psahgal
Joined 6 years ago
Karma
270
Submissions
43
Member since
Jun 24
Recent submissions
Comment · 4 years ago
Unity and Godot are the most popular choices, based on my time spent hanging out with other indie developers. If your game is a 2D RPG, RPG Maker is also a great way to get started. You can also use GameMaker if Unity and Godot seem intimidating.
Comment · 4 years ago
I took 3 months off last year to get a game project finished up and released to Steam! Glad to see other indie developers here on Hacker News. I can't commit to weekly meetups, since I'm back at my job full-time, but I wish you the best of luck on your game!
Comment · 4 years ago
I have a bachelor's in Computer Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and several of my courses covered how computers work in detail!
- ECE 190 and ECE 290 covered basic programming, logic gates, and the basics of software processor architecture.
- ECE 391 (one of the hardest courses in the school) covered x86 assembly and operating system design. The capstone project for the course was to build a simple OS with terminal input.
- ECE 411 covered processor architecture in detail, and how a modern x86 processor is built.
There should be courses from other universities that cover the same topics. Here's some similar courses I found on MIT's OpenCourseware platform.
- Computation Structures covers logic gates and other standard electronic constructs. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/6-004-computation-structures-spr...
- Operating Systems Engineering covers fundamentals of operating system design: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/6-828-operating-system-engineeri...
Best of luck!
Comment · 4 years ago
I'd just like to say "thank you" to the moderators for helping make Hacker News such an interesting site. I've been reading Hacker News for years and it's really helped me keep on top of emerging trends in technology! Sometimes I've seen tech news hit Hacker News before even the major news outlets have a chance to report. It's pretty impressive. Keep up the good work!
Comment · 4 years ago
Should this link be replaced with the original source? Ars Technica linked to the original blog post in the first paragraph, and the rest of the article summarizes the original source. Here's the blog post in question: https://obscuritory.com/sim/when-simcity-got-serious/
Comment · 5 years ago
I believe this evaluation is usually done by a stunt coordinator instead. This is an experienced stunt performer that finds the right person for each stunt, and communicates with the performers on any safety issues that come up.
More info here: https://www.nfi.edu/stunt-coordinator/
Comment · 5 years ago
If you've been working at the same company for a while, ask your HR department if they have a policy around a leave of absence or a sabbatical! You can take a few months off to build a prototype of your idea, test it out with some users, and then decide whether to return to your day job or continue with your startup idea full time.
This will be much less risky than quitting your high-paying job and going all-in on a startup idea. Many startups fail for a variety of reasons, besides just poor execution.
Whatever you plan to do, make sure you have a backup plan.
Comment · 5 years ago
I came to the same realization that Apple doesn't seem to care when I started learning how to build apps on iOS.
Coming from Android, I was used to having high level conceptual guides on the core building blocks of the framework. In the Android docs, I found detailed explanations of Activities, Fragments, Views, and other major components. It was relatively easy for me to get started, and the system was designed to be extensible. Google even published blog posts regularly, which I could use to learn more about design decisions.
When I made the jump to iOS, though, it was difficult to find parallel documentation for what I was looking for. At the time (this was 2015, mind you), I couldn't find anything beyond API documentation for ViewControllers, Views, Core Data, etc. Most of the major documentation existed on third-party sites like NSHipster. Not to mention code signing. I'm pretty sure I'm one of handful developers at my firm who knows the system well enough to explain how it works...and that was after 2 years of working in iOS full-time.
I doubt that Apple will prioritize the developer experience on their platform anytime soon.
Edit: In case anyone wants to see the difference...
- Google's guide on Activities: https://developer.android.com/guide/components/activities/in...
- Apple's guide on View Controllers: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/view_control...
Comment · 5 years ago
The Engineering Quad at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is also named "Bardeen Quad" in John Bardeen's honor.
I haven't been back to my alma mater in a while, so my memory may be fuzzy, but I remember there was a plaque on the southwest end of the quad commemorating his achievements. I hope it's still there!
When I was taking my introduction to semiconductors class in junior year, I thought it was pretty cool that we were studying a subject that one of the university's professors helped invent.
Comment · 5 years ago
If your manager listens to the engineer who says "Kubernetes is awesome and does all the things!" and doesn't listen to the engineer who says "I think Kubernetes is a bad idea for this project because x, y, and z", then yeah, it's time to find a new manager. Good managers listen to good advisors.
Comment · 5 years ago
I find that the best senior engineers don't say "if you're not using Kubernetes you're a moron" and "learn how to sysadmin and you'll realize you don't need Kubernetes in the first place", but instead say "Kubernetes is fantastic for this use case because of these reasons..." and "sysadmin would be easier to use than Kubernetes for this problem because of these reasons..."
I'm not sure how one gets software engineers to justify and back up their decisions like this on a regular basis, but I suspect it would help management trust their engineers more.
Comment · 5 years ago
I found your point of view interesting, so I did some research. I found this meta analysis in favor of masks that had a lot of good sources: https://www.pnas.org/content/118/4/e2014564118. A few highlights:
- There aren't any good randomized controlled trials to tell how well mask wearing works due to ethical concerns of experimenting on pandemic prevention methods. I could see why researchers would be reluctant to force people NOT to wear masks during a pandemic, since there's a good chance they could be putting people in danger.
- Several studies found that wearing masks are effective at reducing transmission of other respiratory illnesses, so I could see why the CDC issued guidance on wearing masks when faced with a respiratory illness like COVID-19.
- There's also randomized controlled trials referenced in the analysis that suggest masks are effective at reducing the occurrence of influenza-like illness.
I'm looking for studies that suggest face masks are ineffective, but I'm not finding a whole lot...I found a few websites claiming that masks were ineffective, but upon closer inspection, the studies they were citing compared N95 masks to standard surgical masks, not masks vs. no masks. I would love to read any studies you find suggesting that masks are ineffective at reducing the transmission of respiratory illnesses!
Comment · 5 years ago
Also would like to mention that someone dug up one of Fauci's interviews back in March 2020 about his recommendation on masks: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26623260
The CDC post is in line with Fauci's recommendation. My understanding is that the original recommendation was to avoid a shortage of masks during a critical period of the pandemic.
Comment · 5 years ago
The guidance Fauci gives in this video is in line with what I read in news articles back in March 2020. I was surprised the article suggested Fauci lied to the public as a result.
I wonder why this explanation got buried. Perhaps the lesson here is that rather than blaming experts for occasionally getting things wrong, we should focus on promoting media literacy instead, so that people get accurate information they need.
Comment · 5 years ago
I'm surprised that there was data suggesting that masks could be harmful, especially since the prevailing guidance for a year now has been to wear masks to reduce airborne transmission. Would you happen to have a link to the studies you mentioned?
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