Hacker News Reader

apstuffon Edsger Dijkstra - Discipline in Thought

Richard Feynman's appendix to the Rogers Commission Report on the failure of Shuttle Challenger.

http://www.ralentz.com/old/space/feynman-report.html

The section titled 'Avionics' is a good read for any programmer and relevant to Dijkstra's discussion (@ 13:00) of the software developed by IBM and used in the Apollo lunar module.

apstuffon Yosemite@17gigapixels

O-Spama.

apstuffon How Porsche fleeced hedge funds and roiled the world’s financial markets

What's the difference between a hedge-fund manager and a pigeon?

Only the pigeon can put down a deposit on a Porsche 911.

apstuffon Why this tech recession will be different than 2001-2003

I'd like to see tech focus on making things with things that make things. As advanced as robotics appears to be, it still feels like it has a lot of untapped potential.

apstuffon Sequoia Capital’s 56 Slide Presentation Of Doom

Doom? Looks more like a countdown to something. While most major corrections since 1929 have occurred on 4/1, 7/1 or 10/1, this one dropped out on 10/09/08. Hmmm, let me guess, the Dow's bottom is at 7,654.

We are currently at T minus 8 and holding . . . our breath.

apstuffon 7 Reasons why it's a great time to be a tech entrepreneur

Tech entrepreneurs have always needed three (3) things:

Technology, Money and Time.

It used to take a lot of money to buy mostly okay technology that took too much time to learn and use.

In 2008, the technology is stable, powerful, and reliable. The cost of entry, development and delivery is very low. Only time remains a factor, but it's getting better.

So hell yeah, cast your net. And thanks Mark for an optimistic article in the midst of doom and gloom on Wall Street.

What would happen if the U.S. spent $810B funding start-ups and paying everybody's college tuition?

I mean, what would we do with the $500B (1/2 trillion) left over?

apstuffon There's plenty of room at the bottom

Classic Feynman. I read it every year with my CS students. But let's give it some context.

Von Neumann had delivered his talk "Computers and the Brain" only two years earlier where he referred to the components of a computer in biological terms -- "organelles", "the brain", etc.

No CRTs, mice, hard disk drives, or timeshare O/S. Internal memory was magnetic "core memory."

Kilby and Noyce had invented the integrated circuit a year earlier. The "old guard" i.e. Ken Olsen, Bob Metcalfe, and others were still in school. Grace Hopper thought it might be a good idea to "compile" code.

And here comes this guy from CalTech thinking it would be cool to have ants project manage aphids so The Library of Congress could fit on a credit card.

Am I wrong or could this world use a few more human beings "out there on the curve."

apstuffon WaMu Fails. First major comercial bank to go.

"Integrity is not a commodity. It’s the most rare and precious of personal attributes. It is the core of a person’s and a company’s reputation." -- Dick Kovacevich, Chairman of Wells Fargo

Reuters: AIG's ex-CEO refuses $22 million severance payout. Have faith all. The core of the United States will persist.

apstuffon VC's Livid With Digg: Cash Was Not Meant for More "Bongs and Beer"

Psst. Hey pal. What's a fella gotta do to get Dugg?

apstuffon Warren Buffett on what went wrong with Lehman and Merrill (2003)

One is dealing with his own money while the other is not.

apstuffon The meek shall inherit the web

Attributed to J. Paul Getty.

Just finished the Felix Dennis book too. A little self-indulgent at times but a good read.

apstuffon Not being stupid

It's stupid not to work on hard problems. Worse, it's lazy.

apstuffon Britain seen from above

Second by second. Synapse by synapse.

apstuffon Steve Fossett may be alive, investigator claims

Payouts are considered losses by insurance companies and $50M is a lot of money. It's a legitimate question and probably standard policy to ask if a claim is a scam.

apstuffon Ask HN: What are some good biographies to read?

"Yeager" The biography of Chuck Yeager -- first test pilot to break the speed of sound. His description of going above 80,000 feet, the subsequent failure of the aircraft and what he does to regain control is chilling. The book's a good read. Direct and to the point -- like the man himself.

apstuffon Breaking News: Girls don't become engineers because they don't want to

Enrollment by young Americans, both boys and girls, is dropping in all fields of engineering. The nation doesn't need that many hedge fund managers does it?

apstuffon Wanna learn JavaScript? Here are 15 video lectures (with key ideas written out)

Nice job Peteris. Takes time to be that detailed. Thank you.

You're right tho'. Good video tutorials for programming related topics are not easy to come by. Takes a lot of pre and post production to do them right. I've never liked the 'speaker as feature' approach either with fuzzy ppt slides inserted. It seems I'm always trying to look at the screen in the background while the speaker is front-center walking back and forth next to the lecturn.