Comment by smokel

Comment by smokel 13 hours ago

20 replies

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Hehe, very nice to see something outside the scope of software or PCBs with this level of useless enthusiasm. Obviously "from scratch" is a bit of a stretch here, but this is the material we come to Hacker News for.

Thanks for sharing!

Edit: sigh, I should probably run my comments through ChatGPT to avoid being downvoted. I like this, I share my enthusiasm. I like the uselessness of it, meaning the uselessness of making a floppy disk in 2025, not the lack of educational value. Sheesh.

hnlmorg 10 hours ago

Your definition of “from scratch” is pretty unrealistic.

If someone was to say “make a pasta source from scratch” then that wouldn’t mean refining your own copper to make your source pans.

The problem is creating the floppy disk. Not the tooling to create the floppy disk.

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MrGilbert 12 hours ago

Judging from the video, it looks pretty "from scratch" to me. What makes it a "bit of a stretch" to you?

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  • smokel 12 hours ago

    He uses quite a bit of tooling, including lasers. It's not like he would be able to get this far in the middle of nowhere :)

    In a way it is somewhat similar to people writing demos for old computers using emulators. Still great fun, but using these tools it doesn't take a village to make one floppy disk. With modern hardware you are apparently able to pull this off on your own. That would have been almost impossible in the 1980s, when these floppy disks were popular.

    I probably worded it badly, but I really enjoy these efforts, and I would never be able to do this myself, even if I had a shed with all those tools!

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    • cluckindan 12 hours ago

      Are you even a musician if you don’t have a goat farm?

      How can someone call themselves a programmer when they don’t even mine for silicon!

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      • the_other_mac 9 hours ago

        For anyone that hasn't seen it yet, there's the YouTube channel "Primitive Technology", where a guy does this literally - in a jungle, with no tools apart from what he makes himself. He gets as far as smelting a tiny amount of iron.

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      • debesyla 10 hours ago

        I couldn't find an answer on google - how is a goat farm precursor for music? It's an activity that needs herding and shepherds started playing songs for fun? Or..? :o

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      • rbanffy 8 hours ago

        > when they don’t even mine for silicon!

        Knowing how to design a CPU is quite helpful.

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      • dotancohen 8 hours ago

          > How can someone call themselves a programmer when they don’t even mine for silicon!
        To be fair, after three or four Tinder dates I realized that it was mostly silicon to be found there. It's not a stretch to say that a programmer going out on Tinder dates is mining for silicone!
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  • isoprophlex 12 hours ago

    > not making your own plastic monomers from syngas

    why even bother

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  • __d 12 hours ago

    Start with naturally occurring things only.

    Mine and refine iron ore to make hub. Mine and refine zinc(?) to plate it.

    Drill for and refine oil to make PET for disk and casing. Injection mold casing. Make film for actual disc.

    Etc, etc.

    I’d be ok using tools that weren’t made from scratch as well, but that’d be bonus ooints.

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ghurtado 9 hours ago

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe" - Carl Sagan

Like pretty much everyone responding, I disagree.

That's it, that's all a downvote means. Don't be afraid of them, it's not worth it.

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