Top all-time · #1774
Dan's Data
Personal blog · dansdata.comhardwareculture
Dan's Data is a personal blog at dansdata.com about hardware and culture. Since 2008, 41 different Hacker News readers have linked it 57 times, most often “Thermal transfer compound comparison: Vegemite vs. Arctic Silver (2002)”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Too few sampled comments (28) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Dan Dickinson's dansdata.com for early hardware and gadget writing, including reviews and data-bandwidth calculations such as the station-wagon SD card piece, plus audio and cable articles.
- Recommended for · 6 comments
- Called a great review, a nice article, 'more thorough and entertaining', an excellent counterpoint to read, and a really interesting article.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 28 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Thermal transfer compound comparison: Vegemite vs. Arctic Silver (2002)3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2017-01-17
- /gz105.htm3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2010-07-19
- Next stop, clay tablets2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2010-08-09
- Hacking and heritage2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2008-08-29
- Computers in Space2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-11-19
- /gz105.htm2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-06-16
What Hacker News says?
I got RSI like 15 years ago. The only thing that's worked for me long term when I'm actually doing coding all day long, is a combination of: a) a keyboard holder below the desk - something similar to https://kw.pricenacdn.com/files/images/products/original/14/... - I got mine from IKEA a long time ago - unfortunately they discontinued that product - the key thing here is the get the keyboard as close to your legs as…
Comment linking /nkpro.htm
on “What Does a Coder Do If They Can't Type?”Submitted Money for Nothing as a story · 202 points
HN discussionThere's a great review from 2000 linked from that page: http://www.dansdata.com/pocketmail.htm
Comment linking /pocketmail.htm
on “Tim Berners-Lee: 'Stop web's downward plunge to dysfunctional future'”Submitted A comforting lie as a story · 92 points
HN discussion> I don't know anyone in my life who's heard of the site besides my uncle, but I enjoy showing it to friends and coworkers as an example of the type of website I grew up with, and which stands in a class of its own, at least to me. I came across the site when I read Daniel Rutter’s Dan’s Data(1) pre-blog blog in the early-2000s when I was devouring everything about Palm devices as a geeky teenager. Dan had a tendenc…
Comment linking /
on “You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes”Submitted How To Live Forever as a story · 25 points
HN discussionSome 2010 vintage calculations, when 16GB microSD cards were considered "big", estimates 275PB would fit in a 1985 Volvo 240: http://dansdata.com/gz105.htm A 2020 update for that would probably use 256 or 512GB cards resulting in around 4.4 or 8.8EB (And probably twice that again if the cargo capacity of a typical 2020 SUV equivalent of a 1985 Volvo is assumed...)
Comment linking /gz105.htm
on “Ask HN: What is your favorite method of sending large files?”Submitted Computers in Space as a story · 6 points
HN discussionWhat's wrong with using normal thermal pastes, like toothpaste? Or Vegemite, if you're Australian, I suppose. http://www.dansdata.com/goop.htm
Comment linking /goop.htm
on “Old iPhones become faster if you change the region to France”Submitted How technology is driven by time to market rather than quality as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI've read the paper now, so I can chime in on an informed basis. They claim a 0.2°C/W, which would be really something. You can get down to 0.37°C/W[1] with air cooling, using heroic measures, and blisteringly awful efficiency. Doing 0.2°C/W would be a real step up. I don't really think they've done it, here. Their experimental setup used six 1"x1" 10 watt heating elements. This is because their heatsink needs a ver…
Comment linking /quickshot012.htm
on “The fanless spinning heatsink: more efficient, and immune to dust and detritus”Submitted Thermal transfer compound comparison: Vegemite vs. Arctic Silver (2002) as a story · 3 points
HN discussion>You set the price when you consume the content that you know is funded with ads. You're objectively wrong. If that were the case, I would be blocked from accessing the content without "paying the price". The situation is instead clearly analogous to a "pay what you feel it is worth" model. The creators of the content allow anyone to view it, regardless of whether they run an ad blocker or not. Sometimes, they place…
Comment linking /
on “AdNauseam: Fight Back Against Advertising Networks and Privacy Abuse”Submitted Filenames.WTF as a story · 3 points
HN discussionAnd I'd call a computer with 2 hours of battery runtime a desktop with a UPS. :) I jest. That said, I think the Dell is okay in terms of connections. There's seemingly half a dozen video output plugs at the moment, including one that's been around since 1952[0]. I'd rather buy 4 adapting cables than have more than one video out on a subnotebook. Getting data on/off seems easy: there's wifi, there's 3 USB ports for e…
Comment linking /gz061.htm
on “Dell XPS 13 Review”Submitted Thermal transfer compound comparison (2002) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionCombine that with the extremely realistic 3D renderings available today and you'd be able to make whatever VR... fantasies you wanted. Fun and exciting. Reminds me of this article from 5 years ago: http://www.dansdata.com/gz103.htm
Comment linking /gz103.htm
on “Handwriting Generation with Recurrent Neural Networks”Submitted Logitech iFeel Mouses (2001) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionLian-Li made aluminium PC cases with similar designs: http://www.dansdata.com/pcv1000.htm https://www.overclockzone.com/newhardware/case/lianli/pc-v20...
Comment linking /pcv1000.htm
on “Apple Power Macintosh G5: Flame On”Submitted It's been two years since the last update to dansdata.com as a story · 2 points
HN discussionAnd the old "never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of backup tapes" (and the modern version of that calculation, a station wagon fill of microsd cards, is calculated at 500gig per second here: http://www.dansdata.com/gz105.htm )
Comment linking /gz105.htm
on “Smuggling USB Sticks”Submitted Science versus SoftRAM as a story · 2 points
HN discussionNot extraordinarily unusual. All you have to do is align the focal plane of the lens with the camera sensor. Usually this is done with a metal flange of greater or lesser complexity. Here he just had to adapt the threads on the lens to the threads on the camera body. Twenty minutes in any well-equipped machine shop. Modern lenses are very complicated, because they work to cancel out all sorts of subtle and troubleso…
Comment linking /lensbaby.htm
on “102 year old lens attached to digital camera”Submitted The physics of giant mecha as a story · 2 points
HN discussionDan has a nice article about this: http://www.dansdata.com/gz094.htm
Comment linking /gz094.htm
on “Back up your precious files on ordinary paper”Submitted Put your broken graphics card in the oven as a story · 2 points
HN discussionReminds me of an interesting article re. the bandwidth of a station wagon: http://www.dansdata.com/gz105.htm
Comment linking /gz105.htm
on “Sneakernet: 99% offline file sharing network”Submitted File extensions are ridiculous as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIf your subject doesn't move, two cameras can be approximated by taking two pictures a set distance apart.[1] Also note that the method used by this app is very short ranged, and uses the LCD's backlight while it's imaging, so there's zero feedback, making any kind of interactive application impossible. 1: There are third party accessories to make this easy and repeatable, built with varying levels of quality. Here'…
Comment linking /photo3d.htm
on “Trimensional: 3D Scanner for iPhone”Submitted Next stop, clay tablets as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
