"Google has made it really easy to create api credentials for own use, just follow these few steps..." As someone who's been through that particular gauntlet a few times recently, I got a chuckle from the sarcasm.
I second this -- I just found the Ben Eater series a month or so ago and put together his computer clock over the holidays. It really helps you understand clock cycles, logic chips, etc, and is a good foundation for the 6502 kit you build later in the course. And learning Assembly before BASIC is the right learning path IMO, if only to understand how CPU registers work at the electron level.
If one is interested in how internal PC registers work, than these build series do the classic eeprom microcode based CPU builds. Fabian's series is highly accessible, and builds a python based assembler from scratch. James series ends with a simple game design.
Ohhh I get it now — the joke is that the Astros are crooks. Like, actual cheaters who got away with it. Hilarious stuff. Classic. (=
But seriously, they stole a World Series and faced zero real consequences. It’s like watching a gang of bank robbers walk free because the judge thought, “Well, gosh, they seemed like nice young men.”
Imagine if John Wilkes Booth had been caught, and the government just said, “Eh, let’s move on. No hard feelings.” That’s the Astros. MLB gave them a juice box and a pat on the head.
I like the idea but it will be hard to build a moat -- if that's something you care about. How about making it more general? "touch grass", "feel sand between your fingers", "hug a tree" ...
It's startup culture speak to describe something that is unique and impossible/hard to copy for competitors.
I think (hope) that 20wenty was being cheeky and playing along the all-too-common vibe that every project presented on HN needs to become financially successful or else it's a waste of time.
Similar in nature is Farthest North: The Incredible Three-Year Voyage to the Frozen Latitudes of the North. Fridjtof Nansen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fridtjof_Nansen) led the expedition.
The damage is done. You can't overthrow the king (whether you pledge fealty to iTerm2, PowerShell/WSL, Putty, Hyper ... ) if you have to sign up to get past the castle gates. And in the two years it took to remove the signup, the townsfolk have realized their kings are good enough for what they want to do anyway.
Deal breaker: I do not like normalizing the deviancy of sending shell input to a third party. F opt-out telemetry and a "trust us" privacy policy. They're pressured to deliver maximum profits in a short time, and having to use the internet to use your shell and paying for the privilege of handing over private work is absolutely absurd. It could all, and will likely, as most startups go, shutdown at some point in the future and then users will likely be left with nothing. It's a signal there's too much VC money available.
Fundamental error: It's an attempt to innovate in a crowded category inappropriately, like trying to make a physical proxy "phone" or security device that could've been an app, it's too tied to an app. It could've been reduced to a multi-shell, shell-oriented hook that would've been inherently multi-platform without the need for yet another desktop app and would've been portable to other environments without the effort or expense.
