Ask HN: What did you find out or explore today? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What did you find out or explore today?

#351

Post by conductr » Thu, Jan 15, 2026, 8:20 PM UTC

technothrasher wrote: post #299

I've been exploring making a camera trap to put out in my woods, to see if I can get a good photo of the very illusive bobcats we've got around here. I went out to California last month on a photo tour to get some nice shots of less skittish cats, and it gave me the motivation to continue my build of the camera trap. I just today received the custom little PCB I designed to read an IR sensor and have an STM32G conver…

Not to discourage you from building this, that sounds like fun, but I found a very cheap trail camera on Amazon is pretty great for this type of thing.

Re: Ask HN: What did you find out or explore today?

#352

Post by conductr » Thu, Jan 15, 2026, 8:22 PM UTC

kej wrote: post #346

bilsbie wrote: post #341

Tangentially related: if I do this frequently how can I frame it as a hobby normies can understand? Knowledge explorer sounds too esoteric.

I've heard it as "my hobby is finding new hobbies".

I call it hoarding tools and am a major offender. I buy all the tools and kit to do the hobby, then lose interest

Re: Ask HN: What did you find out or explore today?

#353

Post by throwaway2037 » Thu, Jan 15, 2026, 8:31 PM UTC

I read the Wiki page for Thurgood Marshall: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurgood_Marshall

This part surprised me:

    > Marshall retired from the Supreme Court in 1991 and was replaced by Clarence Thomas.

I remember watching the hearings about Clarence Thomas as a kid. At the time, I had no idea what a legal giant was Thurgood Marshall.

Re: Ask HN: What did you find out or explore today?

#354

Post by nyantaro1 » Thu, Jan 15, 2026, 8:41 PM UTC

numpad0 wrote: post #41

Surströmming, the Swedish can of fermented fish, is strongly recommended to be punctured while submerged in tap water. It is not pasteurized and is actively fermenting in storage, and the content will spray around if opened under atmospheric conditions. When transported on cargo flights, they are double packed as cans in a barrel in a crate, and considered UN classified "miscellaneous dangerous goods" with identifica…

Is it even good?

Re: Ask HN: What did you find out or explore today?

#355

Post by vlod » Thu, Jan 15, 2026, 8:46 PM UTC

janpmz wrote: post #119

I had some eye strain and think it is because my eye muscles are overused. A doctor told me the muscles in the eye are flat, like tapes, and that I would not feel a muscle ache. I noticed the strain when I focus on different points quickly. I started to pay attention to how I move my eyes and realized I read a lot of text while scrolling, for example reading X posts on mobile while scanning the text at the same time.…

Maybe go outside for a walk and look at nature? give your eyes a rest. (Assuming your working too hard).

Really don't want to f.up your eyes!

Re: Ask HN: What did you find out or explore today?

#356

Post by sowbug » Thu, Jan 15, 2026, 9:07 PM UTC

dyauspitr wrote: post #335

sowbug wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll give that a try. Some recipes prepare the beans separately from scratch, and then pour the toasted rice into that already-seasoned liquid mixture. I'll pick up some basmati today, during Day Three of the local Panamanian chili pepper search.

Good luck on your pepper search! Also you probably want to have a 1.75:1 water:rice ratio in the pot when you add it in and it’s important to cover the top for the rice to fluff up. You don’t want a tight seal just a plate loosely covering the top so some steam can escape. Finally for some real flavor in these dishes you might want to use bouillon instead of the broth and add a good amount of it or it’s going to be b…

Thanks! I did notice the loose lid on some of the videos I watched.

I absolutely have my plantain and chicken game down. Butter and a little brown sugar for the plantains, cumin/garlic/black pepper/lime juice for the brined chicken breast. And extra Lizano sauce always helps.

Re: Ask HN: What did you find out or explore today?

#357

Post by satvikpendem » Thu, Jan 15, 2026, 9:38 PM UTC

conductr wrote: post #256

satvikpendem wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People already do that. It also doesn't relate to the person you replied to, as I said in another comment, it's about an external source imprisoning you, not you imprisoning yourself.

It’s more so a realization that you have agency, choice, but have decided perhaps without much intention or thought, to remain in your status quo. I don’t think it’s literally about flying. It’s about ignorantly complying to a status quo and how that itself is a decision even if you’ve made it unintentionally. Again I think the resources it takes to fly being a limitation are not what it’s referring to. A bird just l…

1. I used "fly" metaphorically as branching out, and doing new things, one of which is the literal "flying" on a plane to travel to a new location for vacation, but my point was still about the metaphorical concept in general.

2. The quote about the bird staying in the same place is not relevant to what ainiriand said because they are talking about being imprisoned from the outside, not by one's own self.

Re: Ask HN: What did you find out or explore today?

#358

Post by saltcured » Thu, Jan 15, 2026, 9:42 PM UTC

satvikpendem wrote: post #130

TimesNewMe wrote: post #56

I went on a tour of a miso factory today and learned about how it's made! What surprised me the most was that shiro (white) miso and aka (red) miso are both the same mix of soybeans, salt, and rice malt but fermented for different periods of time. As the miso ferments for longer, its color becomes darker while its flavor becomes milder and more complex. Beyond 3 years of fermentation, you get diminishing returns as i…

Same as white, green, yellow, black, pu erh tea, and all of their different varieties within those categories, it's all the same leaves, just different processes.

Well, not exactly in that there are cultivars and farm differences. In that way it is a little bit like grape wine, where different processing can produce very different wines from the same grapes, but there are also differences in grapes that can come through within a style.

Re: Ask HN: What did you find out or explore today?

#359

Post by 8note » Thu, Jan 15, 2026, 9:50 PM UTC

nyantaro1 wrote: post #354

numpad0 wrote: post #41

Surströmming, the Swedish can of fermented fish, is strongly recommended to be punctured while submerged in tap water. It is not pasteurized and is actively fermenting in storage, and the content will spray around if opened under atmospheric conditions. When transported on cargo flights, they are double packed as cans in a barrel in a crate, and considered UN classified "miscellaneous dangerous goods" with identifica…

Is it even good?

its an acquired taste.

good when you pair it with the right stuff - dill, capers, etc and on kinda neutral crackers

Re: Ask HN: What did you find out or explore today?

#360

Post by jjice » Thu, Jan 15, 2026, 9:55 PM UTC

Postgres replica identities and logical replication, while working with some RDS blue-green deployments in staging. Very impressed with how good the blue-green deployments are now. I haven't used them in a few years and the UI and documentation around them is really solid.