michrassena

What you're saying starting with Leica, and then "Nikon came along" is at the root of my comments about this article. There are more than 40 years of innovation between the ur-Leica in 1914 and the Nikon F. For a famous example, have a look at the movie "Rear Window" (1954), specifically the still shots of Jimmy Stewart's character using an Exakta with a very long telephoto lens. The SLR made long lenses practical in a compact camera. But Nikon wasn't there first.

The Nikon SLRs picked up a reputation after being used by professional photographers to cover the Vietnam war years after the release of the first Nikon F. Were they professional cameras before professionals started using them?

I have failed to mention the Asahi-Pentax, released in 1957, which had everything the Nikon had two years later. Why is the Nikon F the first professional 35mm camera? What made it special enough to obscure years of camera development?

Definitely the rangefinders were more compact, but they didn't have through-the-lens viewing. What I meant to point out was the progression of smaller-sized SLR bodies and film formats, the Nikon F being a later development on that path, not a first.

You're right in that the Graflex SLRs were first, and certainly intended for professionals. It was the compactness of the 35mm SLR which seemed revolutionary. But it reality it was evolutionary, there were several series of SLRs for 120 and 127 film, later there was the Contaflex, 35mm Exakta and others with eye-level finders. The Exakta series was exceptionally popular and the KMZ Start was by comparison obscure. The Nikon F was a very fine camera, but what makes it a professional camera where these others are not?

Rather than buy some all-in-one 3D-printed camera, if you live in the United States, Graflex press cameras are relatively cheap and abundant. Expect to pay $200 with a 135mm lens, maybe a little more with a few film holders.

These cameras don't do everything that a view camera like the Arca Swiss will do (few movements -- you can't twist them like a pretzel). But it's enough to dip your toes in and see if you even like the process before making a big investment.

(edit: just make sure you don't buy the 3.25" x 4.25" model, you'll have a really hard time finding film)

I believe "revision" is used in British English to mean reviewing or studying.

Yeah, there's definitely some Giorgio Moroder vibes in there.

I have sort of an affinity for the Argus C3 as the anti-Leica, as the best epitome of the American anti-elitist, everyman-ism.

Not too long ago easily, and today with judicious shopping, $100 could net you the camera and the 35mm, 50mm and 100mm lenses. With study and practice you could take good photos.

The Argus is nick-named the brick for good reason. The body is Bakelite, heavy and with sharp corners. The Leica is smooth, slender, sexy.

The Argus is the perfect camera for a beginner because it is crude but adequate. The Leica is a Veblen good, the Argus a workhorse; master it and you master photography.

This is probably what I find most frustrating about the way things are done now. I'd really like to get some idea of how these cloud services work. Every time I'm stopped by the concern that I'd rack up a huge bill and have to rely on the goodwill of a large corporation to have the debt forgiven.

I understand the role and the necessity for "the cloud", but it's a re-invention of the role of the mainframe. I hate seeing one of the most notable aspects of the microcomputer era go away which the ability of a motivated individual to gain computer skills using an individual's resources.

I think it more likely that Microsoft continues the ABI-hosting of Linux like it is currently with WSL. It doesn't make sense for them to use third-party kernel when the one they have works well enough and supports a long legacy of hardware and software, and it's something they can maintain control over.

If Microsoft feels competition from Linux, it makes more sense for them to allow hosting of Linux as a user-space application on their platform, rather than have a user migrate away.

I've never understood the criticism of the registry. The only times I've ever had an issue with it were when there were RAM or disk problems with the computer. On Windows there's nothing at all stopping developers of standard Windows applications from implementing their own config files and many do.

To add to the sibling comment, it is real. But it's more about the field of view of the lens and the depth of field. As pointed out the light doesn't know the area of the sensor. Depth of field is a matter of the distance from the camera to the subject, the aperture of the lens and the focal length of the lens. Larger formats allow you to stand closer to the subject while retaining a wider view than for a smaller format camera. Take the 80mm f2.8 lens on a Rolleiflex TLR. If you stand where you can frame a head and shoulders portrait, you're standing closer than you would for the same framing on a smaller format camera with an 80mm lens. You would have to stand back further, with the subject further away more is in focus. Have a look at the Brenizer effect for a digitally stitched equivalent of a larger sensor.

For a year or two Goodwill had an actual computer store full of random stuff. I bought a massive 22 inch CRT there for $50. SCSI drives, cables galore - there were lots of things that you wouldn't find on any other store shelf. eBay was a thing then too, but that store, along with the other thrift stores, was good for a thrifty find. Sometimes there was a profit to be made. Other times it was interesting junk. It was a bit of a low-grade thrill and cheap entertainment for the browser.

Are you also familiar with extension tubes? I think in both the reversed lens and extension tube the lens sits further from the film or sensor (focal plane). Somewhat counter-intuitively, at least for me, is when the lens is focused at infinity, it's at its closest point to the focal plane. Moving it further from the focal plane focuses closer.

I had the same experience with Ubuntu server a couple of weeks ago. It's true servers don't often come with wireless as the sole connection, but I still found it surprising. I had to download the packages manually on another machine and use a flash drive to walk them over to the computer with Ubuntu Server. With virtually everything distributed via the Internet these days, connectivity is of foremost importance. Everything else can follow from being connected.

WPA supplicant and the other required package was a couple of megabytes, and I couldn't find it on the partially full 4.7GB DVD I used for installation either. This isn't some exotic technology that isn't usually found in homes and businesses, it's everywhere.

I agree, there's no question that was the real value. I should point out that whatever made it fun is gone. Whatever I found compelling about design or history as exemplified in stamps, is available through the Internet and books. If I were to collect stamps again, it would be images of stamps, not the fragile artifacts themselves.

I've had a similar realization rather recently when cleaning out my parent's house after both their deaths. My father got me into stamp and coin collecting as a young child and it was an opportunity to bond and have something in common. For many years now, I haven't given the hobby much thought. Seeing the remnants on the old stamp collection brought back some memories. As I looked up values and got a better idea of what the collection might be worth, I could see clearly that even sheets of uncanceled stamps, which I used to prize, were near worthless. Some of that difference in perceived value is explained by the perceptions of a child versus that of an adult. But these stamps just hadn't appreciated much in value over many years, certainly not the degree anyone could call them a good investment.

But what was most striking to me, which I hadn't really thought about when I was young collecting these for entertainment, was just how particular and stultifying the grading systems for any collectible can be. I think the system, and how it interacts with money, is the culprit. There is this undercurrent of curation and preservation that goes along with collecting which leads to perfectly preserved toys in boxes. I appreciate things in themselves, and not just for their use. But I dislike the idea that a blemish, like a torn perforation on a sheet of stamps, can devastate the value of an object. For the objects I have several of, their use contributes to my enjoyment. If other people want to maintain museums, that's up to them.

I haven't seen this kind of bombastic rant applied to programming since the early days of Slashdot. Due credit to the author for putting their money where their mouth is and actually building a GUI operating system on this ISA.

The major inefficiency I see at the hardware level is the lower amount of work per instruction. This would lead to more data being fetched by the CPU to execute (though with one instruction, I suppose you only need the parameters). I'm sure a large cache would mitigate this problem somewhat.

I don't know if it's satire, but I can't take this article seriously. The command line, for me, isn't about doing things the hard way. Nor is is necessarily the easy way either. It's an alternate interface which has some strengths.

What is compelling about the command line is how it can be it's own ecosystem and it's possible to use most of the features of a computer within this constrained environment.

About five or six years ago I found an old CD of Windows ME. Having moved on from Windows 95 to NT, 2000 and so forth, I was curious about it. Needless to say, even a few years ago getting on the web with Windows ME out of the box was broken. I eventually found a version of Opera I think which was new enough that I was able to use the Internet. More recently I read of someone using a SOCKS proxy to make using the Internet more functional for an older machine.

Whatever the reasoning behind the ribbon, I still associate the era the ribbon was introduced with 16:9 displays becoming common, starting with laptops. In that case, users would have had less vertical screen real-estate for developers to work with. If you remember the old Office, the menus were nested fairly deeply and it became a bit of a maze to use some of the features.

I had been using computers for so long at that point that I still don't feel 100% comfortable with the ribbon. It's fine, I can do what I need to do to work the programs. It's just a bit fiddly in a way the standard menus weren't. I used to be able to invoke commands with keystrokes and arrow keys. Now there's are bunch of icons on different scales, which sometimes hide if the window isn't maximized.

I didn't realize at the time how fortunate I was to have a Tandy 1000HX when I was growing up. It was one of the only PCs I'm aware of which had DOS in ROM. Of course you were stuck with DOS 2.2 or something. But startup times were beyond almost every device I've used since, and certainly miles ahead of any PC.

Here's a quick demo from a similar Tandy model: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaSkda4XW3k

Thanks for sharing. I don't know much about poetry, but it seems clear from this example that it's made better by being read aloud.

It took me a while to figure out what is meant by Miller's pi. I assume the most recent image is the one you're referring to, and it does support wifi on the pi, is that right?

https://9p.io/sources/contrib/miller/

I don't see people going out of their way either. I know it's not explicitly stated, but there's a bit of a subtext of getting something for nothing in these articles about turning laptop screens into monitors. I can see the appeal of $50 + something you already own becomes a small high DPI monitor. For me personally, and for what I assume is the majority of the contributors to HN, I see the computers in front of me as a distributed system, each with different capabilities. To dumb it down to two or three screens attached to one computer is a downgrade from the cross-platform multi-screen environment I can build if each of these screens is attached to its own computer.

I think for most people this is the better option from a cost perspective. I'm nearly certain I've never purchased a new monitor, either CRT or LCD. I like the idea of repurposing laptop screens in concept, but I'm not sure what problem it's trying to solve.

I don't think I was consciously referencing Gumstix, but that must be where I first heard the term. I remember being interested in those at the time, but like you I thought they were too much.

I have three Raspberry Pi computers. The third, a Pi Zero came in the mail today. So I'm sold on the strong points of the system.

My point wasn't about the laptop having Windows, just that there was a "Windows tax" on the inexpensive laptop and it still offered a better price / performance value. I bought a laptop a couple of years ago for $250. It has a display, two kinds of USB ports, HDMI, Ethernet, a keyboard, trackpad and a battery. I'm sure I could run Linux on it if I needed to. It's not fast, but it's faster than any tricked out Raspberry Pi.

If we envision the Raspberry Pi as a learning tool, it's almost too good. It's really too powerful and too complex. As a general purpose computer it still falls short of what I consider a good use of my free time. Don't get me wrong, it's fantastic that there is such a wide market for add-ons for the Pi, for an aftermarket of small players with neat ideas. I have to pry myself away from the sites where they sell this stuff. But this project is just a little too expensive to make it worthwhile for me. I'd like to see a Pi+M2 kit for $100, which likely there will be in time.

That's really an incredible price for a computer with a color display. I enjoy and use Linux, but I think it's so versatile and general purpose my inclination is to put it online, run Firefox, play videos or whatever, and then it's magically just another PC. It's kind of like the old saw about every program expanding until it can do email. I'm starting to see the small devices, like esp32 inherit some of the aura of the old home computers which ran BASIC from ROM.

There's a price point here that makes sense, and it isn't $100 + the Pi + the M2 SSD. Anything more than this and you get into the low-end laptop price range with full x64 compatibility and a Windows license.