1. Equinox.space
Total comment counts : 202
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
The author of the article provides background information on a project called “Equinox.” The author also offers to answer any questions. For more details, the author includes a link to the project.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses a game with visually stunning graphics that has a premise of players maintaining a ship during a long journey, facing various problems and making sacrifices along the way.
2. Inside the Super Nintendo cartridges
Total comment counts : 138
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the changes in cartridge technology in gaming consoles, noting that older systems like the GameBoy Advance allowed cartridges to directly connect to the Bus and perform various functions. However, this practice ended after the Nintendo DS, and cartridges since then have been solely used for data storage. The author also mentions modern enhancements like Raytracing chips and the MSU1 enhancement chip, which is only available in software emulators but could be theoretically manufactured. Additionally, the author points out an error in the article’s list of ROMs, clarifying the correct naming for a particular game. The article also includes links to videos debunking a myth about the cause of delay in gameplay rounds.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the performance differences in Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) cartridges. It points out that even carts without enhancement chips had varying levels of performance. The SNES CPU had a nominal speed of 3.58mhz, but it would only achieve this speed with a “FastROM” cart. Nintendo also offered a “SlowROM” cart format, which was cheaper but downclocked the CPU to 2.68mhz. Modders have been working on patches to convert SlowROM games into FastROM games to eliminate slowdown. Some SlowROM games were reportedly developed with FastROM in mind but were changed to SlowROM due to cost concerns from the publisher.
3. Meta Horizon OS
Total comment counts : 207
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
The article compares Meta’s licensing of its software to hardware vendors with Apple’s licensing of the Mac OS in the 1990s. However, there is a key difference between the two situations. Apple primarily made money from the margins on Mac hardware, which clone vendors could undercut. In contrast, Meta sells its Quest hardware at breakeven or as a loss leader, so there is no significant threat to the Quest’s existence. It is unsure if the hardware licensees can offer anything significant.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses Meta’s announcement regarding the introduction of their open mixed reality ecosystem. The move is seen as a response to complaints about Meta’s closed platforms while criticizing others for the same. However, the ecosystem is not open source, and it is unclear why other OEMs would want to compete with Meta’s hardware. The article also mentions that Meta plans to open up their store to offer more options for users, including experiences from Steam, Xbox Cloud Gaming, App Lab, and possibly even Google Play. However, it is unclear if Steam would be able to sell native Quest apps, and Google does not seem interested in allowing their Play Store app on the headset. The article later refers to another blog post that provides more details, suggesting that being “open” to Steam might only mean allowing game streaming, while being “open” to Google Play might mean allowing the installation of the Play Store app for 2D apps only. However, it seems that alternative app stores selling native 3D apps directly on the headset itself would not be allowed.
4. Our biggest ever river catch?
Total comment counts : 25
Summary
The article discusses the use of cookies to improve website experience and track user behavior. It then transitions to discussing the success of Interceptor 006 in capturing large amounts of trash in Guatemala’s Rio Las Vacas. The article highlights the river’s contribution to plastic emissions into the Gulf of Honduras and the Caribbean Sea. The Interceptor Barricade, consisting of strategically placed floating booms, is effective in capturing plastic waste during heavy rains. The article also mentions the global impact of The Ocean Cleanup’s Interceptors and its mission to rid the oceans of plastic.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article highlights the commendable efforts of The Ocean Cleanup in reducing plastic pollution in the ocean. However, it mentions that this operation addresses only a very small fraction of the 8-10 million tons of plastic entering the ocean each year. The article suggests that a significant portion of ocean trash, estimated at 75%, comes from fishing boats, particularly Chinese fishing vessels. The author proposes that NGO’s should focus on lobbying politicians and the UN to require fishing vessels to bring back their trash for proper processing. Furthermore, they mention that 10 rivers are responsible for the majority of ocean plastic, and if recovery systems are implemented in those areas, it would be a substantial step towards solving the problem.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The organization mentioned in the article has shifted its focus from removing plastic from the open ocean to intercepting it at river mouths, as it seems to be a more practical and cost-effective approach.
5. Show HN: OpenOrb, a curated search engine for Atom and RSS feeds
Total comment counts : 141
Summary
This article is about OpenOrb, specifically version 1.2.0, which is curated by Raphael Kabo. The source code for OpenOrb can be viewed on SourceHut.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author expresses enthusiasm for the idea of incorporating OpenOrb into their content consumption routine. They mention that they have been using a miniflux instance, which they find refreshing, but they feel it lacks a way to retrieve content they have already read. They plan to try out OpenOrb as a potential solution.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author expresses interest in the concept of feed/entry search but finds that it does not provide relevant results. Specifically, when searching for “software defined radio,” they receive numerous results that do not contain those terms.
6. A flat map with the least error possible: The Gott-Goldberg-Vanderbei projection
Total comment counts : 31
Summary
This article discusses a new world map that provides a detailed and accurate representation of Earth. The map is presented as two flat disks, with the Northern hemisphere on the left and the Southern hemisphere on the right. By clicking on a specific point on either hemisphere, the map can be adjusted to focus on that location. The map also includes options for spinning and pausing the rotation, as well as resetting the view. The article provides links to a higher-resolution version of the map, a rectangular projection, and a printable PDF file. It also references additional articles in The New York Times and Scientific American that discuss the map’s accuracy and features.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article mentions that the Gott-Goldberg-Vanderbei projection has lower error, but its usefulness is significantly reduced. The author’s favorite projection for world maps is Winkel Tripel. They state that Winkel Tripel used to be the standard until Google Maps popularized the use of Mercator for data visualization and political maps.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The Dymaxion Map, created by Fuller, is suggested as an example of a discontinuous map that still maintains continuity between continents. This map minimizes distortions while representing the world.
7. NASA’s Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to Earth
Total comment counts : 137
Summary
NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is finally able to return usable data about its onboard systems after not transmitting readable data since November. The issue was found to be tied to a chip responsible for storing a portion of the spacecraft’s memory. The team was unable to repair the chip, so they devised a plan to divide and relocate the affected code in different sections of the memory. The first modification was successful, allowing the team to check the spacecraft’s health and status. The team will continue to relocate and adjust the other affected portions of the software to enable the return of science data. Voyager 2, its twin spacecraft, is still operating normally.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The linked Wikipedia article provides information about the Voyager program’s computers and data processing. The computers used in the Voyager program were built on a custom architecture with a 16/18-bit design and had a memory capacity of around 4k/8k words (approximately 9/18KB in total). Other sources suggest that these computers had a clock frequency of 250kHz and a processing speed of around 8KIPS.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author expresses their admiration for Voyager’s ongoing journey and expresses a desire for future generations to continue monitoring its progress. They acknowledge that the data collected by Voyager may not have practical use in the future, but suggest that it would be interesting to have a tool that allows people to compare Voyager’s path with the locations humans have colonized in the year 3000.
8. Simon Tatham’s Portable Puzzle Collection
Total comment counts : 18
Summary
This article discusses a collection of small computer programs that implement one-player puzzle games. The programs run on Unix (GTK), Windows, and can also be played on the web as Java or Javascript applets. The author mentions that they are unable to build a version for MacOS due to their old computer no longer working. The purpose of this collection is to provide small desktop toys that can be played for a few minutes as a break from other activities. The author also mentions that any new puzzle games they find or create will be added to the collection and be available on multiple platforms. The article lists the different puzzle games in the collection and provides links for playing them on the web and downloading them for Windows.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author praises a particular software for its fast and user-friendly interface in presenting puzzles and games. They compare this software to SimCity 2000, which they enjoyed due to its simple interface, but did not like the later versions. The author prefers games with a clean and uncluttered design, similar to Siemens PLM NX, as opposed to ones with flashy and crowded interfaces.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article is a shameless plug for a new puzzle website called Zebrapuzzles.com. The website offers logic puzzles that can be played without JavaScript. The plug was recently posted on Show HN, a community-driven site for sharing interesting projects and ideas. The author provides a link to the website and the post on Show HN for more information.
9. A Sketch of the Biggest Idea in Software Architecture (2022)
Total comment counts : 11
Summary
The article titled “Why Sponsor Oils?” discusses various concepts in software architecture, particularly the idea of narrow waists and their relevance to networking, operating systems, language design, compilers, and distributed systems. The author emphasizes the importance of considering trade-offs and provides examples and proposals for improving software designs. They also address misconceptions about narrow waists and highlight the need for standards and small interfaces that can interact with different components. The article mentions specific questions related to shell design, JSON, distributed operating systems, and Docker, and expresses support for the refactoring of Docker. The author also discusses the use of narrow waists in Unix and the power of polymorphism in shell and Go programming languages. They identify two senses of the word “narrow” in this context and suggest further exploration and terminology development for narrow waists. Overall, the article delves into the significance of narrow waists in software development, interoperability, and code reuse.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article questions the usefulness of the narrow waste concept. It suggests that while everything is represented in bytes, treating structures as bytes might not be productive. Using the example of counting lines/bytes in a JSON file, the article argues that this is not valuable or interesting compared to other possible uses of the file.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses how someone has given a new name to an old concept.
10. Py2wasm – A Python to WASM Compiler
Total comment counts : 135
Summary
The article announces a new tool called py2wasm that converts Python programs to WebAssembly, allowing them to run three times faster than with the baseline interpreter. The tool is designed to optimize Python workloads in WebAssembly by targeting a subset of the language that can be further optimized. The article discusses different strategies for optimizing Python execution speed in WebAssembly, including using subsets of Python like CPython, RPython, and Codon, as well as using a JIT compiler like PyPy. The article also mentions the possibility of using static analysis to analyze and auto-detect typings ahead of time for more performant transpilation. Overall, py2wasm offers an efficient solution for running Python programs in WebAssembly.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author of the article looked at a repository called py2wasm on GitHub and expresses their opinion that it would have been better to contribute the work to the upstream Nuitka project instead of creating a new repository with a different name. They question the rationale behind creating a new project and ask if they are overlooking something.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses py2wasm, a tool that converts Python programs to WebAssembly (Wasm), enabling them to run at three times faster speeds compared to CPython Wasm. However, it is important to note that this speed improvement is in comparison to CPython Wasm and not native CPython.