Ask HN: What are the most "upvoted" things you can buy here? Here are a few

1 01-_- 0 6/16/2025, 6:39:45 PM

I've seen several threads over the years with physical or digital products that have generated hundreds of upvotes and discussions. I decided to put together some of the most mentioned - tools, gadgets and books that have a practical impact and that you can actually buy.

Here are a few that I've seen highly recommended or discussed:

1. The Art of Unix Programming (book) - Discussion of Unix philosophy, widely quoted here. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0131429019)

2. PinePhone - Smartphone with Linux. Loved by those who defend free software and privacy. (https://www.pine64.org/)

3. Sony WH-1000XM5 - Noise-canceling headset. Appears in all productivity threads. (https://www.sony.com/)

4. ErgoDox EZ - Split ergonomic keyboard, customizable and often used by full-time devs. (https://ergodox-ez.com/)

5. Raspberry Pi 5 - Tiny computer with a thousand possibilities (servers, personal projects, etc). (https://www.raspberrypi.com/)

Do you have any others that you bought on HN's recommendation that were really worthwhile? If so, add them here (https://wishtogether.xyz/insertgif?id=68504cf34b) I want to expand this list based on what really worked for you.

Benzene at 200 (chemistryworld.com)

Working on databases from prison (turso.tech)

OpenTelemetry for Go: Measuring overhead costs (coroot.com)

Show HN: Zeekstd – Rust Implementation of the ZSTD Seekable Format (github.com)

ZjsComponent: A Pragmatic Approach to Reusable UI Fragments for Web Development (arxiv.org)

Show HN: dk – A script runner and cross-compiler, written in OCaml (diskuv.com)

Nanonets-OCR-s – OCR model that transforms documents into structured markdown (huggingface.co)

The Renegade Richard Foreman (yalereview.org)

Darklang Goes Open Source (blog.darklang.com)

Is gravity just entropy rising? Long-shot idea gets another look (quantamagazine.org)

Adding public transport data to Transitous (volkerkrause.eu)

Start your own Internet Resiliency Club (bowshock.nl)

Quantum mechanics provide truly random numbers on demand (phys.org)

Infracost (YC W21) is hiring software engineers (GMT+2 to GMT-6) (infracost.io)

Maya Blue: Unlocking the Mysteries of an Ancient Pigment (mexicolore.co.uk)

Show HN: Socket-call – Call socket.io events like normal JavaScript functions (github.com)

Getting free internet on a cruise, saving $170 (angad.me)

Why SSL was renamed to TLS in late 90s (2014) (tim.dierks.org)

Object personification in autism: This paper will be sad if you don't read (2018) (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

Jokes and Humour in the Public Android API (voxelmanip.se)

Occurences of swearing in the Linux kernel source code over time (vidarholen.net)

Mathematical Illustrations: A Manual of Geometry and PostScript (personal.math.ubc.ca)

A Framework for Characterizing Emergent Conflict Between Non-Coordinating Agents [pdf] (paperclipmaximizer.ai)

Sincerity Wins the War (wheresyoured.at)

Modifying an HDMI dummy plug's EDID using a Raspberry Pi (downtowndougbrown.com)

Childhood leukemia: how a deadly cancer became treatable (ourworldindata.org)

Real-time CO2 monitoring without batteries or external power (news.kaist.ac.kr)

The Members of the Dull Men's Club (theguardian.com)

Show HN: Trieve CLI – Terminal-Based LLM Agent Loop with Search Tool for PDFs (github.com)

Twin – A Textmode WINdow Environment (github.com)

Mechanisms for Detection and Repair of Puncture Damage in Soft Robotics [pdf] (smr.unl.edu)

Datalog in Rust (github.com)

Simplest C++ Callback, from SumatraPDF (blog.kowalczyk.info)

First 2D, non-silicon computer developed (psu.edu)

Salesforce study finds LLM agents flunk CRM and confidentiality tests (theregister.com)

How to modify Starlink Mini to run without the built-in WiFi router (olegkutkov.me)

Fields where Native Americans farmed a thousand years ago discovered in Michigan (smithsonianmag.com)

Telephone Exchanges in the UK (telephone-exchanges.org.uk)

Datalog in miniKanren (deosjr.github.io)

DARPA program sets distance record for power beaming (darpa.mil)

Chemical knowledge and reasoning of large language models vs. chemist expertise (nature.com)

Amazon Signs 141,000 Square Foot Silicon Valley We Work Lease Amid RTO Mandate (finance.yahoo.com)

How the BIC Cristal ballpoint pen became ubiquitous (openculture.com)

Foundations of Computer Vision (2024) (visionbook.mit.edu)

Hyperspectral scans of historical pigments and painting reconstructions (github.com)

Solving LinkedIn Queens with APL (pitr.ca)

The Hewlett-Packard Archive (hparchive.com)

Meta ignores RFC 2920; ZuckMail can't send mail to servers running OpenSMTPD (marc.info)

USDA Pomological Watercolors (search.nal.usda.gov)

Reinventing circuit breakers with supercritical CO2 (spectrum.ieee.org)

Ask HN: What are the most "upvoted" things you can buy here? Here are a few

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