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Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

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Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#341

Post by romanhn »

I haven't really had a hobby until last summer, when I took up collecting banknotes. Growing up in the USSR, I had a few imperial notes as a kid and wanted to expand my "collection", but didn't actually start in earnest until decades later. Got a few late 19th / early 20th century pre-revolution notes, and then found myself in the abyss of Russian Civil War, where every city and local municipality were printing their own money. Anyways, it's a journey without an end, and I saw an interviewee describing this hobby as a "sickness, do not start", which sort of resonated.

As a history lover with appreciation for tactile aspects of history (love 100+ year old books), this scratches this itch better than anything else, while leaving me wanting more. I research and write up every banknote I acquire, and the sense of history I get from browsing my album is like nothing else.

For anyone interested, here are the photos of my collection circa end of last year: https://imgur.com/a/zmCXd8l

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#342

Post by nate »

simgt wrote: post #310
nate wrote: post #296

Taught myself to use a sewing machine. Then I made my own EDC wallet thing. Basically a zipper pouch that can fit a lot of things while keep them as spread out in my front pocket. I've got a version of this now in my front pocket for like 9 months: https://share.zight.com/wbu487ew Yes, it's big, but it's the most comfortable from of a big wallet. It's funny though. I can't help feel the pull to try and make the hobby…

Did the same two years ago, it's such an underrated skill. There's a good amount of complexity that goes into making an item without just following a pattern. I recommend going through the basics (Tock Custom has a nice energy [0]), then picking up a fairly complex pattern for a common piece of clothing. Of course there's also r/myog. [0] https://www.youtube.com/@TockCustom

Yeah, it's funny how many times I basically made the same damn thing just fine tuning a half inch wider, or seam allowance.

I also can't believe how tedious cutting fabric is. Even for a tiny project like this it was such a pain in the ass. Even with nice circular cutters and mats and rulers. I'm now tempted to get a cricut 4 to make the cutting easier.

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#343

Post by aslushnikov »

hermitcrab wrote: post #284
aslushnikov wrote: post #255

I'm very much into niche hobbies: they usually have nice tight & friendly communities. Below are some of my favorite I'd love to share: - FPV drone flying: once you've spent 5-10 hours to get initial reflexes for the controls in the simulator, the first flight on a real machine outside feels magical. - Electric unicycles: the "mind-controlled" PEV, and arguably the best way to get around in San Francisco. - Foiling:…

>FPV drone flying What sort of set-up would be a good one for a beginner?

The setup I'd recommend:

- Velocidrone [1] flight sim

- Any FPV controller that connects to laptop. 2 solid choices are TBS Tango 2 or DJI FPV Remote Controller [3]

I spent ~20 hours in the sim before advancing to real drones; a few of my friends followed this path and successfully passed an improvised exam on real drone after just ~10 hours in the sim.

As for the drone itself, the easiest setup is probably DJI Avata [4], but it's less of the proper "FPV feel". I personally fly Flywoo Explorer [5] with DJI system: it's a small & nibmle long range drone, easy to travel with, and powerful enough to chase kiteboarders even in a strong wind.

P.S. Don't be discouraged with sim flying: it's actually very fun, feels similar to TrackMania Nations.

[1] https://www.velocidrone.com/

[2] https://www.team-blacksheep.com/products/prod:tbs_tango_2

[3] https://store.dji.com/product/dji-fpv-remote-controller-3?vi...

[4] https://www.dji.com/avata-2

[5] https://flywoo.net/products/explorer-lr-4-o4-pro-sub250-4k-1...

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#344

Post by dare944 »

rbanffy wrote: post #89

How niche is retrocomputing? I absolutely love my ancient machines, and I use them to explore period applications, much more than games. I also love to restore and preserve them. There’s something magical about a Sun workstation Solaris 2 a Frog Design Trinitron monitor. or a Microvax running VMS and DECWindows. Or a multi-user Altair Z80. I think it’s sad a lot of software was lost and some platforms were denied the…

I have a lot of fun with my old PDP-11s. Being able to run an original version of Unix on a machine with actual core memory (that I restored to working order) is a real kick for me. Gives a sense of depth to the software I run on my modern Linux laptop.

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#345

Post by pavel_lishin »

romanhn wrote: post #341

I haven't really had a hobby until last summer, when I took up collecting banknotes. Growing up in the USSR, I had a few imperial notes as a kid and wanted to expand my "collection", but didn't actually start in earnest until decades later. Got a few late 19th / early 20th century pre-revolution notes, and then found myself in the abyss of Russian Civil War, where every city and local municipality were printing their…

That's really neat! I have some old-ish Soviet money laying around that I brought with me when I emigrated. I should really preserve it somehow.

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#346

Post by anotherpaulg »

I’ve been building quantum photonics experiments. Repeating the Bell inequality tests that won the 2022 Nobel, quantum erasers, etc.

Probably the coolest part has been automating the optomechanical equipment and optimizing physical experiments with Bayesian optimization. Similar to hyperparameter tuning in ML, but with lasers.

Also, Thorlabs sells some really fun toys.

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#347

Post by romanhn »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #345
romanhn wrote: post #341

I haven't really had a hobby until last summer, when I took up collecting banknotes. Growing up in the USSR, I had a few imperial notes as a kid and wanted to expand my "collection", but didn't actually start in earnest until decades later. Got a few late 19th / early 20th century pre-revolution notes, and then found myself in the abyss of Russian Civil War, where every city and local municipality were printing their…

That's really neat! I have some old-ish Soviet money laying around that I brought with me when I emigrated. I should really preserve it somehow.

I always assumed that newer banknotes are always going to be easier to obtain than older ones. But the hyperinflation of late imperial, early Soviet times means a ton of paper money was printed and is still available at cheap prices. On the other hand, Soviet money from between 1922 and before 1961 can be quite rare and sometimes very very expensive.

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#348

Post by iamjs »

johnthedebs wrote: post #282

I got into fig (and since then, more broadly, fruit) cultivation. Figs have a rich history, lots of variety, and there are very active online (and in-person) communities where you can buy or exchange plants and cuttings, advice, and fruit. This grew out of an initial interest in gardening, and the long-term goal is to create a food/fruit forest around our house where me, family, friends, and neighbors can walk around…

I have a volunteer fig tree growing in a container on my patio in the middle of a bunch of onions. I have always heard of people transplanting them from cuttings, presumably because they are difficult to grow from seed. I have no idea how it got there, but I feel fortunate to have been chosen.

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#349

Post by PaulHoule »

EvanAnderson wrote: post #294
hermitcrab wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to be extremely careful about taking photos of children without explicit permission from the parents.

At least on the street and in sports my experience is people using purpose-built cameras get harassed. People using cell phones as cameras get a pass (at least in sports).

It's common that they don't even let you into the venue if you have a interchangable lens camera. I wouldn't even try going into a pro game with a camera if I didn't have a credential.

At my Uni I usually go right in without any trouble, the only case I got hassled was a woman's hockey game and that time I kept repeating "I've never had trouble getting into a game before" (true) until they gave up and let me in. (Which doesn't leave me inclined to try again, but I'd already bought a ticket and didn't want to back and stash my gear in my office) I hear in hockey they are really worried about wildcat video streams.

Some of the sports at Cornell are exceptionally laid back. We are one of a few schools that plays sprint football which is 100% the same as regular football except players have to weigh less than 178 lbs [1], I know the head coach, I know people in the parent's association, they leave the gate unlocked and i go right down to the sidelines.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprint_football

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#350

Post by andrewrn »

linsomniac wrote: post #301

I've been working on trying to help fill out the MeshCore network in our area for off-grid communications. Some of us are setting up solar powered, battery backed MeshCore nodes, they have no connection to power or Internet. You can use a small device (like a credit card or a small walkie-talkie) with a phone, or a blackberry-like device, to send/receive encrypted messages, chat on channels, or communicate on BBS-lik…

Oh this is sooo cool. I want to try and do this in the summer too. This might be of interest to you: https://youtu.be/XTnYVh7K6xQ
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