Top posts
Every blog post that took off on Hacker News, ranked by the votes of its best submission. 2,098 posts.
Java 8 Lambdas
Scheduled for release in 2013 , Java 8 will include language support for lambda functions. Although the specification is still in flux, lam...
Hello Opera 12
The latest news about Opera web browsers, tech trends, internet tips.
Confession of a Haskell Hacker
I have a confession to make. I recently released two Haskell packages, lens-family-core and lens-family based on my previous blog post and Edward Kmett’s blog post . However, I never tested this code before releasing it. By “never tested”, I mean that I am pretty sure that I never once executed any of this code. I did…
Goldeneye 64's inspirational startup story
GoldenEye 64 had a special place in my heart when I was growing up. It was the first game my parents wouldn’t let me buy due to violent content. I saved up allowances and dug up couch treasures for months to taste the forbidden fruit. The effort turned into one of the pillars of my childhood experiences. I still…
How not to ask questions at a conference
I went to Pycon last month (my first conference ever!) The conference was totally awesome and I met a lot of cool people. But I was also pretty appalled at the question asking at the end of each talk. Here's some stuff you should keep in mind before you ask a question at a conference.
No Studying After 5pm: Using Parkinson’s Law to Kick Procrastination’s Ass
Sean Gransee is a full-stack software engineer from Chicago offering consulting services. He's also building some apps on the side.
Steve Yegge and Grok
Bryan Summersett's home page.
A Git Horror Story: Repository Integrity With Signed Commits
(Note: This article was written at the end of 2012 and is out of date. I will update it at some point, but until then, please keep that in perspective.)
4 min Emacs screencast inspired by Bret Victor's Inventing on Principle
And its sibling slime-js-jack-in-browser are some conveniences that I've built around slime-js. You can find them here in my .emacs.d on github.
A Boggling Return to C
My first real programming class, back in high school, was taught in C. I found it difficult and I remember spending the whole year thinking that I really had no aptitude for programming. I think I got an OK grade in the end, but I felt like I was really struggling compared to the other students in the class. It wasn’t…
How to Be Relentlessly Resourceful [a practical guide]
Relentlessly resourceful. This is the essential quality of a good startup founder according to Paul Graham, cofounder of Y Combinator. When asked by Forbes what he looks for in founders, four out of the five elements [http://paulgraham.com/founders.html] relate to resourcefulness. He’s written two essays (Relentlessly
Relational shell programming
Unix is a bestiary of ad hoc databases: comma-, colon-, tab- and space-separated tables. Think of /etc/* or /var/log/* , or of columnar commands.
Pay Too Much for everything
Have you ever inherited something that's really old? When you held it, did you notice that it's different than what you can buy at the store today? Chances are your grandparents saved up for quite some time to buy it, and that’s why it’s lasted until now. Often something that costs twice as much doesn't
Building a MongoDB Clone in Postgres
I had a crazy thought. Don't all good ideas start with that phrase? Well, this one was suitably crazy: why not build my own version of MongoDB right on top of Postgres? It sounds a little far-fetched, but in all honesty it's pretty simple.
Screenshot-proof images via temporal dithering
Snapchat 's (and now Facebook Poke 's) main claim to fame is that it lets you send "self-destructing" image messages. Setting aside the debate about the uses of this beyond sexting , the key vulnerability in both apps is the built-in ability to take screenshots. Both take a reactive approach, where you're notified if…
The Sad State of Diabetes Technology in 2012
I've been diabetic for almost two decades. It's tiring, let me tell you. Here's ...
Implementing Fast Interpreters
Many modern virtual machines include either a fast interpreter or a fast baseline compiler. A baseline compiler needs extra memory and is li...
Why we still love board games
In a sprawling convention centre in Essen, western Germany, the busiest day in the German board games calendar – Saturday at “Spiel” – is about to begin. Hall after hall of stands are piled high wi…