Hacker News Reader

a_developer314on Ask HN: I’m 41 and still unmarried – what should I do?

gosh! programmers dating!

a_developer314on Ask HN: Can you program without an Internet connection?

Good luck with writing code without being connected nowadays. MSDN from the 90s is all .chm's and you can find anything there. Win32 API, Sockets, DirectX, all with explanations and example codes. Fast, searchable, available locally, lightweight. Everything was there.

As opposed to todays MSDN library that is primarly online. You can export it to pdf document but it's computer generated and you can see a lot of thinking/work didn't go into that process, plain get headers get text and dump it into pdf.

Another one is to download MSDN library/documentation via visual studio, which has some information, but is incomplete and you still bump on some topics that redirect you to the online version. And not nearly content-rich as it's 90s version.

a_developer314on Ask HN: Is retrocomputing the pragmatist power user's future of the desktop?

a) Data extraction/mining/selling, tracking, invasion of privacy, monitoring is responsible for today's disgust towards computers/technology

b) The industry departed from original methods/beliefs/practices/teachings and is something else today, something fake/bad

c) The media is bombarding normal people with false beliefs and false images of relationships, looks, talking, thinking and also programming (anybody can become a web dev)

d) Internet is over saturated, over populated which directly leads to piling loads and loads of e-junk

e) More (RAM, faster speeds) doesn't mean it's better

f) Algorithms don't get old, they don't decay over time. (Algorithm for gausian blur from 2002 isn't old compared to 2022 one. Algorithm is in perfect condition as it was in 2002, it doesn't rot or decay. The form can/is improved to fit today's capabilities. So you may call it less improved, slower, less efficient, more costly)

g) If you were to write a 30 page textbook (no images/few small images are supplied), would it _really matter_ if you were writing it with: (MS Office 2022 on 16GB RAM i9) or (Office 2003 on 32bit XP with 3GB of RAM) or (LibreOffice Writer on Raspberry) or (some Macintosh) or (<insert some low end old tech here>). It would not matter. The result would be the same on each system.

Just some thoughts worth exploring. Maybe it all comes down on privacy/tracking and personal preference.

a_developer314on Ask HN: Starting a Career in Programming at 61?

Don't listen to anybody! Yes he can! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFYJ2DE9wlM (After Learning to Code at 81, She Made a Game for Fellow Seniors)

a_developer314on Ask HN: Share your syntax for txt only

This is horrifying! you are wasting space!! Compress it _even more_, to 't' and to 'vim ~/t'. (saved you 72 bits)

a_developer314on Ask HN: Starting a career as a programmer in my mid-40s

Hello kind sir! I suggest you meditation. Oh yeah, more important, watch this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFYJ2DE9wlM (Title: After Learning to Code at 81, She Made a Game for Fellow Seniors).

a_developer314on Ask HN: Print photograph to preserve it for 100 years?

Try searching something along the lines of 'museum quality' print. It's a vague pointer from my side but should help you.

Another great advice is to make a high quality scan. High resolution, full color. Output it to TIF file format. That should give you a file that you can print anywhere.

So you need to take care and archive the printed one _and_ the digital one.

a_developer314on Ask HN: Do you install antivirus software on servers?

I think you got it wrong. He meant servers, not Windows machines.