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Comment by hettygreen | Hacker News Reader

The big thing here is the concept of a device doing ONE thing and doing it well. Is there a name for that?

I've been rocking an iPod Video for like 15 years and it is still my go-to music device. All the stereos in my office, house and shop have a 3.5mm cable hanging from them.

I've also been using rockbox so I can play FLAC files. The ipod is on it's 4th battery at this point and I've also upgraded to SD cards from the internal HD about 6 years ago. The screen is not working in a few places now, but the thing keeps working and I'd be very sad if it ever stopped because I'm not sure what would replace it.

Whenever I'm programming and I feel like I've been very productive, it's often the times I'm using this ipod with headphones - instead of a music playing piece of software. Maybe it's because I'm less inclined to open up the software and spend time choosing an album/podcast/etc.

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> The big thing here is the concept of a device doing ONE thing and doing it well. Is there a name for that?

I don't think so, but it was the first item in the Unix philosophy in 1978.

"Make each program do one thing well. To do a new job, build afresh rather than complicate old programs by adding new "features"."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy

2022’s development philosophy should be “Try to do everything, and do it poorly. If what you’re trying to do already exists, make no effort to learn it and rewrite it into the latest monolith.” ;)

> Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.

Zawinski's Law of Software Envelopment is hardly a 2022 notion ;)

Yes! I think the modern version is have a messaging system.

More like "try to use as many moving parts and layers and fragmentation as possible to accomplish a single task, turn the Linux desktop into a distributed system with messaging back and forth, and distributed state that can go wrong".

Yes, I wonder how a systemd-inspired iPod would work. It would surely have multiple webservers, even if it had no network connection.

I reckon it's: Do one thing well. Microtransactions.

I’m super interested in getting a Free Write Traveller for creative writing but it’s hard to justify the price.

There’s an interesting interview with the Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami where the interviewer was asking why he doesn’t just come to Hollywood, because he wouldn’t have to deal with you know censorship and artistic training wheels or what have you. And Kiarostamisaid that he felt more creative with fewer options and preferred to stay in Iran. He went on to make one movie outside of Iran but I really can relate to what he said. Our phones and computers, really our culture, has been infected with distractions which are pulling us away from what we should be doing towards bad faith actors with junk for sale.

I use the alphasmart neo2. Extremely simple and cheap. Batteries last months and months.

I may end up with a derivative of the FWT one day but for now there’s no need at all.

I actually have an alpha smart neo. For a few months I really liked it which is why I’m considering a free write. Unfortunately, one day the batteries popped out of it and I lost a few weeks of writing, because the memory requires steady power or it wipes clean. I’ve put duct tape on the back of it now to stop that from happening again. But the experience kind of ruined the neo for me.

Does yours not have a battery cover?

Swap the backup battery too, and you won't have data loss! You're welcome! :- )

> Our phones and computers, really our culture, has been infected with distractions which are pulling us away from what we should be doing towards bad faith actors with junk for sale.

It’s like game developers chasing graphic over game mechanics or simplicity.

I’m currently at Disney World and feel like was an executive decision to make all new rides a technical marvel. There aren’t as many rides as there should be (2 hour wait times) and they are broken down half the day.

I don’t feel like Walt Disney or Steve Jobs chased technical achievement at the expense of simplicity and experience.

Almost like a hardware extension of the Single Responsibility Principle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-responsibility_principl...

People are usually surprised when they see me carrying a portable audio player (for music and podcasts) during runs.

Smartphones are too clumsy (not to mention pricey) to be carried in your hand or pocket while running, and phone bands do not complement sweaty arms very well. Plus, I’d rather be unavailable by phone while working out anyway.

A cheap MP3 player with an SD card has served me well for a few years now. So there is definitely something to be said for devices that do one thing well.

Given that the processing power of something like airpods is more than that of original ipods, I wonder how feasible it would be to make a pair of wireless headphones that just play the music loaded onto them, similarly to the 2009 ipod shuffle (the one with no buttons except power). It would be nice to not have to carry anything on a run.

I find that my Apple Watch is a fantastic compromise. It has cellular data to stream music, a built in arm strap and it doubles as my run tracker

Already exist. Samsung made the Gear IconX with 4GB built in. I don't think they make them anymore though. Sony also makes the waterproof in ear Walkman, not airpods style but more traditional wireless headphones.

> The big thing here is the concept of a device doing ONE thing and doing it well. Is there a name for that?

Best of breed? Dedicated hardware? The model that always comes to mind for me is related to audio hardware, specifically with respect to guitar pedals. There are multi-fx pedals out there - one device that has a collection of distortions, overdrives, modulations, reverbs, delays, etc. etc., and for most people it's fine

But as you begin to specialize, you tend to build out a signal chain of dedicated pedals. I don't want the phaser algorithm on my Zoom multiFX pedal, I want a Moog 12-stage Phaser. The 3 echo algorithms on that multiFX get the job done in a pinch, but given the opportunity, I'll use a Deluxe Memory Man for the sound I prefer.

Having had that framework in my head, I've never had to consider the phraseology for that one device, beyond 'dedicated' - in this case, a dedicated pedal. Or dedicated, specialized hardware.

> The big thing here is the concept of a device doing ONE thing and doing it well. Is there a name for that?

Totally! I love single purpose + honest technology. It's not secretly sending my data off somewhere to infer crap information about my life, it's just doing what it says on the tin

> The ipod is on it's 4th battery at this point and I've also upgraded to SD cards from the internal HD about 6 years ago. The screen is not working in a few places now, but the thing keeps working and I'd be very sad if it ever stopped because I'm not sure what would replace it.

The screen isn't that difficult to swap out either! It'll end up like the ship of theseus haha

> doing ONE thing and doing it well. Is there a name for that?

Unitasker

Unitastic!

>Is there a name for that?

Dedicated hardware?

Potentially, "fixed function hardware" although not technically correct when used with programmable digital computers like an iPod.

> The big thing here is the concept of a device doing ONE thing and doing it well. Is there a name for that?

In Alton Browns world of kitchen gadgets, thats a "unitasker"[0], though they may be missing the "do it well" component, and perhaps targetting the wrong layer of abstraction. For example, a good chefs knife cuts, but nobody is going to tell you its not a versatile tool because the utilty of cutting applies to so much kitchen work. The Rollie on the other hand...

[0] https://lifehacker.com/watch-alton-brown-demonstrate-why-uni...

Appliance.

I've started searching for something similar, and it looks like such devices are now referred to as DAPs (digital audio players), and the market is very small, mostly served by devices targeting audiophiles. I'm considering getting a used iPod touch (2019) and then locking it down to just the music player app(s) using parental controls.

By the time I could afford an iPod, they had discontinued the classic, so I got the Sony A50.

Doesn't feel as nostalgic but does the job. Also acts as a Bluetooth receiver and USB DAC

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