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MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

jan.miksovsky.com

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Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#171

Post by lmm »

zackmorris wrote: post #35
albert_e wrote: post #19

> One small challenge was maximizing the size of the message text. Sometimes a message is just a word or two; other times it might be several sentences. A single font size can’t accommodate such a wide range of text content. I couldn’t find a pure CSS way to automatically maximize font size so that a text element with word wrapping would display without clipping. > I ended up writing a small JavaScript function to ma…

I've been watching the evolution of the web since 1995, and I remember when css got popular in the late 90s thinking that it didn't match real-world use cases. Somehow design-by-committee took us from drawing our sites with tables in the browser's WYSIWYG editor, to not being able to center text no matter how much frontend experience we have. Css jumped the shark and today I'd vote to scrap it entirely, which I know…

CSS was doomed from the start, IMO. It was a poorly-targeted solution to a the wrong problem that could never have worked. But you don't have to use it. You can keep using tables for layout, all browsers render them well (generally faster than CSS, and with better progressive rendering too), real-world screenreaders and the like have had great support for them since before CSS emerged, there's no actual downside.

Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#172

Post by marmaduke »

grahameb wrote: post #3

What a beautiful use of technology to uphold someone's personhood, and let them know they are loved, despite (and with regard to) a profound injury. This reminds me of a desire I've had for a long time: a simple, wall-mountable eInk device that could be configured with a URL (+wifi creds) and render a markdown file, refreshing once every hour or so. It would be so useful for so many applications – I'm a parish priest…

How would you want to host or update the markdown file? Sending an email for instance? Or run your own host?

Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#173

Post by ryanckulp »

lilyball wrote: post #121
ryanckulp wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for your family cal, check out TRMNL. can go on a fridge w/ magnets: https://usetrmnl.com (disclaimer, i'm the founder)

My fridge isn't magnetic. A lot of modern fridges aren't. Might be a neat idea to offer a magnetic mount for it, like a flexible flat magnetic board shaped to fit the TRMNL with a sticky backing so you can attach it somewhere and then use that to attach the TRMNL (your site doesn't seem to say anything about being magnetic so I'm guessing you have to attach magnets to the TRMNL too though?). For that matter, the site…

thanks for the feedback, will add more detail to our website specs + docs.

we included magnets for VIP backers on our crowdfunding campaign and may start selling them again. device has a mounting hole on the back for nails / hooks, we’ll probably release mechanical specs so people can 3D print or otherwise fabricate their own mounts. for example some people want to mash up an array of them. but until then, adhesive magnets work great for the fridge use case.

Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#174

Post by fastball »

froh wrote: post #166
te0006 wrote: post #141

I wish this had come up on HN (or I had had that idea myself) some years ago when my mother suffered from that same cruel condition, for the last four years of her life. With her body, all her older memories and her considerable intelligence largely intact, she had multiple moments of clarity every single day, in which she fully realized the terrible and hopeless situation she was in. But of course, within seconds th…

[flagged]

I do not understand the relevance of the sections you have chosen to highlight here.

Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#175

Post by aitchnyu »

allenrb wrote: post #78
grahameb wrote: post #3

What a beautiful use of technology to uphold someone's personhood, and let them know they are loved, despite (and with regard to) a profound injury. This reminds me of a desire I've had for a long time: a simple, wall-mountable eInk device that could be configured with a URL (+wifi creds) and render a markdown file, refreshing once every hour or so. It would be so useful for so many applications – I'm a parish priest…

Just an aside, but “parish priest” must surely be the opposite of “software developer” on the Hacker News Table of Occupational Frequency. Neat!

To save a few moments stalking his profile yourself: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38762380

TLDR: 20 years as SWE, then used his skills for his calling.

Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#176

Post by urtie »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #8

Does any commercial version of this exist? Using an existing tablet makes the DIY aspect a little less but then you have to roll your own site as well.

Well, for the Dutch market there's Luna: https://www.nedap-luna.com/. This has the advantage of being integrated fully into a formal care structure and of several years of research in how to best present information specifically for patients with cognitive issues.

Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#177

Post by yowayb »

zackmorris wrote: post #35
albert_e wrote: post #19

> One small challenge was maximizing the size of the message text. Sometimes a message is just a word or two; other times it might be several sentences. A single font size can’t accommodate such a wide range of text content. I couldn’t find a pure CSS way to automatically maximize font size so that a text element with word wrapping would display without clipping. > I ended up writing a small JavaScript function to ma…

I've been watching the evolution of the web since 1995, and I remember when css got popular in the late 90s thinking that it didn't match real-world use cases. Somehow design-by-committee took us from drawing our sites with tables in the browser's WYSIWYG editor, to not being able to center text no matter how much frontend experience we have. Css jumped the shark and today I'd vote to scrap it entirely, which I know…

I made a handful of corporate sites, e-commerce, CMS and even flash lol, just out of college with boring defense contractor job. I didn't have time to be picky because I had a full time job so I always worked with whatever they had and a lot of stuff was made in Dreamweaver, and even a corporate site exported from Word. The code was awful but worked everywhere. And you always had to get into code anyway, so there was no time to even think about which of the tools was best. Something was always missing in some integration so you gotta code/script. I think a lot of people made money in the last cycle tech cycles and had nothing to do but create or fund a bunch of stuff to confuse the marketplace.

Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#178

Post by vanderZwan »

Hunpeter wrote: post #170
Spooky23 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The principal of my son’s former school was a Sister of St Joseph, and a huge HN fan. More amazing was how creative the sisters were in managing themselves with technology. Many decisions are made by votes, done in real time globally! Religious people get short shrift.

Reminds me of the monks in the third season of Babylon 5. Who says you can't both be an IT person and a cleric?

Given their history as archivers it seems like a natural complement, really

Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#180

Post by Pikamander2 »

albert_e wrote: post #19

> One small challenge was maximizing the size of the message text. Sometimes a message is just a word or two; other times it might be several sentences. A single font size can’t accommodate such a wide range of text content. I couldn’t find a pure CSS way to automatically maximize font size so that a text element with word wrapping would display without clipping. > I ended up writing a small JavaScript function to ma…

That's also been one of my biggest CSS wishlist items for years.

I've had dozens of clients complain about headings wrapping onto the next line when they add one too many letters, and ask if we can make the font size smaller without affecting the others. There are several ways to accomplish that, but they're all annoying compared to a theoretical one-line CSS solution like:

font-size: 12-18px 400px;

Or something of that nature that could hopefully do it automatically.

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