4 ms·

The best things and stuff of 2012

133 points by DanielRibeiro 14y ago

danso 14y ago
I recently went through the HN posts I upvoted/saved this year and maybe someday will get around summarizing the ones that taught/inspired me the most...here are two technical ones that stuck out for me: SiteChat: a postmortem. Or, the rise and fall of a society. http://burakkanber.com/blog/sitechat-a-postmortem-or-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-society/ http://burakkanber.com/blog/sitechat-a-postmortem-or-the-ris... This to me was the epitome of a great HN post: the author decides he wants to learn how to build Chrome extensions and implement WebSockets and builds a chat app from scratch. It becomes a runaway hit and he leaves it alone, only to rediscover later that it developed into its own online civilization of sorts. How We Nearly Lost Discovery http://waynehale.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/how-we-nearly-lost-discovery/ http://waynehale.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/how-we-nearly-lost... A former NASA engineer describes how Discovery nearly ended up as tragedy, and "how I found out that we were never really as smart as we thought we were."
salboaie 14y ago
Did you know about a "hidden" page: http://news.ycombinator.com/best http://news.ycombinator.com/best Looks like an experimental feature to me but it will be nice to have something like this. Waiting for: http://news.ycombinator.com/best/2012 http://news.ycombinator.com/best/2012
- kickapps 14y ago
  thanks ... how did you find that?
  - riffraff 14y ago
    go to the bottom of any hn page and you'll see a "lists" link
- MattSayar 14y ago
  Hmm, looks like all the top links are made in the past few days. Is this only the Best from the past week or so?
marquis 14y ago
Apropos Engelbart’s Violin, I'd be interested to try a Microwriter. I think I'd pick it up quite well as I played piano for years. Did they ever make it into widespread production? Though I suppose you could make one quite easily with an Arduino.
- andrewcooke 14y ago
  they certainly existed; i used to know someone who used one. see also http://www.cykey.co.uk/ http://www.cykey.co.uk/ (same people; available now)
  - marquis 14y ago
    Thanks! That's affordable enough to buy and find out.
- tsm 14y ago
  There's more discussion and a few links on previous HN submissions: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4016421 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4016421 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=159213 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=159213
- gcr 14y ago
  Try Plover, the open-source steno software. http://plover.stenoknight.com/ http://plover.stenoknight.com/ You can download it from the wiki. The author has a demonstration of typing 250 words per minute using Plover and her stenography knowledge. If your keyboard has N-key rollover (and the $50 Microsoft Sidewinder USB keyboard does), it will work well with Plover.
rocketmail4ever 14y ago
I don't know if this is from 2012, but I just found out about this page -- it's the best papers from computer science from 1996 to 2012 http://jeffhuang.com/best_paper_awards.html http://jeffhuang.com/best_paper_awards.html (based on awards given by committees at the top conferences)
gruseom 14y ago
Favorite musicians discovered: ... Klaus Nomi ... As a card-carrying member of the Klaus Nomi Fan Club (well, formerly – I lost the card), I heartily approve.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
xmanifesto 14y ago
Best thing I've done all year is learning how to code. I feel like I've broken the cycle of illiteracy.

133 points by DanielRibeiro 14y ago

danso 14y ago

I recently went through the HN posts I upvoted/saved this year and maybe someday will get around summarizing the ones that taught/inspired me the most...here are two technical ones that stuck out for me: SiteChat: a postmortem. Or, the rise and fall of a society. http://burakkanber.com/blog/sitechat-a-postmortem-or-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-society/ http://burakkanber.com/blog/sitechat-a-postmortem-or-the-ris... This to me was the epitome of a great HN post: the author decides he wants to learn how to build Chrome extensions and implement WebSockets and builds a chat app from scratch. It becomes a runaway hit and he leaves it alone, only to rediscover later that it developed into its own online civilization of sorts. How We Nearly Lost Discovery http://waynehale.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/how-we-nearly-lost-discovery/ http://waynehale.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/how-we-nearly-lost... A former NASA engineer describes how Discovery nearly ended up as tragedy, and "how I found out that we were never really as smart as we thought we were."

salboaie 14y ago

Did you know about a "hidden" page: http://news.ycombinator.com/best http://news.ycombinator.com/best Looks like an experimental feature to me but it will be nice to have something like this. Waiting for: http://news.ycombinator.com/best/2012 http://news.ycombinator.com/best/2012

kickapps 14y ago
thanks ... how did you find that?
- riffraff 14y ago
  go to the bottom of any hn page and you'll see a "lists" link
MattSayar 14y ago
Hmm, looks like all the top links are made in the past few days. Is this only the Best from the past week or so?

marquis 14y ago

Apropos Engelbart’s Violin, I'd be interested to try a Microwriter. I think I'd pick it up quite well as I played piano for years. Did they ever make it into widespread production? Though I suppose you could make one quite easily with an Arduino.

andrewcooke 14y ago
they certainly existed; i used to know someone who used one. see also http://www.cykey.co.uk/ http://www.cykey.co.uk/ (same people; available now)
- marquis 14y ago
  Thanks! That's affordable enough to buy and find out.
tsm 14y ago
There's more discussion and a few links on previous HN submissions: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4016421 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4016421 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=159213 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=159213
gcr 14y ago
Try Plover, the open-source steno software. http://plover.stenoknight.com/ http://plover.stenoknight.com/ You can download it from the wiki. The author has a demonstration of typing 250 words per minute using Plover and her stenography knowledge. If your keyboard has N-key rollover (and the $50 Microsoft Sidewinder USB keyboard does), it will work well with Plover.

rocketmail4ever 14y ago

I don't know if this is from 2012, but I just found out about this page -- it's the best papers from computer science from 1996 to 2012 http://jeffhuang.com/best_paper_awards.html http://jeffhuang.com/best_paper_awards.html (based on awards given by committees at the top conferences)

gruseom 14y ago

Favorite musicians discovered: ... Klaus Nomi ... As a card-carrying member of the Klaus Nomi Fan Club (well, formerly – I lost the card), I heartily approve.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

xmanifesto 14y ago

Best thing I've done all year is learning how to code. I feel like I've broken the cycle of illiteracy.