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4 個月前discuss

For historical context, the Advogato site in question: https://web.archive.org/web/20170715120119/http://advogato.o...

Background on the "trust metric" implemented on the site: https://web.archive.org/web/20160304000542/https://advogato....

Apparently my account on the site is/was now more than a quarter of a century old... Gonna try to avoid thinking on that too deeply. :D

There's been a non-zero number of occasions since that time where I've observed situations that mirror the trust-based challenges Advogato sought to solve.

It is perhaps telling that as prescient as Raph's work on trust metrics was he later moved on to the notoriously challenging realm of font rendering--presumably because it seemed more tractable. :D

follower

5 個月前discuss

The combo of the visuals and Halcyon is exquisite.

follower

6 個月前discuss

I encountered the Sony MMCD when I fell down a rabbit hole *checks literal notes* around five years ago while researching Microsoft Encarta MindMaze[0] and its related file formats.

It turns out the data associated with MindMaze (& other encyclopedia data) changed storage format over subsequent releases of Encarta and these changes provide some interesting historical insights--including that if MS had had its way we'd all be writing web pages in RTF rather than HTML[1]. :D

You may ask, "What connection does this have to the Sony MMCD?".

Well, one of the storage formats used with early Encarta data is `.mvb` which is a format used by Microsoft Multimedia Viewer[2] (also known by multiple other names--none of which are any easier to web search :D ).

And, it turns out, "Multimedia Viewer could compile titles for Tandy Video Information System and other Modular Windows systems, as well as Sony Multimedia CD-ROM Player, a portable MS-DOS-based CD-ROM XA reader released in 1992."[2][3]

According to my research the tool "...includes software tools that simulate the look and feel of the Sony player titles on a PC" which is interesting in the context of the emulator for the Discman mentioned in the original post.

Anyway, that's the very short version of the rabbit hole--maybe in another five years I'll get around to writing up the rest...

Oh, just found my original tweet thread (including screenshots) about this rabbit hole as it happened[4]: https://xcancel.com/RancidBacon/status/1401009436949237763

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[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encarta_MindMaze (New as of October 2025.)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbird_(online_platform)

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Multimedia_Viewer (First added some time after my ~2021 research.)

[3] The Tandy VIS being a "Modular Windows" system is also of historical interest and FWIW has some support in MAME.

[4] Including screenshots of "Modular Windows Shell" and various "Multimedia Viewer" versions running under WINE.

follower

6 個月前discuss

The Sony MMCD[0] is a contemporary of the Sony Data Discman that people might also find of interest:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Multimedia_CD-ROM_Player

There are a couple of YouTube videos showing the device (filmed both around launch and more recently).

(I'll try to add some more context in a follow-up comment.)

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[0] a.k.a. "Sony Bookman" a.k.a. "Sony Multimedia CD-ROM Player" a.k.a. "Sony PIX100" a.k.a. "Sony Corporation Programmable CD ROM Player".

follower

6 個月前discuss

"The Office Formerly Known as 365"

follower

6 個月前discuss

> [...] brave or foolhardy, [...]

Heed the above warning as down this rpath madness surely lies!

Exhibit A: https://gitlab.com/RancidBacon/notes_public/-/blob/main/note...

Exhibit B: https://gitlab.com/RancidBacon/notes_public/-/blob/main/note...

Exhibit C: https://gitlab.com/RancidBacon/notes_public/-/blob/main/note...

Oh, sure, rpath/runpath shenanigans will work in some situations but then you'll be tempted to make such shenanigans work in all situations and then the madness will get you...

To save everyone a click here are the first two bullet points from Exhibit A:

* If an executable has `RPATH` (a.k.a. `DT_RPATH`) set but a shared library that is a (direct or indirect(?)) dependency of that executable has `RUNPATH` (a.k.a. `DT_RUNPATH`) set then the executable's `RPATH` is ignored!

* This means a shared library dependency can "force" loading of an incompatible [(for the executable)] dependency version in certain situations. [...]

Further nuances regarding LD_LIBRARY_PATH can be found in Exhibit B but I can feel the madness clawing at me again so will stop here. :)

follower

9 個月前discuss

Just mentioned this in another reply but Jujutsu may be of interest as a maintained alternative to gitless: https://github.com/jj-vcs/jj/blob/main/README.md#introductio...

follower

9 個月前discuss

> bzr

While not perfect, I have some hope that Jujutsu may be a path forward for improved ergonomics in version control: https://github.com/jj-vcs/jj/blob/main/README.md#introductio...

follower

9 個月前discuss

I vaguely wondered if FreeHand would make an appearance in this thread. :)

Two features that come to mind as IIRC being unique (as compared to Illustrator) were multi-page documents and multiple page size multi-page documents. Ideal for the complete standard set of company branded print documents: business card, "With Compliments" slip, and letterhead. :D

Adobe's acquisition of Macromedia and subsequent killing of (the IMO superior) FreeHand contributed directly to my subsequent decision to avoid closed source application software--especially for creative tools--even if alternatives were "technically inferior".

(And, indeed, "creative tool killed/hampered for business reasons" is a story which has been repeated elsewhere multiple times in the quarter century[0] since.)

While Inkscape is still missing features compared to FreeHand it is however also still here many years later and is what I've used ever since when I need 2D vector design software. (Although I've also been keeping an eye on Graphite: https://graphite.rs)

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[0] Oh, weird, apparently it's actually less than 25 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_FreeHand#Adobe_FreeHand Seems I've been holding the grudge for less time than I thought. :D

follower

10 個月前discuss

TIL. Thank you!

Now I just have to remember this next time I need to select text within a link. :)

follower

去年discuss

Thank you for mentioning this detail again.

I generally remember that there's some problematic issue with Unihertz but often seem to manage to forget exactly which issue it is.

Non-compliance with the GPL is frustratingly common (over a huge range of company sizes too).

Not at helped by the fact that the community managed to (stupidly) burn bridges with the one person who seemed to be effecting actual change within Chinese companies with regard to GPL compliance.

follower

去年discuss

Oh! Also: I'd be really interested for you to expand on "I think I’ve learned some valuable lessons[0]".

The 2022 updates gave an interesting insight into how your perspective had changed in regard to your initial thoughts and I'm interested to know if another three years has lead to further perspective changes.

I found Andrew Witte's remark of particular interest with regard to "...we allowed early success [...] to mask the fact that we never gained a good understanding of what our actual customers valued the most. We lucked into having made something people wanted (the original Pebble) and, IMO, never really were able to figure out exactly why it was successful. So it was hard to reproduce that success."

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[0] https://ericmigi.com/blog/success-and-failure-at-pebble

follower

去年discuss

TL;DR: Succinctness has never been my strong suit? :)

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> But I'm not really sure that this fear is grounded - before we sold to Fitbit we 'unlocked' the Pebble mobile app [...].

If I'm reading OP's comment & your reply correctly, my impression is there's potentially a fear of either (a) "re-locking"; or, even just (b) "new thing not unlocked"--and, I think, you're saying that (a) isn't going to/can't happen?

On closer reading I think you might also be saying that (b) isn't going to happen because "new thing" is still going to use the previous unlocked app and/or maybe a new unlocked app? But, if that's the case, I only really saw that possible interpretation after a much closer re-read.

(Alternatively, maybe I just didn't weight sufficiently strongly the FAQ: "Will it be exactly like Pebble?" "Yes. In almost every way.")

More broadly (outside the positive example of your specific track record with regard to OGPebble & the app unlocking), given the landscape of the past 1.5+ decades littered with even just recent examples such as Spotify's Car Thing, Google's Stadia controller, Bambu Labs, and pretty much every phone ever[0][0a], I think it would be a stretch to consider the fear to be entirely ungrounded.

Particularly if some portion of the device firmware etc and/or server software is still going to be closed source.

In terms of strength of confidence in the potential of achieving a "desired open outcome/ongoing experience", I imagine the ordering from least to greatest trust required by product purchasers is something like: "completely open & unlocked from the beginning", "legally binding commitment/escrow for open & unlocked on 'exit'", "word/reputation for open & unlocked on 'exit'", through to "amorphous hope for largesse/noblesse-oblige/benevolence/other-fancy-latin-phrase for positive outcome at some unspecified future time".

And, um, trust in general might be slightly lacking these days, for some reason. :)

Anyway, IMO FWIW.

----

On a slightly different note, while reading comments in the various PebbleOS/RePebble threads I've been contemplating what has changed with regard to the consumer electronics hardware market compared to, say, fifteen plus years ago.

Certainly the "hope" of Android bringing the Power & Freedom of "Linux on Desktop" to "Linux on the Phonetop"[1] from the early 2000s seems to have been completely abandoned[2] but on the other hand Framework[3] exists and the Steam Deck[4] exists.

Perhaps the two most surprising things related to this "control over personal devices" topic from recent history:

(1) the discovery 1-2 years ago that it wasn't just irascible curmudgeons like me wanting to have control over the devices in their lives[5] but a much younger generation was also looking to "dumb phones" in a conscious effort to exert some control over the impact of such devices on their lives.

(1.1) aside: the attraction of similar demographic(s) to audio cassette tapes on the other hand, I totally don't "get" but by now I'm starting to suspect this state may now be primarily driven by the desire to not accidentally make cassettes uncool by "getting" it. :D

(2) noting over the past year or so the significant increase in the number (or even the mere presence) of YouTube comments from gamers remarking that they have just, or, want to, move from Windows to Linux. Gamers. GAMERS! The same demographic who previously would ruthlessly mock anyone who dare suggest such a move might be possible[6] let alone desirable...

This might all just be the biased perspective of a jaded idealistic optimist[7] but it's not nothing. Unless it is.

Approaching consumer electronics hardware with this trend as a guiding force may also not be the way to run a financially sustainable hardware business but on the other hand, what if?

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BTW I noticed in one place on the page (https://repebble.com/) the text states:

* "(which purchased Fitbit, which had bought Pebble)"

and in another it states:

* "before the company's IP was sold to Fitbit in 2016".

I mention this because the difference is a nuance that has seemed to be significant in other times/places, so thought it might have unintentionally slipped through proof-reading--even if of no real consequence now. :)

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Also: Hello! (Again. :) ) This was unexpected news, for sure.

Left another "short" note for you here (in case you've not encountered it organically): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42856930

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[0] Yes, yes, Fairphone exists.

[0a] Televisions!

[1] Irony? Satire? Sarcasm? *shrug*

[2] Speaking of small phones, this still remains of interest: https://smallandroidphone.com/

[3] I so want to know what category Framework's "Next Thing" is in--primarily because what's seemingly the "most obvious" category for them to move into also seems the most "unlikely" by any reasonable measure. So to find out would be to either be surprised by a category I hadn't considered or surprised by the audaciousness of their next goal.

[4] Hand-waving away for now any problematic aspects of its current context.

[5] See also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42848761 & https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42845574 (non-pejorative :) )

[6] Yes, yes, every PlayStation fan-persoin runs BSD.

[7] I do like the phrase "user-respectful technology" as used here: https://rebble.io/2025/01/27/the-future-of-rebble.html

follower

去年discuss

Still "daily driving" my burgundy[0] Pebble... hoodie/fleece!

(It's impressive quality company swag.)

@erohead, when you're at the stage of needing a kick-ass RePebble SDK developed & supported again[1], you know where to find me. :)

lol @ the FAQ: "Aren’t you the guy who screwed this up last time?"

Also, while looking through the repo, I'd totally forgotten the alphabetically ordered fast-food themed release code names which included the "Kiwiburger" (a global chain's local product that contains neither the bird nor the fruit) that I now wonder how many people it confused. :)

The "Kiwiburger" code name release also happened to coincide with the inclusion of "Simplicity" (a watch face I designed & implemented) as one of the standard faces shipped with each Pebble watch by default.

I was particularly proud of the inclusion of "Simplicity"--especially when Engadget subsequently said it was "...sure to make minimalists happy" which was what I was aiming for. (I seem to recall it also gave me the opportunity to say "Hey, I designed that watch face!" when I saw a Pebble watch on display at an airport duty free store once. :D )

Anyway, I should probably get this memoir off to the publishers[3]. :)

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[0] Oh, sorry, apparently it's cranberry. :)

[1] I helped develop & support the very well-received initial SDK that enabled "Hacker Backers" and others to create their first Pebble watch faces & watch apps.

It was quite an experience to be working on the SDK remotely from New Zealand[1a] and then have the initial public SDK release immediately covered by the likes of TechCrunch[1b], The Verge[1c] and Engadget. (An SDK! :D )

There was a lot of pent-up interest/demand for the SDK so it was really great to see how excited people were when they successfully implemented their first watch face or (later) watch app. In many/most cases this was the person's first experience of anything approaching "embedded" programming--there was a lot of effort put into removing as many barriers from the development experience as possible, so it was really rewarding to see people succeed.

(Initially the process still required a locally installed embedded development environment, so even with all the effort invested to reduce barriers it still wasn't a simple process but turns out people were really motivated. :) It also turned out that I was really motivated to script/automate & simplify the process simply to avoid having to write documentation covering a more manual process. :D )

It was also super cool to see people then develop other (particularly web-based) tools to enable people with even less technical experience/skill to still create e.g. a custom watch face with their favourite sports team logo or the family dog featured on it.

I mention all this in part to reminisce and in part to convey some of what the mood around Pebble was at the time for those who may not have been around *cough* nearly fifteen years ago and were wondering what (part of) the "big deal" was...

An early version of the SDK documentation is archived here: https://web.archive.org/web/20130415083512/http://developer....

[1a] via this HN Jobs post IIRC: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4132957

[1b] https://techcrunch.com/2013/04/12/pebble-watchface-sdk-now-a...

[1c] https://www.theverge.com/2013/4/15/4228700/pebble-tetris-clo...

[2] https://github.com/google/pebble/blob/3b927684809fba173ee540...

[3] Okay, one last note: interesting to observe it was suddenly a lot more difficult to find Pebble/SDK related links from ~2012/2013 due to the amount of coverage the PebbleOS/RePebble announcements seem to have received. Read into that what you wish. :)

follower

去年discuss

> So much for “open source”

In the given context "Proprietary source code" seems to potentially primarily mean third-party proprietary source code which Google doesn't have the rights to re-license.

There's further discussion about what was removed & potentially why here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42845102

TL;DR: Hardware support library source/blobs from CPU/MCU hardware vendor(s) with restrictive license/distribution constraints.

(Some of which may no longer apply to more recent versions of the vendor code in question.)

follower

去年discuss

> Ps so Eric Migikovsky works for Google now? I thought he was working on beeper.

AIUI the connection to Google here is that Google acquired the rights to Pebble OS (when Google acquired FitBit (after FitBit had previously purchased the rights to Pebble OS from Pebble Technology before it closed)).

As Google has now released the code under an Open Source license, Eric (with no connection to Google) is now seemingly planning to build something utilizing the newly opened source.

(Further context is that some other people who formerly worked for Pebble do now work for Google and were involved in the process of getting Google to release the Pebble OS source under an Open Source license.)

Eric commented re: Beeper here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42845776

follower

去年discuss

> Is he planning on self-financing presumably out of some personal wealth?

This may be relevant context for your question: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/09/technology/beeper-messagi...

follower

去年discuss

Unfortunately, as mentioned in another comment, the Bluetooth stack is apparently one of the items that is not included in the source release[0]:

    Some parts of the firmware have been removed for licensing reasons,

including:

    [...]

     - The Bluetooth stack, except for a stub that will function in an emulator

    [...]

Which suggests that the Bluetooth stack wasn't entirely of their own making, so perhaps any of Pebble's own additions were too intertwined (e.g. gave away too much Bluetooth stack vendor proprietary API info) to be easily separated?

[0] https://github.com/google/pebble/blob/3b927684809fba173ee540...

follower

去年discuss

> There was a great little site that let you use a visual UI to build the file

Was the site you used "Watchface Generator" (.de -- domain was poached at some point) : https://developer.rebble.io/developer.pebble.com/community/t...

I seem to recall there were a couple of graphic + watch-face only generator sites but think the .de hosted one was most common?

Of particular note in the current context:

There was also the ground-breaking "CloudPebble IDE" by Katharine Berry (subsequently employed by Pebble), who "coincidentally" :) happens to be one of the three authors of the Google blog post about the Pebble OS release: https://opensource.googleblog.com/2025/01/see-code-that-powe...

(And who is apparently also part of the Rebble team.)

For anyone interested here's a couple of related links I encountered while trying to recall what CloudPebble was called :) :

* Write-up of a person's experience of using CloudPebble to write their first Pebble watch face (with no previous C or Linux experience): https://thomasstoeckert.us/project/pebble-sse-classic

* Write-up about Rebble project by iFixIt in 2019: https://www.ifixit.com/News/33398/rebble-with-a-cause-how-pe...

* Source code for CloudPebble: https://github.com/pebble/cloudpebble

follower

2 年前discuss

> [...] waiting for one or more terminal emulators to get together and add some ridiculous new escape codes [...]

I'm definitely of the opinion[0] that we haven't yet reached the limits of the "terminal emulator" UX paradigm.

The past few years do seem to have seen a resurgence in terminal emulator innovation due in part to a combination of new languages, the prevalence of GPUs, and a realisation that many of the existing terminal emulators weren't interested in any innovation in certain directions.

I've particularly been interested in the possibilities provided by the Terminal Graphics Protocol (which I discuss more in the linked comment).

A couple of years ago I switched to WezTerm[2] due to a combination of its graphics support, implementation language (Rust) and that its main developer seems to be interested in a combination of both solid support for existing standards & opportunities for innovation.

WezTerm also provides opportunities for customisation both in terms of shell integrations and of the application itself[3].

> [...] new escape codes [...]

Also, on this aspect, it may not even be necessary to create new escape codes--recently I discovered the `terminfo(5)` man page actually makes a pretty interesting read[7], in part because it lists some existing escape codes that seem like they have potential for re-use/re-implementation in the current day's more graphic-based systems.

---- footnotes ----

[0] As I mentioned in a recent comment on a thread[1] here:

"Motivated by the thought that at the current point in time perhaps the 'essence' of a 'terminal' is its linear 'chronological' presentation of input/interaction/output history rather than its use of 'text'."

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40475538

[2] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/

[3] While I'm definitely not a fan of the choice of Lua as the extension language, I have now at least hit my head against the wall[4] with it enough that I can actually get more complex custom functionality working.

[4] I've started to write up some of my Lua-related[5] notes & more general WezTerm[6] notes so hopefully it'll eventually be an easier road for others. :)

[5] https://gitlab.com/RancidBacon/floss-various-contribs/-/blob...

[6] https://gitlab.com/RancidBacon/notes_public/-/blob/main/note...

[7] As one does. :) It was a fascinating/amusing time capsule in terms(!) of mentions of weird hardware terminal quirks that at one time ("before my time") needed to be worked around; interesting escape code discoveries; and, the mention of a term I had not thought of for decades but was at one time of importance: NLQ! :D