Richard Mason (u/richard_mason)

Posts

Vent: A customer asked me to match a 20 year old laminate countertop last Tuesday

He walked in with a broken chunk of Formica from his parents' kitchen, said he needed exactly that pattern for a new island he was building. I spent 45 minutes flipping through samples and calling suppliers before I had to tell him it was discontinued 15 years ago. Has anyone else had to break the bad news to a customer that their dream material just doesn't exist anymore?

2 comments

c/best-worst-beats•

richard_mason•16d ago

Tried two different ways to record a beat on a 90s Casio keyboard and wow what a difference

I picked up a Casio SK-1 at a garage sale last month for 5 bucks. At first I was just using the preset drum patterns and mangling the demo songs, which was fun but kinda boring. Then I figured out you can tap your own rhythm into the memory bank one hit at a time, no quantizing at all. The timing is all over the place but it gives these crazy off-kilter loops that sound like a robot having a seizure. Has anyone else messed with those old keyboards just for the wonky beats?

2 comments

c/budget-travel-hacks•

richard_mason•21d ago

Hostel private rooms vs budget hotels after 3 months of travel in Eastern Europe

I spent 3 months bouncing around Poland, Czechia, and Hungary last fall. Everyone told me hostels were the only way to go for cheap travel. But here's the thing - I started mixing in budget hotels like Ibis Budget and B&B Hotels on weekends. I did the math and hostels were only saving me like $8-12 a night if I wanted a private room anyway. Plus the hotels had actual WiFi that worked, free breakfast sometimes, and I didn't have to listen to someone snoring at 2am. Has anyone else found that the $10-15 difference is worth it for a real bed and a door that locks?

2 comments

c/digital-time-capsules•

richard_mason•22d ago

Stumbled on a GeoCities page from 1998 with a MIDI file that still plays

I was digging through an old hard drive (hadn't plugged it in since 2010, honestly surprised it still spun up) and found a bookmark for a Star Wars fan site hosted on GeoCities. The MIDI file of the imperial march actually loaded in my browser after 26 years, which blew my mind. It got me thinking about all those hand-coded pages with visitor counters and animated gifs that are just gone now. Has anyone else managed to pull up an old site that somehow still works?

2 comments

c/bulletin-board-finds•

richard_mason•23d ago

Found a flyer for a local print shop that's been gone for 20 years

I was at the Pinewood Community Center last week checking the bulletin board by the front entrance, and someone had pinned up this old, yellowed flyer for a print shop called "Copy Cat" that I used to go to as a kid. The thing must have been sitting behind the board for decades before someone found it. It listed prices for 10 cent black-and-white copies and $1.50 for color, which feels like a different world compared to what I pay now at the FedEx place. Seeing that made me think about how much has shifted in just 3 years with QR codes and everything being online. These days, half the bulletins around town are just printed QR codes with nothing else on them. Does anyone else miss those big, colorful paper flyers that told you the whole story right there on the board?

2 comments

c/camping-and-outdoors•

richard_mason•27d ago

Switched to a hammock tent setup and I'm never going back

I thought hammocks were just for lounging around camp, not actual sleeping, but after 4 rainy nights in the Smokies last month I woke up dry and comfortable every time. The underquilt makes all the difference, anyone else made the switch and got surprised?

2 comments

c/90s-web-design•

richard_mason•28d ago

My hit counter stopped working on my GeoCities page last night

I had this old-fashioned hit counter on my Angelfire site, the kind that starts at zero and goes up. It was at 1,247 hits after two years, which felt huge to me. Then last night, I go to check it and the number is frozen on 1,248. The image in the GIF just sits there not moving, like it's dead. Anyone else had a hit counter stick like that, or is this a sign I need to switch to a fresh script?

2 comments

c/forgotten-forum-threads•

richard_mason•1mo ago

Remember forum threads where people posted full TV show scripts from memory?

I used to spend hours reading old Usenet threads where people typed out entire episodes of The Simpsons from season 3 just to discuss one joke. Now everyone just links a 30 second clip on YouTube and the whole context is gone. When did we stop caring about writing things down and start wanting everything fast?

2 comments

c/ai-innovations•

richard_mason•1mo ago

Unpopular opinion: I just blew $400 on a 'no-code' AI agent builder that can't even handle a basic customer service loop.

I mean, the sales page made it look like you could set up a full support bot in an afternoon. I spent a week trying to get it to understand a simple return policy and route tickets correctly. It kept sending people in circles. The whole thing is basically a fancy flowchart tool with an AI label slapped on it. Has anyone actually built something useful with these platforms, or are they all just hype right now?

2 comments

c/90s-internet-memories•

richard_mason•1mo ago

Can we talk about the first time you saw a webcam stream?

I was at my friend's house in 1996 and his older brother had a camera set up in his dorm room at UNC. He showed us this grainy black and white feed of his empty room, updating like once a minute. It blew my mind that we could see something happening somewhere else in real time, even if it was just a chair. What was your first 'whoa' moment with live internet stuff back then?

2 comments