lispython

A veritable hero of our times boasts a mere 688 followers on his Twitter account: https://twitter.com/RobertMMetcalfe (as of the dispatch of this message).

You should use "favorite" (a new feature) instead of upvote.

Nice metaphor.

Hi Alan, I'm an editor at Programmer Magazine in China[1], could you allow me to translate your answers into Chinese, and share with readers in China?

[1] http://programmer.com.cn/

Recalling those past days, is there any idea that not yet really played an important role, but to be forgotten?

Especially we are losing the initial generation of programmers.

Hi Alan,

Have you ever made serious mistake? That if given an opportunity, you would start over with a different approach.

Hi Alan,

Comparing how you think about doing research now with how you thought when you were starting out, what is the biggest change in your thinking?

Both of them remind me Plan 9's "single most important feature"[1]:

> all mounted file servers export the same file-system-like interface, regardless of the implementation behind them. Some might correspond to local file systems, some to remote file systems accessed over a network, some to instances of system servers running in user space (like the window system or an alternate network stack), and some to kernel interfaces. To users and client programs, all these cases look alike.

And Rob Pike once said[2]:

> When I was on Plan 9, everything was connected and uniform. Now everything isn't connected, just connected to the cloud, which isn't the same thing. And uniform? Far from it, except in mediocrity. This is 2012 and we're still stitching together little microcomputers with HTTPS and ssh and calling it revolutionary. I sorely miss the unified system view of the world we had at Bell Labs, and the way things are going that seems unlikely to come back any time soon.

[1] http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/html/plan9.html

[2] https://usesthis.com/interviews/rob.pike/

Last year, I had a talk with Stephen Wolfram, he said that, for him, the most important secret helping him solve problems is "some version of confidence or arrogant". That make him never fear any difficulty, but this arrogant inevitably behave in some other aspects of his life, and affect people's impression of him.

Then, his writing style never bother me again.

This remind me Plan 9's "single most important feature"[1]:

> all mounted file servers export the same file-system-like interface, regardless of the implementation behind them. Some might correspond to local file systems, some to remote file systems accessed over a network, some to instances of system servers running in user space (like the window system or an alternate network stack), and some to kernel interfaces. To users and client programs, all these cases look alike.

[1] http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/html/plan9.html

About two years ago, I had a chance to ask Eben Upton if there would be a new platform like Arduino and Raspberry PI, what characteristics the new platform should have? And he said:

> There's scope for something very powerful (almost PC-like) in the $70 price range. If I was starting a new venture today, this is where I'd aim.

There is very powerful project like Bunnie Huang's Novena [1], but just the board will cost $550.

[1] https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/novena

Language is still a barrier for developers in China to understand and discuss the technical world, so we developed this application. The daily page view of this website is about 25k, and we add a few features we think important but HN is missing:

- Markdown support, even pictures could be added in comment

- Sub-forums, so one could follow (or ignore) particular topics

- Read comments without living the homepage

- Optimization for mobile device

- Social features, e.g. AT or FOLLOW particular ID

- New submissions will randomly appear in homepage, so we don't need to count on up-votes immediately after submit

> compatible to CJK characters

Could someone explain what does this mean?

The only future for journalism might be reader revenue. Without it, everyone in this field were in danger of becoming a public relations or advertising company disguised as journalism.

I'm an editor at Programmer Magazine in China (http://special.csdn.net/programmercovers/), as a coincidence, after 14 years operation, we just release the last print issue last week and withdrawal towards the electronic version only. I think we share the similar experience and feeling about how the tech medias evolved recently.

But media is still a very active field, if you have read the New York Times innovation report that leaked earlier this year, you may get a mixed feeling that with the risks, there are still opportunities to build an independent site with in-depth articles, code, algorithms, and reliable product reviews, which quality media should have.

But unfortunately, most decisions were not made by the ones who love this career, have ability and skill to lead the change, and do not fear to face the risks.