What's this about?
"9000 RPM is faster than your screen refreshes" (60 points), an explainer on Poisson disk sampling (131 points, and only 19 comments), and Admiral Cloudberg's account of Qantas Flight 32 (85 points).
What is Poisson disk sampling, since it is the one you will actually use?
An algorithm for placing points randomly but never too close together. Pure random placement clumps — that is what randomness looks like — which is wrong for scattering trees across terrain, distributing sample points for rendering, or placing anything that should look natural. Poisson disk sampling enforces a minimum distance while keeping the arrangement irregular, producing the "evenly random" distribution that matches how things actually look. It is one of those techniques that solves a problem you did not know had a name.
Why is it worth noticing?
276 points combined
- 131 points and 19 comments is the signature of a genuinely useful explainer — people read it and had nothing to argue about.
- The QF32 piece is Admiral Cloudberg's, which is the reliable mark of a good aviation incident writeup.
- Grouped because each is small and the category — careful technical writing on non-AI subjects — is what this audience most consistently rewards.