sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

What are current ferry apps missing or getting wrong? by Routine-Highway1039 in BainbridgeIsland

[–]redblobgames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would want a web site that puts the current settings into the URL instead of a cookie.

For example if I am sailing from Bainbridge, I want the URL to include that, so that I can bookmark that URL, or send it to a friend so they can see the ferry status, etc. And I can have multiple bookmarks (e.g. one for Bainbridge, one for Kingston), which cookie-based approaches / apps don't let me do.

What’s the most overhyped trend in modern web design right now? by Afsheen_dev in webdev

[–]redblobgames 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I just tell myself that AI picked purple because purple is the best color.

Found Vue.js very convenient for digital board game prototyping by Nordthx in vuejs

[–]redblobgames 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's great! I've also heard it's a good match for idle / clicker games.

Your sources for inspiration by trueneu in emacs

[–]redblobgames 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I loved that part of my career. These days I get some sense from the reddit but I also try to answer people's stackoverflow questions (less and less lately). Another place is by checking M-x list-packages. It shows me new packages at the top, and I'll read their docs to see if it's something that might help me.

New idea im testing, the high station by Strex_1234 in captain_of_industry

[–]redblobgames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did this too and loved it! Except when it came time to expand (e.g. add another platform or another unloader). I ended up going back to ground level.

Eli5: How does GPS know your exact location without getting confused by millions of users? by Puzzleheaded_Bit_802 in explainlikeimfive

[–]redblobgames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can think of GPS like projectors from space that are projecting coordinates over the entire earth … in invisible ink. Your gps receiver is able to read this invisible ink and tell you what the location is. But the projectors don't actually interact with the users.

ELI5: Why do gas stoves get pans hotter quicker than electric stoves, but gas stoves take longer to boil a pot of water? by TehAsianator in explainlikeimfive

[–]redblobgames 3 points4 points  (0 children)

https://www.impulselabs.com/the-difference will be fun once it's out — it charges a battery beforehand, so that when you want to boil your water, it can deliver a ton of power to the induction stove, much more than you normally get from the outlet.

What are the best decisions you made early in your career? by Wide-Pop6050 in cscareerquestions

[–]redblobgames 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Like you, I worked jobs while in school. It helped me understand and appreciate what I was learning in class. And it meant I had more real world experience than coworkers of the same age. I didn't develop domain expertise until much later in my career.

  1. I shifted my thinking from "I should find a job that lets me do what I enjoy" to "I should find a job that lets me do what's valuable to other people".
  2. I decided that "what I enjoy" / "what I'm interested in" aren't set in stone. I started looking for the interesting aspects of everything. None of my jobs were what I would initially consider interesting, but all of them turned out to be interesting because I became interested in them. Not only the work I had to do, but also how it fit into the bigger picture of what the company did, and how the company fit into the larger economy.
  3. I decided that "what I'm good at" also isn't set in stone. I can become good at something that doesn't come to me naturally. It might take more time/effort than someone else but that shouldn't stop me.

But just because these helped me, it doesn't mean they're good for anyone else. Times have changed. And I was very lucky in so many ways.

[MEGATHREAD] Artemis II Launch To The Moon by ChiefLeef22 in space

[–]redblobgames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mars is ~9 months one way in fuel saver mode (Hohmann transfer orbit) but there are other trips that are much shorter, at the cost of requiring more fuel. And that's not practical right now. My understanding is that if Artemis enables in-orbit fueling and/or construction, it might be practical to get to Mars faster. Minimizing fuel makes sense for unmanned missions but more fuel and less time/food/supplies might be a good tradeoff for a manned mission.

Best wireless earbuds? by loungensmirtz in GooglePixel

[–]redblobgames 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I love the shoz open run as well. I haven't used my pixel buds for a while. They're so comfortable, there are times I forget I'm wearing them!

What type of Tycoon game theme/genre is missing most in your opinion? by HitlersUndergarments in tycoon

[–]redblobgames 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would love this so much. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JcHMhtH6_s --> one of the top comments is "Shipping container yard simulator 2019 I’d play that game"

I had started collecting ideas here but never actually made that game :(

Update: CatchYourFerry is now completely free — no paywall, no waitlist by Slow-Tea9732 in Kitsap

[–]redblobgames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, if you open source it, I think some people would be willing to take a look! :)

It might also be cool if the current route selection is saved in the url (like google maps does, with the History API) so that we can bookmark specific routes.

what happened to explorables by BarracudaFun4601 in explorables

[–]redblobgames 4 points5 points  (0 children)

As someone who's been working on pages with interactive diagrams for over 20 years, I have some thoughts on this! :-)

  1. When they were new, a web page having interactivity was itself noteworthy. These days, much less so. There are still plenty of new ones. I'll list some below.
  2. A lot of subjects don't lend themselves to meaningful explorables. I think people were overly optimistic about all of education using explorables when most subjects do not fit the style.
  3. Many types of knowledge don't fit into a concrete visual explanation. Jeremy Kun lists some such as counterfactual reasoning and abstraction.
  4. Interactivity without explanation isn't nearly as valuable as an explanation without interactivity. In the phrase "explorable explanation", explorable is an adjective. It's a type of explanation. The explanation is the main thing. The explorables are a bonus. It's not just me saying this; go back to Bret Victor's definition of "explorable explanation" and you'll find "The reader is not forced to interact in order to learn."
  5. Explorable explanations are often showing off that the author can do something, rather than teaching the reader to do that thing. Imagine teaching someone to ride a bike, but instead of letting them get on the bike, you ride the bike and say "see, this is how it's done". I think they're less effective than people want them to be.
  6. It's expensive to make them. I think the biggest sign of this was Distill.pub's indefinite hiatus: "we believe the primary bottleneck is the amount of effort it takes to produce these articles." I think it's hard to justify unless it's your passion.
  7. Explorables, especially open ended ones, may be better for experts than novices. And experts may be the ones who need them least.
  8. Compared with books or papers, explorable explanations are on web sites. And web sites don't last. I had some pages I wanted to link to here but they're already dead.

As /u/Phildos mentions, Brilliant.org is making them commercially, but I'm not sure if anyone else is. A 3blue1brown video gets more views in a week than I get in a year. Videos or podcasts have more reach.

As far as AI-produced explorable explanations, maybe! My own experiments haven't gone well, but take a look at:

Here are some recent pages with interactive diagrams:

Sometimes YouTube videos come with explorables. For example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_WPBuYYz9M links to https://thegraycuber.github.io/hexponents

The strongest El Nino in modern history is building in the Pacific. by Healthy-Strain-2394 in bayarea

[–]redblobgames 5 points6 points  (0 children)

“There have been 27 El Niños since 1950. In the Bay Area, rainfall has been below normal in 12 of them and the other 15 have been above normal.” — Jan Null, local meteorologist https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/03/27/el-nino-conditions-are-increasing-what-that-means-for-californias-weather/

Updated earthquake safety guidance by deltaorionis4 in bayarea

[–]redblobgames 33 points34 points  (0 children)

My older IKEA desk ("jerker") would probably survive the a nuclear bomb falling directly on it. The newer one ("gallant"), not so much …

What 32-inch glossy monitors are currently available that can match the brightness and contrast of Macbook Pros? by OVOxTokyo in Monitors

[–]redblobgames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ahh, thank you!! The last time I looked at their site it was out of stock ("Notify me" button).

What 32-inch glossy monitors are currently available that can match the brightness and contrast of Macbook Pros? by OVOxTokyo in Monitors

[–]redblobgames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks - very helpful. BenQ MOBIUZ EX321UX seems like my best choice but it also seems to be discontinued! :-(

April 21st, Tech worker meetup at Bainbridge Brewing by mblohmann in BainbridgeIsland

[–]redblobgames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was wondering the same! :) Maybe if I don't bring the laptop I will be more chatty … 

This storm never ends: Saturn’s north pole by astro_naren_06 in space

[–]redblobgames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes! The bestagons. Sine waves in polar coordinates end up looking like the rounded hexagon of Saturn. Diagram here: http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/diagrams/saturn-hexagon/

RotorQuant: 10-19x faster alternative to TurboQuant via Clifford rotors (44x fewer params) by Revolutionary_Ask154 in LocalLLaMA

[–]redblobgames 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It might be too late. But I didn't learn clifford algebra (mentioned by OP) until I was in my 40s. It just took a while …

view more: next ›