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

Untitled topic

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 259 posts

Re: undefined

#171

Post by soperj »

robotresearcher wrote: post #162
soperj wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems really weird to me. We even did a machine language course even though we will never do any machine language programming. It's good to understand what the hell is going on. C is amazing in explaining how memory management works, since you have to do it all yourself.

C teaches you how PDP11 memory management works. Modern PC/server hardware doesn't work like this, neither do modern applications that use accelerators, and while the system works hard to present this virtual address space to your runtime, you don't need to think about it in many languages, from LISP to Swift. Most devs write Javascript. I say this as a person who loves C and taught it lovingly to undergrads for many…

I would hope you wouldn't be designing cs curricula around javascript, because even javascript frameworks are moving to typescript.

This seems like not teaching calculus because you can do it on a calculator. I didn't do a degree that focused on C development, but I still had to know how to do it. God forbid any of your graduates end up working on an operating system at some point.

Re: undefined

#172

Post by GDC7 »

edmundsauto wrote: post #166
GDC7 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You're talking about the idea of some one who hurts and abuses other people no longer being allowed to be a part of polite society, and the people that want that to be the case, like its a bad thing. No , the bad thing is that when somebody is dragged out in the court of public opinion all the positive contributions of that particular individual are not taken into consideration. I am now a wide eyed utopian, I am a…

Feynman is a weird example - he talks about pickup culture and getting women to sleep with him. He also was a bad husband, spent a lot of time in a strip club drawing "art", and chased after Las Vegas Showgirls. I'm not certain he would have been cancelled - I think that's mostly projection - but it's useful to acknowledge he wasn't exactly a "good guy", despite his contributions to science. (The screed about the Naz…

> but it's useful to acknowledge he wasn't exactly a "good guy"

What exactly constitutes a "good guy" for you?

The only possible definition is somebody who wastes away his life, doesn't have fun, works all the times and gifts the discoveries of his endless hours of work to his subordinates so that they can claim as their own.

Obviously rejects any compensation above minimum wage for the whole ordeal, so that he could not even have the temptation to spend, because he needs that minimum amount to eat.

Not even Jesus Christ would manage to make it into your tier of "good guys".

What has the world come to...Feynman being thrown under the bus on HN.

Re: undefined

#173

Post by robotresearcher »

soperj wrote: post #171
robotresearcher wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

C teaches you how PDP11 memory management works. Modern PC/server hardware doesn't work like this, neither do modern applications that use accelerators, and while the system works hard to present this virtual address space to your runtime, you don't need to think about it in many languages, from LISP to Swift. Most devs write Javascript. I say this as a person who loves C and taught it lovingly to undergrads for many…

I would hope you wouldn't be designing cs curricula around javascript, because even javascript frameworks are moving to typescript. This seems like not teaching calculus because you can do it on a calculator. I didn't do a degree that focused on C development, but I still had to know how to do it. God forbid any of your graduates end up working on an operating system at some point.

> I would hope you wouldn't be designing cs curricula around javascript

I didn't propose that.

I'd expect a good curriculum to expose students to several languages, so that picking up another one is not an ordeal.

Re: undefined

#174

Post by GDC7 »

edmundsauto wrote: post #168
GDC7 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Finally, I'd like to ask for an explanation as to how Feynman's actions starting in 1949 could have had a causal effect on a war that ended in 1945. That's exactly what I mean, thank you! You have stressed the whole point! Society feels comfortable in canceling people because these people already gave their contribution and for sure the person being canceled can't retroactively destroy all their contributions. If t…

Society "cancelled" Harvey Weinstein because he raped multiple women, to the point where it was an in-joke in Hollywood. I don't think he's much of a good example except to identify how long it takes for justice to reach someone. Maybe someone like Aziz Ansari is a better example... except he wasn't really cancelled - just hit a bump in his career that he had to acknowledge. (Similarly, Louis CK). I absolutely would…

> Society "cancelled" Harvey Weinstein because he raped multiple women, to the point where it was an in-joke in Hollywood. I don't think he's much of a good example except to identify how long it takes for justice to reach someone.

He caused lifechanging trauma to 10-20 people. That is not excusable.

What is not brought up in the assesment of his persona is the amount of entertainment he provided to the world.

The aggregate of 40 hours of AAA movies being enjoyed by 3 billion people between theatre, DVD, streaming, TV and piracy.

But of course you can't call 3 billion people up to provide their account of what positive impact Wienstin had on their lives. Plus while the trauma caused is substantial, the entertainment provided to the aforementioned 3 billion people is marginal.

When you judge somebody you should see the whole picture.

Re: undefined

#175

Post by musicale »

disneygibson wrote: post #136
diego_moita wrote: post #110

What I remember the most about Jobs' death are 2 things: 1) Most of the media did an heavy coverage of his death and legacy. 2) Exactly 1 week after his death one of my personal heroes died too: Dennis MacLister Ritchie. Almost no one paid attention. From computers to micro-controllers, from satellites to abs breaks, Ritchie's legacy goes far deeper and wider than Jobs'. Almost every programmer today touches some of…

Ritchie’s contribution was so fundamental that it was almost impossible to actually recognize his achievements. It’s like honoring the guy that invented the pencil. Jobs, on the other hand, ran a company that sold products which billions of people knowingly interacted with on a daily basis. No need to compare the two. One built the foundation, the other built the pretty house on top of it.

> One built the foundation, the other built the pretty house on top of it.

Though the original Mac didn't use UNIX or C. ;-)

Re: undefined

#176

Post by WalterBright »

c7DJTLrn wrote: post #12
jedberg wrote: post #9

I think Apple would be an even more interesting company if he were still around. Maybe not as big or as profitable, but certainly more interesting. I wish he hadn't been so strongheaded about herbal remedies and whatnot. He had the more curable kind of cancer, had he taken it seriously earlier. As someone who has lost family to pancreatic cancer, it really upset me to learn that he didn't use his vast resources to do…

Do you think Apple would've been able to survive without Steve Jobs to help bootstrap and reignite it? I doubt it personally.

I highly doubt it, too. Remember Jobs also not only saved Pixar from oblivion, he turned it into a powerhouse.

Re: undefined

#177

Post by musicale »

Steve Jobs definitely contributed to a number of my favorite computing devices, and also helped to create my favorite computer company! (Though now we often call them tablets, phones, watches, etc..)

Jobs and Apple are both polarizing, but I have to say they've had a pretty positive impact in my life in terms of computing joy and inspiration. That sort of joy and inspiration is an important reason why I am (still) in the computing field.

Re: undefined

#178

Post by karmakaze »

killion wrote: post #23

I think that Apple suffers from not having that person at the top with taste who was willing to say “this is shit”. The overall software quality has dropped markedly at Apple and the hardware more uneven since he left. There were misses under Steve like the Cube where there wasn’t a market. But the product was great. Now there is a market but the product is middling like the Watch. Yes the watch was started when he w…

What I think it really suffers from is that the buyer isn't Apple's target audience, it's the person watching the person using an Apple product. Second is Apple (well actually the first is to serve Apple too). This skews priorities.

Re: undefined

#179

Post by eigenvalue »

snek_case wrote: post #13
animanoir wrote: post #5

Mixed feelings about him honestly. I still can't forget how he betrayed Wozniak.

Having read multiple Jobs biographies, it also seemed to me that he may have been bipolar, but unmedicated because of his stance on medication. Sometimes very hard to work with or be around. People ascribe incredible genius to this guy, but forget that he could be a very impulsive, arrogant and sometimes cruel human being. Regarding Steve Wozniak, that's another big issue. Not only the betrayal, but it betrays a divi…

It's not really a fair characterization to call the first Mac a flop; it sold reasonably well, though obviously not as well as the Apple II given the higher price point:

https://www.cultofmac.com/479113/today-apple-history-first-1...

Re: undefined

#180

Post by dilap »

reayn wrote: post #165
dilap wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lovely, thank you! Unfortunately, all I have to give in return in this video of a sloppy Safari animation. :-) https://filebin.net/59kjnt15u834j7xl/safari-anim.mov

lol it's no problem. I've noticed the same animation issues in safari, and tbh, its very unlike apple. There are other apps in macOS which have collapsible sidebars (preview and finder come to mind), but they don't suffer with the same icon lag issue. And as far as I know, catalyst (which I assume is what's being used now for almost all of the new mac apps with the blurry sidebar) should handle these things inherentl…

Historically unlike Apple, but becoming increasingly common sadly.

Beyond any tech details, I think the real problem is they've somehow just lost interest (or maybe even ability?) in crafting software to a high, delightful quality bar.

Post reply on HN