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Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?

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Re: Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?

#211
post #155

The Wire. I'd tried to watch it a few times, but only a few months ago actually got past the first two episodes. I think it helped that I quite quickly saw it as a morally ambiguous discussion of the institutional ineptitude of conservative western cultures in mitigating the effects of crime, rather than a typical 'good vs bad' cop show. With that mindset, the possibly-underwhelming finale of S1 is much more effectiv…

The Wire is the greatest show that has ever been made in my opinion. It features thoughtful examinations of schools, corruption, media bias, policing policy, labor, drug legalization, addiction, politics, drug organizations, what it is like to be poor, and much more. The Wire also features the single most accurate portrayal of what it is like to exist in a large organization and how individuals within those organizations drive organizational momentum, policy, and culture at all levels. People complain about it being a little slow because real life is slow and the Wire is emulating real life. The ending of the show is also perfect in that it's absolutely not spectacular in any way. Season 1 is my favorite season.

Re: Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?

#212
post #187
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not for me. Too much quantum time travel hand-waving just magically solving problems.

Actually, I thought this was the clever part. If you pay attention, they created a lot of other problems as a side effect. It wraps up all the existing plots, and introduces new ones. There's a lot of hints on what went wrong with time travel, and if you read up on Marvel lore, there are plenty of villains who are able to maneuver time travel better than the heroes.

And it created a wonderful narrative device to revisit scenes and references from several other filmes. Marvel movies never positioned themselves to be hard scifi.

Re: Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?

#213
post #200
post #155

The Wire. I'd tried to watch it a few times, but only a few months ago actually got past the first two episodes. I think it helped that I quite quickly saw it as a morally ambiguous discussion of the institutional ineptitude of conservative western cultures in mitigating the effects of crime, rather than a typical 'good vs bad' cop show. With that mindset, the possibly-underwhelming finale of S1 is much more effectiv…

A good companion piece is Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory , which gave David Simon much of his inspiration for The Wire. Excellent film.

Paths of Glory is one of my favorite films, after hearing David Simon speak about how it's essentially a movie about middle management and the dangers of being giving a task that's impossible to complete yet will still let down the people who look up to you!

Re: Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?

#214

Interstellar. Tool's Fear Inoculum. The Expanse.

I looovvveee Interstellar. That "No Time for Caution" sequence is the exact point in time that I granted Christopher Nolan apotheosis. Doesn't hurt that I'm a bit of a space geek too. It's as if Interstellar was made with marketing crosshairs aimed at me.

However, I think it's still in that "only time will tell" phase. Like Cameron's Avatar---mindblowing during it's time and for a few years after but now just mostly remembered for the implications of Na'vi anatomy and the lazily named unobtanium---Interstellar might yet be remembered more for the cheesy bits than its storytelling.

I still have very high hopes for it though! But I'm giving it maybe five more years, at least a decade. Fingers crossed!

Re: Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?

#215

I'm loving my Apple Watch. I wasn't entirely sure yet what to think of the watch as a form factor, given that a phone can do everything it can and more. But there's three interesting aspects that have really added value for me. 1) is health data, in a way a computer or phone just can't do. It tracks things like heartrate that a phone + heartrate strap is too convoluted for, for non-athletes. Plus it's all-day and qui…

“Full day, 18 hours” battery life ruined it all for me. Too much trouble to charge so often.

The Series 3 has better battery life than the Series 6 (from my experience owning both).

I think the difference is the Series 6 screen never fully turns off. I imagine disabling "always on" mode would likely push battery life much higher, but that's just a guess

Re: Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?

#217

Factorio!!! (It wasn't really hyped, but if it was, it would have lived up to it.) Actual video from the game doesn't qualify as hype! And the code is rock solid and wicked efficient. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR01YdFtWFI&ab_channel=Facto... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVvXv1Z6EY8&ab_channel=Facto... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqaAjgpsoW8&ab_channel=Facto...

I’m an avid Factorio player. It is rare to see such commitment to craftsmanship that the Factorio developers demonstrate. Every aspect of the game is continually refined and improved. The game is very performant even when there tens of thousands of entities moving around at any moment.

The multiplayer gameplay also reveals a lot of fundamental truths about collaborative engineering as the player must debate architecture, prioritize and balance between the short term and the long term, join individual efforts into a group product, discover Schelling points, and so on.

Re: Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?

#218

GNU/Linux phones, Pinephone and Librem 5. Even though they aren’t daily drivers for everyone yet, they are truly full computers in you pocket without stupid restrictions of the duopoly.

Somewhat related to that, Termux on Android. The few times I've had to use it, it's been a joy. Being able to use a bluetooth keyboard with my phone hooked up to a monitor via USB-C to HDMI was very cool.

Re: Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?

#220

The internet, computers, iPhone, The Mandalorian, SSDs, GTA3, bitcoin (so far), mRNA, SpaceX, graphene, cars Still hoping nuclear fusion and carbon removal pulls through.

Graphene? Are there consumer products based on any of the hype on graphene? Honest question.

Consumer products no, but commercial/industrial products yes
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