Hacker News: ynac

New comment by ynac in "Heathkit: America's Biggest Loss [video]"

ynac — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 16:56:55 +0000

OP Here: Sharing this as I was just reading through the camera lens repair article on the front page:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48420148

And it made me wonder about a what pathways are still available for a HeathKit-ish revival. Between ESP flashers, swapping from really busted up originals for parts, and hacking for a new use...seems like there is already a culture out there waiting for another "accident" like Heathkit to happen.

I'll be noodling on this in the notebook for sure. Listing resources, possible kits, allies, etc.

Heathkit: America's Biggest Loss [video]

ynac — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 16:52:30 +0000

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUQOG1hp54g

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48426732

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

New comment by ynac in "The new bibliomaniacs"

ynac — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 16:45:40 +0000

The signs sure seem to be indicating a Gen Z rollback to the analog and middle tech. Newspapers, books, cursive clubs, letter writing (pen pals), cassettes and albums, printed photographs, even carb/gas based auto hacking. These are just in my circle, but I have seen stories in the paper too. Anyone else seeing interesting trends from the youngers? I especially like to see the blending of new and old - like building a music server for VLPFM neighborhood station, hyper local phone co, text clubs on paper, etc.

New comment by ynac in "I’ve built a virtual museum with nearly every operating system you can think of"

ynac — Wed, 20 May 2026 00:03:00 +0000

Where is EMACS?

New comment by ynac in "Leaving the Physical World"

ynac — Thu, 14 May 2026 15:16:18 +0000

Anyone see a link to the audio / video, or better transcription? The text seems to have been transcribed and the typos / mistakes are splitting the intended meanings of things. Some of which seem to be causing misunderstandings in here. (Dialup for the day here, or I'd do it myself)

New comment by ynac in "The Science Behind Honey's Eternal Shelf Life (2013)"

ynac — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 16:49:36 +0000

To some degree and depending on the brew style, mead is also a very very long ager. Plenty of stories of finding vessels in archaeological digs - still ready for a sip. I still have some bottles from my first batches of mead back in the 90s, and I have to say, they continue to evolve slightly - especially given how hot they were when I was a beginner.

New comment by ynac in "Voice Modems"

ynac — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 19:07:21 +0000

Similar setup for me as well. Later I copied the rig for a long distance and out-of-country call back system to save money. Loved that modem...

National Library Workers Day

ynac — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 01:31:49 +0000

Article URL: https://ala-apa.org/nlwd/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47857568

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by ynac in "Category Theory Illustrated – Orders"

ynac — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 16:30:00 +0000

I once saw a man with a notebook and pencil drawing these kinds of diagrams, at the time I saw them as graph theory. I wasn't in an extrovert moment and missed my chance to ask. He seemed to be working recreationally on them. I'm wondering about puzzles that could be easily created using these theories / maths. You, practitioners, any suggestions?

New comment by ynac in "The SondeHub Tracker"

ynac — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 22:24:51 +0000

Just added this to my Radar category. Along with ADSB, trains, boats, HeatMap, local weather stations, NOAA's solar weather, power outage trackers, quakes and fire. Anyone have any interesting things they track?

The SondeHub Tracker

ynac — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 22:22:01 +0000

Article URL: https://sondehub.org

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47786105

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

New comment by ynac in "Netflix Prices Went Up Again – I Bought a DVD Player Instead"

ynac — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 21:13:32 +0000

Big ups on that! Not to mention your local library's collection of DVDs. Or, their inter-library loan system for the ultra weird and rare.

One note on Kanopy - they use a ticket system (10-15 tickets per library customer). So if you have a couple people in your household, all of your library card numbers contribute tickets to the login. And, if you have two library systems like we do here (KCLS and SPL) you can double dip on all the cards again. No hack required - Kanopy actually has a very nice way of failing over to other cards as your quota is used up.

And if that's not enough, try Scarecrow Video out of Seattle. They are the masters of physical digital film media right now. It's fun to try to stump them. And they provide mailorder system similar to the old red envelopes of NetFlix.

eBay has DVD collections go up for sale all the time. Fun to buy the "box of movies" for $100 and see what you get.

Another big haul for me is from local thrift stores - usually 50 cents to 2 bucks a disc.

Everyone is Lying to You for Money (trailer)

ynac — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 00:07:05 +0000

Article URL: https://www.everyoneislying.com/trailer

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47581215

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by ynac in "Linkding: A self-hosted bookmark manager"

ynac — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 21:10:00 +0000

I've been working on mine on and off, tweaking and breaking it for years. I feed mine into a static HTML home page that's roughly based on the original index pages (e.g. Yahoo!)

My general categories are:

Libraries Sounds News Health Radar Shopping Movies School Tools Money

Somehow, these seem to work for me. The automated side is fun to work on, but ultimately, I end up manually updating once in a while as changes are needed. I just added a page linked from the home page - Libraries - that leads to categorized "reading list" of articles, sites, things to follow / explore. That's where the real potential for automation is for me, and where I keep failing to deliver it just right.

I'm going to comb through Linkding for clews to my failure and my ultimate success.

New comment by ynac in "In Criminal Cases, Moss Is Often Underfoot and Overlooked"

ynac — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 16:06:38 +0000

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/science/moss-forensics-cr...

New comment by ynac in "In Criminal Cases, Moss Is Often Underfoot and Overlooked"

ynac — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 15:55:50 +0000

As anyone who is a phan of the bryphyte knows, looking and watching these plants up close it's fascinating to see how they are really forests in miniature. From the tall trees of their sporophytes, to the low protonema that collect debris and spore.

In Criminal Cases, Moss Is Often Underfoot and Overlooked

ynac — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 15:50:09 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/science/moss-forensics-crime.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47352577

Points: 3

# Comments: 2

New comment by ynac in "Tell HN: Apple development certificate server seems down?"

ynac — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 20:40:40 +0000

Any other services down for anyone? I've had a credit service portal fail for hours today with a notice of server issues. As well as a credit union login with a similar message. These are all first times for me. Some big black cape / hat pressure testing?

[edit] And FreeUSATax portal. Solar cone today?

New comment by ynac in "Why the US Could Blame AI for Blowing Up the Iranian School"

ynac — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 05:43:03 +0000

Kinda right there at #1. Explanations are one thing, but Humans have to own it. We'll see!

The DoD AI ethics principles adopted 2020

1. Responsible – Humans remain accountable for AI development, deployment, and outcomes.

2. Equitable – AI should minimize unintended bias and discrimination.

3. Traceable – AI systems must be transparent, auditable, and understandable.

4. Reliable – AI must be safe, secure, and perform as intended.

5. Governable – Systems should detect and avoid unintended consequences and be able to be disabled if necessary.

New comment by ynac in "Worldwide Sidewalk Joy: Adding whimsy to neighborhoods"

ynac — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 23:07:38 +0000

We've got a free art exchange box on main street in town. Always fun to see what's in there. Never empty and always different. Maybe it's from reading Capitalism by Beckert, but libraries, art exchanges, fix it parties, and other GNP lowering activity really feels awesome.