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https://engines.egr.uh.edu/

> The Engines of Our Ingenuity tells how human creativity forms our culture, using radio and podcasts.

> This site holds transcripts of all episodes since the show's inception in 1988, and many other features.

Not a xkcd, but quite relevant:

https://web.archive.org/web/20091015091833/http://www.hackle...

I work with and contribute to a QGIS plugin that manage water and sewage network data. Together with PostGIS, it's a powerful tool.

https://github.com/giswater

pahblooon QGIS 4.0

I don't know about Blender, but for QGIS I think open or at least well known formats are what gave it a chance to compete against ArcGIS.

For CAD, I think that an strong open format would make things much more easy for FOSS CAD software. I can see this starting happening with BIM.

pahblooon Show HN: I quit coding years ago. AI brought me back

There is an interesting pattern emerging in this thread. There are a lot of 'same here' and 'opposite for me' comments, but both sides are converging on the same point: people developing software to solve a problem.

Many who are considering a career shift away from software due to 'AI disgust' devoted their lives to developing software because they loved the craft. But with AI churning out cheap, ugly, but passable code, it's clear that businesses never appreciated the craft. I hope these folks find an area outside of SWE that they love just as much.

But once these folks find this area, it would be naive to think they won't use software to scratch their itch. In the same way that people who didn't pursue a career in SWE (because they felt under-qualified) are using AI to solve their problems, these folks will now find their own problems to solve with software, even if at first that is not their intention. They probably won't use AI to write the code, but ultimately, AI is forcing everyone to become a product manager.

pahblooon Launch HN: Tweeks (YC W25) – Browser extension to deshittify the web

Yeah, but I think there is a space in the market for people who don't want/know how to manage their own API keys. Anyway, IMO Tweeks is not for most of the HN audience [EDIT: because there are alternatives like Magix or even Greasemonkey itself].

pahblooon Optimising for maintainability – Gleam in production at Strand

I believe the best scenario is a language that gives an AI the best environment to train itself in a manner similar to the way a game like Go gave AlphaGo the opportunity to play innumerable times against itself and study the results.

I think the best programming languages of the future will come with their own LLMs, synthetically trained before release.

pahblooon A gentle introduction to anchor positioning

That's telling about CSS design. Folks here on HN are talking about how they purposely ask LLMs about APIs that don't exist, and they hallucinate with a better and more intuitive design that they would come up with on their own.

I don't know the best solution for the problem, but CSS is a very convoluted one.

pahblooon How to Use Em Dashes (–), En Dashes (–), and Hyphens (-)

Fun fact: In Portuguese, the em dash is often used to introduce direct discourse, much like double quotes are used in English, but only when the direct discourse opens the paragraph. So instead of:

"Hello," said John, "how are you today?"

You'd see:

— Hello — said John — how are you today?

pahblooon Show HN: Live-updating version of the 'What a week, huh?' meme

Awesome idea! Just a thought, but a century version would be spot-on!

pahblooon A Mini Data Center

How is the strategy for backups and redundancy in a setup like this?

pahblooon The myth that you can’t build interactive web apps except as single page app

People treat SPA and MPA as oposing teams, one is the right way and the other is garbage. But this is not how it must be seen.

What we have is the natural way to do things with web stack (the way it's is mean to be used), and the "hacky way" (the way that let us do what we want to do, even when the web stack doesn't support it yet).

SPA is the hacky way today, but before it we had CGI, Java applets, Flash... And the web purists were always very vocal against the hacky way.

But the hacky way is what pushs the envelope of what the natural way can do. Every feature cited in the article that makes an MPA competitive with an SPA today only exists because of SPAs.

I'm on the side of preferencially use the web the way it's meant to use whenever it's possible, but I love to see what can be done when we are a little hacky, and it's awesome to see the web stack adapting to do these things in a less hacky way.

pahblooon Wikipedia article blocked worldwide by Delhi high court

In fact, the most valuable resource on the internet is finite: atention with the possibility of influence those who give it to you. This is already a question of national security.

pahblooon Rust is rolling off the Volvo assembly line

Rust (the language) is rolling off the Volvo assembly (not the language) line

pahblooon GNU Turns 40

Even ignoring opinions not related to software, Stallman is still controversial; he's a radical advocate for software freedom. And FSF is a radical organization, too. People and institutions with radical positions are unlikely to achieve mainstream acceptance. But, radical positions are a needed influence in the ecosystem, helping to keep the balance. So, I think that after all FSF is a succesfull organization.

pahblooon Cities with their own psychological disorders

Maybe this entry is fake, just thrown in there to catch any future copycats.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_entry

pahblooon The Windows 11 Trash Party

It would be incredibly ironic if Linux were to win the desktop, and Microsoft were to become the biggest vendor.

pahblooon Making Python faster with Rust

What are the best alternatives to Python then?

pahblooon Ian Fleming explains how to write a thriller (2019)

I had to look at your comment history to see if you always comment in parentheses.

pahblooon Show HN: Bolt.css – Another classless CSS library

I really like how Pico has a classless base and builds responsive layouts from there.

pahblooon A beginners guide to Esperanto (2003)

There is a specific mindset that makes someone want to learn Esperanto: curiosity, affinity for linguistics, ideals of a "world citizenship". I think this leads to a shared culture between two Esperantists, even if they are from different countries. (That's if you can find two of them.)

pahblooon Inverted Pyramid (Writing Style)

That's how the print media wrote their articles. They've already sold the paper/magazine to you, so now the goal was to make you feel like you have as much information as you would like with as little effort as possible, so you're willing to buy the next issue.

Nowadays, with the attention economy, the writing style has changed. The main objective is to keep the user reading for as long as possible.

pahblooon Twitter Notes

This "depth slider" is called the Inverted Pyramid [0]. The first paragraph has the main information (aka tl;dr). The next the secondary points. And as a reader, you just have to keep reading as you want more details. You know the next few paragraphs don't have more important information than what you've already read.

Nowadays, with the attention economy, the writing style has changed. The main objective is to keep the user reading for as long as possible.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_pyramid_(journalism)

pahblooon An illustrated guide to plastic straws (2021)

Not the kind of garbage collection I expected a discussion on HN about.

pahblooon Barreleye fish

It reminds me how limited the human imagination is, especially in relation to fictional alien life forms.

pahblooon What I learnt after burning $10M as an entrepreneur

Reply from DHH: https://world.hey.com/dhh/it-s-hard-to-draw-lessons-from-you...