lost+found

Unsorted pile of links I sometimes urgently need in the middle of a conversation.

Some file systems contain a special directory, called lost+found under Unix, where a file system check places lost and potentially corrupted files when the correct location cannot be determined, and so requires manual intervention by the user.

• Learn X in Y minutes

  A fast-paced intro to a new programming language or tool.

• Ithkuil

  An experimental constructed language designed to express more profound levels of human cognition briefly and clearly.

• Xah Keyboard Guide

  Keyboards, input devices, shortcuts, typing habits, and the ergonomics behind it all.
  See the list of Do-It-Yourself Keyboards.

• Our World In Data

  An overview of global data and long-term trends.

• Well-Kept Gardens Die By Pacifism

  Good online communities die primarily by refusing to defend themselves.
  Also available in Russian.

• Articles by Bartosz Ciechanowski

  Interactive articles about physics, math, and engineering. It's probably the best website on the entire internet.
  My favorite post is the one about bicycles.

• The Cursed Computer Iceberg Meme

  An endless hall of shame and weirdness of computers.

• The Evolution of Trust

  A briliant interactive guide to the game theory of why and how we trust each other.
  The rest of this site is also pretty good.

• I Know What You Download

  Torrenting can leave traces.
  Check torrent downloads and distributions for your own or your neighbor's IP address.

• Retries

  Requests over the network can fail.
  An interactive study of common retry methods for developers.

• No Tabs in IntelliJ IDEA

  “There are many ways to navigate a project inside IntelliJ IDEA (or any other editor) that doesn’t necessarily include having to look through a list of tabs and figure out where you have to click next.”
  Post from the VP of Program Management at JetBrains.

• An Interface Designed for Touch Typists

  If you think VIM is insane, you should definitely read about WordStar, which is still quite popular among many fiction writers.

• Ask HN: Programmers who don't use autocomplete/LSP, how do you do it?

  Different opinions on writing code without using overcomplicated advanced tools.

• Your Computer Isn't Yours

  An investigation into one of the many reasons why no one should use products from Apple.

• Yr from NRK and Meteorologisk Institutt

  A weather forecast site with a no-nonsense interface.
  Direct links: Belgrade, Istanbul and Yekaterinburg.

• Hoodmaps

  A crowdsourced map to navigate cities using marked areas and user-generated tags.

• ShadeMap

  This service calculates shadows from mountains, buildings, and trees for any date and time, and displays them on a map.

• Cost of Living Comparison

  A comparison tool lets you compare the affordability of two cities side-by-side.

• The World Factbook

  A massive CIA database on almost every country in the world.
  Handy when you need to check what kind of power outlets a country uses before you get there.

• Rules for Writing Software Tutorials

  Most software tutorials suck. Here's how to make one that doesn't.

• Pangram

  A sentence using every letter of a given alphabet at least once.
  An additional list in Russian and other languages.

• about:translations

  Firefox has a built-in translator. Not so smart, but works offline.

• No Config for Old Men

  A rant about how modern software won’t let you customize it anymore.

• Webcompat.com

  Bug reporting for the web.
  If a site breaks in one browser but not another, it’s a web compatibility bug. Report it.

• JSFuck

  An esoteric and educational programming style based on the atomic parts of JavaScript.
  It uses only six different characters to write and execute code.

• Smuggling arbitrary data through an emoji

  Unicode is broken. You can encode data in any unicode character.

• Common Mythconceptions

  A list of the world’s biggest myths and misconceptions — with myth-busting included.

• A Mathematician’s Lament — by Paul Lockhart

  A passionate critique of how math is taught and a vision of how beautiful it could be instead.
  Also available in Russian.