rolfus · HackerTrans

há 20 diasdiscuss

Thanks for linking that comment! I wasn't familiar with the term, but it perfectly describes the pattern that manifests in every single HN thread about certain topics. The Grok announcement thread that is on the main page today is another perfect example.

rolfus

há 22 diasdiscuss

Yeah, it's amazing how fast the transition has been. Many gas stations are or have already reallocated space from gas pumps to charging stations, and new stations are designed to accommodate EV's. Take a look at this station as an example - it's already five years old at this point: https://tinyurl.com/4y8u36m2

I should have been more accurate in my "majority" claim; it refers to EV's being the most common type of car compared to gas or diesel. Source: https://tinyurl.com/ycke45dy

rolfus

há 24 diasdiscuss

We had much of the same skepticism and anti-EV propaganda here in Norway a decade ago, when EV's started becoming popular. The usual claims was that the batteries would have to be replaced every five years, the cars would stop working in the winters, the batteries are fire hazards, the power grid won't support everyone buying EV's, etc.. All of which turned out to not be true.

Today the market share for EV's is 98% and they account for the majority of the total number of cars on the road! The people who bough 1st. generation EV's as a number two car a decade ago chose EV's as their main car before long. My own vehicles are 7 and 12 years old and holding up well, despite the 12 year old having inferior battery chemistry compared to modern cars.

Change isn't always easy or smooth, but this one is inevitable.

rolfus

há 26 diasdiscuss

There's a documentary about that, in the form of the game 'Motherload'

https://www.crazygames.com/game/motherload

rolfus

há 5 mesesdiscuss

I source most of my components from aliexpress. It's been a while, but these are the components I used:

Microcontroller: FireBeetle 2 ESP32

Display: Generic 10" e-Paper display with driver board included

Timekeeping: DS3231 Real Time Clock Module

Temperature and humidity: BME280 module

Charging: Type-C USB 2S Li-ion BMS

That, along with a breadboard, two 18650 batteries, some resistors and capacitors make up the hardware. I modelled and 3D printed the case. I used the PlatformIO plugin (available for VSCode-based IDEs) for programming and transferring code to the esp32.

Weather API: https://openweathermap.org

For actual firmware I'd take a look at matada's github for inspiration (see the other reply in this thread). My own code isn't of the photogenic sort.

rolfus

há 5 mesesdiscuss

The sun is greeting you! I drew these freehand, kind of quickly. And while I personally like the style and think it's a good fit for us, I did intend to make several sets of weather icons. At the very least I need to make the sun symbols adapt to the seasons - we don't really have a full sun during the darkest months of the year where I live.

rolfus

há 5 mesesdiscuss

Yes, I think so. Electronics prototyping is so accessible now, and there's such a deluge of inspirational projects out there to learn from. YouTube is a gold mine, and I'll leave links to a few channels I follow, below.

If you get an Arduino or Esp32 microcontroller (maybe in one of those starter-kits with various sensors), some breadboards, assorted jumper-cables and a kit with electronic components (resistors, caps) you'll be good to go. A device like a wall clock most likely won't require soldering, since it won't be jostled or moved around much.

Ben Eater: https://www.youtube.com/@BenEater/videos

Paul McWhorter: https://www.youtube.com/@paulmcwhorter/videos

Huy Vector: https://www.youtube.com/@huyvector/videos

I'd also take a look at the other DIY projects that people have linked in this discussion.

rolfus

há 5 mesesdiscuss

Thanks! I intentionaly made the weather symbols somewhat "childlike" to give it some personality and also make it obvious that it's a custom device, and not some off the shelf gadget. Works well as a conversation starter!

rolfus

há 5 mesesdiscuss

I made this thing [1] for us, it uses a cheap 10" e-paper display off aliexpress, an ESP32 and a couple of I2C sensors. The case is 3D-printed. It runs on two 18650 batteries, and all in all it cost less than 100$. The OpenWeather API is free for personal use.

[1] https://mjones-foui.no/img/wall_clock_1.png

rolfus

há 6 mesesdiscuss

I used to play GTA on my 133 mhz Pentium, running windows 95. I distinctly remember the game running smooth and at a reasonably high resolution! My memory must have betrayed me because playing this now is hard to stomach. I just can't get over the jaggy motion of the hardlocked framerate (especially while driving at high speeds).

rolfus

há 7 mesesdiscuss

Agreed. I have a bunch of little command-line apps that I use 0.3 to 3 times a year* and I'm never going to memorize the commands or syntax for those. I'll be happy to remember the names of these tools, so I can actually find them on my own computer.

* - Just a few days ago I used ImageMagick for the first time in at least three years. I downloaded it just to find that I already had it installed.

rolfus

há 7 mesesdiscuss

I get what you're saying - I personally scratch that itch by doing woodworking and hobby electronics; I just love doing it and the end product is often just a means to an end; to craft something and enjoying the process of it.

But programming doesn't give me that same feeling, and honestly; the scope of doing and learning everything needed to make my projects without LLM's are just way out of reach. Learning these things would not be relevant to my career or my other hobbies. So, for me I use LLM's the way a person who's not into carpentry might buy the services of a carpenter, despite the possibility of them doing the project themselves after investing tons of time into learning how.

rolfus

há 7 mesesdiscuss

This resonates with me. I'm not a programmer, and before LLM's I could only make basic hello world apps and simple websites. Now I am developing my own versions of various apps that I've used but maybe have limitations that I've become frustrated with. For example, I didn't like how the fitness tracker Strava didn't allow me to customize audio announcements, so now I have my own (and in my own eyes) better version of Strava that I use instead. It's absolutely blowing my mind that this is possible and available today, and not some tech-optimists wet dream about an impossible future.

rolfus

há 8 mesesdiscuss

Audiologist and hearing aid user here. It's a great time to be looking for new hearing aids! Speech in noise capabilities have improved massively this generation, and I can personally attest to this. For me, the most important performance metric is speech perception in noisy / challenging listening situations. For you there might be other considerations, so keep that in mind.

With that said, my recommendation are the new Phonak Infinio Sphere devices with with their "Spheric speech in noise" feature. It's a complete game changer in terms of speech perception in loud noise. Activating this program in a noisy situation feels like turning off the background noise, leaving only (nearby) voices.

The caveat is that to achieve this they use a separate, power-hungry processor and compensate by increasing the battery size (making the whole hearing aid bigger than other, similar hearing aids). The upside to this is that if you're _not_ using the spherical program, you'll have really good battery life. I use mine for exactly 16 hours a day and if I'm careful I can make them last almost three full days. The charger is much better than the previous ones; they use magnets to keep the devices in place instead of relying on plastic friction.

The Oticon Intent and new Starkey AI aids are also great. You should always try more than one model before you make a decision.

Happy to answer any questions!

rolfus

há 12 mesesdiscuss

I'm one of those excited people! We haven't lost anything with this new technology, only gained.

The way I see it, most people aren't creative. And the people who are creatives are mostly creating for the love of it. Most books that are published are read exclusively by the friends and family of the author. Most musicians, most stand-up comedians, most artist get to show off their works for small groups of people and make no money doing so. But they do it anyway. I draw terrible portraits, make little inventions and sometimes I build something for the home, knowing full well that I do these things for my own enjoyment and whatever ego boost I get from showing these things off to people I know.

I'm doing a marathon later and I've been working my ass off for the prospect of crossing the finishing line as number four thousand and something, and I'll do it again next year.

rolfus

ano passadodiscuss

In cold climates the humidity can drop to uncomfortable levels during the winter (sub 30% where I live). Especially when combined with wood fired stoves.

rolfus

ano passadodiscuss

This brings me back to my N64 Perfect Dark fansite webmaster-days. I wonder if there's a similar article detailing another cultural internet phenomenon; the tech-forum signatures.

For example; I remember the heyday of the MadOnion forums (the makers of 3D Mark, before they changed their name to Futuremark) and their users having these massive information-dense signature banners showcasing their PC-specs, 3D-mark scores, OC-info, etc.) with and without animations. Even at the time I remember thinking some of them were over the top and distracting, but people really put their hearts into making those things and it took some skill to make a really good one.

rolfus

ano passadodiscuss

I do this!

About two years ago I wanted to replay a game demo I remembered from an old (early 00') computer magazine demo disc. The actual game was nowhere to be found anywhere on the internet, but I did locate the developer and sent him an email.

Turns out the game was never actually released - its only public existence was as a demo game alongside a bunch of other games and software. He still had the installer for the game, which was small enough to fit as an attachment in the reply he gave.

He didn't say, but I got the distinct feeling that I might have made his day asking about that game he made more than 20 years ago.

rolfus

ano passadodiscuss

I love the gameplay mechanics and physics in this game, it really feels very sophisticated for a NES game. Also, it definitely has the era-appropriate difficulty level!

rolfus

ano passadodiscuss

I can relate to this. I've never been able to code anything more advanced than, say, a simple html website, but over the last year I've used LLM's to develop a range of little software tools (and games) that are specific to my needs. Some of these fill a niche that either doesn't exist and some are just me slapping a GUI onto command line tools.

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