newscracker (u/newscracker)

newscracker commented on Some surprising things about DuckDuckGo gabrielweinberg.com/p/som... · Posted by u/ArmageddonIt

oritron · 12 hours ago

A surprising fact I /do/ know about DDG: they don't update bang searches anymore, which was one of my favorite differentiators. This feature adds a lot of utility to DDG as a browser default search engine.

You can search "!w Gabriel Weinberg" and it will open the Wikipedia article because of the leading exclamation mark and w. If a site changes their search url, you can submit the precise new pattern they should use for a redirect. If a new service pops up, you can use the same form to request a new search prefix. These form submissions could give someone at DDG an easy interface to verify quickly and approve or reject them.

These form submissions get ignored and have been for years at this point.

newscracker · 6 hours ago

> You can search "!w Gabriel Weinberg" and it will open the Wikipedia article because of the leading exclamation mark and w

Just for anyone else who isn’t aware, the bang commands can be anywhere in the search string, and need not necessarily be at the beginning.

All these queries will take you to Wikipedia for the term:

"!w Gabriel Weinberg"

"Gabriel !w Weinberg"

"Gabriel Weinberg !w"

Many a times when I find the default DuckDuckGo search results inadequate and want to go to Google search, I just put a “!g” as a separate term anywhere within the search string and hit enter. This is especially useful on mobile where the search string may be a lot longer than the visible text box and I can’t be bothered to move the cursor.

newscracker commented on Some surprising things about DuckDuckGo gabrielweinberg.com/p/som... · Posted by u/ArmageddonIt

BrenBarn · 7 hours ago

I don't like the current AI trends much, but I've found duck.ai the best way to experiment with AI. I've had mixed results with DDG search and the site is sometimes slow to load.

newscracker · 6 hours ago

I love that duck.ai provides a more private way to use different smaller and medium (?) scale LLMs.

I don’t like the duck.ai interface much (choosing a different LLM is not easy once you’re already in a conversation), but I use it a lot more than I use the DuckDuckGo search engine (the results from the latter aren’t great).

Just like with DuckDuckGo search, where I start a search and then use the !g bang command to go to Google for better results if needed, I try duck.ai and then move to ChatGPT (without any account) when even the best models in duck.ai aren’t good enough.

For most simpler queries though — where I’m just looking to learn a bit about something as opposed to finding a solution for a specific (more complex) question or problem — duck.ai with its GPT 5 models are more than adequate (even the 4o mini is fine).

newscracker commented on The HTTP Query Method ietf.org/archive/id/draft... · Posted by u/Ivoah

newscracker · 14 days ago

A couple of quick observations and comments after skimming through this (some of these are mentioned or hinted at in the RFC).

With HTTPS used almost everywhere, using this QUERY method (when standardized) could prevent bookmarking specific “GET” URLs if the developers thoughtlessly replace GET everywhere with QUERY.

One of the advantages of GET is the direct visibility, which makes modifications simple and easy for almost anyone (end users, testers, etc.).

The larger question I have is who will choose to adopt it sooner, with web servers, web application frameworks and web browsers in the mix.

newscracker commented on Signal knows who you're talking to (2023) sanesecurityguy.com/artic... · Posted by u/kekqqq

newscracker · 21 days ago

I read through this. I don't think Proton Mail is a good replacement for Signal (it's worse because Proton does log and share IP addresses of users with a court order).

One thing I dislike about Signal on its privacy posture is that the moment you register, anyone who already has Signal and has your phone number in their contacts list will get a message saying you're on Signal. This is a good way for others with bad intentions to know about your presence on the platform. The options to hide your phone number are available only after registering on Signal (after this broadcast has already happened) and when the user figures out that this is possible somewhere deep in the settings.

On registration Signal could ask whether to inform all random people who happen to have your number. But since unused/discarded phone numbers are recycled by carriers to other customers within a matter of weeks or months or years (depending on where you are), your presence on Signal may be sent to someone you've never ever known or has known you. Signal ought to remove this broadcast on registration. Telegram (and I guess WhatsApp) also suffer from the same issue.

newscracker commented on I just want working RCS messaging wt.gd/i-just-want-my-rcs-... · Posted by u/joecool1029

abraham · 25 days ago

Signal has had a backup to a file you can do any you want to for years.

newscracker · 25 days ago

Never on iOS or any other Apple platform. Signal is designed not to be able to backup to iCloud either. The only option iOS users have had over the last few years is to do a device to device transfer where both phones are expected to be in physical proximity and it takes hours to transfer the data. Lost phone has meant losing all chats.

WhatsApp, which is infamous by association with Meta, backs up to Google Drive or wherever.

newscracker commented on Show HN: I built a self-hosted error tracker in Rails telebugs.com... · Posted by u/kyrylo

newscracker · a month ago

> Wherever you can host something like WordPress, you can host Campfire

I’m going to be pedantic here, but this statement is not true. I host a website on a provider that allows WordPress (PHP) along with MySQL, but

> System requirements & installation

> Campfire is packed as a Docker container image

the web host provider does not allow Docker (it runs on BSD).

I’d suggest improving the system requirements section by actually stating the system requirements. To me the mention of Docker without other details is a black box that I cannot have any intuition for.

newscracker commented on I’m worried that they put co-pilot in Excel simonwillison.net/2025/No... · Posted by u/isaacfrond

newscracker · a month ago

I feel what this article says based on some recent (non-catastrophic) experiences. I think I’m probably an above average user when it comes to Excel skills. I love spreadsheets. But I struggle with formulas like index, match, vlookup/xlookup and many others, and even more so when it requires nesting one within another and coming up with the underlying logic that leads to some complex nested formulas.

Over the past couple of months, I’ve tried some smaller models on duck.ai and also ChatGPT directly to create some columns and formulas for a specific purpose. I found that ChatGPT is a lot better than the “mini” models on duck.ai. But in all these cases, though these platforms seemed more capable than me and could make attempts to explain their formulas, they were many a times creating junk and “looping” back with formulas that didn’t really work. I had to point out the result (blank or some #REF or other error) multiple times and they would acknowledge that there’s an issue and provide a working formula. That wouldn’t work either!

I really love that these LLMs can sort of “understand” what I’m asking, break it down in English, and provide answers. But the end result has been an exercise in frustration and waste of time.

Initially I really thought and believed that LLMs could make Excel more approachable and easier to use — like you tell it what you want and it’ll figure it out and give the magic incantations (formulas). Now I don’t think we’re anywhere close to that if ChatGPT (which I presume powers Copilot as well) struggles and hallucinates so much. I personally don’t have much hope with the (comparatively) smaller and older models.

newscracker commented on Google Workspace Updates: Send Gmail end-to-end encrypted emails to anyone workspaceupdates.googlebl... · Posted by u/OptionOfT

newscracker · 2 months ago

Authenticate where? How does the authentication prove that the intended recipient is the one who has clicked on the link and should be able to view? What happens if the email is forwarded with the link? What should one do to forward the email to someone without this encryption?

Organizations may need ways to store, archive and manage received email content from others.

I don’t understand what problem this solves for organizations and how.

Microsoft Outlook 365 has a somewhat similar feature where the email is just a link to hosted content on its servers (this kind of functionality isn’t new or recent on other platforms). It doesn’t require any authentication by the recipient. IIRC, the sender can also decide on the expiry of the content.

newscracker commented on Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts via POP support.google.com/mail/a... · Posted by u/sumanep

paride5745 · 2 months ago

I already started to move most of my communications to ProtonMail. Looks like Google wants to force people to use the WebUI instead of email clients (no google ads on IMAP/POP).

What's annoying is that they are impacting paying customers as well, which is quite bad.

newscracker · 2 months ago

Last I checked, Proton Mail does not support standard email client protocols. So you’re stuck with its apps and a browser interface or with buying a paid subscription and using a bridge software on desktop to use a client like Thunderbird. Getting mails out of Proton Mail is also not as easy as setting up a client with IMAP or using other tools like imapsync.

newscracker commented on Proton Mail suspended journalist accounts at request of cybersecurity agency theintercept.com/2025/09/... · Posted by u/lehi

dunefox · 3 months ago

https://tuta.com/

newscracker · 3 months ago

The one thing I don’t like about both Proton and Tuta is that they don’t support IMAP. Users of these platforms would find it a bit more difficult to move their emails out of the system if they wish to.