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RNeffon Ask HN: What assumption was considered true until a product proved it false?

from wikipedia: Quibi (/ˈkwɪbi/ KWIB-ee) was a short-lived American short-form streaming platform that generated content for viewing on mobile devices. It was founded in Los Angeles in August 2018 as NewTV by Jeffrey Katzenberg and was led by Meg Whitman, its CEO. The service raised $1.75 billion from investors.[1] It launched in April 2020, but shut down in December 2020 after falling short of its subscriber projections.[2][3][4] In January 2021, Quibi's content library was sold to Roku, Inc. for less than $100 million.[5][6][7]

RNeffon Ask HN: New programming languages – can they succeed without a big sponsor?

Languages spread when there is an obvious advantage to using the language. Java, in the beginning, was obviously better because it was multi platform, free, was sort of object oriented, and had an interface to C (to connect to existing libraries). It was finally possible to write once, and run on windows, apple, Unix. I worked on a DARPA project, and we snapped up the first public release because we needed to support all three. This was about 1995.

The next winning language will implement correct programs. There will be a specification language (assertions, type invariants, API contracts), and an implementation language. In the middle, massive semantic checking tool.

"Easy to learn" is a red flag. Arguments about ; and {} are silly.

RNeffon Ask HN: What's the product/software that'll upend the tech industry in 10 years?

1. AR glasses with face recognition. See the coded reputation / reviews / truthfulness / relationship status / political views of the person.

2. Software for computers / smart TVs / cell phones that completely blocks ads and tracking. Software that generates tons of fake ad views, and ad clicks. Software that sends nasty messages to the cell phones of CEOs of advertising companies, ad networks, and ad carrying media, ad servers.

3. Software for cell phones that spoofs location tracking.

4. Auto dashboard camera plus GPS plus software for drivers to instantly report traffic violations that they observe.

5. Software that tracks real time location of politicians, full time Doxing.

6. Add on software for Metaverse so that the end user can change the local appearance of avatars of other players. Your co-workers are clowns.

RNeffon A study guide for software engineering students

Missing:

1. How to select a programming language. What features are important to develop correct programs. This is a very emotional topic. Formal specification languages.

2. How to certify great programmers. Finding the 10Xer. Not hiring the weak. Developing certification / licensing for software developers.

3. Why are there 0-day bugs in popular software?

4. How to write correct programs.

RNeffon Ask HN: What could software developers do for climate change?

Build an effective solution for remote work for developers. Then expand the solution to other employees that are not 'hands on' in a particular place. Something better than zoom and slack. Use multiple displays, cameras, speakers. The most environmentally friendly commute is no commute. The most environmentally friendly office building is no office building.

RNeffon Ask HN: Do you think that Vim is a reflection of extreme functional UX design?

In the beginning there was the command line. A keyboard input to a type on paper output. Then UNIX. The first editor was 'ed' (edit). It was line based, designed for a keyboard onto paper output. It was enhanced to become 'ex'.

When the happy hackers at UC Berkeley were porting UNIX onto VAXen (becoming BSD Unix), CRT terminals were available, notably the DEC VT-100 and other less expensive ones. These terminals had commands that would move the terminal cursor around the screen, allowing a editing program to modify the 24 (or 25) lines of 80 characters on the display. But the terminal commands were DIFFERENT. So the configuration file TERMCAP and the C library libcurses were created.

Then 'ed' / 'ex' was expanded to become 'vi' (visual, not six). Note that the 'ed'/'ex' commands are still there, invoked by the ':' command. Now there was a full screen text editor that worked on different CRT terminals.

This was all before UX design existed. It evolved. 'vi' was a giant leap up from a typewriter editor.

(We don't need no stinkin' mices)

RNeffon Does anyone know of startups / companies working on tools for Urban Planning?

https://www.transformca.org/

Working on transportation and siting new construction. They have a online tool to evaluate future projects: https://www.transformca.org/landing-page/greentrip

Located in Oakland, CA. Focus is on the SF Bay Area (includes Silicon Valley).

RNeffon Ask HN: What are some books to fuel your ambition towards computer science?

Neuromancer (1984)by William Gibson, the original cyberpunk novel

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, where Metaverse came from

Rainbow Bridge by Vernor Vinge, lots of AR stuff

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, book is different than movie

RNeffon Ask HN: Thoughts on Stack Ranking for Perf Reviews?

With stack ranking, team members compete, not cooperate. They will make other members look bad, with trash talk, not responding to slack and email, ans actual code sabotage. Some team members act like the chariot race in Ben Hur.

Remember that EVERY PLAYER in the winning Super Bowl gets a ring. At the Olympics, EVERY team member gets a metal (Ice Hockey, Basketball, Soccer).

Some managers will hire someone incompetent just so they can stack rank fire them.

RNeffon Ask HN: Where to Find a Rare Book?

try bookfinder.com

it is the largest search engine for books.

RNeffon Ask HN: What are you favourite books/podcasts/media on the history of computing?

Try "Computing: a Concise History" by Paul Ceruzzi is inexpensive.

Best bet is visit the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.

There is "A New History of Modern Computing" that came out last year by Ceruzzi and Thomas Haight (I have not read it).

RNeffon Ask HN: Have any of you considered buying into or starting a franchise business?

Some friends owned and operated an ice cream franchise for a couple of years. 1. Employees would not show up and not call. No one would be running the store; you may have to work 10/7 or 12/7. 2. Prices are set by the national office, and may be unprofitable with local rent and local minimum wages; you have to participate in promotions and coupons. 3. You have to buy everything from central, like napkins and plastic spoons at inflated prices. 4. You might be located in a shopping mall that dictates the days and hours of operation; you might HAVE to be open twelve hours on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. 5. An employee might leave the water running and flood the store overnight. 6. Armed robbery, shoplifting, and employees not charging their friends.

RNeffon New Texas Abortion Law to Unleash a Torrent of Lawsuits Against Online Speech

Someone should sue the Texas Electric Power Companies. Supplying electrical power to a clinic is obviously "aiding and abetting their operations.

RNeffon I'd like to buy Neal Stephenson's new book for $1.99 but can't figure out how

Right how, Aug 18, 5:00 pm PDT, the book Fall is $ 1.99 on the Amazon Kindle store. You can read it on Windows, Android, IOS with the correct app.

RNeffon Yimby housing bills are wildly unpopular in the state (CA), a new poll shows

My small town in northern SF Bay Area has two apartment complex projects totaling over 600 apartments approved and signed off. Neither project can find financing. Projects have been on hold for three or four years. Just no funding. State is demanding town build lots more dwellings. Town has approved lots of new apartments. No funding is available.

RNeffon Ask HN: What are relevant problems in CS except for AI and blockchain?

The main problem in CS is "how to develop correct programs". H ow to write programs without bugs. This is a hard problem that everyone just ignores.

RNeffon What was the most powerful or advanced computer in it's time?

At the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, most of the exhibits are the "most powerful or advanced computer in its time". There are parts of ENIAC, SAGE, Whirlwind. There is a CDC 6600, Cray 1, Cray 2, Cray XMP, various IBM 360s. There is a PDP-1, PDP-8, PDP-10, VAX 780. There is an Apple 1, Apple 2, Apple 3, and various Macintosh. There is an HP-35, and HP-65. There is a Symbolic Lisp Machine, an Apollo, various SGI workstations, and an Alto. One of the first APARNET Imps. A NASA Apollo guidance computer prototype.

RNeffon Can formal methods succeed where UML failed?

UML failed because there was no way to track changes; no way to 'diff' two versions of a design. And no way to display the 'diff' effectively. Tracking source code changes is the basis of Software Engineering. Git is one major example. What changed, when, who, and why.

With a graphical language, the 'diff' has to be able to distinguish between a visual change like moving objects around and semantic change of adding / deleting objects or links. It must know the difference between 'what it looks like' and 'what it means'.

RNeffon Ask HN: How long will take you to pay your house?

Our strategy was to get a 30 year, with the lower payments. When we both had jobs, we would pay extra per month to be close to 15 year mortgage. If one of us was laid off, we pay the 30 year (on the loan) amount. We watched the rates, and refinanced a couple of times for 30 years. Being in Silicon Valley, the house appreciated every year more than the payments. So it was a place to live, and an investment.

RNeffon Stanford Should Clone Itself

The University of California has already cloned itself. There are 10 campuses, 280,000 students, 227,000 faculty and staff. There is a common top level administration. There are grand goals for inclusion. Many undergraduate classes use common syllabus. California guarantees CA students with specified GPA will get into a campus, possibly not the student's first choice. The campuses are different both in location and majors. They have specialties, and different public perceptions.

RNeffon Stop Catfishing Computer Science Majors

Computer Science is a huge field: algorithms, Operating Systems, AI, networking, distributed, graphics, UI, hardware, compilers, databases, Websites, robots, games, vision, security, and many other topics. This is all implemented in software, running on hardware. The 2020 ACM Curriculum guidelines is at: https://www.acm.org/education/curricula-recommendations

RNeffon Ask HN: Has Rivian moved their HQ to California?

398 jobs are in Palo Alto, CA, which is the heart of Silicon Valley. California prohibits non-compete agreements, so it is much easier to hire in CA. Silicon Valley has a huge number of experienced software engineers / programmers. There are lots of big technical companies with employees looking for greener pastures. Most of the self-driving car technology is being developed in SV.

If you want to grow big, with the best talent, your tech lab must be in Silicon Valley. Both Microsoft and Amazon have large facilities there.

Rivian is officially headquartered in Plymouth, MI.

RNeffon Why did Java catch on so quickly during the '90

I brought in Java to our multi-company DARPA software project with the first public release, Alpha-something.

1. It was free.

2. Jave code ran unchanged on Sun/Solaris, Windows (95?), and Mac OS.

3. There were GUI components that would sort of look like Motif, Windows, Mac. There was no other multi-platform GUI library that was usable.

4. It had garbage collection. This was a big win.

5. It had the JNI so I could write a Java to C interface layer to the distribution library (COBRA). Later the vendor wrote a 'real' Java interface.

6. It was free, and available for download without budgets, purchase orders, management approvals, and multiple layers of no-sayers.

I had a GUI demo running on a Mac laptop, a Windows box, and a Sun box talking to our servers after one weekend day of programming.

We were not using web browsers or web servers in our system.

RNeffon Ask HN: Could Hawaii, Maui in particular, support a thriving tech sector?

Surf's up. Time to hit the beach. I'll work on my tech stuff after lunch. Now I am too tired. Take a nap. Back to the bar on the beach to eat, drink, watch the tourists in tiny swim suits. What glorious weather!

RNeffon Ask HN: What went wrong with Quora?

Quora has a program where they pay people a tiny amount to post questions. So there are a lot of stupid questions that could be easily answered with a google / wikipedia / imdb search.

My favorite question, a triple stupid question: "Does California make good wine?" 1. California is a big place, with many different climate zones. 2. There are at least a hundred different varietals. 3: 'good' is a relative term.

Also tons of spammy ads.

RNeffon Ask HN: Where to Find Obscure Literature?

http://www.openculture.com/ has many lists of free books, audio, movies, images. Project Gutenberg: www.gutenberg.org Also look at https://www.forgottenbooks.com/en

and, of course, archive.org which has the book you mentioned: https://archive.org/details/BreakthroughAnAmazingExperimentI....

The Library of Congress and the Smithsonian have huge digital collections.

RNeffon Ask HN: What are lesser known / taught subfields of Computer Science?

Program verification. How to design and implement correct programs.

RNeffon Ask HN: Any software projects considered Done?

The Hewlett Packard calculators had their binary code inserted into the ROMs as part of the fabrication of the chip. The code was written in assembly language, then heavily tested on hardware simulators. The original HP-35 had a bug in the logarithm code. The bug had to be found and fixed, retested, new ROM chips fabricated and packages. Then owners that wanted it fixed had to mail their calculator back to HP. The unit was opened up, a ROM chip removed, the new ROM soldered in, unit closed up, tested, mailed back. All for free. There was a very strong demand that this never happen again. I am unaware of any other HP calculator recalls. Each calculator code was considered complete.

The early video games, both console and arcade, were delivered in ROM chips. Also early embedded systems like DVD/CD disk players, televisions, modules in cars, routers, etc.

RNeffon Ask HN: Why do developer advocates exist?

A developer advocate is an extrovert that likes teaching, explaining, answering questions, writing intro docs and code examples; that wants the users to succeed. They also report back to the project managers and programmers about problems: confusion, missing functionality, bugs, possible enhancements, OS and compiler incompatibilities.

No one will use your software if they cannot figure out how to use it.

RNeffon Ask HN: How have/can employee stock options in place of compensation be abused?

Big company buys your company. B.C. pays stated price per share for all shares, and all vested options. All unvested options disappear.