Top all-time · #8416
Jan van den Berg
Personal blog · j11g.com · on HN as janvdbergprogrammingwritingproductivity
Jan van den Berg's personal blog at j11g.com covers programming, writing and productivity. Since 2017, 9 different Hacker News readers have linked it 56 times, most often “The Legacy of Bram Moolenaar”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (2) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Jan van den Berg's posts on Vim and its creator Bram Moolenaar, including a tribute after his death. HN readers link it as a better read than other coverage and quote its lines on Vim.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 2 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Browse all published posts by year.
Most-linked posts?
- The Legacy of Bram Moolenaar3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-08-07
- Git Is Eating the World3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-08-21
- Rock–paper–scissors2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-12-24
What Hacker News says?
This! It is so strange when posts don't have a date. It feels like those posts are trying actively to hide something. It's almost suspicious. I also have a couple of other things I look for in a good blog: https://j11g.com/2024/06/24/a-good-blog-has/
Comment linking /2024/06/24/a-good-blog-has/
on “Microfeatures I love in blogs and personal websites”Submitted The Mythical Man-Month in the Age of AI as a story · 496 points
HN discussionMine is https://j11g.com/ I mainly do book reviews few times per month (some posts are bigger than others). And blog a little bit about music and a little bit about tech: https://j11g.com/category/tech/ The book reviews are mostly (public) notes to myself. The tech blogs are mostly aimed at a larger audience.
Comment linking /category/tech/
on “Ask HN: What is your blog and why should I read it?”Submitted Git Is Eating the World as a story · 6 points
HN discussionNice! Coincidentally I had my very first Django experience two weeks ago (and blogged about it [0]). It struck me as a very solid and clean and lean framework. But I do think there is somewhat of an entry barrier: you need to understand quite a few concepts, which if you do, would open up many more options besides Django. So it's not unique in that regard. However, I had trouble finding QUICK CRUD app solution i.e.…
Comment linking /index.php/2017/11/23/django-in-10-minutes/
on “Django 2.0 released”Submitted Rescale your Hetzner VPS and save money as a story · 4 points
HN discussionAdvent of Code is a lot of fun! Last year I wrote a little bit about all the different languages/approaches people use to solve the challenges: https://j11g.com/2018/12/03/advent-of-code/
Comment linking /2018/12/03/advent-of-code/
on “Advent of Code 2019”Submitted Hacker News: sort user submissions by score as a story · 4 points
HN discussionThis looks great, and like something I was looking for a couple of months ago. I couldn't find anything, so I created my own [0] (limited) solution. But the Files app looks like it might replace this. [0] https://j11g.com/2021/11/23/corbin-static-responsive-image-a... [1] https://github.com/jan-vandenberg/corbin
Comment linking /2021/11/23/corbin-static-responsive-image-and-video-gallery-generator/
on “Files – Single-file photo gallery and file manager”Submitted Podcast: Donald Knuth Lectures on Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI wrote about that last year: https://j11g.com/2020/07/01/how-i-read-52-books-in-a-year/ Long story short: read every day. I notice my average is pretty steady, around 30 pages/day. So if I manage that, I’m good. But the thing is — with a good book — reading 30 pages is a breeze. And I often end up reading more. I also notice if I can’t read at least 30 pages in one sitting I probably don’t like the book very much.
Comment linking /2020/07/01/how-i-read-52-books-in-a-year/
on “Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?”Submitted Git Is Eating the World as a story · 3 points
HN discussionGreat write up! Tip I learned this week when I migrated my VPS [1]: when dumping MySQL/MariaDB databases for disaster recovery, dump the grants (aka database user rights) with the pt-show-grants tool. You don't want to import the mysql table itself on a fresh MySQL/MariaDB installation, it's a headache. So dump all your tables to SQL (raw data) and dump your user grants/rights with pt-show-grants (which in itself cr…
Comment linking /2021/12/28/migrating-a-lamp-vps/
on “Self-Hosting Dozens of Web Applications and Services on a Single Server”Submitted Removing Apache Log Noise as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSpeaking about Knuth audiofiles/podcasts, I recently created a RSS feed for the Knuth's "Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About" audio files ( https://j11g.com/knuth.xml ). This way you can listen to it in your favorite podcast player. For example, I added the feed to Overcast: https://overcast.fm/p1120847-YM0aS7
Comment linking /knuth.xml
on “Donald Knuth: Algorithms, Complexity, Life, and the Art of Programming [video]”Submitted How to Tune a Lamp Stack on Debian for Maximum Performance as a story · 2 points
HN discussionFun! I also did a similar thing [1] which is or more or less a GoodReads clone. Still looking for a syndicated/federated booklist share tool, so I can track friend's books/reading lists. [1] https://j11g.com/2019/11/16/foster-how-to-build-your-own-boo...
Comment linking /2019/11/16/foster-how-to-build-your-own-bookshelf-management-web-application/
on “I made a virtual bookshelf”Submitted From Minix to the Cloud: Tracing the Enduring Legacy of Andrew S. Tanenbaum as a story · 2 points
HN discussionYes from Linode to Hetzner [1] Mainly because of price: more CPU/RAM/Storage for a lower price. I think my previous server was underpowered, because it kept swapping. Now it runs as smooth as it can (it never swaps). Migrating is a bit of a hassle though and things might not work as you expect [2] [1] https://j11g.com/2021/12/28/migrating-a-lamp-vps/ [2] https://j11g.com/2022/01/03/bypassing-hetzner-mail-port-bloc...
Comment linking /2022/01/03/bypassing-hetzner-mail-port-block-port-25-465/
on “Ask HN: Have you ever switched cloud?”Submitted I don't understand terminals, shells and SSH as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI wrote a blog (aimed at newcomers) about the Fediverse/Mastodon with the upsides and challenges: https://j11g.com/2022/11/07/welcome-to-the-fediverse/
Comment linking /2022/11/07/welcome-to-the-fediverse/
on “We've hit 1M monthly active users”Submitted WhatsApp should fix these issues as a story · 2 points
HN discussionHere's the log of podcasts I've listened to: https://j11g.com/podcasts.html
Comment linking /podcasts.html
on “Ask HN: What podcasts do you listen to regularly?”Submitted Git Is Eating the World as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIt is a fun event! I wrote a little bit about it and the languages that were used last year: https://j11g.com/2018/12/03/advent-of-code/
Comment linking /2018/12/03/advent-of-code/
on “Advent of Code 2019”Submitted Rock–paper–scissors as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSpeaking about Knuth audiofiles, I recently created a RSS feed for the Knuth's "Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About" audio files ( https://j11g.com/knuth.xml ). This way you can listen to it in your favorite podcast player. For example, I added the feed to Overcast: https://overcast.fm/p1120847-YM0aS7
Comment linking /knuth.xml
on “Donald E. Knuth: An Oral History (2018) [video]”Submitted Preparing My Vacation Laptop as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThese are a few of the ones I read this year and that the average HN reader would also probably enjoy (links are to my blog): * Why We Sleep: https://j11g.com/2019/05/31/why-we-sleep-matthew-walker/ * The Effective Executive: https://j11g.com/2019/03/18/the-effective-executive-peter-dr... * High Output Management: https://j11g.com/2019/01/29/high-output-management-andrew-s-... * Bad Blood: https://j11g.com/2019/01/2…
Comment linking /2019/08/08/a-supposedly-fun-thing-ill-never-do-again-david-foster-wallace/
on “Ask HN: Favorite Nonfiction Books of 2019?”Submitted How to fix a laptop that reboots randomly as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
