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mcdow

181 karmajoined 2 jaar geleden
website: emmettmcdow.com X: x.com/mcd0w

Submissions

Show HN: On-device embedding and vector search for Apple Devices, built in Zig

github.com
2 points·by mcdow·4 maanden geleden·0 comments

Open Source Does Not Mean Free

emmettmcdow.com
2 points·by mcdow·5 maanden geleden·0 comments

Zero-cost speed: making your code fast with structure of arrays

emmettmcdow.com
1 points·by mcdow·6 maanden geleden·0 comments

Ask HN: Have you ever seen a perfect codebase?

10 points·by mcdow·8 maanden geleden·13 comments

comments

mcdow
·eergisteren·discuss
“no open source project will succeed with this level of unprofessionalism”

y’all clearly are not acquainted with some of the things Linus has said on the LKML
mcdow
·14 dagen geleden·discuss
Haven't done any research into this, but I wonder how tough it would be to build a decent 3D printer. Maybe there are open-source designs out there.
mcdow
·18 dagen geleden·discuss
there’s another thing that started to get quite popular in the late 2000s… smartphones
mcdow
·2 maanden geleden·discuss
Chrome, Android, and Gmail are optional to use.
mcdow
·3 maanden geleden·discuss
They might be buying time to sell the relevant stock
mcdow
·3 maanden geleden·discuss
I’m working on a combination of a semantic embedder and vector database with a focus on Apple devices https://github.com/emmettmcdow/dve

It should be drop in semantic search for any text. No need to worry about what models, what database, how the data is processed, dealing with performance concerns. None of that. Just vector search.
mcdow
·3 maanden geleden·discuss
I’m looking forward to using a RISC-V computer in 20 years
mcdow
·6 maanden geleden·discuss
It's the phones dude. It's literally just the phones. Get rid of the phones and you fix it.
mcdow
·6 maanden geleden·discuss
https://emmettmcdow.com
mcdow
·6 maanden geleden·discuss
This is awesome! I’ve been looking for a way to batch export my notes out of Apple notes, will this work for that purpose?

I totally agree with you that most notes apps miss the mark. I’m working on one now which I hope satisfies the same requirements as Apple notes(dead simple, iCloud sync, free) but has some things I want (improved search, first class markdown support).

I’ve been using it as my daily driver for a while, but it’s not quite ready for other users yet. I wrote a bit about it in my year in review[1] under the section “Not Another Notes App!”.

1. https://emmettmcdow.com/posts/2025-in-review
mcdow
·6 maanden geleden·discuss
Is any company actually doing this? I haven’t heard of anyone that has this setup. Maybe contract work, but never a full time employee working 4 days.
mcdow
·7 maanden geleden·discuss
This is tangential but the whole Tiananmen Square thing is kind of odd. When I visited China many people were more willing to discuss it than I had imagined. Some spoke about it unsolicited. It’s a tourist destination you have to buy tickets for. It’s rather subtle what can and cannot be discussed relating to it. Those I spoke to about it told me that most people have a good understanding of what happened, and many people speak negatively of the CCP. You just can’t do it if you have a major platform (e.g. you’re Jack Ma or you are an LLM).

Not to discount how negative free speech restrictions are, but I’m not so sure how effective that particular propaganda campaign would be.
mcdow
·7 maanden geleden·discuss
From the comments here it sounds like most people think the amount Anthropic paid for the company was probably not much more than the VC funding which Bun raised.

How would the payout split work? It wouldn’t seem fair to the investors if the founder profited X million while the investors get their original money returned. I understand VC has the expectation that 99 out of 100 of investments will net them no money. But what happens in the cases where money is made, it just isn’t profitable for the VC firm.

What’s to stop everyone from doing this? Besides integrity, why shouldn’t every founder just cash out when the payout is life-changing?

Is there usually some clause in the agreements like “if you do not return X% profit, the founder forfeits his or her equity back to the shareholders”?
mcdow
·8 maanden geleden·discuss
Super cool!
mcdow
·8 maanden geleden·discuss
Why does Steam/Valve care so much about Linux? I know as devs we all would prefer to use Linux/Unix. But developer experience isn’t a good business justification.
mcdow
·8 maanden geleden·discuss
This is true but there is another cost. If you carelessly write you can end up with a system which is a mountain of bandaid fixes; an incoherent and unmaintainable mess.
mcdow
·8 maanden geleden·discuss
I’ve used both approaches and I can’t disagree more. Writing code first might feel faster but it isn’t. It’s great for surface level issues but just muddies the waters for any consequential feature.

Measure(communicate) twice, cut(build) once.
mcdow
·9 maanden geleden·discuss
Oh ok. Is it still worth learning without LiveView? E.g. in my case I’m much more proficient in Python. Is it worth the jump, over something like Django?
mcdow
·9 maanden geleden·discuss
I really want to choose Phoenix, but I can't get over the fact that LiveView is front-and-center. The whole web-socket model just seems so brittle to me.
mcdow
·9 maanden geleden·discuss
This is the primary reason Lua is interesting to me. As high level as JS/Python but embeddable.

Only problem is I have language ADHD. I use way too many to pick up another like Lua.