Hacker News Reader

relwinon Turbo Pascal on CP/M, MSX-DOS and MS-DOS

I just dug up TP v3.01 from 1983. Not sure I have a working 5-1/4 floppy drive to tell if the disk is any good... Programming with TP brings back fun times!

relwinon The “mechanical miracle” that ruined Mark Twain’s life

Possibly the very first description of the "brown note"?

relwinon The bottleneck might be the air in the room

My local library displays CO2 level on an inconspicuous wall fixture as part of the HVAC system. If the level gets too high large shutters (near the ceiling) open directly to the outside, supposedly as a failsafe. The head librarian said he's never seen them open in the past dozen years. After 20 years of patronizing this facility I now know a little bit more on its operation.

relwinon Thirty years on, Pokémon is still a monster hit

If you want to drop $8k or so you can buy a Pokemon pinball game from Stern: https://sternpinball.com/game/pokemon/ .

relwinon Doin' It with a 555: One Chip to Rule Them All

I won 2011's "555 Timer Contest" artistic category. As a bonus I got a phone call from Hans Camenzind, who offered to design a custom chip (for free) to perform the same function.

LeDominoux vid: https://youtu.be/PQOjkuJtBfM?si=pS9Qloekm7JJKCoE

555 contest archive: http://web.archive.org/web/20120121212136/http://www.555cont...

relwinon Ask HN: What did you find out or explore today?

Recently procured an AirGradient air quality monitor and set up the build environment so I can customize its reporting capability and perhaps add some different sensors. Also didn't realize how much CO2 builds up during the night in my bedroom. Will have to mitigate this as I believe this contributes to my poor sleep habits.

relwinon Tides are weirder than you think

We have a "King Tide" today in SoCal where the local swing is +7/-1.5. Get to see normally hidden tidepools and a bunch of cobbles...

relwinon CBP is monitoring US drivers and detaining those with suspicious travel patterns

Here's a vid describing DRN & Resolvion supplying car location data to repo companies. I didn't realize they'll strap a camera pack on your car and pay you a commission on the license plate data you collect. https://youtu.be/xE5NnZm9OpU?si=oEkSvUjNmBhQD-xI&t=138

relwinon The Rise and Fall of the Powdered Wig (2020)

On the "new" page this item reads "powered wig." I thought it was a Team Fortress 2 entry...

relwinon Baseball durations after the pitch clock

This is why the Savannah Bananas (and the banana league) are so popular. Banana-ball draws sellout crowds wherever they play. The main focus is "don't be boring."

relwinon Clankers Die on Christmas

And before Clippy we had Microsoft BoB! Super popular as I recall...

relwinon Tetris is NP-hard even with O(1) rows or columns (2020) [pdf]

Why is the paper's copyright footer "1992 Information Processing Society of Japan" when this work is actually from around 2019?

relwinon Starship's Tenth Flight Test

Thunderf00t shows various tile problems with Starship: https://youtu.be/MZUQe38SJIs?si=QAVIk7fMX1HIQETb (he's not a fan of Musk)

relwinon Equal Earth – Political Wall Map (2018)

"Gulf of Mexico" is correctly labeled!

relwinon A statistical analysis of Rotten Tomatoes

IMDB also had a ratings inflation of about 0.5 points about the same time (anecdata), where movies over 5.5 were watchable back then. Now a 6.0+ demarcates a watchable movie. Or my threshold changed in the past 10 years or so...

relwinon Does geomagnetic activity affect blood pressure? [pdf]

Linked in https://www.spaceweather.com/

relwinon Learning basic electronics by building fireflies

Le Dominoux do something similar, triggered off each other, and uses a 555: https://youtu.be/PQOjkuJtBfM?si=8J2taYoicQEtJJJB

relwinon I Solved the Century-Old Mystery of a Miraculous Shipwreck Survivor

Oceanliner Designs has a great recreation of this accident: https://youtu.be/-9ZLZ8hiA5Y?si=ElcaIqEQhTHsElkM

...and of the last 10 minutes of this accident: https://youtu.be/N5CxSRsiUys?si=wS42xVXUb5Awb95U

relwinon US Streetlights Are Turning Purple

My LCD TV did the same thing with a few of the backlight LEDs. Makes a big purplish splotch on the screen. Replaced the backlight strips and took the lens off of one of them and was surprised how small the LED is -- tiny yellow 1.5mm squares.

relwinon A new class of materials that can passively harvest water from air

Tech Ingredients demonstrates how this works: "Revolutionary Air Conditioner!"

https://youtu.be/R_g4nT4a28U?si=MoRSi1mOyHiVbZUr

relwinon Microsoft Teams will soon block screen capture during meetings

Easily circumvented: Use two monitors, one positioned out of view. Use a teleprompter mirror with a camera behind the mirror. Use a video capture device, record on a separate computer. I'm sure there's sneakier ways to perform this...

relwinon Doctors Warn Accountants of Private-Equity Drain on Quality: You Could Be Next

Richard Gere was the lead in "Pretty Woman", not Robert Redford.

relwinon Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk

Most TVs have downward firing speakers which splat the audio all about -- bouncing around before entering your ears. I wonder if it's easy to detach the speaker and pull it out and face it forward just like my old Vizio did 15 years ago...

relwinon Port of Los Angeles says shipping volume will plummet 35% next week

Gamers Nexus essentially produced a 3-hr doc on how changing tariffs affect the US computer industry: "The Death of Affordable Computing | Tariffs Impact & Investigation" https://youtu.be/1W_mSOS1Qts?si=pBVt65SMqb1p-Zte . Best part is having a product manager show a spreadsheet of costs and margins and explain in real terms ($$$) what tariffs do to their business.

relwinon On loyalty to Your Employer

I help out at the local library part time. You meet a variety of people (some you know already) and can help them in some way. You're also exposed to a wide range of humanity from assisting kid's activities (fun!) to tolerating confused transients (less fun.)

relwinon The Rise and Fall of Toys 'R' Us (2018)

Worked there for several years in the 80's -- prime time Coleco Adam, VIC-20, TI-99, Atari 800, Vectrex, Star Wars action figures, Strawberry Shortcake dolls, Cabbage Patch Kids -- none of these I could afford making $3 an hour, although we made 1.5x on Sundays. Still have the orange vest with Geoffrey Giraffe on the back. Fun times!

relwinon There are two types of dishwasher people

Best advice from TC: verify the water is hot before starting the dishwasher. Especially if your water heater is located a ways from your kitchen and the pipes aren't well insulated.

relwinon Intel, TSMC tentatively agree to form chipmaking joint venture

they're both about the same price...

relwinon MLB says Yankees' new "torpedo bats" are legal and likely coming

You would increase bat speed (of your swing) by moving mass from the end towards your hands. Notice most regular bats have an "ice cream" scoop on the end, lightening it slightly.