Interview with Jeff Geerling • Hacker News Board

Re: Interview with Jeff Geerling

#31

Post by Uehreka » Fri, Nov 10, 2023, 4:53 PM UTC

bdsa wrote: post #22

(On reflection, this is irrelevant.)

Wow. Skimming through that article, the articles linked at the bottom and some of Jeff’s comments and replies to the articles, he comes across way more hardcore and intense than the chill, wholesome guy I’m used to seeing. The stuff I just read was from over a decade ago, so maybe he’s changed, or maybe the only thing that’s changed is how outspoken he is about this. I like Jeff’s work, this bums me out.

Re: Interview with Jeff Geerling

#32

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Nov 10, 2023, 4:53 PM UTC

bdsa wrote: post #22

(On reflection, this is irrelevant.)

[deleted]

Re: Interview with Jeff Geerling

#33

Post by tremere » Fri, Nov 10, 2023, 4:54 PM UTC

pachouli-please wrote: post #4

I love all Geerling's projects, writings, and videos over the years. I was actually concerned that based on the brevity of the title that something tragic had happened. Glad that's not the case!

I share this sentiment. Whenever I see his name I end up reading his article and whether I agree with him or not, the quality of content he puts out sets a very high bar. Whenever he writes a comment on HN it's one of those rare instances where I'll stop and read it carefully rather than blaze through it. Jeff is truly a gem in the community.

FWIW I did not expect bad news since I didn't see a date range after the name in parens.

Re: Interview with Jeff Geerling

#34

Post by WesolyKubeczek » Fri, Nov 10, 2023, 4:58 PM UTC

Add something like „Interview with” or „Meet” to the title, please.

Whenever I see just a name on HN, I expect an obituary. Got a few more gray hairs from seeing this.

Re: Interview with Jeff Geerling

#35

Post by DistractionRect » Fri, Nov 10, 2023, 4:59 PM UTC

It's always fun to stumble on Jeff's content organically. I feels like whatever I'm looking up, The GeerlingGuy has done it first. He deserves all the good vibes.

Re: Interview with Jeff Geerling

#36

Post by throw235398 » Fri, Nov 10, 2023, 5:02 PM UTC

bdsa wrote: post #22

(On reflection, this is irrelevant.)

[dead]

Re: Interview with Jeff Geerling

#37

Post by marginalia_nu » Fri, Nov 10, 2023, 5:02 PM UTC

In I think 2019 or 2020, I found some of Jeff's stuff online. I realized I actually had a pi in a box somewhere I'd won in a hackathon way back when. Set it up. I'd been doing a lot of linux sysadmin stuff in the past and kinda missed having a server I could upload stuff to. I set up a blog and some other stuff.

Got lured into Jeff's cluster shenanigans and got a few more pis and set up a tiny cluster with various services I found useful[1]. I built a bunch of services from scratch. Eventually my hybris grew and I started drawing up plans for my own search engine, running off this cluster.

I figured why not, covid was coviding and I had a lot of time. Turns out you need more than bunch of pis to run a n internet search engine, so I got a bigger server. Still my first iteration indexded like 200k docs.

One thing turned into another and now I've quit my job to work on this full time. Weird how the world works sometimes.

I guess what I wanted to say is: Thanks, Jeff.

[1] This was before the semiconductor shortage, back when pis were abundant. Sorry if I contributed to any shortages. I've sold off the ones I didn't end up using :)

Re: Interview with Jeff Geerling

#38

Post by ThrowawayR2 » Fri, Nov 10, 2023, 5:03 PM UTC

sfsdf343425 wrote: post #28

throw932490 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pi4 2GB with power source, SD card, case, fan is like $100. You can have nice Atom MiniPC for that. Or old PC from ebay...

But these are used, cheap new Atom miniPC doesn't have GPIO, and brand new Atom SBCs with GPIO are more $$$ with the same SoC compared to miniPC since they aren't mass produced. A used Pi with sdcard/case/fan is much less than $40.

USB GPIO dongles are a cheap addon to any x86 PC, e.g. "Adafruit General Purpose USB to GPIO" at https://www.adafruit.com/product/2264

Re: Interview with Jeff Geerling

#39

Post by jcdavis » Fri, Nov 10, 2023, 5:04 PM UTC

Besides all his (excellent) tech stuff, I'm really thankful for Jeff being so public about his struggles with Crohn's. I'm fortunate to have a far more moderate case, but in general there isn't a ton of awareness about the disease and its super brave of him to use his platform to talk about his health issues.

Re: Interview with Jeff Geerling

#40

Post by throw235398 » Fri, Nov 10, 2023, 5:05 PM UTC

astrodust wrote: post #5

jahsome wrote: post #3

Utterly wholesome is the perfect description. It's an instant click from me any time his videos (or hn posts) pop up. I get the same feeling from Jeff's videos I did when I watched PBS as a kid. That's not a dig; I find his videos extremely calming, informative, and well produced. The man radiates positivity and kindness. That's a rarity these days on YouTube. Presumably "high energy" content does better algorithmica…

No yelling, clickbait or scandals, it's actually great.

Regarding scandals, I'm glad he stopped mixing extreme religious ideologies with tech content on the blog.

He also seems to be brand loyal, but I'm being too harsh.