Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit | akoster's commentslogin


I didn’t realize Billie Joe Armstrong was such a big Usenet fan, but the song makes more sense now


Internet innocence is now truly in the past.


Sometimes I’ll search .edu or .ac.* domains for tutorials, code, old physics and math graphics and Java applets. Often these sites are narrow in scope, but every once in a while, you come across a gem like this! I wonder if there’s a directory of high-quality college and university professor websites , though a web search for now does the trick (at least while it’s still public and not restricted to current students or faculty).


Thankfully their forums are quite active with folks sharing lots of sample code [0]. I was able to get some assistance with getting their SQLite library to work. Also the wiki has quite a few tutorials - when I get some more time I hope to check out this pas2js Electron tutorial. That would be something quite useful to go from a WYSIWYG RAD IDE design to a working JavaScript web app running in a browser.

[0] https://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php [1] https://wiki.freepascal.org/lazarus_pas2js_integration


Thanks for sharing! I'm glad Microsoft is still providing active development for WinForms and on recent .NET Core versions and not just .NET Framework, although the later seems to still be supported indefinitely (for now?). [0]

[0] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/microso...


Oldschool .NET Framework is a Windows component now, so as far as support goes, it is treated the same as any other OS component - meaning that it's supported for as long as the corresponding OS is.

How long that will be remains to be seen. But Windows still ships the VB6 runtime (MSVBVM60.DLL) in the box today, 27 years since it was first released: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/visualst...

I suspect that .NET will last just as long given the sheer amount of enterprise software that was written for it - even today there are places that target it in lieu of the new OS-independent .NET versions.


I agree! I still sometimes use LibreOffice Base for quick prototyping [0] or Microsoft Access if I am on Windows. It uses HSQLDB by default but you can connect to several external JDBC, ODBC and ADO compatible databases, though I often use DBeaver for that purpose. [1]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice_Base

[1] https://dbeaver.io/


Interesting given NYC's population still hasn't recovered from its early 2020 high [0], rent and home prices keep rising (and fast). There are many reasons discussed here: pied-a-terre's, foreign investors, lack of new construction and inventory at affordable levels contributing to low vacancy [1] but still hard to fathom at a naive supply and demand level, shouldn't ~300k less people and several new residential buildings finishing construction in the past few years contribute to lower not higher prices? [2]

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/13/nyregion/nyc-population-2...

[1] https://www.nyc.gov/site/hpd/news/007-24/new-york-city-s-vac...

[2] https://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/dcp/assets/files/pdf/data-t... (page 3)


Housing is also pricey in NJ adjacent to NYC in cities like Jersey City and Hoboken, but its a ferry / PATH train away from Manhattan.


I think I found MYOB but not Best Books here: https://www.macintoshrepository.org/2021-m-y-o-b-v5-0-1 Is the interface similar for Best Books? and also in color?


Hah, I actually haven't used it since I was last doing misc consulting stuff before living in Moscow in 2015-2018. I found my BestBooks folder easily enough, but had an ancient SheepShaver. Downloading an Apple Silicon-compatible build from January 2025 I replaced the app file, pointed it at a disk image, dragged the BestBooks folder in via the Unix shared folder ... and it launched right up!

Here's browsing some oooold data...

https://hoult.org/bestbooks.png

https://hoult.org/bestbooks_about.png

BestBooks is apparently an offshoot of MYOB 3, your find is MYOB 5.


You should upload it to macintoshrepository.org. It seems like it is not available anywhere else.


They are part of the "smolnet" if I am using that terminology correctly (including the Gemini protocol https://geminiprotocol.net/). Other sites I will browse or lurk include, Lemmy (join-lemmy.org) Reddit alternative, Mastodon, BlueSky, SDF.org 's IRC, Matrix, some Telegram communities, lobste.rs, HN and ideally IRL at 2600 meetings https://www.2600.com/meetings, conferences, Linux User Groups (LUGs) etc. I still browse Reddit, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram occasionally. For 1:1 communication I most often use SMS texting/iMessage, regular phone calls, FaceTime video, and Facebook Messenger to talk to other American friends, family, etc. To talk with technical people and folks abroad, I'll use email, Telegram, Viber, Skype, Signal, WhatsApp, and rarely Instagram Messenger, all of which I need to get better at staying on top of.


Can pidgin be configured to work with all of those messengers?


Some of them, yes. See https://pidgin.im/plugins/?publisher=all&query=&type=Protoco... for a list of third party protocol plugins.


I still put DVD and/or Blu-ray drives in all PCs I personally build for myself and my family. This is due to the fact that we transferred dozens of old captured 16 mm and 8 mm film reels, scanned photo prints, negatives and slides as well as Video8, Hi8, Digital8 and VHS videocassettes to M-DISC DVD and some to Blu-ray. While I uploaded most of this content to Flickr and Google Photos while they were offering 1TB and unlimited storage (at reduced quality) respectfully, after both services curtailed their offerings, I realize the value in having a local, offline, physical copy of these precious memories. Thankfully my local computer store Micro Center still sells a few PC cases with 5.25 inch bays as well as optical media and disk drives.

Additionally, I find it useful for live booting GNU/Linux distributions such as MX Linux Workbench [0] or WinPE environments such as Hiren's Boot CD [1] without dedicating a flash drive for the purpose, which I may accidentally overwrite. And at the office, I have encountered several broken USB ports and while optical disk drive bays are often quite fragile, they tend to be in working order since they are often underutilized.

[0] https://mxlinux.org/blog/mx-21-1-respin-workbench-released/

[1] http://hirensbootcd.org/


Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: