Hacker News: HeckFeck

New comment by HeckFeck in "I ported Mac OS X to the Nintendo Wii"

HeckFeck — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 17:16:31 +0000

I remember renaming .html files as .hta and thinking I was a developer.

New comment by HeckFeck in "Modern Generic SVGA driver for Windows 3.1"

HeckFeck — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 10:24:26 +0000

I've a Compag Armada E500, and it runs Windows 98 fairly swiftly with its PIII processor and 256MB RAM. I've also a 2009 MacBook and it runs Snow Leopard like a dream, yet with "only" 2GB of RAM. And either of these machines could do nearly anything I ask of a PC today - programming, web browsing, comms, gfx edits, even some gaming, while feeling snapper, with less shite flying in my eyes ("notifications" and their wretched noises) as I work.

Someone will explain to me the business and economic reasons, but that just flies over my caveman brain that asks "why does bashing rock feel slower?"

New comment by HeckFeck in "Steam on Linux Use Skyrocketed Above 5% in March"

HeckFeck — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:43:41 +0000

I got my Steam Deck that month, so pleased to be a part of it. The Deck fills a gap that has been empty in my soul since the PSP was discontinued, and feels like a genuine step forward that makes technology fun again.

It's fully open! It has a KDE desktop that I can access any time! I can shove in any size of SSD I like!

And I'm playing Halo 3... on Linux... on hardware made by Steam. If you spoke that sentence to me in 2009, I'd suggest you ought to be sectioned.

New comment by HeckFeck in "Windows 95 defenses against installers that overwrite a file with an older one"

HeckFeck — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 22:32:48 +0000

1-3 are covered by package managers in pretty much every Linux distro and BSD.

New comment by HeckFeck in "First Website (1992)"

HeckFeck — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 14:58:32 +0000

I keep track of these on my website, Well Made Web. You may like a visit: https://wmw.thran.uk/

New comment by HeckFeck in "Discord/Twitch/Snapchat age verification bypass"

HeckFeck — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 09:02:40 +0000

They aren't comparable. Showing an ID to a staff member isn't stripping my anonymity. I know the retailer won't have that on file forever, tied to me on subsequent visits. Also they stop ID'ing you after a certain age ;)

There isn't any way to achieve the same digitally.

New comment by HeckFeck in "How did Windows 95 get permission to put Weezer video 'Buddy Holly' on the CD?"

HeckFeck — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 09:41:27 +0000

He curates his own tags. I knew it. https://github.com/riverscuomo/mp3tagger

New comment by HeckFeck in "I put a real-time 3D shader on the Game Boy Color"

HeckFeck — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 20:39:30 +0000

This is the coolest thing I've seen in months. Licence it as beerware, then I'm obliged to owe you one.

New comment by HeckFeck in "UK Expands Online Safety Act to Mandate Preemptive Scanning"

HeckFeck — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 11:09:25 +0000

Nothing any government in my lifetime has done has arrested this feeling of decay, decline and desperation. It's like the occupational political class has a miserable vendetta and must afflict it upon the population. But I'm not actually miserable like you, I don't want to feel like you, we invented liberty in this country, now fuck off the lot of you thank you.

New comment by HeckFeck in "UK Expands Online Safety Act to Mandate Preemptive Scanning"

HeckFeck — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 11:07:26 +0000

If they're really keen, they could just ask the hacker known as Soyjak.party to knock it offline again.

New comment by HeckFeck in "UK Expands Online Safety Act to Mandate Preemptive Scanning"

HeckFeck — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 11:06:34 +0000

No, but you can get the form to request the form. Then it must be stamped by an official in the [strikethrough]Ministry of Information[/strikethrough] Ofcom. Please allow 4-5 months for processing thanks to our partners delivering efficient intersection of Government and Industry, Capita.

New comment by HeckFeck in "RevisionDojo, a YC startup, is running astroturfing campaigns targeting kids?"

HeckFeck — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 16:03:33 +0000

"Disruption" comes to the world of junior academia. It was inevitable. Nothing's sacred.

New comment by HeckFeck in "Loss32: Let's Build a Win32/Linux"

HeckFeck — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 15:22:19 +0000

AH, I was repeating something I read elsewhere, but I'll defer to an eyewitness. Must've been pretty cool working on Windows back then. Maybe it was more varied than my line of work. I must escape the drudgery B2B SaaS Webcrapps.

New comment by HeckFeck in "Loss32: Let's Build a Win32/Linux"

HeckFeck — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 22:45:39 +0000

Server 2003 was the last release supervised by Cutler, so would have my vote. It's even source-available... technically.

New comment by HeckFeck in "Loss32: Let's Build a Win32/Linux"

HeckFeck — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 22:44:34 +0000

Sometimes I install Office 97 for kicks and marvel at how much I can do with it, yet it asks so little of my system. <2Mb RAM for Word 97!

New comment by HeckFeck in "Loss32: Let's Build a Win32/Linux"

HeckFeck — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 22:43:35 +0000

https://github.com/SerenityOS/serenity is just that, except it's a whole OS that's Win2k styled. If it ever gets good hardware support it might have a chance.

Or maybe ReactOS - the actual windows clone - gets finished. Rumours put a first release date some time after Hurd.

New comment by HeckFeck in "Dialtone – AOL 3.0 Server"

HeckFeck — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 10:21:00 +0000

The absolute state of FOSS communities in 2025. I'd rather teh good old days of pedantry, swearing and trolling instead.

New comment by HeckFeck in "Dialtone – AOL 3.0 Server"

HeckFeck — Sun, 28 Dec 2025 09:50:45 +0000

Have they open sourced the server? Revival projects should always do this, otherwise they are preserving nothing. A single point of failure means someone else will have to reverse-engineer the protocol and write the server software again in the future. Do it for posterity!

New comment by HeckFeck in "Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features"

HeckFeck — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 13:43:00 +0000

Every browser developer should be forced to take an annual pilgrimage to this gravestone:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flock_(web_browser)

New comment by HeckFeck in "He set out to walk around the world. After 27 years, his quest is nearly over"

HeckFeck — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 10:34:40 +0000

I wrote 100,000 LOC using Grok, where's my christmas bonus?