Top all-time · #2179
The Robservatory
Personal blog · robservatory.comsystemshardware
The Robservatory is a personal blog at robservatory.com about systems and hardware. Since 2014, 35 different Hacker News readers have linked it 44 times, most often “Month 13 is out of bounds – High Sierra bug”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-26, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (14) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link The Robservatory for writing on macOS and Apple software, including Touch Bar usability, OS X update sizes, and a full history of macOS releases.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 14 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Month 13 is out of bounds – High Sierra bug7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2017-12-02
- A full history of macOS (OS X) release dates and rates3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2020-05-27
- How I lost control of our bank accounts to a phone scammer3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-03-31
- Behind OS X’s modern face lies an aging collection of Unix tools3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2014-10-11
- Remove the AI bloatware from Logitech's mouse driver2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-04-25
- /the-fundamental-problem-with-the-touch-bar/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-01-17
What Hacker News says?
If you look at the release schedule of macOS, it hasn't been that much different. There is a major update every year to every 1.5 years and patch updates every 2 months. A difference in 6 months in a release schedule doesn't matter that much if you manage how much goes in a shorter release cycle. http://www.robservatory.com/?p=46
Comment linking /?p=46
on “If macOS High Sierra shows your password instead of the password hint”Submitted How I lost control of our bank accounts to a phone scammer as a story · 203 points
HN discussion>there's not a single MacOS device with a touchscreen The Touch Bar is a touchscreen. It’s on the current 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro and many previous-gen Macs. Biggest problem is that I can’t use it without looking at it. https://robservatory.com/the-fundamental-problem-with-the-to...
Comment linking /the-fundamental-problem-with-the-touch-bar/
on “(mac)ostalgia – how Spotify, Slack, Chrome, Figma could look on Mac OS 9”Submitted The Finder’s GUI tax can be very expensive as a story · 190 points
HN discussionIf you never have to look at the keyboard for anything ever, the touchbar takes away an useful row of keys and forces you to start looking down at the keyboard. I can't overstate how annoying someone who never has to look at the keyboard might find this. https://robservatory.com/the-fundamental-problem-with-the-to... "The Touch Bar, despite its name, is actually an Eye Bar: It forces your eyes off the screen, down t…
Comment linking /the-fundamental-problem-with-the-touch-bar/
on “Apple's MacBook revival plan: Bring back old features”Submitted A Deep Dive into HandBrake and Video Transcoding as a story · 161 points
HN discussionA similar bug (not as serious) is happening on macOS: https://robservatory.com/month-13-is-out-of-bounds/
Comment linking /month-13-is-out-of-bounds/
on “If your iOS 11 device unexpectedly restarts repeatedly on or after December 2”Submitted The high cost of software in the 1980s (2019) as a story · 65 points
HN discussionRight... the earlier point releases were 100-500 MB. Full history of OS X update sizes: https://robservatory.com/a-full-history-of-macos-os-x-releas... It seemed to start getting out of hand around Yosemite 2014.
Comment linking /a-full-history-of-macos-os-x-release-dates-and-rates/
on “macOS Catalina 10.15.5”Submitted Behind OS X’s modern face lies an aging collection of Unix tools as a story · 39 points
HN discussionHere’s an ok description if folks (like me) are curious: https://robservatory.com/month-13-is-out-of-bounds/ .
Comment linking /month-13-is-out-of-bounds/
on “About the security content of macOS High Sierra 10.13.2”Submitted The high cost of software in the 1980s as a story · 30 points
HN discussionHere's a great reference of Mac version history: https://robservatory.com/a-full-history-of-macos-os-x-releas...
Comment linking /a-full-history-of-macos-os-x-release-dates-and-rates/
on “Home truths about macOS”Submitted Remove the AI bloatware from Logitech's mouse driver as a story · 14 points
HN discussionIt isn't because they don't do anywhere close to the same thing. Watch the video: http://robservatory.com/postimages/unzipping/finder_v_termin... Where do you think the people who wrote the thing that happens on the left inserted a gratuitous sleep?
Comment linking /postimages/unzipping/finder_v_terminal_high.mp4
on “The Finder’s GUI tax can be very expensive”Submitted RIP Mac OS X Hints, Nov 4 2000 – Nov 4 2014 as a story · 5 points
HN discussionAs referenced in this article[0] a major blocker for shipping newer versions of the command line toolchain is the fact that newer versions of these tools moved to an incompatible GPLv3 license. [0]: http://robservatory.com/behind-os-xs-modern-face-lies-an-agi...
Comment linking /behind-os-xs-modern-face-lies-an-aging-collection-of-unix-tools/
on “Is Apple experiencing a problematic decline in software quality?”Submitted Speed up your Mac via hidden prefs as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI'm pretty sure that Apple uses a very conventional gold alloy with a similar density as other gold alloys. Somewhere on their website they provide the weight of the cases and the bands. A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that their gold is twice as heavy as their stainless steel. They are pretty specific on the steel they use, so we know it's density is 8g/cm^3, meaning their gold is roughly 16g/cm^3. T…
Comment linking /the-all-in-one-apple-watch-spreadsheet/
on “The Apple Watch’s Insanely Great Economics”Submitted I lost control of our bank accounts to a phone scammer as a story · 4 points
HN discussionAs a user of hundreds of programs with no direct cost for updates decades after purchase, I find this perfectly reasonable. I didn’t say free as this cost is included in the price at purchase. Vendors can be explicit about their fees and updates and let me choose to buy or not buy. There’s lots of markets with natural charge points for updates (windows and office for example). A vendor not calling out the price for…
Comment linking /a-useless-analysis-of-os-x-release-dates/
on “Apple Pulling High-Grossing Scammy Offer Subscription Apps Off the App Store”Submitted Month 13 is out of bounds – High Sierra bug as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI believe I first learned to shorten animations on MacOSXHints.com (gone now). Regardless, I learned a lot of great "enhancements" here: https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles And here's the blog of the person who ran MacOSXHints.com: https://robservatory.com/make-your-macos-dock-suck/ Fun aside, I'm pretty sure that my mention of a system issue that I read about that morning on MacOSXHints.com was a helper in la…
Comment linking /make-your-macos-dock-suck/
on “Native Instant Space Switching on macOS”Submitted Quickly create a nested folder structure via Terminal as a story · 3 points
HN discussion> But Apple has had the right idea- they release a new version of their desktop and mobile OSes about once a year. That's not the right idea. Mac OS X 10.3 through 10.7 all took well over a year of development. Yearly major releases is too fast. https://robservatory.com/a-full-history-of-macos-os-x-releas... > I would surmise that their OS reliability and stability issues have more to do with the switch from Objecti…
Comment linking /a-full-history-of-macos-os-x-release-dates-and-rates/
on “Ventura Issues”Submitted Behind OS X’s modern face lies an aging collection of Unix tools (2014) as a story · 3 points
HN discussioniPhones had their share of animations interfering with functionality, one instance being calculator app showing false results when tapped quickly: https://robservatory.com/the-calculator-bug-persists-in-ios-...
Comment linking /the-calculator-bug-persists-in-ios-11-2/
on “If you're a button, you have one job”Submitted Month 13 is out of bounds as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Behind OS X’s modern face lies an aging collection of Unix tools as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The strangest business meeting of my career as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
