[HN Gopher] Brian Kernighan Reflects on Unix: A History and a Me...
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Brian Kernighan Reflects on Unix: A History and a Memoir [video]
Author : zdw
Score : 74 points
Date : 2024-11-11 16:00 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
| 4ad wrote:
| Brian Kernighan is my favorite technical writer (alongside Doug
| McIlroy, but the latter didn't write any books, Research Unix
| manual pages are an art form in themselves). Basic books teach
| you the how, good books teach you the why, but the great books --
| and Brian wrote some truly great ones -- teach you wisdom.
|
| I read "Unix: A History and a Memoir", and it's a great book if
| you are into computer history, but it left me very sad. I don't
| know why, is it because Unix (in its philosophy) is dead? Is it
| because the people who help create and shape Unix are old and
| dying? I don't know. It's a great book but it left a void in my
| heart.
| carterdmorgan wrote:
| It's definitely a bit of a melancholy read. Some of the people
| who invented Unix are long gone, and we probably don't have a
| lot of time left with the people who are still with us. I'm
| glad Brian was able to tell the full story while there's still
| time left. We take Unix for granted, but its the basis of most
| of the modern operating system world.
| Iridescent_ wrote:
| Read it too, and I had a similar feeling. To me it was the
| thought that we will probably never see a place like Bell labs
| -a temple to knowledge, to gather great minds and let them work
| on whatever they think might have interesting outcomes, no
| matter how long it takes to obtain results and without having
| to worry about short-term financial issues. Now researchers -in
| my country anyways- are forced into mostly researching ways to
| obtain funding and doing a little bit of actual research,
| almost as a side gig.
| sneed_chucker wrote:
| Really crusty/choppy audio on this video unfortunately.
| faragon wrote:
| Improving audio with AI would be a good thing for
| @Google/@YouTube to put time/effort in! :-)
| sneed_chucker wrote:
| Yeah I mean either that or do the bare minimum of audio
| production if you're interviewing someone.
|
| If you have to interview them over a video call, at least
| have them record their own audio channel locally on a decent
| mic and don't just upload the recorded zoom call like it's
| 2020.
| carterdmorgan wrote:
| I'm one of the creators of the podcast. We do what we can,
| but this is very much a side project for us. We're both
| full-time SDEs with day jobs.
| fsckboy wrote:
| small point, but I was not previously aware he pronounces it
| KerniHan (I was aware that in Ireland it would be)
| Xxfireman wrote:
| link to the creators website: https://bookoverflow.io/
|
| It has a list of previous books and talks. I was happy to see you
| could follow along with upcoming talks. Page numbers are
| included.
| carterdmorgan wrote:
| I'm one of the creators of the podcast. Thanks for linking to
| the site!
|
| If you're not familiar with the podcast, we read and discuss a
| new software engineering book each week. When we can, we
| interview the authors, like we just did with Brian.
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(page generated 2024-11-11 23:00 UTC)