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thangalinon Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash

It'll come quickly for audio books. I've been working on a locally hosted, fully containerized web application to narrate my sci-fi novel using a full cast of characters and a few distinct narrators:

* https://i.ibb.co/ccqKZ71L/keenlore.png

* https://i.ibb.co/1t3W0JqZ/keenlore-02.png

* https://i.ibb.co/LdBqHwKB/keenlore-03.png

thangalinon What will be left for us to work on

https://autonoma.ca/model.png

Thoughts?

thangalinon Show HN: TeXbrain, a LaTeX editor that runs pdfTeX in the browser via WASM

> I usually use pandoc for converting my Markdown

See my Typesetting Markdown series:

https://dave.autonoma.ca/blog/2019/05/22/typesetting-markdow...

> Is there a specific reason you picked ConTeXt?

LaTeX:

* doesn't (easily, or practically) separate content from presentation;

* has arcane, antiquated syntax;

* packages can have namespace conflicts (rare, but happens);

* requires package installation for additional features.

ConTeXt, being monolithic and newer, avoids all those issues. The feature matrix lists a number of samples typeset with ConTeXt:

https://keenwrite.com/blog/2025/09/08/feature-matrix/

FWIW, pandoc has the ability to generate ConTeXt code.

thangalinon Show HN: TeXbrain, a LaTeX editor that runs pdfTeX in the browser via WASM

I wrote a Markdown -> ConTeXt -> PDF editor that may interest you.

* https://keenwrite.com/

* https://keenwrite.com/screenshots.html

thangalinon Could we dredge the Netherlands without fossil fuels? (2018)

https://nltimes.nl/2025/06/20/ethnicity-definitely-plays-rol...

"People from minority groups are relatively more often suspected of crimes that are more likely to end in a prison sentence. There is also a higher average number of charges against people from minority groups. On the socio-economic scale, people with an immigration background are more likely to be in vulnerable positions with lower education levels.

"The origin of a suspect influences the outcomes of the criminal proceedings against them. 'This may indicate conscious or unconscious discrimination, which goes against the principle of the rule of law, in which everyone has an equal chance of fair treatment,' the researchers said."

thangalinon Canada will match US tariffs 'dollar for dollar' as trade talks break down

> You do realise it's the citizens that voted trump in?

When electing a candidate, not everyone endorses every specific policy of that candidate; casting a ballot does not imply total ideological alignment (nor even full knowledge of all policies), especially in a two-party FPTP electoral system. Many people vote based on broad messaging, loyalty, economic sentiment, or identity instead of in-depth platform analysis. To wit, Latino voters did not realise how helping to push ice-cold reds into power would affect their lives. They simply didn't know or understand. Now they do. Canada's next actions, counter-tariffs, and burgeoning global economic ties I hope will further open the eyes of mislead citizens.

Harris lost the popular vote by 1.5%, which does not a landslide make.

thangalinon Chinese robot runs 100M sprint quicker than Usain Bolt's world record

Try radio.

thangalinon Canada will match US tariffs 'dollar for dollar' as trade talks break down

The sentiment here is that nobody wants U.S. citizens to be negatively impacted by trade restrictions or tariffs. We are figuratively and, in many cases, literally friends and family. (Aside, even if our provincial governments allow southern booze back on shelves, it'll stay there.)

It would be decidedly un-Canadian to leverage electricity, potash, or other commodities necessary for survival in trade negotiations -- despite what Ford may suggest. We're nice, but we won't bow to bullies. Elbows up, eh!

thangalinon Felony charges for citizen deleting phone data at US Border

https://i.ibb.co/WWWYznHX/flock-future.png

See: https://dave.autonoma.ca/blog/2019/06/06/web-of-knowledge/

thangalinon WPD won't replace stolen Flock cameras, citing public trust

https://i.ibb.co/WWWYznHX/flock-future.png ;-)

Also: https://dave.autonoma.ca/blog/2019/06/06/web-of-knowledge/

thangalinon How I Under-Engineered my Book

The closest would be the Typesetting Markdown series, which centers around using interpolated strings as variables inside prose:

https://dave.autonoma.ca/blog/2019/05/22/typesetting-markdow...

thangalinon Civic Hygiene – avoid building technologies that could be used by a police state (2013)

See:

* https://dave.autonoma.ca/blog/2019/06/06/web-of-knowledge/

* https://i.ibb.co/WWWYznHX/flock-future.png

* https://www.cfr.org/education/learn/reading/what-fascism

thangalinon How I Under-Engineered my Book

> overkill

To write my hard sci-fi novel, I wrote a cross-platform Markdown editor so that I could use interpolated variables along with R code:

https://keenwrite.com/screenshots.html

ConTeXt produces the PDF files. I also developed a few calculators to help confirm physics and other plot-related aspects:

https://autonoma.ca/calculators/

thangalinon Ask HN: Alternatives to GitHub

https://repo.autonoma.ca/treetrek

I self-host using my own read-only, FOSS, pure PHP Git repository reader for personal projects.

thangalinon JDK 27 G1/Parallel/Serial GC Changes

> Are people still dealing with GC issues?

Have you tried real-time audio processing for digital radio communications on a JVM that requires sub-millisecond latency on older, temperature-hardened CPUs?

thangalinon Flock updates privacy, accountability, security, and transparency safeguards

https://i.ibb.co/WWWYznHX/flock-future.png ;-)

thangalinon New Bedford police officer accused of using Flock cameras to track ex-partner

https://i.ibb.co/WWWYznHX/flock-future.png

;-)

thangalinon Show HN: Write.md – A free, open-source, themeable Markdown editor for macOS

* https://keenwrite.com/

* https://keenwrite.com/screenshots.html

* https://keenwrite.com/docs/user-manual.pdf

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dCui_hHK6U

My software uses ConTeXt to typeset into PDF.

thangalinon “Code was never the hard part” is an insult to all programmers

JsonReader. CsvReader. JSON and CSV data fixtures. "Write tests," I said. "Use JSON fixtures, like the other tests," I directed. So it did:

    {
      "document": {
        "ElementA": "/home/username/project/valid-01.csv",
        "ElementB": "/home/username/project/valid-02.csv"
      }
    }

Then Opus had the audacity to couple the JsonReader to the CsvReader so that it could parse the CSV file contents during JSON parsing ... introducing at least five long-term maintenance issues along the way.

thangalinon Zed DeltaDB

From 1996:

https://www.eng.auburn.edu/~kchang/comp6710/readings/They%20...

"There is the software. And then there are the databases beneath the software, two enormous databases, encyclopedic in their comprehensiveness. One is the history of the code itself -- with every line annotated, showing every time it was changed, why it was changed, when it was changed, what the purpose of the change was, what specifications documents detail the change. Everything that happens to the program is recorded in its master history. The genealogy of every line of code -- the reason it is the way it is -- is instantly available to everyone."

thangalinon Cops Used Flock to Track a Man Across State Lines for a Pretextual Weed Search

https://i.ibb.co/WWWYznHX/flock-future.png

;-)

* https://medium.com/@speechgeek/scaling-joy-part-2-the-tech-t...

thangalinon All of Winona Police Department's Flock cameras cut down and stolen

https://i.ibb.co/WWWYznHX/flock-future.png

;-)

thangalinon How to Train a Gen AI Kick Drum Model on Your Old Linux Desktop with 6GB VRAM

Some examples:

The Mooche

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPJ5vNmVL3I (The Duke, 1928)

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLdCq2PKM4o (John Barry, 1984)

Sugar Foot Stomp

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEdIWVsfPXs (Henderson, 1925)

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35foefTrdLo (Nighthawks, 1993)

Doctor Jazz

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTYAaX7lqjQ (Morton, 1926)

* https://www.shazam.com/song/1687138286/doctor-jazz (Asaro & Fat Babies, 2016)

I was wondering if anyone was working on this (i.e., using pure software). Period equipment, real musicians, and such would be time consuming, arduous, and cost prohibitive.

thangalinon First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQFqDKRAROI

thangalinon How to Train a Gen AI Kick Drum Model on Your Old Linux Desktop with 6GB VRAM

Slightly off-topic. Now that 1920s jazz music is falling into public domain, has anyone tried to reinvigorate the music using AI and generative adversarial approaches? Pre-1940s music didn't have high-fidelity sound, so the strong bass lines weren't captured. In theory, we could "downgrade" modern recordings to sound like 1920s recordings, then use adversarial techniques to train the machine on how to restore the antique recordings. Anyone know of any work being done in this area?

thangalinon Show HN: Free Mermaid Diagram Editor

https://kroki.io/#try

Shout out to Kroki, which offers Mermaid and many other text-based diagramming formats.

thangalinon StreetComplete: Fixing OpenStreetMap, one tiny quest at a time

Thanks! The location page was a map image, it's now an interactive map with the clickable (i)nformation icon.

thangalinon StreetComplete: Fixing OpenStreetMap, one tiny quest at a time

https://shufflenblues.com/location/

OSM is fantastic. I wanted a free, unencumbered map that matches the site's theme for ride sharing, billeting, and the venue location. The solution wasn't trivial, but at least it was possible. Couldn't imagine doing that with Google Maps.

thangalinon How to ask for help from people who don't know you

> 100 notes, not a single response.

Similar story. Sent out 900+ emails to scientific illustrators; about 25 accepted. Here's the result:

* https://impacts.to/downloads/lowres/impacts.pdf

* https://impacts.to/bibliography.pdf

thangalinon Windows 10 quietly gets one more year of support and updates

It works well, though its messages could use some TLC:

    libEGL warning: pci id for fd 31: 10de:1ff0, driver (null)

    pci id for fd 33: 10de:1ff0, driver (null)
    pci id for fd 34: 10de:1ff0, driver (null)
    libEGL warning: egl: failed to create dri2 screen
    libEGL warning: pci id for fd 31: 10de:1ff0, driver (null)

    pci id for fd 33: 10de:1ff0, driver (null)
    pci id for fd 34: 10de:1ff0, driver (null)
    libEGL warning: egl: failed to create dri2 screen
    libEGL warning: pci id for fd 31: 10de:1ff0, driver (null)

    0124:fixme:nls:RtlGetThreadPreferredUILanguages 00000034, 0313F66C, 0313F6DC 0313F674
    0124:fixme:nls:get_dummy_preferred_ui_language (0x34 0x1009 0313F66C 0313F6DC 0313F674) returning a dummy value (current locale)
    0124:fixme:heap:RtlSetHeapInformation HEAP_INFORMATION_CLASS 1 not implemented!
    0124:fixme:nls:RtlGetThreadPreferredUILanguages 00000034, 0313F9D4, 0313FA44 0313F9DC
    0124:fixme:nls:get_dummy_preferred_ui_language (0x34 0x1009 0313F9D4 0313FA44 0313F9DC) returning a dummy value (current locale)
    0124:fixme:shell:InitNetworkAddressControl stub
    0124:fixme:richedit:editor_handle_message EM_GETLANGOPTIONS: stub
    0124:fixme:richedit:editor_handle_message EM_SETLANGOPTIONS: stub
    0124:fixme:ntdll:NtQuerySystemInformation info_class SYSTEM_PERFORMANCE_INFORMATION
    0124:fixme:win:RegisterTouchWindow hwnd 000100E0, flags 0 stub!
    0124:fixme:msvcrt:__clean_type_info_names_internal (7853A300) stub
    0124:fixme:msvcrt:__clean_type_info_names_internal (7B4F6BE4) stub
    0124:fixme:msvcrt:__clean_type_info_names_internal (79410E54) stub