Hacker News: rnoorda

New comment by rnoorda in "God sleeps in the minerals"

rnoorda — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 18:39:33 +0000

Second the Rice Museum recommendation! If I ever make it big I'm going to legally change my last name to 'Mineral' and create the Mineral Museum of Rice on the other side of the freeway showcasing everything from basmati to risotto.

New comment by rnoorda in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (April 2026)"

rnoorda — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:43:14 +0000

I've been enjoying Tiled Words! I find myself playing in a weird way, by totally ignoring the clues. I look at the title and try to puzzle out all the answers myself. I don't know if I'm alone in that, but it could be a neat mode to have a setting to hide the clues.

New comment by rnoorda in "Isseven"

rnoorda — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 04:57:41 +0000

It's just as random as any other number!

New comment by rnoorda in "Show HN: I built a "Do not disturb" Device for my home office"

rnoorda — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 19:57:17 +0000

I made a simple ON AIR sign with LEDs inside that I change to reflect what I was doing. Red means I am in a meeting or totally focused, blue means I'm working, but someone can interrupt me if needed. Green means I'm not working, come on in!

The only issue with my setup- I work from home. My wife does not. No one is there to care if they can come in or not. It was building something fun to solve a problem I never had.

Would do again.

New comment by rnoorda in "Game design is simple"

rnoorda — Fri, 07 Nov 2025 20:26:29 +0000

I enjoy the way Baldur's Gate 3 implements this- choices tend to align more along character axes than good/evil. There are indications for many small dialogue choices that say "Karlach approves" or "Astarion disapproves" to give you a sense of each character's values and personality, and they each have their own motivations. Some are more traditionally good or evil, but they all have reasons for doing what they do.

Choices occasionally feel fairly binary good/evil, but more often all choices have their pros & cons, and it's more about story and narrative in making my decisions.

New comment by rnoorda in "My Truck Desk"

rnoorda — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 00:33:54 +0000

I have this experience in airports- I'm always amazed how much I can get done in 45 minutes of waiting at the gate when there's little to distract me.

New comment by rnoorda in "My Truck Desk"

rnoorda — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 00:32:44 +0000

I feel the same! One bit of advice has helped me take better advantage of those small chunks of time- "Park facing downhill." I don't remember where I first heard it, but the idea is to stop somewhere naturally conducive to resuming work. Start making the list, and stop at a point where it's really easy to write down the next few items. Or leave the really easy bit of code for next time.

I'm not good at it, because I prefer to cross things off when I finish them, but when I can pull it off it saves some of that time getting oriented to what I'm working on.

New comment by rnoorda in "Jane Goodall has died"

rnoorda — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 05:35:18 +0000

Several years ago my niece dressed up as Jane Goodall for Halloween. Through a string of random connections, someone sent Jane a picture of her. She wrote my niece an incredibly nice note complimenting the costume and all its details.

For all the good Jane Goodall has done in the world, I am forever grateful that she cared enough to give a young girl a gift she can treasure forever.

New comment by rnoorda in "Morse Code Translator"

rnoorda — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 16:56:44 +0000

I've always wanted to make a messaging app that would vibrate in Morse code when you get a message. I love the idea of feeling a message in my pocket and 'reading' it without looking, but I'm also not great at deciphering it, so it wouldn't get much use.

New comment by rnoorda in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2025)"

rnoorda — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 02:55:00 +0000

This sounds fascinating! I'm a big fan of weird fiction. If your stories are published or shared anywhere when complete I'd love to check them out.

New comment by rnoorda in "It's time to make computing personal again"

rnoorda — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 10:02:20 +0000

The Steam Deck is a great example, and I attribute its success to riding that line between usability and customization. I can get into Linux and mess around, or I can never touch the back-end stuff and just play my games.

New comment by rnoorda in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (October 2024)"

rnoorda — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 07:21:28 +0000

Building a pneumatic long-range candy dispersal device (candypult) to launch Halloween candy from my garage door to the street. As is the case for many of us around here, I get bored of making digital tools and want to build something in meatspace. I'm trying to use as much material I already own as possible, so building out of leftover metal framing and old decking.

Trick-or-treating at a door is so last decade; trying to catch a Snickers hurtling towards you in the darkness is the future.

New comment by rnoorda in "Let Google decide"

rnoorda — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 05:24:02 +0000

I had a similar experience- moved to an area with a new ZIP code (<2 years old) and while most services were fine, Google Address Verification didn't know it existed. I couldn't use my credit card anywhere that used Google to see if the address was real. Multiple customer service reps said there was nothing they could do; my address was just not valid for their system. I imagine it eventually made it in to Google's vault of 'knowledge,' but by that time I had moved away to a place Google thought acknowledged the existence of.

New comment by rnoorda in "12 Months of Mandarin"

rnoorda — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 19:08:43 +0000

In my experience- yes. As you mentioned, there is a steep learning curve before you get to that point. Characters instead of letters, sounds you're unaccustomed to hearing and making, and multiple tones make learning basic phrases much more work than many languages. However, once you get some time with those difficult pieces, the grammar is actually much easier than one would expect. I would much rather learn another language like Chinese than a conjugation-heavy one such as Finnish.

New comment by rnoorda in "Ask HN: What are you working on (September 2024)?"

rnoorda — Sun, 29 Sep 2024 22:57:16 +0000

I took a bookbinding class on a whim at university, and it's still a hobby I enjoy. I would love to have a dedicated space for all the big equipment one day, but it's easy to make notebooks with just a bone folder, awl, needle, and thread.

New comment by rnoorda in "Old Easter Island genomes show no sign of a population collapse"

rnoorda — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 18:18:44 +0000

I don't know if it's the one you're thinking of, but I believe I saw a similar sign at Capitol Reef National Park.

New comment by rnoorda in "Managing my motivation as a solo dev"

rnoorda — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 18:58:18 +0000

I once heard this advice given as "park facing downhill." I find it difficult to not finish up before I stop working, but it helps me get started in the morning to jump into a nearly-complete task.

New comment by rnoorda in "Show HN: Browser-based knitting (pattern) software"

rnoorda — Thu, 09 May 2024 22:54:02 +0000

Point 4 is what resonates with me, and first got me into knitting. So much of what I do is in front of a screen, and creating a real, physical object and having something to occupy my hands lets me step away from the computer and work relatively mindlessly.

New comment by rnoorda in "Mycenaean Warriors and the Sea-Peoples (2013)"

rnoorda — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 22:51:28 +0000

If anyone's interested in the Sea Peoples and the Late Bronze Age, I recommend 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric H. Cline. It gives a great overview of the primary sources and evidences for the factors leading to the Late Bronze Age collapse, including the role the Sea Peoples may have played as both a cause and symptom of larger societal issues.

New comment by rnoorda in "Ask HN: What do y'all make of Netflix's 3 Body problem?"

rnoorda — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 05:20:23 +0000

Pleasantly surprised. Outside of some questionable acting performances, my biggest disappointment was probably how... small? it all felt. Five friends from Oxford become some of the most important people in the world, rather than the international nature of the novels.

I didn't find the first 5 episodes as engaging as the last 3, but that's likely because I enjoyed the second book the most and was excited to see some of the wallfacer storyline.