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Ask HN: What are your recommended reads that are available for free?

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Re: Ask HN: What are your recommended reads that are available for free?

#44

Post by devalier »

dmfdmf wrote: post #38
devalier wrote: post #32

The writings of Mencius Moldbug: http://moldbuggery.blogspot.com/ Mind-bending writings on politics, history and economics.

Read it to see for yourself but this is long-winded, pseudo-intellectual garbage advocating fascism. Moldbug is a follower of Thomas Carlyle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Carlyle

There are definitions of fascism by which Moldbug is advocating fascism. There are definitions of fascism by which FDR or Woodrow Wilson were fascists. The definition of fascist by which Moldbug is a fascist is not the same definition that made fascist a synonym for evil incarnate. Moldbug certainly does not want a mob with pitchforks to take over the government and to murder the Jews and go on a global plan of conquest. To thus smear him by association with such an ideology is to be maliciously uncharitable.

The purpose of his blog is to create hyperbole in the opposite direction of the current prevailing ideologies. The blog is shock treatment to get you to think about our society as a time traveler from two hundred years in the past or in the future might see it. He tries to snap you out of presentism. So there is a lot of crazy stuff in it. But there is a lot of information and perspectives that can be found nowhere else, and if you read them and incorporate them into your world views, you will have a more accurate picture of current reality, and you will make better predictions about world events.

I do agree with the long-winded part. Some people like his whimsical, sci-fi jargon infused, verbose writing style, others cannot stand it. That is a matter of taste.

Re: Ask HN: What are your recommended reads that are available for free?

#46

Post by okal »

crshults wrote: post #40
okal wrote: post #23

I built http://hackershelf.com just for this. It's a crowdsourced listing of legally free books on just about any topic.

Thanks for this. I was happy to see 'Patterns for Time-Triggered Embedded Systems' on your list, though the link appears broken - new link: [1]. I remember working through that book and porting everything from C to Assembly (my boss at the time was too cheap to buy me the nice Keil compiler). Once I had that library in hand, I was knocking out his projects in days instead of weeks. [1] http://www.safetty.net/download…

As with any proper crowdsourced website, you can edit broken links yourself ;-)

Re: Ask HN: What are your recommended reads that are available for free?

#48

Post by cooper12 »

benev wrote: post #27

Warning: Shameless self promotion. LinuxVoice magazine is available for free nine months after publication. The issues can be found here: http://www.linuxvoice.com/creative-commons-issues/ Quite a bit of our content is about programming and tech in general, so you may find something you like even if you're not a Linux user.

Wow, CC BY-SA (Share-alike) and not CC BY-NC-SA (Non Commercial) like I expected. I commend you guys for believing in your publishing model and vision by taking that risk.
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