rahen

19 ms·

301.
by rahen 4y ago
I couldn't say it better. XKL sells network switches running TOPS-20 for their management software on an FPGA based PDP-10 (probably the last place one can see and use a 36-biter). It's exotic legacy stuff, and at the same time a
302.
by rahen 4y ago
Interesting to see the author shipping a DOS binary instead of something web based with Javascript. I had a relative do exactly the same a while ago for a standalone program, which made me curious about such a choice. In a nutshell: DOS can
303.
by rahen 4y ago
I would have gone personally for the KI10, but the KA10 is arriving: https://groups.google.com/g/pidp-10/c/XVM2BcrFHZI It's been on my waiting list for years.
304.
by rahen 4y ago
When I read "vintage computers", I thought about the usual IBM 1401, 360s and DEC-10. In fact he meant microcomputers. Getting old too, I guess.
305.
by rahen 4y ago
> Not bad for a supposedly backwards repressed regime What do you mean by supposedly? > It also exposes a wider problem the crypto community are not addressing. What wider problem? That money (in any form) can be stolen by a malevolen
306.
by rahen 4y ago
I use pkgsrc, which also comes with binary packages through pkgin, although I rarely need to compile things myself. https://pkgsrc.joyent.com/install-on-macos/ Anything that nix does better than pkgsrc?
307.
by rahen 4y ago
That's a bit like his signature but it's also fairly annoying, it doubles the time required to interpret the number as a year, and I usually have to read the number twice.
308.
by rahen 4y ago
To be pedantic, V0 actually refers to the PDP-7 UNIX released in 1969. 1971 saw the port to the PDP-11/20, which was released as UNIX-11 and soon after, V1 UNIX.
309.
by rahen 4y ago
It has its own memory namespace, so it won't be allowed to access the kernel memory. It has however full access to the devices. The /dev/lua device, which allows interaction with the kernel interpreter: https://man
310.
by rahen 4y ago
NetBSD (and pkgsrc) have a very loyal user base, with quite different expectations from their system than the Linux or FreeBSD user base. I guess what NetBSD is after (preserving the heritage of the original / early Unixes from which i
311.
by rahen 4y ago
Yes, although their scopes are different. For Linux it started as a simple virtual machine for programmable firewall rules. For NetBSD, it's more of a playground to try ideas in kernel space, while rump kernels allow to try kernel idea
312.
by rahen 4y ago
This could be a nice introduction to the topic: https://mises.org/library/what-has-government-done-our-money
313.
by rahen 4y ago
I was surprised too. Those candies taste like some mild Mentos, or large Tic-Tacs. I hardly see how this could be so upsetting as to be #5 in the list, right next to fried spiders. In fact, most of the list makes so little sense I believe t
314.
by rahen 4y ago
Except monetary policies _are_ the problem. Bitcoin has a simple policy: no one, not even Satoshi, can change the rules.
315.
by rahen 4y ago
NetBSD is still routinely tested on 486s and old Vaxen, and developed on ARM SBCs or Pinebooks. It helps keep the code base light and efficient. The latest minimal kernel will still boot on 4MB of memory on 32 bits machines, although it wi
316.
by rahen 4y ago
Only about 0.15% of crypto transactions last year were illicit, compared to 5% with fiat money. Cash is by far the pinnacle of "crime money", definitely not cryptos. https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/2022-c
317.
by rahen 4y ago
I'm not sure being dismissive or judging from only one metric is big picture thinking. Some may even call it narrow mindedness. A quick Google search would show many interesting aspects of the BSDs and especially NetBSD, from resource
318.
by rahen 4y ago
No, the author explicitly mentions the shortcomings of soft updates. Did you read the article?
319.
by rahen 4y ago
Check out his latest creation, nncp, a lossless, neural network based file compression algorithm. https://bellard.org/nncp/ And of course, he wrote it in plain ANSI C for the efficiency.
320.
by rahen 4y ago
Listening to those samples, I initially thought this was a new album from Autechre.
321.
by rahen 4y ago
Interesting. I see that NetBSD can now boot on riscv also: https://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-riscv/
322.
by rahen 4y ago
How well are Linux and the BSDs supported?
323.
by rahen 4y ago
You won't see this discussed on HN, there's an overall hostility toward Bitcoin. A few are interested or sometimes involved with it (whether with development or infrastructure) but don't bother enlightening the crowd since I
324.
by rahen 4y ago
It is perfectly clear. We're talking of an almost full disappearance in forty years, not mere fluctuations over centuries.
325.
by rahen 4y ago
You may not be the target audience of NetBSD. Actually, of any of the BSDs.
326.
by rahen 4y ago
> What else is there that sets NetBSD apart? NetBSD is the continuation of 4.4BSD, or in other words the closest thing to the original Unix that you can run. Unlike FreeBSD, they still support the original architectures like VAX. Unlike
327.
by rahen 4y ago
If so, there would only be room for C and assembler. Give me at least ksh and awk, they don't use much resources and are infinitely handy.
328.
by rahen 4y ago
That's the spot filled by Go, and previously Pascal. Native code with good efficiency while still being fairly easy and productive.
329.
by rahen 4y ago
Actually those two: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34161569
330.
by rahen 4y ago
And Stallman TECO for ITS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TECO_(text_editor)#Example_cod...

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