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mingmeccaon How Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun punished the computers of the day [video]

Another VIC-20 alum here. At the age of 10, I remember trying to write a version of Donkey Kong in BASIC and was flabbergasted when I ran out of memory before I could even get barrels rolling! Ah, the good ol' days!

mingmeccaon Ask HN: Old guys, what do you miss about development in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s?

Speaking as someone who cut my teeth in the 80s and early 90s: I miss the elitism and exclusivity of it. Nowadays the internet has made it so any question can be answered within seconds, but back then you had to scrupulously acquire your information from magazines, Usenet discussions, and just plain experimenting with the code. As things currently stand, programming has become a commodity skill that anyone with a room temperature IQ can learn within a reasonably small time frame. Then, you get on StackExchange and start cobbling together your app from copypasta provided by other programmers.

Things have been dumbed down considerably.

mingmeccaon Ask HN: What technologies did you learn in 2018?

I learned that the startup dream of being acquired is bittersweet. Sweet that I got rich, bitter that my baby is now being eviscerated by the acquiring company to make it less bleeding edge and more mainstream. There are worse things in life I guess. But its akin to watching your child turn to prostitution - you wanted so much more for them.

mingmeccaon Artificial Intelligence Hits the Barrier of Meaning

I believe this to be true (embodiment as a precursor to cognition). So much of our early years learning is exploring how our various actions lead to a corresponding result. Touching a hot stove vs petting a soft cat, for example. And instead of just training 1 neural system at a time we're training all of our senses at once, which I think gives a significant boost to the brain's 'understanding' of the result of the action.

mingmeccaon Millennials flocking to 10 US cities to get a job, buy a home, and start a life

True. Except! The bone chilling winters and lake effect snow that accumulates into multiple feet. I remember one winter years ago where, when visiting my girlfriend, the wind-chill temp was 45 below zero and our cars were encased in ice an inch thick.

That being said, I'm from Detroit but if I had to live in Michigan again I'd be in GR.

mingmeccaon Tesla plunges in Consumer Reports' rankings

Not directly, but in acquisitions the price of the stock does help in all stock/part stock deals.

mingmeccaon High Availability for PostgreSQL, Batteries Not Included

I'm just wading into the HA waters with Postgres. I somewhat understand the tradeoffs between simplicity and robustness, but what would be your recommendation on how to proceed for someone who is a newbie?

mingmeccaon Inverting Binary Trees Considered Harmful

I wouldn't fret about it too much.

There are a lot of interviewer egos out there and kids being put in the position of Ultimate Power(tm) can really do a lot of damage to the self-worth of qualified candidates.

Just keep coding, studying algorithms, etc, and putting yourself out there. Eventually you'll get a job that you want and is well suited for you. You're fortunate to live in a time where it's a seller's market, employment-wise.

mingmeccaon Let Snowden Come Home

I disagree. What Snowden did was hugely important not just domestically but internationally. Without him we wouldn't have the current push to reform the surveillance state, so it would have grown unfettered into a cancer that really would affect all of us. I don't want to live in a fishbowl.

Many officials from the CIA and NSA (and FBI) have distorted the truth or outright lied to public. Snowden's actions have pushed back on that somewhat, rekindling a strong interest in what the watchers are doing. Stingrays, parallel construction, surveillance airplanes over urban areas, etc. You've got to keep that kind of power under strict control and keep the watchers accountable.

mingmeccaon In Busy Silicon Valley, Protein Powder Is in Demand

I gave Soylent a try when it first came out. The initial formulation gave me incredible gastro-intestinal distress, and it was so painful that I could barely sleep at night. Apparently they heard this sort of feedback from a bunch of people and changed their mixture so it wasn't as hard on the digestive tract. I haven't tried it though, so I don't know if it'd work for me. Honestly, I'm a bit scared to do so. Oh the pain!

mingmeccaon The Terrible Technical Interview

I lose about 20 points of IQ in a technical interview. It's nerve racking (I wear black shirts to hide the sweat) and it cost me a job working for a well known VR company. I passed the 'practical', which was a 2 hour coding test to generate a working game application, but the tech interview probably did me in. I've been programming games for almost 20 years, and as far as I know I'm one of the few who has done lead/senior level work on games that were both #1 and #2 simultaneous chart-topppers, but I still couldn't get the job. Their loss I guess, but it still sucks, as I was really enthused about what they were doing and could contribute significantly. I was about 10 years older than their typical engineer however, so maybe ageism played a part. I'll never know. I just wish companies would look at my past body of work, see that I'm friendly and un-abrasive, and bring me aboard.

mingmeccaon Dell XPS 13 Review

Upgrading to the latest and greatest Macbook is absurdly cheap since you can sell your old model for close to the original price

Oh how I wish that were true. I have a 2012 15" Macbook Retina (8gb/256gb) that I bought for $2200. The typical price on eBay is around $1200. So, I can get about half, which is your lament about the XPS 13.

mingmeccaon The Rise and Fall of the Lone Game Developer

I've done what you're attempting to do, and your instincts are right: there are much more interesting and worthwhile things outside of the game industry, including kids. It might be arrogant to say, but game developers are ninjas compared to the rest of the dev world. Doing complex AI/graphics/networking at 60fps is a hell of a lot harder than a typical CRUD app.

I'm glad for my time in the game industry because it sharpened my skills and made the rest of my life a cake walk. But, I wouldn't want to go back due to the exploitation I see in it.

mingmeccaon Peter Thiel becomes marijuana's first big investor

July 15th to be exact.

mingmeccaon What's the cheapest living situation possible that still has basic utilities?

I'm curious as to the social angle on this. Do you get lonely out there, are friends primarily on line, is your partner (if applicable) happy with this situation, etc?

I ask because I've always dreamed of a life of simplicity similar to what you've got setup, but the thing that stops me is the possible isolation.

mingmeccaon Sony Reveals an Even Bigger Attack on the Internet – the MPAA Is Behind It

You can't create art that way. (Well, you can, but it will be bad art.)

I'm curious as to why you think that? There are a lot of really great projects on Kickstarter that would fall under the umbrella of "good art" (games, films, etc). Unless you're speaking subjectively, of course, and you don't like what is on offer.

mingmeccaon Techstars to open up shop in Detroit

Hey! I grew up in the Downriver area as well (Lincoln Park specifically, about which the less said the better).

Growing up, I only ever went into Detroit for concerts and the semi-annual "Greektown" pilgrimage. Outside of that, it was blight everywhere, and I thought that is how a big city looked. It wasn't until my college years that I seen a bit more of the world and my perspective changed on urban areas.

Overall, I think Techstars moving in will be enormously positive. Cheap rents, stalwart employees (because of the bitter winters), and a "we can only go up from here" attitude is a good mix.

mingmeccaon British Court Says Government’s Electronic Surveillance Is Legal

I read that story yesterday, and I somewhat brushed it off as one judge's view. Thankfully that guy doesn't not sit on the Supreme Court, which is where all of this is headed.

I'm actually heartened by the unanimous decision this past summer where the SC ruled against the carte blanche searching of cell phones when the cops make an arrest. The Chief Justice wrote the opinion and came down hard on the government. He actually wrote "We cannot deny that our decision today will have an impact on the ability of law enforcement to combat crime...Privacy comes at a cost."

mingmeccaon British Court Says Government’s Electronic Surveillance Is Legal

Throughout our history many dubious actions have been "legal" but not necessarily right or just.

Stateside, hopefully the Supreme Court will side with privacy rights once those cases wind their way through the courts.

mingmeccaon From hacker to hospice in seven weeks

I can relate to this. A few years ago I was a 30 year old guy who felt like a feeble 70 year old. I was tired, depressed, and just didn't feel well at all. I had a blood test and the doc was flabbergasted at how low my Vitamin D levels were. Technically I had rickets! But then I started taking 10-15k of D3 a day and in a couple of weeks I felt great. Now I take 5k in the summer and 10k in the winter and haven't a had a problem since.

So, moral of the story: get your Vitamin D levels checked. And take D3, not D2.

mingmeccaon The Social Laboratory: Singapore's Surveillance State

This is some truly frightening stuff. There are large groups of people who relish the idea of a surveillance state in order to eliminate uncertainty in all things. And if privacy has to be sacrificed then so be it.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'd rather be dead than live in a fishbowl.

mingmeccaon Virtual Reality is going to change the world

Even though Notch writes that he wants to utilize VR for games and not 'social', I'm open to all the experiences that VR can provide, gaming or otherwise.

But I think the bigger issue here is I just don't want Facebook involved at all. Because all roads for Facebook lead to ads, and that is the last thing I want tagged to my eyeballs when I'm trying to enjoy my VR experience.

Even on the desktop/mobile side, I'd gladly pay the $1.05 (or whatever my LTV as a customer is) to Facebook so that I'd never have to seen another ad from them ever again.

A sad day indeed.

mingmeccaon The importance of co-founder due diligence

Values matter. Ethics matter. If you're considering someone as a co-founder that believes the end justifies the means, or it is better to ask forgiveness than permission, then pass on that person and keep looking.

Personal anecdote: I wasted years of my life trying to get my multi-millionaire co-founder to be honest, but to his way of thinking there was no value in being honest all the time, so he wasn't. Consequently, because of the social isolation and loss of business contacts that comes from being untrustworthy (and just making bad decisions in general) this person went from have nearly 12 million dollars in the bank to having less than $500.

Karma is a bitch.

mingmeccaon Life of solitude: A loneliness crisis is looming

Grey skies for 7 months will do that.

mingmeccaon You can't beat politics with new technology all the time

This is exactly right. There is so much give in the system, and there has to be, because enforcing all laws as written would be a truly dystopian scenario.

We don't want to live in the a world where it is impossible to get away with a 'crime'.

mingmeccaon It’s time for Silicon Valley to ask: Is it worth it?

To answer the question in the title: I'd rather be dead than live my life in a fishbowl and watched most of the time. I'd rather live with the reality of a dangerous world instead of suspecting that some CPU or agent is analyzing my calls & emails.

To the defenders of the NSA, this sentiment is abhorrent, I'm sure.

mingmeccaon Working hours: Get a life

Well then, you should probably incentivize them with generous equity in the company, right? Without it, why should they work so hard just to make you richer?

And here is a truism: Even people who are 'invested' in their jobs are looking for something better, with 'better' being defined as more pay/equity, flexible hours, meaningful work, etc.

If you want to employ someone who is just as invested in the company as you are, then you should compensate them just as well as you are.

mingmeccaon “People simply empty out”

Well, based on my experience you definitely want to 'work', but work on things that fulfill you in some way. Hopefully your startup sale allows you to never again be dependent on the The Man, so if you're tasked with something onerous and/or stupid, you can simply walk away.

mingmeccaon FBI pressures Internet providers to install surveillance software

It seems like end to end encryption is the only way to go. It makes the UX not as convenient, but convenience is the carrot that has led us to this dismal point.

mingmeccaon Poll: How old are you?

40 here, still going strong. 18-22 times a month according to my wife's daily tracker.

Exercise, exercise, exercise.