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samschooler

1,336 karma · joined November 5, 2017

React (+Native), Astrophysics, Sustainability, Privacy, Decentralization, Internet Freedom.

samschooler.com

[ my public key: https://keybase.io/samschooler; my proof: https://keybase.io/samschooler/sigs/n5RbGnCXCLyrLp01MFYw11ZzI4z6qG4RvYnRVQ7yI4Y ]

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samschooler··on The Elizabeth Holmes documentary “You Can See Everything” is deceiving
For a lot of people, they wouldn't say it's a hit piece on her; more on someone near to her. I also wouldn't call it a documentary fully. It really is hard to watch the movie, and come to any solid conclusions. I'd like to say also I'm not questioning her guilt, and specifically called out that that's not what the provocation is about in the movie. So apologia may be the wrong term her? It's more about how can you understand someone and the motives of their actions.
samschooler··on The Elizabeth Holmes documentary “You Can See Everything” is deceiving
Not at all, though she does talk slightly less like that now.
samschooler··on The Elizabeth Holmes documentary “You Can See Everything” is deceiving
I don't think there is any magic sauce to this movie. I saw it yesterday, and do agree (spoilers ahead) there are three acts: deception, sympathetic, puppeteer. I feel though that this article treats the movie as if its some sort of hypnosis; it's not. Its a very well put together movie that makes you question everything thats happening. I and others came out of it largely questioning:

A. Is she truly the most manipulative person we've ever seen

B. Largely oblivious to what's happening around her

and not:

- Is she guilty

This movie I would say does not answer those questions, nor do I think seeks to.

samschooler··on Siri is so bad at everything
My fav is the siri search bar now withholds backup results like "Search the Web" and instead only gives me the siri results which are useless in my spotlight search on iPhone. So much for apple making their own search engine.
samschooler··on Show HN: Bigwords.page – Turn any screen into a sign. The URL is the app
Super cool! I'm using this same strategy for a recipe viewer. One thing that works pretty well is actually letting agents build the urls. As an example, I have a skill file and docs for agents on how to use it; feel free to copy how I'm doing it, it works pretty well in permission-limited agents like chatgpt web! https://keep.recipes
samschooler··on Nebula Sans
On Nebula even the built in ads for Squarespace are gone too. Sure you could use sponsorblock, but for me I'm happy to support Nebula as their creator netowrk are people I want to support directly with my dollars.
samschooler··on iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will remain on icloud.com
Agree with the comment largely; though: Apple does have a policy where apps need to use SIWA if other oauth providers are present (Google) [0]. So sites do "opt in" to this, but are forced by apple to use SIWA if they're using any other provider.

[0]: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#sig...

samschooler··on Ask HN: In your experience, what are sound conventions for e-ink UI development?
I actually built a Partiful event clone [0] for my friends and I and this was one of the first features. One of the "unlocks" for me was a scroll component that auto paginates any screen on the site. I have The Minimal Phone and it works quite well as a PWA. Not at all a promotion (like actively I'm losing money on this product) but feel free to check out eink mode. You login with 4152127777 and test code 123456 (going to disable this tomorrow fyi). eink mode is in the top right profile menu.

I wish these phones complied with `monochrome` media query [1] but they don't.

[0]: https://littleinvite.com/e/vfu8mn4b/test-invite

[1]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference/A...

samschooler··on Another Corner of the Internet Has Been Ruined
CyberChef? https://cyberchef.io/
samschooler··on Decoy Font
I think this would be more interesting if the underlying letters were the fake letters as well. For usability it wouldn't be as good as you'd need an encoder, but it'd be cool because an AI with browser access couldn't read the contents either.
samschooler··on UAE to leave OPEC
Thanks! I think he's better than a lot of opinion creators, but does make me look at his videos with more skepticism.
samschooler··on UAE to leave OPEC
Do you have a reputable sources to back up your claims here? Johnny cites sources pretty consistently.
samschooler··on Artemis II will use laser beams to live-stream 4K moon footage at 260 Mbps
Here's another launch video uncut: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWm1pXNAOh6/
samschooler··on A retro terminal music player inspired by Winamp
The project is cool, the demo song is iconically AI not great, sorry.
samschooler··on American aviation is near collapse?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Archive.today_guidan...
samschooler··on AI coding is gambling
I'm not saying I have a system. I'm saying there are levels to this stuff. It's not a binary "gambling" or "not gambling".
samschooler··on AI coding is gambling
I think there are levels to this.

- One shot or "spray and pray" prompt only vibe coding: gambling.

- Spec driven TDD AI vibe coding: more akin to poker.

- Normal coding (maybe with tab auto complete): eating veggies/work.

Notably though gambling has the massive downside of losing your entire life and life savings. Being in the "vibe coding" bucket's worse case is being insufferable to your friends and family, wasting your time, and spending $200/month on a max plan.

samschooler··on IMG_0416 (2024)
If you haven't seen http://astronaut.io/ its this but in a great form factor.
samschooler··on Show HN: Formally verified FPGA watchdog for AM broadcast in unmanned tunnels
I did a more aggressive internet search. This seems not possible given physics, as well as not documented (at least in the US) in the CDC Mine Accidents Database [0], which has been recording mine accidents since before the discovery + invention of AM radio.

Edit: The physics

- (lambda) = c / 1,620,000 Hz = 185 m :: 1.62 MHz is what I derived as a near max possible accidental frequency able to be produced by AM equipment

- 185 m / 2 = 92.6 m :: this is half a wave length

In order to resonate (let alone have enough power to "cook", which I didn't even look at because the wave can't even resonate), a tunnel must be at 92.6 m (fundamental) or 185 m wide or tall (2nd harmonic). Most tunnels are ~5m/3m wide/tall at most.

Dusted off my physics from my minor in college so someone feel free to correct me.

[0]: https://wwwn.cdc.gov/NIOSH-Mining/MMWC/MineDisasters/Table

samschooler··on Claude Sonnet 4.6
I would say it's the market and sentiment around SAAS right now. See HubSpot, Atlassian, Salesforce, etc. tickers.
samschooler··on An AI agent published a hit piece on me
The series of posts is wild:

hit piece: https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/post...

explanation of writing the hit piece: https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/post...

take back of hit piece, but hasn't removed it: https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/post...

samschooler··on Downtown Denver's office vacancy rate grows to 38.2%
16 St. is way better than it was. If you haven't been down there, go walk around at lunch sometime, there are a bunch of normies down there now. Yeah its all chains still, but it's not actively hostile like it was a few years ago.
samschooler··on Downtown Denver's office vacancy rate grows to 38.2%
To call it a park is a stretch. It's a dilapidated golf course, and last I checked it can't be open over night because of liability? Like I'm happy it's open, but I would say it's a far cry from being on the same level as Cheeseman or City :/
samschooler··on Downtown Denver's office vacancy rate grows to 38.2%
* now is spending 70 million of public funds to make it a park https://denverite.com/2025/11/05/park-hill-park-bond-funding...
samschooler··on Downtown Denver's office vacancy rate grows to 38.2%
That whole situation was bad. I don't think anyone is happy with that situation. A developer was going to give us (some) affordable housing, and a "free" park. Instead now we're paying 70 million for the same park.
samschooler··on Show HN: An iOS budget app I've been maintaining since 2011
I've also been blocked on my home network (CO, USA). Any insight into how your block system is working?
samschooler··on Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features
Honestly if it were up to me, yes I'd love Firefox to stay in the niche, but they have to follow the market if they want to stay relevant. I just hope they can push more adoption.
samschooler··on Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features
I'm going to chime in here, I think 1. This is great and Mozilla is listening to it's core fans and 2. I want Firefox to be a competitive browser. Without AI enabled features + agent mode being first class citizens, this will be a non-starter in 2 years.

I want my non-tech family members/friends to install Firefox not because I come over at Christmas, but because they want to. Because it's a browser that "just works." We can't have this if Firefox stays in the pre-ai era.

I know Mozilla doesn't have much good will right now, but hopefully with the exec shakeup, they will right the ship on making FF a great browser. While still staying the best foil to Chrome (both in browser engine, browser chrome, and extension ecosystem).

samschooler··on Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)
So cozy. I love this.

One nit: the contrast in dark mode at least on the marketing site is a bit off (But I'd love to fix it myself if it was open source :) )

samschooler··on Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges
I have a roomba i3, it's blocked at the network level, but it is connected to my home assistant instance. It can clean and map rooms but doesn't communicate with the cloud because of the network blocking.
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