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Ask HN: Remote island can only have 1 PC, 1 book, 1 programming language

1 points by kbrannigan ↗ HN
Imagine being dropped on a remote island for 1 year with a solar-powered laptop, zero internet, you can only bring one book, and can choose any one programming language and you may find some e-waste ?

What do you pick, and what do you spend 12 months building ?

11 comments

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benoau
Don't think there'd be much point building something under those circumstances, other than being bored.
kbrannigan
But what if you were ask to at least 1 commit per day?
benoau
You're disconnected so how would anyone know what you did or didn't do?

And if there were expectations on how you spent that time, why would they equip you worse than if you went to Antarctica or Mars?

spottedmarley
A book on 'How to Build a Raft' and 12 months to build one seems doable. All I need is a little javascript and a few games to play on the laptop to pass the down time and I'd survive.
dangerface
Instructions where unclear, I brought a book on the raft consensus protocol.
Someone
Pick the ENIAC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC) as your computer, turn its power supply (it consumed 150 kW according to hat article) into an arc welder, and use its metal parts to build a ship.

Alternatively, build a radio out of its parts.

thorin
How about "An object oriented approach to building a RaftFactoryImplementorHelper".
polarsanel
Probably any old language. Python? And a book related to games programming as I would want to play the games as an alternative source of entertainment.
shoo
For programming language I choose C++, as an excuse to bring some 800+ page C++ book. The brick of a book can be used as a bludgeoning weapon when hunting for food & the pages can be torn off to help start fires.
austin-cheney
I have lived that exact scenario, mostly. My first year in Afghanistan I was frequently traveling, and mostly had no internet access. It was the year I taught myself to write original software applications in JavaScript on a small netbook. I built out the earliest versions of this once popular diff tool.
ferguess_k
Not really interested in building anything.

1 PC = My T470S laptop upgraded to 24GB of RAM;

1 book = OSTEP

1 programming language = C (with some mandatory assembly)

Also, apparently I can download many books onto the laptop, so we need to clarify that, too. If we can download some books, then:

2-3 books about the Linux kernel (e.g. LDD3), the manual of GDB (I actually purchased a paper one), a manual about QEMU perhaps (not sure if they have one), and a couple of books about C programming.

I wish I could do something like this in real life, and getting paid somewhat :)