just plugs into one of your home outlets. I also installed a Shelly power meter [1] that the SolarFlow can talk to and learn about your usage trends, and also prevent it from feeding power back to the grid if you want it to.

The SolarFlow 800 Pro goes for around 500 euros, and good quality solar panels for ~120 each. ~100 for the power meter and ~70 for the brackets to install the panels on. Oh and maybe ~40 for cables.

You can also use the battery as a massive power bank with a 240V outlet on camping trips xD

[0] https://zendure.com/products/solarflow-800-pro [1] https://shellyspain.com/shelly-pro-em-50.html

nsbk··on Solar power is becoming bigger than nuclear
Im running such system in sunny Valencia and with just two panels I’ve cut my monthly spend in half.

The system is quite smart, it charges the battery up from the grid when electricity is cheap and discharges during peak hours. Legally it’s limited to 800W, but you can set it up to a much higher output.

nsbk··on Siri is so bad at everything
Siri is the only thing in the whole universe which can make me rage. Not computers, not $dayjob, not my car, not getting lost while riding a rally in the desert, not people. Siri. Only Siri can do that.
nsbk··on Mistral Large 4
Nice! Once they make it available through their API I will be happy to support them. My local Qwen3.8 27B is serving me well, but I miss the speed and concurrency that comes with subscriptions, and I am not currently paying for any.

Tais-toi et prends mon argent!

nsbk··on Suits Are Better Tech Than Modern Clothes
Very cool. I'm now actively searching for a yukata. Thanks for sharing!
nsbk··on Creatine uptake enhances antitumor immunity
Oh I’ve been mostly plant based for years, maybe that helps explaining the difference
nsbk··on Creatine uptake enhances antitumor immunity
No, mostly cycling (~200km+/week with one 100km+ ride) and 30 minutes of daily yoga
nsbk··on Creatine uptake enhances antitumor immunity
~5g most days, ~10g if I didn't sleep well. I'm currently 68kg
nsbk··on Creatine uptake enhances antitumor immunity
Definitely! I would not recommend it to make up for lack of sleep for extended periods of time.

One of the things I'm trying to do better lately is to have a good sleep hygiene. Sun in the eyes early in the morning, no caffeine for the first 60 waking minutes of the day (adenosine absorption period), no screens 2 hours before bed and whatnot. Still, some nights I will just wake up in the middle of the night and won't be able to get back to sleep, then it's when I feel creatine helps

Edit: Typo

nsbk··on Creatine uptake enhances antitumor immunity
The overall fitness is going to definitely have a positive effect on the perceived energy levels (my Vo2 max is at its highest ever). On the other hand, I have been very fit at other times in my life but have never experienced this "my head can just go on" feeling before. I used to take conscious breaks, do NSDR between meetings and other energy-replenishing tricks because I __needed__ them. It feels like now I don't
nsbk··on Creatine uptake enhances antitumor immunity
This is such a crazy substance. I'm 43 and I feel like I have more energy than I have ever had before. I started taking it during recovery from a bad ankle fracture since it helps building muscle mass. Once the ankle was better I took up CrossFit, and kept on taking creatine because why not, it helps replenish ATP so I will be able to give the extra-push when working out, I thought.

What is blowing my mind though is that at $dayjob my team is going through a crazy crunch to deliver a very strategic project and some of us are pushing 10-12h days often. I'm in hour 12 today for the second day in a row, and my head is not tired at all. Turns out the brain also uses a lot of ATP too, specially during demanding cognitive tasks so I guess it is creatine that is keeping the engine running smoothly even after so many hours.

I will like once every week or two have a poor night sleep. These days I take twice the dose and I don't feel like I'm sleep deprived at all. Feels like cheating! And apparently no side effects at all so far. Well, maybe I'm working too much.

nsbk··on Show HN: An e-ink frame that hears birds and draws them as 1800s illustrations
Fair! Also, I would love to build this myself as I'm moving out of the city and to the countryside soon.

I'm based off Spain, so I'll be happy to contribute if I find missing Iberian and Mediterranean species, or if some cool feature idea comes up :)

nsbk··on Show HN: An e-ink frame that hears birds and draws them as 1800s illustrations
Very cool, but IMO not mentioning https://theodore.net/projects/AvianVisitors/ as an inspiration is a very ugly move from the author
nsbk··on The "$60 Gaming PC" – AMD BC-250 (2025)
Well played! I guess we’ll never see such prices anymore.

With regards to the wireless power on, I was definitely not the trail blazer. I’m just using https://github.com/Thunkar/bc250-esp32-switch

nsbk··on The "$60 Gaming PC" – AMD BC-250 (2025)
Hello fellow Spaniard! I just checked the prices and they don't make any sense anymore. A few weeks back you could find the board in Aliexpress for 150eur, now it's twice that price or even more. I got mine fom eBay, didn't think of checking Aliexpress at the time. As per the other parts, I got a quite fancy Metalfish PSU [0] (was on sale when I got it), a power button [1] from Ali (not necessarily needed) and an ESP32 [2] for the remote power on. Then a high pressure fan, I went with Arctic P12 Pro [3]. Wifi and BT adapters whatever works on Linux will work.

[0] https://es.aliexpress.com/item/1005009609601844.html

[1] https://es.aliexpress.com/item/1005011847734240.html

[2] https://es.aliexpress.com/item/1005007479144456.html

[3] https://www.amazon.es/dp/B0DJDC74BP?th=1

nsbk··on The "$60 Gaming PC" – AMD BC-250 (2025)
In my particular case the HDMI goes directly into a sound bar which does not have a DP input. I assume most people building a box like this will connect it to a TV, which is most commonly HDMI-only. So technically not a strong requirement but practically almost
nsbk··on The "$60 Gaming PC" – AMD BC-250 (2025)
First time I hear about WoWLAN, thanks! I will check if it can work with my cheap usb Wifi adapter.

Yours seems a bit too eager though! I wouldn't want the thing to start up every time I get home as it turns the projector on, which lowers the projector screen, which blocks the (small) apartment's main entrance when lowered and would make me enter home on my fours ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

nsbk··on The "$60 Gaming PC" – AMD BC-250 (2025)
No. I bought it for about 150 shipping included from Canada to Spain. I reckon I spent about 300$ in total, the most expensive thing being the 1Tb NVMe.

I don't have an ethernet cable where the box is, so WoL is not an option for me either. I could have used something similar to your approach (very smart, by the way!) but decided to go ESP aiming for the most console-like experience of just grabbing the controller and playing your game

nsbk··on The "$60 Gaming PC" – AMD BC-250 (2025)
I built one of these. It is not possible to do so for 60$ anymore since the board itself goes for 150+. On top of that you still need a PSU, NVMe, a high pressure fan, DP to HDMI adapter, possibly BT and Wifi adapters, and a 3d-printed or DIY case.

It is also a very hacky build. You need to flash the BIOS which enables a few interesting unlocks: from 24 to 40 GPU compute units and 6 to 8 CPU cores. It's a bit of a silicon lottery and will depend on your specific board and you need to test everything thoroughly yourself, honing on a config that works for you.

The software side of things is Linux, so if you're familiar with setting it up it shouldn't be difficult to go through the different steps. There are a few distros that work well. I use Bazzite and boot directly to Steam big picture, the UX is great. You can exit to desktop and you have a fully usable Linux box that you can play around with from the comfort of your sofa.

One of the downsides is that it uses a lot of power when idling, about 80W. I just turn it off after using it. I'm working on a QOL feature: an ESP32-based power switch that starts the board when a specific BT device is detected (usually a controller). Once everything is setup the board works very nicely. It can be a bit loud depending on your fan/case combination. I'm currently printing this one[0]

It delivers about the same punch as a standard PS5. The hardware is remarkably similar, and much better than mini PCs set up with AMD APUs, unless you go Strix halo but that is another price league (10x). You can play Cyberpunk 2077 decently on it on settings similar to an AMD RX 6700XT or slightly below RTX 3070.

A pretty impressive number is the memory bandwidth at ~410 GB/s, which should run local LLMs like Gemma 4 or Qwen3.8 27B at decent speed but with limited context size as its just 16Gb

Would I build it again? It was a lot of fun, but financially is not a crazy deal if you need to buy all the materials and factor your time in. Still much cheaper than a Steam Box!

- [0] https://makerworld.com/en/models/3021754-bc250-case-mkuu-fsp...

Edit: GPU performance comparison

nsbk··on 507 Mechanical Movements
This so much! What great games, probably my favorites over the early FPSs of the time, but in close contention with Day of the Tentacle and Monkey Island
nsbk··on France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026
Spain is at 96.79% (June 2025), up from 94.79% a year before. See [0]

I think France and Spain are the best of the big European countries regarding coverage, but also adoption: If we look at the adoption ranking globally, Spain sits fourth at 90%, behind the UAE, China and South Korea and ahead of France at 83.6%.

Very few European countries convert coverage into subscriptions that efficiently, and I think it's driven by competition. You can get 500Mb symmetric connection for as little 10 euro [1], 20 for 2Gbps. DIGI has just gone crazy and in their own network they are offering symmetric 10Gbps for 25. Most people I know have 1Gbps because when is that not enough?

[0]: https://digital.gob.es/en/telecomunicaciones-infraestructura...

[1]: https://www.digimobil.es/fibra-optica/

nsbk··on New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra
I’m in the same camp as you. I’ve just decided that the M5 Ultra is gonna be my next machine. Plus an Air for the few times when I need a computer on the go. I’m invested in Tailscale already so an ubiquitous Studio Ultra seems like a sweet idea
nsbk··on ASRock BC-250: Building the Budget Steam Machine
I checked eBay and they are now around 200 usd and up. All the sellers located in the US and Canada, so a bit more involved for hackers looking into building one from Europe. I still pulled the trigger on one, not sure I will use it much but I'm definitely gonna have a lot of fun building it!
nsbk··on Show HN: Palmier Pro – Open-source macOS video editor built for AI
This is what I have been waiting for in order to process my massive action camera library, I will definitely give it a try!

I will start with older standard GoPro videos, and hope that by the time I make it to the Insta360 videos the editor supports 360 video (unless it does already!)

nsbk··on Gemini 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite, and 3.5 Flash Cyber
It is 17% more token-efficient than 3.5 and performs significantly better in coding and tool usage benchmarks.

It is also cheaper than 3.5:

> This enhanced efficiency is also combined with a lower price than 3.5 Flash. At $1.50/1M input tokens and $7.50/1M output tokens, 3.6 Flash reduces the overall cost per agentic task, making agents more cost-effective to build and run.

nsbk··on Qwen3.8 is launching and going open-weight soon
Hahaha well played! Hat tip
nsbk··on Qwen 3.8
Sweet. Are you running a Mac Studio Ultra or 4x3090?
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