Because the original only ever existed as a video game, the proportion of the parts are not compatible with off-the-shelf parts.

So the choice is make his own components to the proper proportions and get something faithful to the game version, or completely redesign the table layout to make standard parts work.

He got a resin printer for making smooth parts where required. What he really needs, from what I've seen in the video, are more powerful solenoids.
=Smidge=

To support your point about a need for broad social&environmental improvements, consider: "The [critical of] RFK Jr. Op-Ed the Los Angeles Times Didn't Want You to Read"
https://www.yahoo.com/news/rfk...
        "... For decades, U.S. public health policy has been dictated by neoliberal principles that prioritize privatization, deregulation, "free" markets, and associated profits over public care systems. ... Illness is framed as a matter of individual behavior and personal failure--poor diet, sedentary lifestyles, or smoking, for example--rather than the result of policies that undermine rights to healthy environments. ... Meanwhile, social problems like poverty, isolation, and trauma are medicalized, treated as individual pathologies requiring individualistic interventions, like often-ineffective pharmaceuticals or psychotherapy that cannot touch root causes, while ignoring the necessity of investing in systemic, collective solutions. This diverts resources from community-based social care and prevention, generating profits for industry while leaving patients with endless bills and disappointments. ... For example, policies like universal childcare, housing-first initiatives, and direct cash transfers improve health outcomes while reducing poverty and economic insecurity. During the pandemic, expanded child tax credits and direct payments helped millions of families and brought dramatic health and safety improvements to communities--proof that public investments can make an enormous difference for public health. ... In this spirit, this approach to public health centrally prioritizes community-based, nonprofessional care services that have been shown to improve both mental and physical health while reducing medical needs and health care costs. ..."

Some satire similar to the logic fossil fuels sometimes uses against renewables:

(begin satire) Smoke alarms are a leading cause of deaths and fires in the home. Every years, lots of people are killed falling off of ladders to change smoke alarm batteries. False alarms from smoke detectors cause numerous kitchen injuries as people using kitchen knives are startled and accidentally cut themselves or stab nearby family members. Smoke detectors wired into home electrical systems can short out and burn down your home. Radiation from smoke detectors causes cancer. Many firefighter deaths are attributed to responding to smoke alarms. Worse, the Dihydrogen Monoxide used by firefighters responding to smoke detectors is itself a dangerous substance responsible for thousands of deaths annually. The answer to all this ongoing carnage is simple -- keep deadly smoke alarms out of your home if you want to stay safe! Brought to you by the American Association Of Cosmetic Undertakers, For-Profit Burn Care Centers, and Companies Rebuilding Homes After Extensive Fire Damage. (end satire)

For a more accurate picture about smoke detectors, consider what the National Fire Protection Association has to say:
https://www.nfpa.org/education...
"Smoke alarms save lives. Smoke alarms that are properly installed and maintained play a vital role in reducing fire deaths and injuries. Fire spreads fast--working smoke alarms give you early warning so you can get outside quickly. ... When working smoke alarms are present in your home, the risk of dying in a home fire is cut by 60 percent, according to the latest NFPA research."

> you're really splitting hairs, that's not what is meant. a serial port is very much the physical rs232 "connector" or an emulation of it.

Key word "or an emulation of it." From the software point of view, all it's doing is sending and receiving bits at some baud rate. The physical hardware interface no longer matters. That's kind of the whole point of these things. Beyond the hardware interface, modern keyboard and mouse speak exactly the same protocol as they have since the PS/2 days. In fact USB keyboards usually still have PS/2 port hardware in them, which is why you can use those USB-PS/2 adapters (which are entirely passive).

They don't "identify as" serial devices. The are serial devices. Always have been. It's not unthinkable that a poorly made device could be vulnerable to a firmware hack and not unthinkable that giving javascript access to serial ports could be a vector for such an attack. Not even hard to imagine a fancy keyboard with programmable RGB lights or OLED displays (that definitely have microcontrollers capable of executing arbitrary code) getting exploited.

> of course, which is why the browser asks the user for permission to acces all these devices!

That's a strange way to admit you don't know how security vulnerabilities work. "There's no way someone could get in uninvited; there's a lock on the door!"

> they can already do that.

Maybe? But adding a system where javascript can directly and explicitly interact with serial ports is definitely not going to make doing it any harder, is it?
=Smidge=

> this api is about ports that everyday hardware (like e.g. mice and keyboards) hasn't used for decades,

If by "decades" you mean to this very day. A serial port is not the physical connector. Your keyboard is almost certainly USB (no points for guessing what the "S" in "USB" stands for). It presents as a serial device at the hardware and OS level, like all USB devices do. If your OS puts it into a special category and doesn't explicitly label it as a serial device, that still doesn't mean it's not a serial device.

Now, whether or not any particular mouse or keyboard actually has a vulnerability where they have firmware available to be overwritten is an entirely different subject... but it's not unthinkable some devices may be exploited in such a way.

I can definitely see some shenanigans where a malicious website uses this as a vector to keylog. That's *already* well within the realm of plausible exploits, even without the WebSerial API. This is just another surface to attack.
=Smidge=

As I wrote about in 2010: https://pdfernhout.net/beyond-...
        "This article explores the issue of a "Jobless Recovery" mainly from a heterodox economic perspective. It emphasizes the implications of ideas by Marshall Brain and others that improvements in robotics, automation, design, and voluntary social networks are fundamentally changing the structure of the economic landscape. It outlines towards the end four major alternatives to mainstream economic practice (a basic income, a gift economy, stronger local subsistence economies, and resource-based planning). These alternatives could be used in combination to address what, even as far back as 1964, has been described as a breaking "income-through-jobs link". This link between jobs and income is breaking because of the declining value of most paid human labor relative to capital investments in automation and better design. Or, as is now the case, the value of paid human labor like at some newspapers or universities is also declining relative to the output of voluntary social networks such as for digital content production (like represented by this document). It is suggested that we will need to fundamentally reevaluate our economic theories and practices to adjust to these new realities emerging from exponential trends in technology and society."

Or the YouTube video:
"Five Interwoven Economies: Subsistence, Gift, Exchange, Planned, and Theft"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
        "This video presents a simplified education model about socioeconomics and technological change. It discusses five interwoven economies (subsistence, gift, exchange, planned, and theft) and how the balance will shift with cultural changes and technological changes. It suggests that things like a basic income, better planning, improved subsistence, and an expanded gift economy can compensate in part for an exchange economy that is having problems."

Oh, but these are *preventative* wars. He gets a peace prize for every country he invades!

Venezuela was using fentanyl as a WMD. Iran was about to nuke us. Cuba might attack us with drones if someone provides them. Greenland might start a snowball fight, and make us look bad if we lose.

Presumably we've got all our best people on this, since they're obviously not on the UFO videos.

One of the "unidentifiable" objects in an earlier release (last year, I think) was obviously as hell two birds flying low over the ground.

I don't have a conspiracy theory to explain it, but this is all utter bullshit.

Linux?

Nothing.

There is a 30 year old law that prohibits releasing audio from aircraft black boxes. They accidentally "released" the audio by publishing a spectrograph, which is effectively a violation of the law.

So now they're going through all their stuff making sure they aren't accidentally releasing data they are legally prohibited from releasing.

No conspiracy needed.
=Smidge=

> Remember this part? "Privacy? ...

I do. In fact I even quoted it in my message, which you clearly didn't read.

"They can already track you, so we might as well make it easier for them" is not the persuasive argument you think it is. Just so you know, historically, you can lick that boot until you can see your own reflection in it and it's still gonna stomp on you. Literally any resistance is better than the rolling over you are clearly so eager to do.
=Smidge=

That's strange. When I hear "Trump Mobile" I think of something completely different.

=Smidge=

My first thought was, "So three CEOs got $10B each and everyone else gets a $5 gift card and some pizza."

Of course, the bonuses are in the form of stocks that only a third of which can be sold right away, so they're not actually paying the workers a bonus just the promise of a bonus with the caveat that the bonus value is tied to the ephemeral value of the company months or years from now and not on the actual labor that was already performed or value already created.
=Smidge=

I don't know if you noticed, but you're just as likely to BE kidnapped through the use of these systems than be saved from a kidnapping. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly people give power to fascists under the guise of law enforcement. There can't possibly be a better tool for a fascist regime to quash dissent than the ability to identify and track individuals nationwide. Hope you never turn out for a protest, or even be in the wrong place at the wrong time to but Uncle Sam reason to think it's worth getting rid of you.

> Without the tech, cops will be driving around all day hoping to spot him walking his dog.

And with the tech they'll at best arrest the wrong person, with the very real risk that they'll murder them or a bystander in the process because, y'know, American cops are prone to shooting first and asking questions later.

https://www.businessinsider.co...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/cou...

https://coloradosun.com/2025/1...

https://www.dailyjournal.com/a...

https://www.americanpartisan.o...

And that's before we consider that cops may (and absolutely will) intentionally abuse the system to stalk people.

https://www.theguardian.com/co...

> Privacy? We all handed that over on a silver plate wearing butler gloves when we signed the service contract for your internet and your cell phone

Yes, but you can still leave your cell phone at home. Really hard to leave your FACE at home (And if you think the cameras can or will only ever read license plates you're delusional). So if you recognize the problem, why are you so gung ho about making it orders of magnitude worse?

=Smidge=

Yes but the altar is a barbecue and you can substitute lamb for pig or cow or chicken or anything else as is your preference.

=Smidge=