- TTZ: A sort of next-gen protocol for terminals. The basic idea is to create a dedicated terminal protocol that allows for more features and less legacy cruft (text and commands are cleanly separated). Right now, I’ve defined the protocol and have a couple of implementations ready. It already supports pictures, vector graphics, and file and audio streaming. I love terminals and TUIs, but I found programming and developing UIs against the standard terminal protocols frustrating, so I tried to design a more "modern" version.
- KingD (temp name): A Linux-based OS that tries to unify the roles of router, NAS, and virtualization platform with a single user interface. In my day job, I need to manage multiple FreeNAS, OPNsense, and Proxmox installations, and I wanted something that "encoded" the common workflows I keep repeating and provided a single centralized platform. I’ve been working on this for a while, and I hope to be able to do a Show HN by the end of the summer.
I did something similar on Windows by creating a "virtual desktop," where I can give the app focus without stealing it from another one. The idea was to basically reimplement RemoteApp without needing a dedicated Windows server.
However, in that case, the app is not visible to the user unless you use "connect" to the virtual desktop; to do it, I implemented (WIP) a simple VNC server in C#.
I wonder if you could do the same thing in reverse and have a cheap way to get multiple inputs.
I would love a cheap way to add 8–16 inputs to my PC; all the audio interfaces I found cost quite a bit.
A Behringer UMC1820 does that combination of things (cheap, lots of analog IO, PC interface) very well. It provides 8 inputs OOTB.
For more inputs, a Behringer ADA8200 can be connected with a garden-variety TOSLINK cable, bringing the total of 16.
Or: Two UMC1820s, clocked together using that same TOSLINK cable. That provides 16 inputs that are all identical and also operating in lock-step.
In terms of cost: A smart way to play with this stuff is to buy used gear, and treat eBay as a long-term rental program. Just buy it, use it, and when you want to try something different: Sell it. It works because the depreciation on stuff like this is basically a straight line once the initial hit of turning "new" into "used" gear is over with.
The long-term rental cost then is mostly a combination of time, shipping expense, and seller fees. Keep it as long as you want. :)
edit: alright. so the UMC1820 is apparently having production issues right now, which constrains supply, so prices are higher than normal. On a normal day, they sell for $229 new. I've bought them for ~$100 used. Things will go back to normal soon enough.
The Topping Pro audio interfaces have ludicrously good inputs. The E8x8 has eight analog ins and eight outs plus more connectivity for $450. It is very cheap for what you get. The inputs are crazy good. $450 is also a good chunk of cash, so…
For the $450 you get a lot of stuff. Preamps for mic and guitar pickups. Powerful headphone amp. It's clearly worth it if you make use of some of it, and potentially even just for the inputs alone. $450/8 = $56 per ludicrously clean input is good.
I bought an E1x2 kind of as a joke. Just to see how bad it was. It's actually really, really good.
And also:
It's actually possible to gang together multiple disparate audio interfaces. Let the audio stack keep them in sync with ASRC. Aggregate Device on macOS can do this. People say you can't but you can. Linux is good for this too. If you find a cheaper per channel input, this can actually be done; Piecemeal it.
Thanks for the suggestion. I was hoping for something cheaper since I don't need really high quality. For now, I'm using a bunch of cheap USB soundcards that are good enough, but having multiple USB devices makes routing hell.
The analog input will use separate ADC modules, just as the analog output uses separate DACs. DSPi itself is purely digital (OK, excepting the PWM based sub out). These modules are just a few dollars on AliExpress for ~96dB SINAD
Yes, but this project doesn't do anything analog to begin with. It could just have several S/PDIF and I2S inputs, and convert that to USB. You probably don't want any processing then, and just pass the digital inputs straight to USB. The limit of how many channels you could simultaneously process would then be the USB bandwidth.
Even worse, the ENOB is closer to 9 bits in testing. It’s got horrible DNL/INL. Totally worthless for any audio unless you’re trying to do chiptunes or something.
Personally, I deleted everything I could but kept the Gmail account for a couple of years with a forward to my new account, and after that, I also deleted it. Google Takeout is a very useful way to quickly create a backup of everything Google.
I know that it is a heavyweight solution, but it could be useful for some situations with old driver/devices/applications. I have some old hardware that is compatible only with pre-WinNT OS, and I could do something similar to provide a simple solution for the end user.
Sorry, I wasn't clear. By old hardware, I meant peripherals connected to the computer via serial or USB. We are at a level of performance where running an entire VM as a driver is kind of feasible, if wasteful.
It's not that wasteful if you don't need this stuff most of the time. I have an old HP laser printer from 2008 or so. Nearly 20 years old at this point. Works fine but HP does not provide new drivers and the current x86 ones for my mac will stop working when Apple stops supporting x86 emulation. HP could fix this but they probably don't want to. There likely is a decent Linux driver for this thing. A solution like in the article, or qemu or docker with some way to access this thing over USB could probably get the job done.
I rarely print anything in any case; which is why replacing this thing is not a really a priority for me. I print something maybe once or twice per year at best at this point. It works and does the job. I can get replacement toner cartridges on Amazon. There are decent non branded ones that are really affordable. I've only ever bought two, I think. I just don't print a lot. If somebody provides something that works indefinitely, I might still be using this thing in another 20 years.
All (most?) Steam games have a very simple DRM that is extremely easy to bypass, and you can find examples on github.
However, a lot of games add their own DRM and/or protection scheme that complicates things.
EDIT: technically there are two distinct component: the actual DRM, called steamstub, and the steamwork library, that does not work without steam but it is not considered drm. Both can be easily bypassed/emulated.
I see, but there is Steam DRM there. So, I guess as the other commenter was alluding to, if Steam goes belly up so does your collection, regardless of the dev studio's intention (Or atleast, locked behind a DRM bypass).
I understood this in terms of Live Service games, but did not consider Steam's ability to shut down their own platform and kill my locally installed single player games with it (Again, I'm seeing its possible and seems easy to bypass usually, but the principle of the matter)
I tried to search if it's possible for a dev studio to release a game on Steam that works without it, by which I mean that if I uninstall Steam, the games keep working; I wasn't able to confirm, but it seems to be theoretically possible...
None of the games I have in my library work like that, but online some people suggest that some games work even without Steam, once installed.
Definitely not all games, and for games that do have it cracking it is in most cases as simple as swapping out a Steam .dll (so very easy). It's primarily there as appeasement for devs who would be reluctant to engage with a platform with no copy protection, or in otherwords is mostly theater.
I haven't tried with too many games since the usecase only comes up rarely, but I know that Downwell and UFO 50 work this way off the top of my head. They come with a Steam dll that will try to launch Steam for the sake of getting achievements and such, but if you delete them or just don't have Steam they launch all the same.
Imagine if we teach from primary school student to clean their own classroom and bathroom so that everyone must do at least once every x days/week, it think it would help reconsider how we view this jobs. This is just an example, but I think there are plenty of ways for a government to incentivize desirable behavior (even social).
- TTZ: A sort of next-gen protocol for terminals. The basic idea is to create a dedicated terminal protocol that allows for more features and less legacy cruft (text and commands are cleanly separated). Right now, I’ve defined the protocol and have a couple of implementations ready. It already supports pictures, vector graphics, and file and audio streaming. I love terminals and TUIs, but I found programming and developing UIs against the standard terminal protocols frustrating, so I tried to design a more "modern" version.
- KingD (temp name): A Linux-based OS that tries to unify the roles of router, NAS, and virtualization platform with a single user interface. In my day job, I need to manage multiple FreeNAS, OPNsense, and Proxmox installations, and I wanted something that "encoded" the common workflows I keep repeating and provided a single centralized platform. I’ve been working on this for a while, and I hope to be able to do a Show HN by the end of the summer.