Top all-time · #10450
Marek Gibney
Personal blog · gibney.de · on HN as no_gravityprogrammingscience
Marek Gibney's personal blog at gibney.de covers programming and science. Since 2012, 7 different Hacker News readers have linked it 25 times, most often “The behaviour of Linux pipes can be indeterministic”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-07-07, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (1) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this post on a visual pattern in the prime numbers, the 'parallax compression' image built from groups of 75 numbers. Comments discuss how the symmetry of the picture relates to the messiness of primes.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 1 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- The behaviour of Linux pipes can be indeterministic2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-03-03
- /parallax_primes2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-05-18
- A Syntax for Self-Tracking2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-09-20
- Browser Startup Speed2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-11-10
What Hacker News says?
The main reason I often use Chromium instead of Firefox is that it starts up faster. I even wrote a oneliner to see if it is just an illusion: http://www.gibney.de/browser_startup_speed As can be seen in the tests, it is mainly about the startup time after a reboot. Where Chromium is way faster. Not sure what the reason. Maybe Chromium actively caches something right during the boot? Or maybe it uses less dependenci…
Comment linking /browser_startup_speed
on “Using Firefox for a faster, calmer and distraction-free internet”Submitted A new kind of fractal? as a story · 206 points
HN discussionThe way the numbers are picked into the 75-number groups is responsible for pretty symmetry. If you replace condition isPrime() with simpler checks: "is not divisible by 2" "is not divisible by 2 and 3" .. "... by 2, 3 and 5" .... "... by 2,3,5,7,13,17 and 23" ... you'll get more and more complex images but still symmetrical. For me the whole thing is subtle hiding of messiness of primes into the strong, pretty, sym…
Comment linking /parallax_primes
on “An Interesting Pattern in the Prime Numbers: Parallax Compression”Submitted The search volume for "web app" spikes every September as a story · 93 points
HN discussionThis made me curious, so I wrote a javascript version that renders a larger image of it: http://www.gibney.de/parallax_primes
Comment linking /parallax_primes
on “An Interesting Pattern in the Prime Numbers: Parallax Compression”Submitted Is it just me or did the Firefox canvas performance drop by 80%? as a story · 15 points
HN discussionI think it is best to design your own captcha around your use case. All you need to do is make the amount of work for spammers too high for targeting your site. Just recently, I added the idea of a captcha that might actually be enjoyable for users to my list of "things that should exist": http://www.gibney.de/things_that_should_exist The idea is to show the user a random image and ask what is on it. If the image is…
Comment linking /things_that_should_exist
on “Ask HN: A Good Alternative for ReCaptcha?”Submitted News 2D as a story · 12 points
HN discussionI had a nice surprise and learning experience, when I discovered that the output of (echo red; echo green 1>&2) | echo blue is indeterministic: http://www.gibney.de/the_output_of_linux_pipes_can_be_indete... As it turns out, this short line and its behavior nicely demonstrate a bunch of aspects that happen under the hood when you use a pipe.
Comment linking /the_output_of_linux_pipes_can_be_indeter
on “How do Unix pipes work?”- mg · 2020-09-20
Submitted A Syntax for Self-Tracking as a story · 4 points
HN discussion I'm setting up a feature vote here: http://www.gibney.de/the_tourist_map_of_laptops
Comment linking /the_tourist_map_of_laptops
on “The tourist map of laptops”Submitted When doing a redesign – how long to keep polishing before switching as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI did this type of product comparison chart for Laptops, Solid State Drives, Flash Drives and MP3 Players in the past. Dubbed them "Tourist map of Laptops" etc. The tourist thing caused some confusion, so I simply went with "comparison chart" this time. If you have suggestions for more features, let me know. Also if you have suggestions which product category to chart next. Either here on HN or on my blog: http://ww…
Comment linking /the_smartphone_comparison_chart
on “Show HN: An interactive comparison chart of the 300 most popular smartphones”Submitted Is there a simple text editor for Android? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIt might be interesting to calculate the 'primeness' of complex numbers and then render the values as shades of grey on the complex plane. Some years I did something similar for the 'divisibility' of prime numbers and the result was pretty interesting: http://www.gibney.de/does_anybody_know_this_fractal The most common interpretation of a 'complex prime' is the gaussian prime. When rendered on the complex plane look…
Comment linking /does_anybody_know_this_fractal
on “What Is an “Almost Prime” Number?”Submitted The output of Linux pipes can be indeterministic as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI have seen a drastic decrease in FF performance for canvas related operations too. Some time after FF12 it became about 4 times slower. Here is a little test page I made to see if it gets fixed: http://www.gibney.de/firefox_canvas_performance Until it gets fixed I use chrome. Now its FF17 and its still slow.
Comment linking /firefox_canvas_performance
on “IE10 on Windows 7 available in November”Submitted The behaviour of Linux pipes can be indeterministic as a story · 2 points
HN discussionWorking on a version of https://www.literature-map.com which will be used to organize scientific articles about literature. The design will look like this: https://www.gibney.de/preview The big blue arrow leads to the articles which are related to the topic in the center. Now parsing through a big German text corpus to calculate where the research topics will be placed on the map.
Comment linking /preview
on “Ask HN: What are you doing this weekend?”Submitted One Year of Putting Products on Charts as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Search in in the age of social as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted A new kind of fractal? Part 2 as a story · 2 points
HN discussion- mg · 2020-12-31
Submitted That one Android text editor that does not require excess permissions as a story · 1 points
HN discussion Submitted A Syntax for Self-Tracking as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Browser Startup Speed as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
