From what I've read the limitation was having a "premium" account (spent at least $5 on Steam) and maximum controllers was 3 per account.

EDIT: I see others here mention 2 max. Haven't heard that before, but that makes more sense to me.

Are you using LLM in an automated way for this? Also, local or cloud?

People are all discussing the technical aspects of the device, which is great and all, but forgetting the one aspect I am in awe of: how googly eyes once again make everything 300% better.

A truism that sadly not all are onboard with: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1wl5jp94eno

Did AI change anything in that regard? I believe that same as before, you couldn't trust everything you see, and research effort was always more than keeping a white list; means vary, case-by-case.

And same it is now. It's a change in quantity, but not quality.

These are just words, yes, and I believe it harmless. But describing the LLM machinery as if it thinks is one thing when used as a common parlance, and another when people truly believe that there's some actual thinking or living going on. This "law" is for there to be no latter.

5:55 video released on May 5th, as per description :)

For something feeling like a fairly specific IC, I remember seeing many projects that use it throughout the years in wacky ways - and seeing it makes me happy to know that the sentiment for this little piece is shared.

The trick is that it's sold as a timer but it's really a kit of parts from which you happen to be able to build a timer.

There's a lesson in there somewhere.

Can even build a computer out of them

https://hackaday.com/2011/08/05/building-a-computer-out-of-5...

When I was designing hardware we used the 555 almost exclusively to build one-shots.

I learned (long ago) it’s trivial to fool my satellite receiver’s modem’s dial tone verification for remote pay per view ordering (it doesn’t phone home right away but gets angry if it’s not connected to a phone line).

Turns one a single frequency that’s remotely close to one of the two tones of a dial tone will convince it. Wasn’t sine wave either but not a problem! 555 powered by a 9V battery.

I remember reading somewhere that it's the highest-selling IC of all time, which is a little surprising! I'd have guessed the winner would be an op-amp of some kind.

555s are such delightful little guys. I used a pair of them, plus an ebay telephone line driver, to make an old telephone ring: https://hardfault.life/p/telco-2

One timer runs at the ~20Hz ring frequency, and the other runs at ~0.2Hz on a 20% duty cycle. The slow one's output feeds the enable line of the fast one, so you get 1-second burts of ringing, then a few seconds of silence, then ringing... just like a normal phone.

I moved about 5 months ago and haven't had time to get back to this project. The goal is to build a little phone company in a box, so I can have all my old PCs talk to each other with their modems.

Just a guess:

building an amplifier from transistors is sometimes simpler/cheaper than using an op amp. And some designs don’t need the benefit of op amps.

On the other hand, building a timing circuit from discrete components is less obvious. And the 555 does so much of what often needs doing.

Also, the design was not patented so they were commodity chips right away.

Two videos tomorrow at 5:56!

That's fine, but you know you have to concatenate them and sell them as one unit, right?

my favorite use of a 555 is in a solar charge controller. It is a voltage controlled switch!

i have the page archived, but it's called A New Solar _ Wind Charge Controller Based on the 555 Chip (2_7_2026 12

I can upload the webrip if anyone wants it

otoh i.m surprised the accelerometer was already available since 1927. since microcontrollers only the hardcore eecs kids build pid controllers from opamps for fun (only do hn on phone hard to link to that maker article of a fully analog segway where the writer missed the "analog" part and was like WOW a self balancing 2 wheeler by a grad student and not another baby's first Arduino bday kit

From the outside, it's particularly ridiculous given your 1st Amendment and all. I hope the tide turns for you and everyone else.

None of the amendments but the second do anything in 2026, and exercising that one is now sufficient grounds to be held down and executed on the sidewalk by a group of masked bandits.

It's a major problem with no fix for it.

there is absolutely a fix, and it is one of the amendments you alluded to

volume matters

All other things aside, there definitely is some profound void which demise of Flash created and has never been filled again.

Or simply they haven't heard much about it at all, don't care, and chalk it up to OP being some sort of an odd hipster.

Man, so many things could be better if people cared.

Roughly the same argument could be applied to gold, and yet it has been used as a value store for ages.

Can't say I like crypto, but I think better arguments can be made against it.

Gold has a use value.

90% percent of gold is used in jewelry or bars so use value isn't that much unless price is prohibiting use cases.

Jewellery is a use for gold, people like it because it is pretty and shiny and easily worked not just because it is rare.

The artificial scarcity and lack of actual use of bitcoin really isn’t the same.

So do beanie babies. Might be less than gold, but that's why I'm calling this argument flawed.

The second part is that despite these disclaimers, I don't think gold has, in modern history, or will in our lifetimes, reach a price reflecting just the use/intrinsic value. The reasons being twofold: the storage of value IS a use itself; and importantly, which applies to Bitcoin and others, there are always people that will be willing to buy the dip, which is how the requested new generation of "fools" comes from.

> the storage of value IS a use itself

And for this, having a private ledger is cheaper and more efficient for moving stored value in a way that is recoverable by law and doesn't support sanctioned regimes.