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The Resistor Network
Personal blog · theresistornetwork.comhardwareprogramming
The Resistor Network is a personal blog at theresistornetwork.com about hardware and programming. Since 2013, 15 different Hacker News readers have linked it 18 times, most often “A Testament to X11 Backwards Compatibility”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-03-24, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (6) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers cite this blog as a reference for software-generated VGA video on AVR microcontrollers and for running X11 remote displays. Most comments cite its posts as sources rather than judging them.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 6 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
This blog is a place for me to share my projects with the world. I am very interested in the field of electronics design and software development. I am interested in many aspects of technology including embedded software development, dynamic web applications and electronics design.
Most-linked posts?
- A Testament to X11 Backwards Compatibility6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2013-12-04
- Thinking Different, Thinking Slowly: LLMs on a PowerPC Mac5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2025-03-24
- Datvideo: Storing Video on Digital Audio Tape (DAT)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-03-24
What Hacker News says?
Yes. There were a number of rapidly developed versions up to X10 in 1986, which was the first one released under a free license (and thus the first one widely adopted). X11 was an overhaul of X10 intended to increase portability/compatibility, and also the first version developed as a community open source project rather than internally to MIT. That came out in 1987. As for why X11 was the last major version: the pr…
Comment linking /2013/12/a-testament-to-x11-backwards.html
on “Window System X (1984)”Submitted A Testament to X11 Backwards Compatibility as a story · 258 points
HN discussionFor perspective: The GNU toolkit (gcc and coreutils at least) has been continuously developed for over thirty years of unbroken project history. Linux itself, if you are willing to do a bit of repository surgery[1], has a continuous commit history dating back to 1991. The X Window System was created in 1984, and you can still run GUI applications from that period[2] on a modern system. Even KDE is over twenty years…
Comment linking /2013/12/a-testament-to-x11-backwards.html
on “Microsoft exec: “Summary of meeting with Steve Jobs"”Submitted Thinking Different, Thinking Slowly: LLMs on a PowerPC Mac as a story · 18 points
HN discussionSoftware-generated video is definitely difficult to get working from scratch, limited in resolution, and expensive in CPU cycles, but it's been done on several microcontroller families [1] [2] [3]. You generally still need an external resistor network to do the D/A conversion, though. [1] http://www.rickard.gunee.com/projects/video/sx/gamesys.php [2] http://www.theresistornetwork.com/2013/03/avr-vga-generation... [3…
Comment linking /2013/03/avr-vga-generation.html
on “A smaller, cheaper RISC V board”Submitted A Testament to X11 Backwards Compatibility (2013) as a story · 14 points
HN discussionMy friend wrote a blog post about a similar model: http://www.theresistornetwork.com/2013/12/a-testament-to-x11...
Comment linking /2013/12/a-testament-to-x11-backwards.html
on “Remote controlling an HP 1670G logic analyzer with a Linux PC X server”Submitted ARM Bare Metal Programming as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI am pretty sure Apple did not design or manufacture PowerPC chips at any point, so I'm not sure how that would be considered "custom" silicon. And anyway, the source article seems a bit more interesting. https://www.theresistornetwork.com/2025/03/thinking-differen...
Comment linking /2025/03/thinking-different-thinking-slowly-llms.html
on “The PowerPC Has Still Got It (Llama on G4 Laptop)”Submitted LLMs on a PowerPC Mac as a story · 3 points
HN discussion> unsubstantiated claims Indeed: > It used to be easy to have any kind of X client connect to a remote X server. Back in the early 1990s on the HP Apollo workstations in college, it was a simple matter of setting the DISPLAY environment variable, but that was before network security was a concern. Remote controlling an HP 1670G logic analyzer with a Linux PC X server https://tomverbeure.github.io/2023/12/26/Controll…
Comment linking /2013/12/a-testament-to-x11-backwards.html
on “The Linux graphics stack in a nutshell, part 2”Submitted Thinking Different, Thinking Slowly: LLMs on a PowerPC Mac as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted LLMs on a PowerPC Mac as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted QRTape – Audio Playback from Paper Tape with Computer Vision as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Datvideo: Storing Video on Digital Audio Tape (DAT) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Thinking Different, Thinking Slowly: LLMs on a PowerPC Mac as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Datvideo: Storing Video on Digital Audio Tape (DAT) (2019) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Programming the Vintage Intel MCS-48 Microcontrollers as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
