> I thought about it but decided it looks pretty tacky. It looks like what kids would think of as a gaming PC and what boomers would think of as a seizure.
Missed chance to be a school legend and initiation of a career launching arc.
Waterluvian•May 13, 2026
I think if designed in a way where it’s subtle when off/low and at appropriate times can be activated on-demand, that would be great.
But to be in a crowd of people all dressed the same, all graduating as well, having a gaming PC on your head might be too much main character energy.
invalidSyntax•May 13, 2026
I don't recall that there is a situation that you can turn on gaming RGB on your head. Someone suddenly starting to shine is as bad as keep shining. It's just either stealing everyone's concentration near you or give a jump scare to how ever was unlucky to look at your direction when you turned it on.
Waterluvian•May 13, 2026
Say you’re at the reception after and you want to take a few photos with friends and family.
Or the traditional post-commencement board mortaring where you light up and throw it into the air.
Actually that gives me an idea: a grad cap that is also a drone. So when you throw it up with everyone in celebration yours just keeps going.
Goodbye hat. I uploaded my student debt into you. Don’t come back.
0cf8612b2e1e•May 13, 2026
If you go to a bigger school, they have multiple graduation ceremonies. Split the rental amongst anyone who does not share a time slot with you.
That’s what I did and people acted like this was a genius move. No, I am just broke.
dhosek•May 13, 2026
I skipped the graduation ceremonies for my BA and my first master’s degree. For my second, apparently the cost of a cap, gown and hood was included in the tuition so I have academic regalia sitting in a box somewhere should I ever find myself in need of such, a scenario I cannot imagine ever coming to pass.
irishcoffee•May 13, 2026
Yeah, I skipped mine too. I was not (and am not) at all proud of my box-checking degrees.
I had a blast in undergrad, not at all because of the classes.
llbbdd•May 13, 2026
Same here, walking across the stage in a dress is for the school, not for you. Got my paper, bye
tombert•May 13, 2026
I just did online school and didn't bother showing up to any kind of ceremony. I was 30 when I finally finished school, I didn't really feel the need to prove anything.
florilegiumson•May 13, 2026
Living in the PE side of software, with its EBITDA and other metrics, poorly researched product initiatives, senseless firefighting, and toxic bro cultures, it's nice to be reminded some of the reasons I got into this. Thank you.
katzgrau•May 13, 2026
> It probably would’ve been easier if I didn’t use Rust and just used the Arduino libraries, or if I used a different board. But I was really married to this blog post title idea
Worth it, nicely done
jdw64•May 13, 2026
If Rust could create the girlfriend I still do not have, I think I would have learned Rust by now.
ozten•May 13, 2026
There is a joke around ownership or borrowing that I'm going to take the high road and not make.
LandenLove•May 13, 2026
I am pretty sure I purchased my cap and gown instead of renting. But my college was a bit smaller.
airstrike•May 13, 2026
Wouldn't the purchase option be priced at a multiple to the rental?
xboxnolifes•May 13, 2026
OP paid $94 to rent their gown. I'm pretty sure I paid less than that (if not a comparable price) to buy mine. Thank god it wasn't multiple more, I only wore it for 5 minutes for a picture, since I graduated during Covid.
bigstrat2003•May 13, 2026
Yeah, there was no option to rent at my school. I purchased those things, not that I'll ever use them again.
dotancohen•May 13, 2026
Can't you sell it used to the next graduating class?
wolpoli•May 13, 2026
At my school, I purchased my cap but rented the gown. The cap is in a box never to be looked at again. I can't imagine what I would do with the gown.
shermantanktop•May 13, 2026
It’s not just for graduations! You can wear it at any gown-appropriate event!
Marriages, graduations and funerals carry forward some traditions that haven’t made sense for generations. They are the irregular verbs of modern life. Interestingly, marriages and funerals often have a religious element, and religion itself is conservative—but graduation doesn’t have that excuse.
RealityVoid•May 13, 2026
Can you? I mean, you _can_ but you really can't. Showing up at a marriage or funeral in one would be... weird to say the least.
Ferret7446•May 13, 2026
1. No it doesn't, it runs machine code.
2. Yet again we have the need to announce Rust to the world, when the usage of it is inconsequential in this context
outside1234•May 13, 2026
I bet you are fun at parties
dylan604•May 13, 2026
As much as anyone else talking about Rust or programming at. a. party.
saagarjha•May 13, 2026
You’d be surprised
fluffybucktsnek•May 13, 2026
Do you go on every project that announces itself to be written in C/C++/Zig/Fil-C/Java/etc. and make those same complaints? That must be tiring.
nDRDY•May 13, 2026
No need!
hona_mind•May 13, 2026
Genuinely the best use of "I was really married to this blog post title idea" as a justification for a technical decision I've ever read. Congrats!
kmoser•May 13, 2026
> So you do need to shell out to rent them. And they don’t give you the option to buy the cap and gown outright.
You can't buy them from a 3rd party? Maybe a cheap Spirit Halloween costume? Maybe even make your own from cardboard and a black napkin or two?
thekevan•May 13, 2026
Then you probably won't match the rest of the class.
pipeline_peak•May 13, 2026
If there’s anything I really want written in Rust, it’s a Chrome extension to filter out all the HN posts about Rust.
unrealhoang•May 13, 2026
Or to automatically write command bitching about it.
dotancohen•May 13, 2026
That would likely entail an LLM today. Which is the single topic that is more highly represented on the HN homepage than Rust.
shermantanktop•May 13, 2026
You forgot the lowkey accusation that a comment is llm-generated. With that we have the trifecta.
yjftsjthsd-h•May 13, 2026
That seems unnecessary. JavaScript is memory safe.
brcmthrowaway•May 13, 2026
Oh to be young and have oodles of free time again
classified•May 13, 2026
Cool project. And it goes to show how this education system is scammed out to the max, even cap and gown.
rustybolt•May 13, 2026
> Fun fact #1: you rent your cap and gown in the US. You have to return them. And they’re expensive, too! I paid $94 just for the privilege of renting mine, which is insane because they probably cost way less than that to manufacture.
Ah, yes, of course this is how it works in the US.
philipallstar•May 13, 2026
Yes, you have to pay a decent wage to the people helping you fit, cleaning, and storing the goods. Manufacture is done in a low cost country with cheap labour, so buying clothing seems cheap.
kachnuv_ocasek•May 13, 2026
Do you truly believe most of that goes towards wages?
piker•May 13, 2026
Yes. Competitive forces would push the cost toward the most expensive input which is likely people. That would be somewhat muted if the supplier was sole source but even then outright purchases would put downward pressure on the rental price.
suddenlybananas•May 13, 2026
What competitive forces? It's not like people have a choice in choosing whether they want a particular cap or gown and the people who contract the rental agreement (i.e. the university admin) are not the ones bearing the cost.
pdpi•May 13, 2026
Given that you’re forced to rent the cap and gown, I think it’s safe to say that competitive forces are entirely absent in this scenario.
philipallstar•May 13, 2026
Well, some will go on corporation tax, some on business rates, some on rent of the land the storage is on (which itself has to pay corporation tax, I suppose).
piker•May 13, 2026
As opposed to what buying the thing and storing it or throwing it away?
jychang•May 13, 2026
It's a $10 gown, renting it for $100 is madness
numbsafari•May 13, 2026
Throwing it away after single use is madness.
sudokatsu•May 13, 2026
I think they’re saying it should be much cheaper to rent, and we shouldn’t throw them away.
skrebbel•May 13, 2026
I'm surprised at the concept, somehow I thought the whole "graduation cap" thing was just in movies. Seems out of place in a country that's otherwise so individualistic.
philipwhiuk•May 13, 2026
You generally rent caps and gowns in the UK too. Can you share where you are that you buy them?
Aissen•May 13, 2026
I was wondering why I saw them for cheap on aliexpress…
nsvd2•May 13, 2026
FWIW I'm in the US and I bought mine. Renting does seem to make more sense here as the gown has no utility outside of this one event.
anilakar•May 13, 2026
Those ATtiny85 boards that plug directly into a USB port are great if you need 1 to 5 GPIOs and/or a HID interface. At 2 dollars apiece or so it's worth having a few around.
avhception•May 13, 2026
> Are you actually going to wear this to your graduation?
> Heck no.
What? That would have been so much fun!
nDRDY•May 13, 2026
Technically it runs AVR-RISC :-)
Fun project though!
throwuxiytayq•May 13, 2026
You are having so much fun in the video clips. I love this!
swiftcoder•May 13, 2026
> Fun fact #1: you rent your cap and gown in the US. You have to return them. And they’re expensive, too! I paid $94 just for the privilege of renting mine
Ah, the final way that US universities transfer wealth from students to corporations... just before they start sending out begging letters for alumni donations to the poor, destitute university*
*: my university shuttered the CS graduate program the year I graduated, on the basis that "there are more jobs in communications", so I never donated a red cent
18 Comments
Missed chance to be a school legend and initiation of a career launching arc.
But to be in a crowd of people all dressed the same, all graduating as well, having a gaming PC on your head might be too much main character energy.
Or the traditional post-commencement board mortaring where you light up and throw it into the air.
Actually that gives me an idea: a grad cap that is also a drone. So when you throw it up with everyone in celebration yours just keeps going.
Goodbye hat. I uploaded my student debt into you. Don’t come back.
That’s what I did and people acted like this was a genius move. No, I am just broke.
I had a blast in undergrad, not at all because of the classes.
Worth it, nicely done
Marriages, graduations and funerals carry forward some traditions that haven’t made sense for generations. They are the irregular verbs of modern life. Interestingly, marriages and funerals often have a religious element, and religion itself is conservative—but graduation doesn’t have that excuse.
2. Yet again we have the need to announce Rust to the world, when the usage of it is inconsequential in this context
You can't buy them from a 3rd party? Maybe a cheap Spirit Halloween costume? Maybe even make your own from cardboard and a black napkin or two?
Ah, yes, of course this is how it works in the US.
What? That would have been so much fun!
Fun project though!
Ah, the final way that US universities transfer wealth from students to corporations... just before they start sending out begging letters for alumni donations to the poor, destitute university*
*: my university shuttered the CS graduate program the year I graduated, on the basis that "there are more jobs in communications", so I never donated a red cent