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qasimk.io
Personal blog · qasimk.ioeconomicsprogramming
qasimk.io is a personal blog at qasimk.io about economics and programming. Since 2018, 11 different Hacker News readers have linked it 15 times, most often “Pixels Per Degree”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
15mentions?
11HN people?
2018–2026first – last linked?
Too few sampled comments (13) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link qasimk.io mainly for its pixels-per-degree screen calculator, used to judge whether displays are retina at a given viewing distance. Other posts cover bitcoin and carbon pricing and email spam.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 13 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Pixels Per Degree10 people · 12 mentions · first linked 2021-05-26
What Hacker News says?
I was recently thinking about why bitcoin shouldn't just be banned to help mitigate the ongoing climate catastrophe which led to my recent article [0] which equated banning bitcoin to banning ice cream, which I hope helps to illustrate the absurdity of picking and choosing versus just charging for carbon more directly. [0]: https://qasimk.io/2021/bitcoin-and-ice-cream/
Comment linking /2021/bitcoin-and-ice-cream/
on “Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'”Submitted Pixels Per Degree as a story · 18 points
HN discussionI’m sorry, I changed the domain to QasimK.io, but neglected to set up forwarding. I will do that. http://qasimk.io/2016/absolutely-zero-email-spam/
Comment linking /2016/absolutely-zero-email-spam/
on “JavaScript is now required to sign in to Google”Submitted Bitcoin Is as Legitimate as Ice Cream as a story · 15 points
HN discussionof course "normal viewing distances" is always implied when talking about monitors. And if you REALLY want to get pedantic you need to talk about pixels per degree. The human eye can see about 60. according to the very handy site https://qasimk.io/screen-ppd/ a 27" 1080p screen has 37ppd at 2 feet. a 42" 4k screen has 51ppd at 2 feet. a 27" 8k screen has 147ppd at 2 feet which is just absurd. You have to get to 6 in…
Comment linking /screen-ppd/
on “Nvidia announces next-gen RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 GPUs”A lower FOV actually translates to better PPD. You can use a basic formula: sqrt(hRes^2+vRes^2)/FOV. So a 100 degree FOV would give you about 36PPD, but a 90 degree FOV would actually give you an even better 40PPD. 60PPD is Apple's target for a "Retina" display, although there's a strong argument that you need double that at least for line pairs. For computer work purposes, we really should only care about matching…
Comment linking /screen-ppd/
on “Show HN: Simula One – Portable Linux VR Computer”Viewing distance matters. ppi isn’t the target metric, it’s pixels-per-degree-of-vision that determines if a display setup is “retina”. 60 ppd is equal to 20/20 vision in a human. My 34” monitor is only 4K but is “retina” at the viewing distance in my home office according to this calculator: https://qasimk.io/screen-ppd/
Comment linking /screen-ppd/
on “Memory safety for web fonts”It's not surprising. The AVP has a PPD of 34. A 14" MBP screen with a resolution of 3024x1964 already has a PPD of 66 at a close 14" viewing distance and it gets higher as you move further away [1]. Retina is considered 60+ at 20/20 vision. Of course a real display has no resampling or micro-OLED smearing to overcome either. To achieve the same effective pixel count as a MBP, a virtual screen at the AVP's PPD would…
Comment linking /screen-ppd/
on “Vision Pro teardown part 2: What’s the display resolution?”I think it very much depends on the viewing distance. Using https://qasimk.io/screen-ppd/ : * Your 22" screen at a distance of 32" has a horizontal FOV of 33°. Moving your eyes from the middle of one screen to the adjacent screen is a 33° movement. Assuming 1080p it would have a PPD of 58, which is roughly retina PPD. * My 27" screen at a distance of 20" (I measured it [update: originally measured at 14", remeasured…
Comment linking /screen-ppd/
on “Working in the Vision Pro [video]”What's the definition of "Retina grade"? Surely the eyes ability to distinguish pixels depends on how far the screen is. An average 4K TV at a typical viewing distance is going to be impossible to distinguish the pixels. Same with a typical 4K monitor, depending on the size and viewing distance. EDIT: A 27" 4K display at 60 cm viewing distance (53° horizontal FoV) has 73 pixels per degree (ppd). A Retina equivalent…
Comment linking /screen-ppd/
on “Garamond is not a good font to use in web copy (2010)”Fair point! Anyone can do a quick math on the PPD with their announcement of "23 million pixel microOLED" with this calculator? https://qasimk.io/screen-ppd/
Comment linking /screen-ppd/
on “Apple Vision Pro”At 90-100 degrees, a 4K/eye display will likely end up being around 35-40 PPD (pixels per degree). This is about equivalent to what a FHD display would like like (27" monitor at 60cm: https://qasimk.io/screen-ppd/ ). There are a lot of other factors like fill factor (screen door effect) and there are definitely some optical designs that can increase PPD as well. Apple bought Limbak recently, btw, it's possible they…
Comment linking /screen-ppd/
on “First impressions: Yes, Apple Vision Pro works and yes, it’s good”Ultimately what we care about when it comes to resolution is “pixels per degree of viewing angle while at the optimal viewing distance”. The screen has some fixed pixel density, using called PPI or DPI. As you sit closer or further away, the screen will cover greater or fewer degrees of your field of vision (I recommend looking up diagrams to get a better understanding of this concept). You can thus combine a screen…
Comment linking /screen-ppd/
on “EU 8K TV ban goes into effect – here’s how Samsung got around it”I've found it much easier to increase your viewing distance for an equivalent effect. All else being equal this provides the additional benefit of reduced eye strain from a decrease in parallax. For example, I've settled on ~160 PPI viewed at 100cm as my optimal desktop solution. It has an identical perceived pixel density as ~220 PPI viewed at 75cm. Use a PPD (pixel per degree) calculator to find a setup that suits…
Comment linking /screen-ppd/
on “LG UltraFine Evo 6K 32-inch Monitor Review”"The original XGA monitor, considered “high resolution” at the time, had a 16” diagonal and 82ppi, which translated 36 to 45 pixels per degree (ppd) from 0.5 meters to 0.8 meters (typical monitor viewing distance), respectively. Factoring in the estimated FOV and resolutions, the Apple Vision Pro is between 35 and 40 ppd or about the same as a 1987 monitor." Okay, now wait a minute. On the one hand, it's possible to…
Comment linking /screen-ppd/
on “Apple Vision Pro: Why Monitor Replacement Is Rediculous”
