Tag Archives: history

John von Neumann – The Man from the Future

Before I read The Man from the Future by Ananyo Bhattacharya, I only knew about John von Neumann in two contexts: that computers use the von Neumann architecture, and that he appeared in a story about a mathematical problem I remember from many years ago. After reading it, I understand what a genius he was, and how much of science in the 20th century he influenced. He deserves to be better known than I think he is, and this is a great book to learn about him.

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My Favorite Command-Line Shortcuts

I use a shell every day. Almost always, I want to repeat a previous command, or repeat it after a slight modification. A very convenient way is to use arrow-up to get the most recent command back. Another common trick is to type ctrl-r and incrementally search for a previously used command. However, there are two other tricks for repeating previous commands that I use all the time, which are not as well known. Continue reading