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Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

#391

Post by hoofhearted »

larrik wrote: post #272
hoofhearted wrote: post #115

I helped build “The Cloud” without really knowing it lol.. I joined a 5 year electrical apprenticeship after highschool. I spent many days between 2006 and 2012 building out crazy electrical systems in these giant warehouse looking buildings in Northern Virginia, for DuPont Fabros and Digital Reality. I had no idea exactly what the purpose of these server farms were for, but they just told us “if we build it they wil…

I was under the impression us-east-1 launched in 2002 or 2003. AWS was certainly a thing in 2004, at least.

Yes, your timeline is correct with the boom in Ashburn. It started out with Acc1, then Acc2 and then Acc3.. These were just some tiny buildings compared to the DC’s that would come in the next 20 years. ACC4 came online somewhere around your timeline as well.

ACC4 was the most state of the art data center in the world when it opened, and it was like 10 times the scale as the previous 3.. Construction halted on ACC5 when the 2008 recession hit. They said the funds dried up to continue construction, and laid thousands of workers off one morning.

Things picked back up a number of years later, and I believe they are past ACC12 now lol..

Here is ACC4, and 5 is right next to it..

https://maps.apple.com/?ll=39.018565,-77.461943&q=Dropped%20...

The newer generation data centers with 2 floors right down the street eclipse the ACC’s of the past and make them look child’s play.

Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

#392

Post by stefanvdw1 »

swighton wrote: post #361

I made a baseball bat that uses explosives to add a bunch of energy to your swing and hit a baseball really far. It uses the explosive blanks normally used to shoot nails into concrete (e.g. ramset). It worked way better than I expected, didn't have a kick, and turned out to be just a really neat thing to look at while sipping a frosty beverage. I also made a video about it if you're interested: https://youtu.be/Puo6…

Love your videos, already excited for the next one!

Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

#394

Post by hoofhearted »

Aaronstotle wrote: post #250
hoofhearted wrote: post #115

I helped build “The Cloud” without really knowing it lol.. I joined a 5 year electrical apprenticeship after highschool. I spent many days between 2006 and 2012 building out crazy electrical systems in these giant warehouse looking buildings in Northern Virginia, for DuPont Fabros and Digital Reality. I had no idea exactly what the purpose of these server farms were for, but they just told us “if we build it they wil…

This is really cool, do you still do electrician work now?

No, I was actually really fascinated by the server and IT infrastructure in these types of operations and worked to make a career switch to programming.

I’m a full stack engineer now professionally, and work on open source code on the side.

Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

#395

Post by tracker1 »

xyzelement wrote: post #196

This may or may not fit into the OP's intention but some of my favorite physical achievements are repairs that might be impressive for a random suburban dad :) 1. Two years ago our basement flooded a week after we bought the house. I ended up tearing out the now-saturated carpet and put in vinyl plank flooring. Mainly straight forward but requires planning and at some points tricky sawing. It's cool when people come…

That's cool.. I replaced a fireplace surround, flattened the wall, wired in for speaker passthrough and electronics to mount a tv, the surround didn't allow room for a tv mount and now power, etc.

Also enclosed a garage at a prior house, turning it into an office. Sub-breaker, lighting, etc.

Haven't been able to do much at my current house since the fireplace as my physical health is less than stellar. On the small repairs, I just can't handle those, I had trouble reading small text and not much dexterity before the tiny ribbon cables in modern laptops and phones. If it's beyond a sodimm or m2 slot, I'm out.

Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

#396

Post by bityard »

MerelyMortal wrote: post #307
ryandrake wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. There are a lot of kit manufacturers out there, offering a wide range of aircraft styles and purposes from back-country to aerobatic to long-range cruise airplanes and more. Materials can include aluminum, fiberglass, wood-and-fabric, and others. The EAA[1] has a lot of information about the various kits. I went with a Vans[2] which are very popular kits with a huge volunteer support/help community online and o…

> Not sure how much a PPL will run you these days. As of 2019, about 10k (more if you needed extra time).

It depends greatly on where you are. I LOVE airplanes and being in the air, and everything at all to do with aviation, so I once entertained the idea of getting a PPL. I called around to the various local airports and clubs to get an idea of what was involved. Although I could technically afford it, the price tag was eye-wateringly expensive for what would realistically amount to an expensive and non-trivially dangerous hobby for me. I expect those who are able to do it on the cheap already have a network in place in order to get steep discounts on their instructor's hours, or something to that effect.

* Also, I eventually decided that I don't have what it takes to be a competent pilot anyway. I'm sure I could handle rural VFR just fine but my brain is not good at holding and computing multiple values. Anything that requires me to juggle a dozen or more numbers in my brain in order to avoid dying is a no-go unfortunately.) I took up an interest in motorcycles instead.

Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

#397

Post by qingcharles »

lobsterthief wrote: post #383

A few years back [I turned a Furby into an Amazon Echo]( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCOsM-4NEKs )

This is great. I made a few Uncut Gems Furbys last year:

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/04/28/arts/22a24-item1/...

But now I watched your video I want a ChatGPT Furby!

Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

#398

Post by egberts1 »

egberts1 wrote: post #328
CoastalCoder wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you make a reader like that back then? I'm assuming that these days, and such device would use a generic microcontroller, with most of the interesting logic in the software. (Insert snarky joke about it also requiring Electron and 16GB of RAM.)

Some of us remember the good ol’ reel-to-reel audio tape from Sony, ones with BIG capstan pinch rollers and tiny read multi-head. That’s the primary set of part for this card reader as it came from the AKAI M-7 reel-to-reel tape deck that my dad vet sent from Thailand (that I ripped apart). The rest is machining the new box to hold together the mechanicals and gears. It was big, something like 13”x8”x18”. Then came t…

Oh, and had added a RS-232-C and a Radio Shack Tandy Model ][ (with 8" floppy drive), and fed it into the G/L part of Tandy General Ledger program.

The computer was that selling tippingpoint with this vaunted homemade peripheral part.

Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

#400

Post by kylecazar »

qingcharles wrote: post #384

Putting my DeLorean on the train tracks at the original filming location for Back to the Future III: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBo1DvKzRJ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLU4RPWjTY8 (we'd never tested it before the day, so we didn't realize the train wheels wouldn't fit over the brake calipers... so no brakes lol)

Where you were going, you didn't need brakes
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