Top all-time · #3555
Dan Bricklin
Personal blog · danbricklin.com/logprogramminghistory
Dan Bricklin's personal blog at danbricklin.com covers programming and history. Since 2007, 21 different Hacker News readers have linked it 28 times, most often “Dan Bricklin (VisiCalc) on developing his iPhone app Note Taker”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Dan Bricklin -- The personal web site of the co-creator of VisiCalc
Most-linked posts?
- Dan Bricklin (VisiCalc) on developing his iPhone app Note Taker2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2009-12-15
- 30 years since Lotus 1-2-32 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-01-30
What Hacker News says?
...and the original VisiCalc executable [1], at 27520 bytes, is smaller than the _app icons_ in a modern iOS app bundle! VisiCalc was, essentially, _the_ killer app of the early PC era. The march of progress. ;-) [1] http://www.danbricklin.com/history/vcexecutable.htm
Comment linking /history/vcexecutable.htm
on “Things That Turbo Pascal is Smaller Than”Submitted VisiCalc: Information from Its Creators, Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston as a story · 117 points
HN discussionI still miss the old Stowaway keyboard: http://danbricklin.com/log/stowaway.htm It would be awesome to have the same keyboard, but updated for modern devices. There's lots of cheap Bluetooth keyboards out there these days, but I've never seen one as mechanically elegant and nice to type on as the Stowaway was.
Comment linking /log/stowaway.htm
on “Professional C# and F# IDE for the iPad”Submitted Are mobile web apps really slow? as a story · 87 points
HN discussionBack in the day, I had a mobile writing rig consisting of a Handspring Visor PDA, the wonderful Stowaway Keyboard (see http://danbricklin.com/log/stowaway.htm ), a word processing app called Wordsmith ( http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/2182/review-wordsmith-20/ ), and a modem that plugged into the Visor’s Springboard expansion slot. It was great! The whole package fit in a couple pockets, you could turn it on and…
Comment linking /log/stowaway.htm
on “Writer: An Open Digital Typewriter (2018)”Submitted Dan Bricklin's Note Taker for the Apple iPhone as a story · 44 points
HN discussionhttp://danbricklin.com/history/vcexecutable.htm > The original VisiCalc program that ran on the IBM PC in 1981 still runs on today's PCs. Now that is impressive compatibility.
Comment linking /history/vcexecutable.htm
on “VisiCalc: Information from Its Creators, Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston”Submitted Dan Bricklin (VisiCalc) on developing his iPhone app Note Taker as a story · 41 points
HN discussionAh, the good old days when software and hardware came with a reference card. http://danbricklin.com/history/saiproduct1.htm They were typically folded with several panels, just the right size to sit in your shirt pocket next to the pen and pocket protector. I still have a bunch of these cards I used to carry around in my job as an IBM mainframe engineer. So damn useful and concise. I guess things change too fast the…
Comment linking /history/saiproduct1.htm
on “VisiCalc: Information from Its Creators, Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston”Submitted VisiCalc turns 30 and SocialCalc turns 1.0 as a story · 11 points
HN discussionI find Dan Bricklin's apparent attitude toward software patents infuriating: http://danbricklin.com/patenting.htm http://danbricklin.com/patentsandsoftware.htm On the one hand he acknowledges the benefits of programming in a software-patent-free environment: "At that time in history, and before, few fundamental programming concepts were patented. We all borrowed from each other. Just a few examples of concepts where…
Comment linking /patentsandsoftware.htm
on “VisiCalc: Information from Its Creators, Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston”Submitted Dan Bricklin's Log Podcast as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI dunno if you can categorically rule out portable form factors for "content creation," though. Content creation is a biiiig space. I used to be quite productive writing on the road using a Handspring Visor Deluxe (more info for the young 'uns among you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handspring_%28company%29#Visor_... ) with WordSmith ( http://danbricklin.com/log/wordsmithreview.htm ) and a Stowaway foldout keyboard…
Comment linking /log/stowaway.htm
on “Show HN: Web development IDE running on Android”Submitted Why VisiCalc was not patented. as a story · 3 points
HN discussionAlong with a Stowaway folding keyboard: http://danbricklin.com/log/stowaway.htm People used to be amazed when I showed them how much real work you could get done with a Handspring Visor and a Stowaway keyboard. It kind of amazes me that today we have portable devices that are a thousand times more powerful than the old PalmOS devices, but only feel really useful for consuming media, not creating it. Shows you the im…
Comment linking /log/stowaway.htm
on “Our favorite "forgotten tech"”Submitted 30 years since Lotus 1-2-3 as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI don't see why not. If the screen is big enough, just magnify the input field and any "finger strokes" within it. Dan Bricklin was working on something like this for the iPhone, and it'd be a natural fit for the iPad. http://danbricklin.com/log/2009_12_05.htm#notetaker
Comment linking /log/2009_12_05.htm
on “Bill Gates on the iPad - and his envy of the iPhone”Submitted Dan Bricklin: Original VisiCalc running in a JavaScript IBM PC emulator as a story · 2 points
HN discussion...and if you must, must build something then for heaven's sake use HTML. Don't go spending all your time and money on an iOS app when you don't even know the business model or who you will sell to. Here's Dan Bricklin on an HTML5-first approach http://danbricklin.com/log/2014_01_24.htm#html5first
Comment linking /log/2014_01_24.htm
on “The Evolution of an Idea to MVP”Submitted Dan Ariely: Applying behavioral economics to Open Source as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Livestreaming a Town Meeting is a Good Thing as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted 30th anniversary of the release of Lotus 1-2-3 as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Note Taker HD version 5 -- a real productivity app on the iPad as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Running a spreadsheet in a browser on the OLPC XO as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted SocialCalc Engine programmer documentation as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Motorola VP talks about wikis and blogs and why they are so important [podcast] as a story · 1 points
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