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OPML is underrated
The personal website of Knut Magnus Aasrud
Topics /
Tools & Productivity
The most popular blog posts about tools & productivity on Hacker News. 330 posts.
152
Cory Doctorow on Kagi Search
Remember the first time you used Google search? It was like magic. After years of progressively worsening search quality from Altavista and Yahoo, Google was literally stunning, a gateway to the very best things on the internet.
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In-browser code playgrounds
Embed and run interactive code snippets entirely in your browser, no server required.
154
Robert Elder's Guide to GNU Coreutils
Over the last 18 months, I've taken the time to create 108 short YouTube videos that summarize all of the commands that are found in the Coreutils Package . These videos focus mostly on Coreutils v8.3, but also included are a few commands from v9.0 as well. For each of the blog posts, I've adapted and modified the…
155
The Emacs Window Management Almanac
Window management in Emacs gets a bad rap. Some of this is deserved, but mostly this is a consequence of combining a very flexible and granular layout system with rather coarse controls. This leaves the door open to creating and using tools for handling windows that employ and provide better metaphors and affordances…
156
Why my apps will soon be gone from the Google Play Store
The first real money I ever made from game development was on Android. It was in 2013, when Android was still the underdog compared to the iPhone, and was being touted as a great platform for developers. I’d taken two weeks to build Patchy, a retro arcade game revamped for touch controls, and published it on the…
157
Git Things
A grab bag of less frequently talked about git adjacent points.
158
Playing guitar tablatures in Rust
Introducing Ruxguitar, a guitar tablature player written in Rust
159
Personal computing paves the way for personal library science
How the past of Personal Computing gives us a hint into the future of Personal Library Science
160
My Blog Engine Is the Erlang Build Tool
From time to time, people ask me what I use to power my blog, maybe because they like the minimalist form it has. I tell them it’s a bad idea and that I use the Erlang compiler infrastructure for it, and they agree to look elsewhere.
161
I don't think the cheapest APC Back-UPS units can be monitored except in Windows
Despite otherwise seeming to work correctly, I can't monitor a Back-UPS BX1600MI in Linux without seeing a constant stream of spurious battery detach/reattach and power fail/restore events that last less than 2 seconds each. I've tried multiple computers and multiple UPSes of that model. It doesn't happen in their own…
162
Developing inside a virtual machine
Keeping my laptop clean by developing in a virtual machine
163
Making a rickroll laser: A parametric speaker
Most speakers emit sound in all directions because they are relatively small compared to the wavelength. Audible sounds have wavelengths of up to several meters, so an acoustically "large" speaker might not even fit in your house.
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Overengineering a way to know if people are in my university's CS lab
Who knew figuring out the lab's occupancy would be so much work?!
166
A cycling desk / Zwifting with a split keyboard
Last summer I got into cycling. I've long been a standing desk-er, and going out for long zone 2 rides and wondering what to think about made me wonder: could I work at a desk while I cycle?
167
Using Git Offline
Some companies use an isolated network or even the complete lack of a network as a security measure to protect from unauthorized access. Working on these systems can be a struggle but it is still possible, and perhaps even more important, to use a proper version control tool like Git.
168
Weird monitor bugs people sent me in the last 5 years (2022)
I develop 🌕 Lunar, a macOS app for getting intelligent adaptive brightness on external monitors and controlling every aspect of your monitor using DDC and other obscure protocols. I get tons of email about Lunar, especially after it became my full time “job” in 2021. A lot of those emails complain about Lunar bugs…
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Why Custom GPTs are better than plugins
On November 6, 2023, OpenAI announced Custom GPTs. Since then, over 3 million GPTs have been created, with over 200.000 of them made publicly available.
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Visualizing binary files with ImHex's DSL, the "pattern language"
Viewing my binary file with ImHex. The pattern language pane, on the right,...
171
Snowcraft – Building a Lego Snowfort from giant Lego snow-bricks
In the heart of winter, our family found joy in transforming freshly fallen snow into giant Lego-like bricks using the tops of storage bins. The children eagerly assembled these into a grand snowfort, crafting an impressive igloo with walls sturdy enough to host their snowy adventures. As dusk fell,
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Why I recommend Renovate over any other dependency update tools
Explaining why Renovate is going to be my solution to keeping up-to-date with dependencies and it's not likely to change any time soon.
173
The Overengineered Resume with Zola, JSON Resume, Weasyprint, and Nix (2023)
Maintaining a resume is not the most interesting use of time. Naturally, when I needed to bring my own up to date, I decided to spend a great deal more time on it and overengineer the process.
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Rye: A Vision Continued
A progress update on where my Rye Project is today.
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How to test without mocking
Mocking creates false security by testing isolation, not real behavior. Separate business logic from IO, use in-memory DBs, write server-side E2E tests instead.
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Evolving my ergonomic setup (or, my laptop with extra steps)
My computer setup attracts attention when I'm out and about. This has two effects: engineers [1] ask me about it, and everyone else ignores me. These effects are not undesirable, but further testing is required.
177
Making Electronic Calipers
Have you ever wished for a 500 Hz, millimeter-precise linear position sensing system? Well you're in luck --- all you need is some circuit board, a basic microcontroller, and a wee bit of maths!
178
How to install Linux from a Windows installer
I'm not sure why you would want to do this. Presumably for the same reason as me? I also don't know what that was.
179
How to save $13.27 on your SaaS bill
Vercel has a decent entry level analytics product which I cannot afford so I am going to build my own.
180
Obsessed with Cuttle: Parametric CAD for prototyping, producing, and procrastin
Write-up of a bunch of laser-cut projects designed with Cuttle.