Really cool idea and neat tool to play with. And thank you for the tip at the bottom of your post for putting in a specific value. That’s the first thing I wanted!
Show HN: Degrees What?
21–30 of 124 posts
Re: Show HN: Degrees What?
#22A small inconsistency: The "i"nfo button claims it is also converting Kelvin, but those don't seem to be displayed. Kelvin is not degrees, probably the info text is wrong. Could the compass get the magnetic heading from the browser on mobile?
There's more info in landscape mode. (I should add that to the info)
Yes, possibly. There's a webkit extension but I'm not sure how well it's supported. I'll look into it.
Re: Show HN: Degrees What?
#23The 'compass' setting is a minefield if done 'correctly' For the kinds of maps I coded for in the 1980's you'll want your compass rose to indicate * Geographic North (on, say a WGS84 ellipsoid) * Magnetic North (where a magnetic compass points, this varies by time and geographic location) * Rotational North (the spin axis of the planet - it walks a bit) This things can be added if you're looking for an additional ( p…
I was tempted to add device orientation for mobile, but figured people might think it was an actual compass, and AFAIK support is a bit spotty.
It's a challenge and it'll force you to ask what and why are you doing this for.
There's "real life navigation" - these things matter at high and low latitudes, and near massive iron deposits such as Kursk, not so much elsewhere - although orienteering with magnetic compass only requires understanding of local deviations.
There's also "teaching geodesy" - which might allow you to simulate changes of location etc.
All of this, of course, goes beyond a simple exercise in inferface design and angles.
I threw it in there in case you're looking for further coding exercises.
I guess the remaining question is .. analog clock directions? Does the most recent generation need to be reminded to watch their six o'clock?
Re: Show HN: Degrees What?
#24Congrats on a good execution of a fun idea. The mobile UX feels very good. Also sorry to be that guy but: > when people specify a temperature in "degrees" when it’s not clear from the context which scale is being used. It should be degrees Celsius. Anything else is just insane ;)
I agree, but some of my favourite cookbooks are American. What can you do?
Convert to F and also buy measuring cups/spoons and glare angrily from the recipe to my trusty scale, which stands unused in the corner, I guess.
Measuring by weight is the one cooking-related hill that I will die on.
(Recently, I had a recipe ask for four cups of lettuce, which could've been anything from 0.5x to 4x of what I finally went with, depending on how much I packed the cups. It's lunacy)
Re: Show HN: Degrees What?
#25> I always want to ask “degrees what?” Well, the simpler solution would have been to just use radians ;)
ᴿC or ᴿF ?
Re: Show HN: Degrees What?
#26I always want to ask “degrees what?" I once worked on a system that ran at -40 degrees. I loved leaving off the scale when giving tours and telling about it, because someone would invariably ask if I meant Celsius or Fahrenheit and then everyone got to learn where the crossing point of the two scales is.
When I was taking algebra 1 in middle school I learned that all non-parallel lines had to intersect and this made me realize that the temperature scales must intersect, so I calculated their intersection point. I thought it was the single greatest discovery anyone had ever made and told literally every adult in my life about it. -40 C/F has always held a very special place in my heart haha
Re: Show HN: Degrees What?
#27Congrats on a good execution of a fun idea. The mobile UX feels very good. Also sorry to be that guy but: > when people specify a temperature in "degrees" when it’s not clear from the context which scale is being used. It should be degrees Celsius. Anything else is just insane ;)
Most of my use of degrees is either in cooking or weather. Having a larger scale means more accuracy, seeing as we don't use decimals in either.
I'm not saying it makes a ton of sense, but my only real defense of it.
That said, I find negative units rather silly in most measurements, so we should really be using K I think.
Re: Show HN: Degrees What?
#28I always want to ask “degrees what?" I once worked on a system that ran at -40 degrees. I loved leaving off the scale when giving tours and telling about it, because someone would invariably ask if I meant Celsius or Fahrenheit and then everyone got to learn where the crossing point of the two scales is.
- Minus 40 degrees
- Celsius or Fahrenheit?
- Yes
Re: Show HN: Degrees What?
#29Next convert it to radians.
Re: Show HN: Degrees What?
#30> Degrees What? is a tool for converting temperatures between Celsius (°C), Fahrenheit (°F), Kelvin (K) and other scales.
Is the description accurate? How to display Kelvin units or other scales?