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svarrall

84 karma · joined July 6, 2014

App Developer, originally from the UK on an Australian adventure hanging out in central QLD.
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svarrall··on Shrinkle – Shrink words, find hidden phrase
My only confusion was when I’d correctly reduced one word to the required for the phrase, but didn’t get any feedback that it was correct. I didn’t understand why it wouldn’t accept my “valid” shorter word
svarrall··on AccuWeather to discontinue free access to Core Weather API
If you scroll down on to the bottom of Apple Weather it has a “Report an Issue” button which allows you to report current weather conditions at your location.

I have no idea what happens to that data and if it contributes to the report in any way.

svarrall··on Show HN: Rad Type - Can we make gamepad typing fast?
Be good to get some numbers to compare input speed/accuracy of the different variations.

Reminded me of the Nokia 3600/3650 [1] with its radial button layout.

Wonder if a similar concept would allow input with only one stick.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_3650

svarrall··on How I pwned a major New Zealand service provider
They mentioned the name of the app in the article “KiwiServices”
svarrall··on Show HN: Hyve Tile, a puzzle game but I can't solve it
Interesting concept. Certainly took a bit of head scratching to get the concept, but now starting to solve them. I did get a successful solve that wasn’t correct, some of the roads weren’t connected.

https://imgur.com/a/UEBe8uv

svarrall··on How random are TOTP codes?
You mean like this? You can get push notifications when your codes are “cool”

https://open.substack.com/pub/jacobbartlett/p/building-a-2fa...

svarrall··on Someone should probably start a bright home lighting company (2019)
There seems to have been a fair amount of research into this based on the COVID lockdowns around the world. One such study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33443542/
svarrall··on Mile-Long Wooden Xylophone Plays Bach in Japanese Forest
Would love to see a making of for this. Would be fascinating seeing the experimentation involved
svarrall··on Sony spins off camera business into separate company
Getting the ducks in line for a sale?
svarrall··on Apple has removed us from the App Store
This seems pretty clear. They’re giving you a heads up that in a future iOS version you won’t be able to get awake/pickup information whilst using the background location api.
svarrall··on A Popular Mac App That Sent Users' Browsing History to China Has Been Removed
Indeed, I’m impressed the speed in which Apple maps updates happen and they send notifications when they have made an update based on your feedback.
svarrall··on World's steepest funicular railway opens in Switzerland
The Scenic Railway in the Blue Mountains, NSW is listed at 52deg so I believe it’s still steeper?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katoomba_Scenic_World#Railwa...

svarrall··on Beer giant ABI bought many craft brews and is now buying beer rating websites
That was my initial though to. Here’s a good discussion from Sessionable on the subject from independent breweries perspective and their main concerns seem to be around access to taps and consumer awareness when independents get bought out.

https://overcast.fm/+BwaxYul7M

svarrall··on How We Built r/Place
Anyone with any insight into how much something like this 'cost' Reddit, resource wise. Is the main outlay in time and the server costs already covered by their infrastructure or does the high traffic add enough to make a difference?
svarrall··on Show HN: Origin – A typewriter styled, minimalistic writing app for Mac
Looks like it does exactly what it says. Mind writing a bit about the app, reasons for making it, development process, pricing model?
svarrall··on Reasons Not to Use Google (2015)
Agree. I'm in the same position. I find it particularly poor and combining multiple search terms, where it seems to favour the most popular of the terms and ignore the important narrowing keywords important to the search.
svarrall··on Tesla footage of braking before crash ahead [video]
The opposite, you should release the brakes to reduce the effect of the impact so you actually acted correctly.
svarrall··on Windows update knocks out internet connections
I've had this on all 5 machines I've updated to windows 10, it always loses the internet when first installed and various amounts of fiddling as you've described eventually fixes it. Very frustrating, especially when trying to talk a untechnical family member through the process remotely. This certainly isn't a new problem.
svarrall··on Ask HN: Best Monitor Around $300 for Dev Work?
Agree with this, a non retina resolution monitor just looks unfocussed to me next to a MBPro screen.
svarrall··on MakerBot's bold bet that 3D printers would become common
Check out RenderFab[0], this is exactly what they have solved.

[0] www.renderfab.com

svarrall··on Uber Now Tracks Passengers’ Locations Even After They’re Dropped Off
Surely they can get the pick up points from the drivers data, can't they flag where the found the passenger? Why would they need it from the users side too?
svarrall··on Radeon R9 M370X (MacBook Pro 2015) vs. Radeon Pro 460 (MacBook Pro 2016)
I believe it's already possible to hook up and external card to a Pro. At least I've seen pictures of it on a gamers machine so don't know how viable it actually is
svarrall··on Having Fun with Touch ID and the Touch Bar in 1Password
Great writeup, I remember the excitement around TouchID at WWDC that year. Any technical limitations/issues you've come across with the Touch Bar yet? Interested in diving into the api's to see what can be done but there's always some gotchas, especially when trying to debug on simulated hardware!
svarrall··on Origami Studio – Design Prototyping
Flash was this for me. Started with the animation tools and slowly started writing action script to make it interactive. Try Interface Builder in XCode it allows you to do all of the layout side, but you quickly need to start writing snippets of code to do things like round corners and change border colours.
svarrall··on What Apple’s quiet failure can teach you about your business
I'm not sure it can be classed as a failure. Pivoted maybe, but failure? In what sense?
svarrall··on LaunchKit and Google
I think the most interesting thing about this move is the open sourcing of their tools.

I've been using LaunchKit since near the beginning and love what they've been doing. It's great the service isn't just closing down today.

svarrall··on Opt-In Your Apps into the iOS App Store Search Ads Beta
"Search Ads will run in beta during this summer. The beta period will enable us to understand how various ad formats perform and help us to optimize the user experience.

During the beta, members of the Apple Developer Program and Apple Beta Software Program running iOS betas may see Search Ads. If you currently have an iPhone or iPad app on the U.S. App Store, you can opt-in to include your apps in the Search Ads beta.

Participation is free. There is no setup, budget or bidding required by you. Test ads will be automatically created with the information you already provide to the App Store. While data for how your app performs will not be available, and there’s no guarantee an ad for a specific app will be shown, you may generate downloads as a result of your participation."

svarrall··on What normal and abnormal heart rhythms look like on an Apple watch
I have the same issue, seems to be very erratic with its measurements. Frustrating as fitness tracking was one of the main reasons for getting one in the first place.

I would also like to be able to up the number of measurements it takes. I often only use about 50% battery a day so would happily utilise the remaining charge for more regular monitoring.

svarrall··on How Thync, Startup Behind Brain-Zapping Gadget, Almost Died
"As part of the arrangement, all stock held by investors and employees in the original company were rendered worthless." Well, that doesn't seem right. What's stopping any company at any time doing this?
svarrall··on Repository invitations on GitHub.com
This looks great, but I always get nervous about inviting someone into a repository. A simple mistype and a complete random has access to the repo. I would feel happier if the autocomplete list prioritised people you'd invited previously or already share repos with.
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