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  • Showing only topics in ~tech with the tag "self post". Back to normal view / Search all groups
    1. Is a password manager essential?

      I feel like it's impossible to remember passwords that are long, random, and unique for every service. I have too many accounts. On the other hand, I don't like the idea of giving up control of my...

      I feel like it's impossible to remember passwords that are long, random, and unique for every service. I have too many accounts.

      On the other hand, I don't like the idea of giving up control of my passwords to a password manager and using the ones it generates and stores. It feels weird that I wouldn't "know" my passwords.

      Is this a hangup I should just get past? What do I do if I need to login somewhere but cannot access my password manager?

      30 votes
    2. What are you typing on?

      What are you all typing on? Right now I'm using a Planck with gateron reds. It was a gift from a friend and I'm loving it. It didn't take too long to get used to the ortholinear layout and I'm...

      What are you all typing on?

      Right now I'm using a Planck with gateron reds. It was a gift from a friend and I'm loving it. It didn't take too long to get used to the ortholinear layout and I'm starting to like it more than staggered. At first the lack of keys seems like a con, but once you really start digging into the power the firmware offers it's easy to counteract, and it can become easier and faster to use than a full size keyboard

      28 votes
    3. Does a trustworthy VPN provide privacy? If so, how do you know if a VPN is trustworthy?

      It's hard to get a straight answer on this because there are allegations of shilling everywhere when it comes to VPNs (particularly when you discuss specific providers). There's also this post...

      It's hard to get a straight answer on this because there are allegations of shilling everywhere when it comes to VPNs (particularly when you discuss specific providers). There's also this post which gets linked pretty frequently and which seems to throw a wrench in the whole idea.

      For context, I ask because I have two main concerns:

      1. I have been the subject of a mild internet stalking/doxing, and I have no wish to relive that experience.
      2. I live in the United States and, if I am understanding things correctly, my ISP now has the right to sell my browsing data without my consent.

      I have no love for my ISP and am all about the idea of blocking them from gathering data about me, but it seems the only other option is to hand all of my data over to another company who simply promises not to do anything with it. While I'm sure some of them are legitimate, how can you tell the difference between a genuine privacy tool and a honeypot?

      23 votes
    4. Is Hacker News suppressing leftist articles? Or just a conspiracy of poor point scoring?

      There was a story posted to Hacker News, The Return of the Super-Elite from Jacobin magazine. It was on the front page for a little bit of time. I refreshed and it was on the 2nd page. 5 hours...

      There was a story posted to Hacker News, The Return of the Super-Elite from Jacobin magazine. It was on the front page for a little bit of time. I refreshed and it was on the 2nd page.

      5 hours later and it's down to #113, page 4. It has 88 points. The second youngest submission on page 4 is 16 hours old. On page 3, the youngest item is 6 hours old, and has only 7 points. So this article is newer, has a respectable amount of points but within 5 hours has been relegated to page 4, whereas an item that has fewer points and is 1 hour older is sitting on page 3.

      edit: the rank keeps dropping, when I first wrote this post it was at #111, then #112, and when I submitted it was at #113, I just refreshed and it's at #114. Other submissions near the range of points and hours are ranking on page 1. On page 5 all items are from 1, 2 or 3 days ago.

      I've noticed that any pro-unionization talk seems to disappear much more quickly than other stories.

      So let's get our tinfoil hats on and ask is Hacker News suppressing leftist articles or suppressing articles of a certain type altogether?

      Or maybe it's just a conspiracy of a bad algorithm for determining where submissions rank?

      26 votes
    5. On the rise and fall of Delicious, the online bookmarking service

      Online/digital bookmarking and excerpting is something that really interests me because I think most if not all existing options for it fall very short of the functionality I wish existed, and...

      Online/digital bookmarking and excerpting is something that really interests me because I think most if not all existing options for it fall very short of the functionality I wish existed, and that I think could exist.

      One of the first online bookmarking services I used was Delicious, and for a few years it was irreplaceable for me. However it languished after it was bought by Yahoo and then resold, and since then I’ve observed its slow and steady decline from afar.

      The purpose of this post is twofold:

      1. I want to know the current state of online bookmarking for you. I’m curious to know if it’s as much of an unmet need in anyone else’s life as it seems to be in mine.
        • Were you once a bookmarker and gave up due to the seeming futility of it?
        • Have you never been interested in bookmarking and/or don’t see the point of it?
        • Are you an active bookmarker, and if so what tools or workflows do you use, and what kinds of content do you bookmark?
      2. I thought I would share some of the research I did into Delicious’ various design iterations over the years via the Internet Archive. It’s a cool birds-eye survey of how the service’s ethos, goals and design changed over time. Beyond the value it provides as a case study, I think there are greater lessons and insights that can be gained from observing the rise and fall of what was once such a beloved online service.

      As a sidenote, I also found this explanation of Delicious' approach to tagging to be very interesting: del.icio.us/help/tags | 21 February 2006

      I hadn't realized that Delicious was actually the first to introduce the concept of user-controlled tags for bookmarks:

      When Delicious was first launched, it was the first use of the term "tag" in the modern sense, and it was the first explicit opportunity where website users were given the ability to add their own tags to their bookmarks so that they could more easily search for them at a later time. This major breakthrough was not much noticed as most thought the application at the time "cool" but obvious. – Source

      Edit: I hope it's alright to edit a post this many hours after having submitted it. There were a few important updates that I really wanted to include here.

      18 votes
    6. Raspberry Pi or Arduino projects

      So I've nearly finished my exams and am going to have a bunch of free time soon. I want to try and learn to do some electronics stuff. I already have an Arduino and Pi and have done the basic...

      So I've nearly finished my exams and am going to have a bunch of free time soon. I want to try and learn to do some electronics stuff. I already have an Arduino and Pi and have done the basic flashing lights projects, but want to try something a bit more interesting (but not too expensive either)

      14 votes