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dalyon Updating the single most influential book of the BASIC era (2021)

What happens if we feed these programs to ChatGPT?

dalyon I propose a new word: “GPT” meaning

It is proposed in a spirit similar to the German word shadenfraude or gestalt which, in English, require a whole phrase or sentence.

I use it as "Wow, I [dgipt]" ... meaning "Wow, I didn't expect that"

"I'm [dgipt]" ... meaning that's a surprising result.

dalyon Axiom Programming Language

Axiom is a software trademark. The use of 'Axiom' may be infringing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom_(computer_algebra_system...

dalyon Ask HN: Whats the longest you've used an original install of Linux?

Since 2005

dalyon Famous Book Hoarders

Well, I have over 5000 physical books as of my last count from a few years ago. I'm surrounded by many more bought since then.

Oh, and I have several thousand PDF books. And over 800 on my Kindle.

I've read several hundred of them (yes, I keep a spreadsheet, don't you?)

I had my own key to the library in high school because I'd be there when the librarian wanted to leave.

I had my own key to the library at college because I repaired the copy machines so I could go any time, often at night.

My children and I used to spend our weekends at the bookstore. Everybody would choose a pile of books to read. We sat at a table and drank sodas and coffee.

Interesting people write interesting books. You get to spend time with them.

dalyon How I burnt out in FAANG, but it is not what you think

I spent 50 years programming, doing truly leading-edge, amazing things.

None of it made any difference in the world, despite my best efforts.

But I had fun.

dalyon GitHub to require 2FA for all contributors starting from March 13

I don't own a cell phone. SMS won't work.

dalyon FBI Director Says Covid Pandemic Likely Caused by Chinese Lab Leak

This is interesting.

A group of internationally known virologists have a video podcast. They have nearly 1000 casts and have interviewed virologists worldwide. See This Week in Virology (https://www.microbe.tv/twiv/)

They have said that they do not believe it would be possible, given the current state of research, to engineer Sars-Cov2

I'm more likely to take the opinion of world experts in Virology than the Director of the FBI. Your opinion may differ.

dalyon FOSS communities: You don't need to yell

My first open source project was in 1997. I've been at this for 26 years.

Recently I've been working on a major update to one of my projects. However, I'm not going to "work in public" nor publish the source. I'm done with the yelling. I do these projects because I find them interesting. I don't enjoy the yelling.

Oddly, I physically met someone who was VERY vocal in postings. We had dinner together. He was a nice, intelligent, and oddly quiet kind of guy. His online personality and his "in person" personality were completely different.

dalyon Writing Software That Will Still Build and Run in 20 Years

Write it in Common Lisp. I maintain open source software written in the 1980s. It still runs unmodified.

Unlike languages with "standards" that change once a year (I'm looking at you, C++) the Common Lisp standard is still "standard".

dalyon The Code Is the Documentation; a Paradox That Rings True

The equations in a physics textbook is the documentation.

What you likely need is the surrounding text, that is, the "explanation". Write explanations.

dalyon Mercedes-Benz says it has achieved Level 3 automation

Did you watch the videos?

Well... it "works" provided: there is no rain, there is no snow, there is no direct sunlight, there is a car within 100 meters to follow, the speed is under 40 miles per hour, the road has a hi-definition map to follow, your eyes are either looking out the front window or at the in-car display, the road doesn't curve sharply, you don't change lanes, etc.

Oh, and if you don't respond to the warning signal within 10 seconds it will stop the car, unlock the doors, and call emergency service. That can't possibly be an issue on a highway.

It is "level 3" in a super-highway traffic jam on an overcast day. I can't imagine how Tesla can hope to compete.

dalyon An Over-Analysis of When People Say “How's It Going?”

The correct answer is ...

Downhill. But it runs smoother and faster that way.

dalyon Driving 100 Miles in an EV Is Now More Expensive Than in an ICE

Gaslighting...

I drove 199 miles in a Tesla Model 3 and did a full supercharger refill.

I drove 100 miles in my Subaru (quarter tank) and did a fillup.

Tesla: $11 Subaru $22

Your mileage may vary :-)

dalyon IBM Quantum System Two

Can all of the qubits be fully mutually entangled? It is my understanding that the exponential speedup with more qubits requires them all to be entangled.

dalyon Self-Documenting Software

Literate programming is excellent for both explanation and documentation. Not only are the various code blocks explained and documented, they contain the actual sources used to build the program.

Think of source code like equations in a physics textbook. Mostly, when you need a documentation you read the surrounding paragraphs. When you need an explanation you read the whole chapter.

We need to drag programming out of the punched-card era.

dalyon The Art of LaTeX: Common mistakes and advice for typesetting proofs

Latex and Tex, my goto language for beautiful documents.

Try rewriting Knuth's books with markdown.

dalyon It's becoming increasingly clear Tesla is just another car company

Considering Tesla as "just another car company" misses the various lines of business it involves. Consider that it gets a lot of money from the energy business (e.g. joining Tesla powerwalls to substitute for peeker plants). It also makes a billion or so from selling carbon offsets to other car companies. It is moving into battery production at all stages.

Independent of all that, you're confusing EVs with "just cars". This is a separate market segment, like the difference between microwaves (EVs) and gas ovens ("just cars").

And even if you consider it "just a car company" it is outrunning the other companies in efficiency. Tesla makes each car several times faster than conventional cars. Tesla fixes most recalls by software update. Tesla direct sales model skips the dealer overhead. Tesla chargers make gas stations obsolete. Tesla chargers cost 10x less to install than other chargers. Countries worldwide are passing end-of-life legislation to outlaw "just cars". Tesla doesn't have billions of dollars of "legacy factories" as debt burden. Tesla and BYD are the only two EV companies making a profit on each car sold. Legacy car companies are selling their cars at a loss per car.

Given the rate of automation I expect that Tesla will have a "lights out" fully automated factory within a few years.

A Tesla was driven off a 250 foot drop off a cliff last week onto rocks. The two parents are alive in hospital and the two children have minimal injury. My Hyundai Accent has a driver-side door dent because I "hip-checked" it closed. I can't imagine walking away from a 250 foot drop in my car.

dalyon Ask HN: If you were designing Common Lisp today, what would you change?

NIL punning should remain. Otherwise there needs to be some NIL-equivalent value or some exception nonsense.

dalyon Linear types, distributed compute, spreadsheets, and Lisp

The key distinction between Eli's approach and mine has to do with the primary approach. Eli is enhancing a spreadsheet. I'm approaching the problem as a new programming approach.

I'm suggesting that you could change the linear, time-oriented evaluation of code within your program without explicitly using a spreadsheet. This change of control flow based on spreadsheet-like dependency gives new freedom for things like distributed computing. Also unlike spreadsheets, there is no need to update only a single cell.

dalyon An IBM Quantum Computer Will Soon Pass the 1k-Qubit Mark

Can it entangle all 1k qubits into a single superposition?

dalyon What help is needed for Lisp community in order to make Lisp more popular?

I don't see a need to change lisp. It does everything I've ever tried to do.

The biggest breakthrough was Common Lisp.

I don't quite understand your Emacs question. The biggest limiting factor of any lisp programming is me. Lisp is clay for the mind and sometimes my mind-clay is too dry. Lisp and Emacs don't limit me in any way.

That said, other languages "get in the way" all the time. It is nearly impossible to think of certain ideas[0] . Try merging your rule based expert system approach with your subsumption based knowledge representation system so that rules and knowledge are two surface representations of the same (lisp) structure[1].

I have no comment about Wolfram software.

[0] The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis states that the grammatical and more verbal structure of a person's language influences how they perceive the world. It emphasizes that language either determines or influences one's thoughts.

[1] Integrating rules and inheritance networks in a knowledge-based financial marketing consultation system https://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings-article/hicss/1988...)

dalyon Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer

Many lessons for modern times. A recent history lesson. Game of Thrones in real life.

dalyon Lying and moral choice in private and public life – an amplification (2013)

One of the best books I've ever read.

dalyon What help is needed for Lisp community in order to make Lisp more popular?

Your question seems to be about how others feel about Lisp. It's not clear to me why that's even an interesting question. That's like choosing a hammer based on how popular its color is.

The language you use decides what you can think. Unlike other languages, Lisp doesn't decide for you. I can, and have, programming in every style I've seen while writing Lisp. Most programmers won't find that a feature.

Also, Emacs. If you're gonna Lisp, you really want Emacs.

I've been a Lisper for 52 years.

dalyon Ask HN: For those who host their own email, which email client do you prefer?

Emacs

dalyon How to restore an old whiteboard, MIT style (2021)

The meme around school is "Real mathematicians use a chalk blackboard".

I find whiteboards annoying because the markers always die at the worst time.

dalyon Ask HN: One Book you recommend reading before end of the year

https://www.amazon.com/Lying-Moral-Choice-Public-Private/dp/...

Lying by Bok

dalyon Auto executives are less confident in EV adoption than they were a year ago

Check out this analysis:

The Electric Viking:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDw7OQriHok&ab_channel=TheEl...

dalyon Auto executives are less confident in EV adoption than they were a year ago

The chart in the article didn't even mention the 2nd largest EV maker in the world, BYD.