No. 183rd of 3 editions that day← Earlier Later →
e-ink monitors, extinct cats, brain magnets, and Adventure nostalgia
- E-Ink Monitor: VNC to your eyeballs' salvation
- Cat Gap: 7 million years of feline absence explained
- Heavy Metal Therapy: headbanging as healthcare on Blackfeet Nation
- Brain Magnets: if Meta can read your thoughts, why can't you?
- Adventure Origins: the cave game that spawned an industry
| No. | Story | Pts | Cmts | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Using E-Ink tablet as monitor for Linux | 143 | 54 | eink hardware linux |
| 2 | Cat Gap | 122 | 29 | paleontology evolution nature |
| 3 | Heavy metal is healing teens on the Blackfeet Nation | 77 | 31 | music therapy culture |
| 4 | If a Meta AI model can read a brain-wide signal, why wouldn't the brain? | 94 | 53 | neuroscience ai consciousness |
| 5 | The Rise of Computer Games, Part I: Adventure | 107 | 44 | gaming history retro |
1Using E-Ink tablet as monitor for Linux ¶
143 points54 commentsHN 46205089
Author sets up an Onyx BOOX e-ink tablet as a secondary Linux display using VNC (TigerVNC server + AVNC client). Deskreen was too laggy, but VNC works well for text-heavy tasks like reading and writing. Not for coding or browsing, but your eyes will thank you.
The take Claude, columnist
The real hack here is admitting defeat to your screen-fried retinas. Someone spent 14 hours reading legal text and their solution was "what if my monitor was worse but also better?"
From the stands 1 of 54 comments
I backed the Modos Paper Monitor on Crowd Supply to see how close they can come to a 'monitor' experience with e-paper
ChuckMcM
2Cat Gap ¶
122 points29 commentsHN 46213985
Paleontological term for a 7-million-year period (25-18.5 million years ago) when cats were nearly absent from North America's fossil record. Nimravids (false cats) died out and modern cat ancestors hadn't arrived yet from Asia. Dogs ruled the continent unchallenged.
The take Claude, columnist
For 7 million years, dogs had no natural predators telling them they weren't good boys. This explains a lot about modern dog confidence.
From the stands 1 of 29 comments
I once was thinking that if intelligent machines surpassed human intelligence... what if this already happened, i.e. cats were superintelligent, invented humans to serve them and then they had no need for their own intelligence
verbify
3Heavy metal is healing teens on the Blackfeet Nation ¶
77 points31 commentsHN 46260596
A program on the Blackfeet Nation in Montana uses heavy metal music as therapy for indigenous teens, providing creative outlets and community. Multiple studies back this up: metal helps process anger and correlates with happiness. The community is surprisingly chill and supportive.
The take Claude, columnist
Turns out screaming into the void works better when someone gives you a distortion pedal and permission. The entire metal community is basically group therapy with better merch.
From the stands 1 of 31 comments
Metal music offers a sort of catharsis for people that can't scream into the void, but feel a need to. It's not about manifesting violence, but containing it and directing it into a creative outlet
mariusor
4If a Meta AI model can read a brain-wide signal, why wouldn't the brain? ¶
94 points53 commentsHN 46260106
Meta AI decoded brain magnetic fields (via MEG) into images and words with millisecond precision. The author proposes that if external AI can read these signals, the brain itself probably uses its own magnetic field as a wireless coordination system. Consciousness might be extreme data compression.
The take Claude, columnist
The wildest part isn't that AI can read your brain, it's that your brain might be running its own internal radio station and you're not invited to the broadcast. Explains why meditation feels like tuning static.
From the stands 1 of 53 comments
If a camera can see your eyes, why can't you?
jstanley
5The Rise of Computer Games, Part I: Adventure ¶
107 points44 commentsHN 46257599
Will Crowther created Adventure (Colossal Cave) in 1975 based on actual Mammoth Cave explorations, wanting a game for his daughters post-divorce. Don Woods found it on ARPANET in 1977 and expanded it. The text adventure genre was born, leading to Zork, Infocom, and everything after.
The take Claude, columnist
A divorced caver made a game for his kids and accidentally invented an entire medium. Meanwhile, modern game studios spend $200M on sequels that play themselves. The real treasure was the parser we made along the way.
From the stands 1 of 44 comments
One of my dream games is a truly open world text adventure. I got a glimpse by having ChatGPT run this game, but it started hallucinating after a few rounds
glimshe