willtheperson (u/willtheperson)

willtheperson commented on Woman with rectifier and electric car (1912) nyheritage.contentdm.oclc... · Posted by u/1970-01-01

willtheperson · 2 years ago

Fully charged show did an episode on this car (or maybe just this era.) either way, I found it interesting to see the similarities in design to todays evs considering how early so many of these concepts were.

https://youtu.be/Xzk6acQO-KQ?si=zNIOA70iBS2_upWf

willtheperson commented on Real vs. fake AirPods with industrial CT lumafield.com/article/rea... · Posted by u/eucalyptuseye

SushiHippie · 2 years ago

It would be even more interesting for me if they'd compare these things against "real" competitors, i.e. in the same price range or the same quality, and not just "here is the XXX$ apple product vs this XX$ counterfeit". Otherwise these scans are really cool

willtheperson · 2 years ago

I would like to see comparisons for things in the same price category too. Especially for something like usb-c cables where it's hard to know if you are just paying for a brand or actual quality.

Most of the time when you buy Apple you are buying a better engineered product and maybe these scans are just proving that it's actually hard to match their quality for the price.

willtheperson commented on The midwit home dynomight.substack.com/p/... · Posted by u/stacktrust

rsync · 2 years ago

I searched the page for “Lutron” but was disappointed…

There is a line of lutron switches that are dead simple, no smarts, no hub … and a cute little remote that everyone in my family uses to “all off” the interior lights.

We have a no smart devices policy in the house and these make the cut …

EDIT: From my notes ... the specific product line is "maestro wireless" and I have MRF2-6CL switches paired with "pico" remotes. This is as opposed to the caseta line from Lutron which is quite a bit "smarter".

willtheperson · 2 years ago

Exact same thought here but with their Caseta lineup. It is one of the most easy to configure and reliable smart home things I have in the house.

I still use HA on a RPi4 for other things, typically via Zigbee, but the Casetas always work like you'd expect from a light switch while also enabling smart stuff like voice control or automations.

willtheperson commented on Show HN: I made CSS Pro, a re-imagined Devtools for web design csspro.com... · Posted by u/guivr

filmgirlcw · 2 years ago

This looks great and I’m not against charging for tools — I’m not even against subscriptions (even tho they often annoy me personally), but the value prop here doesn’t seem to match $30 a month (or $15 if you do annual).

And it isn’t because I’m cheap — I spend lots of money on lots of stuff — or that I don’t value indie development (same), but this pricing puts this utility in the same class as things like Figma, the Adobe Suite, a lot of CMSes (Webflow, Craft, etc.) for a utility that might be useful, but doesn’t strike me as $360 a year (or even $180 a year) useful.

The value prop just isn’t here for me, even tho I like what this is trying to do. At $5 a month/$50 a year, I think you’d get more traction and much better volume than what you can get at $30 a month/$180 a year prepaid.

And I have to say, when I see prices this high, I’m hesitant to prepay from unknown companies because I don’t have any expectation about how long it will be in business or continue to update the product, because I don’t see how you get sustainable development at this price point. Figma and Adobe can charge what they charge because they’ve earned it and because those are tools where you feel like you get your money’s worth.

$30 a month for something that will improve but not fundamentally change the way I do web dev, I’m sorry but no.

willtheperson · 2 years ago

Couldn't agree more. I have no problem paying for tools, especially when they will save me time.

That said, don't I need to know how to use devtools (chrome/ff/safari) to do my job in the first place? It feels like this product is trying to inject itself into a process that isn't super refined but works fine.

The real problem is the dependency it creates. If I only know how to do frontend work with handheld UI controls, then I have to use them and am locked into this product. It doesn't promote me learning the css rules or understanding how to actually fix things, so then I'm back to the devtools and why am I using this?

willtheperson commented on When will global warming hit the landmark 1.5 ºC limit? nature.com/articles/d4158... · Posted by u/Brajeshwar

jeffbee · 2 years ago

It's not a "limit" of course. It's like asking when, if I put the car in gear and stand on the gas, will I go crashing through the back wall of the garage? You can figure it out but it doesn't really matter.

Recent research suggests that if we stop emitting CO2 right now, the earth could continue warming to a peak of +10ºC over centuries. https://theclimatebrink.substack.com/p/warming-in-the-pipeli...

willtheperson · 2 years ago

A bit pessimistic though right? Carbon capture through both natural and engineered methods is a thing that could have more investment/incentive if that were the case which counters the idea that just because CO2 hangs around a long time doesn't mean there's nothing to be done about it.

Obviously, it'd be great to limit the production of more CO2 going forward but I don't believe that everyone will collectively just give up.

willtheperson commented on Chopper Commando Revisited blog.loadzero.com/blog/ch... · Posted by u/loadzero

loadzero · 5 years ago

Author here.

I used to play this 2D flick-screen CGA DOS helicopter game as a kid, and I remember enjoying the simple presentation combined with what would now be called sandbox elements.

I thought it was really cool that you could eject from the helicopter and still run around and do things as a little sprite dude, and then get back in and fly off.

When I saw that the source was available, and had a poke around, I decided it wouldn't take (too) much effort to do a modern port, and make the game natively playable on today's machines.

It was a fun little project, certainly easier than my previous game restoration (Space Invaders in C), and it was interesting to explore the creation of a young Mark Currie, cranking out a bedroom coded game in Turbo Pascal.

So, here it is, a modern port of "Chopper Commando" from early 90s Turbo Pascal on DOS, to C and SDL running on modern unix (linux/mac) and the web.

Enjoy.

willtheperson · 5 years ago

Woah, someone else who played this game!

I spent many hours on my PC Jr trying to climb the ranks.

Thanks for making this!

willtheperson commented on Dropbox Professional blogs.dropbox.com/dropbox... · Posted by u/psychotik

digitalengineer · 8 years ago

A showcase portfolio? Is that still a problem in need of fixing? I can't imagine myself using this and I've been using dropbox for ages and I work for myself in the creative industry.

willtheperson · 8 years ago

You're on Hacker News and your name is "digitalengineer." You're probably not their target customer :)

I have a bunch of friends in the creative space who use dropbox exclusively to share their work. It's a portfolio for them that's easier to update and control what the prospective client sees. Some of them also have a website portfolio (typically a squarespace setup) but they take so much time to build and maintain with fresh work that they end up sending both a link to the website and dropbox for the latest work.

I totally see why Dropbox is doing this, I just wonder if there are enough creatives who use it this way to make them any substantial gains or if the cool kids convinced them this was the most important thing to do.

willtheperson commented on React-map-gl – React components for Mapbox GL JS uber.github.io/react-map-... · Posted by u/polskibus

willtheperson · 8 years ago

Somewhat related, anyone have a good list of drop-in React components organized in categories? I'm thinking of something like iOS Cookies for React Components.

willtheperson commented on Amazon engineer will let strangers manage his $50,000 stock portfolio 'forever' cnbc.com/2017/07/06/amazo... · Posted by u/lxm

merkaloid · 8 years ago

He's probably not just any engineer because if you actually check the stream it looks like it is viral marketing for "robinhood.com"

willtheperson · 8 years ago

This is probably it. I personally signed up for Robinhood based on this project. I'm already interested in stock trading though so it wasn't that big of a commitment from me but they do have a nice App and signup process compared to other financial trading outfits I've used.

willtheperson commented on Carbon monoxide poisoning from 3D laser printer may have killed Berkeley couple sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com... · Posted by u/mbgaxyz

droopyEyelids · 9 years ago

Ventilation, eye protection, hearing protection at all times when appropriate. Rig a fume hood.

willtheperson · 9 years ago

I think the question Steezy was getting at is, yes, those things are great. What kind of ventilation? Can I 3d print in the garage if the door is open? How much air is required to make it safe?

Is there a simple way to lookup a material and make sure you're using the right safety precautions? Most materials seems to carry the "will cause cancer, sometimes, maybe, always" label.

Is there a modern "maker" safety course, covering things like 3d printing, laser cutting, glues and paints, electronics, etc. that I can follow?