"I can't do this"
"Are you sure you aren't just having trouble?"
Similar concept imo.
Readit Newsb_e_n_t_o_n commented on Maybe you’re not trying usefulfictions.substack.c... · Posted by u/eatitraw
Deleted Comment
This makes me wanna go buy some stickers...
b_e_n_t_o_n commented on How I fell in love with Erlang boragonul.com/post/fallin... · Posted by u/asabil
If you like Erlang, I recommend reading Making Reliable Distributed Systems in the Presence of Software Errors by Joe Armstrong: https://erlang.org/download/armstrong_thesis_2003.pdf
His PhD thesis explains the thinking behind Erlang, especially how it handles failures, message passing, and concurrency. It was last updated in 2003, 22 years ago, time really flies!
Thank you for this, I'm unlikely to ever touch Erlang but looks like a fascinating read nonetheless.
The reality is Valve often does a better job at preservation than GoG. They know that a game released on Steam in 2009 that hasn't received any updates will never be updated to support things like modern controllers, which is why they wrote Steam Input.
Even then, there's so many other things that can go wrong with games. With DOS-era titles, DOSBox does a pretty fantastic job, as long as you use a fork with useful features like DOSBox-X. With Windows titles the possibilities to preserve games is almost endless thanks to hooking. I've spent the past few years compiling a personal archive of games to get them in a playable state. For me, this often involves support for modern controllers and _at least_ natively rendering at a higher resolution. Compatibility shims like dgVoodoo make it easy to bump up the rendering resolution of a game, while preserving aspect ratio for games that may only support 4:3.
Graphics are basically solved with projects like dgVoodoo, and there's numerous dinput -> xinput solutions out there, but that's rarely the whole picture. WinSock could really benefit from a wrapper that tunnels traffic over the internet (VPNs are really like using a steam roller to drive a nail). Registry API calls really could be redirected to read from config files instead of relying on the weird bastardization of WOW64 and the VirtualStore. Hell, even file access could be redirected so we can contain all of a game's files.
I'm actually working towards implementing the latter two as a way to preserve the functionality of installers and allow their reimplementation through something like PowerShell.
Not just Steam Input, they maintain SDL and strongly encourage everyone to dynamically link it in order to keep older games going.
b_e_n_t_o_n commented on How to maintain good vision amidst the myopia epidemic ssathe.substack.com/p/vis... · Posted by u/plun9
Counterpoint: I have spent 10hrs a day in front of screens since I graduated from college and my eyes are fine.
Definitely a genetic component as well!
b_e_n_t_o_n commented on How to maintain good vision amidst the myopia epidemic ssathe.substack.com/p/vis... · Posted by u/plun9
This article is written in a way that will propagate the myth that screens are bad for your eyes. Screens are not uniquely bad. The myopia epidemic is not caused by screens per se, but by a lack of time outdoors during childhood. What is it about time outdoors that prevents myopia? It is some combination of much brighter light, broader light spectrum, and objects in your peripheral vision being farther away. I don't think it is fully known yet which of these factors is most important, and I am skeptical of claims that one in particular is to blame over the others. But ultimately some combination of these factors provides the signal to your retina to stop growing once it reaches the right size, which prevents myopia.
As long as you get a few hours outdoors most days during childhood, it doesn't really matter (from the perspective of myopia prevention) if you spend your indoor time in front of a screen or not. And if you don't get that outdoor time, avoiding screens won't save you from myopia. Screens are not really relevant here except to the extent that they encourage children to spend less time outside. You could just as easily blame HVAC or other conveniences of modern homes that make it nicer to stay inside.
I don't think that's true at all. I had prefect vision up until I graduated college and started spending 10hr a day behind a screen - within two years I ended up getting glasses, although they are a mild prescription and I don't really need them other than driving at night. My friend was in a similar position and they also ended up getting almost the same prescription.
My eye doctor said it was my eyes optimizing for what they do the most. And that makes sense, I have no eye strain using a computer.
Interestingly my vision is better in the summer, and when I take holidays during the summer and spent time away from the computer my eyes essentially fix themselves. It takes a couple months back behind a screen to need my glasses again.
b_e_n_t_o_n commented on Show HN: Geofenced chat communities anyone can create vicinity.social/... · Posted by u/clarencehoward
The solution here is human moderation and accepting that it's not going to turn into a unicorn, but a sustainable medium-sized business is incredibly possible. There are existing examples of this.
Not AI moderation? I'd assume the more scalable option is having an LLM parse messages when reported.
b_e_n_t_o_n commented on Show HN: Geofenced chat communities anyone can create vicinity.social/... · Posted by u/clarencehoward
This is really great, the only problem for me is that there is nobody around me! I can see it working way better for stuff like universities though.
I wonder if there could be a variant for Drop which is world wide - imagine being able to join a chat in a foreign country (hopefully you speak the language!) and chat with the locals. I imagine moderation would be a big pain but I could see it being fun and sort of in the spirit of the old web.
1) A third party app simply cannot compete with Google Maps on coverage, accuracy and being up to date. Yes, there are APIs you can use to access this, but they're expensive and limited, which leads us to the second problem:
2) You can't make money off them. Nobody will pay to use your app (because there's so much free competition), and the monetization opportunities are very limited. It's too late in the flow to sell flights, you can't compete with Booking etc for hotel search, and big ticket attractions don't pay commissions for referrals. That leaves you with referrals for tours, but people who pay for tours are not the ones trying to DIY their trip planning in the first place.
So many products are like this - it sounds good on paper to consolidate a bunch of tasks in one place but it's not without costs and the benefit is just not very high.