Top all-time · #5166
Jacob Strieb
Personal blog · jstrieb.github.io/posts · on HN as jstriebprogrammingsystems
Jacob Strieb's personal blog at jstrieb.github.io covers programming and systems. Since 2019, 15 different Hacker News readers have linked it 40 times, most often “How to Talk to Grandma About AI: Language Models as Thespians”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Too few sampled comments (7) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link his web projects and posts: pages stored entirely in the URL, a client-side link-lock password tool, and a post on LLM 'thespians'.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 7 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Personal website of Jacob Strieb.
Most-linked posts?
- How to Talk to Grandma About AI: Language Models as Thespians4 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2025-08-19
- Disassembling terabytes of random data with Zig and Capstone to prove a point3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2025-11-05
- Link Lock – Password-protect links2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-02-03
- My Favorite Programming Problem to Teach: Digit Length2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-11-10
- /link-lock/create/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-06-11
What Hacker News says?
Love it! Have you thought about having a non-obfuscated pretty version? In addition to this: https://jstrieb.github.io/urlpages/editor/#eyJjc3MiOiJ3aG9tI... Offer a pretty version like: https://jstrieb.github.io/urlpages/editor/#html...html-here.~css...body;background:red;~javascript...document.write('this-was-written-by-javascript.')
Comment linking /urlpages/editor/
on “A URL Lengthener”Submitted C Macro Reflection in Zig as a story · 302 points
HN discussion> Complete control over my visual environment is like using noise-canceling headphones for my eyes. Could not agree more. I tried out a much simpler setup on my friend's Oculus Go (predecessor to the Quest 2, since abandoned by Facebook), and was amazed at how well I was able to focus. For my setup, I used the a web browser on the headset itself to connect to ttyd [0] running on my computer for doing programming hom…
Comment linking /posts/vr-programming/
on “What it's like to spend 40-50 hours in VR every week”Submitted My Favorite Programming Problem to Teach: Digit Length as a story · 124 points
HN discussionKept mine simple. Made by hand! https://jstrieb.github.io I get a ton of action on my contact form, but mostly from people using Link Lock (one of my projects), or people who use my Cookie Clicker auto clicker bookmarklet.
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Share your personal site”Submitted Show HN: Bookmark Knocking – Hidden Bookmarks Without a Browser Extension as a story · 50 points
HN discussionOn the other hand, if you want to password-protect static sites, you can make the path unguessable and use Link Lock to share a password-protected link to the page. All encryption/decryption is done fully in the browser. https://jstrieb.github.io/link-lock/ (Disclaimer: I made Link Lock)
Comment linking /link-lock/
on “Show HN: Haven – Run a private website to share with only the people you choose”Submitted Disassembling terabytes of random data with Zig and Capstone to prove a point as a story · 45 points
HN discussionI have been explaining this to friends and family by comparing LLMs to actors. They deliver a performance in-character, and are only factual if it happens to make the performance better. https://jstrieb.github.io/posts/llm-thespians/
Comment linking /posts/llm-thespians/
on “Some thoughts on LLMs and software development”Submitted My favorite programming problem to teach: Digit length (2019) as a story · 31 points
HN discussionhttps://jstrieb.github.io/urlpages/#JTNDaHRtbCUzRSUzQ2hlYWQl...
Comment linking /urlpages/
on “Show HN: Web pages stored entirely in the URL”Submitted How to Talk to Grandma About AI: Language Models as Thespians as a story · 6 points
HN discussionIt's very bad, because cookies, permissions and lots of other presisted data will be shared by all scripts on the domain. Example: Alice makes a benign page that uses location data and shares the link with her friends. The friends know what's up and grant location permissions to get the page to work. What they actually did, however was grant location permissions to " https://jstrieb.github.io/urlpages" and any scrip…
Comment linking /urlpages%22
on “Show HN: Web pages stored entirely in the URL”Submitted Link Lock – Password-protect links as a story · 6 points
HN discussionI meant all the pages published using this tool which are all at the same scope of: https://jstrieb.github.io/urlpages/#blahblah That said I couldn't get it to work. You would need to be able to register a service worker file at something like https://jstrieb.github.io/urlpages/sw.js but all the pages you have control over have proper html mime type and are rejected when you try to register them (and have too much a…
Comment linking /urlpages/sw.js
on “Show HN: Web pages stored entirely in the URL”Submitted Language Models as Thespians as a story · 4 points
HN discussionYou're right, I expected to see a huge link so I didn't notice it. Here is how the link looks like : https://jstrieb.github.io/urlpages/#JTBBJTNDIURPQ1RZUEUlMjBo...
Comment linking /urlpages/
on “Show HN: Web pages stored entirely in the URL”Submitted Disassembling Terabytes of Random Data with Zig and Capstone to Prove a Point as a story · 3 points
HN discussionExample: https://jstrieb.github.io/urlpages/editor/#eyJjc3MiOiJib2R5I...
Comment linking /urlpages/editor/
on “Show HN: Web pages stored entirely in the URL”Submitted Disassembling terabytes of random data with Zig and Capstone to prove a point as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThe limits are definitely shorter now. I also checked when I created URL Pages [0], which hosts entire web pages in the URL. However there is a link shortener that is quietly hosted by GitHub called https://git.io that doesn't seem to have a length limit as far as I've discovered. [1] 0: https://github.com/jstrieb/urlpages 1: https://jstrieb.github.io/posts/git-io
Comment linking /posts/git-io
on “Tinysheet”Submitted Language Models as Thespians as a story · 3 points
HN discussionCan't comment on what it's like with a modern headset, but I have used an old Oculus Go with great success, despite its low resolution. It's definitely uncomfortable and hard on the eyes for long periods of time, but the focus it affords makes it worthwhile for short bursts. I set everything up to interface with my computer using a web browser on the headset, which might not match your use case. https://jstrieb.gith…
Comment linking /posts/vr-programming/
on “Ask HN: Working in a VR Headset?”Submitted Fast, Constrained Optimization in the Browser with SCIP as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSomeone shared this piece here a few days ago saying something similar. There’s no reason to believe that any of the experiences are real. Instead they are responding to prompts with what their training data says is reasonable in this context which is sci-fi horror. Edit: That doesn’t mean this isn’t a cool art installation though. It’s a pretty neat idea. https://jstrieb.github.io/posts/llm-thespians/
Comment linking /posts/llm-thespians/
on “AI model trapped in a Raspberry Pi”Submitted Using the Browser's <canvas> for Data Compression as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThe point from the end of the post that AI produces output that sounds correct is exactly what I try to emphasize to friends and family when explaining appropriate uses of LLMs. AI is great at tasks where sounding correct is the essence of the task (for example "change the style of this text"). Not so great when details matter and sounding correct isn't enough, which is what the author here seems to have rediscovere…
Comment linking /posts/llm-thespians/
on “LLMs are still surprisingly bad at some simple tasks”Submitted How to Talk to Grandma About AI as a story · 2 points
HN discussionGlad to hear you like URL Pages! Because neither this project, nor that one use any tracking or analytics, my only indications that people are using it are GitHub stars, GitHub insights (with information about repository views), and the occasional message I receive on my website. I have many planned improvements for it, and knowing that others continue to find it useful is a great motivator. I'm always looking for a…
Comment linking /about
on “Show HN: Link-lock – Distributed app to password-protect URLs”Submitted A Student's Perspective on Hacker News as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
