Hacker News Reader

https://archive.org/details/arcade_galgame

Space, Alt and Ctr to hyperspace, thrust and fire. You're welcome.

nannaon The Life and Times of Maxis, Part 1: SimEverything

Was the game Ökolopoly an influence on him? It was a 'cybernetic environment game (kybernetik unweltspiel)' from West Germany where players run a country and strive to hold off economic, social and ecological collapse. It was released as a board game (beautiful, if I may so so, owning a copy) in the early 1980s and then the true, apparently fully realised DOS videogame followed later. It always seemed like a simple Sim City to me.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96kolopoly

https://archive.org/details/oekolopoly_202509

Further question, how much did he read about cyberneticş beyond Gaia Theory? Was he influenced by Norbert Wiener?

nannaon 'Hairdryer used to trick weather sensor' to win Polymarket bet

Why is Polymarket legal? I just don't understand.

nannaon Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

This is something I wanted to get into after vising Alhambra, which really is the "mirror of paradise" that it purported to be. You say that the complex designs are done by hand, but given how mathematical they are it left me wondering if there is a thriving scene of computer-generated patterns?

nannaon Magnus Carlsen Wins the Freestyle (Chess960) World Championship

Wait why are there separate mens and womens prizes?

nannaon CIA to Sunset the World Factbook

Bit confused, what's this to do with the CIA World Factbook?

nannaon How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

I remember that one of Stockholm's train line is also endearingly tiny too?

nannaon How London cracked mobile phone coverage on the Underground

Looks like TFL issued a whopping three fines in total last year...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdx4lje9jpjo

nannaon How London cracked mobile phone coverage on the Underground

Because silence is a common good, like clean air. It's everyone's. When people fill it with their noise they effectively privatize it for the duration. When they shout on speakerphone or play their music or blare sound from their apps it's especially selfish.

nannaon Replit founder Amjad Masad isn’t afraid of Silicon Valley

Imagine if they were dealing with the US police...

nannaon Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

Same for bicycle lights too, and street lights.

nannaon Ruby and Its Neighbors: Smalltalk

Anyone working with a Smalltalk implementation?

nannaon Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

This was a really helpful answer, thank you. I'm not sure why you've been downvoted.

nannaon Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

I've switched to a CAT S22 Android builder's flip phone, and my usage has dropped significantly. The screen is so small and fiddly that it makes me feel sick using it for extended periods - exactly what you want from an adictive substance like a smart phone. Having to physically open it to use it, and then waiting 5 seconds before it lights up, creates a psychic barrier to just 'quickly checking for updates'. The camera is like an early 2000s cheap digicam - just about good enough for documenting things but it hardly beckons you to want to photograph your life constantly for social media. It's a PITA to use and that's why it's perfect for everyday use.

nannaon Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

> sharing biometric data through pre-loaded health and wellness apps.

I've been thinking about finally getting a smartwatch to keep tabs on my sleep and encourage me to do more exercise, like jogging for a certain amount of time or something. Suggestions for privacy respecting, ideally FOSS solutions?

nannaon State of the Bird 2024/25

Please. Fix. Search. Please. Fix. Search.

nannaon MrBeast Failed to Disclose Ads and Improperly Collected Children's Data

Evil is a very strong word.

nannaon All clickwheel iPod games have now been preserved for posterity

Any chance to install these games on Rockbox?

nannaon BBC witnesses settlers attack on Palestinian farm in West Bank

Given that all other problems in the world have now been resolved, it is fair for every news item relating to Palestine to reach the HN front page.

nannaon Robot hand could harvest blackberries better than humans

And then what for all the people who did them?

nannaon 200k Flemish drivers can turn traffic lights green

> Having drivers reach for their phone when they're approaching traffic lights - common pedestrian crossing points - is categorically moronic.

The article says that the they just ned a relevant app running on their phone when they're approaching an relevant traffic light, and there's no mention that users need to actively do anything.

Also please have a read through the HN guidelines regarding your punchline "is categorically moronic."

> When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

nannaon Why Elixir? Common misconceptions

But wouldn't I be right in thinking that the Elixir ecosystem isn't interoperable from it? I guess what I'm hoping for is a Lisp Flavoured Elixir?

nannaon Why Elixir? Common misconceptions

Am I the only person who is put off by Elixir by the lack of S-expression syntax?

I decided to learn Clojure for my next language.

nannaon Org tutorials

I think a hurdle one has to make to adopt Emacs is to stop expecting things to work as you might have come to expect them from other programmes. Sometimes this is for historical reasons, but the main reason is that Emacs just has it's own logic, which may seem counterintuitive at first but often has very good reasons behind it. Try to persist past through that final 10% and you may find there are reasons why they're as they are. And when you need help use the channels out there...

nannaon Org tutorials

> As of 2025-02, there is no formal Org-mode syntax definition.

Confusingly, you seem to have taken this from Karl Voit's website, without referencing having done so?

https://karl-voit.at/2017/09/23/orgmode-as-markup-only/

And then taken the sentence out of context. His point is that even though there isn't a formal Org-mode syntax definition, there is an informal one in that all of the Org mode syntax elements are part of the Emacs Org-mode implementation. The latest Org-mode implementation /is/ the spec. This is in comparison with Markdown where there are numerous syntax definitions and no implementation which includes all elements and everything is a mess.

nannaon JOVE – Jonathan’s Own Version of Emacs

Thank you for sharing this Don. I think we can all be certain that Lynn Conway will be remembered for a long time into the future. Perhaps Jonathan Payne was jealous and resentful of that.

nannaon JOVE – Jonathan’s Own Version of Emacs

Hadn't hear of mg. Thanks!

nannaon JOVE – Jonathan’s Own Version of Emacs

Found this intro to Jove helpful:

https://opensource.com/article/17/1/jove-lightweight-alterna...

Think I might actually use it when I need to make a quick edit to something in the terminal, instead of `nano` or `emacs -nw`

nannaon Happy 20th Birthday, Django

Not even with a different stack?

nannaon Postcard is now open source

You're right, i should have...