miek

I knew it was bad but I didn't know it was that bad. Wow, great article and video, thanks.

My aunt pulled a Windows XP computer out of storage recently because she's sick of Win 11. I'm excited to hear updates from my cousin (though unfortunately, I have to expect this experiment will fail)

This is absolutely hilarious, thank you for posting!!

As a kid, I owned Kings Quest 3 and 5 (side note, KQ5 was available on NES). Both are in the cruel category, and I never met anyone who came close to beating them. They were fun to play occasionally, but the most fun was had by showing to friends and letting them play (everyone was blown away).

Sierra operated a 1-900 tipline (cost $0.75 per minute or similar). I can't imagine anyone beating these games without those tips or tips from a magazine.

Form is token, token is emptiness.

I live in the NE and just picked up Lyme for the second time in 3 years. My child and several friends have had it in the past few years. The problem is that some tick species are unbelievably small and easy to miss. With winters not being as cold, they don't die off as much as they traditionally would. I'd hate to move, but if we keep getting infected, it's not out of the question.

Easily the best free background noise website, originally posted on HN in 2019.

This is insightful but entirely tangential to the heart of the quote you posted.

"... the Homeric poems easily clear the bar [of showing the perspectives of both victims and perpatrators]"

Homer's writing was very empathetic to Odysseus's victims. The movie sanitized the tragedy.

This quote is also easily misinterpreted: "But the representation of Odysseus as a reluctant warlord makes a nonsense of the movie’s imagined world."

A warlord from those times would not be reluctant. War was central to life, considered a duty of a leader in those times, but not in the sense of piracy as you put it. To grow and increase wealth was to protect your kingdom and increase odds of surviving not only war but downturns of all types.

That's such a shocking dispersion between telecom and dining out, I figured an LLM could help here. Gemini says "It's Spain"

Thank you for posting this! I will give it a shot.

My very large employer has always been glacially slow on modernization and tech adoption. It may now, oddly enough, become a competitive advantage.

PSA: You don't need a Costco membership to buy from Costco.com. You pay a surcharge of 5%. A membership is $60, so if you spend less than $1200/yr on their website, it's better not to buy one.

For serious work, I'm docked and using a large monitor, split keyboard, etc. Many people make concessions when on a laptop.

Light usage on low brightness? Nice to know it will last for a long flight.

I can't imagine the supply chain challenges inherent to startup laptop manufacturers. I think it's "go with what you have access to at reasonable prices, or forget about it. "

Ive always wished for a UHK-style trackball in a laptop: https://uhk.io/product/trackball

Excellence. I like everything, and the open warranty is nice: "Our 1-year limited warranty allows you to take your computer apart, replace parts, install an upgrade, and use any operating system and even your firmware, all without voiding the warranty."

I'd love to see more than 5 years of updates, but there is so much to love here, I can look past that!

You failed to understand the intent of my self-description. I don't care about whether I'm exceptional, unique, or how many people there are matching my description where anyone lives. I only care that my income isn't publicly known and that it is not easily derived from my appearance or behavior, because it would change the nature of my relationships. I know of people who've had relationship problems with salary disclosure via OpenTheBooks etc.

It's the lowest trim level of japanese minivan. Many hidden zipties threaded like stitches secure plastic panels and underbody guards.

I save more than most and spend more on things like gear and vacation. Nobody knows unless I allow it to be known. Among my peers (coworkers and friends from places I've lived), I easily live in the area w the most poverty. I prefer to keep my income level private. If it were known, it would likely change the nature of my relationships. Worst would be the nonproft where I occasionally help the same ~20 people, most in awful financial situations.

I am technically in the upper class based on income and place of residence. I drive an 11 year old vehicle, wear inexpensive clothes (often plain tees), eat out infrequently, etc. I unintentionally spend more in areas that tend not to be obvious to non-friends. I'd be upset if people could easily lookup my income.

I like the music, but for anyone just skimming and wondering why this is HN-worthy, it appears to be because the musician uses BeepBox and similar simple browser-based sequencers to make music. That is legitimately impressive.

While I refuse to work for the govt (my soul would rot), I have family and close friends that do, and the this story (w possibly exaggerated dialogue) is entirely believable.

Exactly. ~90% of Iran's crude went to China. The oil revenue was ~75% of Iran's budget. Iran has been a significant area of military development for China, serving somewhat as a forward base.

Originally from Unherd https://unherd.com/2026/02/why-your-kid-hates-learning-apps/...

My kids and the better teachers at their school also hate iReady for generally the same reasons stated in the post. I recommend this article [0], along w/ this related reddit thread [1] (there are countless others)

Worth mentioning: The maker of iReady, Curriculum Associates, is majority-owned by private equity (shocking).

[0] https://archive.ph/hsvbh

[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/AskTeachers/comments/1rdowny/iready...

Windows 11 has a "voice access" application that is amazing, seemingly hidden, and much better than the other built-in Win voice svcs. Voice Access is fully local, poorly documented, and the advanced settings menu is hidden.

*Quick guide to save you time:

-you can say "scroll to top/bottom", "click ok", "open Firefox", etc.

-it will always be typing when you talk unless it a) hears a command, b) you say "command mode", which will listen only for commands, or c) you mute:

-"mute" puts mic to sleep so you don't accidentally type when speaking ("unmute" to unmute)

-say "what can I say" to open advanced menu, allowing you to setup custom voice commands ("open projects folder", "open xyz website", etc.). Works well!

-full voice control of mouse is possible but a little slow. "Open grid" splits screen into a numbered 3x3 grid. You pick a number, it creates a new 3x3 grid in side the box you chose, and repeat until you can tell it to click.

The other thing I tried on Android is Futo voice input via F-droid + an app that turns you phone into a bluetooth keyboard (so as I spoke, it "typed" on the target device). The keyboard app is "Bluetooth Keyboard & Mouse"). It worked smoothly sometimes and other times not.

Minimal prompting yielding better results? I haven't found this to be the case at all.

beyond the normal stuff: a microscope, speks mini magnetic balls, 3d pen, japanese snacks.

Excellent work! Reminds me (though maybe inaccurately) of soundtracks from old CGI laser discs that were basically long demos.

The video linked in the top post is via HRIC's (Human Rights in China) youtube chan. I used to see them at 2600's HOPE conferences in NYC in the early 2000s. I figure some of you may have seen them there as well. Neat to see that they're still going strong.