Top all-time · #1866
Owen Williams
Personal blog · char.gd/bloghardwareprogramming
Owen Williams writes Charged, a personal blog at char.gd about hardware and programming. Since 2016, 39 different Hacker News readers have linked it 70 times, most often “Fortnite has become the new 'third place' for millions”. The last post was in 2023, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (25) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Owen Williams for his writing on switching from Mac to Windows and setting up WSL for development, plus tech commentary such as the Fortnite-as-a-place piece and his Recharged daily tech briefing.
- Recommended for · 2 comments
- One commenter says to read the Fortnite article; another has 'heard only great things' about the Recharged newsletter.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 25 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Explore the Charged technology archive by Owen Williams: practical guides, reviews, and analysis on developer tools, smart homes, privacy, and platforms.
Most-linked posts?
- Fortnite has become the new 'third place' for millions4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2018-12-21
- Tracking device makers that issue fixes for WPA24 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2017-10-16
- /recharged2 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2018-01-17
- The state of switching to Windows from Mac in 20192 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-04-12
- /blog/2017/how-to-set-up-the-perfect-modern-dev-environment-on-windows2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-06-27
- Surface Book 3 review: the web developer's laptop2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-05-25
- Apple wants to kill the ad industry. It's forcing developers to help2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-06-04
- How to set up the perfect modern dev environment on Windows2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-03-13
- Google Is Eating Apple's Ecosystem for Lunch2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-01-18
- Why I left Mac for Windows: Apple has given up2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-03-05
What Hacker News says?
You should be good if you’re up to date as of November 6th (I think, it may be November 8th) Swiftonsecurity tweeted this out, it’s a description of KRACK and various devices affected by it. Apparently google already fixed it on android? Also it says that iOS is rumored to be protected against this since iOS 11 but it’s not confirmed. Nobody has put out an official statement yet. What’s weird is that commercial vend…
Comment linking /blog/2017/wifi-has-been-broken-heres-the-companies-that-have-already-fixed-it
on “Key Reinstallation Attacks – Breaking WPA2 by Forcing Nonce Reuse”Submitted Why I left Mac for Windows: Apple has given up as a story · 695 points
HN discussionAnswering my own question: looks like someone is tracking it over here: https://char.gd/blog/2017/wifi-has-been-broken-heres-the-com... Microsoft's status is unclear at the time of writing.
Comment linking /blog/2017/wifi-has-been-broken-heres-the-companies-that-have-already-fixed-it
on “Key Reinstallation Attacks – Breaking WPA2 by Forcing Nonce Reuse”Submitted The Surface Book 2 is everything the MacBook Pro should be as a story · 407 points
HN discussionAccording to https://char.gd/blog/2017/wifi-has-been-broken-heres-the-com... it will be in the November 6 Android patch level.
Comment linking /blog/2017/wifi-has-been-broken-heres-the-companies-that-have-already-fixed-it
on “Key Reinstallation Attacks – Breaking WPA2 by Forcing Nonce Reuse”Submitted How does one appear in the Google News carousel? as a story · 321 points
HN discussionI run a one-person ‘SaaS’ that delivers morning tech briefings each day for industry insight, without ads, that I wanted to see, called recharged: https://char.gd/recharged . I both write the newsletters + develop the platform behind the scenes that enables seamless community access involved, and our MRR is approximately $2,500/month for about 18 months. I’ll admit it’s a struggle to properly grow at this point, but…
Comment linking /recharged
on “Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?”Submitted Microsoft now has the best hardware lineup in the industry as a story · 133 points
HN discussionIndeed. Other headlines from him are: - Why I left Mac for Windows: Apple has given up - I got a Google Home and finally understand the future of computing - Apple just told the world it has no idea who the Mac is for - The reason I keep going back to Apple might surprise you - Google's software is putting Apple to shame - Google buying Twitter would be the best result for everyone - iOS 10: the beginning of the end…
Comment linking /announcements/welcome-to-the-new-charged/
on “Why I left Mac for Windows: Apple has given up”Submitted The state of switching to Windows from Mac in 2019 as a story · 129 points
HN discussionI built a daily technology briefing + community because I got pretty tired of the way technology sites work (just a vomit of news stories) and make about $2,200/month at this point, so I recently gave up my job to work on it. It's growing fairly steadily, because people really value not being advertised to, and that's been fantastic. I'm also pulling together a bunch of disparate services to make it a great experien…
Comment linking /recharged
on “Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?”Submitted The web is swallowing the desktop whole (2017) as a story · 115 points
HN discussionhttps://twitter.com/anoopr/status/1071921156687626240 > the game is background noise. Fortnite isn't a game, it's a place. https://char.gd/blog/2018/fortnite-is-the-new-hangout-spot > Fortnite is different, because it's not even about the game at all: it's a place we're all going together. > Not only is Fortnite the new hangout spot, replacing the mall, Starbucks or just loitering in the city, it's become the covete…
Comment linking /blog/2018/fortnite-is-the-new-hangout-spot
on “Netflix claims Fortnite is now a bigger competitor than HBO”Submitted I was wrong about the iPad Pro as a story · 107 points
HN discussionApparently I can't edit comments, but here's my review of the XPS 15: https://char.gd/blog/2018/ive-finally-found-a-macbook-replac...
Comment linking /blog/2018/ive-finally-found-a-macbook-replacement-that-doesnt-suck
on “Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?”Submitted GitHub's new features show it’s finally listening to developers as a story · 75 points
HN discussionHey! Web dev/writer here that can relate — I've been writing about this after having gone through the same experience. In the last year, I've written about the Razer Blade, Eve V and about to ship a review of the Dell XPS 15 today or tomorrow (will post in this comment), which I ultimately settled on. It's a killer machine! I use Windows and WSL to do my work, and it's just as good as my MacBook setup ever was — exc…
Comment linking /blog/2017/essential-apps-for-switching-from-mac-to-windows
on “Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?”Submitted You probably don't need that hip web framework as a story · 73 points
HN discussionSurface Pro range, Surface Book and Surface Studio are at the high end of the consumer market. They're all impressive (and expensive). Couple that with a backlash against Apple over the non-pro MacBook Pro, and its failure to update most other Macs. Then stir in articles like these: Why I left Mac for Windows: Apple has given up http://char.gd/microsoft/why-i-left-mac-for-windows/ Why I’m Leaving Apple for Microsoft…
Comment linking /microsoft/why-i-left-mac-for-windows/
on “Windows 10 Tip: Turn Off File Explorer Advertising”Submitted Apple responds to Spotify with words, but no real answers as a story · 70 points
HN discussionHey! Writer here. I discuss the software at length in here, but as I point out in the piece I've already covered why WSL and Bash work very well at length, so didn't want to muddy the water too much: 1. How to use Bash on Windows to retain your previous setup: https://char.gd/blog/2017/how-to-set-up-the-perfect-modern-d... 2. Why WSL/Bash is good enough these days: https://medium.com/charged-tech/why-i-left-mac-for-…
Comment linking /blog/2017/how-to-set-up-the-perfect-modern-dev-environment-on-windows
on “The Surface Book 2 is everything the MacBook Pro should be”Submitted Why I left Mac for Windows: Apple has given up as a story · 62 points
HN discussiontwitter, seems to have a cowboy engineering culture. that's why one of their exec's blamed rails for their failure to combat harassment[0]. n I bet now, if they still ran rails, it would've been blamed lol. [0]: https://char.gd/recharged/daily/twitter-blames-ruby-on-rails...
Comment linking /recharged/daily/twitter-blames-ruby-on-rails-for-harassment
on “More than 1k people at Twitter had ability to aid hack of accounts”Submitted Google Is Eating Apple's Ecosystem for Lunch as a story · 60 points
HN discussionYou should read this article about Fortnite: https://char.gd/blog/2018/fortnite-is-the-new-hangout-spot Apparently it's more of a "place" than a "game", so your kids are going to be left out if all of their friends are bonding and hanging out in the game. My parents never bought me a video game console, and I'm actually very grateful for that. I would play computer games occasionally but I was much more interested i…
Comment linking /blog/2018/fortnite-is-the-new-hangout-spot
on “Alarming Decline of Quality Youth Playtime”Submitted I've finally found a Windows laptop worth ditching the MacBook for as a story · 43 points
HN discussionTrust me, I don’t usually care and would have given up – I think it was way too difficult to fix this. I’ve written extensively about switching from macOS to Windows and much prefer using a PC personally: https://char.gd/blog/2019/the-state-of-switching-to-windows-... In this case, however, my job requires I use the Mac issued to me so y’know, it was in my interest to get it going again while I waited for a replacem…
Comment linking /blog/2019/the-state-of-switching-to-windows-from-mac-in-2019
on “Black Screen After MacBook Pro Update to macOS Big Sur”Submitted Tracking device makers that issue fixes for WPA2 as a story · 11 points
HN discussionWhile I agree with the rest of your post I want to respond to this particular part of it: >I will happily give Google my location if it helps me avoid traffic jams, something many HN readers object to. The premise of this statement is that you have to give them this data to avoid traffic jams as part of an inherent bargain, but that's not the case. Yes at a very basic level maps apps need to access GPS to work, but…
Comment linking /recharged/daily/google-finds-religion-in-privacy
on ““Users want control” is a shoulder shrug”Submitted Apple wants to kill the ad industry. It's forcing developers to help as a story · 5 points
HN discussion
