Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How does one learn about the latest advances in Computer Science (not fads) to apply and improve your work?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 41 posts

Re: How does one learn about the latest advances in Computer Science (not fads) to apply and improve your work?

#31

Post by jlf »

pg wrote: post #22

Go to CS talks at nearby universities. Most have talks that are open to the public. These usually include "job talks" in which people applying for teaching jobs present their recent work.

I'd agree with this, and even take it a bit farther. Many of the graduate level courses have lecture notes online and these can often give insight into current research. Here's a page with links to EE/CS courses: http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/classes-eecs.html

Another thing to watch for, besides talks specifically open to the public, is lecture series taken for credit, such as {EE,CS}{198,298} in the above page. I took EE298.2 last semester for example, a communications/networking/DSP seminar, which had visiting scholars presenting their current research at almost every meeting. Nobody would have cared or probably even noticed if a random person showed up to listen.

Re: How does one learn about the latest advances in Computer Science (not fads) to apply and improve your work?

#32

Post by menloparkbum »

far33d wrote: post #2

Computer Science, as a field is very mature, and as a result, very specialized in its research (though I disagree with the idea that core algorithm research is more relevant for the average developer than what you call fads). The best thing to do is to first get more specific: what kind of algorithm? Is it database implementations? Virtualization techniques? Filesystem optimization? Graphics hardware? Programming lan…

CS could better be described as moribund rather than mature. The reason why nobody has taken the time to create a digest of academic computer science papers (other than the ACM) is because 90% of such papers are not worth reading.

Re: How does one learn about the latest advances in Computer Science (not fads) to apply and improve your work?

#33

Post by paul »

brent wrote: post #28
donna wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an interesting take. I'd argue that Ajax for example is an advancement, regardless of the hype -- because it increases usability of many real-world web applications, today. On the other hand, most algorithms are not widely applicable, so might only be counted as an advancement when they're used 30 years from now in a single specialized case. -Matt (of donna & Matt)

I'd count them as an advancement as soon as they are added to the body of knowledge. XMLHttpRequest has been around for nearly a decade. A decade ago the "advancement" was there. It took almost 10 years for the fad to build up. If someone wants to know the fads (AJAX) just read prog.reddit.com and you're all set. If you want to know REAL C.S. advancements you'll have to dig a bit deeper into the literature.

Silicon has been around for billions of years. Forming it into microprocessors is just a fad.

Re: How does one learn about the latest advances in Computer Science (not fads) to apply and improve your work?

#34

Post by herdrick »

Go to an academic conference. I went to this one: http://www.icfpconference.org/ last year and it was well worth it.

Hunt around for a great class at the local CS department and either figure out a way to enroll or just 'drop in' on the class. I did this too and loved it.

Re: How does one learn about the latest advances in Computer Science (not fads) to apply and improve your work?

#35

Post by juwo »

paul wrote: post #33
brent wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd count them as an advancement as soon as they are added to the body of knowledge. XMLHttpRequest has been around for nearly a decade. A decade ago the "advancement" was there. It took almost 10 years for the fad to build up. If someone wants to know the fads (AJAX) just read prog.reddit.com and you're all set. If you want to know REAL C.S. advancements you'll have to dig a bit deeper into the literature.

Silicon has been around for billions of years. Forming it into microprocessors is just a fad.

If microprocessors lasted only 5-6 years before they were replaced by a newer type of technology - then, yes, they would be just a fad. :)

Re: How does one learn about the latest advances in Computer Science (not fads) to apply and improve your work?

#36

Post by paul »

juwo wrote: post #35
paul wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Silicon has been around for billions of years. Forming it into microprocessors is just a fad.

If microprocessors lasted only 5-6 years before they were replaced by a newer type of technology - then, yes, they would be just a fad. :)

So mosaic, for example, was just a fad?

Re: How does one learn about the latest advances in Computer Science (not fads) to apply and improve your work?

#37

Post by fireandfury »

amichail wrote: post #24
pg wrote: post #22

Go to CS talks at nearby universities. Most have talks that are open to the public. These usually include "job talks" in which people applying for teaching jobs present their recent work.

Also see: http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=google+techtalks

Yeah the tech talks are awesome. The Museum of Computer History has some great lectures on tech talks. One that I particularly like is titled "Great Principles of Computing". It's a nice summary of the past few decades of computing principles. Here's the link: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=5494452304620274339

Re: How does one learn about the latest advances in Computer Science (not fads) to apply and improve your work?

#39

Post by juwo »

paul wrote: post #36
juwo wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If microprocessors lasted only 5-6 years before they were replaced by a newer type of technology - then, yes, they would be just a fad. :)

So mosaic, for example, was just a fad?

The concept was not a fad. The concept was an advance which has lived on in other browsers.

With imagination perhaps, one could even apply the paradigm of a browser to mechanical and biological domains ("non-computing" in a software sense).

concepts vs. tools for strategic business and market advantage

Re: How does one learn about the latest advances in Computer Science (not fads) to apply and improve your work?

#40

Post by bayareaguy »

This can be a full time job in itself, but here are some quickies I like:

If you want to be practical, Hack The Planet is worth a glance every now and then: http://wmf.editthispage.com

Lambda the Ultimate is good too, especially if you think languages are where the real CS action is: http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/

Post reply on HN