My gen1 kindle backlight is so bright at the lowest level that I angle it away from me to read at night.
Just typing this out makes me realize I should get a different ereader than wait for it to die since it’s clearly never going to die. It’s been like 15 years
for example I read kindle books on my phone in dark mode (white text on a black background). Having the brightness all the way up isn't fully bright white text, it is more like brightish grey.
To get bright text to read in bright environments, I set the kindle app to black text on white background, then use accessibility to invert colors. I get noticeably brighter text on a black background.
If one needs to work with pdf in a JS environment one will sooner or later cross paths with pdf-lib. I noticed the last release was almost 5 years ago and the maintainers git contributions stopped at the same time. There is a second github account under the same name but the last contribution was in 2024.
Also his personal homepage (https://andrewjdillon.com/) seems to be no longer under his control, the certificate has a different CN and the websites domain is listed under the SAN (with a multitude of other domains).
If you're a serious user of this library and have time, consider forking the project, merging reasonable PRs from the original and giving some life support to it. I temporarily took over a project like that and "gave it back" after a few years when the original maintainer returned. I think it benefits everyone.
There appears to be no obvious plausible link between the SANs other than very obvious lack of plausibility to each website. They're mostly pretend (or knock-off) business websites in random countries (everywhere from Trinidad and Tobago, Germany, mainland USA, Hawaii...) in various languages and all the ones I checked have no verifiable substance to them. For example, one domain is a supposed USA shipping/logistics company whose website states they have 1949 customers and have only delivered 7126 packages, and claims a head office as a house in Renton WA, an office at a different house in Stockbridge GA and a supposed warehouse at a third house in Portland OR. Most domains don't include any valid contact or business information, even a supposed restaurant where you'd want people to find your location easily!
There does appear to be heavy use of Google Firebase, and many of the sites share the same IP address(es) for hosting. A reverse IP lookup of domains hosted at those IP addresses reveals more random suspicious domains beyond just those just listed at https://crt.sh/?q=andrewjdillon.com
Have you tried emailing him? He likely also owns hopding.com, and both domains consistently seem to be at Squarespace. The last commit on his GitHub (Feb 2025) someone commented "Good to see you're still with us :-)", so he may just not update things often.
True, I accidentally posted the date of the comment (1) not the commit. The only thing strange seems to be he used a smiley in the referenced commit message which doesn't seem to be his style.
Please don't call people randomly. Unless you're offering him a job which is what the resume is for...
When the linkedin is down, medium is left unattended, the personal domain is not working, we can reasonably guess he doesn't (or is unable to) care about the project or online presence anymore.
I think that's silly. Do we really live in an age where we feel it's better to simply not communicate with people in the slightest?
Give them a call, you're not harassing them. If they choose not to answer or call back a voice mail number, then you can presume they don't want to be contacted.
Before posting this idea online... Maybe, possibly, but personally I still think it's a bad idea.
After posting this on HN - no! If you think it's a good idea, so will other people reading this. (And others have before you) After the post reaches the front page - absolutely no - there's a bunch of socially awkward people already thinking about calling the author and they really should NOT DO THAT.
The author owes us absolutely nothing and if they want to disappear, that's their right. Calling them is demanding their time in a not trivial to ignore way. Just write an email that can be deleted async.
You are right: it is silly, but also, given the amount of robo-calls in the US, cold calling someone you don't know is a good way to be put on auto-spam.
If you really want to reach out, his email seems to be the way he prefers to be reached, so that's what I'd recommend.
> I think that's silly. Do we really live in an age where we feel it's better to simply not communicate with people in the slightest?
I agree it’s silly. But it’s also the prevailing view that I’ve seen.
I still answer calls, even if 95% of them these days are either phishing attempts or vendors trying to sell me stuff. But my friends will text me first and say “can I call you” even if I say they can just call.
I have the exact same problem. It’s saying something about not being able to confirm my identity? I took a look at the dev tools and it’s apparently making a request to a server which returns an error.
It only works in incognito because it’s using a different ip address there…
Beats me. Same computer, same browser. Don’t know whether it’s the exact same address though. Cleared cookies already. Still only working in incognito.
The point isn't that things are better on this axis on iOS, but that things are better on numerous other axes, to the point where many people are only using Android at all because it feels slightly more open and free than iOS... if Google wants to play Apple's game, then the only reasons to bother with the mess that is Android are gone, and so you'll see people switch to iOS.
Eventually the only reason people will use Android is the same reason people are using Windows now -- mandated by their employer or by being forced into the bottom cost-tier of products.
And the experience will be just as user-hostile with no end in sight.
What a coincidence. My company just upgraded their AS400/IBM i and nobody wanted to buy the old one, so it’s just sitting there. I think it’s a Power 8 Processor…
Nitpick: AS/400/i aren't mainframes, they're "mid-range" in IBM speak, or the last of the "minicomputers", a totally separate line from IBM 360/70/90/Z.
If you have a camera and you're only taking photos. You don't have any photos of the car keys and the car going missing do you? /s
It's how urban exploration folk get away exploring abandon buildings here in the UK. If you can prove you didn't create damage to gain access; a grey area.
> Trespass (Civil Matter): In England and Wales, simple trespass is typically a civil matter between you and the landowner. You cannot be arrested for civil trespass alone, but the landowner can sue you for damages or an injunction, and police may get involved if you refuse to leave when asked.
Did not expect that: I got rid of a small screen i can carry around by putting a lot of small screen all over my house.
I put that in the same bin as all the “Stop doomscrolling” apps. You can’t prevent doomscrolling by adding another app on your phone. Get rid of the phone (and all other screens), one does not need to be able to look up everything in a moments notice. Write it down on a paper and do it later.
It causes a major difference. It forces all uses of screens in common spaces with others present, to be inclusive to said others. You do not open anything on shared screens you do not mean for others to participate in, so they function more as collaborative tools instead of private escapes.
Anyone can grab a remote and access to summon shared entertainment, order food, do shared research, fact check something, etc... but said screens are just linux machines with no proprietary software or magic addictive algorithms. Just tools.
Also when we walk away from them they do not follow us, and they cannot notify us.
It has completely changed the way my family and I interact with, and separate ourselves from, the internet.
If my phone battery died, I used to panic. Now with no phone, when I leave home, I am just... present, and can get lost in my own thoughts again. A skill I lost for decades with distractions always in my pocket.
Really just moving the screens further away, tethering them to walls, and ditching all proprietary addictive software is easier. Also a couple TVs and mini pcs cost less than one modern smartphone and covers the whole family.
As soon as i read the author used grok as an ai assistant, i was somehow less interested to keep on reading. Not because of the usage of ai, but the chosen provider. (I don’t know whether grok is just the best choice for this kind of work.)
Is it wrong to judge people for their choice of ai providers?
It's worth interacting with all models. In my experience, for programming questions grok delivered better answers than ChatGPT (and Claude) often enough that at some point I wasn't sure which model I should be asking first.
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