Michael Lynch
@mtlynch.io
Bootstrapped fouder. Lover of unit tests. One successful exit. ex-@google, ex-@microsoft.
This appeared on a web payment form I was filling out. For a second, I thought, "Wait, how are they getting my desktop's local LAN IP?" And then I realized they're just logging their reverse proxy's IP.
October 1, 2025 at 11:30 PM
This appeared on a web payment form I was filling out. For a second, I thought, "Wait, how are they getting my desktop's local LAN IP?" And then I realized they're just logging their reverse proxy's IP.
I interviewed Adam Gordon Bell, blogger and host of the CoRecursive podcast about how he consistently reaches the front page of Hacker News, what blog post topics attract customers, and how Adam improved his writing refactoringenglish.com/blog/intervi...
September 12, 2025 at 6:17 PM
I interviewed Adam Gordon Bell, blogger and host of the CoRecursive podcast about how he consistently reaches the front page of Hacker News, what blog post topics attract customers, and how Adam improved his writing refactoringenglish.com/blog/intervi...
New achievement: I repaired a CPU with bent pins!
I bought a used AMD Ryzen 7 5700G CPU for my home NAS because my old Athlon 3000G was choking on 4K video. The new CPU arrived with bent pins. Thought about returning it but managed to repair it myself with a utility blade.
I bought a used AMD Ryzen 7 5700G CPU for my home NAS because my old Athlon 3000G was choking on 4K video. The new CPU arrived with bent pins. Thought about returning it but managed to repair it myself with a utility blade.
September 8, 2025 at 12:06 AM
New achievement: I repaired a CPU with bent pins!
I bought a used AMD Ryzen 7 5700G CPU for my home NAS because my old Athlon 3000G was choking on 4K video. The new CPU arrived with bent pins. Thought about returning it but managed to repair it myself with a utility blade.
I bought a used AMD Ryzen 7 5700G CPU for my home NAS because my old Athlon 3000G was choking on 4K video. The new CPU arrived with bent pins. Thought about returning it but managed to repair it myself with a utility blade.
A quote from Refactoring English made it to LWN's development quote of the week. lwn.net/Articles/102...
July 9, 2025 at 11:17 PM
A quote from Refactoring English made it to LWN's development quote of the week. lwn.net/Articles/102...
Based on this CO2 graph, can you guess the point in the weekend I was playing with dry ice?
June 16, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Based on this CO2 graph, can you guess the point in the weekend I was playing with dry ice?
One of my favorite pieces of advice about writing educational books and products comes from Write Useful Books by Rob Fitzpatrick.
June 2, 2025 at 3:03 PM
One of my favorite pieces of advice about writing educational books and products comes from Write Useful Books by Rob Fitzpatrick.
It actually decayed off yesterday but the moderators seem to have bumped it back up around 9 AM ET this morning
May 25, 2025 at 3:39 PM
It actually decayed off yesterday but the moderators seem to have bumped it back up around 9 AM ET this morning
I'm now famous enough that people remember vague, disconnected details about me
May 1, 2025 at 3:20 PM
I'm now famous enough that people remember vague, disconnected details about me
My DIY book cover vs. a professional designer's version.
April 4, 2025 at 9:00 PM
My DIY book cover vs. a professional designer's version.
I played around more with the Hacker News Popularity Contest site and now you can view stats for your domain. refactoringenglish.com/tools/hn-pop...
April 4, 2025 at 6:04 PM
I played around more with the Hacker News Popularity Contest site and now you can view stats for your domain. refactoringenglish.com/tools/hn-pop...
What's the angle here? In two days, I got two different PRs on my open-source projects from two distinct but mostly fresh Github accounts adding Traefik as a layer in front of my app. The style of writing and code seem very AI-generated.
April 3, 2025 at 7:15 PM
What's the angle here? In two days, I got two different PRs on my open-source projects from two distinct but mostly fresh Github accounts adding Traefik as a layer in front of my app. The style of writing and code seem very AI-generated.
Kickstarter goal met! I get to write this book! Thanks so much to everyone who contributed!
March 29, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Kickstarter goal met! I get to write this book! Thanks so much to everyone who contributed!
My blog post about writing blog posts that appeal to Hacker News is on the front page of Hacker News
March 28, 2025 at 2:18 PM
My blog post about writing blog posts that appeal to Hacker News is on the front page of Hacker News
Hacker News fickleness strikes again! I submitted my tool to figure out HN's favorite bloggers twice as Show HNs, and it flopped both times. But then someone just submitted it, and it's on the front page.
March 26, 2025 at 1:13 AM
Hacker News fickleness strikes again! I submitted my tool to figure out HN's favorite bloggers twice as Show HNs, and it flopped both times. But then someone just submitted it, and it's on the front page.
Yep, I think that should fix it. Doing that should also set your rel="canonical" tag the way Google wants, as you currently have it set to "/" developers.google.com/search/docs/...
March 22, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Yep, I think that should fix it. Doing that should also set your rel="canonical" tag the way Google wants, as you currently have it set to "/" developers.google.com/search/docs/...
The most popular year for my blog was 2020, where I ended up at #9 overall. Take that, @jeffgeerling.com (#22) and @simonwillison.net (#32)! Although, they both went on to crush me every subsequent year. refactoringenglish.com/tools/hn-pop...
March 14, 2025 at 1:36 PM
The most popular year for my blog was 2020, where I ended up at #9 overall. Take that, @jeffgeerling.com (#22) and @simonwillison.net (#32)! Although, they both went on to crush me every subsequent year. refactoringenglish.com/tools/hn-pop...
I got one of the free 4x CPU / 24 GB servers from Oracle Cloud. I installed Woodpecker CI on it, but most of the day, it just sits idle. Any ideas for what to install? Tor relay wouldn't work, but I'm looking for something kind of like that. I'd run ArchiveTeam Warrior, but they don't support ARM
March 3, 2025 at 6:43 PM
I got one of the free 4x CPU / 24 GB servers from Oracle Cloud. I installed Woodpecker CI on it, but most of the day, it just sits idle. Any ideas for what to install? Tor relay wouldn't work, but I'm looking for something kind of like that. I'd run ArchiveTeam Warrior, but they don't support ARM
Is there a way to tell SSH to do strict checking *only* if I'm connecting to a host with a hostname (e.g., abc.example.com) and just shut up if I'm connecting to a host by IP (e.g., 1.2.3.4)? I don't want to disable StrictHostKeyChecking globally, but I don't see a way to limit it to named hosts.
February 21, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Is there a way to tell SSH to do strict checking *only* if I'm connecting to a host with a hostname (e.g., abc.example.com) and just shut up if I'm connecting to a host by IP (e.g., 1.2.3.4)? I don't want to disable StrictHostKeyChecking globally, but I don't see a way to limit it to named hosts.
I just found out that @kagi.com summarizer works on YouTube videos. I tried it on one of my long videos, and it did well at summarizing the important points.
February 15, 2025 at 5:17 AM
I just found out that @kagi.com summarizer works on YouTube videos. I tried it on one of my long videos, and it did well at summarizing the important points.
I've worked with a lot of people who agree that passive voice is bad, but they have trouble recognizing it when they see it. So, I created this exercise to help you recognize the passive voice. refactoringenglish.com/exercises/re...
January 31, 2025 at 3:08 PM
I've worked with a lot of people who agree that passive voice is bad, but they have trouble recognizing it when they see it. So, I created this exercise to help you recognize the passive voice. refactoringenglish.com/exercises/re...
Oh, I guess that's kind of high, but it doesn't seem unreasonable to me. Especially because I just checked the /new queue, and there's just not much else there to choose from, so if HN wants to mix in newer stories, there's going to be some that are low-voted
December 8, 2024 at 3:48 PM
Oh, I guess that's kind of high, but it doesn't seem unreasonable to me. Especially because I just checked the /new queue, and there's just not much else there to choose from, so if HN wants to mix in newer stories, there's going to be some that are low-voted
Anyone have a recommendation for a home thermostat that isn't terrible but also isn't cloud-dependent? Bonus for one that's hackable. Super-bonus for open-source (but pre-made and available for purchase)
December 6, 2024 at 7:23 PM
Anyone have a recommendation for a home thermostat that isn't terrible but also isn't cloud-dependent? Bonus for one that's hackable. Super-bonus for open-source (but pre-made and available for purchase)
Unexpected SEO result. A few weeks ago, I added a postscript to a guide I wrote in 2022 about how the guide worked out for me, and readers from Google search doubled. Cool that there's incentive to go back and update old posts like this.
December 4, 2024 at 8:47 PM
Unexpected SEO result. A few weeks ago, I added a postscript to a guide I wrote in 2022 about how the guide worked out for me, and readers from Google search doubled. Cool that there's incentive to go back and update old posts like this.
All I changed was my website's font, and it made a huge difference in how much I enjoy looking at the pages.
November 22, 2024 at 7:06 PM
All I changed was my website's font, and it made a huge difference in how much I enjoy looking at the pages.
My evil plan is working
November 15, 2024 at 5:28 PM
My evil plan is working