I sell onions on the Internet (2019) • Hacker News Board

Re: I sell onions on the Internet (2019)

#81

Post by phl » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 9:12 PM UTC

eightturn wrote: post #32

author here : ) happy to answer questions if you have any. We also have a twitter account here if you want to follow along: https://x.com/vidaliaonions

just came here to say that this has been one of my favorite pieces of writing i came across on hn ever (i read it back in 19)

Re: I sell onions on the Internet (2019)

#82

Post by eightturn » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 9:20 PM UTC

phl wrote: post #81

eightturn wrote: post #32

author here : ) happy to answer questions if you have any. We also have a twitter account here if you want to follow along: https://x.com/vidaliaonions

just came here to say that this has been one of my favorite pieces of writing i came across on hn ever (i read it back in 19)

appreciate that, phl.

Re: I sell onions on the Internet (2019)

#83

Post by arraypad » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 9:23 PM UTC

stephenlf wrote: post #7

Absolutely insane way to start a business. “Let me blow 2 grand on a domain name. Not sure what it’s for, yet.”

I've hung on to spellign.com for a bit over twenty years now. Creation Date: 2005-10-19T05:59:21Z

The name still makes me giggle. I'd love to build something relevant and silly enough to put there, but I haven't found it yet.

Suggestions are welcome! :)

Re: I sell onions on the Internet (2019)

#84

Post by jmkd » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 9:26 PM UTC

eightturn wrote: post #32

author here : ) happy to answer questions if you have any. We also have a twitter account here if you want to follow along: https://x.com/vidaliaonions

I live in a mountain valley in Mallorca where hundreds of tons of perfect Canoneta oranges fall to the floor and rot each year because the cost of picking them outweighs their market value. The valley became wealthy from this fruit in the 19th century but the economics no longer add up. [0]

At the same time the price of orange juice (elsewhere) has skyrocketed [1], yet this rural community seems unable to take advantage.

What would you do?

[0] https://ruralhotelsmallorca.com/guides/The-History-of-Soller... [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c397n3jl3z8o

Re: I sell onions on the Internet (2019)

#85

Post by NuclearPM » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 9:45 PM UTC

arcanemachiner wrote: post #62

NuclearPM wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yes, I went to a stem college. I don’t understand this.

My guess is that he took a meme for normal people ("that would make a good band name") and twisted it into a more nerdy version ("that would make a good domain name").

That makes sense. I assumed posting on hackernews implies the nerdiness.

Re: I sell onions on the Internet (2019)

#86

Post by selfmodruntime » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 9:47 PM UTC

> but for kicks & giggles, I dropped in a bid around $2,200 ’cause I was confident I’d be outbid

Boy do I wish I could just drop 2k on a whim for a vanity project

Re: I sell onions on the Internet (2019)

#87

Post by recursivetree » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 9:48 PM UTC

arraypad wrote: post #83

stephenlf wrote: post #7

Absolutely insane way to start a business. “Let me blow 2 grand on a domain name. Not sure what it’s for, yet.”

I've hung on to spellign.com for a bit over twenty years now. Creation Date: 2005-10-19T05:59:21Z The name still makes me giggle. I'd love to build something relevant and silly enough to put there, but I haven't found it yet. Suggestions are welcome! :)

One place where I genuinely believe LLMs could be beneficial is correcting spellign mistakes. I just don't think the interface is there yet. I want to keep control over my writing. After feeding it through an LLM, it doesn't sound like me anymore and changes random stuff. Rather, i'd like something like a diff viewer that shows you your sentence and the LLM's corrected sentence right next to each other. You can review each suggestion individually and decide whether to incorporate it yourself.

Re: I sell onions on the Internet (2019)

#88

Post by devilbunny » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 9:59 PM UTC

rootusrootus wrote: post #74

I love onions, but never tried a Vidalia. We have Walla Walla sweet onions out here and I suspect they’re pretty similar.

They’re similar enough that my aunt, who has lived in the PNW for ages, but grew up in the South, described Walla Wallas as “basically just like a Vidalia, but grown here”.

There’s nothing particularly special about the onion variety - it’s just a mild yellow onion. It’s the soil.

Re: I sell onions on the Internet (2019)

#89

Post by chairmansteve » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 10:01 PM UTC

selfmodruntime wrote: post #86

> but for kicks & giggles, I dropped in a bid around $2,200 ’cause I was confident I’d be outbid Boy do I wish I could just drop 2k on a whim for a vanity project

A lot of people pay a lot more than that for vanity vehicles, kitchens etc

Re: I sell onions on the Internet (2019)

#90

Post by somat » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 10:05 PM UTC

fylo wrote: post #69

leonhard wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can you elaborate on the phone basis with engineers? I can’t really imagine how that wouldn’t be much more hassle discussing details without written documents, so I’m intrigued

A picture paints a thousand words

A picture is worth a thousand words -- but only those to describe the picture. Hardly any sets of a thousand words can be adequately described with pictures.