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Ask HN: What are the best computing-related videos you've watched recently?

92 points by kick ↗ HN
Everyone talks about books and sites they read all the time, but I barely ever see videos talked about on HN, despite videos containing some of the most interesting (and, unlike text, unsearchable) bits of computing history, information and anecdotes.

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kick
Two of the most interesting ones I've seen this year:

Brian Kernighan (of K&R fame, and much more) interviewing Ken Thompson (initial author of UNIX, though you probably already knew both of these): lots of interesting anecdotes, like getting a chess machine seized by the US government:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY6q5dv_B-o

Drew DeVault, (sway/sr.ht/much more author) hacking on his Wayland VR desktop inside of his Wayland VR desktop (don't believe the people who say you can't do programming inside of VR yet!):

https://spacepub.space/videos/watch/f60bee0e-31d3-4aca-9e49-...

NB. the second video is on a PeerTube instance. PeerTube is a federated and decentralized YouTube alternative.

pergadad
The second video is truly impressive. On the other hand I'm getting a bit scared for the expectations for the average office worker 10-20 years from now.
helph67
The following documentary is an important record of the early days of the BBS/comms world of computing. Particularly as in most cases it includes interviews with the individuals responsible for creating so many of the standards used. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBS:_The_Documentary
ACE_Recliner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8d77KV__gI Peristent Virtual Memory in the Great New Operating System In The Sky -- probably the only video on YouTube talking about KeyKOS besides Norm Hardy's ocap talk in 2017.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEDCXTpx0R8 OCAP 2017 Keynote Norm Hardy -- Much oral history about KeyKOS and successor systems by Norm Hardy (sadly now deceased), who was one of the main originators of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVm938gMWl0 RustConf 2017 -- Closing Keynote: Safe Systems Software and the Future of Computing by Joe Duffy -- Joe Duffy's retrospective talk on the Midori project at RustConf 2017.

There's a lot of stuff out there, but I thought I would drop these three in particular because they don't have particularly high viewership compared to their historical value as anecdotes.

kratom_sandwich
Not an instructional video, but I rewatch the Facemesh scene from "The Social Network" over and over:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSKoVsHs_Ko

IMO, everything about this scene is fantastic, starting with the fact that the bits of text are taken from actual court proceedings.