Hacker News: hexmiles

New comment by hexmiles in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (July 2026)"

hexmiles — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 07:48:33 +0000

I'm working on TTZ, a sort of, pardon the expression, next-gen terminal protocol.

I wanted a middle ground between web apps and Terminal UI that allows for things like raster images, vector graphics, simple audio support and file transfer; to let me move more apps and workflows from web apps to a lighter experience.

I have an old laptop that I love and is very nice to use, but since it has only 2 GB of RAM, using multiple web apps is out of the question. I live on the terminal and SSH, but it has its own limitations, like spotty support for images, no audio at all, and ReGis (for vector graphics) support is not available in a lot of terminals.

I've recently finished implementing both client and server libraries for multiple languages (with the help of AI), and right now I'm in the process of fully testing and squashing all bugs and inconsistencies. Next, I will port a couple of applications as a proof of concept.

I plan to publish the source code very soon to receive feedback.

New comment by hexmiles in "8086 Segmented Memory was a good idea"

hexmiles — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 09:45:08 +0000

What is the difference between the segmentation model used by Intel and the banking model used by a lot of consoles? I've worked with the code of a couple of NES and GBC games, and while banking could be annoying, I never saw it as a particularly difficult model to follow and use. It did require more planning for the various functionality, but it wasn't even the most complex or difficult thing about developing for consoles.

New comment by hexmiles in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2026)"

hexmiles — Mon, 11 May 2026 20:40:13 +0000

I'm working on two projects:

- TTZ: A sort of next-gen protocol for terminals. The basic idea is to create a dedicated terminal protocol that allows for more features and less legacy cruft (text and commands are cleanly separated). Right now, I’ve defined the protocol and have a couple of implementations ready. It already supports pictures, vector graphics, and file and audio streaming. I love terminals and TUIs, but I found programming and developing UIs against the standard terminal protocols frustrating, so I tried to design a more "modern" version.

- KingD (temp name): A Linux-based OS that tries to unify the roles of router, NAS, and virtualization platform with a single user interface. In my day job, I need to manage multiple FreeNAS, OPNsense, and Proxmox installations, and I wanted something that "encoded" the common workflows I keep repeating and provided a single centralized platform. I’ve been working on this for a while, and I hope to be able to do a Show HN by the end of the summer.

New comment by hexmiles in "Show HN: Drive any macOS app in the background without stealing the cursor"

hexmiles — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 11:55:16 +0000

I did something similar on Windows by creating a "virtual desktop," where I can give the app focus without stealing it from another one. The idea was to basically reimplement RemoteApp without needing a dedicated Windows server. However, in that case, the app is not visible to the user unless you use "connect" to the virtual desktop; to do it, I implemented (WIP) a simple VNC server in C#.

New comment by hexmiles in "Fully Featured Audio DSP Firmware for the Raspberry Pi Pico"

hexmiles — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 19:40:20 +0000

Thanks for the suggestion. I was hoping for something cheaper since I don't need really high quality. For now, I'm using a bunch of cheap USB soundcards that are good enough, but having multiple USB devices makes routing hell.

New comment by hexmiles in "Fully Featured Audio DSP Firmware for the Raspberry Pi Pico"

hexmiles — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:28:12 +0000

I wonder if you could do the same thing in reverse and have a cheap way to get multiple inputs. I would love a cheap way to add 8–16 inputs to my PC; all the audio interfaces I found cost quite a bit.

New comment by hexmiles in "Google Broke Its Promise to Me. Now ICE Has My Data"

hexmiles — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 19:14:00 +0000

Personally, I deleted everything I could but kept the Gmail account for a couple of years with a forward to my new account, and after that, I also deleted it. Google Takeout is a very useful way to quickly create a backup of everything Google.

New comment by hexmiles in "Rescuing old printers with an in-browser Linux VM bridged to WebUSB over USB/IP"

hexmiles — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 22:03:27 +0000

Sorry, I wasn't clear. By old hardware, I meant peripherals connected to the computer via serial or USB. We are at a level of performance where running an entire VM as a driver is kind of feasible, if wasteful.

New comment by hexmiles in "Rescuing old printers with an in-browser Linux VM bridged to WebUSB over USB/IP"

hexmiles — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 21:20:10 +0000

I know that it is a heavyweight solution, but it could be useful for some situations with old driver/devices/applications. I have some old hardware that is compatible only with pre-WinNT OS, and I could do something similar to provide a simple solution for the end user.

Pyrite64: N64 Game-Engine and Editor using libdragon and tiny3d

hexmiles — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 10:25:41 +0000

Article URL: https://github.com/HailToDodongo/pyrite64

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47540914

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

New comment by hexmiles in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (February 2026)"

hexmiles — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 11:08:02 +0000

For a moment, I thought it was a game about finding chickens and was confused yet intrigued.

New comment by hexmiles in "A web server on a single floppy disk"

hexmiles — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 09:24:12 +0000

Or a Sony Mavica, I love those

UK union accuses Rockstar Games of firing employees attempting to organise

hexmiles — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 12:33:42 +0000

Article URL: https://www.theguardian.com/games/2025/nov/07/uk-union-accuses-gta-maker-rockstar-games-of-firing-employees-attempting-to-organise

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46033425

Points: 4

# Comments: 1

New comment by hexmiles in "OpenMANET Wi-Fi HaLow open-source project for Raspberry Pi–based MANET radios"

hexmiles — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 08:06:58 +0000

All modules seem to be us-only. Is there a modules usable in eu frequency?

OpenMANET Wi-Fi HaLow open-source project for Raspberry Pi–based MANET radios

hexmiles — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 21:18:14 +0000

Article URL: https://openmanet.net/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45920677

Points: 148

# Comments: 42

Score a Scorewriter Program

hexmiles — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 14:44:35 +0000

Article URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCORE_(software)

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45644500

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by hexmiles in "Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down"

hexmiles — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 11:56:35 +0000

Do you know of any games downloaded from Steam that work even once Steam is removed? I tried to search a bit, but I couldn't find any.

I would like to test it for myself to confirm it.

New comment by hexmiles in "Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down"

hexmiles — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 11:54:00 +0000

I tried to search if it's possible for a dev studio to release a game on Steam that works without it, by which I mean that if I uninstall Steam, the games keep working; I wasn't able to confirm, but it seems to be theoretically possible...

None of the games I have in my library work like that, but online some people suggest that some games work even without Steam, once installed.

Your point, however, still stands.

New comment by hexmiles in "Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down"

hexmiles — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 14:30:06 +0000

All (most?) Steam games have a very simple DRM that is extremely easy to bypass, and you can find examples on github.

However, a lot of games add their own DRM and/or protection scheme that complicates things.

EDIT: technically there are two distinct component: the actual DRM, called steamstub, and the steamwork library, that does not work without steam but it is not considered drm. Both can be easily bypassed/emulated.

New comment by hexmiles in "'A black hole': New graduates discover a dismal job market"

hexmiles — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 07:38:02 +0000

You can't dictate it, but you can influence it.

Imagine if we teach from primary school student to clean their own classroom and bathroom so that everyone must do at least once every x days/week, it think it would help reconsider how we view this jobs. This is just an example, but I think there are plenty of ways for a government to incentivize desirable behavior (even social).