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philwebster

Re:The Smelly Baby Problem on Friday May 01, 2026 @10:13PM (#47982681)
That site is worth visiting just for the wavy scrolling marquee text that's actually selectable. Very satisfying!
Re:Stanley Kubrick did it his way on Thursday April 11, 2024 @03:31PM (#40005900)
Thanks for sharing! Looks like the documentary is available on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/322890808
Try the ... menu > Select Messages > Read All at the bottom of the screen.
Re:Mantis shrimp eyes on Saturday February 04, 2023 @08:32PM (#34660639)
His History of Mens Underwear video was one of the best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNRX8kfGgYg
Re:Software engineers paying 75K to get 3 inches taller on Thursday September 15, 2022 @08:46PM (#32860531)
This is a fairly common procedure for children with different length legs to fix a limping gait. My sister had it done back in 5th grade. She has additional health issues, but once the lengthening process was over, I don't recall her complaining about pain from it.
Re:Audiblegate on Wednesday February 16, 2022 @10:24PM (#30369195)
Not surprised they're mistreating the creators based on the way they treat customers. The way they delete any unused credits upon canceling a subscription is egregious.

https://help.audible.com/s/article/do-i-keep-my-credits-if-i...

Thanks for sharing! I'm curious what you use to generate the high quality diagrams for the readme and on your blog.
Re:Examples of ImageMagick Usage (2016) on Monday August 10, 2020 @01:50AM (#24105989)
I do a lot of Mac/iOS UI development and use ImageMagick to make before and after GIFs from screenshots. It's incredibly useful. This is my one-line makegif bash script that I use by dragging images from the desktop to Terminal after the command:

convert -delay 80 -loop 0 +dither "$1" "$2" ~/Desktop/"`date +"%b %d, %Y, %H.%M.%S %p"`.gif"

Re:A Brand New Interview with David Foster Wallace on Monday November 19, 2018 @10:16PM (#18491583)
I'm excited to be the first comment to recommend The Broom of the System. I picked it off the library shelf because I knew of David Foster Wallace, but didn't think I had the stamina to go for Infinite Jest at the time. It's much, much shorter than Infinite Jest, and is a single story rather than a collection of essays (don't get me wrong, Consider the Lobster is also great). The humor is absurd, different than anything I'd read before, and it completely clicked with me, paving the way to the rest of his work. You should start here.
This reminds me of the time my former company set a policy on everyone's computers locking the home page to the (largely useless and slow-to-load) intranet site. I then wrote a Safari extension [1] out of spite that posted to the site every time I opened a new tab. (If they want engagement, I'll give it to them!)

[1] https://github.com/philwebster/EngageMe

I don't feel like the AirPods are that secure when I run with them, so I use some medical tape [1] to secure them to my ears. This is kind of weird, but I've done it since March and really like not worrying about them falling out. I cut off a small 5mm strip of tape, make a loop, and stick it right below the black sensors on each AirPod. They stay firmly attached even when my ears are sweaty and I'm shaking my head.

[1] http://www.amzn.com/B000C4RRQE

Re:Stack Overflow and Discouraging Beginners on Sunday June 12, 2016 @05:48PM (#11890437)
Another example of SO managing to alienate a user (in this case, me): Posting my very first answer to a question, finding a very similar post and adding my solution there as well, then getting an email that I had posted the same thing and that the second post would be removed. This was unfortunate because the second question had a more lively discussion and seemed like a better place for the answer. I deleted the first answer, tried re-posting on the second question and wasn't allowed. After that, I gave up.
Re:Xamarin Open-Sourced on Wednesday April 27, 2016 @02:21PM (#11583084)
That list is somewhat misleading. Slack, for instance, only uses Xamarin Test Cloud.
Re:Ask HN: Offline / Paper Notetaking at Online Companies on Wednesday January 07, 2015 @07:08PM (#8854228)
That looks sweet! A less expensive option (that I haven't tried) is the Boogie Board: http://www.myboogieboard.com/na/products/boogie-board-sync-9...
Hey! I just moved to Redwood City for an internship that goes through the end of August too! Email me at [email protected] and let's get together. I am more than happy to deal with less than perfect English.
Re:Lytro Announces New Light Field Camera on Tuesday April 22, 2014 @11:13AM (#7628150)
It's not just you. These kind of un-scrollable sites are awful. The funky diagonal line adds to the confusion.
There are some sites that try to disable the ability to save passwords and 3rd party password managers usually override this. Another thing that's really nice is having the LastPass extension on Firefox, Chrome, and Safari on the same computer and not having to worry about if they are using the system keychain or not. In my experience, form filling with credit card information has been less error prone with LastPass as well. I thought at one point Safari was requiring the CVV number to be manually entered too. I could be mistaken.
Re:Carousel – Gallery from Dropbox for photos and videos on Wednesday April 09, 2014 @02:42PM (#7561379)
It would be nice if there was just a little more branding to show that this is a Dropbox-created product. "from Dropbox" isn't as clear as "by Dropbox". (Are photos being served "from" my Dropbox?) I didn't scroll all the way to the bottom the first time on the page to see the copyright.
Re:Show HN: Google Music for Mac on Saturday February 22, 2014 @01:59PM (#7283106)
Media keys are actually really nice to have. I use Rdio's desktop app which has similar functionality and it is really handy not to have to sort through browser windows to find controls.
Re:Why I’ll be Pirating Adobe’s Products From Now On on Saturday February 01, 2014 @03:27PM (#7163243)
I completely agree. Each month I spend maybe an hour in Adobe apps, so even the student pricing (~$16/mo) which I'm eligible for, is too high for me to justify paying for Creative Cloud.
Re:Falcon 9 GEO Transfer Mission on Thursday November 28, 2013 @06:32PM (#6817062)
Maybe a knowledgeable person can answer this question: What is the white stuff fluttering down from the rocket?
Re:Started a stupid company. Failed. on Tuesday November 26, 2013 @10:41PM (#6806175)
"Tiger" is referring to himself (see username), but you're right about "bud". I hate being called bud.
Re:Winning at Candy Crush on Friday November 15, 2013 @10:36AM (#6739969)
I like it. Almost all the Candy Crush players I know set their clocks forward to instantly get more lives though.
Facebook EDU: a school-managed Facebook account with parental controls. I wonder how long it will be before this happens. I like your idea, but I'm not sure how I would feel if Facebook operated it.
Re:The Government Shutdown on the Web on Thursday October 03, 2013 @10:18PM (#6493362)
They should really use a banner that blocks out the page, similar to what Wikipedia did during the SOPA/PIPA protests [1]. This would still make the point that government shutdowns are disruptive to the services that people depend on, without incurring the extra costs of an actual shutdown. Maybe the point is better made by letting people stew in actual frustration though...

[1] http://www.macworld.com/article/1164871/how_to_access_wikipe...

Re:1Password 4 for Mac is here on Thursday October 03, 2013 @12:33PM (#6490061)
Here are just a few. (Disclaimer: I use and love LastPass, but am familiar with 1Password).

Sync- it's possible with Keychain Access + Dropbox, but not seamless

Easy password generation- no switching to Keychain Access, copying, etc.

iOS access- up until iCloud sync, passwords were not easily transferred to devices

Support for Windows browsers

Form filling- Keychain will do addresses, but not credit cards

It would be great if public libraries offered this service (or one like it) to their patrons. My local library offers Overdrive Media Console [1], but the selection always seems to be lacking and the apps are subpar. An electronic rental service with books that people actually want to read would be killer and could save libraries money. My library system has cut back on inter-library requests because of shrinking funding, and an electronic delivery system could help cut costs.

[1] http://omc.overdrive.com

Re:Show HN: Send Secret Messages over Twitter as Public Tweets on Sunday September 22, 2013 @01:20PM (#6427205)
For those who aren't aware, "Drink more Ovaltine" is a reference to the movie A Christmas Story [1]. The boy in the story is excited to decode a message from the Ovaltine fan club using his decoder ring and is let down when the message is just "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine." [2]

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085334/

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_decoder_ring#Messages

Cool site, but it would be nice to see more than 1/2 a screenshot at a time on my 15" laptop.

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