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matthewnon Chuwi Minibook X

I got one of these a couple of years ago, put Linux on it, and was pleased as punch: https://www.mahnamahna.net/blog/linux-chuwi-minibook-x/

It's actually the keyboard that surprises me the most: I think it's really good (and I consider myself a bit of a keyboard snob). I've never had any issue like the author describes, of having to strike keys just-so.

matthewnon Ask HN: Share your personal website

https://www.mahnamahna.net/

matthewnon Mark Zuckerberg freezes AI hiring amid bubble fears

For more on this -- and how Sears had everything it needed (and more) to be what Amazon became -- see this comment from a 2007 MetaFilter thread: https://www.metafilter.com/62394/The-Record-Industrys-Declin...

matthewnon Bill Atkinson has died

In an alternate timeline, HyperCard was not allowed to wither and die, but instead continued to mature, embraced the web, and inspired an entire genre of software-creating software. In this timeline, people shape their computing experiences as easily as one might sculpt a piece of clay, creating personal apps that make perfect sense to them and fit like a glove; computing devices actually become (for everyone, not just programmers) the "bicycle for the mind" that Steve Jobs spoke of. I think this is the timeline that Atkinson envisioned, and I wish I lived in it. We've lost a true visionary. Memory eternal!

matthewnon The story, as best I can remember, of the origin of Mosaic and Netscape [video]

Any link to there from here will only get you JWZ's take on HN.

matthewnon HyperCard Simulator

I would say that HTML/Javascript is not a "tool" in the same sense that HyperCard was.

HyperCard's real strength was that it allowed mere users (not programmers) to create their own apps (or "stacks", in the HyperCard parlance) through pointing and clicking, plus an English-like scripting language (HyperTalk).

We have largely abandoned the idea that users should be able to create their own apps, so there is no popular, modern analogue to HyperCard, though some people keep trying. For instance, LiveCode is a commercial product that is directly inspired by HyperCard. And CardStock is an open source HyperCard clone that swaps out something English-like for Python as the underlying scripting language.

https://livecode.com/

https://github.com/benjie-git/CardStock

matthewnon A Road to Common Lisp (2018)

If you install the django-extensions package and use runserver_plus instead of runserver, when you hit an exception you get a live REPL in your browser where you can poke around and inspect at will. It's not CL-level power, but it's mighty useful.

matthewnon We've Forgotten How to Use Computers

Odd title for a piece that is mostly an elegy for the mouse.

matthewnon About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

Bandcamp had 118 employees total. That doesn't smell bloated to me.

(Source: https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/bandcamp-layoffs-oakland...)

matthewnon So let’s talk about this Wayland thing

I use Espanso for this; it has worked well on Wayland for some time.

matthewnon Bram Moolenaar has died

Terribly sad news. Thank you, Bram, for the finest software tool I've ever wielded.

matthewnon Why Lisp Syntax Works

Similar argument from this lengthy but enjoyable essay: https://stopa.io/post/265

matthewnon CardStock

Huge HyperCard fan here, this is a very happy discovery indeed! It captures the spirit of HyperCard -- stacks, images/sounds, etc. -- but the icing on the cake is that Python replaces HyperTalk and the entire Python ecosystem is at your disposal. That's incredible. I'm salivating.

The built-in Reference Guide is fantastic, too. Will definitely be keeping an eye on this project.

matthewnon Kottke.org is 25 years old today

Would LOVE to see memepool resurrected!

matthewnon Ask HN: How to Learn Django in 2023?

As others have said, Will Vincent's books are excellent. I also like Mastering Django a great deal; it is extremely comprehensive: https://masteringdjango.com/

matthewnon AutoHotKey V2 (Breaking Upgrade)

https://github.com/espanso/espanso/discussions/1178

matthewnon Thunderbird 102

Thunderbird has been more than "an email client" for so long that people made the exact same kind of complaint when RSS support was added.

Thunderbird is a messaging/communications client, and way more people will benefit from Matrix support than would ever benefit from Maildir support.

Further, my understanding from the Thunderbird team's comms is that they are very much in control of their own destiny. I don't get the sense that Mozilla has much say in Thunderbird's roadmap (or even cares) at this point.

matthewnon Thunderbird 102

There is a new global font size setting in this release:

https://twitter.com/mozthunderbird/status/153930732204379750...

If you want to target the message list specifically, I'm pretty certain that can be done with a userChrome.css tweak.

matthewnon SomaFM

I have very fond memories of Music for Hackers ("soundscapes for compromising a remote host"). Have never found anything that fills that particular niche the same way.

matthewnon Ask HN: Share your personal site

Love the design!

matthewnon Ask HN: Share your personal site

https://www.mahnamahna.net/

Originally built as a blosxom-powered blog in 2003, the site grew with a motley collection of perl and php scripts, as sites did back then. Then as social media came to prominence, I drifted away from my own site, as so many others did.

I spent much of the early pandemic rebuilding from the ground up with Django and Wagtail. Migrated the old content without breaking old links. Added some front-end niceties without breaking anything for non-JS visitors. Recently reached feature parity with the original site. Now I just need to figure out what I want to blog about. :)

matthewnon The Framework is the most exciting laptop I've used

> I actually had to order some 3D printed one from some Japanese guy

Thank you for mentioning this alternative! Just found him on Etsy. I have always preferred the old-style concave nibs for TrackPoints over the new convex ones. This will be a serious improvement for my Thinkpad.

matthewnon The Alameda-Weehawken Burrito Tunnel (2007)

Hello, kindred spirit. I grew up in San Diego but have lived in the Bay for almost 30 years. I still can't enjoy a Mission-style burrito. You've articulated the key reasons why.

The answer to your question is, you can't get what you're looking for in SF, but if you're willing to drive for nearly an hour, you will find the burrito of your dreams at Adalberto's in Fairfield.

matthewnon I’m now in charge of Audacity [video]

In the Gnome 2.x days, you could (in GTK apps) assign a custom keystroke to any item in any pull-down menu by hovering over the item and then pressing the keystroke you wanted to assign. It was the most simple, intuitive way to customize app keyboard shortcuts I've ever seen, and I still miss it.

matthewnon Local-First Software:You Own Your Data, in Spite of the Cloud (2019) [pdf]

Glad to hear someone say this! I'm itching to make a selfhosted Workflowy clone and have pretty much zeroed in on PouchDB/CouchDB to make the syncing easy. Would love to know if you found any pitfalls while working with the pair.

matthewnon What’s New in Thunderbird 78

I was stuck on Thunderbird 60 for a long while for the exact same reason. I'm now using tbkeys on Thunderbird 68; it works great. https://github.com/willsALMANJ/tbkeys

matthewnon Running decade-old games in containers

I'm glad someone else remembers this forgotten gem. Every couple of years or so, I try to get Obsidian running again. No luck so far. :(

matthewnon Ask HN: What is the best way to learn Lisp in 2020?

If you'd like to start with a light, fun introduction, "Lists and Lists" is an old interactive fiction game from the illustrious Andrew Plotkin, in which a genie gives you puzzles to solve using Scheme.

It's a delightful introduction to Lisp-y thinking. You can play online, or download and play offline: https://ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=zj3ie12ewi1mrj1t

matthewnon Rockbox – Free music player firmware

Still running Rockbox on an iPod Video for tunes in a car that doesn't speak Bluetooth but has an aux jack. Considering an upgrade, having recently discovered there are new devices that can run Rockbox, including this one: https://fiio.com/m3k

Hats off to the Rockbox developers. This project has been so solid for so long, I kinda take it for granted.

matthewnon Dan Bunten and M.U.L.E. (2013)

A Commodore 64 only had 2 joystick ports, so the C64 version of M.U.L.E. uses the keyboard for players 3 and 4 on screens where all players are active, but accepts input from any joystick on screens where only one player is active -- allowing players to pass the sticks around to take their "turns".

The Atari version of the game supports four joysticks as did the underlying hardware. This is the version you want to play in emulation if you have 4 players. Great fun!