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Why do railway tracks have crushed stones alongside them?
Track ballast is the name for the crushed stones next to railway tracks. They are used by Railway Track Designers for numerous reasons
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 669 posts.
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Setting time on fire and the temptation of The Button
We used to consider writing an indication of time and effort spent on a task. That isn't true anymore.
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Speed running Monkey Island
Ron Gilbert's often incoherent and bitter ramblings about the Game Industry
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He made linear algebra fun
Mathematics Professor Gilbert “Gil” Strang taught his last class to thousands after teaching calculus, analysis, and linear algebra for more than 60 years at MIT and online. He reflects on his life at the Institute and as an instructor with MIT OpenCourseWare.
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Own-goal football (2022)
In a 1994 qualifying match for the Caribbean Cup, both Barbados and Grenada attempted to score deliberate own goals – because it was the best strategy available.
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The work is never just “the work” (2022)
A deep dive on why projects always take longer and a framework to improve future estimation
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Notes apps are where ideas go to die (2022)
Insurance for your mind.
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How to Stare at Your Phone Without Losing Your Soul
Why tracking screen time doesn't matter and improving the relationship with your phone requires conscious decisions.
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Are you breathing? Do you have email apnea? (2014)
It’s believed that many of us spend seven hours or more in front of screens each day. In 2011, researcher Emmanuel Stamatakis, found that “…even those who exercise can’t overcome the detrimental ef…
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Thanks, David Peter
Thank you to David Peter for your hard work making the world a better place through open source.
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Using computers more freely and safely
The most important step is the first one. Humanity didn't get good at building houses by building the same house a million times. We built lots of different houses and learned from each other's failures. Gravitating away from monopolies is a way everyone can help improve software, regardless of our abilities or needs.
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A peek inside Japan's largest “Dagashi” store
Every morning, 67-year Hideyuki Akiyama drives to his store along the rural roads of Okayama in Western Japan. Today is no different. A line of excited customers queuing up before the shutters are open. “Disneyland isn’t our land of dreams, this is!” says one 20-something woman. “This”
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When feedback is not a gift
Feedback is the lifeblood of getting better, but be careful who you accept feedback from.
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I didn’t learn Unix by reading all the manpages (2022)
Originally drafted as a thread on hackers.town , after Abbie Normal asked me to expand on a side comment in a discussion of documentation .
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Modern work requires attention – constant alerts steal it
Attention—the time and freedom to focus—is your team’s most valuable resource.
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What if you did the exact opposite, like rogue bees do (2020)
Bees have a dance to indicate to others where food is. It’s called the waggle dance. Great name. But a significant portion of bees in a hive completely ignore the waggle dance and venture off on their own accord. Scientists studied this and were perplexed as to why. It
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Polar Night
Surreal and otherworldly.
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Same Stop: Life after 26 years as a programmer for Apple
I retired a year and a half ago after having worked for twenty-six years as a programmer for Apple. I’m not sure which would have been more surprising: if I had continued programming in my spare time after I had retired or if I never programmed again.
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Hoarding
Hoarding is a comfort behavior. It is done to reduce discomfort, pain, or anxiety, using some of the same 'pathways' as pleasure. It also is intertwined with attachment feelings.
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Writing summaries is more important than reading more books
One thing I’ve learned over time is to read fewer books but to take the time to write summaries for the good ones. The ROI of spending 2h writing a synopsis is much higher than spending those 2h powering through the next book on your list. Reading is not about page count or speed. What matters is ho
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Getting Stuff Done by Not Being Mean to Yourself (2010)
I’ve spent a lot of time in my life trying to force myself to do things. Really good things. Things that are important to me. Things like meditating, journaling, going... READ MORE
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My solar-powered blog is now on lithium iron phosphate
In my last blog post I discussed how a small solar project - to power this blog on a Raspberry Pi - escalated into a full-blown off-grid solar setup, large enough to power the computer I use at the moment to write this update 1 . In this update, I want to discuss my battery upgrade.
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Dandelion Root Recipes
Dandelion root recipes offer a variety of uses, from herbal teas to hearty dishes. Discover how to incorporate this nutritious root into your meals and remedies.
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Recreating Medieval English Ales (1998)
In medieval England, ale was an alcoholic drink made from grain, water, and fermented with yeast. The difference between medieval ale and beer was that beer also used hops as an ingredient. Virtually everyone drank ale. It provided significant nutrition as well as hydration (and inebriation). The aristocracy could…
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Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way
A new study led by Stanford Medicine researchers is the first to reveal how magnetic stimulation treats severe depression: by correcting the abnormal flow of brain signals.
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The Staff Engineer's Path – Book Review
The Staff Engineer’s Path: A Guide for Individual Contributors Navigating Growth and Change is written by Tanya Reilly and published on October 25, 2022, by O’Reilly Media. Favorite Quotes Early in your career, if you do a great job on something that turns out to be unnecessary, you’ve still done a great job. At the…