News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

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Re:Ollama has a native front end chatbot now on Wednesday July 30, 2025 @07:33PM (#44740776)
No one should use ollama. A cursory search of r/localllama gives plenty of occassions where they've proven themselves bad actors. Here's a 'fun' overview

https://www.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA/comments/1kg20mu/so_why_...

There are multiple (far better) options - eg LM studio if you want GUI, llama.cpp if you want the CLI that ollama ripped off. IMO the only reason ollama is even in the conversation is it was easy to get running on macOS, allowing the SV MBP set to feel included

Can't believe you're getting downvoted for one of Ireland's greatest cultural contributions. Behold The Rubberbandits, Horse Outside (helpfully timestamped to the lyric in question)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljPFZrRD3J8&t=85s

Re:I Run LLMs Locally on Sunday December 29, 2024 @03:33PM (#42542817)
Nvidia for compatibility, and as much VRAM as you can afford. Shouldn't be hard to find a 3090 / Ti in your price range. I have had decent success with a base 3080 but the 10GB really limits the models you can run
Re:macOS command-line tools you might not know about on Saturday July 01, 2023 @09:35AM (#36549947)
`vmIdleTimeout` in .wslconfig might be an option? Win 11 only though
Re:macOS command-line tools you might not know about on Tuesday June 27, 2023 @11:17AM (#36494110)
If you're able to install PowerToys it includes a utility for this

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/awake

If anyone is interested in using Foliate through WSL, https://opticos.github.io/openinwsl/ is great - it lets you double-click a file in Windows, then Foliate in WSL2 launches to view it
Its more the fact that we're talking about Apple catching up at all. Android SOCs have been generationally behind Apple for a long time (and MediaTek in particular as a "budget" option), but now in the GPU space that is reversed.

The situation on the desktop/laptop is muddied by CUDA and other Nvidia-exclusive tech - while the M1/M2s indeed trade blows with laptop parts like the 3060 in some specific tasks, once CUDA comes into play Nvidia walks it (unfortunately IMO, even AMD can't compete there and its holding the industry back)

I'm really curious as to why Apple has been unable to reproduce their leap in CPUs in the GPU space.

It's not exactly surprising when Nvidia parts handily beat the M1/M2, but when both Qualcomm and Mediatek have better GPU performance _and_ efficiency [0] something is up, especially given just how far ahead Apple has been in mobile CPU

[0] https://twitter.com/Golden_Reviewer/status/16056046174164295...

In 22H2 it's fully keyboard drivable

  - Win+Z brings up the layout menu
  - number keys select the layout, then where in the chosen layout the current window should go
  - arrow keys then let you select the other windows to complete the tiling
So if I want Firefox (current window) and Slack side by side

  - Win-Z inside FF
  - 1 selects side-by-side
  - 1 again snaps FF to the left (2 would snap to right, and so on for more complex layouts)
  - Slack is the first suggested window (MRU), so Space to snap right
It's not as quick as the mouse interface yet - especially with the mouse improvements MS made - but seems like it could be easily automated with eg Autohotkey
The Linux/not-Windows instructions on https://github.com/hlky/stable-diffusion/wiki/Docker-Guide worked well for me using WSL2 with nvidia-docker
It's available in Windows 10 (Pro or Enterprise) and all Windows 11 versions, you can activate it using 'Turn Windows features on or off':

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-pro...

You do need hardware that can support Hyper-V

Re:Part of Windows 11 is a revamped Windows Subsystem for Linux on Saturday October 09, 2021 @07:34PM (#28814313)
Original title - "The best part of Windows 11 is a revamped Windows Subsystem for Linux"

Why remove "The best"? Feels like unnecessary editorializing

Ironically enough given its reputation, but this is what Bixby is great at - controlling the _device_ with your voice using short commands - "Open Camera", "Take photo", "Delete last photo" etc all work as expected (as a toy example, far more complicated stuff is possible even before including their Siri Shortcut equivalent)
Re:OpenBSD on the Microsoft Surface Go 2 on Saturday May 16, 2020 @11:30AM (#23204199)
If you're looking for a general-purpose tablet computer I think the Surface lineup is nearly unparalleled, with some important caveats.

You get a very well built machine with the best aspect ratio (3:2), Win10 tablet mode is decent _and_ you can drop back to full Windows whenever you want. This is a double edged sword - if you get a good tablet interface for a program it's wonderful, but sometimes you're reduced to pecking at the screen for mouse targets in legacy Win32 apps (the pen or cover with trackpad is helpful here).

For me, the ability to run any software I want is worth the rough edges and inconsistency compared to an iPad. I have WSL for local dev with full Linux utilities, real Photoshop, alternate browsers, Steam games, etc. I can install whatever nifty little Windows utilities or tweaks I want, customize the machine exactly as I like it, and I feel like I have lot more ownership over the machine as a result. That flexibility definitely comes with a cost compared to the out-of-the-box experience with an iPad.

As for the Go itself, its a really cute little computer but somewhat underpowered compared to a Surface Pro or Surface Book. I know a couple of people using them as their main computers and the feedback is pretty positive, FWIW.

Re:MS Flight Simulator 2020 vs. Real life on Monday May 11, 2020 @07:57AM (#23141159)
Just a caveat that userbenchmark (while pretty useful) is banned on several hardware subreddits for _very_ questionable scoring methods, which seem to indicate bias towards certain manufacturers (most notably, drastic changes to CPU scoring just after the new Ryzen chips were released which seemed deliberately designed to keep Intel's enthusiast parts ahead). I believe their GPU benchmarks are more trustworthy, but I would skip them entirely still.

3Dmark is still fairly standard, and most reviews will include a suite of gaming / rendering tasks as well that can give much more useful real-world benchmarks. LinusTechTips is usually very good - e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoDPTJ-3qCM

Re:The Paywalled Garden: iOS Is Adware on Monday February 17, 2020 @09:44PM (#22353021)
Apple's iCloud upsell is far worse than Microsoft's to boot. To disable:

MS / Windows 10: Uninstall the preloaded OneDrive app in the standard way

Apple / macOS Catalina: Reboot to recovery, mount the system drive (avoiding SIP etc), use Terminal to move a plist from the System LaunchAgents - named "followupd", in case you thought it wouldn't be hidden / obfuscated. Unmount and reboot, praying you didn't break your OS. Then delete a few preference files for System Preferences.app. Oh, and likely have to repeat the process after updates

Which one would you be comfortable helping a less technical person do? And given the trajectory of macOS, I wouldn't be surprised if they close that "loophole" soon...

Re:Show HN: Avoid editing while writing your first draft on Monday November 11, 2019 @04:01PM (#21508867)
The advice we got from our professors when writing theses was: crack open a bottle of fine whisk{e}y [0], get a couple glasses in, write (while keeping your drink topped of course) until writing is a serious challenge, edit the next morning in the harsh and sober light of day [1].

Works a treat, even if you liver may not fully appreciate it.

[0] Whiskey may be substituted for your preferred liquor, but it is a solid traditional writers' choice

[1] TL;DR 'Write drunk, edit sober'

This story is a perfect example btw, compare https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/d6v3mo/explanation_o... to the multiple defenses of Apple in these comments
For whatever reason, HN is completely uncritical of anything Apple does. It has gotten to the point that _/r/apple_ tends to have a richer debate about the companies actions. It's a side effect of the lack of subreddit equivalents IMO.
Re:Hello Android on Saturday June 01, 2019 @06:46PM (#20072199)
How is this at the top of HN? There's a lot to argue against Google and Android, but this is just inane. Complaining about the _splash screen_ of a phone? This is clickbait for /r/apple at best...
Re:Apple’s Latest Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug on Tuesday February 19, 2019 @08:19AM (#19198729)
The stores (and iMessage) get brought up a lot, but for the world outside the US they are a secondary consideration if they even factor in at all. There are more _Samsung_ stores in Dublin than Apple, and the ones we have a 3rd party 'authorised resellers' with average service at best...
Re:Microsoft now has the best hardware lineup in the industry on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @11:32AM (#18131194)
Yeah, completely agree on my Surface Book being the MBP I wanted to buy Great hardware (including touchpad and keyboard), Win 10 and WSL have come a long way, and the touchscreen and stylus option became part of my workflow much quicker than I expected. Probably the best laptop I've ever owned, including the 2010-2015 era 15" MBPs.

Regarding native terminals, I've had the best success with ConEmu set up to drop into WSL zsh by default. Easy to launch into cmd or powershell for Windows native stuff to boot.

Surface Book has 3:2 which is really nice, quite expensive machine though (I love mine, and have been lucky not to have any of the issues that seemed to plague them in their early days)
Re:Thinkpad X62 on Monday September 18, 2017 @12:41PM (#15277370)
Yeah the aspect ratio ended up being one of my favorite things about the Surface Book (surprisingly enough, to me)
Re:Lego Macintosh Classic with e‑paper display on Friday April 07, 2017 @05:43AM (#14058389)
jayniz - all your comments on this post are dead, it looks like you may have been shadowbanned

(apologies for hijacking the comment!)

Re:Hydrogen – An advanced drum machine for Linux on Monday March 06, 2017 @02:39PM (#13805405)
Check out the Teenage Engineering Pocket Operators [0], so much fun to play with. I enjoy messing around with chiptunes on my PO-20 Arcade far more than I ever did in software.

The PO-12 [1] and PO-32 [2] (if you can find one) are the two drum machines in that line up.

[0] https://teenage.engineering/products/po

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzEvGGINE20 (this guy has videos for most of the PO series)

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMk8x9fsUQE

Re:How insects like bumblebees do so much with tiny brains on Tuesday January 24, 2017 @09:36AM (#13471578)
Read Blindsight by Peter Watts. Apart from being an incredible novel it gets into this question, and it's freely available from the author's site: http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm

Trying to avoid spoilers here, so ROT13 - Gur nyvraf rapbhagrerq va gur abiry ner abg pbafpvbhf, naq uhzna pbafpvbhfarff vf cerfragrq nf na ribyhgvbanel fvqr rssrpg / zvfgnxr juvpu erdhverf hf gb jnfgr uhtr nzbhagf bs cbjre guvaxvat nobhg guvaxvat, vafgrnq bs whfg guvaxvat. Bhe phygher, oebnqpnfg vagb fcnpr, nccrnef yvxr n QQBF nggnpx bs vafnar vachgf gb gur aba-pbafpvbhf nyvraf orpnhfr bs ubj zhpu rssbeg vg gnxrf gb cnefr guebhtu vg nyy.

(The neurological phenomena of blindsight is also very very interesting, and suggests that our brains may do more work than is strictly required)

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