mungoid

Wouldn't something like Pi-Hole be a good network-wide way to manage this tracking? I know plugins are convenient but they all have to intercept and modify css/etc coming in on the fly which can lead to slower page loads. Plus I'd imagine some of those plugins will allow certain domains through regardless?

Or are the sneakier ways sites track users something that can get by the OOTB settings?

I started with arduino a few years ago as a hobby and loved it as an easy way to get into the field but lately I have been realizing how many terrible habits I've obtained by learning this way. It took me weeks to retrain my brain to prefer looking at schematics instead of the breadboard views and I'm still trying to learn atmel studio and directly programming chips. It's coming along but slowly.

I still think arduino is a great way for interested people to break into electronics but there is no clear 'line in the sand' when they should stop learning that way

Huh.. This was one question i have always wondered but never thought to look up even after 15 years of coding..

I dont think i have ever put contacts in with dry fingers. I always have them wet from faucet.

So thanks.. Thanks for adding one more very rare thing for me to be constantly afraid of.

True. But I am pretty sure that the effort, passion, frustration, long nights, etc. that developers and designers put into those games are the same today as what Michelangelo went through while painting the ceiling. An impatient Pope constantly coming by wanting to see the progress, going from being a sculptor to a painter because of public pressure, hours upon hours of tedious and daunting tasks, so on. All while never knowing how it will turn out.

Its obviously not a 1:1 comparison, but the emotions and feelings are the same is what im getting at ;-)

>And for many, later in their life, they feel they picked the "wrong" priorities.

That, right there, is exactly what im feeling currently.

It all started as a hobby some years ago and I got an opportunity to turn it into a career, so I did. I dont regret that time because I met some pretty amazing people and learned a TON about so many fascinating things. But I finally got fed up last year and left to do some freelancing work while I performed a 'Career-Shift'.

Unfortunately, what I have come to realize is that its pretty difficult to switch from being a contract developer for 10 or so years. I dont know for sure, but I think, because I have the 'Jack of all trades, master of none' resume. It's highly demotivating.

What should have stayed a hobby became a career, and now feel scorned because of it.

Nah, I dont think its strange in this day and age. To me it's infuriating, but it is all about that bottom line, man. Maximize profits, lower overhead, vertical acuity, do more with less, faster, more, grow grow grow! Plus if you contract out work and that company screws up, you can deflect blame to them. That happened at least a couple times where I used to work.

Most companies today seem to only care about being the largest in the industry. Because, I'm guessing shareholders or greed or something, I dont know for sure. It's almost impossible to find a company that wants to just stay within their means. Grow to the optimal size you can manage and coast. I assume its because those kind of companies would get run over by their competition if they didnt keep growing, but im not sure.

I used to aspire to have a super successful and huge game company. But after seeing all the insider crap that goes into game development, I think I'll be happiest with just doing my own thing and having trusted colleagues that will come in on projects to help out.

Totally true. I'm only 34, but the the increasing number of grey hairs I have is mostly attributed to this exact thing. Stockholm Syndrome is pretty close too because I stayed at my former company for longer than I should have, because I loved all my fellow 'grunts' on the floor I worked with. They were all were pretty brilliant and fun people to be around.

But I was not a big fan of many people above us though. The actual decision makers that don't really know what they are talking about. They are great talkers, sometimes even motivational, but know nothing about what devs need to be successful and productive. And to a point don't care.

Yep, exactly! I was in pretty much in the same boat as you, and almost every project we got or worked on ended up coming from other contracting companies that were in over their head.

I think that right there is the biggest issue of contracting companies, because their sales people and account managers will over-promise, get the contract signed and then the PM's and developers will have to work extra hours to make up for it. Leading to rushed, poor quality software. And ultimately they get absolutely no credit for the work because the company that hired them claims the credit.

I actually left that company last year to get out of the chaos and do my own freelancing, but that even led into the exact same issues. Since I'm not a super-mega-rockstar freelancer, if i wanted to make ends meet financially, I would have to over-promise to bring in enough work. But now, it is just me so I have to work 12 hours a day anyway to make clients happy.

Honestly I think aspiring game devs would be better off just making and sell games they enjoy until they can bring in enough money to sustain them. Possibly even making a hit game that starts their own company. Hopefully one that does not contract out work ;-)

There is, but the problem with that is people get drained doing boring software over and over for years. No passion, no motivation, etc. Believe it or not, most people dont care about making a ton of money. Making a good income doing something you enjoy is worth more than making 3x that income doing something that makes you feel bored and crappy all the time.

What makes this so frustrating for game developers looking for work (or people wanting to get into the field) is that it is really difficult to find the names of those contract companies. Most dont even think to look for something like this. People usually think "Oh i love that companies games so im gonna apply there." Only to never hear back, because they contract.

I have years of professional game development and simulation work under my belt and I find it one of the most difficult fields to actually get in to. I always end up just doing the usual software development while still aspiring to actually get a job as a game developer. IMO this is a slippery slope for game companies

I knew someone was gonna beat me to this!

I want more people like this domain owner in the world

Yeah that's definitely true, and it is what makes me question a lot of why they do what they do and distrust it generally. But would it be better if a company was vastly more powerful than the government?

Actually, I think some companies kind of are in some aspects. They may not have the military, but some definitely have a hand on the reigns.

I cant speak for other countries, but why do American people seem to trust companies more than they do the government? I mean, it is completely known that companies are here to make money, and publicly traded companies are here to please their investors so they will do whatever it takes to do that. They study us, classify us, categorize us, manipulate us. They spend billions in research so they can make that 'perfectly tailored' ad to get us to buy their product. They are constantly buying our data and selling our data, JUST to make their investors happy, and we seem to always just shrug it off.

'Meh.'

I am honestly more ok with the government having this data to keep tabs on me than these hundreds of other companies treating my personal info like it's a trading card.

Soo, how different is this new game engine since it a offshoot of the crytek engine? Is it going to add another x years to the development? Because it took my company almost a whole year to switch engines for a game that is a tiny fraction of the size of SC

About once a year I get a hankering to mess with disassembling something but usually after countless screenshots, open tabs, notes, etc. I remember that I am terribly slow with assembly.

I just now learned about this DB and was intrigued but havent researched much about the cons yet, so I am curious to hear your thoughts about the file size?

I was actually a bit surprised when these were banned in the first place. They had an age range, warned to not swallow, and there are thousands of other toys out there that are as dangerous if swallowed. Well, maybe not as dangerous but still pretty dangerous if not following rules

The most dangerous thing i experienced with them was my kid sticking them to my PC when one single ball got sucked right through a vent and fried the mobo. Not even sure how that happened because there was so much metal between where it went and where it was being stuck to

Totally agree. I use 3ds Max a lot for work and I have modified as much as possible in those settings to work like blender. It baffles everyone else I work with.

Before 2.5 I hated the UI. But after 2.5, I realized I could work so much faster once I learned the keys and layout. I have used 3ds Max for years and even knowing a lot about that software, I still find myself exporting to blender so I can do something. Usually I can do something in blender with only a couple key presses where in other software I have to click a few different buttons in various popup windows, etc.

I do think some of the UI needs to be a little more logical, but aside from that I honestly want to see their UI in more.

I actually JUST left my company this week to do freelancing for this exact reason. They tell you to not work over 40 but then they give you more work than you can reasonably get done in a normal work week so what do you do? Either get behind on everything or you work many extra hours.

I'm willing to bet its more because other defense contractors that have a longer history with the government want them to buy their much more expensive equipment than some new company that isn't 'in' with the decision makers. I'm positive something this cheap would surely shake up the standard thats been going on far too long.

I was just getting ready to ask HN about this when I happneed across this article. I learned advanced(ish) math the hard way, depth first from a coding pov, and not really having a handle on some core concepts, so reading math formulas was kind of difficult for a while when I really wanted to learn how to actually speak mathematics, not just do it in code.

Anyways, I found this article pretty informative and figured I'd share.

This sounds like the perfect opportunity for some researchers to create nanobots or something to act like spinnerettes. Wonder if there has been any such thing?

What about new diseases that are discovered between now and then?

I never said anything in the article was wrong. I liked the article. The 'actually' part was just a bad habit typo I hadn't noticed until right now so I fixed it ;-)

If you use Nvidia Nsight you can see this exact same stuff happening every frame. Pretty nice tool to use if you ever wonder whats going on in your gpu every frame. We use it frequently for our simulation work.

Yeah unfortunately mine was a private, non-profit university (US) and I think because of that private status, they can change curriculum to suit their needs. I wouldnt have went to them if I had known that. Whats confusing is that they are an actual University but can mess with curriculum that much. And for almost 50k in tuition..

Unfortunately in my case it was a private, non-profit university which had accelerated degrees (5 semesters squeezed into each year) - I'm rather dissapointed at how it turned out for the price (almost 50k!) and I wish i would have just put that money towards an actual, recognized university instead.

Heck, even last year I talked to another University to look into electrical engineering and only 1, ONE, class would transfer. All others wouldnt count because since they were a private school, their curriculum was different than most. Thats not something they put in brochures.