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KaiserProyesterday at 2:01 PM2 repliesview on HN

I tried making "real" clacks https://www.secretbatcave.co.uk/2025/03/12/gnu-terry-prachet...

I need more time and motivation to make a full network though.


Replies

Normal_gaussianyesterday at 2:25 PM

That is really quite a cool project and write-up.

   (I used to administer a laser link. go on, ask me why they aren’t very popular)
    I spent a lot of time working out how to create low powered laser transducer, capable of working on something battery powered.
This is my favourite part; very real.

I think you're right; I suspect Terry would have been tickled by the header, but if there were any physical world implementations I think he would have been overjoyed. One of my favourite Terry stories is of him making his sword, which feels similar.

kurisufagyesterday at 10:32 PM

for a while I thought I might go to one of those uniquely nerdy colleges where they let you fuck around with dorm infrastructure.

i back-of-napkin'd a whole packet-over-laser relay system based conceptually on the clacks that'd give every room/station its own serial-interfacible (up|down) link. you could link buildings out of windows and stuff. horribly impractical and prohibitively expensive, but the kind of thing that could only happen in a university on-campus environment.