strontian (u/strontian)

strontian commented on Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (March 2026) · Posted by u/david927

YesBox · 7 days ago

I changed gears and moved into the video games industry at the end of 2021.

I started developing a city builder called Metropolis 1998 [1], but wanted to take the genre in new directions, building on top of what modern games have to offer:

- Watch what's happening inside buildings and design your own (optional)

- Change demand to a per-business level

- Bring the pixel art 3D render aesthetic back from the dead (e.g RollerCoaster Tycoon) [2]

I just updated my Steam page with some recent snapshots from my game. Im really happy with how the game is turning out!

[1] https://store.steampowered.com/app/2287430/Metropolis_1998/

[2] The art in my game is hand drawn though

strontian · 7 days ago

wow, love the look of your game!

strontian commented on Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants blog.ncase.me/on-depressi... · Posted by u/mijailt

meroes · 2 months ago

I used to have very rough winters. Despite the fact that I ate well and was outside 2+ hours every day. I got my blood tested and I had very low vitamin D, two tiers below normal. This was the first winter being on Vitamin D, and my energy and hunger levels stayed normal. I never crashed or had extreme hunger or trouble sleeping.

Getting Vitamin D from food is a fools errand, and since sunscreen and protective clothing slow vitamin D from the sun drastically, it's in most people's best interest to get it tested.

strontian · 2 months ago

You may consider that you have a dust mite allergy. If you have any of: chronic coughing, frequent sickness, eczema, or IBS then that is even more evidence this is your problem.

strontian commented on We're learning more about what Vitamin D does technologyreview.com/2025... · Posted by u/Brajeshwar

tanjtanjtanj · 4 months ago

How did you get dust mites entirely out of your house?

strontian · 4 months ago

Basically a two step process: 1. Keep humidity at 40% year round, using dehumidifiers. This stops their biology and makes them go dormant quickly. Their eggs and protonymphs will die out after a year or so. 2. Remove existing allergens from your home. In short: allergen covers around your bed, get rid of old fabric stuff(curtains, rugs, carpet). Launder everything you can on the highest heat possible.

strontian commented on We're learning more about what Vitamin D does technologyreview.com/2025... · Posted by u/Brajeshwar

beef234 · 4 months ago

Any pointers on how to get rid of them from your house and sleep environment to lower ige?

strontian · 4 months ago

Basically a two step process: 1. Keep humidity at 40% year round, using dehumidifiers. This stops their biology and makes them go dormant quickly. Their eggs and protonymphs will die out after a year or so. 2. Remove existing allergens from your home. In short: allergen covers around your bed, get rid of old fabric stuff(curtains, rugs, carpet). Launder everything you can on the highest heat possible.

strontian commented on We're learning more about what Vitamin D does technologyreview.com/2025... · Posted by u/Brajeshwar

orochimaaru · 4 months ago

citation? There's many open to believing it and the reach maybe more if there are studies that confirm causation with a high probability.

fwiw - vit-d supplementation is one of the easiest supplements available. The recommended dosage 400IU is way lower than what can actually bring your levels up. You need about 4000IU of supplementation and regular testing if you're not exposed to sunlight and/or your dairy intake is poor.

strontian · 4 months ago

I've read hundreds of dust mite studies, and this is the conclusion I came to, but it's difficult to put in a direct single argument with a citation that most people would require to accept it. I also got dust mites entirely out of my home and my chronically low vitamin D was resolved without a change in lifestyle or supplementation.

But I'll do my best to share some of the steps toward this conclusion:

#1. There is a body of molecular research showing dust mite allergens directly damage the immune system, most importantly once you inhale their fecal pods, they cause epithelial permeability in the lungs. (this study is a good overview of several ways it directly damages the immune system, all of which are totally unrelated to type 1 hypersensitivity, btw: https://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(18)30848-0/ful...)

#2. There are challenge studies that show dust mites directly causing eczema symptoms after inhalation, which shows that dust mite allergens can act on areas other than the respiratory system, probably by entering the blood stream. Of course there are also challenge studies for asthma. (here's a paper arguing for causal role in asthma https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/full/10.1164/rccm.200811-175...)

#3. All of the major allergic diseases(asthma, eczema, rhinitis, and although it is not as well studies, I believe IBS) have epithelial damage and increased allergy as a core feature of the disease. #1 and #2 are good evidence that dust mites play a causal role in these diseases

#4. From asthma and epithelial permeability in the lungs you can get to worse outcomes from flu and covid etc, from rhinitis you can get to worse sleep and worse mental health etc and reach a large number of health outcomes.

#5. It's true that people with allergy suffer worse from all these problems, but so much damage has already been done before you even get to Type 1 hypersensitivity, but that's another story.

So basically, dust mites directly damage your immune system in the lungs, skin, nose, eyes, guts(and maybe more?), create a sustained immune response, and leads to a multitude of other bad health outcomes.

And since low vitamin D is associated with dust mite sensitization((https://www.worldallergyorganizationjournal.org/article/S193...) , it's also associated with all those other bad health outcomes that are actually caused by dust mites.

People have a mental model that vitamins are at the root level of causality, and therefore don't consider that vitamin D could also be caused by dust mite exposure.

IgE levels are inversely associated with vitamin D: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-77968-1

But supplementing vitamin D doesn't lower IgE: https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/150/Suppleme...

And of course high IgE is directly caused by exposure to dust mites if you're sensitized.

I don't know the specific mechanism by which they cause low vitamin d, but two possibilities are that #1: the high and sustained immune response your body runs from constant dust mite exposure consumes vitamin D and acts like a leaky bucket. #2: dust mites somehow disrupt vitamin d production in the skin(e.g. there was one study showing https://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(13)01768-5/ful...)

strontian commented on We're learning more about what Vitamin D does technologyreview.com/2025... · Posted by u/Brajeshwar

strontian · 4 months ago

No one will probably believe this, but I think dust mite exposure is a major cause of vitamin D deficiency and a lot of the negative outcomes associated with low vitamin D are actually second+ order effects of dust mite exposure. Just posting in case it reaches one person out of the 100s of millions who are sick from dust mites.

strontian commented on Replicube: 3D shader puzzle game, online demo replicube.xyz/staging/... · Posted by u/inktype

strontian · 8 months ago

i love this so much <3

strontian commented on A new class of materials that can passively harvest water from air blog.seas.upenn.edu/penn-... · Posted by u/Tycho

dumbfounder · 10 months ago

So the question is how much more efficient is it? I spend hundreds of dollars per month running dehumidifiers in my house so I am keen to know.

strontian · 10 months ago

Me too! Because dust mites? Curious to share notes with you, I’m running 4 aeockys right now but they don’t seem to last long

strontian commented on Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2025) · Posted by u/david927

strontian · 10 months ago

I made a free copy/paste helper meant to help get multiple source code files into LLMs. Just something simple to give more granular control over context and work with other ides eg xcode

pastybara.com

strontian commented on The most famous carbon dioxide absorber howequipmentworks.com/apo... · Posted by u/bemmu

londons_explore · a year ago

Anyone selling house-size CO2 absorbers to keep CO2 in my house to more like pre-industrial 200ppm rather than the 800ppm that's more common of house air in cities?

strontian · a year ago

Hah! Glad someone else wants to try this!