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â–˛ A small lathe built in a Japanese prison camp (1949) (lathes.co.uk)
(www.lathes.co.uk)
In a daring display of ingenuity only surpassed by the boldness of online commenters pretending to understand Japanese linguistic nuances, a small lathe is constructed in a Japanese prison camp, 1949. The makeshift engineers, not satisfied with merely crafting survival tools, decide to bamboozle their captors with "high school project level" stealth by hanging a workshop sign, convincing the new guards of its ancient presence on the site. Online enthusiasts, meanwhile, argue over the authenticity of the kanji and the comparative literary merits of "King Rat" vs. "Shogun," as if their insights were as crucial to history as the artificial limbs presumably fashioned from the lathe. The audacity of POWs hiding their workshop in plain sight pales in comparison to the bravery of commenters viciously defending their favorite James Clavell novels.
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366 points by CommieBobDole
2024-04-28T18:16:26 |
84 comments
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| 2. |
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â–˛ I found one of my first programs (Java, 2011) on the Wayback Machine and it runs (github.com/khiner)
(github.com)
In a riveting saga of archaeological brilliance, a brave keyboard warrior unearths the ancient scrolls of Java - a publishing system so archaic, its users curse its existence daily. This marvel of obsolescence, crafted in the forbidden dialect of Perl 4, continues to haunt the production lines with the ferocity of a lingering curse, proving that some horrors are eternal. Commenters, in a display of nostalgia-fueled masochism, reminisce about their own contributions to the digital necropolis, sparking a symphony of "back in my day" and unintentionally highlighting the tech industry's unparalleled talent for celebrating inefficiency. As the tales of yore swirl about, one can't help but wonder if the real legacy of software development is not the code, but the collective delusion that this is, in fact, progress.
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58 points by khiner
2024-04-27T05:36:45 |
28 comments
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| 3. |
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â–˛ FreeBee: AT&T Unix PC emulator (philpem.me.uk)
(www.philpem.me.uk)
In a stunning display of technological necromancy, the internet has been graced with FreeBee, an emulator for the otherwise forgotten AT&T Unix PC, a machine so revered it's usually found housing spiders in your grandad's basement. The creator, undoubtedly yearning for the days when a megabyte was a thing of wonder, has bravely decoded the ancient runes to bring 3b1emu to the baying masses of tech hipsters and nostalgia addicts. Commenters, in their infinite wisdom, oscillated between waxing poetic about the *glory days* of command lines and bemoaning their lost youth — as though the act of emulating a computer that struggled to run a text editor could somehow reverse the merciless tide of time. It's the tech equivalent of insisting that movies were better when they were silent and in black and white, but with more beard stroking and fewer flapper dresses.
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20 points by luu
2024-04-29T00:28:37 |
0 comments
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| 4. |
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▲ 6502 – Guideline to Reverse Engineering (how to read die shots) [pdf] (reactivemicro.com)
(downloads.reactivemicro.com)
In an electrifying display of time-wasting, a daring soul deciphers the ancient runes of the 6502 microprocessor, painstakingly explaining how to read die shots as if anyone in the current millennium genuinely cares about silicon hieroglyphics. Hobbyists and professional procrastinators flock to the comments, brandishing their magnifying glasses and tales of yore, when 1kB of RAM was a luxury not a laugh. It's a festival of nostalgia and nerdy one-upmanship, where the most revered commenter is the one who can most convincingly pretend they'll apply this arcane knowledge to something other than party anecdotes. Truly, a heroic effort in digital archaeology, ensuring the saga of "Look, I made an LED blink using technology old enough to buy its own alcohol!" continues to enchant bored office workers everywhere.
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45 points by siraben
2024-04-28T22:49:17 |
0 comments
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| 5. |
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â–˛ Show HN: Dotenv, if it is a Unix utility (github.com/gyf304)
(github.com)
In a world where the reinvention of the wheel is the highest form of flattery, a brave soul has introduced "Dotenv, if it was a Unix utility," for those who find reading documentation too mainstream. The Hacker News crowd, ever ready to leap into the fray, quickly turns the comments into a battleground over *direnv* vs. *Dotenv*, a rivalry as heated as Vim vs. Emacs, but with less dignity. One commenter notes the revolutionary feature of Dotenv being "explicit," a concept apparently as novel as remembering your own name. Meanwhile, others rush to point out that their favorite shell already magics environment variables from thin air, leaving us to ponder why anyone does anything when a plugin probably exists to do it for you.
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119 points by gyf304
2024-04-28T20:25:46 |
44 comments
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| 6. |
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â–˛ The Essence of Compiling with Continuations (1993) [pdf] (acm.org)
(dl.acm.org)
In an exhilarating turn of events that nobody saw coming, the world is graced with *The Essence of Compiling with Continuations* from the distant era of 1993. Because, clearly, what the programming world lacks is another dense paper that approximately three people and a half-awake cat can fully appreciate. Meanwhile, the comment section erupts in an intellectual display of one-upmanship, as readers scramble to prove they've not only endured the original saga but also its thrilling sequel, *Compiling with Continuations, Continued*. Brace yourselves for an epic journey through compiler design, peppered with comments that serve as humblebrags about digesting these titanic tomes without breaking a sweat—or understanding them, but who's checking?
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48 points by swatson741
2024-04-28T22:30:55 |
2 comments
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| 7. |
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â–˛ The Ivy League and other elite private colleges are losing esteem (natesilver.net)
(www.natesilver.net)
In a world where the shimmer of Ivy League institutions is allegedly dimming faster than the gloss on a Harvard MBA’s LinkedIn profile, natesilver.net dives headfirst into the fray, discovering that, shockingly, people with too much money might still think these schools are worth the obscene tuition. The commenter brigade, armed with the insight only a 3AM Reddit binge can provide, rallies to the defense with pearls of wisdom like, “But the networking!” and “State school plebs just don’t get the *experience*.” Meanwhile, one brave soul suggests that, maybe, just maybe, throwing cash at Burning Man in hopes of brushing shoulders with the tech elite’s progeny could offer the same, if not better, ROI than a semester at Yale. Another enlightening moment has us ponder, amidst the din of privilege and Ivy League echo chambers, if perhaps the steep price of admission is really worth it for a lifetime subscription to Alumni Spam® and the chance to say, "Well, at Harvard..." at dinner parties.
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16 points by paulpauper
2024-04-29T03:21:48 |
29 comments
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| 8. |
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â–˛ Personal computing paves the way for personal library science (bramadams.dev)
(www.bramadams.dev)
In a thrilling episode of "When Nostalgia Meets Overthinking," a brave blogger valiantly tries to convince the internet that the future of hoarding digital snippets from our unremarkable lives is actually rooted in the ancient art of personal library science. Armed with a vision that's as clear as mud, commenters leap into the fray, injecting levels of pretension and overcomplication that could only be achieved by people who genuinely believe organizing their digital clutter is a task worthy of a Homeric epic. One visionary suggests leveraging LLM technology to manage personal libraries, not realizing the irony of needing AI to manage the book quotes they'll never look at again. Meanwhile, another dreams of creating a privacy-invading, life-logging behemoth that somehow makes browser history sexy, clearly misunderstanding the assignment. The collective delusion that organizing digital detritus is a noble quest rather than a procrastination technique confirms humanity's capacity for self-deception knows no bounds.
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81 points by _bramses
2024-04-28T21:57:00 |
6 comments
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| 9. |
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▲ Reentry – An Orbital Simulator (reentrygame.com)
(reentrygame.com)
In the latest chapter of our ongoing saga, "Developers vs. Common Sense," a plucky code-wrangler at Wilhelmsen Studios has decided that the best way to launch their orbital simulator into the stratosphere of gaming stardom is by anchoring it down with an EULA heavier than a Saturn V rocket. Prospective astronauts are thrilled to discover they can't share their joyride with a friend without running afoul of the law, and should any part of the game accidentally turn their PC into a paperweight, they're on the hook for damages. Meanwhile, the comment section orbits from excitement over VR capabilities to dissecting legal jargon that even a trained cosmonaut couldn't navigate. One small step for game development, one giant leap for legal absurdity.
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57 points by belter
2024-04-28T12:41:27 |
8 comments
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| 10. |
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â–˛ Speeding up C++ build times (figma.com)
(www.figma.com)
In a desperate bid to make C++ less of a pain to everyone waiting for it to compile, a hero emerges with sage advice: Just don't include headers in headers, people. Commenters, in a display of unparalleled originality, suggest everything from using precompiled headers, to unity builds, to simply bemoaning the state of compiler technology that doesn't magically make their spaghetti code compile instantaneously. Meanwhile, a veteran compiler whisperer reminiscences about the Good Ol' Days of hacking the lexer, inadvertently revealing that maybe, just maybe, the problem isn't C++ but the ancient arcane rituals programmers perform in its name. Oh, and someone discovered that tools exist to analyze compile times, prompting a collective gasp from an audience that apparently regards CMake as the peak of innovation.
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96 points by skilled
2024-04-27T09:34:57 |
69 comments
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