1
Making a PDF that's larger than Germany
We’re gonna need a bigger printer.
Alex Chan
None
- Popular posts
- 13
- Total points
- 4,352
- HN comments
- 1,892
- Rank
- #282 personal
Visit alexwlchan.net → RSS feedOn Hacker News May 2019 – Jun 2026
Tools & Productivity 6Software Engineering 6Life, Learning & Writing 4Design & UX 3Web & Frontend 1Systems & Performance 1
2
Take more screenshots
If you do any sort of creative digital work, screenshots and screen recordings are a great way to remember it.
3
A faster way to copy SQLite databases between computers
Dumping a SQLite database to a text file can make it much smaller, which means you can download it faster.
4
Falsehoods programmers believe about Unix time
It's not quite the number of seconds since 1 January 1970.
5
Using static websites for tiny archives
I've been creating small, hand-written websites to organise my files. It's a lightweight, flexible approach that I hope will last a long time.
6
Cut the cutesy errors
If your app has just ruined my day, I need help, not humour.
7
Take more screenshots (2022)
If you do any sort of creative digital work, screenshots and screen recordings are a great way to remember it.
8
Whose code am I running in GitHub Actions?
I wanted to know what third-party code I was using in my GitHub Actions. I was able to use standard text processing tools and shell pipelines to get a quick tally.
9
Creating a Safari webarchive from the command line
We can use the `createWebArchiveData` method on `WKWebView` to write a Swift script that creates Safari webarchive files.
10
When square pixels aren't square
When you want to get the dimensions of a video file, you probably want the display aspect ratio. Using the dimensions of a stored frame may result in a stretched or squashed video.
11
Rebuilding the Computer Room
We traded the physical boundaries of dedicated rooms for the convenience of our always-on digital lives -- but recently I've been building those walls back up.
12
It's cool to care (2025)
Caring deeply – about art, my friends, and shared experiences – has brought me so much joy.
13
Cut the Cutesy Errors
If your app has just ruined my day, I need help, not humour.