instruction
stringlengths 4
105
| output
stringlengths 8
56.7k
|
|---|---|
Is a distcc style plugin for professional workgroups an idea whose time has come? | pmjordan: I've never used it, but I hear that IncrediBuild does exactly that:http://www.xoreax.com/main.htm |
Streaming stock market data? | epi0Bauqu: People have pointed me to http://opentick.com/ before, though I have not yet tried it. |
definition of a highlevel language? | msg: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/05/dynamic-languages-st...So one way to say it is that high-level languages are like porno, "I know it when I see it." Another way to say it is that there's machine language... and everything else. Or fill in the blank for machine language, "C is the last low-level language, everything more abstract is a high-level language".It's tempting to think of memory-managed languages as high-level languages, but then there's Java...Ratio of code size to payload is of course another metric.http://paulgraham.com/power.htmlMaybe it's the functional languages.Why do you ask? |
any interest in a hacker social network? | ambition: I say go for it, it'll be fun, but I don't share your sense that there's a problem to be solved here. Personally, I'm most interested in communities where I can meet folks in person in addition to online interactions, i.e. geography-based in addition to shared-interest. |
definition of a highlevel language? | jws: I think a high level language is anything other than assembly language. That is from the perspective of someone that started with machine code and assembly language.I don't think anyone ever set out to create a "low level" language. There was simply "coding the machine directly" and then "high level language".Now it is tempting to draw a multidimensional line in the features of languages and partition it into "high" and "low", but I don't think that is where the term originates. It is a one hand clapping sort of adjective. |
definition of a highlevel language? | gills: Most abstractions are a little leaky, and we usually need to consider the 'how' when specifying the 'what'. For example, adding numbers in C can be accomplished with the abstraction '+', but the programmer must consider whether the operation will overflow the register on the underlying machine. Some even-higher-level languages plug that leak by providing a numerical hierarchy that will not overflow due to constraints imposed by the underlying hardware.So I would say "higher-level languages" provide less-leaky abstractions. One can specify 'what' without specifying 'how', and one can make assumptions about the way exceptional cases are handled. The ideal language would provide leak-free abstractions but still allow the programmer to dive into any level.There is probably a lot more to say than that. |
definition of a highlevel language? | presty: high level languages are languages that are close to natural language |
definition of a highlevel language? | aaronblohowiak: In the beginning, there was machine code. this is essentially inputting what the computer actually executed, without any translation or compilation ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-generation_programming_la... )Then there was assembler/assembly. This is similar to the aforementioned, except easier to read. Assembly is a 1:1 mapping between symbols and their machine-understandable counterparts. This is the first step in the abstracting of programming code from executable code ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-generation_programming_l... )Then, there are so-called 3GL. These let you do fancy things like having named variables, symbolic manipulation, function calls, abstract (arbitrary) syntax. This encompasses many of the languages people use at work today (c/c++/java) ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-generation_programming_la... ) It is important to note that the purpose of 3GL, like assembly before it, was to create a separation between what the programmer typed and what the machine ran. The latter being derived from the former according to its rules.( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth-generation_programming_l... ) 4GL are the next step along this line. The focus of 4GL is to make it that the code entered is as focused on the domain logic as possible, hiding the implementation details.The phrase "further from the machine and closer to the domain"in the wikipedia 4GL page sums it up nicely.To a chip designer, machine code is a high level language (it is an abstraction of the machine itself.) To an assembly programmer (nobody programs in machine code AFAIK,) c is a high-level language. To a c programmer, java is a high-level language. To a java programer, ruby is a high-level language. To a ruby programmer, RSpec is a high-level language.Essentially, the further you get from the machine, the higher the level.As far as the implementation of languages, well that depends. You can very well implement any language in assembly or machine code (given enough time, patience, and self-loathing.)Usual strategies for the development of high-level languages are to either a) translate to a lower-level language that then gets compiled to machine code b) translate to a lower-level language that targets a virtual machine that eventually translates these lower-level instructions to machine code or c) some combination of a & b until enough of your new language has been written so that it can translate itself to machine-code or vm bytecode (known as self-hosting.) high-level languages can sometimes be seen as collections of cool libraries that translate your code into lower-level languages, on and on until you eventually get to machine code. of course, people who write these translators are smart folk, and sometimes manipulate what you have written to make it run faster.but yes, eventually, almost all languages become machine code in order to be executed (or are converted into control flags that configure the operation of existing machine code / configure an fpga or other type of bendy silicon.)now, were lisp machines self-hosted? i dunno.the implementation of Ruby is open-source, and mostly-readable C. watch a movie about ruby from the inside (some knowledge of c is useful)http://mtnwestrubyconf2008.confreaks.com/11farley.htmlread more about the same:http://eigenclass.org/hiki.rb?ruby+internals+guide---5GLs are even more abstract. instead of solving the problem in the domain space, you merely specify the constraints on the possible solutions and the computer provides you with solutions that satisfy all constraints. this offloads the work of figuring out how to solve the problem to a bit of problem-solving code. Programming a generic problem-solver that finishes in an acceptable amount of time on existing hardware in most cases is EXTREMELY difficult to do, so you need to let the consumer of the 5gl specify some control logic and provide hints to the problem solver. How to make this all work right, fast and make it more palatable than having a nice 4GL is not a solved problem.Rumor has it that there are members of the cult of Logic Programming planning a re-emergence from the shadows and sewers. ( http://www.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/~dtai/projects/ALP/newsletter/f... ) |
any interest in a hacker social network? | jon_dahl: I don't personally feel any pain by having these in different places. If other people do, then you might be on to something, but otherwise, why not focus on a piece that isn't done well elsewhere, rather than replicating common things (job search, news, forums, etc.)? In particular, I haven't seen a quick-and-dirty outsource app done well. Ideally, I think you want something kind of along the lines of linkedin, where you post jobs to people you know. I'm not going to give SCM credentials to a stranger on elance. If this does well, you could build a community around it, rather than starting with a community. |
definition of a highlevel language? | ken: "A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant." --Alan Perlis |
definition of a highlevel language? | bayareaguy: One language is higher level than another one for a given problem when it allows a solution to a given problem to be specified in a way that introduces a minimum of concepts and issues external to the domain of the problem.For example if your problem is to allow a doctor to find the best treatment for a patient with a given disease, you would say an expert system that allows said doctor to express the medical facts and reason about them is higher level than something like Lisp and a raw REPL because the last thing the doctor presumably wants to worry about is something like how a given data structure is implemented. |
definition of a highlevel language? | yan: I think asking what a high level language is akin to asking "What is tall?" If you're talking about buildings, tall can mean one thing, if you're talking about toddlers, tall can mean another. Haskell can seem like a low-level language to, say, English.A "level" of a language is a very relative concept, but you can approximately define a hierarchy of languages relating the level of one language to another using some arbitrary comparison.Since my background is in operating systems and some compilers, I'd say anything C and anything higher level is "high level," but then again, that can mean anything :) |
good place to store code online? | izak30: getdropbox.com
works like a charm. |
good place to store code online? | rw: Do you require privacy/crypto? |
good place to store code online? | sant0sk1: http://github.com |
good place to store code online? | mosburger: For all of my projects, I have an assembla account (http://www.assembla.com) with SVN access. I don't know the privacy/crypto details, so if you're storing private/sensitive data I can't help you with any details there - I'm doing open source stuff and couldn't care less who sees my code. Your situation might be different! |
good place to store code online? | mark-t: Until a few months ago, we hosted our svn repository on berlios.de . It went down every few weeks, so I don't recommend them. We started using them when sourceforge only had cvs. Nowadays sf.net supports svn, so you might look into that.Somewhat recently, we switched to git and started hosting ourselves, but you might look into code.google.com .If you don't actually want your code to be public, just get some free online storage. Do you really need more than 5GB? |
good place to store code online? | njoubert: My suggestion is to get Dreamhost (500GB, 5TB transfer) and buy this for a 2-year time. Enter the promo code "5050" to get $50 bucks off, making this a $150 for 2 years hosting plan that runs svn and you'll never run out of diskspace. |
good place to store code online? | ra: I run a VPS with SVN and Trac. Does everything I need.My backup job runs from home using a scheduled script (cron, tar, scp).You could just as easily send your tar files to Amazon S3 |
good place to store code online? | zvikara: For small projects I use http://www.8svn.com which is pay as you go service, similar to nearylyfreespeech.net |
good place to store code online? | anonym: I use http://duplicity.nongnu.org/ to backup to Amazon S3 (it has support for various other backends). It encrypts with GnuPG. S3 charges a few cents per GB of transfer and a few cents per GB of storage per month. |
good place to store code online? | johnmartin78: We use Beanstalk for hosted Subversion. They've been pretty good so far. And have super integration to Campfire and FogBugz, etc.http://www.beanstalkapp.com/ |
good place to store code online? | vikas5678: I use svn and bought my space from http://svnrepository.com/ |
good place to store code online? | Husafan: My start-up has had an absolutely terrific experience so far with cvsdude.com. If you want a subversion/trac/bugzilla package, the pricing is reasonable and their customer service has been great. Also, if you want to host an open source project, they have free options.I highly recommend it. |
How hard is your problem? | brianlash: I think most technical folks' occupancy of your latter two problem sets isn't so much for lack of interest in new, hairy-scary problems. It's for want of the necessary tools to do so.On the flip side, it's my guess a lot of hackers consider themselves new-problem-solvers-in-training. A 22 year old computer guy may not be solving the clean water and efficient energy problems of the world, but could conceivably have aspirations to do so when his or her talent is matched with the right street savvy, is matched with the right entrepreneurial network, is matched with the right funding opportunities, and so on. So in a lot of cases it's a question of "when," not "whether."And if it's people breaking new ground in computer work you're after, you've got to make sure you're in the right ballpark; Plenty of universities are doing remarkable things in CS, but again, it's usually older entrepreneurs (with money and know-how) who get their hands on new tech through the technology commercialization centers.Which is to say that new problems are being solved (in CS, too), just in different territories and in different ways than we hear about in mainstream tech news. |
good place to store code online? | tlrobinson: I'd recommend a cheap VPS, which you can then use for any number of things, including running svn, git, whatever.You get root access, so you can do whatever you want with it. They're great for prototyping web apps.I like Slicehost (as low as $20/month) http://www.slicehost.com/ |
good place to store code online? | khyron4eva: When I started using Mozy, they offered 2 GiB free and that still seems to be the case.http://mozy.com/free |
good place to store code online? | smanek: I got a VPS with vpslink.comI paid for 2 years upfront and got a 50% discount - total price was ~$12/month for a Xen instance (debian) with 256MB RamI have SVN/trac on it ... although, I've been thinking of migrating to git.I also use it to host a lot of other stuff too. |
definition of a highlevel language? | anamax: > how did lispmachines work? was the basic system programmed in LISP?Yes. However, I'm not sure why that's relevant. |
good place to store code online? | natch: S3. I have a script that takes one argument, a directory name.It encrypts the directory name and adds a timestamp, to make a filename that reveals nothing about the contents of the file except for the time it was created. It stores the original directory name along with the encrypted directory name in a local log file, so I can tell what's what later.Then it zips the directory and its contents into a file, names it with the encrypted filename, and does a GPG encryption of the file.Then it uploads it to Amazon S3 and cleans up after itself.All of this is completely automated once I type in the command. I do it for my project directory, which contains all my projects for the calendar year, periodically. After the year closes out, I start a new year and the old files (from previous years) stay safe and unchanged on S3.Over the course of a year, if a few backups for the same year pile up, I usually delete the old ones. I haven't automated that part.This scheme is OK for backing up a few important directories, if they aren't large, like for source code, just what you asked about -- a few hundred megabytes will cost just pennies a month on Amazon.It's not a SVN or GIT solution, but it gives you total privacy, rather than relying on a third party to do the encryption for you. |
How hard is your problem? | johns: I disagree with your assertion that the safer bets are less satisfying. If my users like and use my app over our competitors', that's more satisfying to me than building something challenging that no one uses or likes.If you're working on something in a crowded market, designing your product to stand out/work better than the rest can be just as challenging (and satisfying) as writing something technologically complicated. |
How hard is your problem? | mooneater: Interesting work seems to flow naturally from interesting data sets. Start by seeking the data. |
How hard is your problem? | SwellJoe: We're doing a bit of both, with the known and quantifiable (web hosting management) supporting our pioneer efforts to be part of a new and almost entirely unsettled territory (cloud computing). I wouldn't necessarily recommend it over other tactics, but it's what fit our business and our existing codebase--we launched based on an old and well-established Open Source project and the existing code greatly directed our first couple of years in operation. But, we also know that becoming a leader in a well-established field, full of well-funded competitors, is not necessarily a trivial endeavor.So, while we think our hosting management products will be a nice source of revenue for years to come, it's the combination of those tools with cutting edge stuff in the virtualization space that will allow us to lead rather than follow (because no matter how good your products are in an established market, you'll probably always be playing catch up in the mind of the market).I also think you're underestimating the amount of interesting work that can be found underlying seemingly mundane tasks. I've found that data analysis and visualization can be a really interesting and fun pursuit within systems management software, and it's an area that brings tears of joy to customers (seriously, people wet themselves over graphs and charts...if you also add export to Excel or CSV, there will be fainting).Regardless of all of that, you have to solve problems that customers want solved. If you're doing that, the harder problems are better, if you are willing and able to solve them faster than your competitors.But, if you are starting a business rather than a research project, you need to make your decisions based on what people want rather than what you want to work on. You cannot start from "here's a cool technology, let's figure out a way to sell it", at least not generally. You must start from, "Here is a market that is being poorly served, and I can serve this market well." If you can fit, "by building interesting and cutting edge technologies" into that sentence without breaking it, then you've got yourself a winner. |
How hard is your problem? | LPTS: We are going to create a 21rst century patient facing medical experience.The experience of going to a pharmacy sucks, and is obsolete. The entire medical industry is complacent in allowing 100 billion in unnecessary medical costs because of non-adherence to medications. The doctors don't consider it their job to make their patients adhere. The pharmacist maybe talks to you for a few minutes and hands you a sheet of medical and legal jargon that says, on page 3, how important it is to take medicine. The drug companies also fail to ensure adherence. Yet patients don't know enough to care.None of these people have stepped up to the plate. So we're gonna do it, and when we solve the problem, we can start upending all the parts of the patient facing medical experience where bad decisions and stupid compromises have been calcified into the shitty experience that anyone who has had a sick family member knows all to well.We are not exactly a web start up though. We must design some actual stuff people will use too. The computer science part of our project is that all this adherence stuff can actually reduce to a flow of information problem given a few assumptions and the right way of conceptualizing the problem from a psychological and brain science standpoint. The computer science forms the informational backbone along which we can build a medical experience that doesn't suck and isn't full of compromises that suck for the patient. From a computer science point of view, we are applying existing techniques to a new problem, but from the point of view of the medical establishment, we are solving a currently unsolved problem of huge proportions.Information about your medication is some of the most important information you encounter, because it directly influences how long you live and how well you live. Edward Tufte is an old man now, and the pharmacies are still basically acting like it's 1952 in the way they present this vital information. |
good place to store code online? | ardit33: codespaces.com subversion account, and it is free for the basic one. |
How hard is your problem? | dejb: I agree that solving 'new' problems is a lot of fun. This can cause problem if you try to turn more mundane problems into interesting ones by making your code cover substantiatlly more general cases than is necessary. This is what has happened to me sometimes.I guess you could consider the optimisation problem of how to finish your 'less than new' problem most effectively as a potentially interesting meta-problem. |
How hard is your problem? | cousin_it: I'm solving a newish problem, posed (but not yet solved) by MS Photosynth: build an immersive, 3D-like experience from photos. But then again, I'm not a startup, but a one man nonprofit/research thing, releasing my code under the GPL. http://openphotovr.orgMy next project is definitely gonna be a for-profit in some other area. Still deciding where exactly. |
How hard is your problem? | jfornear: For fun about a month ago I actually bought the domain letsmakepuppies.com to make a social network for dog breeders with a subtle dating aspect for humans. I thought it was a cute idea, but then I saw a sticker that read, "Please don't breed or buy when pets in the shelters die." |
good place to store code online? | rms: Is github really the only one that sells hosted git accounts? How come no one is competing with them? |
How hard is your problem? | swombat: Problem toughness is not only defined by technical difficulty. Most programmers (myself included) tend to focus on that, but the toughness has many other components, such as the number of users, their fickleness, the strength of the competition, etc.I wrote an article about this some time ago on my blog:
http://www.inter-sections.net/2008/02/11/how-tough-is-your-p... |
How hard is your problem? | ecuzzillo: Yeah, we're doing it. We make humanoid robots.http://www.anybots.com |
How hard is your problem? | ericb: I'm working on a hosted load testing solution. I would say it is challenging compared to many of my ideas since I have to basically build both a website, and a load testing tool, but not in the difficult-computer-science-problem category. The site is: http://testomatix.comI'm getting there, but I am behind schedule. I struggle with whether I should release before I've added reporting in, or if I should wait. If folks are interested, the website has a mailing list signup. |
How hard is your problem? | iron_ball: I make Flash brochureware!...no, it is not satisfying. |
How hard is your problem? | brlewis: I'm making photo sharing work the way it should have worked five years ago, using programming techniques I learned twenty years ago. I'm enjoying it immensely and wouldn't trade it. |
good place to store code online? | gcv: Another vote for github.com. If you're interested in a more generic storage and backup service, try rsync.net. You'll have to write your own rsync scripts to do backups, but rsync.net's uptime and support have been fantastic for me. |
How hard is your problem? | Prrometheus: Tipjoy is confronting a hard problem, but not in the technology space. They are trying to create a useful convenient payment mechanism without running afoul of finance laws. I don't envy them. There's a reason why all banks are the same, and basically the same as they were decades ago. |
How hard is your problem? | wheels: We are. Actually I think more startups are than you're assuming. There are two reasons that this is not obvious:- Usually a good solution to a hard problem looks easy to users.- Simple problems get a lot harder when they're forced to scale. Just keeping things from flying apart at the hinges often involves significant optimization and engineering problems. |
How hard is your problem? | nelud: I'm wokring on local climate model. But one question that bothers me - how will i sell it?... May be i should change direction, i wonder... |
How hard is your problem? | engtech: The title had me at a/s/l |
Closed beta or release the product now? | ajbatac: If you think you have a great product and will surely hit the roof with traffic, an invite only service is recommended. Else, you might as well open it up now and see what happens. |
Closed beta or release the product now? | nickb: If you have no beta testers currently, I think it's unadvisable to open it up fully. Have a closed beta, get 50-100 people in there and get some feedback ASAP. Fix outstanding issues and then think about launching openly. |
Closed beta or release the product now? | aaron4411: Closed releases seem to give you 2 chances at publicity (closed release, open release) to at least an immediate circle, which can't hurt |
Grad School | xynny: Well, as someone who has worked in startups for three years. I think you should at least take on an internship with a startup to see how much you like working in a startup. There is a pretty big financial cost with going to grad school especially if you do a masters. I know that payrates for a person fresh out of a masters program is comparable to the payrate of an undergrad who worked for 2 to 3 years. My opinion is that getting some real world experience is always good before you start your own company. |
Closed beta or release the product now? | mechanical_fish: If I just release the thing now with little content and no community then it could just look like a failed website...To paraphrase Twain [1], which would you rather do? Launch an open version of your website and let people think that its userbase is too small? Or deliberately limit the size of the userbase and remove all doubt?If the site is really not ready, you should recruit a handful of testers -- only five or six are necessary to tell you what you need to know. Otherwise you should just launch the darn thing. Actively recruiting people to help fill it up is still a good idea, but don't put some up some stupid barrier that prevents these people from inviting their friends, their friends' friends, and anyone else in the world. Don't worry, if (while?) the site sucks most people won't ever see it anyway.[1]: http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/1098 |
Closed beta or release the product now? | warwick: Limiting te number of people each tester can invite seems silly if part of the goal is to generate content. You could even add a beta signup page so people could get in without an invite. They'd still understand that you were still building content that way. |
good place to store code online? | jmagar: I can't help but think that there are better ways to backup your code. Once you give it to an online service, you give up total control over how that data is handled.Your code is everything. You should take care of it properly.On the other hand, if you are working on OSS, then of course your need for privacy is trumped. |
Program to build webpages? | zach: Someone on the Joel forum recently lamented the lack of decent prebuilt web app templates:http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?joel.3.632032....I quite agree. Open Designs: http://www.opendesigns.org/ has bazillions of blog and corporate designs, so I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to expect a few more web app templates would be collected somewhere.I suppose I should be the first to mention Weebly: http://www.weebly.com/
I've used it to bang up a quick UI and it's fine if you can accept its current limitations. |
Program to build webpages? | davidw: Emacs. By the way, you ought to attempt to improve your writing as well - it's painful to read something with a nearly total lack of punctuation and proper capitalization. |
an archive for RSS feeds (similar to the wayback machine)? | apgwoz: > The main advantage of RSS over scraping is that there's little noise due to formatting, TOCs, ads, etc.How would you get past the fact that not everyone publishes the entire piece of content in the RSS feed?Slightly off topic, but related... I've often wondered why no one has created an RSS delivery protocol like IMAP. I've considered writing something many times, but it seems like it could get crushed by a few changes in already existing readers. |
an archive for RSS feeds (similar to the wayback machine)? | ntoshev: Google Reader archives the feeds. Just keep scrolling back. There is also a not-very-official API. |
what would you like to see in Windows 7 to be happy? | makecheck: I've done very little Windows programming, but I am amazed how few tools it has "out of the box". If they want me to push my customers to use a new OS, they could ensure it comes with a good set of primitives: preferably the GNU tool set, as well as perl/python/tclsh/ruby/sh in predictable locations. They should also have networking tools of the caliber of PuTTY (or maybe just make a deal to have PuTTY available).Thankfully, at work, we at least ship a build of Perl to our internal customers; otherwise I'd lose my mind trying to get anything done on Windows! Yes, there is CygWin, but there's definitely value if people can Just Work without downloading a bunch of stuff to their PCs first. |
What's your search traffic breakdown? | tonystubblebine: We're 95% Google, 2% yahoo, 1.7% live/msn. Of course, these are stats reported by Google. |
What are some good biographies to read? | visakhcr: If you want to go philosophical, read Gandhi's My Expirements with Truth. |
What are some good biographies to read? | antiform: The Man Who Knew Infinity, about Ramanujan, is a biography that I reread regularly, if only as an example of somebody who continued to do what he loved against all odds. Whenever I get overly frustrated with a math or programming problem that I can't seem to overcome, I go through some of my favorite passages in there, if only to remind myself how lucky I am to be able to what I love with the support of the people in my life.Also, I can now safely say that reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X in high school was a key moment in my personal development. |
What are some good biographies to read? | tgdavies: Tim Pat Coogan's "Michael Collins" is good -- it's as much a condensed history of Ireland from 1916 to the mid 1920s as about Michael Collins. |
What are some good biographies to read? | colortone: Gandhi's autobiography is greatAlso Jan Swafford's biography of Charles Ives is amazing (genius American composer who was also an early 20th century multimillionaire insurance tycoon) |
What are some good biographies to read? | byrneseyeview: The most entertaining and useful biographies are of people whose most interesting features are flaws. You could read about JFK winning elections despite his crippling levels of charm, and the fact that his dad was one of the richest people in the world; or you can read about Mao, who (according to the last biography I read) was disgusting and dull, but still managed to rule a large country despite the threat of coups. For similar reasons, Shockley is probably more interesting than Noyce, Jobs more fun than Woz, etc. But that depends. After thinking about the question for a little while, I realized that I don't notice that much variation in biography quality. It's there, but I'm mostly using the book to visit a historical period in the company of some interesting characters, so the author/tourguide is not such a big deal. |
What are some good biographies to read? | dmharrison: I liked 'Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction' interesting read. It wasn't a cover to cover for me, more something I could pick up during lulls |
What are some good biographies to read? | rglovejoy: John Forbes Nash: "A Beautiful Mind" by Sylvia NasirRichard Feynman: "Genius" by James Gleick"The Passion of Ayn Rand" by Barbara Brandon"John Adams" and "Truman" by David McCullough"Lincoln the Unknown" by Dale Carnegie |
What are some good biographies to read? | mattmaroon: I highly recommend Born Standing Up by Steve Martin if you're at all into comedy. One of the more enjoyable books I read recently. I'd say it was entirely unrelated to Hacker News, but pmarca did paraphrase it in his talk at SuS. |
What are some good biographies to read? | gruseom: Ray Monk's biography of Wittgenstein is superb if you have the slightest interest in him. |
What are some good biographies to read? | DTrejo: Craig Venter's autobiography was intriguing. It would be especially good if you were already familiar with Biology and DNA. I ripped through it and reading it was quite enjoyable. |
What are some good biographies to read? | markm: These might not be biographies but they are good non fiction.It's not about the bike, my journey back to life. - Lance ArmstrongSurely you're joking Mr. Feynman! - R. FeynmanInto thin air - J. Krakauer |
What are some good biographies to read? | ra: Shantaram - amazing. |
What are some good biographies to read? | mattdennewitz: Lincoln's War Cabinet by Hendrick Burton - learn to surround yourself with ideas you don't necessarily agree with and be influenced by the most unlikely minds |
What are some good biographies to read? | rms: The auto-biography of Benjamin Franklin! Incredibly relevant to entrepreneurship.http://www.earlyamerica.com/lives/franklin/ orhttp://www.gutenberg.org/etext/148 |
What are some good biographies to read? | hendler: If you have any relatives, famous or not, that have kept a journal, or written family history - it offers a unique biographical reflection. You can read biographies about the greats, but you also can not be something you are not, and reading about relatives can offer needed perspective about your capacities. |
What are some good biographies to read? | astrec: Monash: The outsider who won a war. - Roland Perry. |
What are some good biographies to read? | msg: Linus's biography, Just For Fun, is not bad.I have sentimental attachments to Man Out of Time, the Tesla biography.No Man Knows My History is about Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon church. It is naturally controversial to the LDS, for its depiction of Smith as a polygamist con man who fell sideways into a religious racket and never quite fell out. I found it very readable, full of color. It might depend on your interest in the period and the subject matter.Stephen King's On Writing is about half biography, half writing manual. I thought it was terrific. It's had several rereads already. |
What are some good biographies to read? | albertcardona: Richard Feynman: "Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman".Not a conventional biography, but Richard wasn't a conventional man either. |
What are some good biographies to read? | mynameishere: Peter the Great: His Life and World, by Massie (this book won a Pulitzer but all his histories are very good) |
What are some good biographies to read? | dedalus: The key thing is to differentiate between a biography and a hagiography.Oppenheimer is a must read let it be "American Prometheus" or my favorite "http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195166736/qid=1151026828/s...".This guy is awe-inspiring in almost every sense of the word.Despite reading all biographies you still feel a sense of enigma about his personality. Try understanding why the american government revoked his top secret clearance despite being "da man" at Los Alamos. He could walk into any deep technical discussion and lead them through their blocking situations.He can write poetry and amazingly well read about other cultures and still finding time to deliver more than expected results. Thats one heck of a biography to write.. |
What are some good biographies to read? | aheilbut: It's a bit more than a biography, but I'd recommend "The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America" by Louis Menand. It's about the lives and history surrounding Oliver Wendell Holmes, William James, Charles Peirce, and John Dewey, and the pragmatist philosophy they were involved in creating. |
What are some good biographies to read? | aniketh: Iacocca: An Autobiography
He was responsible for the ford mustang, and later went on the revive Chrysler. |
What are some good biographies to read? | ComputerGuru: Thomas Edison or Benjamin Franklin. Such brilliant minds with some many little anecdotes us hackers can relate to. |
What are some good biographies to read? | colinplamondon: The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie- there's an unmistakably personal feel to it, as if Carnegie is sitting right there imparting the lessons and stories of his life to you and you alone. He's an incredible writer and it shines through in every page.Free download link (don't you love the public domain?):
http://manybooks.net/titles/carnegiea1797617976-8.htmlRichard Branson's autobiography, Losing My Virginity, is also a great read even discounting the perfect title- together, Branson and Carnegie really drive home the importance of taking risks and leveraging up at every opportunity. |
What are some good biographies to read? | lux: Not that it's an actual autobiography, but "Journey to the End of the Night" by Louis Ferdinand Celine was based closely on his own life and was really something to read, albeit a tough something to get through at times.I was warned that it would be difficult to relate to as a "modern-day young democrat" and in my case at least, they were right. I've since bought two more of his books though (all of which seem to be fairly autobiographical) and can't wait to read them as well now.A word of caution: Not very inspiring material, just interesting literature. And it definitely had a profound influence on many subsequent authors. |
What are some good biographies to read? | uuilly: The Last Lion - Churchill |
What are some good biographies to read? | herdrick: http://www.biographicon.comhttp://www.biographicon.com/view/lypys/Democritushttp://www.biographicon.com/view/r8r22/Hypatia_of_Alexandriahttp://www.biographicon.com/view/4yf4i/Ethan_Allen - a good start on the New England rebel. One of my favorite books is this entertaining work on the amazing life of Allen: http://www.amazon.com/Ethan-Allen-Charles-Albert-Jellison/dp...http://www.biographicon.com/view/hhnvz/Johnny_Ramone |
What are some good biographies to read? | sohamdas: "Surely you are joking Mr. Feynman" [absolutely rockstar of a autobiography]"Every Second Counts" Lance Armstrong [poignant]"A beautiful mind" John Forbes Nash [moving, and heart wrenching]My personal favourite:
"Icon" Steve Jobs |
What are some good biographies to read? | kaens: I found Peter Kropotkin's autobiography (Memoirs of a Revolutionist) to be rather interesting. |
What are some good biographies to read? | herdrick: Don't miss this short read by Tom Wolfe on co-founder of Intel, Robert Noyce: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=190524Better yet, read the full version: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=60385 It's excellent. |
What are some good biographies to read? | nmeyer: theodore Roosevelt, Lincoln. Great leaders |
What are some good biographies to read? | epi0Bauqu: I'm just finishing reading The Fabulous Showman: The Life and Times of P. T. Barnum by Wallace, Irving. Recommended. |
What are some good biographies to read? | notauser: One about the Roman statesman Cicero.He was an idealist with huge character flaws, which makes him pretty interesting to start with. But he lived in a time when Rome was descending from Republican rule into autocracy - and both resisted and accidentally advanced the change.On top of that it is pretty interesting reading for a geek - a poor reserved law scholar with speaking problems became one of the greatest orators of history and clawed his way to the top of one of the Roman system, partly due to his command of the minute details of the law. |
What are some good biographies to read? | augustus: I must have read close to 50 biographies.I love "Titan" about John D. Rockefeller (in many ways a hero of mine).
and
Losing my Virginity - Richard Branson (so honest and realistic). |
What are some good biographies to read? | dhbradshaw: "Made in America" by Sam Walton turned out to be an unexpectedly good read."Let my people go surfing" by Yvon Chouinard (climber and founder of Patagonia) is an all-time favorite. |
What are some good biographies to read? | apstuff: "Yeager"
The biography of Chuck Yeager -- first test pilot to break the speed of sound. His description of going above 80,000 feet, the subsequent failure of the aircraft and what he does to regain control is chilling. The book's a good read. Direct and to the point -- like the man himself. |
What are some good biographies to read? | rrival: J Paul Getty - As I See It.Carl Icahn (unofficial, out of print) - King Icahn |
What are some good biographies to read? | dcminter: Assuming you're looking for a slightly hacker oriented biography then I can heartily recommend "The Man Who Knew Too Much: The Inventive Life of Robert Hooke" by Stephen Inwood.It gives an interesting insight to what it might have meant to have something of the hacker mindset in the 17th Century, and his connection with some of his contemporaries (Newton, Halley, and Wren notable amongst them) add to the general interest. Plus he was a supremely odd and cranky person. |