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Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

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Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#531

Post by kragen »

colechristensen wrote: post #506
kragen wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't you just use finely divided magnetite, or am I thinking of the wrong process? That sounds like "you can build it yourself" to me.

Lab demo scale, sure. The research and testing of catalysts for the industrial scale was a significant part of the development effort. Lifetime of the catalyst, temperature and pressure of the reactor, input energy, and output rate were all considerations and the result was much more than just throwing some magnetite powder in a reaction chamber. There's a great book on the development of the process The Alchemy of A…

Thank you very much!

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#532

Post by schwarz »

salgernon wrote: post #157

I’d like to recommend James Burke’s series “Connections”[1] and “The Day the Universe Changed”[2] from the late 70s early 80s. He was a bbc journalist covering NASA and doing science communication and one of his particular fascinations (and mine, having grown up with his work) is the cumulative effect of ideas and technology shape not only how we interact with the modern world, but how we perceive it. [1] https://m.i…

There was also a Connections pc game https://www.oldpcgaming.net/connections-cd-review/

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#533

Post by mjd »

I'm late to the party, but I think the winner is the bra.

Wikipedia says:

> The Dresden-based German, Christine Hardt, patented the first modern brassiere in 1899. Sigmund Lindauer from Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, Germany, developed a brassiere for mass production and patented it in 1912. In the United States, Mary Phelps Jacob received a patent in 1914 for the first brassiere design that is recognized as the basis for modern bras.

> A bra is one of the most complicated garments to make. A typical design has between 20 and 48 parts, including the band, gore, side panel, cup, apex, neckline, underwire, strap, ring, slider, strap join, and closure.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#534

Post by thraxil »

ARandomerDude wrote: post #450
andreygrehov wrote: post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in New York and the majority of my friends do not have washing machine in their home. In fact, it’s a luxury to have one. In contrast, I’m originally from Ukraine where not having a washing machine is weird to say the least. There are many things that would make me call US a 2nd world country, so I’m having a hard time understanding which countries are 1st world countries.

Wow. I've lived in the US all my life and I've never heard of a majority of anyone's social group not having a washing machine. Have others experienced this? If so, in what city?

Definitely the default in NYC. Lived there 15 years and only had a washer/dryer in one apartment (which was a condo that I was subletting. Any friends I had over were amazed and jealous when they saw it). If you're lucky, your building has a laundry room in the basement. Less lucky and you use a nearby laundramat. One place I lived basically didn't even have a laundramat within a 10 minute walk, so I had to pay for a laundry service that would pick up/drop off.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#535

Post by frutiger »

rriepe wrote: post #501
frutiger wrote: post #473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember from my astrophysics course that Lithium was formed in the aftermath of the Big Bang. I would imagine that interstellar space is full of Hydrogen, Helium and Lithium. I can imagine that stable nuclei such as carbon or iron would form as a result of stellar fusion but I would be hard pressed to imagine that these outmass the more primordial elements. I would be interested to see references if you have any.

Wikipedia has a good writeup: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_the_chemical_elem... TL;DR: Stars burn it up.

That table is for the milky way though, not the universe.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#536

Post by thraxil »

thrower123 wrote: post #488
red_hare wrote: post #480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live New York. 5/7 years I’ve been here I haven’t had a wash. In my experience, an apartment with in-unit goes for 10% more than one without. My rent is 1850/mo and my local friendly laundromat does wash-and-fold for $0.90/lb. The math works out that an in-unit wash just isn’t worth it to me. Even if you’re lucky enough to afford rent in New York you probably can only afford one or two luxuries. For me I‘ve chosen…

The time savings from using a wash and fold service aren't to be denied, either. You just drop off a huge sack of laundry once every week or two before work, and you pick it up on the way home nicely washed and folded, better than I, at least, would have done it. By the time you buy detergent and fabric softener and dryer sheets, and factor in the time derping around waiting for it to do its thing, especially in a sk…

Yeah, I had to use a service for a few years (no laundramats within walking distance) and while it was definitely more expensive than doing it myself, it was pretty great. I was always amused by getting my clothes back in this perfectly rectilinear package. My main complaint was that the service insisted on a pick up/drop off time that was like 7am and I lived on a 4th floor walk up, so I have a lot of memories of getting jolted out of a sound sleep and having to schlep a heavy bag up or down a bunch of stairs.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#537

Post by thraxil »

flukus wrote: post #494
red_hare wrote: post #480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live New York. 5/7 years I’ve been here I haven’t had a wash. In my experience, an apartment with in-unit goes for 10% more than one without. My rent is 1850/mo and my local friendly laundromat does wash-and-fold for $0.90/lb. The math works out that an in-unit wash just isn’t worth it to me. Even if you’re lucky enough to afford rent in New York you probably can only afford one or two luxuries. For me I‘ve chosen…

How small are these apartments? I live in a 25 square meter one (according to wiki the definition of a tiny house is something smaller than 36 square meters) but there's still room for a washer and drier stacked on top of it. Around here the people that use building machines or laundromats are generally in the 15-20 square meter range or on razor tight budgets. Apart from that I know one guy without one and he's bett…

25 meters is pretty reasonable for a NYC apartment. I think it has more to do with the additional plumbing and ventilation setup that's missing. The old pre-war buildings are too expensive to renovate to add that kind of thing and a lot of the newer construction is aimed at maximizing profit by cutting every possible corner and those buildings were competing with the older buildings that didn't have them so they skipped it too. I also wouldn't be surprised if there's some NYC regulation or code that makes it extra complicated and expensive to add them.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#538

Post by greggyb »

RandallBrown wrote: post #472
greggyb wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I must write in a completely unnatural way, then. My hand is always completely below the current line of text. Which hand is writing simply cannot affect whether my hand touches just-written ink. Edit: Just wrote some test lines, forward and backward. My whole hand is multiple lines down in the notebook. Writing in a way so as to get my pen-hand on the same line I'm writing feels incredibly weird to me. I think it ju…

You're lucky. Me, and every leftie I know, grew up dealing with this in school. http://i.imgur.com/kTT6O.jpg

Luck seems a poor thing to attribute this to.

I used to smudge all the time as a righty.

I have taken time to adjust habits in day-to-day activities. Luck seems to apply only insofar as I do not am neurally and physically typical enough that I can adjust these habits.

If you don't like something, especially if it's your own behavior (and writing style is absolutely a behavior), it is likely within your power to change it. Maybe you would need help from a coach or perhaps pharmacological or therapeutic if there is some pathology.

For me, it is always a no-brainer to change things that annoy me.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#539

Post by war1025 »

taneq wrote: post #482
war1025 wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you could have a savings of 30 minutes every day Maybe I'm unique in this (I don't think I am), but if anything the curse of modern life is that we're absolutely awash in free time. What would I do with an extra 30 minutes? Probably check Hacker News or Facebook more than I already do. The actual washing of the dishes really doesn't take that long. Most of it is gathering everything up, rescuing the sink from the d…

> Maybe I'm unique in this (I don't think I am), but if anything the curse of modern life is that we're absolutely awash in free time. I’m sure you’re not unique, but your case is far from usual either.

We say that, but how much time to people spend just watching TV or Netflix? All of that is "free time". People just spend it without thinking and then lament their lack of free time.
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