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colund

1,801 karma · joined January 12, 2014

Freelance software developer
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colund··on I Traded My Time for Security Without Realizing It. Here's What That Costs You
I've been thinking something similar. Then I thought about all the people who get up early to do construction work etc - fixing things day by day without worrying about fomo or time wasted. That though made me calm and feel that things are ok...
colund··on Ask HN: What is your favorite podcast?
Rustacean Station, Startups for the Rest of Us and Programming Throwdown.
colund··on Ask HN: Recommended monitor for a small desk
There are reports of blurry text on monitors with resolutions around 1440p or less than UHD. macOS doesn't always scale fonts optimally on these, which can make coding feel straining over time. My recommendation is to look into a 4k or higher monitor for sharper text rendering on macOS, even on a smaller screen size.
colund··on Leaving Rust gamedev after 3 years
I find that Jonathan Blow ranting about Rust game development here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t1K66dMhWk. He adds interesting perspectives to the discussio, how the language makes the Rust game developer resort to arrays and their so called Rust point of views.
colund··on I love programming but I hate the programming industry
Out of curiosity, how did you support yourself financially while creating the game? Did you also do freelancing or did you use savings etc?
colund··on Ask HN: C/C++ developer wanting to learn efficient Python
There's also a fun option to use PyO3 to easily generate a native Python module from Rust.
colund··on Interview with a blind developer on how he works (2017)
Very interesting article and it was interesting to see his desk without a display and mouse.

I posted a long and very moving story the other day about a software developer who was getting blind on an eye in six hours. https://elye-project.medium.com/i-became-blind-within-6-hour...

It made me think about how much time we spend in front of screens these days and that eyesight can't be taken for granted.

This article was a nice contrast describing the possibilities to do work as a blind developer.

colund··on Do be do be do (2017) [pdf]
Baloo's doo bah dee doo song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqV_xW8CdFQ
colund··on Ask HN: Why would you ever use C++ for a new project over Rust?
I would use it for cross platform native ui development with wxWidgets
colund··on Ask HN: How can I block promotional SMS from contacts without numbers(ex:DPROM)?
If you mean Flash SMS https://help.seven.io/en/flash-sms there are instructions online on how to disable them. Or do you mean normal SMS messages?
colund··on Ask HN: Starting as a techlead in a non tech org: What should I watch out for?
People will perhaps not be used to using JIRA and have no idea about processes like Scrum sprints and the purposes of demos and retrospectives. They could try to micromanage your work and make top down decisions with little autonomy and set your deadlines without asking you first. I would suggest you try to educate them about development best practices including some degree of freedom/trust for developer teams and the value of feedback loops and some involvement from the business and good requirements.

Good luck!

colund··on Ask HN: How worried are you about being replaced by an LLM
While I agree that LLMs can be useful for coders, and productivity can be increased, coding blindly based on ChatGPT code without understanding concepts could result in very serious bugs. How can you be sure that the code does not have vulnerabilities for example, or solve things in a non-idiomatic way, if you just copy paste code without an understanding.

As long as an understanding of the domain and problem is required a skilled person is required between the codebase and the LLM.

Even if we get to a point in the future where a programmer can be replaced by an LLM, we'll have businesses where they want someone to use the LLMs to create software.

colund··on Ask HN: Feeling quite disheartened about job search, any advice?
Don't give up! The job market is tough, but I'm sure there are jobs out there that would be a good fit for you. For example, check LinkedIn for job postings. It's just much harder to land a job these days, but I think it's temporary until companies realize they need to hire again.

Some tips: Reach out to recruiters who have contacted you in the past. Sign up for online CV databases. Use your network and contact former colleagues to see if their companies are hiring. Work on a side project that excites you and makes you proud to change your mindset, or take an online course. Try to get excited about the challenge instead of thinking about giving up. I just watched a YCombinator video which, among other things, talks about not giving up too soon: https://youtu.be/al-15mMAS18.

Also, try to get feedback when you're rejected. Are you showing genuine interest in the job? Do you ask insightful questions, and do you submit take-home assignments without bugs?

colund··on Meta outage
That's such a beautiful comment I would almost consider printing it and putting it on my wall
colund··on Should I learn C++ or Rust?
Rust is still lacking good GUI libraries and C++ and there are lots of libraries out there written in C++. Rust is more up and coming. That said in my opinion Rust is a nicer and better language since you get cargo and a modern safe efficient language. In my opinion Cargo is great and CMake and similar tools for C++ are not nearly as nice.
colund··on The day I canceled my Spotify subscription
I feel the same way about Spotify. It reminds me of Netflix in that it's hard for me to find interesting content to consume. I wish there was a way to become a power user, enabling me to better organize my audio library and delve deeper into their extensive collection to uncover new, intriguing music.

Moreover, the fact that artists seem to be paid so little makes me increasingly inclined to consider leaving their service for something else, like Tidal, or simply using YouTube Music.

By the way, if anyone is working on a Spotify killer, feel free to reach out. It would be fun to help out.

colund··on Ask HN: Any way to write a simple desktop app anymore?
Consider WxWidgets (or wxPython). It's great for native cross platform development. Check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhQ7aeKjYG4 for a fun example.
colund··on Show HN: Checkmate Champ – a training tool for chess tactics
Other chess apps have the mouse approximately in the center of the piece so that when you drop the piece it's dropped where the piece and the mouse is located. I've accidentally dropped the pieces on the wrong squares on this page, since the mouse is to the right of the piece.
colund··on Ask HN: What are some good food suff to have on hand when the power is out
Biolite has some cool off-grid stuff you could check out. I have a CampStove 2+, which I occasionally use for cooking outdoors.
colund··on Book recommendations about the history of programming
If you want to learn how some of the most famous programmers of the 80s were sketching, coding and thinking, I strongly recommend the wonderful book "Programmers at work" https://www.amazon.com/Programmers-work-Interviews-Susan-Lam....

It has been one of my favorite books about programmers and programming since my childhood.

colund··on Ask HN: Any favorite artistic programming resources?
You're right, I'm not into optimizing things with assembly. I just have old fond memories of cool demos like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJGGAJIla3Y and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjKkUTlhIek which would be fun to make and find inspirations for. I also like Winamp visualizations and resources to learn more about the math part for generating art that works well with music. I'll take a look at the Panda3D docs if it's something for me, thanks.
colund··on Ask HN: Any favorite artistic programming resources?
I wasn't aware of SuperCollider and OpenFrameworks which seem really cool, so thanks a lot for your tips.
colund··on 27 years ago, Steve Jobs said the best employees focus on content, not process
Jobs talks about this in https://youtu.be/l4dCJJFuMsE. I wish more leaders understood this. I interpret his words that people who do, understand and care are more valuable than those who only focus on process and politics.

Steve Jobs has great points again. I love to hear him talk about what really matters for success of great tech companies.

colund··on Ask HN: Cross-platform GUI apps in 2024
WxPython & WxWidgets are worth a look. I personally like that it uses the platform's native API rather than emulating the GUI and the license seems ok.
colund··on Ask HN: What apps have you created for your own use?
See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38623695
colund··on Ugh, ignore this
Agreed. I also looked him up and he does seem like a dishonest and manipulative far-right guy.

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/okeefe-media-group-bias/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Veritas

colund··on The Rise of Autonomous AI Agents
The problem so far in my opinion is that the current GPTs need good instructions and inputs to give useful responses and they're still very robotic.

Also, imagine having several agents and having to switch back and forth between them. I'd probably prefer a single GPT with multiple abilities customized to my interests and coding tips.

The day when personalized agents can give you information you didn't know you needed, then we're talking...

colund··on Song stuck in your head? Just hum to search (2020)
SoundHound has had this for ages
colund··on Ask HN: Strategies for working with engineers that are too smart?
I don't have the source for this quote, but it does make some sense to me:

”Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.” – Martin Fowler

Anyway, I think there has to be a decision/ranking on the importance of having

1. happy programmers & excellent code 2. code that any(?) developer could jump in and maintain

To me it often boils down to not making simple shortcuts due to laziness unless it buys time to market or has some other significant upsides.

Making a system flexible can often be done in a non-complex way so I would challenge then need to make software complex. There is often a trade-off between efficiency and maintainability. If the efficiency route is always preferred there could come a day when the developers quit and others have to maintain what they feel is a mess of code and want to rewrite it. So my vote would be to keep the complexity low (and flexibility high!) unless there's a concrete benefit of allowing the complexity to grow.

You could look into various design patterns to keep code flexible while keeping complexity low.

colund··on 'It is what it is', 'GOAT', and 'quiet quitting' should be banished
Nice! I've noticed it's recently popular with some streamers.

I thought the article quote was nice too:

> “Of course it is what it is! What else would it be? It would be weird if it wasn’t what it wasn’t,” one user quipped.

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