This a link to an article that takes place in the Fallout Universe. I hope that the year in brackets shows well enough that posting this is just a joke in connection with current events.
Readit Newsthastings commented on American Invasion of Greenland (2029) falloutfanfic.fandom.com/... · Posted by u/thastings
Before buying a smartphone I tried to find an inexpensive model that supports open source OS, but I couldn't. What open OS support is ether expensive Pixels, or outdated models.
The solution, I think, would be a regulation that forbids manufacturers of any chip or device CPU from making obstacles to reprogramming the device (using fuses, digital signatures, encryption etc). So if you buy a device with CPU and writable memory, you should be able to load your own program and manufacturer may not use technical measures to stop you. The goal of regulation would be preventing of creating digital waste, vendor locks and allow reusing the hardware.
Of course, features like theft prevention won't work, so the user should be able to waive this right.
Droidian[0] currently supports a relatively new Motorola phone[1]. A Snapdragon 8+ gen 1 device, so the performance isn't bad, and most features seem to work, including Waydroid. I've noticed incoming phone calls causing a glitch where the call can't be answered, but other than that, daily drivable. Just like a PinePhone, only more powerful. In my region it can be had for ~€250 brand new.
[0] https://droidian.org/ [1] https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPhone-by-Motorola-...
thastings commented on Ask HN: Do your eyes bug you even though your prescription is "correct"? · Posted by u/jbornhorst
There's an interesting new treatment, Miebo in the US, Evotears in other areas. It's basically a tear film reinforcer (pure PFAS!)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfluorohexyloctane
It's really eerie how moist it makes your eyes feel after even a few uses. I have definite reservations about instilling megadoses of PFAS directly into my eyes but there's no doubt that it is amazingly effective.
Thanks for this! Haven't heard of this agent yet, but it really seems promising.
thastings commented on Ask HN: Do your eyes bug you even though your prescription is "correct"? · Posted by u/jbornhorst
Since it hasn't been mentioned yet, I must add this: when we work and focus, especially when using digital screens, we tend to blink a lot less frequently. If tear composition is not good or there are other exacerbating factors (e.g. an AC with high flow), the break-up of the tear film can easily lead to eyestrain and even blurry vision.
In such situations, preservative-free artificial tear drops 3-5x a day can lead to pretty good results. In some cases, one needs to try a few, each for a week or two, before finding the correct one.
Pro tip: any eye drop can cause discomfort for a few seconds, especially if the dry eye symptoms have persisted for a long time.
Further reading: https://eyewiki.org/Dry_Eye_Syndrome
thastings commented on The 20 year old PSP can now connect to WPA2 WiFi Networks wololo.net/2025/02/14/the... · Posted by u/zdw
I had a PSP and also loved it, but I don’t feel like it was that mind blowing.
Perhaps you came to the PSP late in its cycle.
I happened to be in Tokyo when the PSP was released. I was on a subway and saw a girl playing Lumines and it completely blew my mind.
As soon as I was done with my daytime obligations, I went straight to Yodobashi Camera and bought one. When I got back to the U.S., showing it to people always blew their minds, also.
Until then, the notion of "handheld gaming" was mostly the early GameBoy series, and maybe Lynx. The PSP was a whole different category.
I got a PSP-3000 during high school, and loved it. In addition to playing native and PS1 games, it was a very powerful media player as well. Much more versatile than most phones at the time, especially with its nice, though not very hi-res, screen.
The PSP wasn't very common in our area, but I managed to get some friends to get one, and we had a lot of fun with multiplayer too.
thastings commented on The 20 year old PSP can now connect to WPA2 WiFi Networks wololo.net/2025/02/14/the... · Posted by u/zdw
I loved my PSP and the homebrew scene during that era. The biggest area where the PSP felt like it was lacking was with multiplayer games. I remember playing some fighting and puzzle games with friends on the PSP, but the most fun wireless multiplayer experiences were on the DS; and primarily it was Mario Kart DS. The real killer feature was being able to play with friends without requiring them to own the game; I don't think PSP games were capable of this.
There were some games that had a feature called game sharing. This let you send a smaller version of the game, essentially a demo, to another PSP over wifi, and this let you at least try the experience without owning the game. Burnout Legends definitely did this, but I also remember it on some NFS and sports titles. I just found a list of games that did this.[0]
Also, there were some good shooters as well, like Medal of Honor or Battlefront, with pretty nice maps, especially for a handheld. And for racing games, Gran Turismo was incredible with almost all GT5 tracks and 900+ cars present.
[0] https://www.lifewire.com/psp-games-with-gameshare-2792549
thastings commented on The 20 year old PSP can now connect to WPA2 WiFi Networks wololo.net/2025/02/14/the... · Posted by u/zdw
I can tell you how surprised I was to find out that index triangles were slower than triangle lists on the PSP due to (I conjecture) a broken vertex cache in the PSP graphics hardware (guessing it was rushed out with this bug). The huge challenge of clipping triangles on the PSP - they had to be clipped on the CPU. I loved working on the PSP and wished we could have done more PSP projects.
Despite the limitations, many games pulled off amazing graphics. Many in the thread compare it to the PS2, but that's unfair. Doing better than PS1 graphics in a handheld was quite an accomplishment back then.
Interestingly, the quality of the assets in these games didn't have a chance to show on the 480x272 screen of the PSP. However, many games, including Bloodlines, Gran Turismo, both GTA's, just to name a few, look very close to PS2 when upscaled. So the work was very much put into these titles, and it shows, even after two decades.
thastings commented on The 20 year old PSP can now connect to WPA2 WiFi Networks wololo.net/2025/02/14/the... · Posted by u/zdw
Bloodlines was not a diet port. It was an original. Given what we had to do and the timeframe we had (9 months) we had to go from zero to finished game and it was a terrific challenge. We had no original source code so everything you see, including the mobile version of parkour, all the game systems, complete pipeline from Maya had to be designed and built as well as getting a game finished. I truly believe the project was a AAA endeavour but with a AA budget and timeframe. Assassin's Creed, the original game has a much larger scope but also a much larger team and a four year development time. Bloodlines if only given an additional months to a year could have been outstanding. I'm still very proud of the accomplishment of our team given our constraints.
I'm impressed! Bloodlines was the only AC I've ever finished completely, and even though the story was odd at some points, I found the gameplay and the graphics to be spot on for the platform. Very enjoyable for teenager me back then, and still holds up quite well. Doing this in 9 months... Just wow.
thastings commented on The 20 year old PSP can now connect to WPA2 WiFi Networks wololo.net/2025/02/14/the... · Posted by u/zdw
I feel a bit hurt. ;-)
I worked on a bunch of PSP titles, my personal favourite was Bloodlines - are you not entertained?
Tell us more!
I still beleieve that the PSP is a killer platform, those games are beautiful with 60 fps mods at high resolutions. I never really stopped playing them, just moved them to my phone.