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Weird-Looking Freak Saves Apollo 14 (1971)

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Re: Weird-Looking Freak Saves Apollo 14 (1971)

#111

Post by Gene_Parmesan »

jhbadger wrote: post #28
eitland wrote: post #27

> “It’s possible to envision a time when there are professors of the literature of computer programming. Maybe some programmers will be minor poets of the 20th Century. The trouble is that programs are written in a language there’s no audience for. It’s like Nabokov’s book about Gogol where at the end he says that if you really want to know anything about Gogol, there’s no way around it, you gotta learn Russian. It’s…

Way easier. It is hardly noteworthy for a programmer to know a half dozen programming languages well, but a person who knows a half dozen human languages well is.

I think the main determining factor here is vocabulary. Modern programming langs have fairly small #s of reserved words, and when you add the standard library on top of that, you essentially have all the 'vocab' you need to use the language well. This is because (a) a large part of programming is the act of creating new vocab via writing new APIs/libraries/functions, and (b) the time pressure is significantly lessened; there's no issue with consulting docs for the interfaces you forget.

Meanwhile, human languages are essentially unusable without a fairly extensive vocabulary, and importantly a vocabulary that has to be memorized and available at a moment's notice.

Re: Weird-Looking Freak Saves Apollo 14 (1971)

#112

Post by Gene_Parmesan »

MiroF wrote: post #51
gameswithgo wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps the articles from 1971 that get reposted today represent the top 1% of articles from then, making articles from then seem so much better than now?

this, combined with the chronic underfunding of long-form journalism because we have shorter attention spans.

We don't have shorter attention spans, this has been widely debunked. Not only was it debunked, no one in the field ever believed it anyways.

See here: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-38896790

Re: Weird-Looking Freak Saves Apollo 14 (1971)

#113

Post by yarrel »

Wingman4l7 wrote: post #96
kingbirdy wrote: post #87

Great article. I was curious about the game mentioned towards the bottom: > At M.I.T. next door to Draper, some of the undergraduates play a game called “Space War.” To play “Space War,” you need a television screen, a computer, and a working knowledge of Newtonian physics. The TV screen shows a planet surrounded by spaceships. Each player fires torpedos from his spaceship, aiming them according to the laws of orbita…

The Living Computer Museum in Seattle had a Spacewar tournament a couple years ago, which I believe also ran on restored hardware.

I visited the LCM a couple of weeks ago and Spacewar was running then, it may be a permanent exhibit now.

Re: Weird-Looking Freak Saves Apollo 14 (1971)

#114

Post by projektfu »

dang wrote: post #85
projektfu wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When breaking news came out a newspaper would sometimes publish an extra edition to go out in the afternoon. The paperboys would stereotypically say, “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!”

At some point paperboys will need to be explained also, and some time after that, newspapers.

You see, we had things called computers, which were like an interface between you and the network...

Re: Weird-Looking Freak Saves Apollo 14 (1971)

#115

Post by 1996 »

SonOfLilit wrote: post #74
1996 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is difficult for many people. Whenever I read about W, I see people offended there was (what they consider) an overreaction, and that everything was deleted. Personally I only see that as exerting extreme caution after something really bad happened. Beyond that, it is their right to share or stop sharing when it stops being fun. People seem to have forgotten the old hacker ethos: doing stuff for fun. Many people a…

I think many people who weren't following his art in real time make the reasonable misunderstanding that his works are code and documentation participating in the vast human project of Open Source Software, since they tended to have names like "_why's (poignant) guide to ruby" and not more descriptive names like "cartoon foxes and how mad I reacted in front of my expanded family that time when my mom said my sister u…

Nice to meet you kindred spirit!

I wholeheartedly agree with your analysis.

About your HN, Google will never forget but maybe you could nicely ask HN for some understanding (I mean, you were a minor!) or in the worst case try to GPDR you way through?

Re: Weird-Looking Freak Saves Apollo 14 (1971)

#116

Post by SonOfLilit »

1996 wrote: post #115
SonOfLilit wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think many people who weren't following his art in real time make the reasonable misunderstanding that his works are code and documentation participating in the vast human project of Open Source Software, since they tended to have names like "_why's (poignant) guide to ruby" and not more descriptive names like "cartoon foxes and how mad I reacted in front of my expanded family that time when my mom said my sister u…

Nice to meet you kindred spirit! I wholeheartedly agree with your analysis. About your HN, Google will never forget but maybe you could nicely ask HN for some understanding (I mean, you were a minor!) or in the worst case try to GPDR you way through?

Eh, my reputation will survive. I should just out-SEO my younger self with awesome technical content or news articles about my startup :P
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