dmvdoug

25 ms·

361.
by dmvdoug 3y ago
This made me laugh out loud frfr. Well done, you.
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
That said, there’s a very nice “timeline of Unix’s major releases and architectural design decisions” (figure 1) on p. 1138.
363.
by dmvdoug 3y ago
This kind of thing, studying the history of a complex system in order to try to derive generalizable conclusions about large, complex systems in general, seems to me to be such a fool’s errand. Much better to study it in all the richness an
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
Not exactly what I was looking for, but it’s the only thing on offer, so.
365.
by dmvdoug 3y ago
Isn’t there an actual circadian low in the 1-3pm range?
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
Indeed. I think one potential cure to what most people here recognized as the enshittification of the internet would be if people just blogged about things that interested them, regardless of whether some third-party thinks the topic(s) mer
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
It’s a common misunderstanding: because something is the dominant technology it must be good in some way. The history of technology, not just computers but all technology, repeatedly and consistently shows otherwise.
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
Is SAP good at anything aside from locking customers in? I ask this seriously because I am an outsider on this, but I have never heard a single good thing about SAP. NOT ONE.
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
Not just business. My dad worked for the FBI in IT for about 15 years after he retired from the military. The stories he can tell….
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
I’d love to read more about the differences in “personality” among the BSDs. Any suggestions on material to look at?
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
Outsider here. One thing that I have observed about programmers is how obsessed they are with tooling. Whether it’s exactly which model of ergonomic keyboard or exactly which toolchain(s) they’re using, there seems to be an endless desire o
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
Honestly, you’re doing great. I think the best things I see here are precisely the ones that aren’t “ready for HN yet.”
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
Sadly, though, we’re starting to see a lot fewer Mac-assed apps[1] these days. [1] https://daringfireball.net/linked/2020/03/20/mac-assed-mac-a...
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
> WANT to sell the next great piece of computer software? > “It's not about technology anymore. It's about marketing, merchandising, brand management, and shelf space....” Just, no.
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
Those are the best kind!
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
When I took Admiralty and Maritime Law in law school, the professor handed us (aside from the syllabus) two sheets of paper on the first day: 1. “Admiralty and maritime law is a couple thousand lawyers fighting over a few dozen ships.” 2. “
377.
by dmvdoug 3y ago
One of the things this does well is it remarks on expectations versus what was learned in the process of compiling the information. “I expected x because y but actually it’s a because b!” Clearing up misconceptions is often one of the key s
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
The enshittification will continue until morale improves.
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
> I'm confused though. Babbage came up with the blueprints for his Difference Engine in the 1820s. I know he never succeeded at actually building it, but he never really had a fair chance if you ask me. Babbage had a chance to build
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
Thomas Jefferson: reliably wrong.
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
> Build nonce, fail everywhere I’m pretty sure that was a typo, but it was an excellent one and I hope it doesn’t change! :)
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
> But once it gets more complicated with different toolchains and compatibility problems (and it usually does if you have an RTOS), Just curious, but based on your experience, why does it “usually” get more complicated in those ways with
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
I have no clue, but I wonder how unique this attitude turns out to be among MEs/EEs versus, say, everyone dealing with electronics. Because the stories and complaints about mechanical and electrical engineers treating code (and program
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
The point isn’t that it has judicial safeguards. Everyone thinks judicial safeguards are a good thing. The point is, once you weaken encryption to enable the bypass even through judicial safeguards, you weaken encryption for everybody and b
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
Well, one difference is that those laptops belong to the school. They don’t put in-home monitoring devices on privately owned devices. That said, it’s still creepy, I agree.
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
Oh, no, I certainly agree that the old web was a better, more interesting place than today’s. By far. If you invoked webrings simply in order to invoke the old web, I totally agree (as opposed to invoking webrings per se). I just pushed bac
387.
by dmvdoug 3y ago
That sounds about right. But wouldn’t the increasingly non-openness affect a hobbyist’s ability to get things done (the practical side as you said, rather than the philosophical side), or does it really not matter in the end for somebody ju
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
False. Your freaking essay was a great read for me. But I’m not a developer/programmer, just a very interested outsider.
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
Honestly, the really gruesome low-level stuff is what fascinates me most as an outsider. Now, I’m a history teacher, so perhaps that helps explain my leanings, but I find 1950s-1960s computer history most fascinating for just that reason: i
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by dmvdoug 3y ago
This is actually a superb introduction. My only criticism is that it mixes levels of expected knowledge when it jumps to C structs, but even that is helpfully explained. Very well done! [Edited to add: Good enough for me throw it into the o

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