Hacker News: jtotheh

New comment by jtotheh in "I can't stop thinking about Papua New Guinea"

jtotheh — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 12:07:39 +0000

My ethnomusicology teacher (Charles Keil) ( I didn't really ever study that, though) has a good friend (Steven Feld) who was doing stuff with some people who were more remote. https://folkways.si.edu/voices-of-the-rainforest/world/music...

New comment by jtotheh in "I can't stop thinking about Papua New Guinea"

jtotheh — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 11:08:51 +0000

I realized it may not be apparent from my page; the dominant sound of the recordings sounds sort of like a rubbery bass guitar being played with a pick, but it's actually flip-flops striking the bamboo pipes they're sitting on. They had pipes in appropriate lengths to produce various notes.

New comment by jtotheh in "I can't stop thinking about Papua New Guinea"

jtotheh — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 10:58:16 +0000

These are recordings I made on a walkman-like thing in 84, I don't remember all the details of the encounter. I think when I got them digitized and listened to them, they were separate recordings with some differences. Maybe the Amyours band only knew one song, or maybe we can't tell their songs apart. The one has me trying to talk to them in Tok Pisin asking what they call the thing where they hit the bamboo tubes with flip-flops and he responds "Bamboo!" "Thong!" :)

New comment by jtotheh in "I can't stop thinking about Papua New Guinea"

jtotheh — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 10:51:57 +0000

This is interesting also (and very sad) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/08/24/the-scientist-...

New comment by jtotheh in "I can't stop thinking about Papua New Guinea"

jtotheh — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 10:15:12 +0000

Almost forgot - I was at the annual highlands "sing-sing" competition and took a lot of pix, but only really recently got them digitized. They're not that well-preserved etc but there's a ton of them here: https://vin-dit.org/goroka84/gallery1.html

New comment by jtotheh in "I can't stop thinking about Papua New Guinea"

jtotheh — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 10:07:53 +0000

I was there in '84, I have a page here with pictures and recordings of an interesting encounter. The subjects are from a coastal town though, not the highlands, but they were at the "Highlands Show". https://vin-dit.org/amyours.html

New comment by jtotheh in "Asahi Linux Progress Linux 7.0"

jtotheh — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 17:41:47 +0000

I got into Linux because it gave me things I couldn't get with Windows/Mac (in 1994). There are less things that is true for now, by far. I am drawn to the ideals of Free Software (maybe BSD style, maybe GNU style) like a moth to the flame. Nonetheless, I have a smartphone, which since 2016 has been an iPhone.

Now there are things I can't get with Linux that I value with macOS. The integration with the phone is just not possible if am running Linux. The power management and convenient things like Apple Music, too.

I was disgusted to see Tim Cook abase himself before Trump and spent a while researching alternative phones. I did not find anything that looked like a serious option. There are things I need that are only available for iPhone or Android, it's become table stakes for life nowadays. My E-car charger required an app to function, for instance.

I admire people who "vote with their wallet" and/or suffer inconvenience for their ideals. But I am not going to install Linux (or OpenBSD) on my M1 Macbook pro. It's too essential for me the way it is.

For the record, I pour a lot of time into my 2014 macbook running arch and a thinkpad running OpenBSD, and keep an arch server/desktop running pretty much 24/7. I spend tons of time trying to find/devise things on Linux to match things I use that are closed-source/apple only.

Hats off to people who can program at the level required to make this happen. It's beyond me. And also to those trying to make Pine Phone etc a realistic option. I think that's the most important free software battleground now.

New comment by jtotheh in "Dilbert creator Scott Adams doesn't expect to live much longer"

jtotheh — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 22:53:35 +0000

One of many creative people whose work I love and who have some questionable aspects. I'm sorry he's suffering and dying young (IMO). The Dilbert strip was genius.

New comment by jtotheh in "Birth of 86-DOS"

jtotheh — Sat, 30 Aug 2025 21:07:42 +0000

https://web.archive.org/web/20160503170006/http://www.paters... this may be a later-in-life snapshot of Tim Paterson's work as of 2016 which is very impressive. He has/had a blog you can see here: https://web.archive.org/web/20180711012545/http://dosmandriv... (entry is from 2011). I would put a lot of credence into his account of the days of 86-DOS, the IBM PC and so on.

New comment by jtotheh in "Birth of 86-DOS"

jtotheh — Sat, 30 Aug 2025 20:38:07 +0000

It's interesting...M$ is very sleazy in this, especially the way it turned out. Tim Paterson was clearly a great programmer. The really interesting person to me is Gary Kildall though, who I think invented a lot of the underpinnings of doing things with "microcomputers" and seems to have been a really great guy. Unfortunately, "business" is not about being nice (or having the best product). Gates has been a minor obsession of mine over the years.....I'd like to see him make good on all the promises he's made to give away his wealth. There's a book on him I think is interesting called "The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire". I mean he's smart, smarter than me, but I don't think he's as smart as he thinks he is, or necessarily even doing that much good in the world. Some good, but a lot of trying to micromanage things he doesn't know much about.

New comment by jtotheh in "Starlink "Support"?"

jtotheh — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 10:52:31 +0000

There is a clear view of the sky, no obstructions. The phone app showed that the satellite receiver had a good connection, ping percentages, etc. It was just "restricted" because the software had decided this was not a valid location for this account. Even though we changed the account to a "ROAM" account. A day later, they still haven't even responded on the chat, except an automatic "we're sorry we haven't called yet" text.

Starlink "Support"?

jtotheh — Sat, 09 Aug 2025 17:39:20 +0000

I just spent a day trying to get a starlink installation to work. I could verify that it was talking to the satellite from the "statistics", but it found the present location unacceptable and was in "restricted" mode = useless. So I tried to resolve it through the app, the website, etc. I changed the account to "ROAM" type so it shouldn't have mattered where I was. Their "support" consisted of an autoreply to a ticket, no way to get a human, even a chatbot. We just replaced it with a T-Mobile 5G device. T-Mobile was a pleasure to deal with. I'm just wondering if others have also had bad experiences with Starlink "support". I assume they just figure the money they save by not providiing it is more than the business they lose????

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44848461

Points: 1

# Comments: 4

New comment by jtotheh in "Unix Workstations – The Computer Collection"

jtotheh — Sun, 25 May 2025 22:49:21 +0000

I do this (use a mini for hosting time machine backups). I have them on external drives, I have two and switch between them weekly, keeping the other one at a friend's house.

New comment by jtotheh in "I'm manually transcribing the AltairBASIC source, ten lines a day starting today"

jtotheh — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 23:12:03 +0000

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-bill-gates-problem-reckonin...

New comment by jtotheh in "[dead]"

jtotheh — Sun, 16 Mar 2025 17:50:52 +0000

14 years of age seems like a pretty low cutoff, also......

New comment by jtotheh in "Trump admin deports migrants even as judge orders removals stopped"

jtotheh — Sun, 16 Mar 2025 17:49:30 +0000

IANAL. I am very concerned about this matter. from the document you so helpfully provided: "the President proclaimed that “all Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age or older who are members of TdA, are within the United States, and are not actually naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the United States are liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien Enemies.”

So I think on its face they are claiming they are apprehending NON-"lawful permanent residents" - i.e. NON green card holders. I think the reality, though, is that even if you ARE a green card holder, the way this is being carried out - based on the video of Mahmoud Khalil's "arrest" - you may find yourself having your head shaved in a prison in El Salvador, with no way to make your case.

Re Mahmoud Khalil- he IS a "lawful permanent resident" and I thought "habeas corpus" was thought to be an issue within 24 hours, much more time has now elapsed. ????

New comment by jtotheh in "It's not a crime if we do it with an app"

jtotheh — Sun, 26 Jan 2025 17:16:00 +0000

re uber and taxis: I don't use uber, but I just had occasion to price a ride to the airport (Dulles) from home (Bethesda MD) for Lyft and a taxi, and the taxi was a lot cheaper. We got there just fine.

New comment by jtotheh in "Creators Admit Unix, C Hoax"

jtotheh — Sat, 11 Jan 2025 19:18:43 +0000

use the reader mode of your browser.

New comment by jtotheh in "Ask HN: Who is on your donations list this year?"

jtotheh — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 21:51:11 +0000

https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org https://www.unrwa.org https://wck.org https://www.wearebgc.org

New comment by jtotheh in "For the Love of God, Make Your Own Website"

jtotheh — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 21:59:30 +0000

I did, a little while ago. It's sort of an exercise in Luddism. Been posting things that are personal, political, etc. It's just very simple HMTL, not even any dynamic HTML, so no comments, etc. I just started doing it and have kept it up for a bit. It's at https://www.vin-dit.org/