Apologies for the metacommentary but do you understand what you've done here?? You've collected together a bunch of rabbit holes into one all-powerful thread that some people might never be able to leave! So I'm gonna keep it bookmarked for later, thanks...
Ask HN: What rabbit hole(s) did you dive into recently?
171–180 of 443 posts
Re: Ask HN: What rabbit hole(s) did you dive into recently?
#172Lots of really cool answers here.
Electric Bikes: Hub Motors and Mid drives are a really great spring / summer rabbit hole to go down. So many form factors of ride and you can also kill two birds with one stone by going for 60V lawn care equipment (There's adapters on eBay to connect them to your bike).
Re: Ask HN: What rabbit hole(s) did you dive into recently?
#173A quick and dirty, shallow one, that I just opted to brute force out of curiosity. An online game I play includes an optional two player Russian Roulette type feature (non-fatal). I got to wondering if there was an optimal betting percentage to use, if you set aside some money as a betting seed. So I spent time coding up a really ugly brute force "just run lots of games and see". Pretty much the answer is you'll lose…
You might find the Kelly Criterion interesting and/or useful for optimal bet sizing. This rabbit hole goes deeeep https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_criterion
Oh boy, further down the rabbit hole!
Re: Ask HN: What rabbit hole(s) did you dive into recently?
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
All I want is a small stereo speaker to replace my awful monitor speakers. Like a small soundbar that doesn't suck. I might dive into this rabbit hole
Check out Hexabase on YT. He has really punchy small speakers that he has released designs for.
> Check out Hexabase on YT.
https://www.youtube.com/@HexiBase in case you're having trouble finding it with that spelling.
Re: Ask HN: What rabbit hole(s) did you dive into recently?
#175I installed NixOS and went down into that black hole.
Re: Ask HN: What rabbit hole(s) did you dive into recently?
#176Golf simulation. I found myself in a unique situation where I had the space, computer and projector. So I got a mat, screen and the key piece, a launch monitor. Now I’m playing 9-36 holes of golf simulation almost every day. The tech is great, the setup is never ending. Golf simulation tech is blowing up right now too. I’m not even necessarily a golfer fwiw. But I love the simulator.
Re: Ask HN: What rabbit hole(s) did you dive into recently?
#177I did not realize that learning Fusion 360 was going to be such a huge chapter in my current journey. Looking back, I'm kind of stumped at how I avoided it as long as I did. I would now put learning CAD in the same category of mandatory life skill as learning to code. The ability to translate what you see in your mind to something that can be repeatably fabricated is an incredible power move, akin to learning how to…
This was super cool. I guess if you want to "simulate" its a whole different world?
Re: Ask HN: What rabbit hole(s) did you dive into recently?
#178I installed NixOS and went down into that black hole.
Tell me more. What was your use-case for installing NixOS? I’ve been thinking about putting together a new media server and saw a recommendation to try NixOS. (I’ve previously used Unraid). That was a couple weeks ago, and it was the first time I’d heard about it
Re: Ask HN: What rabbit hole(s) did you dive into recently?
#179Texas Hold'em. I know there are probably plenty of experts here but after decades avoiding it, I'm getting into it because I found a group of friends that played online.
I first discovered that there are tables (and tables and tables) of preflop card combinations that tell you whether to raise/call/fold based off of where you are in the dealing order and how many players are active.
Then I learn that's basically derived from monte carlo simulations, to calculate your chance of winning at any given moment (equity). It seems that it's probably more accurate to make your decision based off of equity and pot odds, i.e. Kelly Criterion. If I can get fast enough at estimating that in my head.
Also having fun trying to find open source libraries to do those simulations so I can create my own drilling exercises. Honestly, I'm having more fun doing that stuff than playing it.
The biggest dumbest problem is when blinds accelerate to the point that the minimum bet is greater than what Kelly would recommend. Some online poker sites are aggressive about this, to the point that you are forced to make irrational choices pretty quickly or get blinded out. A way to juice the house advantage I guess. It's almost enough to make me give up and find the next project.
Re: Ask HN: What rabbit hole(s) did you dive into recently?
#180I've been attempting to relearn music theory for the third time. The first attempt was over a decade ago, and I never really quite got it. The second attempt was about 6 years ago, and while the fundamentals clicked and I improved dramatically as a musician/composer, I still only ever learned some small portion of the basics. This time, I'm taking it a few steps further. I'm going back to the basics first to recheck…
I love the incremental re-visits where you, after the fact, realize that you have subconsciously progressed.