[HN Gopher] Make It Yourself
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Make It Yourself
Author : deivid
Score : 212 points
Date : 2024-11-01 13:09 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (makeityourself.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (makeityourself.org)
| fsmv wrote:
| Pretty cool that it's just free and there's really no pretext
| just a compilation of cool projects. Almost makes me feel like
| I'm missing something.
| 0xdeadbeefbabe wrote:
| You are missing time. Time will make the links break, and time
| will make the component parts harder to find, etc. Also,
| managing this catalog over time isn't glamorous enough for a
| headline or even a pretty picture. Economies change over time,
| and doesn't that go without saying?
| qazxcvbnmlp wrote:
| Can you buy this as a printed book? The design/inspirational
| quality is exceptional.
| jiri wrote:
| Without clickable links to actual content it is not very useful
| to have it printed.
| jvanderbot wrote:
| Wait, so adding clickable links would make it _more_ useful
| after being printed??
|
| In all seriousness, I, too, immediately wanted to buy it for
| the coffee table and to thumb through for inspiration in an
| analog way.
| nuancebydefault wrote:
| You took parents sentence too literally. After having it
| printed it is without clickable links and hence not very
| useful.
| lurn_mor wrote:
| Funny, I have a folder of links of this very stuff: Future rainy
| day projects. Oh, to have the free time and focus!
|
| Good job on the illustrations and the cultivating of so many
| projects into one book. I think you've given me a lifetime of
| weekend projects!
|
| One note: you might want to put 'download' in the link to the
| PDF, so it downloads instead of showing up in a new browser
| window, which seems to be your OG design choice: <a
| href="https://makeityourself.org/MIY.pdf" download
| target="_blank"><div class="download">Download</div></a>
| rafaelalb wrote:
| You mentioned the folder, now please share it! I enjoy these
| ideas very much.
| joekrill wrote:
| Why a PDF? The PDF is just pictures of things that link to an
| external site (Thingverse, various blogs, etc) where you find the
| actual instructions. The PDF itself doesn't contain instructions
| at all - just an index/catalog, really.
| SamBam wrote:
| Seems like it would be a lot more accessible for a lot of
| people if it were a set of HTML pages.
|
| I expect that whatever was used to create the PDF could be
| configured to produce a website...
| thecatspaw wrote:
| also on a webpage you would be able to filter it by available
| tools/knowledge
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| Or not. Maybe you'd get "infinite scroll". Or some other
| modern webdev bullshit that's strictly inferior to PDF (or
| plain HTML) and CTRL+F.
|
| I'm actually surprised by the anti-PDF sentiment here (in
| general case, not necessarily this book). Modern web is so
| bad, that almost every day I end up on some page that would
| be strictly better if it were a PDF. So, to play devil's
| advocate, PDFs are cool because:
|
| - The links may rot, but _they remain_ , and so does
| surrounding content. Once you get a PDF, no one can take it
| away from you.
|
| - It's self-contained. It can easily be transferred between
| devices and read without an Internet connection.
|
| - _It 's a file_. Yes, it's important to mention because in
| 2024, files cannot be taken for granted.
|
| - Rich format without spurious dynamics and other web
| nonsense. Sure, PDFs technically can run arbitrary
| JavaScript, but hardly any reader supports that.
|
| - Can't track you or spy on you (theoretically it could, in
| practice, see previous point).
|
| I could come up with a few more. Point being, you could do
| worse, and modern web quite often _is_ worse.
|
| As for what could be an even better format, my mind is
| drawn towards CHM[0]. You know, like the help files in old
| Windows software. A self-contained file built of
| interlinked HTML pages, complete with index and internal
| search/xref. Kind of a better EPUB[1].
|
| (Ironically, marketers should actually _love_ PDF - total
| control over presentation is exactly what they 've been
| trying to gain on the web all these years.)
|
| --
|
| [0] -
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Compiled_HTML_Help
|
| [1] - Despite being _a decade older_.
| deivid wrote:
| n-o-d-e publishes most (all?) projects as open source, I'm sure
| the book sources are/will be available somewhere
| treefarmer wrote:
| Had the same thought - it's also annoying to update the PDF
| once links die, so I doubt that'll happen often. I guess it
| might be helpful if you want it as a coffee table book...
| seemaze wrote:
| While I enjoy the content, I find myself surprisingly annoyed
| at choice of PDF as the format. It's the worst of both
| traditional and web publication modes; low accessibility AND
| low portability
| nlarion wrote:
| This isn't the first time I've read a comment criticizing
| PDF, but it is the first time I can recall the Portable
| Document Format (PDF) being accused of low portability.
| seanw444 wrote:
| Yeah that is ironic regarding both the name, and the fact
| that it's one of the most viewable formats on any given
| system.
| deskr wrote:
| > most viewable
|
| It is, but the UX trying to read a A4/letter sized PDF
| document on a phone is absolutely horrible.
| sophacles wrote:
| This is basically the same reason I think sports cars are
| horrible... trying to fit a 10 ton roll of steel in the
| backseat is nearly impossible.
| Y_Y wrote:
| This sounds like a good job for a fancy LLM.
|
| "For each entry in this PDF, follow the link and give a
| structured explanation of how to make the thing."
|
| I don't know if any off-the-shelf tool is capable of that today
| though.
| marvinborner wrote:
| For context since it's not mentioned on the website: This is a
| project by n-o-d-e[1], they make blog posts and videos about diy
| tech/mods. This specific project is described in [2].
|
| [1]: https://n-o-d-e.net/
|
| [2]: https://n-o-d-e.net/makeityourself.html
| sxp wrote:
| They also have techno-optimistic YouTube channels that I love.
| There haven't been any new videos for a while, but some of the
| older ones are worth watching:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/@NODEtv/videos
|
| https://www.youtube.com/@MOSFETnet/videos
|
| I think all of the videos have a written version on
| https://n-o-d-e.net/ for those who prefer that style of
| content.
| dharma1 wrote:
| love the illustrations! all custom made?
| aydgn wrote:
| what are the other options?
| egypturnash wrote:
| Stock illustration sites. Renders of stock 3d models. Stolen
| without credit. AI generated.
| stonethrowaway wrote:
| WARNING:
|
| Do try this at home.
| ben_ wrote:
| As cool as this is, it seems a bit bare? Titles/descriptions are
| hidden away at the bottom of each page and all the renders are
| plain black and white (which makes me ask why pdf anyway?)
| without detailing purpose or use (where not obvious)
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(page generated 2024-11-01 23:00 UTC)