Hey buddy,

Man, Saturday on Hacker News was kinda wild. Lemme give you the quick rundown of some cool stuff I saw.

Bill Atkinson Passed Away

First off, bummer news. Bill Atkinson died. You know, the guy who did a ton of early Mac stuff like MacPaint and HyperCard? Big deal for old-school tech folks. The post got a ton of points and comments. People were sharing memories of using his software back in the day, even trying to copy the MacPaint lasso tool on old computers. Someone also pointed out he was a big photographer too and helped people share photos globally. Pretty cool legacy, you know? Check it out here.

Washington Post's Privacy Tips

Okay, switching gears. The Washington Post had this article saying to stop using Chrome and delete your Meta apps (and Yandex) if you care about privacy. Pretty strong advice! People in the comments were going back and forth about it. Some were totally agreeing, saying it's creepy how much companies track you. Others were complaining about how privacy regulations, like those EU cookie banners, just mess things up online. Someone even made a dark joke about us "speedrunning Cyberpunk 2077". Link's here if you wanna read it.

Getting Past Procrastination

Alright, here's one we can probably all relate to: getting past procrastination. The article had some tips. The comments were interesting – someone talked about how getting diagnosed with ADHD really helped them understand their own procrastination and be nicer to themselves. Another person mentioned "couch machining," which is basically thinking through a whole task in your head before you even start doing it, like a machinist planning a part. Someone else said procrastination can even be good if you use it to do other productive things you've been putting off – "structured procrastination," they called it. Worth a read if you're putting off that thing you need to do... like reading this article!

Convert Photos to Atkinson Dithering

Speaking of Bill Atkinson, there was another post about a tool to convert photos using Atkinson dithering! It's that cool old black and white look from early Macs. The timing was wild with the news about him. People were sharing other old-school Mac tools and talking about how much they loved that dithered look from their childhood. Someone even made a tool to save the dithered images onto a virtual MacPaint disk image. How niche is that?! Super cool little web tool.

Tent Living Experiment in Hong Kong

This one was a bit different. Someone wrote about their experiment living in a tent in the jungle outside Hong Kong. They were trying to see what it was like to live with way less money and stuff. The comments were pretty quick to point out that while it was an interesting experiment, it's really different from actual homelessness, especially since the author still had access to things like university facilities for showers and charging. But the author seemed to learn a lot from it anyway. Link if you're curious.

Musk-Trump Dispute

Okay, big news stuff. There was a story about a dispute between Elon Musk and Trump, and apparently, it involves Trump threatening SpaceX contracts. Got a ton of comments, as you'd expect, mostly people arguing politics. Someone mentioned how crazy it is that using government contracts for personal retaliation is even something people talk about openly now. The comments were definitely heated on this one. Here's the article.

Why Are Smokestacks So Tall?

Last one for ya, this was a neat engineering one. A post explaining why smokestacks are built so tall. Turns out it's mostly to disperse the pollution higher up so it doesn't affect the immediate area as much. Someone in the comments explained that a taller stack also creates more draft for the furnace, which helps it burn better. Another comment brought up the historical context, how countries used to just build taller stacks instead of adding filters, basically just sending the pollution elsewhere. Interesting stuff you don't really think about. Check out the explanation here.

Anyway, that was most of the interesting stuff from Saturday. Gotta run, man! Catch you later.