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I've been doing good work in computing for before most of the audience on Hacker News was born, and I'm still at it, e.g., with an ambitious Web site. From all

I've been doing good work in computing for before most of the audience on Hacker News was born, and I'm still at it, e.g., with an ambitious Web site. From all my experience, far and away, the biggest bottleneck and ball and chain on progress in computing is bad technical writing, bad documentation, poor ability to describe technical work; one of the biggest problems here is undefined jargon; and there one of the biggest problems is undefined acronyms. In particular, even with my decades of experience, there is no good way for me to guess that the acronym "IC" abbreviated "integrated circuits". For an audience as broad as all of Hacker News, there is NO way to know. In particular, writing "Homemade Integrated Circuits" is plenty short so that there is no good reason to write "Homemade IC" That acronym is undefined and obscure. Technical writing in computing is awash in undefined and obscure acronyms, and that is part of the bottleneck and ball and chain on progress. The situation in technical writing broadly, e.g., in math, science, engineering, is clear: When jargon is used for the first time, define it or at least give a link to a definition. With the Internet, giving links to definitions is especially easy and convenient. For the sake of progress in computing, I urge computing and the Hacker News audience (i) to minimize use of obscure acronyms and (ii) on the first use of jargon always define or link to a definition. This advice is rock solid and just technical writing 101. In the meanwhile, indeed, I'd be more interested in homemade ice cream than homemade integrated circuits -- even for the Hacker News audience, the acronym IC more likely abbreviates "ice cream" than "integrated circuits". Other guesses at what "IC" might abbreviate: Internet Communications Information Categorization Icon Construction or more.

FPGAhacker 7y ago
I have never in my adult life of 30 years ever seen ice cream abbreviated. And why on earth would you even think of ice cream the context of hacker news?
- graycat 7y ago
  Here context is important: "Homemade Ice Cream" even on Hacker News is more likely the meaning than "Homemade Integrated Circuits". "IC Density and Moore's Law" is clearly about integrated circuits and not ice cream. Yup, a lot of people in computing really hold on to jargon like hugging mama.
aisofteng 7y ago
It’s a common abbreviation. I don’t know how you’ve worked in computing of any sort for decades without coming across it.
- graycat 7y ago
  Of course I came across IC some tens of thousands of times, from silicon, germanium, 1 micron down to 3 nanometers, Moore's law, Dennard scaling, static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), scanning-tunneling electron microscopy, vacuum deposition, extreme ultra violet (EUV) light sources and optics, etc. Still Homemade IC was obscure. Since I've also heard of TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company or some such) and the $billions for making ICs, that an IC could be "homemade" was strange context. Believe me or not, but I say again, once again, over again, yet again, computing desperately needs to avoid undefined jargon and acronyms, and in this case Homemade Integrated Circuits would have been much better.
mwfunk 7y ago
I bet 99% of the people who come to HN absolutely know that IC means Integrated Circuit. It's very common, it's up there with stuff like CPU and RAM and D&D and RMS for being things that don't need to be explained here. I wouldn't expect someone to have to explain what ASIC stands for on HN, much less IC. If you see something you don't understand, congratulations, you're about to learn something new today! Look it up on Google et voila! Not something to complain about.
- graycat 7y ago
  No, not 99%. Why? Because a huge fraction, no doubt a huge majority, of the Hacker News audience concentrates on software. In more detail, a lot of the audience uses laptop computers, WiFi hubs, smartphones, etc. and never sees an integrated circuit, not even in its plastic box on a circuit board. I plugged together my most recent computer so saw the motherboard with its many integrated circuit packages, handled the integrated circuit of the processor, an AMD FX-8350, installed several adapter cards with their visible integrated circuit packages, etc. but still could not be sure about the meaning of "IC" in the title. Besides, making an integrated circuit at home is a rare and strange, also possibly interesting, thing. Again, computing needs to work really hard to avoid use of undefined jargon. Again, literally, even for the Hacker News audience, Homemade Ice Cream is more likely than Homemade Integrated Circuits Again, once again, over again, yet again, one more time, the biggest bottleneck, a real ball and chain, on progress in computing is bad technical writing, and undefined jargon is one of the worst parts. Again, ..., in essentially all the more important technical writing it is 101 level rock solidly standard always, no question, to expand acronyms. Right, there are some exceptions -- HTTP, HTML, URL, but the full list is short, and IC is not on it. Neither are JS, ASIC, CSS, ACL, OO, JSON, RSA, LDAP, CMIS/P, SMTP, SNMP, ASP.NET, ADO.NET, and some hundreds more. There used to be CICS, IMS, MVS, VTAM, ISAM, VNET, SNA, IPL, RACF, CP67/CMS, VM, DB2, etc. which was priesthood jargon for some years but gone now. This is just a rock solid technical writing lesson 101. Accept it or not as you wish. Jargon is an insider thing, and everyone else gets irritated.
- graycat 7y ago
  You are straining to miss the point. Again, yet again, over again, once again, the question was what does Homemade IC mean? It might mean Homemade Ice Cream You what to say that IC usually abbreviates "integrated circuit" and nearly never "ice cream", and that is true but nearly irrelevant since the issue is what does "IC" mean in Homemade IC There Homemade Integrated Circuit is tough to swallow because making integrated circuits usually takes $billions and lots of highly dangerous chemicals, all super tough to do at "home". So, Homemade Ice Cream is actually MORE likely, even at Hacker News. You can see this. It's grade school stuff. You are just having fun arguing against the obvious and are embarrassing yourself.
dragonwriter 7y ago
> In particular, even with my decades of experience, there is no good way for me to guess that the acronym "IC" abbreviated "integrated circuits". IC to mean integrated circuits is a very common acronym, and right in the center of the HN focus. I’ve literally never once seen “IC” used in any context to refer to any of the strained alternatives you propose. It really feels like you had a canned rant that you've been waiting to find a place to use, and you decided to strain to make it seem like it fit the first thing that you felt like you might get away with stretching it to cover. > even for the Hacker News audience, the acronym IC more likely abbreviates "ice cream" than "integrated circuits". I disagree that this is true, either in general or in the specific context.
- graycat 7y ago
  > IC to mean integrated circuits is a very common acronym, and right in the center of the HN focus. Wrong. IC is for hardware. The center of Hacker News is software, NOT hardware. Commonly the audience here works with software for hours a day but goes for weeks without ever seeing an IC or hardly even thinking about one. You are just trying to pick a fight with me. Again, once again, over again, yet again, Homemade IC is more likely to mean ice cream than integrated circuit. So, to pick a fight, you pick IC out of the context to say that generally IC means integrated circuit more than ice cream -- true but trivial, beside the point. Again, the title was Homemade IC and THERE no telling what the heck IC meant, and even ice cream, even at Hacker News is more likely. My point about the worst bottleneck in computing is rock solid and very important for computing and the Hacker News audience and fully appropriate. Your "rant" is insulting and provocative. Your point that Homemade IC clearly meant integrated circuit is absurd, just deliberately insulting. You are just trying to pick a fight. Resist all you want: It remains, computing has a severe bottleneck -- bad technical writing with undefined jargon and acronyms. And Hacker News titles make WAY too heavy use of acronyms. Disagree, fight, resist, object, all you want -- you are still wrong. Here you are doing the usual for an angry person with weak arguments -- you are attacking the person instead of the ideas. That Homemade IC is obscure jargon is true beyond any question. So, you accuse me of a "rant": My original response was short. Then I got attacked.
  - 7y ago

FPGAhacker 7y ago

I have never in my adult life of 30 years ever seen ice cream abbreviated. And why on earth would you even think of ice cream the context of hacker news?

graycat 7y ago
Here context is important: "Homemade Ice Cream" even on Hacker News is more likely the meaning than "Homemade Integrated Circuits". "IC Density and Moore's Law" is clearly about integrated circuits and not ice cream. Yup, a lot of people in computing really hold on to jargon like hugging mama.

aisofteng 7y ago

It’s a common abbreviation. I don’t know how you’ve worked in computing of any sort for decades without coming across it.

graycat 7y ago
Of course I came across IC some tens of thousands of times, from silicon, germanium, 1 micron down to 3 nanometers, Moore's law, Dennard scaling, static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), scanning-tunneling electron microscopy, vacuum deposition, extreme ultra violet (EUV) light sources and optics, etc. Still Homemade IC was obscure. Since I've also heard of TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company or some such) and the $billions for making ICs, that an IC could be "homemade" was strange context. Believe me or not, but I say again, once again, over again, yet again, computing desperately needs to avoid undefined jargon and acronyms, and in this case Homemade Integrated Circuits would have been much better.

mwfunk 7y ago

I bet 99% of the people who come to HN absolutely know that IC means Integrated Circuit. It's very common, it's up there with stuff like CPU and RAM and D&D and RMS for being things that don't need to be explained here. I wouldn't expect someone to have to explain what ASIC stands for on HN, much less IC. If you see something you don't understand, congratulations, you're about to learn something new today! Look it up on Google et voila! Not something to complain about.

graycat 7y ago
No, not 99%. Why? Because a huge fraction, no doubt a huge majority, of the Hacker News audience concentrates on software. In more detail, a lot of the audience uses laptop computers, WiFi hubs, smartphones, etc. and never sees an integrated circuit, not even in its plastic box on a circuit board. I plugged together my most recent computer so saw the motherboard with its many integrated circuit packages, handled the integrated circuit of the processor, an AMD FX-8350, installed several adapter cards with their visible integrated circuit packages, etc. but still could not be sure about the meaning of "IC" in the title. Besides, making an integrated circuit at home is a rare and strange, also possibly interesting, thing. Again, computing needs to work really hard to avoid use of undefined jargon. Again, literally, even for the Hacker News audience, Homemade Ice Cream is more likely than Homemade Integrated Circuits Again, once again, over again, yet again, one more time, the biggest bottleneck, a real ball and chain, on progress in computing is bad technical writing, and undefined jargon is one of the worst parts. Again, ..., in essentially all the more important technical writing it is 101 level rock solidly standard always, no question, to expand acronyms. Right, there are some exceptions -- HTTP, HTML, URL, but the full list is short, and IC is not on it. Neither are JS, ASIC, CSS, ACL, OO, JSON, RSA, LDAP, CMIS/P, SMTP, SNMP, ASP.NET, ADO.NET, and some hundreds more. There used to be CICS, IMS, MVS, VTAM, ISAM, VNET, SNA, IPL, RACF, CP67/CMS, VM, DB2, etc. which was priesthood jargon for some years but gone now. This is just a rock solid technical writing lesson 101. Accept it or not as you wish. Jargon is an insider thing, and everyone else gets irritated.
graycat 7y ago
You are straining to miss the point. Again, yet again, over again, once again, the question was what does Homemade IC mean? It might mean Homemade Ice Cream You what to say that IC usually abbreviates "integrated circuit" and nearly never "ice cream", and that is true but nearly irrelevant since the issue is what does "IC" mean in Homemade IC There Homemade Integrated Circuit is tough to swallow because making integrated circuits usually takes $billions and lots of highly dangerous chemicals, all super tough to do at "home". So, Homemade Ice Cream is actually MORE likely, even at Hacker News. You can see this. It's grade school stuff. You are just having fun arguing against the obvious and are embarrassing yourself.

dragonwriter 7y ago

> In particular, even with my decades of experience, there is no good way for me to guess that the acronym "IC" abbreviated "integrated circuits". IC to mean integrated circuits is a very common acronym, and right in the center of the HN focus. I’ve literally never once seen “IC” used in any context to refer to any of the strained alternatives you propose. It really feels like you had a canned rant that you've been waiting to find a place to use, and you decided to strain to make it seem like it fit the first thing that you felt like you might get away with stretching it to cover. > even for the Hacker News audience, the acronym IC more likely abbreviates "ice cream" than "integrated circuits". I disagree that this is true, either in general or in the specific context.

graycat 7y ago
> IC to mean integrated circuits is a very common acronym, and right in the center of the HN focus. Wrong. IC is for hardware. The center of Hacker News is software, NOT hardware. Commonly the audience here works with software for hours a day but goes for weeks without ever seeing an IC or hardly even thinking about one. You are just trying to pick a fight with me. Again, once again, over again, yet again, Homemade IC is more likely to mean ice cream than integrated circuit. So, to pick a fight, you pick IC out of the context to say that generally IC means integrated circuit more than ice cream -- true but trivial, beside the point. Again, the title was Homemade IC and THERE no telling what the heck IC meant, and even ice cream, even at Hacker News is more likely. My point about the worst bottleneck in computing is rock solid and very important for computing and the Hacker News audience and fully appropriate. Your "rant" is insulting and provocative. Your point that Homemade IC clearly meant integrated circuit is absurd, just deliberately insulting. You are just trying to pick a fight. Resist all you want: It remains, computing has a severe bottleneck -- bad technical writing with undefined jargon and acronyms. And Hacker News titles make WAY too heavy use of acronyms. Disagree, fight, resist, object, all you want -- you are still wrong. Here you are doing the usual for an angry person with weak arguments -- you are attacking the person instead of the ideas. That Homemade IC is obscure jargon is true beyond any question. So, you accuse me of a "rant": My original response was short. Then I got attacked.
- 7y ago