Hacker News: spongeb00b

New comment by spongeb00b in "Developer's block"

spongeb00b — Sat, 23 Aug 2025 13:05:10 +0000

Douglas Adams was a big proponent of baths to help his writing

New comment by spongeb00b in "It's a DE9, not a DB9 (but we know what you mean)"

spongeb00b — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 19:52:22 +0000

Apple even used the 1/4” jack for the Lisa keyboard https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/physica...

New comment by spongeb00b in "My favourite fonts to use with LaTeX (2022)"

spongeb00b — Wed, 21 May 2025 11:59:12 +0000

Back in school we were told essays had to be submitted (as paper printouts, this was early 2000s of course) in Times. The rebel that I am, I submitted them set in Baskerville as I loved how much better it looked.

New comment by spongeb00b in "Show HN: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Online"

spongeb00b — Sun, 15 Sep 2024 13:39:32 +0000

The last thing I need is a fridge with a Genuine People Personality

New comment by spongeb00b in "Show HN: Sendune – open-source HTML email designer"

spongeb00b — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 08:40:43 +0000

UI-wise then I wonder if it would work better to have a "+" button inside each column, clicking that then gives a popover of available components right where you’re adding them.

New comment by spongeb00b in "Slow Bros crafted a video game universe by hand"

spongeb00b — Sat, 25 May 2024 11:04:54 +0000

Lumino City the puzzle game took this approach too, although their simpler detail perhaps makes it easier to appreciate the physical work that went into it. The “making of” app they released is worth it for anyone into making/crafting.

New comment by spongeb00b in "Reddit Will License Its Data to Train LLMs, We Made a FF Extension to Replace"

spongeb00b — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 11:57:39 +0000

50/50 - I’ve been surprised about the number of Reddit threads that have been more useful than other results. Even if it’s been a discussion that doesn’t give me a solution but helps me shape what I’m trying the find.

Although it would be nice if unanswered posts didn’t rank so highly.

New comment by spongeb00b in "Apple's classic Pascal poster, remade as a vector image [pdf]"

spongeb00b — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 14:51:18 +0000

I hadn't heard this connection to Tom Kamifuji before, but knew of it being Regis McKenna's work. Here's an example of that exact rainbow I found after a quick search: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30559980@N07/37428150582

New comment by spongeb00b in "You don't need JavaScript for that"

spongeb00b — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 12:21:21 +0000

The other end of the spectrum: I’m seeing graduates with great knowledge of frameworks, but no understanding of the fundamentals that these are built on. It’s all fine until they’re trying to debug a problem and don’t know where to turn. glares at Tailwind

New comment by spongeb00b in "Apple CPU Architecture Through the Ages"

spongeb00b — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 18:01:07 +0000

Ah you’re right yes, hard to believe now that was the early spec

New comment by spongeb00b in "Apple CPU Architecture Through the Ages"

spongeb00b — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 14:07:12 +0000

Yes, the MacBook Air was much more about being able to completely remove the DVD drive, SSD storage able to replace a traditional hard disk, and the battery formed of space efficient flat cells rather than a series of cylinders.

New comment by spongeb00b in "Figma makes 200 fixes and improvements to Dev Mode"

spongeb00b — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 07:25:01 +0000

Have a look at Plasticity, it seems to be a bit under the radar currently but I think it’s going to grow well

New comment by spongeb00b in "Designing the First Apple Macintosh: The Engineers’ Story (1984)"

spongeb00b — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 10:52:50 +0000

There's a related tale to this in Andy Hertzfeld's Macintosh Folklore book when demoing to Microsoft Bill Gates assumed it required specific hardware to draw the cursor (bonus outburst from Steve too)

https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&stor...

New comment by spongeb00b in "Effective June 7, 2026, Autodesk will no longer sell nor support EAGLE"

spongeb00b — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 07:15:15 +0000

The only thing I am happy about Autodesk is that they do at least attempt maintaining a Mac version. Wish this was more common on other CAD developers.

New comment by spongeb00b in "Rules of thumb for software development estimations"

spongeb00b — Wed, 03 May 2023 11:09:51 +0000

I repeatedly see features being placed into a "phase 2" that appears approx 90% into a project as the deadline looms.

Half of those features eventually get implemented, the rest it’s realised are not needed at all.

New comment by spongeb00b in "The Joy of Computer History Books"

spongeb00b — Sun, 02 Apr 2023 11:23:17 +0000

I need to recommend Sunburst and Luminary as an excellent memoir of the work to write and test the software for the Apollo missions.

http://sunburstandluminary.com/SLhome.html

New comment by spongeb00b in "VT2040: RP2040 based portable serial terminal"

spongeb00b — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 11:09:56 +0000

Same, but I enjoy when someone else has done the software part for me :)

New comment by spongeb00b in "France's baby bust"

spongeb00b — Sun, 26 Feb 2023 12:09:31 +0000

"Thanks for all the fish"

New comment by spongeb00b in "Documentation related to the implementation of SimCity 2000"

spongeb00b — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 13:06:22 +0000

SC4 also has an impressive modding community still adding new features.

New comment by spongeb00b in "Hardcoded Folder Icons in macOS"

spongeb00b — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 12:01:44 +0000

That works for the folder icon, but not the icon in the Finder sidebar