HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

chriscjcj

655 karma · joined August 18, 2021

submissionscomments
chriscjcj··on The technology to eradicate mosquito-borne disease exists
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_laser
chriscjcj··on DJCJ Arcade – MAME front end for macOS
I've been building a new MAME front end for MacOS, and it's at the point where I would be grateful if some folks besides me would be willing to try it. I built this for myself after years of using qmc2. (Much respect to René Reucher who I understand passed away in the spring of 2023. R.I.P. (1) ) There's a lot I like about qmc2 but also a lot that I find frustrating. I set out to solve those pain points as well as build something that's fully Mac native.

Worth mentioning:

- It's free.

- The source is closed for now.

- The releases are signed and notarized.

- There are native builds for Apple Silicon and Intel as well as a Universal build.

- MacOS 14 or higher is required.

- It's mostly SwiftUI, with some AppKit when SwiftUI couldn't do what I needed done.

- There are no ROMs/CHDs included and none ever will be.

It was 100% vibe-coded using Claude and some Grok, with me directing and testing on a real machine with a real collection. If you're not comfortable running vibe-coded code, this would be a project to steer clear of.

Download: https://github.com/DJCJ-website/DJCJArcade

Both bug reports and general feedback are welcome through GitHub Issues or right here in the thread.

God bless. :-)

(1) https://mameonmacs.blogspot.com/2022/04/welcome-back-qmc2.ht...

chriscjcj··on .name Termination
A similar lesson to the one OP has now learned I suppose.
chriscjcj··on .name Termination
In 1992, I got myself an AT&T EasyReach 700 number. It was going to be my phone number for life. They killed that a couple years later. Then I got an AT&T True Connections 500 number. It was going to be my phone number for life. That died a few years later too.
chriscjcj··on Claude Fable 5.1 and Claude Mythos 5.1
In my "instructions for Claude," I have the following:

"I'm not a programmer or software engineer. Don't talk to me like I am. Avoid coder jargon and vernacular. Explain things to me in a clear way, emphasizing a conceptual view that even an inexperienced person can understand. If helpful, use analogies and examples to illustrate and help you communicate."

It just ignores it and spits out drivel that sounds exactly like what you're getting.

chriscjcj··on A Sick People
In 1 A.D., Roman poet Ovid wrote:

    The seed’s often more fertile in foreign fields,
    and a neighbor’s herd always has richer milk. 
https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/ArtofLoveBkI...

I think this was where "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" comes from.

My perpetually-single friend is always complaining that there "aren't any good single women" in his area. When he visits other places, he inevitably reports on how much nicer and prettier the women are there.

I wonder if the author would feel different about a place he was visiting if he stayed there for a few years.

There's also the concept that "familiarity breeds contempt" and there seems to be some evidence to support this.

https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2006-23056-008

chriscjcj··on A better way to tie your gym shorts. (Or any drawstring) [video]
I tried several drawstrings.

I found that if I make it tight enough so that things don't loosen easily when there's tension, then it's too tight to adjust easily. Maybe there's a happy medium to be had, but through numerous tries, I never achieved it.

chriscjcj··on Can you build a recognizable World Map in under 500 bytes?
BTW... full credit to the artist, Shanaka Dias.

https://asciiart.website/artist.php?artist_id=121

https://asciiart.website/preservation/poster.php?person_id=1...

chriscjcj··on Can you build a recognizable World Map in under 500 bytes?
I know this doesn't meet the spirit of the challenge, but...

          _,--',   _._.--._____
   .--.--';_'-.', ";_      _.,-'
  .'--'.  _.'    {`'-;_ .-.>.'
        '-:_      )  / `' '=.
          ) >     {_/,     /~)
  snd     |/               `^ .'
chriscjcj··on OS9Map
This got me wondering if vibecoding might bring with it a newfound interest in developing apps for vintage computers. Are the LLMs that most people use trained as well on these older coding languages / platforms as they are on modern ones?
chriscjcj··on APC–2 – A professional record cutter for producing original playback discs
De La Soul's 12" Single for "Me Myself And I" also has its second side cut with two grooves. The hype sticker says, "3 Sides." Each time you put the needle down you have a 50/50 chance to hear the song you're trying to hear. :-)

https://www.discogs.com/master/19554-De-La-Soul-Me-Myself-An...

chriscjcj··on Comparison shows audiophiles waste a lot of money
To your point:

https://www.engadget.com/2008-03-03-audiophiles-cant-tell-th...

chriscjcj··on ASCII Clouds
Also thematically related (from 2011):

http://nkwiatek.com/experiments/ascii

chriscjcj··on A closer look at a BGP anomaly in Venezuela
This is what helped me back in the day when I did that stuff. I didn't know my ass from a hole in the ground and Avi's guides got me up and running, fully multi-homed!

http://freedman.net/bgbgp.ppt

http://freedman.net/bgp102.ppt

http://freedman.net/multi.ppt

http://avi.freedman.net/fromnetaxs/multi.html

http://avi.freedman.net/fromnetaxs/bgp/bgp.html

http://freedman.net/choose.ppt

chriscjcj··on Firewood Banks Aren't Inspiring. They're a Sign of Collapse
> Back to the point of the article: is there quantified evidence that use of wood for heat is increasing in America among the poor? Or is this based on the author's impressions?

Indeed. I wish that were the point of the article. However, in my opinion, this article is unfortunately much more of an emotional/political rant than a conveyor of useful information.

chriscjcj··on Dark Pattern Games
First on the site's list of "Healthy Games" is a game called "Beholder."

Description: "You work for a dystopian surveillance state and spy on your neighbors."

chriscjcj··on Sofie: open-source web based system for automating live TV news production
What you're trying to accomplish doesn't really translate into TV production automation systems. The systems being discussed in this thread don't "integrate content" per se.

You may be confusing what we're talking about with an NRCS. (Newsroom Computer System.) The biggest players in this space are ENPS, iNews, Dalet Galaxy, and (to a lesser extent) Ross Inception. As it pertains to making it "easy to make that content available on newscasts," I don't know of any such method. You may be inferring that these systems employ a higher level of sophistication than they actually do. My advice: format your news as plain ASCII text. I really can't think of anything else you would need to do to it.

chriscjcj··on Sofie: open-source web based system for automating live TV news production
Thank you for the vote of confidence. :-)

I do ask myself that sometimes. It sounds weird, but I think it's what I was put on this earth to do. Yes, it is a cruel industry at times and pain is indeed inflicted just as you assert. I guess I'm just built for it. And I've been doing it for so long that I've built up a really thick skin and I'm just not that fazed by its unpleasant aspects. I can honestly say that it's a fun job. It's the job I always wanted when I was a kid and I still absolutely love it. (I'm fortunate enough to be compensated at a reasonable level, so that helps.)

People think it's stressful and I suppose it is. But the nice thing about it is that when the newscast is over, I'm completely done. And I have the luxury of knowing, down to the exact second, when that moment will be. I don't take my work home with me. There's nothing to stress out about (until the next day.)

Another thing... unlike an airline pilot or a surgeon, no matter how poor a job I might do, no one dies. That's kind nice too. :-)

chriscjcj··on Sofie: open-source web based system for automating live TV news production
Disclaimer... I am a director and not an engineer. I can only give you my relatively limited understanding....

> It looks like great support (Blackmagicdesign) for building a small broadcast studio from scratch tho.

Agreed!

> I could see BMD embracing this. There are lots of studios that are not commercial broadcast that could really use a system like this.

Also agreed. Black Magic definitely makes a lot of reasonably-priced and very capable gear. They're not a major player in the TV automation space, but perhaps with the help of Sofie, they could make inroads.

> Isn't one of the problems with hardware support is that hardware vendors have agreements with the competitors you listed?

That's not a topic I'm knowledgeable about. It is my understanding that most shops who have a particular vendor's automation platform will also have that vendor's hardware running at its core. In all the shops I've seen, the switcher that's controlled by the automation system is made by the same company. Or if its another vendor's product, it's sold and provisioned along with the automation system when its purchased. Other stuff like audio mixers, robo-cam products, clip players, and CG/graphics platforms can be from other vendors.

> Computers are fast enough now that once you can get the signals into a machine, many of the special functions that previously required dedicated hardware can now be run in software? With proper timing signal distribution of course.

> Seems like 12G SDI to SFP+ would enable server class machines to subsume most of the special function hardware.

For audio, I think that would be a relatively easy lift with technologies like Dante. However, in most TV stations, you're going to need to literally plug upwards of 100 HDSDI video cables into a piece of hardware so that those sources can be switched to on TV, mixed and keyed on multiple mixed-effects banks, and viewed on multiviewer screens in the control room. I don't know that a regular-ol' PC has what it takes to take in and simultaneously process that amount of video. But just because don't know about it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. ;-) Just haven't seen it yet.

chriscjcj··on Sofie: open-source web based system for automating live TV news production
As a live television newscast director in a major market, I would be very interested to see a feature comparison between this product and its main competitors: Ross OverDrive, Sony ELC, and Grass Valley Ignite.

Due to the substantial complexity of these automation systems, they tend to have a lot of inertia. But if anything could drive a station group to make a change, the "free" part can be effective.

I did take a look at the supported hardware (1). I think that's the pain point for many shops. Free open source production software is great, but being forced to choose form hardware products you don't prefer is a pretty tough tradeoff.

Historically, I suppose that's been one of FOSS' big challenges.

(1) https://nrkno.github.io/sofie-core/docs/user-guide/supported...

chriscjcj··on Show HN: While the world builds AI Agents, I'm just building calculators
Very nicely done. If I were to tweak something....

Some have different names once you click on them.

- "Speed" is "Speed and Pace."

- "Data Size" is "Data Storage"

- "Fuel Economy" is "Fuel Consumption"

On the Data Size / Data Storage calculator, I would add kilobits, megabits, gigabits, and terabits. In addition to data storage, that might make it useful as a bandwidth calculator as well.

chriscjcj··on It is no longer safe to move our governments and societies to US clouds
In my younger days, I had a significant other who took advantage of my good nature, expected me to pay for everything, and was borderline abusive toward me at times. When I finally stood up to her, she told me she hated me. I believed her.
chriscjcj··on It is no longer safe to move our governments and societies to US clouds
> Not only is it a terrible idea given the kind of things > the “King of America” keeps saying,

When attempting to formulate a persuasive argument, this isn't a great place to start in my opinion. It's perfectly acceptable to dislike Trump and his policies. If you do, then go ahead and state your reasons. He was elected by the people of his country and he'll be done in four years' time. That's not how kings generally function. Perhaps I'm throwing the baby out with the bathwater, but I don't find myself too interested in reading the article after the inflammatory introductory TLDR.

chriscjcj··on Fish-delousing underwater laser (2018) [video]
What are the falling pellets?
chriscjcj··on Every .gov Domain
Not every. Bart.gov is missing.

(I found it in the data source, but not on the website that was linked to.)

chriscjcj··on Show HN: Immersive Gaussian Splat experience of Sutro Tower, San Francisco
I work in broadcast TV in San Francisco and am very good friends with one of the engineers who is responsible for the care and maintenance of some of the facilities up there. We talked about him taking me up there for ten years before we finally got around to it. :-)
chriscjcj··on Show HN: Immersive Gaussian Splat experience of Sutro Tower, San Francisco
I had the privilege of spending about 30 minutes at level 6 in May of 2023. It was as spectacular as you might imagine. I would say that if you have even the slightest fear of heights the whole experience would be a nightmare.
chriscjcj··on The True Costs of Being on YouTube
Or why not start with a more modest production budget? It takes longer to shoot, but with the right equipment, you can shoot this stuff yourself. Watch one of Mend It Mark's videos (1). He does the whole thing all by himself and it looks absolutely fantastic. Then, if you get a couple million subscribers, hire some people and go big time. Because you can afford to.

(1) https://www.youtube.com/@MendItMark/videos

chriscjcj··on Hotline for modern Apple systems
Now how about Carracho?
chriscjcj··on Kowloon Walled City: Heterotopia in a Space of Disappearance (2013)
https://youtu.be/S-rj8m7Ssow

This is one of the better documentaries out there about Kowloon. It's in German but you can turn on English subtitles. They got a camera inside and you get a decent taste of what life was like there.

Page 1 of 7Next →