kc3's comments | WingNews

kc3 | 5 months ago | on: Some interesting stuff I found on IX LANs

It has been a while, but I have seen some switches that don't "speak" STP but still forward the BPDU messages (so other switches receive them and still detect loops through the "non-STP switch") and other switches that drop the BPDUs (so other switches/bridges cannot see them, possibly leading to a Layer 2 forwarding loop through the "non-STP switch").

kc3 | 8 months ago | on: Show HN: Pocket2Linkding – Migrate from Mozilla Pocket to Linkding

Oh wow, that sucks. It's been working fine for me. I have tried it multiple times across two accounts. Contact their support?

kc3 | 6 years ago | on: I Got a Knuth Check for 0x$3.00

I published a technical book in the late 90s and the publisher (Pearson) opted to have it translated into a number of other (non-English) languages. I was never told anything about the translations. My assumption was that they used some sort of "contract translation people/service" and just "crank them out". My guess is they aren't that focused on quality. When my book was first published, technical books were much more profitable, but since then publishers have really struggled. The publisher I worked with was fantastic at the time, but since then has repeatedly stated they just want to "get books out there" regardless of the quality. And, I think the market was already tanking by the time my book was translated, so I'm pretty sure quality wasn't a priority for them. They sent me an after-the-fact sample copy of 2-3 of the languages it was translated into, but it was a total surprise to me and I never received any information about the process or that it was happening. In fact, it was so hands off that I have no idea if they translated it into more languages and never sent me a copy.

Another factor why the authors the OP contacted may not care could be that the royalty rates were dramatically lower for International sales -- at least that was the case for my book -- I essentially made nothing. I'm not saying people write books only for profit, but the combination of "not even knowing they were translated" with "zero profit motive" makes a potent combination. :-)

That being said, I don't believe anyone every contacted me with errata on a translated edition... I guess I should consider myself lucky. :-)

kc3 | 7 years ago | on: Namecheap announces support for TOTP-based 2FA

Maybe I'm missing something (or just lucky) :-), but I have been using Namecheap for years (and recommended them to others) and I haven't had issue with the 2FA. What's the specific issue? Thanks.

kc3 | 7 years ago | on: Show HN: How to Tune a Guitar

While the 7th fret harmonic / 5th fret harmonic will get you close, they are off by a little bit. Good explanation here: http://www.schrof.net/guitar/articles/harmonics.html

kc3 | 8 years ago | on: Ask HN: How to self-learn electronics?

Can you say where you can find a TS100 for ~$40? The cheapest I'm seeing is $50-55. Also, are there different versions you need to worry about or are they all the same? I assume you only want a "MINI TS100" vs. some of the other knock off brands.