tronium
Re:
on Friday June 05, 2026 @11:39AM (#48414017)
Why is the captcha on this site asking me to copy paste some giant command to my Terminal and hit enter?
Re:Marble Blast
on Tuesday June 24, 2025 @10:29AM (#44366657)
Macs released from 2002-2005 shipped with Marble Blast Gold on them.
Playing it is one of my earliest memories (I was 5 at the time), especially taking absolutely forever to figure out the two Escher's Maze levels.
Great game :)
Re:The Lost Worlds of Telnet (2019)
on Friday March 29, 2024 @11:50AM (#39865514)
I went through the applications folder on my mac and opened every single one up to figure out what they did. That's how I learned to navigate the file system and discovered the Terminal app.
Read a "Linux for Dummies" at the library for a few minutes, that got me some basic commands. I would spend hours using "cd" and "ls" to look at files, and then I would try to run them... 99% of the time nothing would happen. When I made it to /bin, I discovered a lot of things I could run.
You have to put yourself in the shoes of a 13 year old with no social media, no internet, friends he sees for a few hours 1-2x per week, and a fairly limitless amount of homework/chores to do. Whenever people weren't watching, I'd do anything to not be working on homework at the computer. That meant hundreds of hours to mess around.
Re:The Lost Worlds of Telnet (2019)
on Monday March 25, 2024 @10:45AM (#39816977)
Telehack changed my life, quite significantly.
I was homeschooled in a heavily locked down home. Internet was effectively not allowed, and when used, only whitelisted sites permitted. Everything was tracked.
Our home work/life was strenuous. Both parents holding advanced degrees and living on a hobby farm led to ~10h a day of homework, and another ~3-4h per day of taking care of the place. Very little room for socializing/free time, and even when there was, it would usually be filled with more homework/chores.
I was around 13 the time (this would be 2010), and I'd discovered the Terminal app on the Macs we used. Toying around with it when nobody was in the room had led to some discoveries. I'd spend hours looking through the file system, when I discovered "man" and started reading the manuals for them.
This led me down the rabbit hole of learning everything I could about the world inside the command prompt, and even opening up telnet ports on other macs throughout the house and connecting to them.
Eventually, (and unfortunately I cannot remember how), I discovered that I could connect to Telehack, a BBS with real other people on it, and our internet tracking software didn't discover it.
Whenever I had any longer than a minute alone, I'd connect and talk with the people there. I learned things about the old internet, got sent places I could FTP to download books (The Cuckoo's Egg being one of them), found friends and joined their "ssh server" (where we set up custom ways of more live-chat), and I learned basic programming in Bash, Python, Ruby, and other languages. I always had to disconnect (Apple+Q) as soon as I heard footsteps.
Now I'm double the age I was then (26) and have worked full-time as a software engineer for 4 years.
Telehack changed how I talked with people, learned, and my entire career path. Thx <3
Re:July 2023 was the hottest month on record
on Wednesday August 16, 2023 @02:19PM (#37151369)
Is there a reason the magnifying glass is always on the USA to make changes? I'm no climate expert, but last I checked China/India/the rest of SEA and the largest ships generate a large majority of non-natural carbon emissions. Wouldn't it be far more practical to make changes to the couple hundred of large ships running cruises/containers than changing the entire automotive industry?
Re:Being sued, in East Texas, for using the Google Play Store [video]
on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @12:32PM (#11863460)
Question: Is a lot of the backend supposed to be available through going directly to the wp-content? If you go to uniloc.com/wp-content/, there's backups, images, plugins, and even a .sql file...
Re:Being sued, in East Texas, for using the Google Play Store [video]
on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @12:19PM (#11863319)
Interestingly, the login button doesn't even work at uniloc.com, and if you look in the source, there's a ton of commented-out paragraphs that say stuff like "<h2>The spirit of innovation is alive and well at Uniloc.</h2>".
Ask HN: Why Are Nearly All Famous Male Singer Tenors?
I highly recommend this. I've been a heavy user for two weeks, and it's been working fantastic, I don't regret it.
Show HN: Plague – A completely knew way to spread information
Show HN: From Quartz OS to Quantum OS in 24 Hours?
Hey everyone, I just wanted to point out that the project behind making a Material Design-based operating system (http://quantum-os.github.io/) showed up in two posts over today and yesterday. I hope everyone notices that many news articles were written yesterday (e.g. http://9to5google.com/2014/11/21/quartz-os-linux-material-design/ ) on Quartz OS, but today I noticed that at the top of Hacker...
Ask HN: What Happened to the iPod Lineup?
For the past many years, Apple has released new iPods every other year... But this was the year for that to happen again, and for anyone who watched their Special Event, you know that didn't happen. Now, their iPod Shuffle and Classic haven't received upgrades for 4 years or over each, which I can understand (who wants to pay 50 bucks for 2 gigs of storage and no screen?), and I can understand...
Microsoft Is So Eager to Get Away from Windows 8, They Skipped to Windows 10
Re:My first app: Habit Streaks
on Thursday June 26, 2014 @04:40PM (#7951480)
It looks like a great idea, and a well designed app. Even as much as I want it, I'm afraid I can't justify spending $0.99 for a productivity app. Just my opinion, I would much rather have an occasional ad, with an in-app purchase to get rid of ads. Thereby, if I really loved and used the app, I would pay the price. Otherwise, I'm afraid not. Still a good looking app though!
Ask HN: What Is The Best Way To Discover New iPhone Apps?
I was wondering if there is a good service/app/website for discovering apps that are newly released, are on a deal, or are truly interesting and new in nature (like the sort of thing you would find on producthunt.com). Also, is there a way to find apps that are in an open or invited beta as well?
Ask HN: Is There A Steam-Like Service For Publishing Software?
I was thinking that Steam is the go-to multi-platform game selling/publishing service, and that every major platform has it's own software publishing store (e.g. Mac App Store, Ubuntu Software Center). Yet, is there a multi-platform service similar to Steam that allows you to publish software?
Ask HN: Why Had Skype Been Removed From The iOS App Store?
I just recently noticed there was an update from skype, with various new features added. Of course, I decided to download the update, so I tapped on the "update" button. However, a message pops up saying "This Item has been removed". I wondered if it was some sort of glitch (I changed from one Apple ID to another recently), so I decided to delete the app and re-download it. Surprisingly, it...
Ask HN: How Many Programming Languages Can iOS Apps Be Written In?
I know about Swift, O-C, C, C , and maybe even C# utilizing Unity for iOS, however, is it possible to write native iOS apps in even more languages? For instance, would there be a way to run Python or Ruby-based apps?
Ask HN: I Just Got A Used MacBook Pro. What To Install?
I just got a late 2011, 15-inch MacBook Pro from my older brother. I enjoy programming/developing a lot, so what apps should I get/install on the new system for developing and productivity?
Ask HN: What Should I Do With One Hour Of Free Time Per Day?
I have approximately 1 hour of free time scheduled in during my very busy summer, and I'm wondering what sort of productive/programming/money-making thing(s) I should spend my time on? For instance, is that enough time to say, develop an app fully in during the summer?
Re:Ask HN: (meta) How do you find real hacker news?
on Monday June 09, 2014 @08:54AM (#7868189)
I understand what you're looking for, and producthunt.com really matches you're description well. It's all about new startups.
Ask HN: Which Large Technology Company Has The Best Work Environment?
I've heard about the great areas that developers have at places like Facebook/Google, but I was wondering if there's people who know of even better ones, or if purportedly "good" work conditions at places aren't so great after all.
Ask HN: How Many People Are On The Internet At Any Given Time?
I have no idea if there's any possible way to gauge this, however, is it possible to get a rough estimate somehow?
Herenow: A Location-Based Mini Social Network
Re:Please tell us what features you'd like in news.ycombinator
on Friday June 06, 2014 @11:25AM (#7858432)
A separate "Show HN" area/link at the top. As it turns out many people would love this separate area, allowing more organization with "Show HN" posts no longer showing up in the "Ask HN" section.
Re:Ask HN: Will Hacker News Get An Official "Show HN" Section?
on Friday June 06, 2014 @09:16AM (#7857653)
I agree, especially that the "Ask HN" section is more valuable. However, the people who post "Show HN" posts will appear in Ask HN, making it cluttered. I'm essentially asking for a bit more organization.
Ask HN: Will Hacker News Get An Official "Show HN" Section?
I've just recently joined Hacker News and I think it is a great community, however there is one flaw. While browsing through the "Ask HN" section, I find nearing half of the entries to be "Show HN". I think there are so many people who are now "showing" things to HN, it deserves its own section up top. Does anyone else share this opinion?
Ask HN: What Is The Best Free IDE?
What is the best free IDE out there? Preferably ones that have multi-platform (especially Ubuntu) support, as well as multi-language support.
Ask HN: When Will Unity Web Player Come To Linux?
I've been an Ubuntu user for awhile now, and have noticed that significant steps have been taken to make Linux more gamer-friendly. Much content-creation software (e.g. Unity3D, and more recently Leadwerks Game Engine) has been brought to Ubuntu, and Steam has brought publishing to Ubuntu, but why not Unity Web Engine? Is it planned to be added in the future?