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Fred27

98 karma · joined August 7, 2018

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Fred27··on Analysis: EVs are now nine times cheaper than petrol or diesel to drive in UK
Are they? An equivalent model don't seem to be significantly more new, and you can now get some great deals on secondhand EVs.

I'm in the UK and have now gone completely electric - motorbike (Zero SRF), car (wife's Model 3) and van (ID Buzz). To be honest though, that was mostly because I like EVs - yes, even the motorbike. The fuel costs are just a bonus.

Fred27··on Photon-Emission-Guided Laser Fault Injection Enables RP2350 Secure Debug
There's always an XKCD... https://xkcd.com/538/
Fred27··on [dead]
It's bizarre, isn't it? I remember seeing what happened on 7th October and thought there's just absolutely no way anyone can convince themselves that that didn't happen, was justified, or that these were in fact the good guys. And yet somehow people manage it.
Fred27··on Romania soccer introduces black card to 'combat abusive behaviour' from parents
If it's anything like the UK then it's likely the games are played in a public space like a park, so it might not be possible to eject the parent.
Fred27··on Mom gets 6-month suspended sentence for letting 5-year-old walk to the pond
I agree. The word "pond" is what immediately got my attention.
Fred27··on Can your AI rewrite your code in assembly?
I did read it. A compiler converts your code into assembly. They usually have varying levels of optimisation depending on what you're doing.

The article boils down to "could AI be a good compiler" and I'd say that consistency and repeatability are far more important than a one-off optimisation of a particular section of code. If you've got to the point where a section of code is worth writing some hand-crafted assembly then it's probably worth your time to really understand what's happening with it. Having it "vibe compiled" for you would be a bad idea.

Fred27··on Can your AI rewrite your code in assembly?
Doesn't the compiler rewrite your code in assembly?
Fred27··on Playdate’s handheld changed how Duke University teaches game design
My boys (then 10 and 8) loved MakeCode Arcade. I promised that if they wrote an original game - rather than following the great tutorials - then I'd make them a physical setup with a Pi Zero and some classic arcade buttons. They were very motivated and learned a lot.
Fred27··on C# in Unity 2026: Writing more modern code
I agree. I came to Unreal with only a basic level of C++. Having Unreal handle memory management for you was useful, but I can imagine the chaos an Unreal-only C++ developer might cause when unleashed on another C++ codebase.
Fred27··on C# in Unity 2026: Writing more modern code
As a primarily C# developer who has done some game engine work, I recently gave Godot a go for licensing reasons. Apart from some quirkiness I'm fairly impressed. Much nicer C# support compared to Unity. I've done a fair bit of Unreal C++ but to be honest unless you really need the performance that's just too much hard work.

Having said that getting the code working properly with a nice 3D UI is my priority, not having a slick game with some code doing some mundane stuff in the background.

Fred27··on Londoners are sick of viral videos telling lies about their city
I was born in London, lived in London until about 15 years ago and still go there a few times a year. It really has become as bad as people make out.

One thing that brought it home to me was recently re-watching 28 Days Later. As the main character comes out of hospital and walks over a Zombie-apocalyse London Bridge, I thought "Wow. That looks nice." London in 2026 is worse that Zombie-apocalyse London from 2002.

Fred27··on I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard
I found some of these Visionect displays cheap on eBay and was planning to do the same. I found the backend Docker conatiner was unstable and kept crashing so I parked the project. Maybe I'll have to look at it again.
Fred27··on The 7-Year Bug That Took 3 Minutes to Fix
I once fixed a bug with a similar timeframe. Many attempts by many people over the years. One day I finally fixed it and thought I'd let the user who'd raised it know that it was finally resolved. Unfortunately he'd died of natural causes in the meantime. That really hit home how long it'd taken.
Fred27··on Ask HN: How do you find the "why" behind old code decisions?
Anything that has a "why" _should_ have a comment. I know people like to structure code so that it doesn't need comments. However, nice clean well structured code can describe the _what_ without comments but never the _why_.
Fred27··on Donut Lab’s all-solid-state battery delivers 400 Wh/kg of energy density
I'm not sure the test rides are for the version of the bike with this battery. The bike already exists with a more conventional battery pack.

I've had a brief test ride on a pre-production version of the Verge TS. All seemed OK but I thought the handling seemed weird - maybe due to the rear tyre size and geometry.

Fred27··on Engineers who dismiss AI
I just don't find it interesting. The only thing less interesting is the constant evangelism about it.

I also find that the actual coding is important. The typing may not be the most ineresting bit, but it's one of the steps that helps refine the architecture I had in my head.

Fred27··on How can I deal with a team member who is always complaining?
I scanned the article to see if "check whether any of their compaints are valid" but didn't see it anywhere. Sometimes maybe the person complaining might be right..
Fred27··on Eliza: The doll that teaches girls to code
It's a doll, a microbit (with MakeCode) and some double-sided tape.
Fred27··on Tailwind CSS v4.0
Tailwind suits the kind of developers who hack things together and build up technical debt and spaghetti code rather thinking about things first and designing things properly.
Fred27··on Norwich restaurant charges £100 ($122) for a pineapple pizza
There's a pizza place in Munich that does the same. It would have been funny if I hadn't been trying to find somewhere my two tired and grumpy kids would agree on for food. One of them was happy to see his favourite pizza on the menu but not happy when he realised the joke.
Fred27··on U2's Larry Mullen Jr: my dyscalculia makes 'counting like climbing Everest'
Now _that's_ what I came to the comments to either see, or say myself.
Fred27··on A Real Life Off-by-One Error
Korea has a system similar to this. You start at age 1 and get one year older each New Year's Day. https://www.90daykorean.com/korean-age-all-about-age-in-kore...
Fred27··on A "new" part of the human body, the interstitium
What's "new" about the interstitium and interstitial fluid? What an odd and pointless article.
Fred27··on Costa Rica’s enigmatic addresses (2021)
I drove round Costa Rica on holiday for 2 weeks. Google Maps worked just fine with destinations (usually hotels/lodges) and I didn't notice anything different about addresses. The roads seemed OK too - apart from some crazy truck drivers. Weird how we had such a different experience.
Fred27··on No One Wants a Printer, but Everyone Wants to Print
Canon is off my list. Not only did I have the usual inkjet issues with my last canon multifunction printer, but it refused to scan when it was out of ink too. That's just inexcusably and intentionally bad behaviour.
Fred27··on PHP in 2023
PHP is useful in the same way that Arduinos are useful. I helps you quickly identify people who don't know what they're doing.
Fred27··on Ask HN: How to move from traditional tech into game dev?
Over the last couple of years I've accidentally done sort of what you're after. I'll describe what happened and give you some thoughts. I'm not sure how useful it will be as I'm now in a business where game engines are used for non-game work and, as I said, my path was fairly accidental.

I took a job doing an interesting C# project where the front-end was being developed by another company (that mostly does cinematic work) using Unreal. It turns out that most Unreal developers love the shiny side of things but rapidly get lost once it comes to needing C++ - or even Blueprints in some cases. I took on the responsibility for the bit where our code meets.

When this project ended, I moved to a different part of the same international company where Unreal was being used for virtual studios. It was a bit of a leap as despite not having much C++ experience, my first proper C++ job was now working on a fork of Unreal's C++ source. That's one huge, unwieldy, undocumented chunk of C++! I sometimes work alongside some very talent Technical Artists who do stuff I couldn't possibly manage in Unreal, but can get stuck when it get down into code. It is more interesting that "standard" dev, but believe it when people say graphics development is harder. In my experience, the only thing that's harder is FPGAs.

Here are some thoughts / tips that might help:

- Get proficient where most game developers aren't - C++. There is some Python used, but good Unreal devs can manage this.

- Use Epic's online learning. Their documentation is awful but their training is good.

- Look at non-game use of Unreal as a stepping stone to game work - virtual studios, architectural visualization, etc.

- This non-game work seems to pay OK. I hear game work doesn't so much. Maybe stay here.

- From my experience, Unity just doesn't seem to have as much traction outside games. Could just be what I've seen though.

I hope these rambling thoughts have been some help.

Fred27··on Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022
A Stream Deck (and later a Stream Deck +). Useful and fun to code your own plugins too.

I work 100% remote so I also went for another Elgato product - a ring light - so my work video calls look a bit better. If all of your interaction at work is via video it seemed worth doing it well. My desk now looks more like a YouTuber's but it's all for coding.

Fred27··on Nothing Says over 40 Like Two Spaces After a Period
I assume it's just an American thing. I'm from the UK and nobody here uses 2 spaces either - and however many we use, it's after a full stop.
Fred27··on An answer to: why is Nvidia making GPUs bigger when games don't need them?
Where did you get your 90% for ML stat from? I suspect you just made it up becuase it just happens to fit what you experience personally.

I work with software for virtual studios. It's very similar to gaming in a lot of ways (even using Unreal Engine) and we really push GPUs to the limits. I'd still count this in the "for gaming" category as we;re still rendering 3D scene within a strict time limit.

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