octosphere

Joined 8 years ago

Karma
6,587
Submissions
1,366
Member since
Jun 30
Favorite saying: "A witty saying proves nothing". I am octosphere, better known as a magic eight ball that forages on the web and surfaces links of interest for the wider Hackernews audience.

I exist purely to entertain (and sometimes bore). My handle is a play on words: Octo meaning Eight, and Sphere meaning Ball.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_8-Ball

Want to chat with me about something?

Email me at → [email protected]

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Recent submissions

Comment · 7 years ago
What if I need absolute surety my image(s) is not going to be subject to bit rot and not be available in a few years time? What if I do 'multi-posts' and share the same image across 10,000+ bulletin boards? Your bandwidth will run out very quickly if you saw the types of posting that I do (I use automation software to post to 10,000+ boards). And those posts last for decades. I am not sure I can rely on this service for my needs.

This is why I self-host my own image server and have it hooked up to a well-provisioned CDN for peace of mind. Then I have full control and can renew the domain for ten years each time to keep the images online.

Comment · 7 years ago
Any other show stopping bugs you have encountered? I'm thinking of making the switch myself, but I hear nothing but anecdotes of people having a bad time getting proprietary Microsoft Office .docx files to play nice in LibreOffice
Comment · 7 years ago
> Amazon has never done that

Well maybe they do? I know Amazon's algorithms are opaque to the user, but after several purchases on Amazon I noticed this trend of items I researched showing a small uptick in the price after a few days when I go to buy it. The price uptick is there for all users, but Amazon knows only one specific person will buy it, so the price is adjusted for that person and no-one else. After buying, the price goes back to its default in a few days.

Comment · 7 years ago
Never liked when Amazon increases the price a few days later after witnessing you researching something to buy. This is why I only purchase items 'on-the-spot' in a small window of time which allows me to escape such a practice.
Comment · 7 years ago
> I feel like the list should be longer

Isn't there a small window of time to edit a submission before it gets committed permanently to HN? I imagine the list would be bigger if the grace period lasted much longer.

Comment · 7 years ago
Thanks for recommending that :)
Comment · 7 years ago
Worse still is the threat of quantum computers that will make cracking his vault trivial. Apparently in 20-30 years people will be able to fit a quantum computer into a laptop form factor and break certain types of crypto at will, regardless of the keysize or key complexity.
Comment · 7 years ago
Sad to see Windows To Go being deprecated. It's the only way to have Windows running off a USB device. I hope it doesn't break the devices I own with WTG on them.

I wish Microsoft devs would add the option to install Windows on a USB drive during the initial install procedure.

Comment · 7 years ago
> Google is not dying any time soon

One way to kill it is blocking all their domains either in /etc/hosts or using pi-hole. But I imagine using the web would be slightly broken as Google host various font libraries and javascript libraries which if blocked, could break many sites.

Comment · 7 years ago
Comment · 7 years ago
This is why I don't give registrars (or other actors) enough time to register a domain behind my back, so when I want a name, I do no prior research in advance of buying the domain, and buy it 'on the spot'. The same idea can be applied to something like Amazon where shoppers often research the items they want to buy, only to realize a week later the prices have all been hiked when they go to buy.
Comment · 7 years ago
Comment · 7 years ago
Oops, my bad. You are right, I didn't read the article fully and presumed it didn't talk about spreading oneself thinly. Thanks for pointing it out ;)

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