uvaursi

I’ll stick my neck out and say SICP has never been relevant to me. I’ve tinkered from embedded, to OS, to databases, to desktop applications, drivers, compilers, web applications, and all sorts of shit inbetween when I’m not reversing some archaic binary compiled in a pre-standard C++. I’ve done both idiomatic programming in a language as well as applying idioms from other languages that I liked. I’ve turned C# into Lisp because it couldn’t do what I needed it to do. I read through ARM opcode docs while I’m daydreaming of writing Ruby.

When I looked at SICP I saw one thing: an introduction to “thinking about programming” for people who will have to re-learn everything and will maybe use a few things here and there. The fundamentals matter but the application is the “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face” phase of actual learning. There are much better ways to go about studying and learning and I found SICP lacking, among other course work that I think is taught backwards and makes it hard to reason and apply.

Read “Great Programmers” by Bram Cohen. The wisdom is there, but it’s lost on people.

Just my 2c.

I’m confused. Who is this “We”? Do you realize how behind in many respects most of Europe is? How it’s been parceled up and destroyed by the EU? Science projects led by a few countries doesn’t cut it.

It’s not propaganda at all. The standards of living there are shit. But enjoy the particle collider, I guess?

Software development isn’t engineering and it has never been. Software developers aren’t engineers.

I don’t know why this keeps coming up, maybe slow news day. It’s okay to be passionate about a craft or a job and for that job to be very technical and demanding. Many people feel that way about what they do, and they are perfectly okay not being engineers.

Europe is in perpetual shambles so I wouldn’t even ask them for input on anything, really. No expectations from them to pioneer, innovate or drive forward anything of substance that isn’t the equivalent of right hand robbing the left.

This is why people get divorced. It’s not because their partners are terrible (they can be), but because they are on train tracks of a life that isn’t theirs.

Fight Club had the answer to this, by taking a no-name Joe Schmoe (reflected as us), and putting a gun to his head: The Question, Raymond, is what did you want to be?

Whereas before the air of sophistication conned you into thinking the authors knew what they were talking about, it took AI slop for you to see how bad things really are.

Queue the “always have been” meme.

Direct File won’t happen in 2026, Intuit tells IRS

And then Netflix decided to churn out garbage that no AGI recommendation engine can redeem.

This should remain as the top comment.

FEEL THE AGI.

This is a meme that will keep on giving.

Thank you. I was on the fence posting my comment earlier but I’m glad I’m not the only one who is tired of blog posters leading a subject with a blatantly false statement.

> The diode might be the most neglected component in the electronics curriculum today.

Nonsense like this is why I don’t read lcamtuf. His “electronics 100” falls short of any standard-issue books - today and in the past. And you can open any of them up and very often the very first thing they discuss is the Diode, not only because it’s an “easy” case to begin understanding semiconductor materials (as opposed to tube diodes), but because it forms the basis of understanding more complicated semiconductor devices and why they work the way they work.

I’ve been wholly unimpressed by lcamtuf’s output on this subject because he’s trying to teach but doesn’t know how. He’s trying to come across as smart but his covering of the subject matter is dwarfed by someone like Forrest Mims, which is amusing to think about.

Pick up a book by someone like Melvino or Floyd. They cover analog, digital, computer systems, all sorts of shit. Even the old NEETS books along with technician manuals are a godsend. NEETS approach is particularly good because it moves between phenomena and application in a broad spectrum, which is what helps for concepts to stick.

I remember the “20 ways Dick Cheney can kill you” posters. Unbelievable energy.

What a legend.

Yep. StickDeath was the shit.

I still use PuTTY and a MAX232EACwhateverthefuck chip for embedded hardware stuff with a DB9 cable thats been plugged in and out more times than your mom on prom night.

Should I switch to something else or just keep on truckin?

Software “engineer”[0] here. There are plenty of developers that are very rational about programming languages. I think the author lived in a weird bubble for most of their life jumping from company to company, project to project and saw some unhealthy development teams along the way. Developers make very rational decisions around PLs all the time, and the most rational choice, as also given by PG and Joel Spolsky many moons ago, is pick the language you’re most comfortable with and get over your shit. The second most rational choice is picking a language that fits the problem space like a glove. The third, most obvious rational choice of course, is Rust.

[0] you sweet summer child.

In reading many C code bases, including the Linux kernel, every one finds a use case for macros of this nature.

The internet is making everyone feel like what most of us nerds used to feel like. Good riddance, I’d say

Yes.

People have quit HN. Very valuable people who found the shift in community was distasteful and appalling.

I don’t consider YT social media myself because there’s nothing social about binging Sam Ben-Yaakov videos.

This is a good use of macros. I understand people are frightened by how it looks but it’s just C in a terse, declarative style. It’s mostly straightforward, just dense and yes - will challenge you because of various obscure macro styles used.

I believe “oo” is probably an infinity error condition or some such not 100% sure. I didn’t see the author discuss it since they said it’s not used. Was probably used during development as a debug printout.

> Striking Kickstarter workers outside of the Manhattan offices of venture capitalist Fred Wilson, a major investor in the company.

Peak I don’t even know what. Have these people worked a day in their life?

Whenever I see these backwards-applied math models I think of the “wet streets cause rain” expression.

I like that HP is putting out new products like the little roomba floor plan printer robot. Even if it’s not original (neither was the printer), they’ve got divisions that are ideating, improving, designing and manufacturing products. I haven’t seen the full scope of their offerings to be fair.

As the wise man said: you will own nothing, and you will be happy.

Flagged for clickbait headline. You can do better than this HN.

Yes but the psyop was a stalwart success and continues to be. This is just the latest revision.

Imagine how you’ll feel about things tomorrow.

> Apparently catching a brief glimpse of the abyss during the 2020 campaign cycle, Trump expressed his wish to “hop into” one of his supporters’ trucks “and drive it away.” As he mused, “I’d love to do it. Just drive the hell outta here. Just get the hell out of this.”

Damn. Trump dropping some serious truth pills here frfr

There’s something entertaining about an article on addiction-driven gambling and then a comment that uses a provocative, attention grabbing hook, on a website that has trained its audience to respond like Pavlovian dogs to bait.

These hot takes are somewhat useless honestly. People give these point-in-time opinions ignoring that the rate of improvement is exponential when it comes to software. The last three, four years of heavy AI utilization have been refreshing.

I personally treat these things the same way I treat car accidents: if an autonomous system still has accidents but has less than human drivers do, it’s a success. Given the amount of nonsense and factually incorrect things people spout, I’d still call Grok even at this early stage a major success.

Also I’m a big fan of how it ties nuanced details to better present a comprehensive story. I read both TBray’s Wiki and Groki entries. The Groki version has some solid info that I suppose I should expect of an AI that can pull a larger corpus of data in. A human editor would of course omit that, or change it, and then Wiki admins would have to lock the page as changes erupt into a silly flame war over what’s factually accurate. Because we can’t seem to agree.

Anyway - good stuff! Looking forward to more of Grok. Very fitting name, actually.