2011
Turning an old car into a powerful generator
See how an old car is turned into a powerful generator, a DIY project that reuses a vehicle to produce electricity.
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 8,938 posts.
Life, Learning & Writing
Any year
2012
The Frustration Loop
Dealing with spam the fun way.
2013
Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all
The commonly-held belief that attempting to suppress negative thoughts is bad for our mental health could be wrong, a new study from scientists at the University of Cambridge suggests.
2014
It's okay to make something nobody wants
产品看起来是给用户用的，但我觉得这可能是一种假象，它实际上更像是一种自我表达。 许多表达被不同的人创造出来，经历了自然选择后，存活下来的那一个，是用户喜欢的那个。 我的意思是，这个过程是这么发生的：你做一个东西，不是“我觉得他们可能需要这个”而做，而是“我觉得这个有点意思”而做。然后，别人在使用你的产品时，感受到了与你相同的那种感受，这时他说：“我觉得这个有点意思”。 从这个角度来说，产品就像一种情绪的存储器，作者存进去，复制一千份，用户从产品中取出来。 你不能自己不含任何情感，却期望用户使用后带有情感。 我觉得即使做了个没人想要的东西，也没关系。你唯一需要做的是确保你已经完整呈现了你的情感。…
2015
Writing HTML by hand
Behind the scenes - how I'm making redblobgames.com - interactive explanations of game development algorithms and math
2016
Programming is hard
Software is weird. In its basic form, software is this very abstract thing with seemingly little connection to the real world. Yet graphical applications running on a hardware device like a modern phone feel very real, even to people who have no appreciation of what happens within this “black box”. Some pieces of…
2017
Getting into Pinball
Almost exactly a year ago, I began playing pinball at my friend Noah's house. I didn't understand how he could be so interested in Pinball that he bought two machines, but since I....
2018
My trip to the Communication and Laptop Museum in Estonia
I ended up going to a small museum run by a passionate enthusiast in the beautiful countryside of south-east Estonia while on vacation, here are my notes on it.
2019
2020
LaTeX for tabletop
Get started on using LaTeX for writing your tabletop rulebooks, adventures, and zines.
2021
A literary history of fake texts in Apple's marketing materials
Exploring the Applecore style
2022
Chili Oil Notes
I’ve been getting a little obsessed with chili oil. A little…lost in the sauce so to speak. Here’s some notes and general thoughts on chili oil.
2023
Tech Independence
Derek Sivers official site. Thoughts on philosophy, culture, self-improvement. Author of Useful Not True, How to Live, Hell Yeah or No, Anything You Want.
2024
Don't be afraid to be wrong
Being afraid of being wrong can hold you back - know how to deal with it.
2025
2026
“Inverse vaccine” shows potential to treat MS and other autoimmune diseases
A new type of vaccine developed by researchers at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) has shown in the lab setting that
2027
Can I take ducks home from the park?
16 queries and 6 language models
2028
How I stay reasonably anonymous online (2022)
I'm not wanted by the FBI, nor am I worried about my ISP watching me, and I don't care about Google knowing what I search for. What I am worried about is cra...
2029
Don’t mess with a genius (2010)
Or: What happens when Newton’s laws are violated (Note in case you see ads here: This post is also available at my newer blog.) Recently, I read a book called Newton and the Counterfeiter, su…
2030
My Little MillionDollarHomepage Garden
Back around the time I convinced my family to switch from a 56 kb/s dial-up modem to ADSL, the website milliondollarhomepage.com was launched, and quickly became an Internet phenomenon, selling pixels for advertising space on a 1000x1000 canvas. 18 years later, the homepage is still standing, proudly displaying the…
2031
The washing machine in my ear, and an empty boat
Over a period of about six months in 2022, I was nearing the brink of insanity; I would go to bed every single evening and hear a washing machine running in a neighbouring apartment.
2032
I got paid to live in Antarctica
Sharing how I got paid to live in Antarctica, how to get a job on the ice, and everything you need to know about life at McMurdo Station.
2033
2034
I wired up my bike's GPS to order me pizza during a gravel race
As harvest season begins here in the Midwest, I once again celebrate by grinding Nebraska gravel at the Gravel Worlds Long Voyage bike race. As in previous years ( 2021 ) ( 2022 ), I spent more time writing code for a marginally-useful project than I did training. But hey, I finished!
2035
Coffee in a Can
Life’s inconveniences, when they happen to you and me, are just that. Inconveniences. When they happen to some people though they end up becoming multi-billion dollar businesses. This is the story of Japan’s canned coffee. One finds at least one vending machine in almost every street in
2036
It's My Monitor
This is the first in (maybe) a series of “Tales From Tech Support”, which are true stories from my point of view. I’ll probably only post these on a Friday. In the 1990s, I worked as a contractor for a large, well-established accounting firm. We’d often buy new equipment and unpack it at the helpdesk, throw away all…
2037
Profound Beliefs
This post previously appeared in EIX. In the early stages of a startup your hypotheses about all the parts of your business model are your profound beliefs. Think of profound beliefs as “strong opi…
2038
What is an emotion? William James’s theory of how our bodies affect our feelings
“A purely disembodied human emotion is a nonentity.”
2039
The Le Guin Precepts
Fabled author Ursula Le Guin had a sign over her desk: Is it true? Is it necessary or at least useful? Is it compassionate or at least unharmful? Not a bad place to begin.
2040
The thinking path
Novel news; a review for the NYT.