massimosgrelli
Re:Peter Salus has died
on Tuesday May 19, 2026 @11:50AM (#48194947)
Thanks for sharing this link. I'll read it right away. If you are passionate about Unix history, you should also get Unix: A History and a Memoir by Brian Kernighan https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-History-Memoir-Brian-Kernighan/d...
Re:The lasting influence of Netscape Time
on Tuesday May 19, 2026 @04:21AM (#48190658)
I watched Code Rush tens of times. That was my time, I just had my degree in Computer Science in Milan, Italy. Before Mosaic and then Netscape, the only way to get access to information was through an Ampex terminal using tools like Gopher and Veronica. Internet connection was rare and hard to get, and the first browser changed my life forever. Soon after, the first ISPs emerged, and in an instant, access to information became available, even from my 10,000-person town. Netscape is how I became aware of Silicon Valley, and it took me almost 15 years to get there. It has been a lot of fun and excitement; I knew something big was happening, but nobody believed me or even understood me. When Code Rush finally became available on YouTube, it was like being part of the pirate crew from my small town for the first time. I still watch it once a year. It changed everything.
Re:
on Tuesday December 02, 2025 @11:15AM (#46122733)
This is an oral history interview with Ken Thompson, created in partnership by the Association for Computing Machinery and the Computer History Museum, in connection with his A.M. Turing Award in 1983.
Re:Cognition (Devin AI) to Acquire Windsurf
on Tuesday July 15, 2025 @03:34AM (#44568840)
Yes and no. Are AI companies overvalued? Yes. Will most of them crash and burn? Yes, they will. Are the words "intelligence" or "reasoning" misused? Absolutely. Nonetheless, nobody can deny that some of these tools are useful and have demonstrated they can generate revenue like no other tool, app, or device before. There is something different from the dot-com bubble; many barriers have come down since 2000. Everyone can be connected 24/7 for a few tens of dollars a month. People trust the internet as a medium to perform transactions and access data. The real bubble is in the private market valuations, especially in the pre-seed stage. Many young entrepreneurs don't understand that raising their first round at $30M, $50M, or even $100M post-money will put a heavy weight on their shoulders approaching the Series A. Raising a funding round is a promise you make to the market. Increasingly high expectations will burn many wanna be entrepreneurs whose contribution to make things better for everyone will be lost forever. I'm deeply convinced that the reality check for all those companies is the public market, and in today's world, you can't go public after 3-5 years if your initial valuation has been built on a 20-year-long promise. All the trillion-dollar companies we know today went public a few years after their creation: Apple, Google, Microsoft, NVIDIA, etc. OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cursor are black swans, not evidence of the power law.
Re:Between the Booms: AI in Winter – Communications of the ACM
on Thursday November 21, 2024 @06:23PM (#42209721)
I'm not an expert in the field, but I find this article incredible. For someone like me who didn't major in AI at CS, it's clear and entertaining.
It's incredible how this type of revival from the past gained such meaningful traction, but, in a way, I fully understand it. The online world has become so confusing that many desire a simple one. The same feeling drove me to adopt Threads over Twitter/X—even if I still use them both.
Capt. Grace Hopper on Future Possibilities
Rubycarp: A Detailed Analysis of a Sophisticated Decade-Old Botnet Group
Re:Interview with the "Father of the PC" Ed Roberts in the early 2000'...
on Friday December 15, 2023 @11:22AM (#38655640)
Raw footage of an interview done in the Early 2000's. I found this video thanks to this article https://every.to/p/the-secret-father-of-modern-computing
Interview with the "Father of the PC" Ed Roberts in the early 2000's [video]
Nvidia Envy: understanding the GPU gold rush
Re:Ask HN: What good is a VPN if Hulu and Netflix still know where I am?
on Friday August 04, 2023 @02:14AM (#36996077)
Can anyone explain to me how they can detect a VPN?
Bees are astonishingly good at making decisions
Re:Bees are astonishingly good at making decisions
on Friday July 28, 2023 @06:16AM (#36904916)
and our computer model explains how that's possible
2,200 Forgotten Vintage Computers Are Being Liberated from a Barn in MA
Re:Launch HN: PeerDB (YC S23) – Fast, Native ETL/ELT for Postgres
on Friday July 28, 2023 @04:38AM (#36904324)
I love it. We'll talk soon.
Re:It's 2023, so of course I'm learning Common Lisp
on Thursday July 27, 2023 @04:55AM (#36890783)
I'm sorry about my basic question. Back in the 80s, AI was betting on Lisp machines — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisp_machine — now, of course obsolete.
Is Lisp still relevant in the AI space?
Re:It's 2023, so of course I'm learning Common Lisp
on Thursday July 27, 2023 @04:13AM (#36890476)
Always been fascinated by Lisp, but I never spent enough time to enjoy its elegance and applications. I went through Lurk, a Lisp dialect, a Turing-complete programming language for recursive zk-SNARKs in the last year. I started to grasp a bit of its potential in solving real-world problems, but still too little to understand why it's so right for solving some problems. I'm curious about what other projects you guys are successfully and better solving because of Lisp today.
Dennis Ritchie’s page on Bell Labs website
Re:Ask HN: Can you be a founder while being a sole bread winner?
on Wednesday May 17, 2023 @04:01AM (#35972457)
In your situation, it takes effort to take the leap of faith. I did it 10 years ago, and it was tough even if I had savings and no debts/mortgages. The main issue is managing the 24/7 mental stress for years; back then, I had two teenagers, and life was expensive. Most of the time, the founder's salary is not enough to support your family—at least in the Bay Area—and, besides, when you work 7 days a week, the situation becomes even harder to sustain. That puts much pressure on you and your partner for years before you can get something back.
My suggestion:
a) If you want to do that, be sure you have at least 2 years of savings, and not just to survive, but to live a good life.
b) Be sure that your partner is truly happy with your choice.
c) Startup vs life-style business. Creating a startup when you have a family and financial obligations is much more challenging than becoming an entrepreneur and creating a company to make a living. Be entirely sure that is the road you want to pursue. If you have doubts, wait.
d) Some people have a positive—and balanced—approach to life that can help a lot when your launch your startup. If you are one of those, maybe it's a Yes.
Re:Realistic Computer-Generated Handwriting
on Thursday January 26, 2023 @02:16PM (#34537178)
Who is behind this project?
Re:Ask HN: Has anyone successfully started their career over in their ...
on Monday January 23, 2023 @08:52AM (#34488681)
I'm 54, and I reinvented my career 3 times so far. Every single time, I was over 30 yo. Let's start focusing your interest on something you are passionate about and move to an area where you can learn faster.
Being mid-30s is a fantastic time for your career development, so believe in yourself and start learning something you care about today.
Re:Launch HN: Odigos (YC W23) – Instant distributed tracing for Kubern...
on Friday January 20, 2023 @10:15AM (#34454189)
Amazing project. Is everything open source? Are you planning anything for the big enterprise who wants to pay for the service?
Re:Ask HN: Is 8gb RAM enough for a Linux dev laptop?
on Friday January 20, 2023 @09:04AM (#34453259)
I run ElementaryOS 5.1 on a 2010 Thinkpad i5. It works fine for (basic) dev with vscode and javascript + nodejs stuff. I use Brave as a browser: much lighter than chrome. I tried to move to ElementaryOS 6 but it was slower.
Re:Gail.com FAQ
on Monday January 09, 2023 @03:21AM (#34308022)
It's so refreshing to see someone on the Internet not looking to make easy money showing off some lousy advertising. I would love to know more about the author; she's most likely interesting.
Tim Berners-Lee reply when NCSA X Mosaic 0.5 was released
Re:Angellist Roll-up Vehicles to streamline startup funding
on Wednesday March 31, 2021 @11:05AM (#26648241)
Interesting. I have a few questions:
a) Can investors in a RUV selle their shares in secondary market?
b) Can RUV be used both for convertible securities and priced round?