

"The Best of edw519" is now free. Reverse Happy Birthday - edw519
http://edweissman.com/53640595

======
hieronymusN
This is amazing stuff - thanks much!

I made a slightly more readable HTML version (with linked TOC and back links)
here -> <http://bit.ly/lSLTVT>

This could be converted to an ePub I think, with the linked TOC. If this a
problem let me know and I will take it down, or maybe you could post it on
<http://edweissman.com/53640595> to get the linked TOC?

~~~
edw519
Thank you hieronymusN. Much prettier than mine.

One problem though - you lost most of the paragraph formatting and spacing;
you can see the difference on almost every entry if you look closely enough.
Fix that and I'll just put your version on my blog.

[Once again: thank you everyone for the kind words and feedback. You made my
day!]

~~~
hieronymusN
Facepalm - you're right, my regexes got a little too aggressive. I've reposted
it with the formatting intact.

I also posted a version as PDF - again it has the linked TOC which makes it
easier to navigate. The PDF isn't as nice as the HTML though.

[PDF] <http://bit.ly/inAWAc>

~~~
messel
Do you have code handy to convert from html (with a TOC) to epub?

I looked up some python examples to start with:

python epub docs [http://www.egofile.com/2010/01/convert-openofficeorg-
writer-...](http://www.egofile.com/2010/01/convert-openofficeorg-writer-html-
to-epub.html)

<http://code.google.com/p/python-epub-builder/>

[http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/tutorials/x-epubtut/se...](http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/tutorials/x-epubtut/section5.html)

~~~
hieronymusN
[EPUB] <http://bit.ly/kQYAZQ>

I made this one with Calibre, and its optimized for the iPad. Let me know how
it looks for you.

------
6ren
> 87\. What got you "hooked"?

Loved this story, and I enjoy coding the more I do this.

The problem is to keep it focussed on "productive" output - otherwise you end
up like that guy who wrote TeX instead of The Art of Computer Programming; or
Blart Versenwald III¹; or

    
    
        6. It automatically classifies unread comments based upon similarity
        to classified comments and some rules. (The idea was to classify the
        first 300 comments and have the software classify the remaining
        3,700. I realized this capability was unnecessary when the book
        would only contain 256 entries. Oh well.)
    

Not to look this wonderful gift horse in the mouth ( _all_ the bits I looked
into at random were actually great), but it would be nice if titles linked to
their comments.

1\. _One of the greatest benefactors of all lifekind._ <http://www.cse.ohio-
state.edu/~soundarm/book4.html>

~~~
edw519
_...it would be nice if titles linked to their comments..._

I purposely omitted references to the original Hacker News threads because I
wanted the book to stand on its own.

Hope this helps:

[http://edweissman.com/index-from-the-best-of-edw519-to-
the-o...](http://edweissman.com/index-from-the-best-of-edw519-to-the-original)

[Many thanks to everyone in this thread for the well wishes. You guys are
helping to make my day!]

~~~
6ren
Thanks! I actually meant links to the comments lower down on the same page (eg
for clarity: _< a href="#87">87\. What got you "hooked"?</a> ... <a
name="87">87\. What got you "hooked"?</a>_), and then people could link to
specific entries - but I like your interpretation better.

[I had trouble expressing this in the GP, and went for over-conciseness, as
"comment" is ambiguous. I still can't think of a brief but clear way to say it
- there's probably some TeX typesetting terminology for it].

~~~
hieronymusN
I agree - you can check a linked TOC version here <http://bit.ly/lSLTVT>

and [PDF] <http://bit.ly/inAWAc>

------
CodeMage
Happy birthday and thanks for the gift!

Edit: I tried to buy it, but Scribd won't allow me to do it because I'm not
from US (and neither is my credit card). Is there any other alternative?

------
chanux
Hope you are not angry with me for taking it through readability, saving it to
pdf and converting it to mobi.

Wishing you a very happy birthday!

~~~
trobertson
Could you possibly upload that? I'd love to read this on my Kindle.

~~~
chanux
Since I'm not sure what edw519 would think of _me_ sharing his work online, I
did the less wrong thing. I'm pretty sure you've got mail.

~~~
edw519
No problem. I'm kinda curious what it would look like, too.

Thanks for the interest and the well wishes, chanux.

~~~
whimsy
I may mark this up in LaTeX, then, simply because I've never tried it on
something this large. I'll share it here if that's alright with you, edw519.

Question for the peanut gallery - embedding images in LaTeX seems to suck. Any
recommendations? (I'm using MacTeX 2010-basic)

~~~
edw519
Cool. Thanks, whimsy.

(edw519, alumnus of Theta Chi, Beta Chi Chapter)

------
Nemisis7654
First of all, this is awesome. Thank you!

Secondly, I am reading through this and came across this:

 _14\. Should I still be a programmer?_ _"I lack the fundamentals of Computer
Science, the things every programmer should know: Algo's, Data Structures,
Operating Systems an understanding of compilers and being profficient with
linux."_

 _Relax. That's true for 99% of all programmers._

I feel like I am in the same exact boat as the original poster. However, I am
a senior in college who has several interviews lined up. I have interviewed
several times before and always flop on the "fundamental questions". Is there
any further advice someone can give me? Thanks in advanced.

~~~
ChuckMcM
"I have interviewed several times before and always flop on the 'fundamental
questions'. Is there any further advice someone can give me? Thanks in
advanced."

Have you considered learning the fundamentals? Its not a snarky comment I'm
genuinely curious.

If you are programming, find you enjoy it, and wish to continue doing it for
money, continuing education should be right up there on your list of things to
do. (whether you have a Ph.D in CS or just a high school diploma, new stuff is
coming out all the time).

There are a lot of free resources now online. You can get the syllabus and
curriculum for classses that are taught in places like Stanford or MIT or UC
Berkeley. So even if you spend the next two years of nights and weekends
'filling in the gaps' in your knowledge you will find that not only do you get
better at your 'day job' but you will start aceing those 'fundamental'
questions.

There was a time when to do this you would have to audit a class at a nearby
university which imposed limits based on schedules, location, etc. But those
times are behind us now. Take an old desktop machine from the e-waste dumpster
behind some company, load up FreeBSD or Linux on it, and start doing the home
work from some of these courses. The fundamentals are fundamentals because
they apply universally, and you don't need a fancy rig to compare the
performances of various sorts, or explore bloom filters, or key exchange
algorithms. You can run MySQL on crappy hardware for the size databases you
need to run to learn SQL.

Granted the assumption is that you can currently access the internet and you
live somewhere that is currently consuming IT hardware (pretty much most of
Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand. and the N. American continent).

If you are a 'Senior in college' and your major was CS and you flop the
fundamental questions then there is a bigger problem here.

------
sunjain
These pearls of wisdom are no less than PG's essays. What I find most
impressive about his wisdom is that it had withstood the test of time....it's
not just about finding the next big idea and executing it when you are 20/30
something and then do what? It goes much more deeper than that. It is about
how to maintain genuine interest in programming, over a period, measured in
decades(spanning all different type of envmts) and not years/months...To me
that is the ultimate measure of success(for a hacker atleast).

------
mrchess
Any chance you can put this on the Kindle store? Not sure how easy it is, but
I'm sure myself and many others would like to buy a Kindle copy :)

------
gommm
Great! Was planning to buy it but couldn't do it because of scribd (tired of
having services requiring US credit cards)... Happy birthday!

------
dgallagher
Love it! Bought a copy too! IMHO you're the best commenter on HN edw519! :)

~~~
wazoox
Maybe a silly question, but where can I buy it?

~~~
jmonegro
<http://www.scribd.com/doc/52729281/The-Best-Of-edw519>

~~~
heresy
Ah, this is annoying.

Selling is only allowed to people in the US? What on earth for?

I realize it's available free but I wanted to buy for the principle of the
thing.

~~~
ascendant
Just as a shot in the dark, I imagine there's probably a mountain of legal
paperwork to do business overseas that they just didn't want to deal with.

------
krat0sprakhar
Happy Birthday Ed! Thanks so much for all the inspiration. I've been reading
this book for the past week each day during my bus commute. You have no idea
how much pumped I get and can't wait to get to office and start hacking.
Thanking you so much Ed for this.

------
kiwim
I signed up to tell you that I'd love to pay for a kindle version. And happy
birthday!

------
delinquentme
bought it!

still think it was totally worth it!

thanks and happy birthday!

------
zacharydanger
Happy birthday, Ed.

------
amitagrawal
Happy Birthday, Ed!

The knowledge which is packed in the book will save a lot of blood, sweat and
tears in the coming years down the line.

You're truly a blessing!

------
eswat
This looks amazing and I’d love to pay for an eBook version, but Scribd won’t
let me buy it as a non-US resident. Any alternatives?

------
yesbabyyes
Thanks Ed, I always enjoy your comments and almost always nod in agreement! I
look forward to reading this. Happy birthday!

------
gabaix
Ed, could you create a post with the 10 principles of the book? I just feel
getting "take-aways" at a glance will help reader absorb information better.
Your content is excellent so presenting in one-page summary is always a good
thing. I wish more people will read it. It deserves it.

------
dongsheng
Thanks! Reading this book at the moment, seems I missed a lot of good stuff
since I signed up :-)

------
guynamedloren
Love #246 Hacker News Front Page 12/31/2019

But it's Mark Zuckerberg, not Mark Zuckerman ;-)

------
evanw
I'd like to support the author - is it possible to purchase this book and read
it on Kindle?

------
Arxiss
Happy b-day Ed!

I couldn't buy your book, but now i can get it free. Thanks a lot :)

------
Tycho
This feels like a treasure trove. Actually works out as a decent format for a
book, I think. I saved the page as a webarchive to dropbox and opened it on
the iPad with GoodReader. Good reading on the train. Cheers edw519.

------
jacquesm
I'd like to wish you a Very Happy Birthday indeed Ed and what a wonderful gift
:)

------
ageisnil4coding
I like that age is not important in programming (see 94).

So H.B. to you.

------
wccrawford
Ahhh, thanks Ed! You rock!

------
hardik988
Thanks so much Ed. I was looking forward to buying this when it was first
posted on HN, but it was not available in my country. Now it is :) , thanks to
you ! And a very Happy Birthday :)

------
caudipublius
your book was an insight of what life could've/would've been if I pray I
become as wise and as productive as you have demonstrated.

good job/ haspy birthday>!

------
happyfeet
Happy Birthday Ed! Thanks so much for sharing.

------
yr
I wonder why you are not still a startup millionaire ?

------
zafka
Happy Birthday Ed. Thank you for the gift.

------
briannewman
Thank you Ed, this is amazing!

