Arjuna

“Recently someone posted about their experience in determining the file structure of the Doom WAD file. How did you feel when people were discovering how to modify Doom, from building new levels, to changing the executable itself (dhacked) originally without any information from id? In your opinion, is the modding community a valuable place for creating future game developers?”

John Carmack Answers:

“The hacking that went on in Wolfenstein was unexpected, but based on that, DOOM was designed from the beginning to be modified by the user community.

[…]

I still remember the first time I saw the original Star Wars DOOM mod. Seeing how someone had put the death star into our game felt so amazingly cool. I was so proud of what had been made possible, and I was completely sure that making games that could serve as a canvas for other people to work on was a valid direction.”

https://m.slashdot.org/story/7828

Any time I think of Pitfall!, I always remember this pamphlet you could request and receive via mail:

Programming Pitfall Harry

https://archive.org/details/program-pitfall/mode/1up

I have this underlying, background process that is continuously running in my mind that is essentially, “Please don’t let it be my fault.”

And so that thought has guided me while driving, in daily living, and in one particular instance that reminded me of your experience (because I was not in charge of safety).

I was a patron at a wave pool in the heat of the summer. The waves were churning, and the water was packed with people.

I am hyper vigilant by internal design, and I noticed this young girl starting to drown.

If you have not seen this before, it is nothing like you would imagine; there is no wild flailing of the arms, or urgent calls for help. It is an almost surreal, quiet experience.

I made my way to her in what seemed like a slow motion moment blended into a faster-than-life response, and scooped her up in my arms as if she were my own child.

I remember that she was stunned as I raised her from the water, with somniferous, glassy eyes before she inhaled.

I am welling up just thinking about it. It was an intense experience that I will never forget.

It is simply stunning that the seasoned direction and counsel that someone of John Carmack’s caliber is capable of delivering was not being followed.

Most discussed products on r/budgetaudiophile:

https://www.looria.com/reddit/budgetaudiophile/products

Most discussed products on r/audiophile:

https://www.looria.com/reddit/audiophile/products

Reddit's Favorite Products in One Place:

https://www.looria.com/reddit/overview

Previous discussion of Looria:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32764495

So You Want to Study Mathematics https://www.susanrigetti.com/math

She also wrote:

So You Want to Learn Physics https://www.susanrigetti.com/physics

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Fowler

Alan MacMasters https://archive.ph/IL2ay

In the same tweet, the waveform image on the right is Chad’s edited version of Mick’s track for the Doom Eternal OST, entitled “BFG Division 2020.”

The comparison is valid, because it is Mick’s music, and it also serves to demonstrate his audio engineering expertise on the Doom 2016 OST, which was hailed as a masterwork in the genre.

However, Mick did not mix this particular track for the Doom Eternal OST, and this is the critical point of this specific waveform comparison; that is, as Mick expresses in the article (and the waveform comparison demonstrates), the Doom Eternal OST is not entirely representative of his actual work, or the full depth of his audio engineering expertise.

”His edits are riddled with these clearly visible mistakes. Anyone comparing my original tracks to his edits can hear (and see, by looking at the waveform [1]) the unmistakable errors introduced during the editing process.”

[1] https://twitter.com/DoominalCross/status/1251690243389927424

As a musician and music-lover, seeing how they brickwalled [1][2] Mick’s tracks in the screenshots only serves to add to the heartbreak of his entire saga.

[1] Loudness War https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

[2] The Loudness War https://youtu.be/3Gmex_4hreQ

In essence, existence is interwoven in a complex tapestry of interdependence.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratītyasamutpāda

So You Want to Study Mathematics…

https://www.susanrigetti.com/math

She also wrote:

So You Want to Learn Physics…

https://www.susanrigetti.com/physics

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Fowler

“On Friday, Reuters reported that J&J secretly launched ‘Project Plato’ last year to shift liability from about 38,000 pending Baby Powder talc lawsuits to a newly created subsidiary, which was then to be put into bankruptcy. By doing so, J&J could limit its financial exposure to the lawsuits.”

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting

Incredibly high performers exist, but are rare.

For example, the following quote is from a talk given by Gabe Newell.

(Unfortunately, I do not have the URL to the source video for this quote.)

“At IBM in the 1980s, typical productivity would be 1,000 debugged, shipped lines of code per year. That was the metric that they used for their median employee. Where as, when we were shipping Half Life 1, one employee, Yahn Bernier, was shipping 4,000 lines of code per day.”

[1] https://youtu.be/0VfGnvHRXu0

[2] https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812870972

Focus on combining your software engineering skills with delivering value in a specific, core competency.

That is to say:

Good software engineers tend to focus on being good at programming, and all of the details that venture entails (e.g., mastery of specific languages, knowledge of specific ways of operating in a given framework, IDE, or tool, etc.).

Better software engineers are capable of all of the preceding, plus the ability to apply a deeper level of problem-solving ability that has been laser-focused by their experience in the art.

Finally, superlative software engineers are capable of all of the preceding, plus the ability to leverage those skills to deliver value as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in a specific domain.

I believe that you have to be more than just a programmer if you want to maximize your career's longevity, and its associated compensation package.

By A. M. Turing

October 1950

This paper introduces the concept of the Imitation Game, which would eventually be referred to as the Turing test. [2]

[1] https://academic.oup.com/mind/article-pdf/LIX/236/433/986611...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test

Cast in this unlikely role • Ill-equipped to act • With insufficient tact • One must put up barriers • To keep oneself intact

[...]

Living in a fish eye lens • Caught in the camera eye • I have no heart to lie • I can’t pretend a stranger • Is a long-awaited friend

I have a slight fascination with sweeteners. About five years ago I imported a kilo of "Neotame" sweetener from a chem factory in Shanghai. It was claimed to be 10,000-12,000 times sweeter than sugar. It's a white powder and came in a metal can with a crimped lid and typically plain chemical labeling. Supposedly it is FDA-approved and a distant derivative of aspartame.

US customs held it for two weeks before sending it on to Colorado with no explanation. When received, the box was covered in "inspected" tape and they had put the canister in a clear plastic bag. The crimped lid looked like a rottweiler chewed it open and white powder was all over the inside of the bag. I unwisely opened this in my kitchen with no respirator as advised by the MSDS which I read after the fact (I am not a smart man).

Despite careful handling of the bag, it is so fine in composition that a small cloud of powder erupted in front of me and a hazy layer of the stuff settled over the kitchen. Eyes burning and some mild choking from inhaling the cloud, I instantly marveled at how unbelievably sweet the air tasted, and it was delicious. For several hours I could still taste it on my lips. The poor customs inspector will have had a lasting memory of that container I'm pretty sure.

Even after a thorough wipe-down, to this day I encounter items in my kitchen with visually imperceptible amounts of residue. After touching it and getting even microscopic quantities of the stuff on a utensil or cup, bowl, plate, whatever, it adds an intense element of sweetness to the food being prepared, sometimes to our delight. I still have more than 900g even after giving away multiple baggies to friends and family (with proper safety precautions).

We have been hooked on it since that first encounter. I keep a 100mL bottle of solution in the fridge which is used to fill smaller dropper bottles. I've prepared that 100mL bottle three times over five years, and that works out to about 12g of personal (somewhat heavy) usage for two people in that time. Probably nowhere near the LD50.

I carry a tiny 30mL dropper bottle of the solution for sweetening the nasty office coffee and anything else as appropriate. Four drops to a normal cup of coffee. We sweeten home-carbonated beverages, oatmeal, baked goods (it is heat stable), use it in marinades, and countless other applications.

I don't know if it's safe. The actual quantity used is so incredibly tiny that it seems irrelevant. I'd sweeten my coffee with polonium-210 if it could be done in Neotame-like quantities. Between this, a salt shaker loaded with MSG and a Darwin fish on my car, I'm doomed anyway.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9440566

"And when Jobs (in the movie, but really a board does this) denied stock to the early garage team (some not even shown) I'm surprised that they chose not to show me giving about $10M of my own stock to them because it was the right thing. And $10M was a lot in that time."

"What does a man do, Walter? [...] A man provides. And he does it, even when he's not appreciated, or respected, or even loved. He simply bears up and he does it, because he's a man."

Please note: my apologies in advance for a comment that may be perceived as pedantic, but I just wanted to further illuminate this statement.

The U.S. regulation, which technically falls under the Export Administration Regulations (Navigation and Avionics), does not exclusively regulate GPS navigation in munitions applications; rather, it serves to regulate any airborne application where the GPS receiver is capable of resolving navigation telemetry at speeds in excess of 600 m/s. This equates to approximately 1,968.5 ft/s, or 1,342.16 MPH.

Given the speed limitation parameter of the aforementioned regulation, this regulation would not only apply to GPS receivers in munitions applications, but it would also apply to GPS receivers that are utilized in fighter aircraft, space vehicles, etc.

"Perhaps the North's access to caffeine gave its soldiers a strategic advantage. At least that's what one Union officer, Gen. Benjamin Butler, thought. He ordered his men to carry coffee in their canteens and planned attacks based on when his men would be most wired. His advice to other generals was: 'If your men get their coffee early in the morning, you can hold.'" [1]

"In 1859 Sharps Rifle Co. began to manufacture a carbine with a hand-cranked grinder built into the butt stock — or handle — of the rifle. Union soldiers would fill the stock with beans, grind them up, dump them out and use the grounds to cook the coffee. As the morning began, one Civil War diarist described a scene of 'little campfires rapidly increasing to hundreds in numbers that would shoot up along the hills and plains.' The encampment would buzz with the sound of thousands of grinders simultaneously crushing beans. Soon, tens of thousands of muckets (coffee pots) gurgled with fresh brew." [2]

[1][2] https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/07/25/485227943/if...

It is suited for the reader that does not possess a heavy mathematical background; in fact, the author writes:

"This book was written for scientists and engineers in a wide variety of fields: physics, bio-engineering, geology, oceanography, mechanical and electrical engineering, to name just a few. The goal is to present practical techniques while avoiding the barriers of detailed mathematics and abstract theory. To achieve this goal, three strategies were employed in writing this book:

First, the techniques are explained, not simply proven to be true through mathematical derivations. While much of the mathematics is included, it is not used as the primary means of conveying the information. Nothing beats a few well written paragraphs supported by good illustrations.

[...]

Second, complex numbers are treated as an advanced topic, something to be learned after the fundamental principles are understood.

[...]

Third, very simple computer programs are used."

Focus on combining your software engineering skills with delivering value in a specific, core competency.

That is to say:

Good software engineers tend to focus on being good at programming, and all of the details that venture entails (e.g., mastery of specific languages, knowledge of specific ways of operating in a given framework, IDE, or tool, etc.).

Better software engineers are capable of all of the preceding, plus the ability to apply a deeper level of problem-solving ability that has been laser-focused by their experience in the art.

Superlative software engineers are capable of all of the preceding, plus the ability to leverage those skills to deliver value as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in a specific domain.

I believe that you have to be more than just a programmer if you want to maximize your career's longevity, and its associated compensation package.

"On a cold winter day, Carmack laced up his shoes, slipped on his jacket, and headed out into the Madison snow. The town was blanketed in the stuff, cars caked in frost, trees dangling ice. Carmack endured the chill because he had no car; he'd sold the MGB long before. It was easy enough for him to shut out the weather, just like he could, when necessary, shut Tom and Romero's antics out of his mind. He was on a mission.

Carmack stepped into the local bank and requested a cashier's check for $11,000. The money was for a NeXT computer, the latest machine from Steve Jobs, cocreator of Apple. The NeXT, a stealth black cube, surpassed the promise of Jobs's earlier machines by incorporating NeXTSTEP, a powerful system tailor-made for custom software development. The market for PCs and games was exploding, and this was the perfect tool to create more dynamic titles for the increasingly viable gaming platform. It was the ultimate Christmas present for the ultimate in young graphics programmers, Carmack."

I feel the same way. This is part of what he had to say in a comment [1] he wrote in 2013, discussing the then-released Jobs film. It absolutely speaks volumes about his character:

"And when Jobs (in the movie, but really a board does this) denied stock to the early garage team (some not even shown) I'm surprised that they chose not to show me giving about $10M of my own stock to them because it was the right thing. And $10M was a lot in that time."

I was unable to link to his comment directly. Also, I had to click the "View previous comments" link in order to view his comment.

[1] https://plus.google.com/+CarmsPerez/posts/GnVTvQNgvpf

"So what I set out to do was take the original Wolfenstein 3D, and re-implement it in Haskell."

[...]

"I've got a few conclusions coming from it. One of them is that, there's still the question about static vs dynamic. I know that there was a survey just coming out recently where the majority of programmers are still really not behind static typing. I know that there's the two orthogonal axes about whether types are strong or weak, and whether it's static or dynamic. I come down really pretty firmly, all my experience continues to push me towards this way, that strong, static typing has really significant benefits. Sometimes it's not comfortable, sometimes you have to build up a tight scaffolding to do something that should be really easy, but there are real, strong wins to it."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uooh0Y9fC_M#t=4876

(Starts at approximately 1:21:16 in case the direct link doesn't work correctly.)

"I know that most people won't believe it, but a 100x increase in income really didn't have that big of an impact on me as a person. It is certainly nice to be in a position where people can't exert any leverage on you, but it's definitely not the primary focus of my life. I get to drive a Ferrari in to work, but my day to day life is almost exactly the same as it was eight years ago. I get up, go in to work, hopefully do some good stuff, then go home. I'm still happy." [1]

[...]

"I feel bad for some companies out there. The founders, who are these incredible engineers, are now directors of their departments doing management rather than engineering. At the same time most of the people they are managing are nowhere near as good as they were at doing the actual work. That's what I hope never happens to me. I want to stay in the trenches working on the things all the time. There is some benefit to sitting back, reading and researching and getting some broader scope on it. But if you're divorced from the low level nuts and bolts of things, like how this actually applies to the real world, then you're just an academic. You get these huge disconnects between what an academic can do and what somebody in production can do." [2]

[1] Page 77

[2] Page 89