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Ask HN: What did you find out or explore today?

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Re: Ask HN: What did you find out or explore today?

#241

Post by kleiba »

frm88 wrote: post #166

I found out that it is nearly impossible in Europe to buy a 10l enamelled bucket with a lid. I need one for my organic waste, since I found that both metal and plastic ones tend to keep the smell despite cleaning them weekly.

Can't say I have any odor issues with just a cheap big Tupperware-style plastic container with a lid. I throw it in the dishwasher after I've emptied it and the lid keeps any smells in during use (that's what the lid is for after all, as well as keeping fruit flies out of the organic waste).

Re: Ask HN: What did you find out or explore today?

#242

Post by butlike »

techiferous wrote: post #185
torben-friis wrote: post #92

I got a handheld emulator console as a Christmas gift. Configuring shaders that emulate crt TVs, I realized I had no mental model of how those TVs worked at all. I’m used to “pixels are three little lights combining rgb colors”, which doesn’t work here, so I went on a rabbit hole and let me tell you, analog TVs are extremely impressive tech. Getting an electron beam to hit a glass, making the chemicals on it spark, c…

Don't forget how they found a way to squish closed caption information into analog broadcast. The electron beam traces a path on the CRT display by drawing the odd lines from top to bottom (which draws half the image) and then the even lines (the rest of the owl) from top to bottom. While the electron beam is repositioning itself from the bottom of the screen to the top of the screen, there is a brief period of time…

Technology Connections does a really good video on this on YouTube

Re: Ask HN: What did you find out or explore today?

#243

Post by loopback_device »

frm88 wrote: post #176
zote wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it easier for other sizes, or equally as difficult.

Equally as difficult, except for very small ones that go on a table - these are more of a decorative item than a bucket. Enamel in general has gotten somewhat rare. I found one (!) factory in Germany that does these. One. Edit: I just checked:10l is max. There are no bigger ones and now I wonder why :)

In case you haven't found it yet; have a look on https://emaille24.de/ - they do have buckets up to 12l (with lids).

Re: Ask HN: What did you find out or explore today?

#244

Post by butlike »

torben-friis wrote: post #186
schnitzelstoat wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Turns out that the logic in consoles of the time was tied to the speed of the beam, which in turn used alternating current’s frequency as a clock. This means that since European current changes 50 times per second rather than 60, our games played in slowmo (about 0.8x). American sonic was so much faster! And the music was so much more upbeat! Wasn't this the reason behind different versions of the game for PAL and…

>So I imagine the games would play quite similarly, just with a lower refresh rate in Europe? That was my assumption as well! But nope, gameplay was coupled to framerate for a surprising range of years. You can see comparisons on YouTube, check the music of the pal/ntsc version of sonic for the genesis/megadrive. Apparently it was still happening to some extent during the PSX era. I remember the turn meter bars in FF…

If you have an original copy of Grim Fandango, the elevator-and-forklift puzzle is impossible without a patch, since the scene moves at (iirc) the processors clock speed, so modern CPUs ran too quickly to make the action possible to solve the puzzle.

This is obviously fixed in the remastered version, though

Re: Ask HN: What did you find out or explore today?

#245

Post by sowbug »

On a recent trip to Costa Rica, I discovered "Rice and Beans," which is not Gallo Pinto, but a Caribbean-influenced dish made principally of white rice, red kidney beans, coconut milk, and thyme. The dish name is in quotes because it's really the English words "Rice and Beans." It's marvelous, and I couldn't wait to try making it myself at home. Unfortunately, so far, it's been a mushy flavorless mess. I'll try a third go tomorrow. What I have so far:

- soften diced yellow onion and green bell pepper in 1 tbsp coconut oil

- toss in 3 minced garlic cloves

- toast 1.5 cups dry rinsed white rice in the mix

- pour in 1 can coconut milk

- add 1 can black beans (still looking for red beans)

- add lots of fresh thyme

- put in 1 whole habanero (still looking for Panamanian pepper)

- add 1 tsp salt

- add 1 can chicken broth

- if you have it, add a tbsp of Linzo sauce

Then simmer until the rice is cooked.

Next time I'm going to try with fresh coconut milk straight from a real coconut. That's what I explored today: how to make coconut milk.

Would appreciate advice on improving the recipe.

Late edit: on the plane back from CR I watched The Thinking Game, a documentary about DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis. Recommended.

Re: Ask HN: What did you find out or explore today?

#246

Post by dyauspitr »

sowbug wrote: post #245

On a recent trip to Costa Rica, I discovered "Rice and Beans," which is not Gallo Pinto, but a Caribbean-influenced dish made principally of white rice, red kidney beans, coconut milk, and thyme. The dish name is in quotes because it's really the English words "Rice and Beans." It's marvelous, and I couldn't wait to try making it myself at home. Unfortunately, so far, it's been a mushy flavorless mess. I'll try a thi…

I don’t know specifics of this dish but usually you want to cook everything else first and only add in the rice for the last 10 mins so it stays firm. The choice of rice matters too, basmati tends to stay separate. Also wash the rice first so excess starches get drained off.

Re: Ask HN: What did you find out or explore today?

#247

Post by philangist »

ilinx wrote: post #16

I’m reading Domain Driven Development and learning why so many of my projects have been tough to maintain. I also recently learned that you can get ancient coins for very little money if you don’t care about resale value or need them to be in pristine condition. I bought some coins from kingdoms that I’d never heard of. Many are thousands of years old! It’s fun holding a piece of history like that.

Curious what have been the main insights you've gotten from the book around what causes hard to maintain projects?

Re: Ask HN: What did you find out or explore today?

#248

Post by kubanczyk »

artemavv wrote: post #157

I now know that in Italian I should say 'mi piacciono' to convey my liking of things (plural), e.g "mi piacciono i libri" means "I like books", as opposed to singular 'mi piace il libro' (I like the book). When I refer to likes of multiple people, e.g. "we like this book", I should use "ci piace il libro". Plural people speaking about liking plural books would be "ci piacciono i libri". One of my goals for 2026 is to…

Yeah, somehow Latin-based languages prefer the opposite direction of the activity of liking, so it's better to formulate it initially as: this book appeals to me, those books appeal to him, ...

Opposite as in: "You borrow me X. I owe you X."

Re: Ask HN: What did you find out or explore today?

#250

Post by AdamN »

I used RfP (Request for Payment) today for the first time. It was ~11k USD between IBKR and Chase and the transfer was instant with verification on both sides. It's interesting to see the evolution of payments in the US moving so quickly over the past few years (FedNOW, etc...)
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