Practically Efficient
practicallyefficient.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2011
Practically Efficient is a personal blog on technology, productivity tools, and design, including a history of mathematical typesetting.
What HN saysHN commenters recommend its history of math typesetting, from boiling lead to Knuth, as a cohesive essay on the subject.
15HN people shared it
4linked it in comments
12stories submitted
170story points
3 months agolast shared
2011people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Boiling lead and black art: a history of mathematical typography7 people · 161 points · first shared 2017 · 39 comments on HN
- 2Static and free1 people · 3 points · first shared 2016 · discussion on HN
- 3Online education: We're learning what doesn't work1 people · 1 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 4A slightly entropic post on OmniFocus financial management1 people · 1 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
- 5Choice is beautiful, productive even1 people · 1 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
- 6Evolving the word processor1 people · 1 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
- 7The colour of creativity1 people · 1 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
- 8Facebook, Google... Let's not be friends1 people · 1 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
- 9The adjacent possible1 people · first shared 2013
- 10Little snitch1 people · first shared 2015
What HN people wrote when they linked it
mmahemoff · 2013-09-21
Google acquired Android before 2 years before iOS came about. I think it was more a case of "adjacent possible" developments [1] happening in parallel and learning from each other (as great artists are prone to do).
1. http://www.practicallyefficient.com/home/2010/09/28/the-adjacent-possi…
lovecg · 2024-08-11
Enjoy some history of math typesetting http://www.practicallyefficient.com/2017/10/13/from-boiling-lead-and-b…
Famously, Knuth lamented about the state of math typesetting at the time https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1979-01-02/S0273-0979-1979-14598-1/S… and in some ways TEX/Metafont was inspired by older examples from the early 1900s
yammd · 2020-08-29
Interesting to get experiences from people who lived in that era.
For those of you interested in the subject I remember enjoying reading this essay also covering the topic in a cohesive way: http://www.practicallyefficient.com/2017/10/13/from-boiling-lead-and-b…
benyami · 2015-03-13
Not quite the same concept, but I setup Little Snitch to work differently on my home/work networks versus tethered phone or untrusted wireless. I originally did this because I didn't want updates running while tethered at a coffee shop. This article got me started: http://www.practicallyefficient.com/home/2014/7/8/little-snitch