HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

⬐ lxe

This video also let me to this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-Fc08X56R0 explaining that no matter how much you shake the soda can or bottle, the pressure inside remains stable (3 atm).

Once you open it after shaking however, it's the chain reaction of CO2 coming out of solution around the bubbles you introduced, not the pressure.

So if you have a shaken up can. just tap it gently to remove the bubbles stuck to the sides before opening.

It feels pretty disingenuous to write off all real world design as trivial or impossible to make an impression. For instance, aluminum cans are a great example of quality design

https://youtu.be/hUhisi2FBuw

⬐ erezsh

I'll rephrase it - programming is the only field I know deeply enough to be deeply impressed by the accomplishments I'm seeing.

I'm sure I interact with well designed entities all the time, without even knowing it. One of the properties of really good design, imho, is that it's not meant to be easy to notice.

In a similar vein, I found this explanation [0] of how and why a soda can's tab functions the way it does to be fascinating. Very clever and elegant solution to the problem of opening a can under pressure.

0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUhisi2FBuw

⬐ albrewer

Engineerguy's youtube channel is a real gem, and I wish he made more videos. Every topic he's picked has made the subject matter interesting, even about the really mundane things like baby diaper design. My substitute channels in the meantime have been Practical Engineering and Applied Science, but those two don't really have the level of depth or polish (respectively) as Engineerguy.

⬐ scrollaway

Practical engineering is up there. I will check out Applied Science.

In a similar vein I recommend Not Just Bikes and City Beautiful for city planning details you haven’t thought of. It’s less expert advice and more observations, at least for NJB, but it’s eye opening!

And of course, Technology Connections.

⬐ albrewer

Applied Science is just a really smart guy who works (worked?) at Valve who reads cutting edge research papers and tries to recreate it in his home machine shop / garage.

I just discovered Not Just Bikes a few weeks ago, and I'm really digging his content. He complains and rants too much for me to really binge his channel, but I still go back to it for small doses. I'll work my way through his catalogue eventually!

I do like Technology Connections, but I'm a mechanical engineer by training so a lot of his videos don't really cover new stuff for me, or it's a 22 minute video for 8 minutes of real content. He tends to go over each concept repeatedly from sliiightly different perspectives each time. Which is cool, but I end up skipping around in the video until he gets to the point.

⬐ scrollaway

Darn, wish I could have given you something new to watch, always love recommendations!

If you're into game design, check out Game Makers Toolkit; and New Frame Plus for animation.

⬐ mercer

No Clip also has good documentaries on how various games were made.

Highly recommended related YT video:

The Engineering Guy: The Ingenious Design of the Aluminum Beverage Can

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUhisi2FBuw

⬐ Hamuko

I know for a fact that I've watched this before but still I just had to rewatch it.

Aluminum beverage cans are an engineering marvel:

https://youtu.be/hUhisi2FBuw

⬐ deg4uss3r

My dad worked in a plant growing up, right before college my summer job was cleaning the washing ovens to "make sure I value my education and don't drop out." Amazing to see the aluminum pucks and machinery and get up close and take it apart to clean it, I don't think my dad was worried after the foreman asked him if I was going to be mechanical engineer.

⬐ TimSchumann

Fun fact -- 15,000+ aluminum cans are manufactured every second. Every. Second.

Really hope Bill keeps putting out videos, but I understand how life gets and it's not his full time job.

⬐ s9w

is that right? That would be something like 5 per day per person on earth.

⬐ TimSchumann

If it's off, it's likely less than an order of magnitude off. It's based on the numbers in the video, which he states as half a trillion cans a year from 2015. If anything, I'd guess the number is a touch low.

⬐ PopeDotNinja

Well I just drank my daily 8 Diet Pepsis.

⬐ PopeDotNinja

Well I just drank my daily 8 cans of Diet Pepsi.

⬐ hackandtrip

Isn't it 5 persons per can?

⬐ s9w

right, oops

⬐ TimSchumann

I think the number you were shooting for is 15k cans/second = roughly one can every 5 days for each person on the planet.

Nice video on the design and manufacturing of aluminum drinks cans here: https://youtu.be/hUhisi2FBuw

The whole thing is pretty ingenious, but the way the internal pressure helps vent the can while the tab is acting as a second class lever, then as soon as it’s vented becomes a first class lever to push the scored section of the top into the can — that’s great engineering.

⬐ jacquesm

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8098146

This is a tangent but I liked this video on beverage cans, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUhisi2FBuw

This is by far my favorite video of his:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUhisi2FBuw

⬐ jstimpfle

Also check out the "drinking bird".

⬐ jcims

Here's the How It's Made version - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7Y0zAzoggY

Aluminum baseball bats have a similar manufacturing method - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=didmRLz4vfU

The site looks great and good job on shipping it out!

I probably don't fit as your target customer, so please take my feedback with a grain of salt.

After digging around your site for a bit, it seems like your "special sauce" is to bring incredibly powerful search features for multiple data types/sources all from a single authoritative place (Shelf.io)

Based on your YouTube videos, I really like the ability to parse rich data on the internet and input it for my team to see. Seems like a great product marketing/engineering folks during the high level brainstorming phase.

Use case: 1.Software Engineer: Reads a cool article on Medium about some software technique and wants their team to consider it for their their new beta project.

2.Marketing person: Gets inspired by a video/image for a new ad campaign that they are designing and wants to share it with their team.

Also as an end user, I really like being able to see your actual product and how it works without needing to signup or give out my information. If the product seems like it can solve my pain point within 45 seconds of an intro video and 5 mins of playing with a demo site, then I'll commit to a email signup. Basecamp's "How it works" tab does a great job of this.

On the flip side, I feel that Salesforce doesn't need to do this, since they already have market share and a great reputation for their products.

I would take your "Intro to Shelf" YouTube video, cut the first 25 seconds out and embed it somewhere convenient on your website.

Highlight an example use case through a short video. I think Grammarly does a great job with this in their "new social media manager video" FWD TO :15 seconds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak-Y56SfkS0

Also for your voiceovers in the Youtube videos, I would invest in a good audio recording mic. The audio seems a little distant,and hollow. I use a Zoom H5 recorder, it is a decent product for what I need/require.As a lay audio person, This is my reference point for good voice audio. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUhisi2FBuw&t=15s.

I know you guys are in start up mode, and need to ship. But as random end user, this is what I'm perceiving. Hope this helps! Good Luck!

⬐ tfjaeckel

Thank you, great detailed feedback on what we can do to make it easier and more pleasant to get the gist of Shelf right away. It's really appreciated.

While we are at it, the Engineering Guy has a really good youtube channel. His videos are not very frequent most of them does a great job explaining how mundane objects are designed and manufactured. I thought I was familiar with some of his subjects but I always end up learning something new after watching.

Personal favourites:

Aluminium cans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUhisi2FBuw

Wind-up music box: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COty6_oDEkk

Nerf guns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCxco6227xo

⬐ sohkamyung

My personal favourite is his analysis of Albert Michelson’s harmonic analyzer [1], a 19-th century mechanical Fourier Analysis machine.

- [1] http://www.engineerguy.com/fourier/

⬐ raverbashing

I watched this series, seemed boring at first but really it is crazy what this machine does (with 19th century tech)

Definitely recommend this series (and the other videos)

Here's a video on soda can design: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUhisi2FBuw

⬐ MawNicker

Wow. That was an awesome video. Thank you. I didn't know why the top had a neck. Further efficiency apparently. He has an excellent explanation of the two-mode pull tab towards the end. Direct link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUhisi2FBuw&t=508

⬐ macintux

I hated that original pull tab design as a kid. Those sharp edges were vicious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUhisi2FBuw

⬐ dghughes

My first thought too love the Engineer Guy videos Bill Hammack is cool guy.