Cheers -- thank you for shipping such amazing software at a time where the Mac was always "second class" or shunned from other communities. For once we had a seriously badass exclusive thing and it came at JUST the right time in my life. I have SO many stories, running my own servers, making friends, sharing my music and discovering new music from around the world (as I already mentioned), connecting me with people who influenced my career and interests...
Do you remember David Raufeisen ("FORTYoz")? I believe he created hx, if I recall correctly. It turned out he lived in the Vancouver area as well, and at the time I REALLY wanted to try Linux, BSD, whatever (and was asking for help on some HL server), and he gave me his personal phone number so I could call him and get help from him. It turned out neither of the two Macs I had were supported by ANY *nix variant (not even A/UX or anything), so I was out of luck, but I'll never forget his kind gesture, and my much-later realization of his significance in the HL community.
Fun memories. We of course on the Hotline team used Hotline itself to keep in touch with each other around the world -- at that point, Adam in Australia and the rest of us across the US and Canada. Fun antics in the group chat. =)
It was a really fun time. At its peak Hotline went on to be used by millions, and even by companies like Apple, GM, and Avid. I particularly loved the Toronto Star quote that called Hotline "a major force in the online world" at the time.
These days I work for the Computer History Museum and have lots of Hotline stuff adorning my cubicle :) )
Thank you! I used Hotline all the time back in the day. I loved it! I was a member of quite a few servers. I really miss the cozy feel of a private community like that!
We did have it in the States; it just wasn't ever very broadly adopted.
Circa 1992, a friend's house had a then-fancy Zenith TV that supported Teletext, which was unusual at the time. IIRC it worked with exactly one cable channel in our town, TBS, and it had a fair variety of news and information. I enjoyed playing around with it when I visited, much to my friend's bemusement.
Eventually, TVs with Teletext (and closed captioning) became much more common, but by then the ship had sailed. The service was NLA by the time we had a TV with these capabilities in our own home.
I may have had that same zenith tv. In my town we had 2 channels that did anything with it. One was basically a static summary of whatever was on. The other was pretty cool with stocks and weather and news. But mid 90s they turned it off. Never tried TBS. Guess I should have.
Senator Bernie Sanders has a plan with several co-sponsors to try to make a 10-year "long-covid moonshot" but given how politics work in this country it will never happen unless watered down to something useless and meaningless.
This is talking about private funding. The problem is that we don't have enough understanding to know where to start and private funding works very poorly in such situations.
And I'm sure public funding is tied up in politics. Covid is too politicized.
Why? Is this a higher research priority than other medical conditions such as cancer or HIV? Are there plausible reasons to think that epic scale funding would significantly accelerate results?
I agree. We should research it at a level appropriate for the damage long covid is causing. Which is probably a lot, because it seems like a real thing that is impacting lots of people; but it's far from the most important medical problem we have.
This same phenomenon isn't unique to Covid either. Other illnesses can lead to similar debilitations. Research into this will give great insight into processes we hardly understand.
Of course it's not the #1 healthcare priority now but who says we should only solve problem #1 and leave all the others hanging?
I know a health worker that worked hard to save lives during the first phases of Covid and her life is now ruined due to this. I doubt she can be 'cured' but at least this may be prevented for others.
I'd argue chronic conditions that are debilitating should have at least the same priority as cancer, assuming their prevalence in the general population is similar. Long covid is more like to affect productive age people compared to cancer, so a government would be wise to prioritize it.
Higher? No. But causes of chronic fatigue like ME/CFS are already massively underfunded relative to their impact on society and people's lives. Both HIV and most types of cancer are pretty manageable nowadays while having a much lower QoL impact than LCOV or ME.
Further, many of those conditions share enough common traits that it's plausible that insights into one will generate insights into others.
Per Poe’s law, which most of the Hacker News community is familiar with, assume sarcasm doesn’t exist unless the commenter explicitly tells it’s sarcasm.
That seems really foolish. A certain percentage of the population will always have the latest, I have no energy and can’t work disease: long COVID, chronic fatigue syndrome, Lyme disease, fibromyalgia, gulf war syndrome, etc. Just wait a few years and it will be a whole new “epidemic”.
I see no reason why the "privileged laptop class" cannot have their quality of life improved still further. We don't stop at trying to help the "privileged potable-water-having class" or the "privileged sheltered class". If it's not hurting anyone else, why call it out?
Something wrong with them getting out of the way of people who actually need to go somewhere to do their jobs?
A office worker having to drive somewhere to look at a screen they can have at home, shouldn't be an impediment to a nurse that has a real job that requires them to be where they work.
Let’s face it, the office job class of workers has been stuck in almost the same work routine as 80+ years ago when we used typewriters. And EVEN THEN we still had teleworking as a concept.
We’re long overdue for a legitimate overhaul of what work looks like for the typical office.
Not saying jobs that require in person presence shouldn’t be compensated for that- just that we need to look at it seriously.
Laptop class? You mean like the fresh outdoors class (labourers)? There's no hat benefit indoors.. Let's not let them wear hats outdoors as they already enjoy an extremely high quality of life.
Should workers also not return to the farm, the factory, the mine, the hospital? Flexible work arrangements are great but it's only a tiny fraction of the privileged laptop class who even potentially have the option of remote work.
> it's only a tiny fraction of the privileged laptop class who even potentially have the option of remote work.
I have friends who are doctors. They chose their specialties not out of passion, but because of the lifestyle perks that come with them—benefits unique to their profession. Their entire education and career choices were driven by a desire for those perks. Similarly, I transitioned to an IT career to pursue the lifestyle advantages it offers. Which was not the same perks or lifestyle advantages they were looking for.
Regarding farming: I was a farmer myself, working our own farm (pork and stud cattle) as well as a farmhand on others. Farming is an incredibly flexible role, and for many, it involves working from home because the farm is the home. I’ve been doing "WFH" since childhood.
Many people choose farming or stay on family farms because they enjoy the unique perks it offers—just like those who pursue "laptop class" work for its lifestyle benefits.
A lot of my farming buddies ski all winter. Every job has its good and bad aspects, to call someone who chose and attained a spot in a particular field priveleged is ridiculous. (not directed at parent comment)
I'd like to see outdoor park / landscape designers actually think of shade issues when thinking of shade umbrellas, shade roof overheads, etc.
I used to work outdoors somewhere where the "shade" providing roof and umbrellas were useless many hours of the day, due to the actual position of the sun.
Is Signal likely to be compromised too?