Hacker News: uticus

New comment by uticus in "Red Programming Language: Static linking support"

uticus — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 14:57:52 +0000

https://re-bol.com/short_rebol_examples.r for some examples of the language (from https://redprogramming.com/Home.html)

Space Shuttle Endeavour's 20-story vertical display

uticus — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 12:49:48 +0000

Article URL: https://californiasciencecenter.org/about-us/samuel-oschin-air-and-space-center/go-for-stack

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48686032

Points: 106

# Comments: 22

New comment by uticus in "MacBook Neo is so popular that Apple doubled production"

uticus — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 19:15:44 +0000

sometimes the wizards know best when to fear magic

New comment by uticus in "OpenBSD/zaurus: pocket-sized BSD"

uticus — Tue, 19 May 2026 02:30:26 +0000

See also the prequel at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48040465

OpenBSD/zaurus: pocket-sized BSD

uticus — Tue, 19 May 2026 02:30:26 +0000

Article URL: http://miod.online.fr/software/openbsd/stories/zaurus2.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48188540

Points: 4

# Comments: 1

New comment by uticus in "OpenBSD Stories: The closest thing to cute kittens (OpenBSD/zaurus)"

uticus — Tue, 19 May 2026 02:10:34 +0000

Whaddya know...

http://miod.online.fr/software/openbsd/stories/zaurus2.html

The SGI Buyer's Guide (2003)

uticus — Fri, 15 May 2026 14:05:25 +0000

Article URL: https://hardware.majix.org/computers/sgi/buyers-guide.shtml

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48148766

Points: 47

# Comments: 28

Graphing Scientific Calculator Based on the ESP32

uticus — Fri, 15 May 2026 13:29:52 +0000

Article URL: https://github.com/El-EnderJ/NeoCalculator

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48148351

Points: 38

# Comments: 11

UAE Building 'Cope Cages' to Protect Energy Facilities from Drone Attack

uticus — Wed, 13 May 2026 20:42:26 +0000

Article URL: https://www.twz.com/news-features/uae-building-massive-cope-cages-to-protect-energy-facilities-from-iranian-drone-attacks

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48127272

Points: 5

# Comments: 0

A highly expandable, portable smart-IoT terminal development device

uticus — Thu, 07 May 2026 18:20:21 +0000

Article URL: https://docs.m5stack.com/en/core/Tab5

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48052881

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by uticus in "OpenBSD Stories: The closest thing to cute kittens (OpenBSD/zaurus)"

uticus — Thu, 07 May 2026 17:42:04 +0000

> Don't be startled by this odd-looking name, it will make sense when you reach the end of the story.

> This is the story of OpenBSD on the Sharp Zaurus systems. Because of its length, I have decided to split it in two parts.

> OpenBSD/cats: the enabler

> OpenBSD/zaurus (to be published 20260513)

...I will be visiting again in 5 days. Then, I will be searching eBay for a Zaurus...

http://miod.online.fr/software/openbsd/stories/zaurus.html

New comment by uticus in "Boris Cherny: TI-83 Plus Basic Programming Tutorial (2004)"

uticus — Thu, 07 May 2026 13:59:19 +0000

https://www.hpcalc.org/

New comment by uticus in "Comparing the Z80 and 6502 to Their Relatives"

uticus — Tue, 05 May 2026 19:43:09 +0000

> Less immediately visible to someone working at the assembly language level instead of the machine code one is that relative addressing is much more common on the 6809, meaning that it’s significantly more viable to write position-independent code on it than any of the other chips we’ve looked at here. Only the 8086 comes close, and it achieves it by using its segment registers as a de facto relocation base.

I would love to learn more about this. Does more "position-independent code" mean the linker has much less to do [0], or is there an actual difference in the code base for similar tasks?

[0] https://sourceware.org/binutils/docs/ld/Overview.html

New comment by uticus in "Alberta voter list leak is a potential public safety disaster"

uticus — Mon, 04 May 2026 16:02:05 +0000

In terms of "safety" this leak is a drop in the bucket. The greater concern would be that election systems are involved. If election information is unintentionally readable, it is also therefore potentially alterable.

New comment by uticus in "CJIT: C, Just in Time"

uticus — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 16:08:12 +0000

> Definitely was not expecting this reference.

Agreed, how HolyC serves as an inspiration could be clarified. Was it an aspect of HolyC? The background/context of the author's life, meaning Terry Davis was inspirational? Impossible to tell. Other resources [0] [1] don't mention this aspect.

[0] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/16/rusthaters_unite_filc...

[1] https://github.com/pizlonator/fil-c/blob/deluge/README.md

New comment by uticus in "CJIT: C, Just in Time"

uticus — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 19:28:58 +0000

https://dyne.org/cjit/graphics.html#cjit-for-graphical-appli...

> Be welcome to the exciting world of graphical C applications using SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer). SDL, originally developed by Sam Lantinga in 1998...

That's batteries included.

New comment by uticus in "Spinel: Ruby AOT Native Compiler"

uticus — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 13:45:19 +0000

> It's a similar subset to mruby...

This is what I've been wondering after only a cursory glance ("It...generates optimized C code" from the OP). Interesting that mruby itself got a major version update around the same time (in just the past few days) https://github.com/mruby/mruby/blob/master/doc/mruby4.0.md

New comment by uticus in "Alberta startup sells no-tech tractors for half price"

uticus — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 18:39:48 +0000

> instead of believing in magic of "free market"

It looks like magic because it works like magic. Surprisingly it is also possible to believe in the magic of "government intervention" though it looks less like magic and more like unintended consequences.

New comment by uticus in "Alberta startup sells no-tech tractors for half price"

uticus — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 18:37:42 +0000

> The farm equipment industry spent 20 years adding complexity and cost. Ursa Ag is wagering that a significant number of farmers never wanted any of it.

Nice tag line but not a complete picture. The "significant number of farmers" in terms of actual market spend driving the equipment industry is not mom-and-pop outfits but rather agri-industrial complexes with machines to match. What they want is (1) availability and (2) ROI. For (1), that is first and foremost subject to legal stipulations like EPA etc, then secondly subject to production availability. For (2), electronics are the name of the game if you are looking to turn a profit with farming because counting every seed, measuring every drop of chem, and tracking every inch of plotted ground leads to better ROI.

New comment by uticus in "Alberta startup sells no-tech tractors for half price"

uticus — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 18:26:56 +0000

> The air filter was basically a shisha-pipe that bubbled the incoming air through wire wool and engine oil.

What is a shisha-pipe?