Next.js Hacker News
Tmp.0ut Volume 5
199 points by ghuntley 1 day ago | 40 comments
  • sph
    Seeing stuff like this reminds me why I got into computers in the late 90s. Human ingenuity paired with love for the art and the craft.

    Good to have a reminder that it’s software engineering that has changed, not me.

    • yesitcan
      Things were less load-bearing back then.
  • joshuaS98
    ``` How can people write big systems in general?

    We do, but as you say, they're often debugged into existence rather than cleanly designed into existence. ```

  • glimshe
    A small window to how we used to spread deep computer topics in the 90s. No substacks or X posts. Very cool.
    • sph
      No boring themes either. There was more than the corporate bland aesthetic.
      • p-e-w
        They all converged to looking the same though.

        An unreadable fantasy font logo at the top, multiple concentric frames, dot lines, l33t speech etc.

        And I absolutely remember people complaining about slop in such intros even in the 90s, they just didn’t use that term.

  • guerrilla
    Wow, it's been a while since anyone published anything this interesting.
    • jenders
      Agreed. Love stuff like this. Keep it comin’
  • atannen
    Good interview with McIlroy. Fix this: Goldstine, as in the citations, not Goldstein, as in the body text.

    Also, the text mentions CDC 1620. I don't think this existed. Either it was IBM 1620 or CDC something else.

    I'd be just as happy with clear readable type, but the content is the thing.

  • 8bitsrule
    When I zoom in, the right half of the page becomes invisible.
  • NDlurker
    The mixtape is great. Not sure what genre this would be considered but it's very interesting

    https://soundcloud.com/blotter1/blotter_tmp0ut_2026

    • crtasm
      Direct link, no tracking: https://soundcloud.com/blotter1/blotter_tmp0ut_2026/
      • NDlurker
        Thanks. I don't use SoundCloud so didn't recognize that as a tracking link. Will edit the post
    • skrebbel
      Feels a bit like a waste that the lovely diskmag interface doesn't seem to have a play button for this mixtape. Hope they add that in future issues.
    • nanoxide
      I'm sure someone has a more precise idea on what it's called, but I would lean towards minimal DnB.
  • harel
    This reminds me that I have a stack of 2600 magazines in the garage somewhere. I need to revisit them...
    • Insanity
      Damn, that's a lot of magazines!

      Sorry, couldn't resist. Never got those as it was a bit before my time, I started coding in 2004'ish in EU and wasn't aware of 2600 until much later. Not sure if they ever moved digital?

  • Rendello
    This one was good:

    Interview: Doug McIlroy: https://tmpout.sh/5/2.html

  • megagpt1
    Cloudflare's captcha uses half of the obfuscation techniques from the code virtualization article, but in javascript
  • vivzkestrel
    - i like visual

    - can we get a whole magazine that explains ideas like this? https://visualrambling.space/neural-network/

  • bargainbin
    Love the aesthetic. There was another ezine like this years ago focused on cybersecurity, I’ve forgotten its name now but the ASCII art involved was top notch.

    Does anyone have any idea? It was definitely when Twitter was still Twitter as I remember reaching out to them about their ASCII art.

    • mckirk
      Maybe you're thinking of Phrack [1]? I wonder if there'll be another edition of it, and if yes what it would look like, now that the AIpocalypse seems to have reached security research...

      [1]: https://phrack.org

  • nekooooo
    wow, actual hackers
  • pixelpoet
    Is the zero instead of capital O in the title intentional?
    • jolmg
      https://tmpout.sh/5/1.html

      > Welcome to tmp.0ut Volume 5!

      They are kinda inconsistent about it, looking at the social media handles, ascii logos, etc.

    • skrebbel
      Decades before leetcode, we already had leetspeak! This is that.
  • brettermeier
    Very nice aesthetics.
  • darkstar_16
    I miss the ezines scene!
  • debo_
    The interview with Doug McIlroy is incredible. It's almost worth a link all on its own.
  • chews
    really missed an opportunity to make this available via SSH shell or renderable in lynx.
  • josefritzishere
    This is gorgeous; supremely impressive.
  • iberator
    Very cool and BBS/hacking style. BUT almost useless on mobile :(

    I prefer to use a PC but that kind of articles are perfect to read when commuting.

    You could just use <br> instead of fixed length words per line.

    • russellbeattie
      Agreed. Though apparently you're being downvoted for a legitimate issue. I'm laying down using my phone and it's not particularly enjoyable to read.

      It's 2026 - the site can look like an old-skool zine being displayed with monospace fonts on a computer monitor and easily still have alternate formats for mobile devices. Not having it is just pure laziness.

      I wouldn't mind if Reader Mode could deal with the text, but it can't. Oh well.

  • BodyCulture
    It would be great if you hacked your website to be better usable on a smaller mobile device! I need to zoom in to read, but then I also need to scroll sideways because of fixed layout.

    You can do both, achieve a cool retro style and publish in a more modern format that supports multiple output devices.

    • hk__2
      …Or use a non-modern format and serve it as .txt, which supports all devices. The only downside is you’ll lose colors, but they are not strictly required.