Why “von” is being discussed
The most recent Hacker News stories and comments contributing to this topic's mentions.
Dr. Strangelove was mostly inspired by Werner von Braun (according to Peter Sellers). Clearly there are bits of many other people in that characterization, not just one.
by atombender · Oct 2, 2026
> HAHN [discovered nuclear fission] was completely shattered by the news and said that he felt personally responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, as it wa…
by constantius · Oct 2, 2026
> He wrote the original book on game theory! I always found it endearing that von Neumann loved playing poker with friends but was admittedly terrible at it, regularly losing mo…
by mrandish · Oct 2, 2026
there are so many extraordinary things about von Neumann that there seems little need to write a fictionalized account of his life. How is the reader to know what is real and wh…
by lhd1 · Oct 2, 2026
As I point out occasionally, the bottleneck in early computing was memory. There were no good memory devices for quite a while. IBM had electronic arithmetic in test before WWII…
by Animats · Oct 2, 2026
No, von Neumann does not deserve credit for stealing Eckerts and Mauchleys life work. von Neumann deserves credit for many things, but not this. He famously brought a lawyer wit…
by tovej · Oct 2, 2026
Interest
Proportion of Hacker News items mentioning "von" over time.
Mentions
Total number of Hacker News items mentioning "von" over time.
The term von ( ) is used in German surnames either as a nobiliary particle indicating a noble patrilineality, or as a simple preposition used by commoners that means 'of' or 'from'. Read more on Wikipedia