61–70 of 157 posts
Related, amazing read about Meccano teaching you reality-based work, in contrast with Lego: https://contraptions.venkateshrao.com/p/truth-in-inconvenien...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel this in my soul. I thought I could replace a door in a day, but months of fiddling, I discovered by frame is not only a parallelogram but it literally shifts by over an inch between seasons. (~100yr old house 2nd floor)
I wonder if this could all be solved if doors are triangles instead of quadrilaterals.
The first time I built a freestanding bookshelf, I put a lot of effort into making the feet level and the back straight and at a right angle to the feet. Once I put it up against the wall I'd built it for, I realized I'd solved completely different problem than the problem I really had. I needed crooked bookshelf, since the wall was totally tilted. In the end I screwed some wall shelves in and called it good enough.
The first time I built a freestanding bookshelf, I put a lot of effort into making the feet level and the back straight and at a right angle to the feet. Once I put it up against the wall I'd built it for, I realized I'd solved completely different problem than the problem I really had. I needed crooked bookshelf, since the wall was totally tilted. In the end I screwed some wall shelves in and called it good enough.
One of my first real DIY projects during a summer in college nearly 20 years ago was replacing the rotted out basement bulkhead doors on the ~120 year old house I grew up in. I took measurements of the old ones, bought some nice tongue-and-groove cedar and high-quality hardware, and built the new doors in the garage. When they were fully assembled, I carried them over to install on the old stone frame. I took off the…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel this in my soul. I thought I could replace a door in a day, but months of fiddling, I discovered by frame is not only a parallelogram but it literally shifts by over an inch between seasons. (~100yr old house 2nd floor)
I wonder if this could all be solved if doors are triangles instead of quadrilaterals.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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In ancient city of Rome, it was more expensive to rent a room in multi-story building if the landlords lived in it as well. It showed that landlord was brave enough that the building will not fall one day onto themselves.
> If you’re a programmer, you might think that the fiddliness of programming is a special feature of programming, but really it’s that everything is fiddly, but you only notice the fiddliness when you’re new, and in programming you do new things more often. I think I'm drawn to programming because the fiddliness is tractable, and fixable. In which other domain can I: * introspect the relevant processes/state, step by…
Until the next OS update... With wood you are up against nature. With software you are up against corporations and comities.
You're up against your wood vendor. Anyone familiar with Home Depot "fresh from the tree" lumber has discovered this.
No matter how many data centers are built, it is impossible to accommodate that level of detail.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In ancient city of Rome, it was more expensive to rent a room in multi-story building if the landlords lived in it as well. It showed that landlord was brave enough that the building will not fall one day onto themselves.
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