AskHN Digest

1. Tell HN: Danny Cohen Has Died

Top comment by davidw

Wow... "In 1967, Danny Cohen developed the first real-time visual flight simulator on a general purpose computer. " - I'm always amazed at some of the things people managed to do "way back when", when my mental image is of people with punch cards.

Here's an article I found about his flight simulator work, among other things.

https://www.wired.com/2012/11/he-engineered-the-internet-to-...

2. Ask HN: Configuration Management for Personal Computer?

Top comment by WhatIsDukkha

I think overall its a mistake to try to over automate this process. It's brittle and the requirements are simply not the same as a server environment that needs to be simple to replicate X versions quickly, repeatedly and frequently.

Automation needs fairly constant attention in the order of little tweaks week over week to fight the inevitable mismatch between the automation and the software networks that it interfaces with.

Do you reinstall your workstation once a week? Unlikely and probably would be an unproductive use of your time.

The way I approach it instead -

The first thing I do is list everything I need for a workstation in an orgmode text file. For why orgmode really works well for this -

http://howardism.org/Technical/Emacs/literate-devops.html

I aim to make a "computational document" that I can execute a bit at a time as I review/check each piece on installs and upgrades of the system.

To me it's really critical that there are links to the webpages and text notes about these configurations alongside the code I'm using.

I check this and the needed config files into a single git repository.

As the workstations (I use the same document for workstation,laptop, studiopc, homeserver, android) age I'm inevitably adding and upgrading bits of the git repository. I make sure that I work from the orgmode document whenever I touch any configuration.

I use Linux and Emacs (which means a big part of my software environment is in a git controlled .emacs.d) so the entire environment supports this workflow.

3. Ask HN: What Neural Networks/Deep Learning Books Should I Read?

Top comment by phonebucket

It is a little old given how quickly the field moves, but 'Information Theory, Inference and Learning Algorithms' has a chapter on neural networks. It is an outstanding book: a labour of love from a very smart person. The exercises are varied, explanations are great, there's a sprinkling of humour, and connections drawn between multiple fields of study. Moreover, it is freely available from the author's website: http://www.inference.org.uk/itprnn/book.html

Have you considered giving Goodfellow another shot, but trying to re-derive the results therein as a form of exercise? I think that would likely be one of the faster methods to bring yourself reasonably up to date with the field.

4. Anyone else thinks that Whiteboard interview is just covered ageism?

Top comment by rmah

I'm even older than you and have no problem with using a whiteboard during interviews. That said, interviewers who get hung up about precise syntax are poor interviewers and need coaching. Or are just looking for an excuse to ding someone. More to the point, I don't see how asking to put answers to technical questions on a whiteboard favors younger people over older people.

5. Ask HN: Why is everyone here so obsessed with Lisp?

Top comment by BrandonM

Many comments mention the merits of Lisp. That's all well and good, but I think they miss the largely historical reasons that Lisp is so popular here:

Paul Graham wrote Ansi Common Lisp and On Lisp. Both are great books and were used in university courses in the 90s and 00s.

Paul Graham cofounded a startup called Viaweb, implemented in Lisp, that sold to Yahoo.

Paul Graham wrote a bunch of essays about tech startups at paulgraham.com. These essays frequently extolled the virtues of Lisp and other high level languages, citing it as a major factor in Viaweb's success.

Paul Graham, in his essays, strongly encouraged skilled, motivated programmers to build startups instead of working at large companies.

Paul Graham created Y Combinator, betting his time and money on the growth of startups that he predicted and promoted, popularizing startup incubators in the process.

Paul Graham created Startup News when Reddit started going mainstream, predating the existence of subreddits. Startup News provided a real-world application to inform the design and development of Arc, a Lisp language.

Paul Graham renamed Startup News to Hacker News. And here we are.

===

As someone who has been here for 12½ years, I view the Lisp sentiment as echoes of HN's past, inextricably linked to the Lisp enthusiasm of HN's founder: Paul Graham.

While I agree with many comments here that Lisp is a language worth learning, I think they miss the mark as to why Lisp continues to come up on Hacker News. The majority of the original Startup News members were Lisp enthusiasts.

6. Ask HN: Just found out that I’m gonna be a dad

Top comment by rossdavidh

Congratulations! One thing, not as major as some of what other commenters have mentioned but worth knowing, is that you should not feel guilty about buying used clothes/cribs/etc. for your kid. 1) most baby clothes get worn very few times before they're outgrown, so you can get them in good shape at garage sales or thrift shops 2) your baby doesn't care whether it is dressed stylishly or not, it just cares if it's comfortable and its parents are nearby 3) your kid will likely throw up on it five minutes of putting it on anyway :)

Some parents feel guilt about buying used things for their child, and end up spending a lot of $$ on new clothes, crib, etc. for a child that will not benefit from all that extra expense in the least. You don't want to cut corners on, for example, health care or quality food, but things like clothes because they are visible can cause some parents of newborns to spend a lot of money they don't need to. Save it for the things that actually matter.

7. Ask HN: Is there a project based book or course on Go for writing web APIs?

Top comment by petercooper

I saw this recommended on HN the other day which covers that ground. Have not done it myself so this is a pointer rather than a recommendation: https://buildsaasappingo.com/

8. Ask HN: What are some niche or alternative news aggregators worth checking out?

Top comment by joeyrideout

Newsmap is my go-to: https://newsmap-js.herokuapp.com/

It's a real-time graphical representation of the most popular news stories in a variety of topics in global or (configurable) regions. Very useful.

Shoutout to the original newsmap.jp which unfortunately requires Flash.

9. Ask HN: Where do the real hackers hangout?

Top comment by roadbeats

I had similar feelings a year ago and wanted to setup a “diet” for my mind; I’d only allow quality information, opinions to enter my mind, not just random stuff.

Firstly, the best way to access/find valuable knowledge is still books. Then, I have Freenode open in background for technical conversations, and also follow some good quality podcasts in non-technical subjects; from history to art.

If I got a question, I either ask in Freenode or ask trustworthy people by e-mail.

No social media. No news websites (except HN).

I’m a lot happier with this set of communication and information channels.

10. Ask HN: What's the point of the TM and (R) symbols?

Top comment by geori

To maintain a trademark and fight back infringement you have to repeatedly claim it by putting those annoying symbols after it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/383evo/e...