Hacker News Reader

johnjones4on News85% of Americans Fear Job Loss in 2024

"Job seekers have have negative sentiments around several issues." In other news, the sky is blue

johnjones4on RadioShack’s new owner plots old comeback strategy

This exactly!

johnjones4on MacUser 1996: How to Rig Up the Fastest Photoshop Machine

I miss this style of quirky magazine layouts. The web has made everything follow the same 12 column grid template with just one or two sans-serif fonts.

johnjones4on Ask HN: People who use different emails everywhere, who sold you to spammers?

Not sold, but shared internally across multiple clients with no functional opt out: Once Democratic party digital firms like NGPVAN and ActBlue get your email, be prepared to get multiple emails per day from candidates across the country you've never heard of (much less could even vote for) constantly sending you garbage emails. The unsubscribe buttons do nothing.

johnjones4on The Retrocomputing Archive

I'm curious if there's a site tracking new software for vintage platforms such as ssheven which is a modern SSH client for Mac OS 7/8/9. For the occasional retrocomputing enthusiast, it'd be great to have a dedicated resource tracking all the great new work the community is producing. (And a way to also collaborate/give back via open source.)

johnjones4on Amazon reportedly has Pinkerton agents surveil workers who try to form unions

History repeats itself. Check out the story of the Molly Maguires, a somewhat vigilante labor group in PA's coal region, who were infiltrated by an undercover Pinkerton in the late 1800s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Maguires#In_the_United_S... I'm from the region of PA where this all happened, and it's a well-known story among locals.

johnjones4on Show HN: I Put a Raspberry Pi in a Rocket

Thank you!

johnjones4on Show HN: I Put a Raspberry Pi in a Rocket

Thanks!

johnjones4on Show HN: I Put a Raspberry Pi in a Rocket

Good idea! I'd want to do some research and simulations to figure out how much of an altitude hit I'd take with the added weight of an additional controller.

johnjones4on Show HN: I Put a Raspberry Pi in a Rocket

Yeah taking the Uber route on regulation compliance does not work for space travel.

johnjones4on Show HN: I Put a Raspberry Pi in a Rocket

Really helpful! Thank you! Would you happen to have your source code available anywhere for me to take a look?

johnjones4on Show HN: I Put a Raspberry Pi in a Rocket

Thanks!

johnjones4on Show HN: I Put a Raspberry Pi in a Rocket

Haha that's awesome. Do you have a link for a good tutorial on them?

johnjones4on Show HN: I Put a Raspberry Pi in a Rocket

The FCC doesn't tend to agree: https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/20/18150684/swarm-technolog...

johnjones4on Show HN: I Put a Raspberry Pi in a Rocket

I'm not totally certain. I could do a quick C++ POC to see if that improves throughput a bit, but I've got doubts. My other thought is that the SPI interface only can go up to a certain speed. If anyone has deeper knowledge of that protocol I'd love to hear their thoughts.

johnjones4on Show HN: I Put a Raspberry Pi in a Rocket

I'm in the DC area where anything that goes up in the air is taken very seriously.

johnjones4on Show HN: I Put a Raspberry Pi in a Rocket

Hey man! I hope you're doing well! Maybe I'll paint the next one green and white!

(For the rest of the world who's confused by this: college fraternity colors.)

johnjones4on Show HN: I Put a Raspberry Pi in a Rocket

I looked into the Feather for a bit, but my experience with the Pi is much stronger, so I felt more comfortable working with that after I determined the battery I'd need to power it wouldn't be too heavy to lift.

johnjones4on Show HN: I Put a Raspberry Pi in a Rocket

I'd like to eventually start working with those more high-powered motors, but for a first flight I wanted to keep things manageable.

... and I also had a 400 ft limit with my permit.

johnjones4on Show HN: I Put a Raspberry Pi in a Rocket

That's exactly it. This thing was pretty heavy with a battery, Pi, sensors, mounting components, etc. I used an Estes D12-5 engine, which is fairly powerful but there are wayyy more powerful model rocket motors out there that I'd like to try in the future with this.

johnjones4on Show HN: I Put a Raspberry Pi in a Rocket

Hi! Here's the post where I document my build process: https://johnjonesfour.com/2020/10/03/model-rocket-telemetry-... Happy to answer any questions about that!

For the video issue, I need to do some homework and figure out what the issue is. It's just speculation at this point. Yes, I am saving the Pi's microSD card.

Telemetry transmission and reception is done by an Adafruit RFM95W, and I'm using this library to interface with it: https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_RFM9x. It handles data just as Python byte arrays, and I only transmit data from the senors (in real time) but not video. I use that library to determine RSSI as well.

Thanks for the note on the language idea. Like I said in the post, I want to be talked out of that :-)

johnjones4on Ask HN: What's your quarantine side project?

I've been building out new features like crazy on my recipe app Reciplay (https://getreciplay.com/) including a Google Vision and FastText powered recipe scanner.

johnjones4on Show HN: Blocklike.js Educational Library – So kids can level up from Scratch

This honestly seems like a big leap to ask kids to take from Scratch. I agree with some of the comments I'm seeing that the concept of "this" is a big one - but even other common JavaScript concepts such as callback functions seem like a stretch. What I wonder is why a variant of BASIC hasn't taken off. I think most Gen X and Millennial software professionals can point to early exposure to BASIC as an inspiration for their careers. The syntax of that language was meant to be for beginners - so why aren't we using it?

johnjones4on Ask HN: Which RSS reader do you use?

I built a bare-bones one for myself a while back: https://github.com/johnjones4/FeedPage/ All you need to use it is a link to an OPML file with your feeds and Docker. Here's what my OPML file looks like: https://gist.github.com/johnjones4/0fd1b1b47d62d826164bea990...

johnjones4on Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?

I highly recommend Jean Case's book "Be Fearless: 5 Principles for a Life of Breakthroughs and Purpose." It's packed with some incredible stories (some you'll know of, others will be new to you) about people overcoming their fears to create change. (Full disclosure: I work for Jean so this is somewhat of a shameless plug, but I promise the book is amazing!) https://readbefearless.com/

johnjones4on Intel Confronts Potential ‘PR Nightmare’ With Reported Chip Flaw

So is this sort of issue more likely to occur on a non-RISC chip because of added complexity? I know extremely little about microprocessor design beyond the 101 knowledge from college so forgive my ignorance.

johnjones4on Create your own Version of Microsoft BASIC for 6502

Inspired by this discussion, I put together some thoughts I had on the impact of BASIC: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13594568

johnjones4on Create your own Version of Microsoft BASIC for 6502

So many of us spent our formative years punching out BASIC programs on old Apple, C64, etc hardware. BASIC, despite its notable flaws as a language, instilled a passion for technology into so many that burns to this day. We all recall our first "Hello World" on those machines and the excitement that followed as we began to understand the almost limitless world that technology opened up for us. It'd be interesting to see BASIC make a comeback as an educational tool, to create that same spark it did for us 20, 30, even 40 years ago.

johnjones4on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (August 2015)

Washington, DC - http://adfero.com/ - Full Time - On site

Looking for Node.js and front-end developers to help build a collaboration and publishing platform for a major new research initiative. (I can't say too much right now.) Email me at jjones@adfero.com for more info.