/dev/zero has infinite electrons and /dev/null has an infinite appetite for them
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Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderThis is a typical Linus Akesson project. Highly eccentric, potentially useless for practical applications, and extremely intelligent. I certainly approve.
This sort of post is why I love HN. At first while reading it I thought, "is this guy for real?", and then proceeded to be amazed at what he wrought with a very simple but elegant idea. A+
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 506
- Total comments
- 41
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-08-03 | Electronic circuits with \0 as electrons and /dev/zero as power source | Qerub | 5 | 0 |
| 2011-08-11 | Implementing digital logic with Unix pipes | bensummers | 12 | 0 |
| 2012-01-20 | Pipe Logic | llambda | 7 | 0 |
| 2012-06-04 | /dev/zero has infinite electrons and /dev/null has an infinite appetite for themFirst breakout · Best thread | sgt | 250 | 23 |
| 2016-02-17 | Pipe Logic (2011) | Tomte | 2 | 0 |
| 2016-02-18 | Pipe Logic | ingve | 3 | 0 |
| 2016-11-20 | Pipe Logic (2011) | Tomte | 2 | 0 |
| 2017-03-30 | Pipe Logic (2011) | Tomte | 2 | 0 |
| 2017-07-03 | Pipe Logic (2011) | Tomte | 1 | 0 |
| 2017-11-12 | Pipe Logic (2011) | Tomte | 2 | 0 |
| 2018-03-29 | Pipe Logic | trias | 3 | 0 |
| 2018-03-30 | Pipe Logic | rbanffy | 1 | 0 |
| 2018-05-10 | Pipe Logic (2011) | Tomte | 178 | 18 |
| 2021-01-28 | Pipe Logic (2011) | Tomte | 2 | 0 |
| 2021-08-30 | Pipe Logic (2011) | Tomte | 1 | 0 |
| 2022-03-13 | Pipe Logic (2011)Latest 20+ point return | elteto | 29 | 0 |
| 2025-10-24 | Pipe Logic | KnuthIsGod | 6 | 0 |