Hacker News: imb

New comment by imb in "Logo Programming"

imb — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 20:02:06 +0000

1. Students with no prior programming experience start with Logo (in-house version).

2. Logo is of course not strictly necessary, but for beginners, especially if they have had no interest in coding or have math/problem solving anxiety it seems like an excellent way to go based on our experience.

3. It's easier to get started coding using Logo than almost any other language/platform. Just a few characters (eg. fd 100) gives you an animation. As AI can now generate extremely complex code, it helps to have an easy to use language that someone can use to learn what coding is all about without getting stuck in (initially) unnecessary details. Logo is also not primarily about programming, but mostly about thinking and problem solving in a relatively simple environment that allows quick feedback to the learner. Logo is, of course, not the right tool for learning how operating systems, databases, CPUs, work.

New comment by imb in "Logo Programming"

imb — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 19:48:36 +0000

The original link seems to work for me, but yes, the book is "Lines and Curves: A Practical Geometry Handbook"

New comment by imb in "Logo Programming"

imb — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 21:37:49 +0000

For many years, our students[0] have used Logo as an integral part of their math circle-style[1] classes. When we started Wally Feurzeig, one of the creators of Logo, was instrumental in helping us incorporate ideas from Logo into the kind of non-standard problem solving that we were striving for. Turtle geometry is a particularly helpful "instrument of the mind" for exploring dynamic geometry. Our co-founder, Victor Gutenmacher, wrote an incredible book[2] on "geometry in motion," which gave a completely different perspective on geometry from the one seen in school and which our students could explore with the help of Logo. For many of our students, especially those with math anxiety, Logo was what enabled them to overcome that anxiety and discover the joy of thinking and tinkering. Many programmers today have fond memories of getting into programming via Logo, but I would argue that despite the current blistering pace of progress, it remains one of the best and gentlest introductions to problem solving and computational thinking.

[0] https://www.gentleknowledge.com/

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Math_circle

[2] https://www.amazon.com/dp/0817641610

Study Turns Central Dogma on Its Head

imb — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 21:21:09 +0000

Article URL: https://www.genengnews.com/news/study-turns-central-dogma-on-its-head/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28174685

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

High Schoolers Win Congressional Data Challenge

imb — Wed, 20 Jun 2018 19:37:56 +0000

Article URL: https://labs.loc.gov/experiments/congressionalchallenge/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17358956

Points: 5

# Comments: 1

Why Decentralization Matters

imb — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 03:06:44 +0000

Article URL: https://medium.com/@cdixon/why-decentralization-matters-5e3f79f7638e

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16410478

Points: 65

# Comments: 16

Civil, the blockchain-based journalism marketplace

imb — Fri, 27 Oct 2017 19:37:02 +0000

Article URL: http://www.niemanlab.org/2017/10/civil-the-blockchain-based-journalism-marketplace-is-building-its-first-batch-of-publications/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15571544

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

Gathering in Remembrance of Vladimir Voevodsky

imb — Wed, 11 Oct 2017 18:01:50 +0000

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDzD7LYrrTU

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15451758

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by imb in "A startup’s Firebase bill suddenly increased from $25 to $1750 per month"

imb — Wed, 17 May 2017 17:12:26 +0000

Others have had similar complaints for a while and Google/Firebase has not resolved them: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/38959321/firebase-databas...

New comment by imb in "Ask HN: Best Laptop for Developers Right Now?"

imb — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 18:03:38 +0000

A laptop is probably not the best idea for deep learning, but you can certainly use one as a terminal to connect to a much more powerful gpu-optimized server. I'm curious to hear what others are using for their deep learning setup.

Decentralized digital library controlled by the community

imb — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 00:24:27 +0000

Article URL: https://lbry.io/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13918833

Points: 5

# Comments: 0

Winners of the 2016 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards

imb — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 17:25:21 +0000

Article URL: http://sjawards.aaas.org/2016winners

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12969207

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

Dataviz: Explore how illegal drugs have become cheaper and more potent over time

imb — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 17:16:18 +0000

Article URL: https://www.statnews.com/2016/11/16/illegal-drugs-price-potency/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12969109

Points: 6

# Comments: 0

World's Top Arms Exporters and Importers (D3.js Visualization)

imb — Sun, 20 Mar 2016 01:08:16 +0000

Article URL: http://insightfulinteraction.com/armstransfer.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11321301

Points: 5

# Comments: 1

World's Top Arms Importers Visualized

imb — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 05:09:17 +0000

Article URL: http://insightfulinteraction.com/armsimport.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9084779

Points: 5

# Comments: 0

World's Top Arms Exporters Visualized

imb — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 00:18:13 +0000

Article URL: http://insightfulinteraction.com/armsexport.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9084000

Points: 105

# Comments: 120

New comment by imb in "HN. Let's share Twitter accounts"

imb — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 02:43:19 +0000

No personal account yet, but tweeting about computer science and math issues on behalf of our education organization. Looking for interesting people/projects to follow.

https://twitter.com/gentleknowledge

FSB forces founder of largest Russian social network to give up company

imb — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 20:33:25 +0000

More info: Pavel Durov, the founder of vKontakte, which is the largest social network in the former Soviet republics, was pressured by Russia's security service (FSB) to reveal the identities of Euromaidan activists in Ukraine as well information related to the opposition in Russia. He refused, and was effectively pushed out of the company. This is part of Russia's new crackdown on free speech.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7600357

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Theory, Pattern Recognition, and Neural Networks Lectures

imb — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 07:35:20 +0000

Article URL: http://videolectures.net/course_information_theory_pattern_recognition/

Hacker News: imb

New comment by imb in "Logo Programming"

New comment by imb in "Logo Programming"

New comment by imb in "Logo Programming"

Study Turns Central Dogma on Its Head

High Schoolers Win Congressional Data Challenge

Why Decentralization Matters

Civil, the blockchain-based journalism marketplace

Gathering in Remembrance of Vladimir Voevodsky

New comment by imb in "A startup’s Firebase bill suddenly increased from $25 to $1750 per month"

New comment by imb in "Ask HN: Best Laptop for Developers Right Now?"

Decentralized digital library controlled by the community

Winners of the 2016 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards

Dataviz: Explore how illegal drugs have become cheaper and more potent over time

World's Top Arms Exporters and Importers (D3.js Visualization)

World's Top Arms Importers Visualized

World's Top Arms Exporters Visualized

New comment by imb in "HN. Let's share Twitter accounts"

FSB forces founder of largest Russian social network to give up company

Theory, Pattern Recognition, and Neural Networks Lectures

Pi Calculus