Latest bookmarks (page 10 of 141)

A fascinating overview of historical expeditions to use transit of Venus across the disc of the sun, as observed from different locations on earth, to triangulate the distance to the sun. Halley came up with the idea, but knew he would be long dead by the time the next pair of transits in 1761 and 1769 came around. Multiple nations cooperated to set up observatories across the globe in time to measure the events. Enough of them got enough data to get a decent estimate, but the travel stories are just as interesting.

"It’s funny how useful a 34-year-old software design can still be."
Also, it was not a coincidence that it looked like QuickBasic.

Suggestions on how to fix various problems with onboarding, discovery, and usability.

"In this article we define cold emailing from our perspective, share concerns about its misuse, particularly in B2B communication, and highlight the organizations enabling it."
Sending an actual, personal, 1-to-1 cold email? That's one thing. But if you're scraping addresses and sending unsolicited bulk mail, using multiple domains, and tweaking the contents with LLMs to make the bulk messaging look personalized...it's spam.

18 years ago, the dev decided to put it on hold because he didn't have time for it with his 5 kids. Now, one of those kids is in college and asked him about programming operating systems, and he's dusted it off again.

"Batteries with performance too low for driving can still store a lot of charge."

"Beautiful, free images and photos that you can download and use for any project. Better than any royalty free or stock photos."

"The result — which feels surprisingly grown-in even though the museum won’t open until next year — is a sinuous, eclectic landscape that unfolds in discrete vignettes, all promoting exploration and distinct experience. Each zone contains varied textures, colors, scales and often framed views. A shaded walkway curls along a meandering meadow and lifts you toward a hilly canyon. A footbridge carries you above a developing conifer thicket. A plant-covered trellis, known as “the hanging garden,” provides a more compressed moment of pause. The environment, like a good story, continually shifts tone and tempo."