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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?

#401

Post by jiggawatts »

vpribish wrote: post #291
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #80

My home office gets up to about 1500ppm of CO2 by the end of the workday, which explains a lot about why I often feel exhausted after the end of a long, uninterrupted session in there (especially when I’m on back to back zoom calls). I now have several plants in there that are supposed to be especially good at sucking up CO2, and my sensor reports that the current level is slightly below atmospheric ambient CO2 level…

do you have 10 plants per square-meter? it's unlikely that you can add enough to make a big difference. plants are nice, but people often ascribe far more to them than is really happening - have you improved the ventilation too? https://www.lung.org/blog/houseplants-dont-clean-air

I was going to say the same thing! It’s a simple energy balance: the human body uses about a 100 watts of energy by burning carbohydrates or fats.

Plants would have to fix 100 watts worth of carbohydrates to simply maintain balance. Only a few plants can achieve 5% efficiency, so minimum you’d need 2 kW of light being absorbed by your plants.

That’s a weed grow room, not an office!

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

#402

Post by GarnetFloride »

Teddy_Kord wrote: post #383
GarnetFloride wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Warning: opening a can of worms. Ann Blair is a great source on general, but there are so many facets to this topic here's a list that I have read or am going to read. * The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen * The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin * Too Much To Know: Managing Scholarly Information Before the Modern Age by Ann M. Blair * Communicating with Slip Boxes: An Empiric…

Wow, I've had an interest in the history of note-taking but that is a huge list. Have you read all those books? Do you have a top 5?

Yeah, this subject is a bit of a rabbit hole. I've read about half of the so far. That's my list of sources from those that I have so far.

I would say start with:

* The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen (This is a fast micro history that hits the highlights.)

* Too Much To Know: Managing Scholarly Information Before the Modern Age by Ann M. Blair (She is a scholar that has a lot on the subject.)

* Forgetting Machines: Knowledge Management Evolution in Early Modern Europe by Alberto Cevolini (This is a collection of pretty deep essays.)

* Paper Machines: About Cards & Catalogs by Markus Krajewski (This is about the development of paper-based databases.)

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

#404

Post by cal_dent »

sowbug wrote: post #393
cal_dent wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is really interesting as it more or less sounds like the recipe for Jamaican "rice and peas" which is delicious and very easy to make. This recipe (minus the bacon, which has no place in rice and peas imo) is a solid easy entry recipe so might be useful: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/oct/05/how-to-make-ric... happy cooking and eating!

Thanks! I'm following that recipe right now. Already had the beans soaking overnight, so it's perfect timing. Update: this recipe has the desired consistency (though I switched to basmati rice, so that's another factor). I had some emergency lard in the refrigerator as a bacon substitute, and that helps a lot. I'm still struggling with capturing a strong coconut taste; I used canned milk, because the fresh coconut I…

Ahh we’re getting there! If it’s more coconuty you need then I’d suggest seeing if you can get coconut cream where you are. Usually comes in a tin but sometimes carton. Make sure it’s 100% coconut. Then you can experiment with adding a dollop or two during cooking.

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

#405

Post by gassit »

saltcured wrote: post #396
satvikpendem wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a way, yes; Wuyi rock oolong will be different than a high mountain Taiwanese oolong. But what most people think of as green vs black tea, they don't realize that it's the same exact plant. Camellia sinensis has only 2 cultivars, var. sinensis (the main one) and var. assamica .

Right. A lot of people also don't realize red and white wines often come from the same red grapes.

This is quite incorrect. Of the top 10 planted wine varietals in the world [0], all ten are red grapes to red wine or white grapes to white wine:

Top grape varieties by planted hectares 1. Cabernet Sauvignon - red grape, red wine. 2. Merlot - red grape, red wine. 3. Tempranillo - red grape, red wine. 4. Airén - white grape, white wine. 5. Chardonnay - white grape, white wine. 6. Syrah - red grape, red wine. 7. Grenache Noir - red grape, red wine. 8. Sauvignon Blanc - white grape, white wine. 9. Pinot Noir - red grape, red wine. 10. Trebbiano Toscano / Ugni Blanc - white grape, white wine.

There are some wines which are produced with red grapes which are not left on skins so there is no impartation of red colour, but they are really not common and the result is most of the time a bit closer to a light rose than what would be considered a white wine. Perhaps the only style that would be semi-frequently encountered are some French Blanc de Noirs wines, various champagne examples being the most common of these. (And of course standard champagne itself, but I am not sure if that is really considered a white wine). Still, rare. It is also not possible to produce a red wine with a white grape, there is no colour in the skin to impart.

[0]: https://londonwinecompetition.com/en/blog/insights-1/how-the...

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

#406

Post by Aditya_kachhawa »

e40 wrote: post #395
Aditya_kachhawa wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh wow, you were following the mailing list when it happened? That must've been entertaining. Did it feel significant at the time or just like another "Linus is pissed and building something" moment?

I definitely felt like I was watching something unusual and special. Watching it go from "I have this idea" to "I'm hosting the kernel on it" was insanely cool.

Kind of wild to think the version control system I use every day was built before I could even walk. Really appreciate you sharing that firsthand context, you don’t usually get that kind of perspective.

I also found your Truth and Fascism piece on your site, and the correspondence vs. performative truth idea really clicked for me. The way it talks about institutions feels pretty universal — different forms, same power game, no matter the country.

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

#407

Post by CTDOCodebases »

schnitzelstoat wrote: post #199
CTDOCodebases wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wasn't this the reason behind different versions of the game for PAL and NTSC etc.? So I imagine the games would play quite similarly, just with a lower refresh rate in Europe? Yes and no. Some games play at a similar speed but some (most if I recall correctly) weren't modified for the PAL market so they play slow and the image is squashed down. Street Fighter II on the SNES (PAL) is a classic example of this.

Damn, Street Fighter 2 on the SNES is literally the first game I remember ever playing. I never knew I was playing an inferior version!

It was simultaneously such a delight and a frustration.

It was a treat to play without having to empty your pockets (where I am it cost the equivalent of 120 arcade credits) but compared to the arcade it wasnt as good as it could have been.

If you had an action replay or a game genie you could use codes to speed it up though.

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

#408

Post by saltcured »

gassit wrote: post #405
saltcured wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. A lot of people also don't realize red and white wines often come from the same red grapes.

This is quite incorrect. Of the top 10 planted wine varietals in the world [0], all ten are red grapes to red wine or white grapes to white wine: Top grape varieties by planted hectares 1. Cabernet Sauvignon - red grape, red wine. 2. Merlot - red grape, red wine. 3. Tempranillo - red grape, red wine. 4. Airén - white grape, white wine. 5. Chardonnay - white grape, white wine. 6. Syrah - red grape, red wine. 7. Grenac…

Thanks for the correction!

This was some trivia I learned long ago, but I guess without enough context for how often that process is done. Clearly, I am not a wine expert...

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

#409

Post by ilinx »

dysoco wrote: post #392
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.

> I’m reading Domain Driven Development and learning why so many of my projects have been tough to maintain. Because they didn't take advice from that book or because they DID take advice from that book?

The former. I didn’t realize how few of my projects have even had an intentional architecture. So often they go from feature designs to mockups to tickets to code without any real discussion about how the pieces fit together. There’s certainly never been an attempt to create a common “language” that is shared across the org. On a project half the company might refer to a catalog item as a “product”, and their definition may or may not align with what another team refers to as an “item”. I’m starting to understand that situations like that are why everything gets so complicated.

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

#410

Post by Gerard0 »

pankajhbk007 wrote: post #269

I found 2 super cool blogs today, and spent most of my time digging into it For understanding how internet works https://how-did-i-get-here.net/ How a computer runs our code (or anything in genral) https://cpu.land/ Also spent some time on reading about E2EE encryption because of some blog on HN I think :)

Thank you for this. Wish I have had this 25 years ago!
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