Hacker News: aworks

New comment by aworks in "Because It's Not Fun Enough: why languages fail"

aworks — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 12:55:00 +0000

I'm retired now but it never occurred to me the vocational languages I enjoyed most were all respectable or false starts (or obscure): FORTRAN, Pascal, Icon, Ada, Tcl.

And in hindsight, I only grudgingly accepted the immortals, although I recognized at the time they would be widely adopted: C, C++, Java, Javascript, and Python.

Is awk still respectable? Is it even a programming language?

ChatGPT Knows Who It'll Recommend Before It Searches

aworks — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 11:07:04 +0000

Article URL: https://suganthan.com/blog/chatgpt-decides-before-it-searches/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49242132

Points: 23

# Comments: 6

New comment by aworks in "A World of First Drafts"

aworks — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 22:29:20 +0000

This mentions a piece by the guitarist Michael Hedges, dedicated to the minimalist composer Steve Reich. Interesting...

'This Is Not Financial Advice'

aworks — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 14:37:20 +0000

Article URL: https://www.noemamag.com/this-is-not-financial-advice/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48461736

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

Stochastic Parrots on the Palatine Hill: Monday MAMLMs

aworks — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 22:37:20 +0000

Article URL: https://braddelong.substack.com/p/stochastic-parrots-on-the-palatine

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48363530

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by aworks in "Let the AI Cook"

aworks — Sat, 23 May 2026 13:20:54 +0000

Excessive prompts as ceremony. That's an interesting idea.

The Rage of the Billionaires Is Coming

aworks — Mon, 18 May 2026 14:31:01 +0000

Article URL: https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/monopoly-round-up-the-rage-of-the

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48180438

Points: 38

# Comments: 24

New comment by aworks in "NASA still maintains some of the Voyager spacecraft code from the 70s era"

aworks — Mon, 18 May 2026 14:27:29 +0000

It would also be an interesting job, even if off the beaten track.

As a hiring manager, if I saw this on a resume interspersed with various web development work, I would be intrigued.

New comment by aworks in "Russia is starting to lose ground in Ukraine"

aworks — Mon, 18 May 2026 14:07:32 +0000

That's fair.

New comment by aworks in "AI eats the world (Spring 26) [pdf]"

aworks — Mon, 18 May 2026 13:54:29 +0000

"Chat is a terrible UX General use needs ‘apps’"

I'm old so my computer career has gone: punch cards => calculators => command-line => GUI => touch screen => voice => chat. Chat seems to be the best blend of expressiveness and utility, with a dose of magic thrown in.

New comment by aworks in "Russia is starting to lose ground in Ukraine"

aworks — Mon, 18 May 2026 13:37:11 +0000

I hope Peter Zeihan lives a long life.

New comment by aworks in "America's Most-Spoken Languages After English and Spanish"

aworks — Mon, 18 May 2026 11:19:25 +0000

The three surprises for me: NV/Tagalog, AL/Korean, KY/German.

The first two are presumably recent immigration.

Kentucky in particular surprises me despite my German ancestors settling in Indiana during the 19th Century. I had assumed Kentucky had been English immigrants from colonial Virginia/Carolina.

New comment by aworks in "Someone Shared a Real Monet Painting as AI and Asked for Critiques"

aworks — Sat, 16 May 2026 12:46:47 +0000

This is why John Cage's 4'33" mentioned above is genius. If you listen to the composition with sincerity and seriousness, you get the full, unadulterated (non-silent) experience as opposed to an interpretation.

New comment by aworks in "The language debate is back!"

aworks — Sat, 16 May 2026 00:01:23 +0000

Codex has used Power Shell, C# and Python and I[m mostly none the wiser. Ok.

New comment by aworks in "ABC News has taken all FiveThirtyEight articles offline"

aworks — Fri, 15 May 2026 23:25:24 +0000

Companies have a long history of mis-management of their acquisitions (and mis-managing their portfolio of projects outside their money-making expertise).

As you suggest, it's good that the alumni seem to be doing fine, although Harry Enten's commentary on CNN is not as thougtful as he was on 538 podcasts.

New comment by aworks in "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born"

aworks — Fri, 15 May 2026 17:31:49 +0000

I, an American, was on a business trip in Sweden then a holiday in Scotland. It was easier to understand the Swedes than the Scots...

New comment by aworks in "I love Linux, but I can't quit Windows"

aworks — Fri, 15 May 2026 17:06:08 +0000

I have a computer science degree yet continue to use Windows. Is it because I have 30 years of experiece knowing what to ignore?j I do also use WSL for the command-line.

New comment by aworks in "Riding the D in Los Angeles: city hopes new subway stations will be game changer"

aworks — Wed, 13 May 2026 00:47:26 +0000

I lived in Silicon Valley without a car for 2 years. Commuted between Palo Alto and Santa Clara by Caltrain commuter rail. Took the local bus system frequently. Rented a car occasionally. It can be done but it's not easy.

New comment by aworks in "Thomas Massie Has Always Been a Pain in the Ass"

aworks — Tue, 12 May 2026 15:00:36 +0000

"Even as a child, he had that engineer’s directness, an innate distrust of authority, and the gifted kid’s impatience with lesser mortals."

Thomas Massie Has Always Been a Pain in the Ass

aworks — Tue, 12 May 2026 15:00:36 +0000

Article URL: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/05/thomas-massie-has-always-been-a-pain-in-the-ass/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48109326

Points: 3

# Comments: 1