@ -21,11 +21,13 @@ Here there will be a constantly WIP list of [books](book.md) that might be of in
- **Masters of Doom** (Kushner, 2003): Another nice book for [Doom](doom.md) fans, this time not really technical but rather just retelling the story of the game's development -- quite comfy, a lot if interesting trivia.
- **[The Jargon File](jargon_file.md)** (1975...): [Hacker culture](hacking.md) dictionary, a lot of wisdom, inside jokes, and things related to oldschool hacking.
- **Rebel Code** (Moody, 2001): A bit of a mainstream view at the whole "[open source](open_source.md)" history -- though it's a small brain business view which we have to keep in mind at all times, it's a nice introduction to the whole FOSS world for the newcomers, as the book covers most of the relevant projects and [people](people.md).
- **The Country of the Blind** by H. G. Wells (1911): Very nice story, also in the public domain and digitized online, easily accessible. Though not related to technology, it's a great food for thought as it entertains an idea of a population of people who are completely blind which has interesting implications for their lives, and furthermore it shows that if you place someone too competent in a group of retards, they won't recognize his competence, in fact they'll see him as someone yet more retarded than they are themselves.
- **The Nostalgia Nerd's Retro Tech**: Nice small database of all the old consoles/computers (SNES, Amiga, C64, ...), each one with high quality photos, short summary, specs and notable games. There is not much text, it's more like tl;drs of the most important stuff, it's an ideal overview of the old computers for a newcomers but can also serve as a quick reference to anyone.
- older books by **Andreas Eschbach** { The new ones seemed to have some Feminist shit etc., had to stop reading it :D ~drummyfish }, mainly **Carpet Makers** and **Jesus Video**: This is not directly related to LRS but it feels right to mention one of the most underrated [sci-fi](sci_fi.md) authors here -- many LRS followers will probably appreciate high quality sci-fi dealing with super interesting topics that are at least loosely related to LRS. Really Eschbach is so superior to just 99% of all sci-fi you'll encounter, his books are extremely readable, believable and greatly interesting in choosing topics, he makes you think about society, religion etcetc. Spoilers probably won't help, just go check out the books.
- **The Pig and the Box** (MCM, 2009): A short story for kids showing the dangers of [DRM](drm.md), released under [CC0](cc0.md)!
- **The Tao of Programming** (James, 1987): Famous piece of [hacker culture](hacking.md) literature, wisdom of programming written in taoist style.
- **Tricks of the Game Programming Gurus** (1994): Very nice, readable book, that implements a whole 90s shooter game in [C](c.md), without drowning the reader in tons of equations and smartass talk. It's written with the 90s mindset and in common language, contains many practical tricks for optimizing the code etc.
- **The Nostalgia Nerd's Retro Tech**: Nice small database of all the old consoles/computers (SNES, Amiga, C64, ...), each one with high quality photos, short summary, specs and notable games. There is not much text, it's more like tl;drs of the most important stuff, it's an ideal overview of the old computers for a newcomers but can also serve as a quick reference to anyone.
- older books by **Andreas Eschbach** { The new ones seemed to have some Feminist shit etc., had to stop reading it :D ~drummyfish }, mainly **Carpet Makers** and **Jesus Video**: This is not directly related to LRS but it feels right to mention one of the most underrated [sci-fi](sci_fi.md) authors here -- many LRS followers will probably appreciate high quality sci-fi dealing with super interesting topics that are at least loosely related to LRS. Really Eschbach is so superior to just 99% of all sci-fi you'll encounter, his books are extremely readable, believable and greatly interesting in choosing topics, he makes you think about society, religion etcetc. Spoilers probably won't help, just go check out the books.
- ...
{ TODO (have to read first): Lisp From Nothing (implementing minimal self-hosted Lisp, CC0 code!). ~drummyfish }
@ -22,9 +22,7 @@ Mainstream consensus acknowledges that C is among the best languages for writing
## History and Context
C was developed in 1972 at [Bell Labs](bell_labs.md) alongside the [Unix](unix.md) operating system by [Dennis Ritchie](dennis_ritchie.md) and [Brian Kerninghan](brian_kerninghan.md), as a successor to the [B](b.md) language ([portable](portability.md) language with [recursion](recursion.md)) written by Denis Ritchie and [Ken Thompson](ken_thompson.md), which was in turn inspired by the the [ALGOL](algol.md) language (code blocks, lexical [scope](scope.md), ...). C was for a while called NB for "new B".
In 1973 Unix was rewritten in C. In 1978 Keninghan and Ritchie published a book called *The C Programming Language*, known as *K&R*, which became something akin the C specification. In 1989, the [ANSI C](ansi_c.md) standard, also known as C89, was released by the American ANSI -- this is a very well supported and overall good standard. The same standard was also adopted a year later by the international ISO, so C90 refers to the same language. In 1999 ISO issues a new standard that's known as C99, still a very good standard embraced by [LRS](lrs.md). Later in 2011 and 2017 the standard was revised again to C11 and C17, which are however no longer considered good.
C was developed in 1972 at [Bell Labs](bell_labs.md) alongside the [Unix](unix.md) operating system by [Dennis Ritchie](dennis_ritchie.md) and [Brian Kerninghan](brian_kerninghan.md), as a successor to the [B](b.md) language ([portable](portability.md) language with [recursion](recursion.md)) written by Denis Ritchie and [Ken Thompson](ken_thompson.md), which was in turn inspired by the the [ALGOL](algol.md) language (code blocks, lexical [scope](scope.md), ...). C was for a while called NB for "new B". C was intimately interconnected with Unix and its [hacker culture](hacking.md), both projects would continue to be developed together, influencing each other. In 1973 Unix was rewritten in C. In 1978 Keninghan and Ritchie published a book called *The C Programming Language*, known as *K&R*, which became something akin the C specification. In March 1987 [Richard Stallman](rms.md) along with others released the first version of [GNU C compiler](gcc.md) -- the official compiler of the [GNU](gnu.md) project and the compiler that would go on to become one of the most widely used. In 1989, the [ANSI C](ansi_c.md) standard, also known as C89, was released by the American ANSI -- this is a very well supported and overall good standard. The same standard was also adopted a year later by the international ISO, so C90 refers to the same language. In 1999 ISO issues a new standard that's known as C99, still a very good standard embraced by [LRS](lrs.md). Later in 2011 and 2017 the standard was revised again to C11 and C17, which are however no longer considered good.
C++ (also crippled C) is an [object-obsessed](oop.md) [joke](jokes.md) language based on [C](c.md) to which it adds only [capitalist](capitalist_software.md) features and [bloat](bloat.md), most notably [object obsession](oop.md). Most good programmers such as [Richard Stallman](rms.md) and [Linus Torvalds](linus_torvalds.md) agree that C++ is hilariously messy and also tragic in that it actually succeeded to become mainstream. The language creator [Bjarne Stroustrup](stroustrup.md) himself infamously admitted the language suck but laughs at its critics because it became successful anyway -- indeed, in a retarded society only [shit](shit.md) can succeed. As someone once said, "C++ is not an increment, it is excrement". C++ specification has **over 2000 pages** :D
C++ (also crippled C) is an [object-obsessed](oop.md) [joke](jokes.md) language based on [C](c.md) to which it adds only [capitalist](capitalist_software.md) features and [bloat](bloat.md), most notably [object obsession](oop.md). Most good programmers such as [Richard Stallman](rms.md) and [Linus Torvalds](linus_torvalds.md) agree that C++ is hilariously messy and also tragic in that it actually succeeded to become mainstream. The language creator [Bjarne Stroustrup](stroustrup.md) himself infamously admitted the language suck but laughs at its critics because it became successful anyway -- indeed, in a retarded society only [shit](shit.md) can succeed. As someone once said, "C++ is not an increment, it is excrement". C++ specification has **over 2000 pages** :D
C++ source code files have the extensions `.cpp` or `.cc` (for "crippled C").
@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ Let us now attempt to briefly summarize what it means to be a hacker:
- **Hacker values [fun](fun.md) and playfulness** -- despite his serious dedication to the art, he hates seriousness of the business guys and "suits", as well as the self-centered, egoistic attitude of "modern hackers" who might see or present themselves as kind of [superheroes](hero_culture.md). A hacker will give his programs funny names rather than names that would make for a good business product, a hacker will insert jokes in his source code (e.g. [hex](hexadecimal.md) values such as 0xBEEFFACE), documentation and speech ([Jargon File](jargon_file.md) has a whole section on how hackers construct and use words).
- **Hacker aims for ingenuity, cleverness, elegance, [minimalism](minimalism.md), thinking out of the box** etc. As such he loves [math](math.md), puzzles, intellectual challenges (such as [code golfing](code_golf.md)) and despises ugly commercial ways of mainstream technology, i.e. that which is [bloated](bloat.md), hastily made to impress by visuals or cheap "killer features" while hiding ugly internals etc.
- **Hacker loves hacking and tinkering in itself -- hacking is the goal, not the means. Hacking is [art](art.md) and carries deep intellectual and even spiritual value.** To a hacker it is a joy to program computers and he aims for nothing more than enjoy endless hours of programming, programming is NOT a tool to achieve low goals such as monetary profit or mainstream fame. Many hackers claim that hacking is better than [sex](sex.md) (though it is questionable whether many of them have experience with the latter).
- **Hacker is an elitist, attitude is not enough for being a hacker**, skill is of essential importance. Correct attitude and mindset are important and necessary but not sufficient (as ESR writes: "attitude is no substitute for competence") -- if you don't excel at hacking, you are not a hacker. This is in contrast e.g. with music genre fans where you can consider yourself to be "punk" or "metal" even if you can't play any musical instrument or with the [modern](modern.md) "inclusive" "[coder](coding.md)" culture in which you can easily be called a game developer even if you cannot [program](programming.md) etc. Part of hackerdom is also an aim for good reputation among others, to be called a hacker by OTHERS, HOWEVER this has to be achieved without asking or self promotion, merely through doing good hacking, you must not beg others to "please call you a hacker" or promote your programs with marketing to achieve cheap popularity -- no, reputation or the title of hacker is NOT the goal in itself, the goal is good hacking and reputation is an indication you achieved it.
- **Hacker is an elitist, attitude is not enough for being a hacker**, skill is of essential importance. Correct attitude and mindset are important and necessary but not sufficient (as ESR writes: "attitude is no substitute for competence") -- if you don't excel at hacking, you are not a hacker. This is in contrast e.g. with music genre fans where you can "identify yourself" as being "punk" or "metal" even if you can't play any musical instrument or with the [modern](modern.md) "inclusive" "[coder](coding.md)" culture in which you can easily be called a game developer even if you cannot [program](programming.md) etc. Part of hackerdom is also an aim for good reputation among others, to be called a hacker by OTHERS, HOWEVER this has to be achieved without asking or self promotion, merely through doing good hacking, you must not beg others to "please call you a hacker" or promote your programs with marketing to achieve cheap popularity -- no, reputation or the title of hacker is NOT the goal in itself, the goal is good hacking and reputation is an indication you achieved it.
- **Hacker has strong opinions about technology**, for example about what the best [text editor](text_editor.md) or best [programming language](programming_language.md) is. However hackers may also sometimes disagree which results in **[holy wars](holy_war.md)**.
Let's mention a few [people](people.md) who were at their time regarded by at least some as true hackers, however note that many of them betrayed some of the hacker ways either later in life or even in their young years -- people aren't perfect and no single individual is a perfect example of a whole culture. With that said, those regarded hackers included Melvin Kaye aka [Mel](mel.md), [Richard Stallman](rms.md), [Linus Torvalds](linus_torvalds.md), [Eric S. Raymond](esr.md), [Ken Thompson](ken_thompson.md), [Dennis Ritchie](dennis_ritchie.md), [Richard Greenblatt](greenblatt.md), [Bill Gosper](bill_gosper.md), [Steve Wozniak](wozniak.md) or [Larry Wall](larry_wall.md).
*IQ follows the normal distribution, measure scales are usually centered at 100 with standard deviation 15, above we see the distribution along with approximate placement of certain groups within society.*
## Pseudogenius VS Real Genius
Most people are called a genius nowadays -- any recent so called "genius" (such as [Steve Jobs](steve_jobs.md)) is in fact most likely of below average IQ; just barely above mediocre idea someone comes up with by chance will be celebrated as that of a genius, **real genius ideas will be met with hostility**; real genius ideas are too good and too far ahead and unacceptable to normal people. Furthermore success in [business](business.md) requires lack of intelligence so as to be unable to see the consequences of one's actions. Your cat watching you solve Riemann hypothesis will not even know what's happening, to it you are a retard wasting time on sliding a stick over table, on the other hand the cat will judge a monkey capable of opening a can of cat food a genius. Society is composed solely of idiots, they can only see if someone is a tiny bit better at what they do than them, and those they celebrate, if you are light years ahead of them they don't even have the capacity to comprehend how good you are at what you do because they can't even comprehend the thing you do. This includes even [PhD](phd.md)s and people with several Nobel Prizes, everyone except the few supporters of [LRS](lrs.md) are just blind idiots playing along with the system, some lucky to succeed in it and some not. This is why shit technology is prospering and [LRS](lrs.md) is being overlooked. It's just another confirmation our ideas as superior.
Most people are called a genius nowadays -- any recent so called "genius" (such as [Steve Jobs](steve_jobs.md)) is in fact most likely of below average IQ; just barely above mediocre idea someone comes up with by chance will be celebrated as that of a genius, **real genius ideas will be met with hostility**; real genius ideas are too good and too far ahead and unacceptable to normal people. Furthermore success in [business](business.md) requires lack of intelligence so as to be unable to see the consequences of one's actions. Your cat watching you solve Riemann hypothesis will not even know what's happening, to it you are a retard wasting time on sliding a stick over table, on the other hand the cat will judge a monkey capable of opening a can of cat food a genius. Society is composed solely of idiots, they can only see if someone is a tiny bit better at what they do than them, and those they celebrate, if you are light years ahead of them they don't even have the capacity to comprehend how good you are at what you do because they can't even comprehend the thing you do. { The short story *Country of the Blind* by H. G. Wells is a nice story about this phenomenon of too much competence being seen as a lack of competence, illustrated on a story of a completely healthy man who finds himself in a village of people who are all blind. ~drummyfish } This includes even [PhD](phd.md)s and people with several Nobel Prizes, everyone except the few supporters of [LRS](lrs.md) are just blind idiots playing along with the system, some lucky to succeed in it and some not. This is why shit technology is prospering and [LRS](lrs.md) is being overlooked. It's just another confirmation our ideas as superior.
@ -105,8 +105,9 @@ With this more of the common people should start to jump on the train and suppor
Here are some of the ideas/movements/ideologies and people whose ideas inspired less retarded society. It has to be stressed we never follow [people](hero_culture.md), only their ideas -- mentioning people here simply means we follow SOME of their ideas. Also keep in mind mentioning an idea here doesn't mean fully embracing it, we most likely only adopted some parts of it.
- **[anarcho pacifism](anpac.md)**: Rejecting force and hierarchy of one living being dominating and oppressing another.
- **beatniks/[hippies](hippies.md)**: We are inspired by many of their ideals such as free love, pacifism and avoidance of [work](work.md).
- **Buddha, [Buddhism](buddhism.md)**: Attaining freedom through letting go, focusing on the spiritual rather than the material, living non violently.
- **[communism](communism.md), [anarcho communism](ancom.md), [socialism](socialism.md)**: Sharing, equality, rejection of property and money, focus on people at large.
- **[communism](communism.md), [anarcho communism](ancom.md), [socialism](socialism.md)** (but NOT [Marxism](marxism.md)): Sharing, equality, rejection of property and money, focus on people at large.
- **[Diogenes](diogenes.md), [cynicism](cynicism.md)**: Rejecting conformity, wealth, power, fame, materialistic needs, embracing simple living in harmony with nature.
- **Gandhi, [non violence](nonviolence.md)**: Achieving things without the use of violence (and similar kinds of force), completely refusing to use certain unethical means for achieving goals, not abandoning one's beliefs even for the cost of one's life.
- **[Jesus](jesus.md), [Christianity](christianity.md)**: Teaching [love](love.md) towards everyone, even those who hurt us, practicing non violence, helping, sharing and compassion, opposing materialist values, valuing the spiritual, being ready to die for one's beliefs.
Marketing is an unethical practice, plentifully used in [capitalism](capitalism.md), of forcing a product or corporate propaganda by means of lying, tricks, brainwashing, torture, exploiting psychological weaknesses of people and others. This manifests mostly as advertisements and commercials in media but also in other ways such as fake product reviews, product placement etc.
Marketing is an unethical practice, plentifully used in [capitalism](capitalism.md), of forcing a product or [corporate](corporation.md) propaganda by means of lying, tricks, brainwashing, torture, exploiting psychological weaknesses of people and others. This manifests mostly as advertisements and commercials in media but also in other ways such as fake product reviews, product placement in movies etc. Advertising is ever present and unavoidable in capitalism, billboards now run along the roads instead of trees, commercials yell from electronic devices that are present everywhere, ugly cheap ads, slogans and flashing lights now cover the art of architects -- indeed, there is a promise of ads being put in the sky, people's dreams and thoughts themselves once technology allows it (so called ["progress"](progress.md)).
Specific practices used in marketing are:
@ -13,12 +13,14 @@ Specific practices used in marketing are:
- **Forcefully seizing attention**: ads are present practically everywhere, even embedded in "art" (even in that one pays for), in the sky (planes and blimps, ...), they play on every radio you hear in every shop, they pop up on electronic devices one paid for, they can't be turned off. They are present in education materials and targeted at children. Audio of a commercial will be made louder to catch an attention when it starts playing on a commercial break.
- **bribing celebrities/[influencers](influencer.md)**. An *influencer* is nowadays a culturally accepted "job" whose sole work consists of lying, forcing products and spreading corporate propaganda.
These practices are not rare, they are not even a behavior of a minority, they are not illegal and people don't even see them as unusual or undesirable. People in the US are so brainwashed they even pay to see commercials (Super Bowl). Under capitalism these practices are the norm and are getting worse and worse ever year.
These practices are not rare, not even close, they are not even a behavior of a minority, not even of a small majority, they are not illegal and people don't even see them as unusual or undesirable. Stop for a moment to think about how deeply fucked up this is. People in the [US](usa.md) are so brainwashed they even pay to see commercials (Super Bowl). Under capitalism these practices are the norm and are getting worse and worse ever year. [Boiling the frog](slowly_boiling_the_frog.md) works as expected.
Good things don't need promotion (it's true even if you disagree). **The bigger the promotion, the bigger [shit](shit.md) it is.**
A naive idea still present among people is that "ethical marketing" is possible or that it's something that can be fixed by some law, a petition or something similar. In late stage capitalism this is not possible as an "ethical" marketing is a non effective marketing. Deciding to drop the most efficient weapons in the market warfare will only lead to the company losing customers and making place for [competition](competition.md) who embraces the unethical means, eventually going bankrupt and disappearing, leaving the throne to the bad guys. You want to do ethical marketing? You're simply out, next in the line gets a shot. Laws will not help as laws are made to firstly favor the market, corporations pay full time lobbyists and law makers themselves are owners of corporations. A law that fixes marketing would be a law that simply bans it -- do you think anyone is going to do that? Even if some small law against "unethical marketing" passes, the immense force and pressure of all the strongest corporations will work 24/7 on reverting the law and/or finding ways around it, legal or illegal, ethical or unethical. You have a few peasants with banners pleading the country's broken, corrupt non-working political system to shield them from world's strongest market entities with billions of dollars at hand and thousands of full time managers and layers who's only job it is to make marketing happen by any means necessary. If you believe in a happy end then it's incredible how naive you are, you must be more naive than a kindergarden baby.
A naive idea still present among people is that ethical marketing is possible or that it's something that can be fixed by some law, a petition or something similar. In late stage capitalism this is not possible as an "ethical" marketing is a non effective marketing. Deciding to drop the most efficient weapons in the market warfare will only lead to the company losing customers to competition who embraces the unethical means, eventually going bankrupt and disappearing, leaving the throne to the bad guys. Laws will not help as laws are made to firstly favor the market, corporations pay full time lobbyists and law makers themselves are owners of corporations. Even if some small law against "unethical marketing" passes, the immense force and pressure of all the strongest corporations will work 24/7 on reverting the law and/or finding ways around it, legal or illegal, ethical or unethical.
Another extremely childish idea is that "marketing serves the people by informing them of new products" :D { I don't know, I always think capitalists have at least one brain cell, but they always manage to surprise me by saying something like this. ~drummyfish } This may not even need much comment (it seems weird, like trying to explain that a book dropped from a table will fall to the ground, feels extremely stupid) but let's see: maybe in times of caveman when market was just invented ads worked like this for exactly two days until one caveman realized he can lie on the ad and if he paints a bigger picture on the wall the other caveman customers will be more likely to buy his rocks than the competing caveman's rocks; exactly at this day ads seized to be about informing people and became solely used for forcing one's products and tricking people, and trying to find ways around laws that tried to prohibit this, spawning the endless bullshit war of advertisers and law makers. It's been thousands of years now that ads have absolutely 0% informative value -- imagine an informative ad on TV, a simple white screen with text: "there is a new shampoo in the shop". This literally doesn't even give any information to the consumer, everyone knows there are shampoos in the shop. Do you think there exists any marketing company in which they wouldn't shit themselves in uncontrollable laughter if some of their employee was like "we should make our ad less intrusive, it should only inform the consumer about our product"? Are you really this braindead now?
**Marketing people are subhuman.** Of course, let us be reminded [we](lrs.md) love all living beings, even subhuman, but the marketing trash not only doesn't show any signs of conscience or [morals](morality.md), they hardly seems [conscious](consciousness.md) at all, they are just a robotic tool of [capitalism](capitalism.md), more akin monkeys -- however immoral shit they get into, they always just reply "[just doing my job](just_doing_my_job.md)" and "[it pays well](it_pays_well.md)" to anything. They make the worst kind of [propaganda](propaganda.md) which literally kills people, they would mercilessly torture children to death if it was on their contract. A capitalist is screeching HAHAHA IT NOT THE SAME bcuz CHILREN ARE MAGICAL n economy is pwogwesss, so this invalid. Indeed, it doesn't make any sense -- a capitalist will stay what it is, the lowest class of brainwashed [NPC](npc.md) incapable of thinking on its own. All in all, avoid anyone who has anything to do with marketing.
Good things don't need promotion (it's true even if you disagree). **The bigger the promotion, the bigger [shit](shit.md) it is.**
No, there is no such thing as a "non-intrusive ad", fucking capitalists are trying to introduce a sense of guilt for not looking at what you don't wanna look. The only non-intrusive ad is that which you don't see or hear at all. Just [block](adblock.md) all that shit if you can.
