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failrate

1,950 karma · joined March 24, 2009

Programmer and tinkerer
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failrate··on Show HN: Automatically detect and patch walking-dead states in Sierra games
For me, cracking open the data for some castle adventure ascii character game was one of the first steps to being a real programmer.
failrate··on The brain was not designed for this much bad news
One thing that really helped me was to start viewing my news media in black and white. Without the colored dressing, a lot of (especially partisan political) articles have much less emotional impact on me. Note: this worked particularly well for written media and less well for vocal media
failrate··on Has AI already killed self-help nonfiction books?
It certainly has killed some people looking to it for self help.
failrate··on A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)
Some of these are considered rude, but ibd I do a lot of them, anyway e.g. rubbing disposable chopsticks to remove splinters, because a chopstick splinter in the gums is miserable, and using chopsticks to cut apart food. They seem less like faux pas and more like strategies. Plus, not Japanese.
failrate··on Show HN: I made a memory game to teach you to play piano by ear
https://imitone.com/ is what I use.
failrate··on 'No One Lives Forever' turns 25 and you still can't buy it legitimately
The background is that Night Dive tried to do this back when they formed, but it turned out to be intractable for a number of reasons including no one knew who actually owned it.
failrate··on Can text be made to sound more than just its words? (2022)
Comic books already use changes in font, weight, size, of text and the shape of the word balloon to indicate tone and expression.
failrate··on Armed police handcuff teen after AI mistakes chip bag for gun in Baltimore
Don't make tap the sign: "A COMPUTER CAN NEVER BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE

THEREFORE A COMPUTER MUST NEVER MAKE A MANAGEMENT DECISION"

failrate··on Three ways formally verified code can go wrong in practice
The article did not also point out issues like the compiler or interpreter having a runtime error, the hardware the software is running on having a defect, etc. Do we consider these out of scope of the discussion?
failrate··on Show HN: Autism Simulator
My lived experience is that high stress situations frequently make me feel like just going to sleep.
failrate··on I Never Cared Much for Swords. Then I Had to Fight with One
I recommend @robinswords on YouTube for historical fencing.
failrate··on Scrappy – Make little apps for you and your friends
The main caveat is that you have to enable developer mode on the Android device to load the apps, but that is typical if you are running your own apps.

Godot uses a Python-like language instead of Lua, which is good for me. Lots of people groove with Lua, but it gives me the ick.

I did not get very far trying to make 3D or physics-based games with Godot 3. I did not like the 3D interface, and the physics engine was too brittle for e.g. a pinball simulation. Too much tunneling and other inconsistent behavior.

But for 2D applications that are a mixture of text and images, i find it fits the bill quite well.

(For 3D apps and physics, I currently use Unreal Engine 4. Some tunneling, but I know tricks to mitigate that, and I much prefer its 3D interface.)

failrate··on 3D-printed device splits white noise into an acoustic rainbow without power
IIRC it is an array of cilia of different sizes that filters sound into different frequencies in the human ear.
failrate··on Scrappy - make little apps for you and your friends
Godot 3 and 4 are very good for bashing out apps for both desktop and Android phone.
failrate··on Human coders are still better than LLMs
LLMs are using the corpus of existing software source code. Most software source code is just North of unworkable garbage. Garbage in, garbage out.
failrate··on Mustard Watches (1990)
I have one full of thyme.
failrate··on Not a three-year-old chimney sweep (2022)
As someone who avoids making threats in public, those stickers and whatnot do leave me concerned about the person's mental health.
failrate··on Embracer Games Archive is preserving 75000 video games and needs contributions
https://www.themade.org/
failrate··on More people are getting tattoos removed
It turns out that those ephemeral tattoos did not fade out in time and are extremely problematic when trying to laser remove them. The company that originally started that tech is gone, and the "ephemeral" tattoos they created are still around.
failrate··on More people are getting tattoos removed
I had a similar issue, so I just got something small and essentially random. Now that the seal is broken, thinking of more tattoos is easy.
failrate··on Thank you for holding my duck (2021)
I argue that verbalizing to the duck without involving another person solves many problems just by itself. Deeper problems may require verbalizing it to a person. In my professional experience, I have lost vast amounts of time and attention to people who would break my flow state to explain the problem to me and figure it out themselves while verbalizing it for the very first time. So, I explained Rubber ducking to them and gave them all ducks. It worked wonderfully.
failrate··on An end to all this prostate trouble?
Yes, and you also want to do fast and short Kegel's in different positions.
failrate··on Clinical trial: novel nutritional formula treats gut microbial overgrowth
In my personal experience with SIBO, fasting can mitigate symptoms but does not resolve the SIBO.
failrate··on The Worst Programmer I Know (2023)
P4, not git.
failrate··on Researchers search for more precise ways to measure pain
I have never had a doctor ask me what flavor my pain is, but I can easily describe various types of pain as e.g. spicy, sour, bitter, etc.
failrate··on The Worst Programmer I Know (2023)
I was the ci/cd guy. I am not exaggerating when I say this person's code just would not compile and they would not test locally.
failrate··on The Worst Programmer I Know (2023)
The worst programmer I know literally could not go a day without either checking in code that did not compile or saying something creepy and sexual in a large open plan office, and we all worked together to get them fired.
failrate··on Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam
Billionaire is great.
failrate··on A secret poker game you can play on the subway
SecurID fob poker, anyone?
failrate··on X users are unable to post “Signal.me” links
Unit tests with a text fixture of every URL format you can think of, and every time one breaks your e.g. parser, you add it and some permutations to the list. Eventually, you have a vast file with tons of nasty edge cases to ensure that your e.g. parser is robust and reliable.
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