Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle has about 35 enjoyable pages on this process, if anyone's interested.
As an aside: I really wish someone would produce The Baroque Cycle as a GoT scale epic.
I would love to see Anathem as a 3 season animated series.
Wootz steel
31–40 of 47 posts
Re: Wootz steel
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Stephenson's books are funny. They're totally gripping while I'm reading them, but afterwards I'm never sure if I liked them or not. I plowed through Quicksilver when it came out and loved it. Some time later I picked up The Confusion and was very excited to get on with the story, until I read the first couple of pages and realized I'd forgotten most of the plot and relationships and would have to reread the first...…
I tried to read Quicksilver but couldn't really get into it. However, I then tried the Audible audiobooks and became completely hooked by the whole saga to the point where I think Jack Shaftoe is probably my favourite fictional character. Edit: On the other hand I've read Anathem so many times that my hardback copy fell apart!
How strange we are.
I've read every other Stephenson book more than 3 times and loved every minute of all of them.
Never could get into Anathem.
Re: Wootz steel
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
As an aside: I really wish someone would produce The Baroque Cycle as a GoT scale epic.
Oh, yeah. As amazing as the Baroque Cycle Movie or series could be, or Cryptonomicon, or Diamond Age, etc... I'd vote for Seveneves over everything else.
Seveneves has been in my reading queue for quite awhile... I think I might go ahead and move it to the top of the stack. Thanks for posting this!
Re: Wootz steel
#34Here's Niels Provos (author of bcrypt) attempting to make Wootz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9j9vUGi0QA
Wait, what?! I've been subscribed to Niels Provos on YouTube for years for his swordsmithing content without realising who he was outside of that. What an amazing guy :) Thanks for pointing that out!
Re: Wootz steel
#35One of the things that threw me off when watching forging YouTube videos like Alec Steele was that he would take on these historical projects like Renaissance weaponry but using super-modern power hammers and such. But they actually had power hammers in the Renaissance, Wikipedia calls them trip hammers. They didn't appear in Europe until the Middle Ages, but similar devices were used in China 2000 (!) years ago. The…
Power hammers have been in use for hundreds of years at least - the change is almost entirely in the size of the power source (modern engine vs a waterwheel). Power hammers were the reason cams were invented.
Whoops: I had conflated trip hammers and power hammers. Power hammers date to the mid 1800s. (Kids this is why you look up citations before you post :) )
Re: Wootz steel
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
"They" had analogue computers [1] and steam turbines [2] two millenia ago. Power hammers a few centuries ago seem pretty mild by comparison. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolipile
I don't think I'd really call that a computer any more than I'd call an old watch a computer.
I don't think I'd really call that a computer any more than I'd call an old watch a computer.
The some of the targeting computers aboard the USS Iowa worked in part by the same principles. (The Mk 8 Rangekeeper)
The continuous control mixing of the XC-142 tiltwing (1960's version of the V-22 Osprey) as it changed from vertical to horizontal mode, was all done with cams, gears, and levers.
Re: Wootz steel
#37India prior to the Brits, should be a case study in how to integrate places like the Rust Belt in US, Afghanistan into global trade. Each village was an autonomous unit of production that traded directly with nearby villages, silk road and through merchant ships with the world. ( In some cases they had their own local currency ! ) A single village could be directly linked to markets in Europe and China, or form part…
The only technology needed for this to happen was a common understanding of language. The only people you can't trade with are those you can't communicate with. And cities can issue their own currency; they just can't convince anybody to use it.
I would argue that the trade system is far less restrictive because you can easily trade globally rather than only locally. You also can't get away with pillaging/defrauding your neighbors and calling it 'trade' anymore.
Re: Wootz steel
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
This happens a lot here. I don’t mind it.
I think it's a good thing. If I'm not knowledgeable about the topic, I read the article. If I feel like I am knowledgeable about it, I jump straight to the comments. There I either learn something, or share knowledge. It's one of my favorite types of HN posts :)
As a counterpoint, I think it drops the signal to noise ratio and makes HN less useful.
If I want to read a random Wikipedia article I can use the "Random Article" link on their website.
I don't think it's too much to ask for people posting random wiki links to explain why the article is worth reading about and discussing. Especially in cases like this one, where the linked article (apparently?) has little or nothing to do with the usual content posted.
I have no idea what the poster wants me to get out of this article.
Re: Wootz steel
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
This happens a lot here. I don’t mind it.
I think it's a good thing. If I'm not knowledgeable about the topic, I read the article. If I feel like I am knowledgeable about it, I jump straight to the comments. There I either learn something, or share knowledge. It's one of my favorite types of HN posts :)
Hmm. From my perspective, I've never seen a post like this that didn't refer to an article I'm already aware of. Which would tell me if you like this kind of thing, you could probably just spend more time on Wikipedia instead. It certainly wouldn't be very useful for someone like me to spam seemingly-random Wikipedia articles here.
Re: Wootz steel
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's a good thing. If I'm not knowledgeable about the topic, I read the article. If I feel like I am knowledgeable about it, I jump straight to the comments. There I either learn something, or share knowledge. It's one of my favorite types of HN posts :)
As a counterpoint, I think it drops the signal to noise ratio and makes HN less useful. If I want to read a random Wikipedia article I can use the "Random Article" link on their website. I don't think it's too much to ask for people posting random wiki links to explain why the article is worth reading about and discussing. Especially in cases like this one, where the linked article (apparently?) has little or nothing…
I enjoy not knowing their take. If they saw value, so might I.