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nostalgia

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'The language of Pokémon is universal': fans are still catching after 30 years
2 months ago
- A pop-up event in Shoreditch, London celebrated the 10th anniversary of Pokémon Go, attracting hundreds of fans.
- Mairead Ralph met her husband at a Pokémon fan event 16 years ago; she has been a fan since Pokémon Red debuted 30 years ago.
- The Pokémon franchise is the world's largest media franchise with total revenues of $147 billion, spanning games, cards, shows, and more.
- Fans highlight Pokémon's universal appeal and its ability to bring joy and nostalgia, especially during difficult times.
- Rumeysa Usca uses Pokémon Go to entertain her dog and lose weight, while Summer Till uses it to connect with younger relatives.
- Stacie Smith and her son Rupert, who has autism, use the game to encourage Rupert to go outside and integrate into the community.
- Despite the high value of some cards, many fans emphasize that the love for Pokémon is not about material possessions but the enduring joy of the game.
All Soda Yearns to Be Red
2 months ago
- The author reflects on childhood art projects and the first time they mixed all soda fountain flavors into a 'suicide' drink.
- The term 'suicide' for mixed sodas dates back to at least 1950, with regional variations like 'graveyard' or 'kamikaze'.
- At the World of Coca-Cola, the author combined samples from over 100 different sodas into a single drink called the 'International Incident'.
- Surprisingly, the massive mixture was complex and pleasant, yielding a vibrant red color rather than muddy brown.
- The author contrasts the lonely 'redshift' of the universe with the hopeful proximity of mixed colors and flavors.
- The article argues for embracing complexity and chaos over conventional wisdom that favors simplicity.
- An anecdote recounts a friend's disastrous 'Suicide Suicide' at Sonic that tasted like melted Skittles and caused sugar overload.
Remember how awesome PebbleOS is?
2 months ago
- PebbleOS is being relaunched, and the developer is gathering fan content to build excitement.
- Fans are sharing videos and snapshots highlighting their favorite features of PebbleOS.
- The Pebble Appstore is being showcased as a key part of the Pebble experience.
- The project aims to revive the original Pebble smartwatch experience.
Would You Go Back to a Time Before Smartphones If You Could?
2 months ago
- Nostalgia for pre-smartphone eras is a growing cultural force, with 67% of Americans wishing to return to a time before everyone was 'plugged in'.
- Psychologist Clay Routledge argues nostalgia is not about escaping the past but about helping people navigate present challenges and plan for the future.
- Gen Z, despite never experiencing a pre-internet world, shows strong nostalgia for analog times, driven by a desire for control (over technology) and community (organic social interactions).
- Rising sales of 'dumbphones', iPods, vinyl records, and independent bookstores reflect a pushback against digital overload and a yearning for tactile, in-person experiences.
- Nostalgia is often misunderstood as anti-progress, but research shows it boosts goal motivation, optimism, creativity, empathy, and social connection.
- Gen Z may lead a cultural shift toward more intentional tech use, balancing digital convenience with analog, real-world engagement.
A hacker’s guide to bending the universe
2 months ago
- Cathode ray tubes (CRTs) are engineering marvels that use electron guns and phosphor to create moving images.
- The author's old computer had an EGA graphics card with two modes: high-resolution (640x350) for business and low-resolution (320x200) for games.
- The CRT developed a distortion that only affected the low-resolution mode, limiting game time to three minutes before the screen warped.
- Unable to afford a new monitor, the author wrote a TSR program that switched the game's mode to high-resolution, making it playable albeit distorted.
- This hack taught the author that creative solutions can overcome seemingly impossible constraints, a lesson that influenced his career.
The Clock
2 months ago
- Polish state television in the 1980s used a minimalistic clock to fill gaps between programs, a practice known as a clock ident.
- The author vividly remembers this clock as a symbol of anticipation for favorite shows, like a gateway to adventure.
- In 2015, the author recreated the clock in JavaScript after finding a VHS recording on YouTube, tapping into nostalgia.
- The clock was later discovered to be imported from Japan, and similar clock idents existed in other countries.
The end of AOL dialup
2 months ago
- The author's family had a history with PlayNET and QuantumLink, with the author being banned from QuantumLink after the first bill.
- Mid-1990s, they switched to AOL, which the author used until 2006, including during a cross-country road trip when Wi-Fi was unavailable.
- The author suggests creating a new AOL server via modem emulation to preserve the experience, and hopes for leaked source code from Yahoo/Verizon.
- The author's mother still uses her AOL email address, even though they now have cable internet.
<antirez>
2 months ago
- Redis creator announces Gopher protocol implementation for its 10th anniversary.
- Gopher is a text-only protocol that emphasizes content without modern web tracking, comments, or heavy scripting.
- Gopher is intentionally 'uncool' to provide an alternative space for focused, long-lasting content.
- Implementation is only 100 lines of code, using Redis inline protocol for requests starting with '/' or empty.
- Content is served from Redis keys via Gopher; normal Redis commands remain functional.
- Authoring tool 'gopher2redis' is provided to create Gopher holes easily.
- Example Gopher hole available at gopher://gopher.antirez.com.
- To enable, use Redis unstable branch with 'gopher-enabled yes' and password protect the instance.
- Creator hopes to foster a community outside the chaos of the modern Internet.
No Stack Overflow, No Autocomplete: What Coding Felt Like in the 80s
2 months ago
- Typing program listings from magazines required extreme precision, as even a single space error would prevent the program from running.
- Debugging in that era was a manual, painstaking process of comparing characters on screen to printed pages, with no online resources like Stack Overflow.
- Community existed through letters to editors, with delays of weeks, resembling modern forums but at a slower pace.
- Modern tools like autocomplete and AI save time but have replaced the necessity to read and understand code slowly and deeply.
Zuckerberg's AI optimism blitz using nostalgia to sell AI future amid backlash
2 months ago
- Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg released a video promoting an optimistic view of AI, using nostalgic imagery of people connecting via Meta's platforms.
- Marketing experts criticized the video for avoiding real concerns about AI's impact, such as job displacement and integration into platforms.
- Meta is facing employee lawsuits over AI-related layoffs and backlash from workers in its Applied AI unit, as well as legal issues with its Ray-Ban glasses.
- Other tech leaders like OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei have walked back earlier predictions about AI eliminating jobs, now suggesting automation expands roles rather than replaces them.
- Nostalgia marketing is used by Meta to shift attention from contentious AI debates and make the technology feel more genuine and human.
TWC Classics
2 months ago
- TWC Classics is the oldest and largest website dedicated to The Weather Channel, launched in summer 1997.
- It hosts over 8,000 files of audio, video, images, and information about the channel.
- The WeatherSTAR 4000, introduced in 1990, first displayed the TWC logo on local forecasts.
- In 1998, the network began using quarterly playlists for local forecast music.
It's a shame what's happened to radio
2 months ago
- The author enjoyed a nine-year radio career starting in college, but now feels radio has lost its appeal.
- Radio has changed due to corporate consolidation, deregulation, and ratings measurement changes, reducing local talent and live interaction.
- Advertisers target younger demographics, ignoring older listeners like the author.
- Voicetracking and satellite formats have replaced live DJs, making stations feel impersonal.
- The author's former stations are off the air, and favorite local DJs have been let go or passed away.
- The author now listens to music on iPhone and NPR for news, concluding radio's decline is partly self-inflicted.
I Owe My Life to the Commodore 64
2 months ago
- The Commodore 64 was affordable compared to other personal computers in the 1980s, costing under $600 and eventually dropping to $199.
- Purchasing the Commodore 64 was justified as an educational tool, but the author primarily used it for playing pirated video games, which taught problem-solving skills.
- Playing sports simulation games on the Commodore 64 helped the author learn about American sports and fostered camaraderie with others.
- The computer connected the author internationally, such as with an Austrian relative, and locally through Bulletin Board Systems (BBS), leading to friendships and job opportunities.
- The author wrote a novel using the Commodore 64's word processor, filling two floppy disks, which sparked a lifelong passion for writing.
- The Commodore 64 foundationaly contributed to the author's career as a Lead Application Developer by fostering early computing skills and perseverance.
- Decades later, the author purchased a replica Commodore 64 Ultimate, evoking nostalgic emotions and memories of early computing experiences.
My Midlife Crisis Corolla Is Fast, Furious, and Modded
2 months ago
- The author bought a GR Corolla, a high-performance version of the Toyota Corolla, for his 50th birthday, describing its aggressive design and modifications like an exhaust system, wheels, and audio upgrades.
- He reflects on the 1990s Southern California import car culture, highlighting how Asian Americans pioneered it by modifying affordable Japanese cars, creating a community and identity separate from mainstream stereotypes.
- The author connects his current GR Corolla to his past 1989 Honda CRX, emphasizing how cars can evoke nostalgia and personal history, and critiques The Fast and the Furious for whitewashing Asian American contributions and misrepresenting street racing.
- He shares a story of a Vietnamese American mechanic, a real-life import car legend who worked on his Corolla, symbolizing poetic justice and the importance of Asian Americans being heroes in their own narratives.
'Chinese Dreamcore,' Where Gen Z Relives a Brighter Past
3 months ago
- Young Chinese are using Chinese Dreamcore, a digital subculture, to cope with current economic hardships by reminiscing about the early 2000s.
- This trend involves sharing nostalgic content like old photos, memes, and retro aesthetics from childhood, serving as a 'digital pain reliever'.
- Chinese Dreamcore resonates emotionally with Gen Z, who feel a loss of familiar past scenes due to rapid societal changes and urbanization.
- Artists and creators contribute through eerie mash-ups, animations, and photography to preserve memories and express subconscious feelings.
- State media warns of risks like existential crises from over-immersion, though it's seen as more superficial than past nostalgic critiques.
- The trend has gone mainstream, appearing in games, ads, and products, while fostering community and healing through shared vulnerability.
The most unbelievable things about life before smartphones (2020)
2 months ago
- Life before smartphones involved getting lost frequently, waiting without real-time information, and lacking efficiency or instant gratification.
- Personal interactions were face-to-face, dating required direct communication, and social validation was minimal compared to today's digital likes and alerts.
- Entertainment involved physical media like mixtapes and record stores, limited photo-taking with film cameras, and consuming news through printed papers.
- Health and wellness awareness was lower, with no tracking of steps or access to motivational content, and fewer discussions on therapy or social issues.
- Technology was less integrated; devices didn't communicate, surveillance was rare, and daily life lacked the constant connectivity and updates of modern times.
Commodore 64 Basic for PostgreSQL
3 months ago
- PL/CBMBASIC allows PostgreSQL to run functions written in Commodore 64 BASIC V2, using the actual 1982 interpreter compiled into C.
- It features line numbers starting at 10, mandatory for code, with function arguments injected as BASIC variables in lines 0-9.
- Includes a validator that enforces C64 BASIC naming rules, preventing variables with embedded keywords (e.g., 'TOTAL' contains 'TO').
- OUT parameters are handled by reading BASIC's variable table from emulated RAM after program execution.
- Device 8 is mapped to the database, allowing use of OPEN, INPUT#, PRINT#, etc., to execute SQL statements and read results.
- Errors are trapped through the interpreter's ERROR vector, providing PostgreSQL errors with original BASIC error codes.
- Performance benchmarks show it's slower than PL/Python but faster than the original hardware, with a 15-microsecond reset per call.
- Limitations include uppercase-only strings, 255-character string limits, no NULL support, and superuser-only untrusted language status.

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nostalgia

'The language of Pokémon is universal': fans are still catching after 30 years

All Soda Yearns to Be Red

Remember how awesome PebbleOS is?

Would You Go Back to a Time Before Smartphones If You Could?

A hacker’s guide to bending the universe

The Clock

The end of AOL dialup

<antirez>

No Stack Overflow, No Autocomplete: What Coding Felt Like in the 80s

Zuckerberg's AI optimism blitz using nostalgia to sell AI future amid backlash

TWC Classics

It's a shame what's happened to radio

I Owe My Life to the Commodore 64

My Midlife Crisis Corolla Is Fast, Furious, and Modded

'Chinese Dreamcore,' Where Gen Z Relives a Brighter Past

The most unbelievable things about life before smartphones (2020)

Commodore 64 Basic for PostgreSQL