Hacker News: codpiece

New comment by codpiece in "Audiophiles can't distinguish audio sent through copper, banana or mud"

codpiece — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 02:50:30 +0000

This article and these comments make a caricature of audiophiles, akin to mocking aeronautics because of a flat earther steam-powered rocket pilot.

Audio equipment is produced by engineers and they create elegant solutions to physical constraints. There is a huge difference in quality when hearing a pair of Allison One speakers, or AKG K1000 headphones over an airpod.

Some engineers believe in speaker wire improvements, most don't. Some even openly acknowledge they don't believe but use premium wires to satisfy customers' demands. Most audio forums outright ban the discussion of speaker wire because it's so contentious.

Dismissing the industry that supports audio engineering is dismissing the disciplines of circuit, materials, and sound engineering.

Sure, there are extremes and charlatans out there like the guys who sell magic rocks, but wtf, some of you pay for skins to play in a mmog.

New comment by codpiece in "Satya Nadella: "We need to find something useful for AI""

codpiece — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 13:28:01 +0000

Respectfully, your positive view of an LLM writing marketing copy is akin to a marketer thinking an LLM codes really well.

New comment by codpiece in "Email was the user interface for the first AI recommendation engines"

codpiece — Sat, 04 Oct 2025 01:20:30 +0000

Wow, is this awesome! I put in: Hugh Masekela, John Prine, and Ripe. It gave GREAT recommendations!

Oliver Mtukudzi, Melting Palms

I've never heard of either. Enjoy both. Sent the link to my son. Brilliant! Thank you.

New comment by codpiece in "All the sad young terminally online men"

codpiece — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 10:35:25 +0000

I had no idea! I was a typesetter, we would have to manually create them using keyboard shortcuts on both systems.

New comment by codpiece in "All the sad young terminally online men"

codpiece — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 23:58:02 +0000

Em dashes —once the sign of a sophisticated writer— were prominent in The New York Times.

New comment by codpiece in "Cassette Logic: technology that never dies but is already dead"

codpiece — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 11:32:07 +0000

Using older lenses can help bring some of that back. Nikon DLSRs use the F-mount, which is backwards-compatible for nearly all their old lenses. They introduce some analog beauty and quirks, like over-saturation and vignetting, getting you _some_ of the way there. Film grain is still missing and that adds a lot of character.

I would love to get deeper into large format photography. The few 4x5 negatives I've taken are breathtaking in their detail.

New comment by codpiece in "How the “Kim” dump exposed North Korea's credential theft playbook"

codpiece — Sun, 07 Sep 2025 00:25:33 +0000

It was still a fascinating aside, and it's not like HN stays on topic in a thread. I learned something today.

New comment by codpiece in "Ollama's new app"

codpiece — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 02:40:11 +0000

I have tried most of those and tend to go back to dify.ai. Open source, connects to remote endpoints, test up to 4 models at a time.

I can create workflows that use multiple models to achieve different goals.

New comment by codpiece in "Intel Announces It's Shutting Down Clear Linux"

codpiece — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 11:48:26 +0000

Clear Linux was fast and FUN to work with, and the team were highly responsive a few years ago. The mood on their community board changed and they got more terse in their focus and responses. You could kind of feel a change coming.

Fortunately, some distros adopted their kernel optimizations; Pop_os, I think you can find it branched in Arch, not sure if others.

If any of the team are on this thread; thank you.

New comment by codpiece in "Don't Fall for AI: Reasons for Writers to Reject Slop"

codpiece — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 11:54:09 +0000

There were beautiful posters in that slop series too.

GenAI and creativity — this doesn't have to be a dichotomy.

New comment by codpiece in "Ask HN: 80s electronics book club; anyone remember this illustrator?"

codpiece — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:29:01 +0000

He even has a website: BekerBots http://www.bekerbots.com/thebots.htm

New comment by codpiece in "Ask HN: 80s electronics book club; anyone remember this illustrator?"

codpiece — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:26:54 +0000

Thank you both, this is exactly the illustrator!

New comment by codpiece in "Ask HN: 80s electronics book club; anyone remember this illustrator?"

codpiece — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:24:36 +0000

HERE IT IS! HERE IT IS! https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=1...

THANK YOU so much for your help! I remember typing this stuff out on my TRS-80, the one that Dad totally could not afford but he took a chance on a future trend and an excited, troubled young boy. I know that this sounds silly, but I have tears in my eyes now. Thank you.

And, thank you for providing so many interesting paths to explore as well. You are the best, and I sincerely appreciate your help.

New comment by codpiece in "Ask HN: 80s electronics book club; anyone remember this illustrator?"

codpiece — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:13:03 +0000

Oh, these are so great! It really does look like the illustrator! Especially this one: https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=9... Thank you!

New comment by codpiece in "Ask HN: 80s electronics book club; anyone remember this illustrator?"

codpiece — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 12:47:10 +0000

TAB books does seem to be the publisher of the book of the month series, thank you for that!

New comment by codpiece in "Ask HN: 80s electronics book club; anyone remember this illustrator?"

codpiece — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 12:46:10 +0000

Thanks! A bit different, but definitely worth exploring more.

Here's a pretty close approximation of the illustrations: https://www.etsy.com/listing/4319242515/testors-robot-plasti...

New comment by codpiece in "Ask HN: 80s electronics book club; anyone remember this illustrator?"

codpiece — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 12:02:06 +0000

I loved Byte magazine! Oh, that was the best. It was likely Popular Electronics where I found the Book of the Month club, but Hobby Electronics is a good path I'll investigate, thank you!

New comment by codpiece in "Ask HN: 80s electronics book club; anyone remember this illustrator?"

codpiece — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 11:53:20 +0000

Sadly, no, but these look like pretty interesting reads! Its around that time period though. I think the book had an illustration of a robot/machine. They were very much non-humanoid, more like piles of mechanical and electronics shaped for a purpose. Cartoony, but cool.

Ask HN: 80s electronics book club; anyone remember this illustrator?

codpiece — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 02:46:18 +0000

In the early 80's in the US, a popular DIY electronics magazine had a book of the month club that I loved. Most were small and leather bound hardback with topics like: make your own hydrophone; augmented reality (required a full room and a boom arm, sadly); an LCD model rocket launcher ignition; computer vision; lots and lots of robots.

One book I remember (large, softcover, yellow cover) featured black and white, pen and ink illustrations of fantastically complex robots and machines. One that I remember was a water-based machine with video camera eye mounted on a tripod of pontoons. Wow, these illustrations filled my dreams.

Does anyone remember this? Do you remember the name of the illustrator? Anything at all?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44402010

Points: 35

# Comments: 23

New comment by codpiece in "Address of Pope Leo XIV to the College of Cardinals"

codpiece — Sat, 10 May 2025 23:43:56 +0000

No, don't do that. We all live in the same time. Please take it back before the Gods notice.