[HN Gopher] How I Arrived at Sun as Employee #8
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How I Arrived at Sun as Employee #8
Author : hasheddan
Score : 104 points
Date : 2022-05-03 14:35 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (twitter.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
| ledbettj wrote:
| https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1521489115585421314.html
| drfuchs wrote:
| When we were undergrads, I remember looking over Tom's shoulder
| at some Unix code he was studying, and I worked up my courage to
| ask what "*cp++" meant. He said something about about "pointers"
| and "post-incrementing", but I couldn't figure out what he was
| talking about; he was a true wizard. Hi, Tom!
| teaearlgrey_hot wrote:
| A wizard never uses the base pointer or the stack pointer by
| compilation: he moves the stack _precisely_ as he means to!
| pugs78 wrote:
| Thanks, Dave. You're no slouch yourself.
| cab11150904 wrote:
| Computers as a whole seem so boring nowadays. I get that we all
| have supercomputers in our pockets, and it should be amazing, but
| it's just dull.
| fossuser wrote:
| One of the things that drew me to urbit is it feels like when I
| first started playing with linux. It's fun, but in a way that
| tackles some real underlying issues with the modern
| web/computing stack.
|
| The ideas are interesting and whatever happens it's definitely
| not boring imo: http://moronlab.blogspot.com/2010/01/urbit-
| functional-progra...
| paulcole wrote:
| Let me guess, computers were a lot more interesting and amazing
| when you were a teenager and into your early 20s?
| georgeecollins wrote:
| Right, because micro computers have had decades of investment
| and development, when in 1982 they were like 15 years old
| (microprocessors anyway (HN correct me)).
|
| Now the excitement is probably something that new or newer..
| drones, recent ML, AR/VR/XR, wearable, or something that I
| don't know what it is. It's gotta be something where most
| people think it won't even work.
| ghaff wrote:
| 15 years in 1982 is casting a pretty wide net for actual
| microcomputers. The Altair 8800 kit debuted on Radio-
| Electronics in 1975 and the Apple II came out a couple years
| later. But I was an engineering undergrad in the late 70s and
| I knew no one who owned a personal computer. They didn't even
| become geek things beyond a very limited number of people
| until the early 80s.
| walrus01 wrote:
| I think there was a lot more novelty and shock/awe in amazing
| new things when we didn't have youtube channels and social
| media of every new thing immediately poring over ever detail of
| it.
|
| For instance, when ID first released DOOM to the Internet and
| BBSes it was something you discovered on your own and among
| your local community of people who had network access and a PC
| capable of running it, there weren't hundreds of youtube
| channels playing full-1080p playthroughs of the entire game,
| etc.
| codegeek wrote:
| It feels boring because for the most part, we have solved some
| of the most common problems that we needed computers for. The
| idea of watching movies, ordering groceries/food, talking to a
| friend/family 8000 miles away in a second were all interesting
| and fancy and now it is part of life. So we get bored. Today's
| personal computers pretty much do everything we need in terms
| of basic necessities. I was driving earlier today and realized
| the power of Maps on our phones. Imagine back in the days when
| you need to print mapquest (remember?) or plain old maps to
| figure out how to get to the Interstate from this new place you
| just visited.
|
| Things like VR etc so far (my opinion) have been
| disappointments for the most part even though we keep trying to
| innovate. Also, remember 3D TVs ?
|
| I guess we need things like teleportation, real robots (not the
| one like Rocky IV movie) and some cooler stuff to make it
| interesting again.
| MikeTheRocker wrote:
| I'm biased because I've been working on AR/VR at Meta/Oculus
| for the last 4 years, but I'm curious what you've found
| disappointing and whether you've tried the lastest VR
| software and hardware.
|
| As far as gaming goes, Half-Life: Alyx and Resident Evil 4
| are superb AAA experiences. As for hardware, Quest 2 and
| Valve Index are both great at what they promise for their
| respective price points.
| mhh__ wrote:
| Computers are boring but system on chips are kind of
| interesting again now that you need all this compute for AI.
|
| People have made huge mistakes waiting for workloads that have
| very predictable computation, now with AI we have a need for
| coprocessors again.
| virtual_void wrote:
| Sometimes i think this too.
|
| I think part of the joy (for me) used to be in the deep
| understanding of the hardware and making something out of what
| felt like nothing.
|
| If I'm doing something with a load of libraries and feel like a
| plumber more than a programmer then I find that excitement hard
| to come by.
|
| Playing with modern day microcontrollers, SoC stuff or building
| software with hard real-time requirements is still a lot of fun
| - i just don't get to do it so much these days.
| uuyi wrote:
| It's not dull really but I find it laborious and sometimes
| stupid. The sense of achievement has been sucked away by deep
| rabbit holes of research required to decipher even the simplest
| tasks. The retention and value of knowledge has declined due to
| the transient nature of everything too. Every day is a catching
| up session for something which is either horrible or will be
| replaced before you've finished the job.
|
| I reserve the label stupid specifically for templated YAML
| which makes me want to strangle people fairly quickly.
| grishka wrote:
| Software engineering is no longer considered engineering these
| days. People mash abstractions together without even trying to
| understand what's beneath those abstractions. Knowing what
| you're actually doing seems to be a big deal in software
| development now.
| hulitu wrote:
| Engineering is trying to underestand things and learn from
| mistakes. SW engineering is like financial engineering:
| trying to get profits fast.
| LordDragonfang wrote:
| Anecdotally that tracks, because all of my (very good!) CS
| professors in undergrad were retired engineering-engineers,
| with only a single retired _software_ engineer that I can
| recall (who taught the course focused on real-world SWE
| /project management)
| grishka wrote:
| This is why I've given up on working anywhere where venture
| capital is even remotely involved. I want to make the world
| a better place and empower people, not make rich people
| richer while they do nothing of value.
| smackeyacky wrote:
| Dull?
|
| You can hang the equivalent of an eighties micro on anything
| you please and record things nobody has ever seen before,
| download the data en masse to your pocket supercomputer, sync
| that to an AI and make accurate predictions that can be used to
| affect real world outcomes.
|
| You can talk to anyone on the planet with minimal charges.
|
| You can take infinite numbers of pictures of everything at
| insane resolutions, backyard astronomy is unbelievable compared
| to the Sun era.
|
| Computing has never been so exciting. If you think you missed
| out because you weren't in silicon valley in the 1980s, the
| amount of cool work being done everywhere but the valley needs
| reconsidering.
|
| I've been doing this since the 80s and its never been better
| than now.
| eezurr wrote:
| For me, I imagine part of the excitement is applying the art
| of computer science every day at your job back then. When
| things are taken care of for you, they become boring. Not
| because those things are inherently boring, but they're
| boring because you're no longer thinking about them. You
| can't get excited about things you aren't thinking about.
| Many jobs transitioned from surgeons with scalpels to
| supergluing prefab parts together. Which one sounds more
| exciting to you? I'd rather be a surgeon.
| sedatk wrote:
| I agree with you fully. It's just that tech stopped giving
| the same dopamine boost as social platforms nowadays.
| hulitu wrote:
| And still printing a web page is real challenge. And if you
| want to compile a programm you find out that it needs 30
| libraries. Some things are better. Most of the things are
| worse. I have a text editor on my Android phone. It cannot do
| search and replace.
| aBitPlayer wrote:
| To me, one exciting motivation today in computing is
| rethinking and simplifying systems.
|
| https://youtu.be/k0uE_chSnV8 https://youtu.be/kZRE7HIO3vk
| turtlebits wrote:
| Printing has been solved a long time ago. Do you remember
| having to search for/install printer drivers?
|
| Even after a few years, I'm still amazed that I can print
| from my phone to a wireless printer I have at home, and how
| easy it was to setup.
| smackeyacky wrote:
| I don't have any problems printing web pages. Rick click,
| print, done.
|
| Non trivial programs always required a lot of libraries. At
| least now you don't have to wait 3 weeks for a tape to show
| up so you can continue working.
|
| Vim for Android is a thing [0]
|
| [0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.droid
| vim&h...
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