bert hubert
ds9a.nl · Personal blog · on HN since 2008
Bert Hubert, a Dutch software engineer, writes about C++ for C programmers, CPU security flaws, and how DNA works.
What HN saysHN commenters mostly recommend his essay 'DNA seen through the eyes of a coder' as a clear explanation of the parallels between genomes and code.
50HN people shared it
13linked it in comments
55stories submitted
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5 years agolast shared
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Most-shared posts
- 1DNA seen through the eyes of a coder (2017)25 people · 753 points · first shared 2008 · 97 comments on HN
- 2Spectre and Meltdown: Tapping into the CPU’s subconscious7 people · 12 points · first shared 2018 · 1 comments on HN
- 3Should C Programmers Learn C++, Go or Rust? (2018)6 people · 44 points · first shared 2018 · 56 comments on HN
- 4Modern C++ for C Programmers – Part 34 people · 9 points · first shared 2018 · 1 comments on HN
- 5Modern C++ for C programmers: part 2 (classes, smart ptrs, exceptions, threads)4 people · 6 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
- 6DNA seen through the eyes of a coder3 people · 16 points · first shared 2008 · 3 comments on HN
- 7Modern C++ for C Programmers: Part 43 people · 4 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
- 8C++ for C Programmers: part 12 people · 45 points · first shared 2018 · 14 comments on HN
- 9From Gnuplot to Matplotlib and Pandas2 people · 5 points · first shared 2019 · discussion on HN
- 10Modern C++ for C Programmers: part 51 people · 235 points · first shared 2018 · 80 comments on HN
- 11Modern C++ for C Programmers1 people · 104 points · first shared 2019 · 21 comments on HN
- 12On Linus Torvalds, technical and corporate communications1 people · 5 points · first shared 2018 · 3 comments on HN
- 13Fileformats are holding back DNA research: The Pan-Genome1 people · 3 points · first shared 2019 · 1 comments on HN
- 14GPS, Galileo and More: How do they work and what happened during the big outage?1 people · 3 points · first shared 2019 · discussion on HN
- 15Final part of Modern C++ for C programmers and recommended books1 people · 3 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
725686 · 2018-12-23
You will probably enjoy "DNA seen through the eyes of a coder"[1] , previously discussed on HN[2]
1: https://ds9a.nl/amazing-dna/
2: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16233644
sundarurfriend · 2018-01-25
The original 'DNA seen through the eyes of a coder' writing that led to this talk: https://ds9a.nl/amazing-dna/
nextos · 2016-05-09
I think it's not only about genomes.
Actually, cells have a lot of state. See [1] for a basic, slightly old, CS-biased explanation.
That's how a single genome yields an incredibly varied repertoire of cell types. We need to work a lot on understanding those epigenomes to then get a chance to pinpoint genetic causes of disease.
[1] http://ds9a.nl/amazing-dna/
rogerbinns · 2015-03-06
I highly recommend reading "DNA seen through the eyes of a coder" at http://ds9a.nl/amazing-dna/
It is a very nice explanation, shows many similarities, while also making Intercal seem sane.
achille · 2014-11-27
Just note that DNA itself is code and completely useless without an interpreter/compiler. The DNA is just a storage mechanism, the true complexity relies on the cell.
See: http://ds9a.nl/amazing-dna/
If we lost all cells but had DNA, we could not do anything with it. The same way that source code is useless if you don't have a compiler.
adamcrowe · 2009-05-30
"If you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail."
Bert Hubert - DNA seen through the eyes of a coder
http://ds9a.nl/amazing-dna/index.html
Chocobean · 2008-08-08
If you haven't read this already, "DNA seen through the eyes of a coder-- of -- If you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail" http://ds9a.nl/amazing-dna/
x3blah · 2020-05-25
"It's not super productive to try and understand this stuff through analogy to computers and algorithms."
You mean like this: https://ds9a.nl/amazing-dna
Having worked in both industries I prefer working with wet science people. For some reason they generally have a much healthier perspective on life. Their work is humbling because it is, and will forever be, full of unsolved mysteries, not simply because it is challenging. The other folks, whether they call themselves "scientists" or "engineers" or "developers" or "coders" or whatever, are working with something that as far as I can see has no inherent connection to the natural world, other than being a production of the human mind. Perhap that affects the perspective many of them have on life. For example, how common among them is this belief that all things, not simply computers, can be thoroughly understood and mastered. Note this is pure opinion, not fact, and I am generalising; there are exceptions to every generalisation.
pchristensen · 2008-10-16
setr · 2019-05-01
Coincidentally, the author already has a response for you: https://ds9a.nl/articles/posts/cpp-rust-go/
jwilk · 2018-07-25
signa11 · 2018-07-03
previous versions are available here (part-1): https://ds9a.nl/articles/posts/c++-1/ and here (part-2) https://ds9a.nl/articles/posts/cpp-2/
marbu · 2017-09-16
Slides for the talk: https://ds9a.nl/dna/