Top all-time · #3616
Ruben Berenguel
Personal blog · mostlymaths.net · on HN as RBerenguelprogrammingmathproductivity
Ruben Berenguel's personal blog at mostlymaths.net covers programming, math and productivity. Since 2010, 21 different Hacker News readers have linked it 109 times, most often “Using the Plan9 Plumber Utility (2013)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-01-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (2) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for posts on Linux and Plan 9 ideas and a generative iris sketch. The comments cite a Plan 9 post as support and link the iris demo, without judging the writing.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 2 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Ruben Berenguel's technical and non-technical blog
Most-linked posts?
- Using the Plan9 Plumber Utility (2013)3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2013-04-21
- Using Taskwarrior Instead of Emacs+Org Mode for To-Do and Appointment Tracking3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2011-03-13
- Eight reasons for reinvinting the wheel3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2010-03-27
- Timeboxing: You Will Work Like Never Before2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-07-15
- The Emacs 30 Day Challenge2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-12-01
- Why Juggling for Programmers (and other computer people)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-07-26
- Concept Maps (2021)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-04-04
- How I Got More Than 4500 Visits Through Blog Commenting2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-11-04
What Hacker News says?
For a long while I've had C-M-A mapped in caps lock, then I moved to using a Gergo (60% split ortho) programmed with QMK, so it's now mostly my own layout, specially for modifiers (see [here]( https://mostlymaths.net/2020/01/new-keyboard-gergo.html/) )
Comment linking /2020/01/new-keyboard-gergo.html/)
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite developer-efficiency tips?”Submitted Learn to remember everything: The memory palace technique as a story · 201 points
HN discussionI wrote my own a long time ago in C (inspired by Roger) to create a Christmas postcard: http://www.mostlymaths.net/2010/04/approximating-images-with...
Comment linking /2010/04/approximating-images-with-randomly.html
on “Mona Lisa in 50 polygons, using a genetic algorithm (2008)”Submitted Timeboxing: You Will Work Like Never Before as a story · 118 points
HN discussionMore specifically, Plan 9 devised the plumber framework for copy+paste and similar IPC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumber_(program) http://www.mostlymaths.net/2013/04/just-as-mario-using-plan9...
Comment linking /2013/04/just-as-mario-using-plan9-plumber.html
on “A few drawings about Linux”Submitted A DIY Origami Notebook to Keep in Your Jeans' Small Pocket as a story · 67 points
HN discussionI checked this as a reference when I implemented this p5js sketch (note that the link takes you to a blog post with how it works and inspiration, the first link in the post is to the sketch proper) [1] but never went into the hard optimisations once I got it working. I should revisit it, since it's relatively slow. [1]: https://mostlymaths.net/2020/05/blot-painting-p5js-sketch.ht...
Comment linking /2020/05/blot-painting-p5js-sketch.html/
on “Metaballs and Marching Squares”Submitted Using the Plan9 Plumber Utility (2013) as a story · 60 points
HN discussionI also wrote a minimal version for me, https://mostlymaths.net/nb/ Only works well on mobile portrait though, I designed it especifically for my phone. Don't use it much though.
Comment linking /nb/
on “N-Back – A Minimal, Adaptive Dual N-Back Game for Brain Training”Submitted The Emacs 30 Day Challenge as a story · 59 points
HN discussionIt's a very fun exercise when you are starting with PostScript... and indeed, unless you are familiar with Forth or any other stack based language, it's a big pain to write. A long time ago I wrote a very short "tutorial" [1] on my blog (which right now looks very bad due to change in stylesheets that don't have translated well... The code for the Mandelbrot set there is broken (due to googlecode dying), but I just…
Comment linking /2008/12/quick-postscript-programming-tutorial.html
on “Generating the Mandelbrot Set”Submitted And "e" Appears from Nowhere: Quick Numerical Experiment with Clojure as a story · 52 points
HN discussionSeems ages ago, but I wrote a post about its extensibility here: http://www.mostlymaths.net/2013/03/extensibility-programming... I explained more or less how to use the plumber and endpoints, and gave a sample shell script and a reddit browser written in python you could plug into acme
Comment linking /2013/03/extensibility-programming-acme-text-editor.html
on “Emacs, Google this”Submitted Programming books I have read and somewhat liked as a story · 45 points
HN discussionConcept maps are not mind maps, concept maps work in a different way. I'll just offer a self-reference about concept maps [1] since there I have an explanation of how they work I like. [1]: https://mostlymaths.net/2021/10/concept-maps.html/
Comment linking /2021/10/concept-maps.html/
on “Learn about Concept Maps”Submitted Doing Your Best and Tips on Continuous Improvement as a story · 37 points
HN discussionHi, I've been an user of both. I wrote about Taskwarrior here: http://www.mostlymaths.net/2011/03/using-taskwarrior-instead... I am using it more often than org-mode, mainly because it works very well in my Ben Nanonote, and org mode does not work as well. It is very good, but org-mode is more flexible (as everything in emacs is) and covers a wider range. Tw is more like the "do one thing and do it well" Linux comma…
Comment linking /2011/03/using-taskwarrior-instead-of-emacsorg.html
on “Taskwarrior is a time and task management tool (terminal)”Submitted The emacs 30 Day Challenge: Using 'gnus' to read mail as a story · 29 points
HN discussionI guess an old post from my blog is relevant (I think it was already submitted to HN a long time ago): http://www.mostlymaths.net/2010/03/8-reasons-for-re-inventin...
Comment linking /2010/03/8-reasons-for-re-inventing-wheel-as.html
on “Don't Reinvent the Wheel”Submitted How I Got More Than 4500 Visits Through Blog Commenting as a story · 24 points
HN discussion1. This is lame. When the traffic/readers start coming, they will comment/want to comment. 2. To keep the window to have a scroll bar the size of a chickpea 3. I don't know Posterous enough. Usually, you read Post A tagged with tag A', click on A' and you can read more posts tagged with A' 4. It's ok. Cool, even 5. Even with broadband, it took a while to open the blog. Cut down the number of entries. If you want som…
Comment linking /2010/09/4-reasons-why-pacman-is-metaphor-for.html
on “Ask HN: Please help a virgin blogger.”Submitted Commented Version of a LaTeX File to Create PDF ebooks & A6 Booklets as a story · 22 points
HN discussionI expected the demo would be embedded in the blog post, but it wasn't. Here it is: https://mostlymaths.net/sketches/iris/index.html
Comment linking /sketches/iris/index.html
on “Generative Iris”Submitted Procrastinating? Find the Next Step Up as a story · 22 points
HN discussionI think Steve Jobs is our current hypnotoad: http://www.mostlymaths.net/2010/02/all-hail-steve-jobs-and-h...
Comment linking /2010/02/all-hail-steve-jobs-and-his-ipad.html
on “Steve Jobs is a Ninja and Carries Throwing Stars”Submitted Generative Iris as a story · 21 points
HN discussionI even did this with some large assignments while on High School. He was just plainly oblivious to data management. Currently I have something like 4 copies of my WIP thesis... All up to date +- 3 days (my USB keychain drive, my netbook hard drive, my office computer who has automatic backup already by the sysadmin and my MacBook, all my running backups being managed through this script: http://www.mostlymaths.net/2…
Comment linking /2009/09/my-backup-script-in-maclinux.html
on “Stolen Laptop Contains Man's Dreams”Submitted Creating PDF ebooks With LaTeX (& two samples from The Project Gutenberg) as a story · 21 points
HN discussionMy girlfriend (and myself, but only at home) use a gym ball as chair. Of course I can't recommend it to everyone, and long stretches sitting on it can be really tiresome. I wrote a blog post at my blog, you can check it at http://www.mostlymaths.net/2010/08/gym-ball-as-office-chair-... It has worked wonders for small back pains in the lower parts, and also for some head aches related to spine problems, for me. Give…
Comment linking /2010/08/gym-ball-as-office-chair-review.html
on “How do you solve the problem of sitting in a chair 8-16 hours per day?”Submitted Time Tracking Like There Is No Tomorrow (with Javascript and HTML5) as a story · 19 points
HN discussion
