/Entertaining

Graduate Student Solves Decades-Old Conway Knot Problem

- Erica Klarreich tl;dr: "It took Lisa Piccirillo less than a week to answer a long-standing question about a strange knot discovered over half a century ago by the legendary John Conway."

featured in #183

10 Most(ly dead) Influential Programming Languages

- Hillel Wayne tl;dr: Given that programming languages cognates, it's a starting to point to see which languages influenced others. 

featured in #178

The Unexpected Google Wide Domain Check Bypass

- David Schütz tl;dr: Sometimes it pays to go down the rabbit hole. A story of David trying to bypass a URL validation and finding a bug in Google's common JS library.

featured in #176

The History Of The URL

- Zach Bloom tl;dr: How the URL evolved, stemming from a meeting trying to resolve overcrowding of ARPANET hosts. 

featured in #176

My Ordinary Life: Improvements Since The 1990s

- Gwern Branwen tl;dr: How technology has dramatically improved ordinary aspects of Gwern's life over the last the 30 years.

featured in #175

Google Maps Hacks

tl;dr: A Berlin based artist created a traffic jam on Google Maps by placing 99 phones into a handcart and slowly tugging them on the road.

featured in #172

The Mind At Work: Guido Van Rossum On How Python Makes Thinking In Code Easier

- Anthony Wing Kosner tl;dr: Inspiration behind Python was largely visual. There is a "quietness and simplicity of design" that makes it easier to see what’s going on. It's also why it's popular amongst amateurs and beginners. 

featured in #163

The Mind Behind Linux (2016 Video)

tl;dr: Fascinating conversation about the inception of Linux and Git, and the man behind them. The initial community involved in Linux was critical. Git was a result of managing Linux's growth. Both projects were to solve Linus' immediate needs. 

featured in #162

Devotion (Audio)

- Peter McManus Elizabeth Ann tl;dr: Podcast episode about Terry Davis, a computer scientist who developed an entire operating system - as instructed by god - called Temple OS, while suffering from schizophrenia. 

featured in #161

The Lost Key Of QWERTY

- Thomas Fine tl;dr: Early versions of the QWERTY keyboard included a mysterious symbol. To this day no one knows its purpose, this article runs through several theories.

featured in #160