http://ranprieur.com/#9a417fe513f58988c3b5b1e84cfc57397194a79b 2025-06-10T22:40:12Z Ran Prieur http://ranprieur.com/ ranprieur@gmail.com http://ranprieur.com/#664dcc5c109d9925be9736a471962f12341b2300 2025-06-10T22:40:12Z June 10. Links via Hacker News, starting with a thread on the death of Bill Atkinson, one of the greatest programmers of all time. There's some discussion of how his key invention, HyperCard, could have evolved into a much better tech world than the dystopian one we're in.

A long thread about EMP weapons, with lots of debate about whether they would fry small electronics, and how to build a Faraday cage.

Coventry Very Light Rail is a "rail-based travel system that can be delivered at less than half the cost and in half the time of conventional light rail systems, while providing the same benefits." Basically, by spending some money on lighter and stronger materials, it saves a lot of money on digging and infrastructure.

Smart People Don't Chase Goals; They Create Limits. There are some great ideas here, but the author doesn't quite capture the benefits of following constraints over goals, and the Hacker News thread goes completely wrong by changing the title from "smart" to "successful". I would say it like this. If you want to do a specific thing, set a goal. If you want to do something interesting, set constraints. But there's no guarantee the interesting thing you do will be recognized or rewarded.

]]> http://ranprieur.com/#309e3d5c77069136358b0d2539c79dfca5089274 2025-06-07T19:10:34Z June 7. For the weekend, three happy links about practical things. The Rise of the Japanese Toilet

Cockatoos have learned to operate drinking fountains in Australia

The Right to Repair Is Law in Washington State

]]> http://ranprieur.com/#39d57fca09c7e62c086d6f2f6214272c1141a033 2025-06-05T17:50:32Z June 5. Quick note on politics. I was just reading how, in 2016, conservative author P.J. O'Rourke endorsed Hillary Clinton, saying "She's wrong about absolutely everything, but she's wrong within normal parameters." I feel something similar about Trump: He's wrong about everything, but at least he's wrong outside of normal parameters. Neoliberalism is dying because it cannot conceive of any alternative to the present system, while the right offers a time-tested alternative: charismatic warlords and fanatical tribalism.

Three Reddit threads about the failure of normal parameters:

What's a thing that is dangerously close to collapse?

What's one thing you think is quietly fading away from our lives or society?

And the most powerful thread, of course removed by mods: What's a sign that someone has quietly given up?

]]> http://ranprieur.com/#a16ac8dc0f19b2cc2ad4f929c1feae59be9669f1 2025-06-03T15:30:59Z June 3. Probably just posting links this week. I check the Ask Old People subreddit twice a day, and it's mostly just nostalgia, but sometimes there's a great thread that inevitably gets removed. Here are two: How many older people have decided to just stay away from Doctors? And a thread full of good stories about ways people have died besides in their sleep.

I've been heavily following the college softball playoffs, and here's a great play from this weekend where a Texas Tech player steals home, taking off with the pitch and the catcher doesn't notice.

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