Wednesday, September 9, 2026
Tuesday, September 8, 2026
New top story on Hacker News: Ask HN: 3.5 inch diskette read errors, would a period correct drive do better?
Ask HN: 3.5 inch diskette read errors, would a period correct drive do better?
6 by rietta | 5 comments on Hacker News.
My first attempt at restoring 1991 Learning Company Spellbound for DOS for my children is dubious. Despite being stored nowhere near magnetic sources, there are read errors on the 3.5 inch floppies and Linux could not mount them. ddrescue extracted data but I have not confirmed it works. The box also have 5.25 inch disks but I do not have a reader online at the moment, that is its own project. My technical question is this, the USB 3.5 inch drive I have is a "USB Portable Diskette Drive" that was Made in China but has no obvious sponsoring branding. If I take the time to bring back to life a more period correct system with an actual IDE floppy drive would it read the disks more accurately? My goal is to get more of this good DOS and early Windows educational software working for my children. This particular title is meaningful because I have the actual boxes and learned on it myself all those years ago. One option for hardware is my parent's Leading Edge WinPro 486. The case looks to be in good shape but I have not opened the case to see the condition of the capacitors yet. It has a natively mounted 3.5 and 5.25 inch drive.
6 by rietta | 5 comments on Hacker News.
My first attempt at restoring 1991 Learning Company Spellbound for DOS for my children is dubious. Despite being stored nowhere near magnetic sources, there are read errors on the 3.5 inch floppies and Linux could not mount them. ddrescue extracted data but I have not confirmed it works. The box also have 5.25 inch disks but I do not have a reader online at the moment, that is its own project. My technical question is this, the USB 3.5 inch drive I have is a "USB Portable Diskette Drive" that was Made in China but has no obvious sponsoring branding. If I take the time to bring back to life a more period correct system with an actual IDE floppy drive would it read the disks more accurately? My goal is to get more of this good DOS and early Windows educational software working for my children. This particular title is meaningful because I have the actual boxes and learned on it myself all those years ago. One option for hardware is my parent's Leading Edge WinPro 486. The case looks to be in good shape but I have not opened the case to see the condition of the capacitors yet. It has a natively mounted 3.5 and 5.25 inch drive.
Monday, September 7, 2026
Sunday, September 6, 2026
Saturday, September 5, 2026
Friday, September 4, 2026
Thursday, September 3, 2026
New top story on Hacker News: Show HN: I made a word building game supporting anagrams and one handed use
Show HN: I made a word building game supporting anagrams and one handed use
6 by busymom0 | 0 comments on Hacker News.
Hi everyone, Wanted to share a game I built. It's called Unscramble! and I believe it's the simplest word building game. Rules: You get a few letters on screen. You need to make one word with all the letters. Tap a letter to select. Tap again to deselect. Faster you go, better you score. If you enter anagrams of the word it's looking for, it gives you extra points. If you are stuck, you can either "Ask Friend" or get Hint. You get extra points for getting the word fast but you don't get penalized for taking too long. I believe the simplicity of the game along with big touch buttons makes it perfect for one handed use. There's 6 difficulty levels in the game, and settings for things like toggling the timer, relaxing background music, sound effects, haptic feedback, removing the background animation. If you want to try: https://ift.tt/U9HrVXs... Would love to hear feedback to improve it.
6 by busymom0 | 0 comments on Hacker News.
Hi everyone, Wanted to share a game I built. It's called Unscramble! and I believe it's the simplest word building game. Rules: You get a few letters on screen. You need to make one word with all the letters. Tap a letter to select. Tap again to deselect. Faster you go, better you score. If you enter anagrams of the word it's looking for, it gives you extra points. If you are stuck, you can either "Ask Friend" or get Hint. You get extra points for getting the word fast but you don't get penalized for taking too long. I believe the simplicity of the game along with big touch buttons makes it perfect for one handed use. There's 6 difficulty levels in the game, and settings for things like toggling the timer, relaxing background music, sound effects, haptic feedback, removing the background animation. If you want to try: https://ift.tt/U9HrVXs... Would love to hear feedback to improve it.