Top all-time · #12939
Justin Miller
Personal blog · justinmiller.io/posts · on HN as incanus77hardwareprogrammingproductivity
Justin Miller's personal blog at justinmiller.io covers hardware, programming and productivity. Since 2015, 5 different Hacker News readers have linked it 33 times, most often “How my link blog works”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-04-29, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (1) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Linked for the Project 386 series, here part 4, on using a DOS PC and how focused it felt. One commenter cited it while reflecting on their own big-case PC and on computers being tied to work and stress.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 1 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Maker, programmer, photographer, and traveler in Portland, Oregon, USA.
Most-linked posts?
- How my link blog works3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-01-12
- Project 386 #4: Against all odds, success2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2020-06-17
What Hacker News says?
These printers are fun. I got one from a hardware swap meet a few years back and used the same software to work it into a public art project I did a bit later. You could listen to or record your own “dream” story to a kiosk, and upon leaving one, you’d get a paper receipt. It was a fun, tangible interaction that gave a bit of permanence to something purely audio. https://justinmiller.io/services/dreamdial1.jpg
Comment linking /services/dreamdial1.jpg
on “I built a receipt printer for GitHub issues”Submitted An always-available, online-capable Raspberry Pi in your pocket as a story · 310 points
HN discussionEven when you try to live for today, things can broadside you. Last year, my wife, age 36, went from the healthiest person I knew to dead in four months from aggressive pancreatic cancer. http://justinmiller.io/posts/2016/06/07/writing-move-on/ These things happen and underscore the frailty in thinking that the present continues on unchecked and is bound by some sort of rule of inertia. Don't wait; do the things you…
Comment linking /posts/2016/06/07/writing-move-on/
on “You May Want to Marry My Husband”Submitted Repurposing Hugo as a wiki as a story · 123 points
HN discussionLove to see this repurposing. My first experience with Chromebooks was after a workshop at Teardown '23 here in Portland, where I attended a session on using the MrChromebox stuff. I eventually ended up using the knowledge to encase Chromebooks in custom-built cabinets for use as display screens and GPIO interfaces for a science festival educational exhibit on electromagnetism and speakers. https://justinmiller.io/p…
Comment linking /projects/catchthewave/
on “The most unhinged video wall, made out of Chromebooks”Submitted Show HN: Space Age Hand Tools in the Maker Age as a story · 66 points
HN discussionI have a ~200 LOC Hugo partial I've built up which reads in the webmentions via jQuery, then parses them out into Twitter, Micro.blog, or "other". If at least one of either/or Twitter or Micro.blog, pull out the root URL and show that at the top of the comments to encourage discussion. Otherwise, parse out like, repost, or plain old mention and add an icon. I also have an HN parser for posts like this one[1] if they…
Comment linking /posts/2019/09/21/pi-gadget/
on “Webmention.io”Submitted How my link blog works as a story · 4 points
HN discussionExcellent concept, project & service. I'm using it together with Brid.gy[1] on my Hugo-hosted blog[2] and it's great for bringing in Twitter likes of posts. [1] https://brid.gy/ [2] https://justinmiller.io/posts/2020/12/23/ornament/
Comment linking /posts/2020/12/23/ornament/
on “Webmention.io”Submitted Creating an electromagnet and sound wave learning environment as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI'm very sorry for your loss. Just over five years ago, I lost my wife of 10 years at the age of 36 to pancreatic cancer. She went from seemingly perfectly healthy, athletic even, to deathly ill and passing inside of six months. It wasn't fair, and in fact was completely tragic because of the person that she was. Mirroring some advice already here: don't be afraid to cry, to feel. You have to. You also have to recon…
Comment linking /series/grief/
on “Ask HN: How to cope with the death of a dear person?”Submitted How my link blog works as a story · 3 points
HN discussionRight, this was the first problem: “i386” distros actually pretty much all went 486+ some years back. So that severely limits the ecosystem. While you can always go back in the archive and get a bare kernel, I wanted a full system with init, package management, etc. The card is (unsurprisingly) an ISA slot, an Intel EtherExpress 16. I forget exactly where I was with it when last I poked at this earlier this year, bu…
Comment linking /posts/2020/04/26/project-386-part-1/
on “Running Debian on a 32MB RAM Single Core ARM SBC”Submitted How my link blog works as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI’ve recently revived a boxy, suitcase 386 and the biggest thing that jumped out at me was the lack of distraction and the similarity to an old tool. I blogged about it a bit recently: https://justinmiller.io/posts/2020/06/17/project-386-part-4/ I mean, yeah, it’s not _capable_ of a whole lot, but it’s a refreshing perspective to look back at computing from then and to think about how much we did that wasn’t sitting…
Comment linking /posts/2020/06/17/project-386-part-4/
on “Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac”Submitted There is no way to screen for deadly pancreatic cancer as a story · 3 points
HN discussionAwesome find. I grew up on the Apple IIe at school. I'm trying to do something like the author's rediscovery with a cheaply-found "luggable" 386 over here: https://justinmiller.io/posts/2020/04/26/project-386-part-1/ So far, it's proving much more difficult.
Comment linking /posts/2020/04/26/project-386-part-1/
on “My New Old Apple IIe Computer”Submitted Making a Custom PCB Ornament as a story · 1 points
HN discussionLast year, right after the pandemic started, I acquired a left-for-years portable 386SX-based computer which I took to restoring to working order. I blogged it up and had a ton of fun, kicking off my retrocomputing hobby (now up to six machines): https://justinmiller.io/series/project-386/
Comment linking /series/project-386/
on “286 vs. 386SX”Submitted I'm getting things done in 2020 as a story · 1 points
HN discussionhttps://justinmiller.io/posts/2020/06/17/project-386-part-4/ Just read your bit on how focused you felt using that. Very interesting! I still have my ATX big case pc and won't give it up for a laptop even though it makes no sense (well it does in that I can upgrade bits as I please). However for the most part I associate computers with work and stress these days.
Comment linking /posts/2020/06/17/project-386-part-4/
on “mTCP: TCP/IP applications for DOS PCs”Submitted Legacy SSH key configuration for DOS as a story · 1 points
HN discussionGreat toolset. This was essential once I got my revived 386 luggable going in order to get all sorts of software and files back and forth with the FTP server. https://justinmiller.io/series/project-386/
Comment linking /series/project-386/
on “mTCP: TCP/IP applications for DOS PCs”Submitted Project 386 #2: Beeps and RAM and manuals–oh my as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThis is awesome! I made an iOS- and OS X-based interactive one for Halloween recently as well: http://justinmiller.io/posts/2015/11/17/mirror-mirror/
Comment linking /posts/2015/11/17/mirror-mirror/
on “MirrorMirror: A Raspberry Pi-Powered Magic Mirror”Submitted Project 386 #4: Against all odds, success as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI'll add to the chorus of "only?" I have abut 300 right now across three Macs, an iPad, and an iPhone, plus Safari Tab Groups (i.e. tab groups shared between machines) with 11 groups of (on average) about 15 tabs per group. Before Safari Tab Groups, I had some Bash & AppleScripts setup to give me menu access to all tabs via SwiftBar and some Syncthing syncing of tabs metadata. I also actively bookmark (in fact, one…
Comment linking /links/
on “I have 218 browser tabs open”Submitted Project 386 #3: First signs of life as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI took this same approach when I repaired a 386 damaged by a Varta battery. After fixing some motherboard traces, I installed a Velcro’s 3xAAA battery holder in my case for the same effect. https://justinmiller.io/posts/2020/06/17/project-386-part-4/
Comment linking /posts/2020/06/17/project-386-part-4/
on “Building a replacement 386/486 CMOS battery”Submitted Project 386 #1: The acquisition and some personal computing history as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
