nikhil.io

Thirty spokes share the hub of a wheel; yet it is its center that makes it useful. You can mould clay into a vessel; yet, it is its emptiness that makes it useful. Cut doors and windows from the walls of a house; but the ultimate use of the house will depend on that part where nothing exists.…

Not sure what else to add here, other than my head reeling with “How the heck does one even think up this subject?”. And appreciating how the Internet can be such an amazing forum for collective weirdness and joy. Speaking of fora, the link’s on Twitter so here’s a cached version to save you the d…

When I was about 13 or so, I was blown away when I learned that ancient Greek and Roman statues used to be painted and were not commissioned to be ghostly-white. An all-time favorite is this Greek sculpture of a Persian archer. Source: “We know Greek statues weren’t white. Now you can see them…

Sears, the department store, sold DIY homes via catalog for 32 years between 1908 and 1940 through a program called Sears Modern Homes. They offered 447 different housing styles which you can see here. The designs were not remarkable in any way: Sears themselves admit that they were “not an innova…

I can’t get enough of Gustav Nordgren’s art. Here’s a Mughal outpost. Not a high-enough resolution but tap/click for a larger image. Zooming in! Here’s another. It’s Aztec! Just beautiful stuff 😍…

This is how I use the good parts of @awscloud, while filtering out all the distracting hype. My background: I’ve been using AWS for 11 years — since before there was a console. I also worked inside AWS for 8 years (Nov 2010 - Feb 2019). My experience is in web- sites/apps/services. From tiny pers…

Uber in 2016: “We have thousands of microservices.” Everyone: “That sounds insane." Uber in 2020: “It turns out that was insane.” @sandofsky…

Here’s another list of 36 styles with real examples. (Cached: styles, elements one and two.)…

This is such a wonderful idea. Stand opposite the glass and you’d know what Kruševac Fortress in Serbia looked like in its heyday: Franklin Court in Pennsylvania is another example of how one could illustrate architectural history. Franklin Court was the site of the handsome brick home of Ben…

This is indescribably beautiful. Source: tirthayatra.org by @renji_snapshot. Here’s more information and history.…

An interactive model of the office from The Office 😍…