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akoster commented on AOL closes its dial up internet service   ispreview.co.uk/index.php... · Posted by u/simonjgreen
MalbertKerman · 7 months ago
How fitting that it ends with September, whether that's September 30th, 2025 or September 11718th, 1993.
akoster · 7 months ago
akoster commented on Yet another insignificant programming notes   chua.bitbucket.io... · Posted by u/__LINE__
kerblang · 9 months ago
Holy cow this is kinda spiffy and nicely done. Potentially significant...
akoster · 9 months ago
Sometimes I’ll search .edu or .ac.* domains for tutorials, code, old physics and math graphics and Java applets. Often these sites are narrow in scope, but every once in a while, you come across a gem like this! I wonder if there’s a directory of high-quality college and university professor websites , though a web search for now does the trick (at least while it’s still public and not restricted to current students or faculty).
akoster commented on The History and Legacy of Visual Basic   retool.com/visual-basic... · Posted by u/ibobev
mikewarot · 10 months ago
It could, if the documentation were usable. 8(
akoster · 10 months ago
Thankfully their forums are quite active with folks sharing lots of sample code [0]. I was able to get some assistance with getting their SQLite library to work. Also the wiki has quite a few tutorials - when I get some more time I hope to check out this pas2js Electron tutorial. That would be something quite useful to go from a WYSIWYG RAD IDE design to a working JavaScript web app running in a browser.

[0] https://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php [1] https://wiki.freepascal.org/lazarus_pas2js_integration

akoster commented on The History and Legacy of Visual Basic   retool.com/visual-basic... · Posted by u/ibobev
int_19h · 10 months ago
.NET with Windows Forms - either C# or VB.NET, depending on your taste - is very similar in experience, and is still a fully supported stack today even in the most recent .NET versions (so you get e.g. high-DPI support, dark mode etc) with new features added regularly: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/desktop/winforms/wh...
akoster · 10 months ago
Thanks for sharing! I'm glad Microsoft is still providing active development for WinForms and on recent .NET Core versions and not just .NET Framework, although the later seems to still be supported indefinitely (for now?). [0]

[0] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/microso...

akoster commented on The History and Legacy of Visual Basic   retool.com/visual-basic... · Posted by u/ibobev
account-5 · 10 months ago
I feel the same about MS Access databases, for databases obviously. Provided you kept within its limitations, and actually used relational models, it was really quick at setting up a database program. I never used VB6 but the workflow sounds similar.
akoster · 10 months ago
I agree! I still sometimes use LibreOffice Base for quick prototyping [0] or Microsoft Access if I am on Windows. It uses HSQLDB by default but you can connect to several external JDBC, ODBC and ADO compatible databases, though I often use DBeaver for that purpose. [1]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice_Base

[1] https://dbeaver.io/

akoster commented on NYC home prices rise 10% in early 2025   qns.com/2025/04/home-pric... · Posted by u/geox
akoster · 10 months ago
Interesting given NYC's population still hasn't recovered from its early 2020 high [0], rent and home prices keep rising (and fast). There are many reasons discussed here: pied-a-terre's, foreign investors, lack of new construction and inventory at affordable levels contributing to low vacancy [1] but still hard to fathom at a naive supply and demand level, shouldn't ~300k less people and several new residential buildings finishing construction in the past few years contribute to lower not higher prices? [2]

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/13/nyregion/nyc-population-2...

[1] https://www.nyc.gov/site/hpd/news/007-24/new-york-city-s-vac...

[2] https://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/dcp/assets/files/pdf/data-t... (page 3)

akoster commented on NYC home prices rise 10% in early 2025   qns.com/2025/04/home-pric... · Posted by u/geox
euroderf · 10 months ago
Does New Jersey get no love ?
akoster · 10 months ago
Housing is also pricey in NJ adjacent to NYC in cities like Jersey City and Hoboken, but its a ferry / PATH train away from Manhattan.
akoster commented on SheepShaver is an open source PowerPC Apple Macintosh emulator   emaculation.com/doku.php/... · Posted by u/janandonly
brucehoult · a year ago
I use it to this day to run the "Best Books" accounting software (cut down MYOB) I bought in 1991 for the single-digit number of invoices I issue in a year. That's M68k software. Accounting doesn't change. The only thing I've had to do is change the GST rate from 12.5% to 15% in 2010.

I use print to PostScript for invoices and reports then copy them to the host machine (which these days can be anything) and PDF or print them.

In theory Basilisk II would do the job, but SheepShaver runs PowerPC software too, and a modern CPU emulating PowerPC emulating 68k is just fine.

I should try "II in a Mac" (from 1985) inside that.

akoster · a year ago
I think I found MYOB but not Best Books here: https://www.macintoshrepository.org/2021-m-y-o-b-v5-0-1 Is the interface similar for Best Books? and also in color?
akoster commented on Ask HN: Where do you browse and chat outside of here?    · Posted by u/oceanhaiyang
rubenvanwyk · a year ago
Didn't know about Tildes, seems interesting.
akoster · a year ago
They are part of the "smolnet" if I am using that terminology correctly (including the Gemini protocol https://geminiprotocol.net/). Other sites I will browse or lurk include, Lemmy (join-lemmy.org) Reddit alternative, Mastodon, BlueSky, SDF.org 's IRC, Matrix, some Telegram communities, lobste.rs, HN and ideally IRL at 2600 meetings https://www.2600.com/meetings, conferences, Linux User Groups (LUGs) etc. I still browse Reddit, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram occasionally. For 1:1 communication I most often use SMS texting/iMessage, regular phone calls, FaceTime video, and Facebook Messenger to talk to other American friends, family, etc. To talk with technical people and folks abroad, I'll use email, Telegram, Viber, Skype, Signal, WhatsApp, and rarely Instagram Messenger, all of which I need to get better at staying on top of.
akoster commented on Ask HN: Do you still use DVD?    · Posted by u/vdfs
akoster · 2 years ago
I still put DVD and/or Blu-ray drives in all PCs I personally build for myself and my family. This is due to the fact that we transferred dozens of old captured 16 mm and 8 mm film reels, scanned photo prints, negatives and slides as well as Video8, Hi8, Digital8 and VHS videocassettes to M-DISC DVD and some to Blu-ray. While I uploaded most of this content to Flickr and Google Photos while they were offering 1TB and unlimited storage (at reduced quality) respectfully, after both services curtailed their offerings, I realize the value in having a local, offline, physical copy of these precious memories. Thankfully my local computer store Micro Center still sells a few PC cases with 5.25 inch bays as well as optical media and disk drives.

Additionally, I find it useful for live booting GNU/Linux distributions such as MX Linux Workbench [0] or WinPE environments such as Hiren's Boot CD [1] without dedicating a flash drive for the purpose, which I may accidentally overwrite. And at the office, I have encountered several broken USB ports and while optical disk drive bays are often quite fragile, they tend to be in working order since they are often underutilized.

[0] https://mxlinux.org/blog/mx-21-1-respin-workbench-released/

[1] http://hirensbootcd.org/

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