Ooh great to see this pop up on the HN front page - I have great memories of working with Owen at UoM :)
Readit Newsdnisbet commented on Owen Le Blanc: creator of the first Linux distribution lwn.net/Articles/1017846/... · Posted by u/sohkamyung
dnisbet commented on The First King of Modern Computing every.to/the-crazy-ones/t... · Posted by u/dshipper
I love Gareth Edwards's writing!
dnisbet commented on The Commodore Penny Farthing Adventures amigalove.com/viewtopic.p... · Posted by u/erickhill
So wonderful. It's like a modern version of deciphering egyptian tablets.
dnisbet commented on Taking a $15 Casio F91W 5km underwater watchesofespionage.com/bl... · Posted by u/nnnnico
Was disappointed that he only brought a modified oil filled watch to 5km underwater. Would have been interesting if he’d have strapped a stock watch next to it so we could see when it would break.
Yep would have loved more on when the watch (unmodified) would actually break and also how you would fill it with oil? There can't be much space inside, at what point does the viscosity of the oil matter? how do you know you've got all the air out?
I didn't quite appreciate how much involvement the UK government had had in the Sinclair story - their prints are all over Acorn and the BBC Micro, but I didn't know that the NEB (UK National Enterprise Board) had taken a stake in Sinclair and bailed them out as much as they did.
For non-UK readers: the NEB was a UK agency that invested in companies the UK Gov considered useful or strategic. Part of the general Wilsonian agenda to forge the future in the "white heat of technology", as his phrase was back then. The original intent was to use the influence gained to direct their activity (all very socialist/central-planning in the 1960s, considerably more free-market later on). They funded Inmos and their Transputer, if anyone here remembers that. Ultimately they were wound up themselves and are now part of some UK healthcare(!) company, BTG plc.
Also: no discussion of Sinclair is complete without talking about the C5. The British could forgive Sir Clive his abysmal quality control, love his inventiveness (see: "boffin" in British English), but the C5 was roundly mocked and crushed his business. Shame really, but not too surprising once you consider how British roads were, and the climate.
I wonder how it would have faired these days with the popularity of eBikes and scooters now.
dnisbet commented on Wi-Fi 7 in 2025: Will this be the year? networkworld.com/article/... · Posted by u/ohjeez
Meanwhile a WiFi 7 access point costs 10x what a WiFi 6E one does. In my country we have fibre to the premises national broadband, but even its top speed is just 1 Gbps, so nobody has any motivation to upgrade their home wifi.
A unifi U7 Pro is $135 vs a U6 Pro for £120 (+VAT) in the UK, so if you're in the market for an AP not much stopping you going for WiFI 7.
Of course if your internet speed isn't close to 1Gbps you probably won't notice the difference, let alone if the APs connection sits on 1 Gig ethernet link...
dnisbet commented on It's Time to Admit It: Starship Is an Embarrassing Failure planetearthandbeyond.co/p... · Posted by u/keepit
Interesting points when viewed through this lens. Would love someone to fact check it.
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I went with the recommendation of Ken Rockwell who is both experienced and opinionated, and said to buy that one at the time. https://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/recommended-cameras.htm
He was right!
- small, especially if you put a 50mm prime lens on it (which costs ~ CAD 150 by the way)
- light
- full frame sensor (fundamentally better photo quality, but need bigger lenses to zoom)
- battery life is OK but not great. You can easily get through a full day of touristing with one spare battery though.