Recent submissions

Comment · 6 days ago
Such a great moment to ask for a raise. :)
Comment · 9 days ago
If metrics have found any statistical difference among people with vibration activated or not, then there's a value in knowing. The game refuses to vibrate on my phone (no idea why; Duolingo vibrates fine) so I can't say what they do with it or not, perhaps they have "soothing" type vibrations my phone doesn't support, that have an impact on your emotional reactions (statistically speaking).
Comment · 10 days ago
> Crazy to imagine that no one will build their mental muscle like this anymore. > [...] Wouldn't have been the same just saying "Claude, make [insert game here]"

I think this trope is greatly exaggerated. I'm sure a lot of people try that (and then quickly move on to whatever meme is next), but why is it often presented as the only thing people do with AI?

AI has changed the baselines, but building stuff is still going to be driven by a effort -> outcomes function. And effort leads to learning. I wrote machine code bytes by hand in the 80s, and in the 90s I already lamented that kids these days lo longer knew how things really work... but kids with interest and curiosity were actually just as fine as always.

Comment · 21 days ago
It's just a google search but you can explain what you're searching for. AI summary may contain misleading details if you read it and take it literally, but 90% of the time it gives me pointer for the thing I need and I don't have to scroll through results that often could be just as misleading if not more.
Comment · 22 days ago
I can imagine that being a reaction to the negativity and backlash from a substantial (or very active) part of the audience, to anything built with AI. I don't imagine that shame for using AI for something, or fear of disclosing it, is self-imposed.

Ideally, how you create something and what tools you use should be nobody's business, and all it matters would be if they like it or not. But inherent value / merit is a thing, and concern for the provenance of what you buy is also a valid position for the public to take. It's gonna be a while before the balance settles on either AI = bad or AI = who cares.

Comment · 1 month ago
They are accountable for their library, you are accountable for putting it in your production environment.

If they fail you can stop using their library. If you fail your company can stop using you.

Comment · 1 month ago
- I started programming games in z80 back in 1983. I've had several periods of 1-2 years in my professional career where I have not programmed anything; at best I've still guided others (as lead or producer) and at worst nothing at all, not even looked at code (as director).

It all came back every time I went back to the trenches. The question in my mind is, what do "AI-native" engineers have that they can come back to?

- During these decades, I have relinquished control several times in favor of productivity. From knowing exactly where every byte is placed in RAM and where each cycle goes, to only knowing that for the inner loops, to just knowing the machine code that the C compiler will generate, to dynamic memory and classes and indirections and cache misses, to wasteful but oh so very expressive javascript and python. I stopped writing my own engines and used Unity, Unreal Engine, Phaser, Godot...

Relinquishing control is easy if you are still truly in control of the new layer, and know where the pitfalls are. Where are new engineers going to gain that expertise?

- Regarding addiction, I've also quit smoking. After 25 years of daily cigarettes, one day 16 years ago I just stopped and never touched another one.

I won't pretend that applies to everyone, or even that I'm impervious to other addictions just because that one was so easy to shed. But harder or easier, everyone can stop problematic habits if they are clearly problematic.

- I don't know where we're going with all this AI. I would prefer it had not happened the way it is happening (IP theft, job destruction, race to the bottom, power concentration, etc). I love progress but I don't think the most important aspect of progress is how fast it happens. Speed only helps the greedy and the terminally ill.

But I'm not going to pretend it hasn't, or risk whatever is left of my professional future boycotting it in favor of a different reality, or (who knows) reject a medical treatment just because it was proposed by Opus 7. The world will live or die regardless what I do, but MY world relies on me.

I will continue trying to have enough expertise, passion and attention to detail in what I do and how I do it, that whatever level of control I have over it is as optimal as I can. From typing z80 bytes, to asking Claude to change a 5 for a 6, the above traits are what has always mattered in my experience.

Comment · 1 month ago
> If the folks wielding these tools are not using a tool effectively

I struggle with this argument when the subject ("the folks") turns out to be "many people", perhaps even a majority of people. If one teacher is an outlier that uses it badly then sure, the teacher is to blame and be judged. But if a collective is using it badly, then perhaps the capability of the collective should have been evaluated before handing the tool to them.

I don't have an answer - it is bad to withhold a tool from the hands of people who will use it badly. But the overall outcome has to also count.

Comment · 1 month ago
Kenta Cho has created hundreds of games and toys over the past 20+ years. A lot of brilliant stuff.
Comment · 1 month ago
A programming language spec is expected to be unambiguous. A compiler is expected to be deterministic. There are multiple ways to different outputs when compiling (optimizations, etc) but those are also meant to be well defined and deterministic themselves.

AIs are stochastic/probabilistic machines. Their big potential is in how they take malformed, incomplete, ambiguous inputs and come up with valuable and usable solutions.

Comment · 1 month ago
"502 Bad Gateway" (I'm in Spain)
Comment · 1 month ago
Lemmings was one of the 3-5 inspirations for the Commandos games: - giving different tasks to characters over the level to finish it. Lost Vikings won over Cannonfodder and the Commandos would be very defined characters not a mass of generic soldiers. - levels structured as "bubbles" of logical challenge; after you solve one you typically move on to the next one, eventually reaching the level finish.

The Commandos series also parallels a bit of the history, fizzling out very quickly after Commandos 2, when it might have seemed that the sky was the limit for the series.

Comment · 2 months ago
Comment · 2 months ago
open one and inspect the two ways to view it, one is horizontal scan, the other is a peano curve which leads to natural square-ish areas.
Comment · 2 months ago
Well at least you're healt... oh wait.

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