I wanted a beautiful computer and couldn't find one, so I made my own
mythic.computer
mythic.computer
The design is problematic in that it promotes terrible posture. The screen angle is odd and doesn't appear to align with a user's field of vision. And it looks like a kit car that just isn't designed beautifully like a Fiero-Lambo.
EDIT: Ultima GTR is another example. An impressive vehicle except for the design.
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2F...
A "beautiful" computer could also be one that is invisible:
- Laser projection keyboard
- Motion tracking a-la Kinect
- VR a-la Oculus Pro
- Projector using a wall as a screen surface
There are many ways to challenge design. I don't see how this pushes the envelope of form and function to be noteworthy for design.
Modern computers may not exude bespoke craftsmanship, but they certainly are designed with an eye towards aesthetics.
What he’s done is very cool though. I would love to see a diversity of form factors for desktop machines beyond rectangles.
Laser projection keyboards are terrible. I wouldn't wish that thing on my worst enemy. Even a membrane keyboard of ZX Spectrum is better, or a glass touchscreen of an ATM.
I like that car a lot - was pretty close to getting one many years ago - its the exterior though its not ... pretty. Design underneath - simple and elegant.
I take issue with his characterization of japanese vs. western homes, though. Western homes are typically expected to be renovated over and over and last many many decades. Though the most modern ones may not last you 100, ask any buyer and they'll say they expect it to appreciate in value, be renovated and resold to someone else with no clear end date.
Most homes in japan depreciate and are torn down in 20-30 years. Buyers want new homes. https://www.archdaily.com/980830/built-to-not-last-the-japan...
yeah it doesn't jibe with a lot of folk's expectations...
American ad man transformed the image of a nation-sized race cult into a quaint provincial island of passive nobility.
(1) It's a very interesting idea, and I'm not 100% sure if I believe it, but it definitely doesn't sound unbelievable either.
(2) Can we do it again with North Korea? Maybe there's a path forward after all.
Right now, things are pretty bad. People are starving, there are human rights abuses, etc. If you want to change the course of a country, you have to remove the old order and (the part everyone forgets about far too easily) fill the void by somehow creating a new order that is stable and effective. This second part fails really often in history. I think it might be a huge challenge for North Korea if they ever get to that step.
Smaller apartments are even more ephemeral. The official service life for apartments according to the tax code[1] is only 20-40 years, depending on the construction material.
[0] https://hamatawa.com/lifespan/
[1] https://www.keisan.nta.go.jp/h30yokuaru/aoiroshinkoku/hitsuy...
I'd totally have torn down and replaced my house if that was something the homebuilding sector optimized for.
A beautiful computer, to me, is a saddle to ride on - neither too cheap to respect, nor too expensive to use. That is, it's something akin to a Framework laptop with some nice peripherals and desk accessories, or FPGA recreations of old hardware. The mechanical keyboard market gets this - and it deserves further equivalents in other aspects of I/O, in the circuit designs and software stack.
Who will make the first heirloom printer/scanner?
Some of the old laser printers in enterprises already border on heirlooms, having seen multiple companies...
People didn't go to the battlefield with some ridiculously ornate sword inlaid with gold and precious gems. That thing belonged to some rich nobleman and was an object of luxury. Though I imagine it could still cut if it came down to that, but that wasn't the main point of it, the point was showing how much money you had.
A sword in general wasn't what you battled with either, it's more of a backup weapon. But most people with a sword would have something very plain looking.
The average guy went to fight with something a lot more utilitarian looking, and simpler. They'd have spear consisting of a pointy metal tip on a wooden stick, because that's cheap and works great.
"Cheap" wasn't always the major factor. Some spears were cheap, but others were pretty darned expensive. In wars -- where trained people fought in groups and formations -- spears just worked better than swords.
The Greek phalanx, the Roman pilum, the lances of the medieval period, early modern pike-and-shot, etc. all showed the effectiveness of a long sharp, pointy stick.
Swords have many niches, like closed-quarters combat in cities, terrain (e.g. forest or mountain battles), etc., but the spear almost always dominated for mainstream war.
Many weapons had the ornaments detachable or had a replaceable hilt for war, especially when it comes to jewels. So that ornamental weapon could be used in both conditions, since they were really good weapons oftentimes too.
Something I disagree with entirely on an aesthetic level is the use of wood in this project. I do appreciate that humans have evolved to appreciate interacting with wood, but (perhaps because of my background in metalworking shops) I think humans are also capable of instinctively appreciating the nobility of metal.
One of the main reasons I buy Apple laptops is they’re made from metal and glass. I’m also a fan of typewriters with metal, glass, or ceramic keycaps. If Apple made a laptop with non-plastic keycaps that would be my ideal machine. Even better if they would use steel instead of aluminum - they did this with the Pro series of the iPhone 14 and I appreciate it almost daily. A lot of my Apple loyalty actually comes from the fact that they seem to respect metal as a material in their design process much more than other companies.
My ideal desktop machine would probably be made from the exact same materials as a lathe or milling machine, even down to the absurdly thick enamel or epoxy paint in Machine Green.
As at least some seem to exhibit, it is possible to criticise creativity without high-school level bullying.
Sometimes people read things like I've seen written here and get hit harder than anyone expects. If you've been close to the worst aftermath of such things you might think twice about who's reading what you wrote, and its impact.
Personally, what I didn't like about the article was the lack of photos of the final product - it looks really interesting, and I want to see more of it.
I hope the author, who seems based on username to likely also to be the OP, has a thicker skin than those here seeking to bruise it seem to think. They've no right to - and them assuming they do is the worst kind of entitlement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZRE7HIO3vk Preventing the Collapse of Civilization / Jonathan Blow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSRHeXYDLko The Thirty Million Line Problem / Casey Muratori
A bit up its own ass, sure. But it reflects an immense amount of effort and real passion, and I'd prefer 10 articles like this to yet another HN couch monkey holding forth with yet another tired middlebrow dismissal.
It's quite bothersome, and it often comes from people who supposedly pride themselves on being open-minded. As soon as you start writing in this way people will accuse you of 'trying to seem smarter than you are' and it seems to trigger some kind of persecution complex. It's like dude, maybe I just enjoy larping as a Victorian? Keep off my neck!
Edit: Actually, having read the comments, I think a bunch of them just looked at the picture.
Let's not also forget that various companies have tried to make computers beautiful, or at least less ugly. Who can forget the swoopy-curvy-nearly-art-deco computer cases of the early 2000's? The iMac G3, the Compaq Presario's, and the other ones that tried to round out the corners of the beige boxes that we were all so used to by then?
I feel this would also be suited by connecting the topic to trends in minimalism and maximalism. Also maybe a better comparison to the guns and swords (which were essentially accessories) would be to smartphones and the cases people use - it's a more similar comparison, although not relevant to the "building a computer" part.
I appreciate anyone experimenting with cool aesthetics, but this description ignores the enormous numbers of people building case mods, including many out of wood or unconventional materials.
The article leans heavily on traditionalist phrasings - "no one was lifting the most centrally important functional objects in our lives into the domain of beauty. The practice of these long-gone artisans had disappeared." And then tracing some etymology back to PIE and referring to that etymology as imparting "thousands of years of wisdom from the most successful cultures in history." onto a phrase is a statement that couldn't possibly be more Euro-centric (and linguistically ill-informed - almost every word has thousands of years of history).
"The process of 'men of strength, skill, and virtue using their hands to enforce their will on materials' should not be forgotten." feels really gross in a modern context - it's not too far off from complaining about "what happened to real men." as if the past was some glorious golden age (and has kind of imperialist vibes - why must men "enforce" their will on materials? What structure does "enforce" imply that "work with" does not?)
And then ending with a quote from The Aeneid is just... I don't know what the word is, pretentious? I'm a massive classics fan, and I've read/translated portions of the Aeneid (for school, not fun), but it seems like that work was only chosen because it's famous and old - not because this has anything to do with that myth.
The first is pretentious. Which the OP massively is, they seek to impose the impression that they're a learned and intelligent person. By appeal to classics, high art, and digressions of philosophy and ideological viewpoints. Which I can believe has place in a postmortem of a project like this; as it seems an incredibly personal project that is created in order to explore an ideological viewpoint. Therefore explaining the "why" and "how" of the project is necessary for fully appreciating the intention.
I will not use the secondary phrase, as it tends to distract conversations and lead to people interpreting it as an attack. So instead I'll talk about what I mean directly; and that the appeal to tradition and implication that modern society is a "decayed and degenerate" form of past "western" society leads to a rather unfortunate ideology.
It seems to advocate that modernity is a decayed version of a past civilization. And the obvious end point of this form of thought is in order to reverse this decay society must return to a "golden age. Which the author seems to imply is 18th and 19th Century Western Europe, due to the artifacts and architecture that is upheld; as well as the fascination with historical Japan (which was common in late 19th century Europe). And likewise, there is an implication of Übermenschian "imposing one's will on society" with that quote you placed in the middle paragraph. That the author places their device in opposition to all of modernity, and therefore superior due to it drawing from undiluted history rather than the decay of modern society. Likewise, the digression of going on Instagram, "despite my higher self choosing the latter," seems to imply an internal disgust of not being "strong enough" to overcome their weak will. Ultimately, placing themselves and their computer as a mythological hero against a degenerate world.
This viewpoint I find personally gross and distasteful. And instead a kind of intellectual and emotional honest perspective would have been much more interesting and easier to digest. One that proposes this project as an experiment to draw from the Arts and Craft movement, and craftsmanship computing as a tool for personal fulfillment. Being honest about the drawbacks and the difficulties of such a device; and presenting lessons that one can apply to their own projects. Encouraging others to reflect on craftsmanship as a viewpoint, and thinking how to apply it in unexpected places (like computing).
Meanwhile, god damn, I wish HN would get half this riled up when much nastier things come across the site than some trust fund kid writing about their woodworking project. I mean, wow, this is a mean discussion, and I get the criticism of the piece, and even agree with much of it, but yikes.
[EDIT] That last bit, incidentally, is not a jab at you, automatoney.
And what an anticlimactic article. The only ugly piece of craft on this page is his "computer". It's useless too, which is fine, art can be useless, but I have a hard time seeing the esthetic value. In the eye of the beholder, sure. But it feels like my 5-year old having painted something in pre-school and showing it to me. Sure he's proud. Sure I'll praise him. But is it art? Well..
¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twentieth_Anniversary_Macintos...
If one's going in the direction of ostentatiousness, I feel like it needs some ivory inlays to break up the monotony.
Just google "Steampunk Computer"
Personally, I'd like to make myself a Sandbender computer in the style of William Gibson's Idoru, but it would probably turn out much uglier than the sleek bulbous device which I imagine from the description:
>Chia looked down at her sandbenders. Turned off the red switch. "Coral," she said. "These are turquoise. The ones that look like ivory are the inside of a kind of nut. Renewable."
>"The rest is silver?"
>"Aluminum," Chia said. "They melt old cans they dig up on the beach, cast it in sand molds. These panels are micarta. That's linen with this resin in it."
Shame that PCBs are so rigid and rectangular, but you could probably fit a small SBC into a blob-like shell.
This "artisan computer" is just a case. Everything inside it was mass manufactured. It's veneer. It's wood and chrome switches to hide the truth.
There is room for compromise on this. You can create unique, beautiful, interesting computers with the fact that the components will be mostly.off the shelf parts. It's not going to be carved form wood and inlaid with gems. It's probably going to look like something out of Fallout.
I like minimalism, particularly the swiss school. The sense of peace and zen that comes from witnessing the beauty of a good minimalist work is exquisite on an entirely new level that garish and tacky ornamentation could never achieve.
Beauty might be in the eye of the beholder, but people should really keep to themselves about it. Because this guy's idea of 'beauty' is ugly AF to me
Some of those that stood out to me over the years and are among my favorites:
Wood-modded node 202: https://www.reddit.com/r/sffpc/comments/lq86bb/node_202_faux...
Fanless radiator cube: https://tp69.blog/2018/04/17/completely-silent-computer/
The connection machine: https://www.tamikothiel.com/cm/
He's SO TINY! HE'S JUST A LITTLE MAN!
No, it's not perfectly functional, ergonomic, or otherwise an ideal device, but it is beautiful.
I'm usually disappointed by these projects. I was not disappointed, for once.
Yeah... no comment.
If you think the problem with America isn't a class problem and you have FAANG-money, you need to rethink it.
All that said, it is a neat-ish project if not my aesthetic.
One other factor in the impression that Japanese tools are unusually good comes from the Japanese focus on excelling in woodworking tools. Woodworking is particularly easy to get into and pursue as a hobby, and hobbyists have the time and motivation to discuss their opinions of tools on the internet more often than other tool-users.
I opt for Japanese back kerf saws and micrometers.
Some people prefer kanna (pulling planes).
I'm so sorry that one of the most lucrative entry-level jobs in the world didn't live up to your liberal arts hipster standards. Did they not have enough free lattes and kombuchas for you to drink while you idly wandered the gardens contemplating the beauty and spontaneity of a spiderweb? /s
God forbid I become one of those people that judges the next generation for growing up in a different environment, but this is one of the most entitled articles I've seen in awhile. The Computer isn't beautiful enough? Give it another 2100 years and perhaps a couple gaudy and ceremonial ones might end up in a museum.
This person either came from more money than they deserve, or else they have no concept how the real world works. Maybe even both. Go spend more than 2 years doing an honest day's work then get back to me. I'd have a lot more respect for this sort of project when it is born out of an honest labor, not a pretentious child's boredom.
I like that framing. I agree with the sentiment you quoted, and I’ve been programming for over 30 years. I don’t think there’s much honor in most software. We don’t honor the user when we make software full of ads. We don’t honor the computer when our software is slow and lazy. And we don’t honor our craft when our software is buggy.
Yes, this poster is obviously inexperienced. But I respect that they spent a bunch of time and energy trying to honor what they see as missing - especially when they needed to pick up a new craft in the process. I respect the old people who did things like that when they were young. Whether they led somewhere or not.
We are paid well enough to do projects like this in our spare time. You’re right - that is a privilege. But I think it would be a loss for everyone if they don’t follow their impulse to do something with that.
Unfortunately, it looks like a great way to speed up your acquisition of carpal tunnel with how high up that keyboard is off the desk.
One of them my daughter is still using 5 years on...
The PC case modding/creating community has been around for decades, and has produced much nicer looking aesthetic-focused designs than this.
hah
hahahahahahahah
okay old timer
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For how long are they gonna keep on doing this???