Grant Hutchins

Software developer in Austin and erstwhile electronic musician nertzy.com
Author of the Ruby gems pg_search and with_model
Formerly: Olin College ('06, Partner), Spiceworks, Pivotal Labs

Grant Hutchinsnertzy@ruby.social
2025-07-03

@codinghorror someone needs to get ahold of that tightly

Grant Hutchinsnertzy@ruby.social
2025-07-02
Grant Hutchinsnertzy@ruby.social
2025-06-11

I like a coffee shop that plays classic rave music.

At Civil Goat Coffee in Austin, TX.

🎵 LFO - “To the Limit (Peel Session)” civilgoat.com/

Grant Hutchins boosted:
2025-06-02

Random electronics history: a common logic primitive in electronics is the Schmitt trigger, a comparator with hysteresis: rather than switch between logic low/high at the same threshold in both directions, the threshold for low-to-high transition is higher than that of the high-to-low transition. This is nice for cleaning up noisy inputs, among other things.

Why's it called a Schmitt trigger though?

Predictably, it was invented by grad student Otto Schmitt in 1934, while he was studying the electrical properties of squid nerves. He published it in his PhD dissertation as a "thermionic trigger", which let's be honest is a much cooler name and sounds like a component of a doomsday device.

He also made significant contributions to the invention of the differential amplifier, again as part of studying neurobiology.

It's a nice sort of immortality, to give your name to a fundamental and ubiquitous piece of circuitry. That you invented while pursuing a completely unrelated field.

(also I'm going to assume that "invented by" is likely an oversimplification, and that many of these ideas were in the zeitgeist of the time, but history likes simple stories where ideas spring fully formed in the mind of a single genius)

Grant Hutchinsnertzy@ruby.social
2025-06-01

This silly game is more fun than I expected. I’m a big Picross/nonogram fan. pixelogic.app/every-5x5-nonogr

Grant Hutchinsnertzy@ruby.social
2025-05-30

🌮

Grant Hutchinsnertzy@ruby.social
2025-05-29

Downloading the new Season 2 games for my Playdate and experiencing an unexpected color coincidence. play.date

Playdate handheld gaming console in yellow with purple cover on chair arm, next to arm wearing watch with matching yellow wristband, hand holding plastic water cup in matching purple.
Grant Hutchinsnertzy@ruby.social
2025-05-29

Wow, jj-vcs.github.io/jj/latest/ is an impressive tool for going beyond Git for version control. I’m going to try to incorporate it into my daily workflow right away.

Grant Hutchinsnertzy@ruby.social
2025-05-29

I’m enjoying listening to a conversation between two of my old colleagues from my New York days about building projects in today’s world.

Listen to the first episode of the new More Makers podcast by Steve Berry at Thought Merchants, interviewing Sam Coward about his Traffi project monitoring a dangerous New York City intersection with AI. open.spotify.com/episode/7zLy1

Grant Hutchinsnertzy@ruby.social
2025-05-24

@quinn Journalism not looking too hot when measured by land area.

Grant Hutchinsnertzy@ruby.social
2025-05-14

Just went to my first EFF-Austin meetup. @manton spoke about micro.blog and we all had a lot of great conversations about social networks past, present, and future.

Grant Hutchinsnertzy@ruby.social
2025-05-10

@marci Sounds good to me!

Grant Hutchinsnertzy@ruby.social
2025-05-10

@surf I’m waiting too… Saw the presentation at SXSW Fediverse House and I’m excited!

Grant Hutchinsnertzy@ruby.social
2025-05-01

@foone Ooh that one came pre-installed on my very first computer as a kid, a 486DX. Alongside demos of Cosmo’s Cosmic Adventure and Wolfenstein 3D.

Grant Hutchinsnertzy@ruby.social
2025-04-20

Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing.

I grew up in Oklahoma City, and felt the blast that day from 15 miles away at my middle school.

On the 10th anniversary, in 2005, I wrote a short article about my personal experience. blog.nertzy.com/2005/04/19/ten

Grant Hutchinsnertzy@ruby.social
2025-04-16

@hotdogsladies Oh yeah I saw that on Slashdot.

Grant Hutchinsnertzy@ruby.social
2025-04-03

@marcoarment Weird to see an old The Magazine graphic showing up on the Drudge Report 🧐

Screenshot of https://drudgereport.com showing a “The Magazine” graphic (from the old publication at https://the-magazine.org) being used next to a completely unrelated story about Vanity Fair.
Grant Hutchinsnertzy@ruby.social
2025-03-20

@hotdogsladies I bet Leland did it.

Grant Hutchinsnertzy@ruby.social
2025-03-13

Yndling at International Nights at Rivian Park / SXSW 2025

Grant Hutchinsnertzy@ruby.social
2025-03-10

The great Cory Doctorow speaking truth here at the Fediverse House at SXSW.

“When life gives you SARS, make sarsaparilla” pluralistic.net

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