261–270 of 616 posts
That was a sad thing to read, the author is so clueless they don't even know when the reasons they imagine something might have been broken are wrong. Back when UNIX was born the character was a first class citizen in every computer on the planet, and many languages used it as part of their syntax. Static binaries were invented when Sun and Berkeley co-developed shared libraries and there needed to be binaries that y…
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All the fasteners I have seen are standard metric sizes, what speciality tools are you referring to? The side cover screws can be stubborn but even a Philips #3 with an impact driver ($20.00 at the pawn shop) pops them right off. Conversion kits to standard allen head screws are cheap, on the order of $50.00 for the whole engine. There is a special nut on the oil spinner but that's the only specialty tool I can think…
did you have fun converting JIS to metric? I learned that one the hard way. Three EZ-Outs later...
This article was written hastily, and I don’t want to further improve it. You’re lucky I wrote it. I feel so privileged to read this random guy's blog, and it's terrific that he eschews inflating his ego so well.
As an hobbyist blogger, I can perfectly empathise with why the author wrote that. People love to crap all over a blogger who dares to post his thoughts on a private blog, without first subjecting it to PhD-thesis-level scrutiny. This really gets on my nerves for the same reasons that engineers get pissed off when they decide to open source a pet project and suddenly start getting "URGENT ASAP" feature requests from e…
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Inertia is only proof of inertia.
Suggesting that Unix has been continuing just by inertia doesn't explain why Apple adopted Unix for macOS or why most newer computers nowadays run a Unix OS.
"We really are using a 1970s era operating system well past its sell-by date. We get a lot done, and we have fun, but let's face it, the fundamental design of Unix is older than many of the readers of Slashdot, while lots of different, great ideas about computing and networks have been developed in the last 30 years. Using Unix is the computing equivalent of listening only to music by David Cassidy." Rob Pike 2004, h…
"We really are using a 1970s era operating system well past its sell-by date. We get a lot done, and we have fun, but let's face it, the fundamental design of Unix is older than many of the readers of Slashdot, while lots of different, great ideas about computing and networks have been developed in the last 30 years. Using Unix is the computing equivalent of listening only to music by David Cassidy." Rob Pike 2004, h…
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Maintenance "headaches" are part of the appeal of old bikes. It's much easier to learn how an internal combustion powered vehicle works on an old Honda bike than a new one, or on a new car. Compared to other bikes of their day these are very simple to maintain and they were designed from the start to be kept running by the average person. It really depends on what you are looking for in a bike. If enjoying turning a…
There is weekend wrenching and there is dealing with design flaws and poor manufacturing. Problems with the CB175 and CB550 that were not regular maintenance (carburetor/timing/valve/etc/etc) related: * fast cylinder wear (poor materials/manufacturing, engine rebuilds all around) * unreliable electric system ("mostly" fixed on CB550 with Charlie's solid state ignition and rectifier) * Leaking gaskets (design flaw) I…
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As an hobbyist blogger, I can perfectly empathise with why the author wrote that. People love to crap all over a blogger who dares to post his thoughts on a private blog, without first subjecting it to PhD-thesis-level scrutiny. This really gets on my nerves for the same reasons that engineers get pissed off when they decide to open source a pet project and suddenly start getting "URGENT ASAP" feature requests from e…
I respectfully disagree with that last part. IMO it's your moral obligation as a distributor of information to, to the best of your ability, ensure its' truth and validity. I'm not saying it has to be PhD-thesis-level, but if proven wrong you are morally obligated to update the information or remove it. Otherwise you are spreading false knowledge. This doesn't apply to opinions ofc (the bulk of private blogging). Scr…
After 20+ years of working in the business and reading ridiculous amounts of articles, and some books, I can quite easily find clear errors or omissions in most everything written about computers and programming, Knuth excluded. If everyone were obliged to update to fix any errors, even only factual, it's likely that much - or even most - of all I've read would never have been posted for me to read in the first place, and I think both the world and I would be poorer for it.
Correctness is important, but so is the ability make judgments of validity, to critique, disseminate, inspire and express ones thoughts, even when they turn out to be wrong.
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Contrary to your beliefs, one can have both self-respect and a sense of humor.
It's hard to believe this came from a place of humor after reading the otherwise dry article.
A lot of people find that cockiness funny and find the informality welcoming. And many of those tend to find cold formality, fake humility or lack of self-confidence as signs of something being boring, uninteresting or outright creepy.
EDIT: Comment was edited, original:
It's hard to believe this came from a place of humor after reading the otherwise dry article. The article was otherwise fairly interesting, but that certainly left a sour taste in my mouth. He's lucky I read past the first paragraph, if it wasn't so prominent on HN I probably wouldn't have bothered listening to anything he had to say.That was a sad thing to read, the author is so clueless they don't even know when the reasons they imagine something might have been broken are wrong. Back when UNIX was born the character was a first class citizen in every computer on the planet, and many languages used it as part of their syntax. Static binaries were invented when Sun and Berkeley co-developed shared libraries and there needed to be binaries that y…
I had much the same reaction. I learned Unix on a PDP-11 running sixth edition AT&T. I was also using the University's UNIVAC 1108 and the elegance, simplicity and orthogonality of the Shell vs the EXEC-8 command language was a joy to behold. Sure, there is much about Unix that could be better and I sometimes regret that Plan 9 didn't succeed more. But it's like Kirk said to Saavik, "You have to learn WHY things work…
TAB was a stupid choice even in the 1970s.