Hacker News: HeckFeck

New comment by HeckFeck in "IKEA made a mod for Skyrim [video]"

HeckFeck — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 16:20:18 +0000

Related: McDonalds producing a GameBoy game in 2023 developed using GB Studio as a 90s throwback: https://www.grimacesbirthday.com/

New comment by HeckFeck in "IKEA made a mod for Skyrim [video]"

HeckFeck — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 16:19:05 +0000

Even I've heard of Chex Quest and the brand has never been available in my country.

Interesting lesson there. No one hates marketing tie-ins when you make something genuinely fun, i.e. that people want to play. Opposed to forcing a distraction.

New comment by HeckFeck in "My last six months at Evernote"

HeckFeck — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 16:16:19 +0000

>static hosting on a $5 VPS with Nginx might handle an HN surge

My personal site is hosted on this exact setup. Twice I made the homepage, twice I noticed no slowdown whatsoever.

The only problem is that in May of this year, when my SimCity 3k in 4k article was found by the HN crowd, its access.log bloated to 200Mb causing my logrotate script (that hooks in Goaccess) to blow up every time since when trying to process it, and this log has been growing every day since - because logrotate isn't doing much rotating!

When I can massage my VPS into processing it, I'll have the stats to enjoy.

New comment by HeckFeck in "What Comes After Git"

HeckFeck — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 09:46:33 +0000

>it’s missing key features that are useful for organizations that aren’t sharing their code with everyone.

I agree. Let's go back to subversion.

New comment by HeckFeck in "Getting phpBB 1.4.4 working in Docker"

HeckFeck — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 11:13:57 +0000

I'm actually building this as we speak: A hardened phpBB 1.4.4 that targets PHP8 and modern MariaDB. Why ever not.

New comment by HeckFeck in "Getting phpBB 1.4.4 working in Docker"

HeckFeck — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 11:12:12 +0000

Initially I tried to build PHP4, with Squeeze being what I hoped amenable to that. It didn't work so well. So I later opted to try PHP5 with some patches, which it now does. I imagine it could run on something a bit more recent.

That said - we'll call it compounded nostalgia for now.

Getting phpBB 1.4.4 working in Docker

HeckFeck — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 14:35:12 +0000

Article URL: https://www.thran.uk/writ/devlog/2026/09/phpbb-144-in-docker.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49598921

Points: 54

# Comments: 38

New comment by HeckFeck in "Fable 5 Is Back"

HeckFeck — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 21:06:47 +0000

Peter Molyneux continues to re-invent himself. His newest "god game" claims to have the ability to code any game you like, on demand. Just as you'd expect from an omnipotent deity!

New comment by HeckFeck in "The Raku Foundation is born"

HeckFeck — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 12:50:50 +0000

Perl, for all its quirkiness, remains my favourite language - even though I've never done any professional work in it, and I took it up long after its glory days. A shame how it plummeted. It feels like "Unix, but as a scripting language!"

I've never been able to love Python, PHP, JS, Ruby or any other dynamic language the same way.

Maybe I would like Raku too, but I wonder if it's worth the effort - the languages are similar, and I already know all the quirks of one. A bit like learning Dutch after German?

New comment by HeckFeck in "TIL: You can make HTTP requests without curl using Bash /dev/TCP"

HeckFeck — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 19:50:40 +0000

I used telnet to send mail via SMTP once, it's quite literally a good social protocol because it begins with a polite 'HELO'.

New comment by HeckFeck in "Linux 7.1"

HeckFeck — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 20:53:22 +0000

Aw, but what have you against kawaii?

New comment by HeckFeck in "FPS.cob: A first person shooter in COBOL"

HeckFeck — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 19:19:39 +0000

Aside from that, I don't want to take responsibility for that which I don't understand. And even if I can read the code generated by a LLM, that's not the same as thinking through a solution or planning a design.

You can't call yourself an "engineer" if you just open Claude or Codex and hit "Y" on the keyboard to every prompt like that dipping flamingo when Homer Simpson took the wfh job (Simpsons predicted it).

New comment by HeckFeck in "OpenRCT2 v0.5.1 "Swamp Castle" released Last version to support Windows 7"

HeckFeck — Sat, 30 May 2026 09:59:11 +0000

They are committed. I found this kernel extensions project: https://github.com/i486/VxKex

Perhaps that'd be the OpenRCT2 fanatics' salvation.

New comment by HeckFeck in "Last.fm is now independent"

HeckFeck — Fri, 29 May 2026 10:59:47 +0000

Wild shot - but I wonder whether the newly emancipated Last.FM are looking to hire? I've loved the site since I got my old account back in 2024. Recently I created a fun widget maker using its API:

https://github.com/lordfeck/last.played/

If any of the team wants to reach me, my email is in my profile.

New comment by HeckFeck in "Last.fm is now independent"

HeckFeck — Fri, 29 May 2026 10:44:07 +0000

I've found the support email address. It might still be open for support queries. If you send me an email I'll send you what I know. My email address is in my profile.

New comment by HeckFeck in "Last.fm is now independent"

HeckFeck — Thu, 28 May 2026 22:38:36 +0000

Get in touch with LFM support, it's good. I hadn't used my LFM since 2011, but I remembered my old email address that was likely used with the account. I emailed support asking them kindly to reset my password to my new email, and they obliged.

New comment by HeckFeck in "Last.fm is now independent"

HeckFeck — Thu, 28 May 2026 22:34:38 +0000

I wish Apple Music would support scrobbling to the Last.FM API like Spotify, but to get the ball rolling we'd need someone on the Apple Music team who can nudge it up the list.

New comment by HeckFeck in "Last.fm is now independent"

HeckFeck — Thu, 28 May 2026 22:32:50 +0000

Would be nice but it can't be done. I stopped scrobbling in 2011, then found out the site was still alive in 2024, one email to support later and I was back in.

I wanted to import my Spotify listening history from the intervening years, but found that the LFM API limits scrobbles to no earlier than two weeks ago. A shame, because my current listening history is now very skewed between the two "eras".

New comment by HeckFeck in "SimCity 3k in 4k (2025)"

HeckFeck — Thu, 28 May 2026 14:50:16 +0000

I agree. Someone should have this dangerous man sectioned.

New comment by HeckFeck in "SimCity 3k in 4k (2025)"

HeckFeck — Thu, 28 May 2026 14:49:23 +0000

Hey, if you make your money from playing to an audience, you can take a little joke ;)