jonjacky

17 ms·

181.
by jonjacky 3y ago
Interview with MIT prof and Turing award winner Barbara Liskov.
182.
by jonjacky 3y ago
This is a review of a new biography of Werner Von Braun, Depravity’s Rainbow. by Lewis Bush. The article does not mention the acclaimed big biography, Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War by Michael J Neufeld, from 2007. That
183.
by jonjacky 3y ago
You could just use the old 'ed' line editor which is already installed on any Unix-like system, including Linux and Mac OS. ed was written around 1970 to support printing terminals like teletypes. It's easy: at the command
184.
by jonjacky 3y ago
Here is a posting[1] from a thread about a somewhat related experience with a bank more than 30 years ago, from the RISKS Digest, 1988: "Someone, in this case a customer though in other cases it has often been an employee, complains th
185.
by jonjacky 3y ago
This sort of thing has been going on since ... well, forever. I was reminded of this post [1] by Phil Agre in the RISKS Digest from 1988: "I've noticed that responses to attempts to complain about uncorrected technical problems
186.
by jonjacky 3y ago
That was Steve Ciarcia, his Byte column was called Circuit Cellar
187.
by jonjacky 3y ago
Title should be: Smalltalk-80: Bits of History, Words of Advice
188.
by jonjacky 3y ago
57 is called the "Grothendieck Prime" after another eminent mathematician who erroneously said it was prime. Maybe Terry was making an inside joke? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/57_(number)
189.
by jonjacky 3y ago
1992.
190.
by jonjacky 3y ago
See also this author's Short Thoughts on Computers and Programming: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32935466
191.
by jonjacky 3y ago
The Soul of Viktor Tronko by David Quammen (1987) - from the heart of the Cold War. American interrogators try to figure out if a Soviet defector with startling revelations is telling the truth. Quammen has become well known as a writer
192.
by jonjacky 3y ago
It was also seen as a more realistic, grown-up alternative to the James Bond novels that were hugely popular at the time.
193.
by jonjacky 3y ago
I recently looked at SICP again after first reading it many years ago. I had retained the overall impression that SICP demonstrates how to build many of the celebrated creations of computer science - interpreters, compilers, databases, logi
194.
by jonjacky 3y ago
It's too late to edit, but I would like to omit the snarky first sentence "Or, maybe ..." and just begin this comment with the second sentence: "Or, maybe from long experience ..." I usually don't comment on so
195.
by jonjacky 3y ago
Or, maybe the admissions committee understands the significance of SAT scores better than you do. From long experience with many students like me, they may have concluded that within their applicant pool , the variations among SAT scores
196.
by jonjacky 3y ago
One more remnant is the parody protest song from 1963 that I linked at top level here.
197.
by jonjacky 3y ago
Or some other mix - geographic, for example. Caltech could easily fill its quite small freshman class from Los Angeles high schools, but it tries to get students from all over the country. I am from Washington state. I was admitted to Ca
198.
by jonjacky 3y ago
From 1963: the all digit dialing protest song, "Let's All Call Up AT & T and Protest to the President March" by Allan Sherman. Lyrics: https://mojim.com/usy129446x2x37.htm Audio: https://www.y
199.
by jonjacky 3y ago
This looks very interesting, but it wasn't clear to me how to run this, in particular, how the demo at the top of the README was run. Does this repo build a standalone OS the runs on a bare machine, or does it run in a VM like QEMU, or
200.
by jonjacky 3y ago
Yes, "of all time" implies not just microprocessors. The obvious "most influential CPUs" before microprocessors were PDP-11, IBM 360 (the whole product lines, not any particular model) and CDC 6600.
201.
by jonjacky 3y ago
This is a textbook for the introductory programming course, the first programming experience for many students. Maybe it would be better titled, "How to solve the programming exercises in an introductory course" I see a lot of v
202.
by jonjacky 3y ago
Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming by Peter Norvig. Often called PAIP. Uses Common Lisp to build classic symbolic AI programs, but has lots of good general advice on building big programs.
203.
by jonjacky 3y ago
... and The Unix Programming Environment also by Kernighan and Pike
204.
by jonjacky 3y ago
What other similar books would you recommend? Other memoirs by people who worked in computing and became disillusioned or dissatisfied with it: Joseph Weizenbaum, Computer Power and Human Reason (1976) Cliff Stoll, Silicon Snake Oil (
205.
by jonjacky 3y ago
It's an historically important idea, which Lisp originated. Lisp in Lisp is not just an implementation - it can be the language definition - that was the big innovation. McCarthy's original Lisp was defined in Lisp, in acade
206.
by jonjacky 3y ago
Here is the archive of EWD memos. The last one is numbered 1318, that's one thousand three hundred and eighteen : https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/ Many are hand-written in ink, in his distinctive handwriting.
207.
by jonjacky 3y ago
> People from later communities could have written their own jargon files. There is the IBM Jargon File compiled by Mike Cowlishaw at the IBM UK Laboratories in Hursley. The most recent edition is from 1990. As you might expect, it
208.
by jonjacky 3y ago
This (archived) recent article from the Guardian has an account of Weizenbaum's early life that I hadn't seen before, about his childhood in Nazi Germany, emigration to the US and service in the Army during WWII, and the start o
209.
by jonjacky 3y ago
Calling The Inmates are Running the Asylum a book 'for girls' is just weird. I suppose it is sexist, but mostly it is ... bizarre. What can he mean? By the way, it's a good book, well worth reading if you are involved in
210.
by jonjacky 3y ago
These aren't what most people call 'technical books' - that would be SICP, TAoCP etc. as another commenter said. Instead, these are mostly reporting and memoir about the tech scene and the social effects of tech from a critic

More ›