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emp

142 karma · joined February 26, 2009

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emp··on Bigscreen Beyond 2
Exactly, tiny text on the main screen (if I un-dim it, Immersed dims it automatically). I am not aware of text issues, I guess I never noticed any. There is a mouse emulation mode that is supposed to be more responsive, and native mouse - I use the native setup and don't notice any lag. Just have a good router and be close to it. Retina is the only word I know :) because it started way back on iOS/iPhone before it was that common. And probably because I use a Mac.

One other thing that is an unexpected bonus. It rains where I live. A lot. And when it is grey and dim, I can sit in a "sunny office". In fact, I even tweak my day to the virtual environments. Sunrise in a mountain lodge in the mornings, sunny office or ski chalet in the afternoons. Very positively mood altering.

emp··on Bigscreen Beyond 2
I can only describe my setup, have never tried an 8k monitor.

I am guessing I have about 40 PPD. I still have a sliver of space on each side where I see part of my support screens (vertical 1080P on each side). It has a 110 degree horizontal FOV.

My main screen is driven by the MacBook Pro's native resolution (3456x2160). Immersed can create 4k virtual screens, but I don't really see an improvement, the Quest's panels are the limiting factor.

Not crisp like retina, but the size makes up for it. In very rare cases I just lean right up to the screens (they are 3 feet from me). As the focal point is somewhere 4-5 feet away, you can have your face right against the screen to see tiny detail.

Also the fast refresh (I have mine set to 120Hz) matters. I tried my work's Vision Pro. Yes, more crisp graphics. But it gave me motion sickness, there is a slight motion blur, the pixels don't seem to refresh fast enough. The Quest is rock solid, never felt unwell using it.

I really don't even notice it is not retina.

emp··on Bigscreen Beyond 2
I use a Quest 3 + Immersed software and code 6+ hours a day like this. One giant 50" monitor + 3 support ones on the sides. Best "monitors" ever. I love that I have no eye strain at the end of the day. It must be a Quest 3, not the 3S - it must have the pancake lenses, the old ones only focus well in the centre.
emp··on The end of the manual transmission is near?
If I could afford a Porsche I would still get a manual option. Changing gears cleanly, heel-toe blipping the throttle when gearing down, getting the right gear at the right time - simple pleasures. It seems the more refined cars become the less character they have. Even the equivalent cars to my old dependable friend feel like lesser cars. Annoy CVTs, electric power steering, and finishes that feel cheap. And windows - I have nice big windows where I can see everywhere.
emp··on Apple Silicon M1: A Developer's Perspective
You will be inside of Xcode for most of your time - I just upgraded to a 13" Air (maxed out configuration) from my 2012 11" Macbook Air which was still fine with Xcode. I think any Mac will run Xcode well enough.
emp··on The boss who put everyone on 70K
When last did you change jobs? A year ago I did and set a hard minimum at 120, and managed 2 offers as high as 160 and took a lower one due to more interesting work and great environment. And had to cancel 3 more on site interviews that knew my range was 130-140. My previous job had a 2% raise over 3 years, with a salary out of touch with the current ranges. It seems the only way to get a raise much of the time is new work (and practice negotiating!)
emp··on Alan Kay: Smalltalk is not about objects, it’s about messaging (1998)
The IDE is where the super powers are. Like any IDE it just takes a little time. https://pharo.org/ has an online course to get into it. Being in a live system is unlike anything else - the first time a debugger appears and you fix the bug in the debugger and just hit the “continue running” button is a rush. TDD inside the debugger is amazing. And do much more. You really need to experience it, else it just sounds like hot reloading features of current tech.
emp··on Small but significant improvements in Swift 5.1
They are still positional in Swift. color(r: 255, g: 255, b: 255) is not the same as color(b: 255, g: 255, r: 255). Also the parameter names are part of the method signature.
emp··on Nissan says Leaf batteries will outlast the car by 10-12 years
Is 10 years normal for the lifespan of a car? Mine is 23 now, still works fine, and I feel is nicer than similar new cars in terms of interior finishes, hydraulic power steering, actual buttons for climate control that do their one thing well.

I don't drive much, but then I don't remember any childhood cars of my parents being at end of life at 10 years, and those were used in daily commutes.

Do the batteries decay over time? If a Leaf only has say 8k miles a year, will the batteries simply fail to hold charge after 22 years?

emp··on I do not use a debugger (2016)
“Stepping through code a line at a time” is a rather narrow definition of using a debugger. Setting a logging breakpoint. Conditionally breaking. Introspection by calling functions while the program is paused. Testing assumptions by calling functions. Conditionally pausing the program. Setting a breakpoint in code and then calling functions to activate the code path to the breakpoint. This is the core of what lldb does for me. I agree, single stepping is rare and is like looking for the needle in the haystack. But are all these other aspects not assumed to be using the debugger?
emp··on On the death of my family's dairy farm
The majority of soy goes to feeding animals ... http://www.wisoybean.org/news/soybean_facts.php
emp··on Explaining Code Using ASCII Art
There is plantUML. Then diagrams can live alongside source code and be under version control.
emp··on Flutter: the good, the bad and the ugly
http://www.injectionforxcode.com lets you hot load swift/objc
emp··on A Massive Battery that Can Store Solar and Wind Energy
This scheme has been Running in South Africa since 1981: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drakensberg_Pumped_Storage_S...

It’s interesting as it is a network of a few dams and rivers over a very large area.

emp··on Apple Is Planning a New Low-Cost MacBook, Pro-Focused Mac Mini
It's still my favourite machine ever. Mine has dual core i7, the MacBooks don't look like an upgrade in any way.
emp··on Heavy-handed security searches of hotel rooms at Defcon/Black Hat
This isn’t happening specially for Defcon, it’s been standard practice for a while.
emp··on Why the New V8 Is So Damn Fast
Don’t forget 1987 and the Self language from which Java got Hotspot. Fascinating language and runtime: http://www.selflanguage.org
emp··on Some suddenly become accomplished artists or musicians with no previous training
Who is judging the skill of these sudden savants?

Aside from code, I draw and paint well (art school) and have built my own furniture. I know I am far from an expert.

However to people who's last artistic endeavour was finger painting as a kid, my skills appear expert. I don't think they could tell apart the skill of a real practicing artist vs me, they have no foundation to judge from.

One day I want to take off 3 months, and lose myself in learning to play the piano, 4+ hours a day. I suspect I will be pretty good at the end, but judged as far better a player than I really am!

emp··on People Aren’t Dumb, the World Is Hard
I believe the Squeak/Pharo VMs are much faster than the Python and Ruby interpreters. There are other tricks - an Int maybe be an object, but a special one that fits in a register. The part that other languages don’t get is it’s the Smalltalk environment that makes it special, and there is just nothing like it in our modern tooling.
emp··on Google: My interview experience
My experience is the polar opposite - I've had updates before and after, even just to say sorry it's taking so long (4 days isn't long to me). It must very much depend on who is taking care of you.
emp··on Vancouver plans to tax empty properties 1% of their assessed value
You are thinking logically. It's not applied in Vancouver. I rent for just over 2k. If my place was put up for sale, it would be for just over 1 million. Factor in $300 a month strata fees, another $200 for insurance, if they owner has a typical long term mortgage they are renting for a loss. However they bought it 10 years ago, they have done well with the crazy appreciation.
emp··on Writing Your Own Programming Language
I agree, but would add I wish student had to build compilers/interpreters for 3 languages: Forth, Lisp and something like C. As a student we went right into C: BNFs, lex, yacc, emitting machine code, optimizations, etc. Very interesting but the beauty of simplicity is lost in it all. Forth at first is baffling - there is no syntax! It's amazing how little you need to get going. Lisp, to just get right to the parse tree. And you already have intuition on the interpreter part. And finally C or Java for all the upfront complexity required.
emp··on A developer's journey to create 100 games in five years
I found this excerpt useful: https://blog.codinghorror.com/quantity-always-trumps-quality...
emp··on Self-Driving Tesla Was Involved in Fatal Crash, U.S. Says
No mention of the fact that the human driven truck pulled out in front of the care. From the description it sounds like the car should have break breaking hard - one doesn't just hit the side of a truck - the driver didn't see the oncoming car either.
emp··on Slack will soon start testing voice and video chat
I thought the removal of P2P was due to a patent: https://www.google.com/patents/US6108704
emp··on Show HN: I've been writing daily TILs for a year
I've been using Notational Velocity for a while in this way. It's wonderful. Synced on Dropbox, my "little black book" is available on any device I have at hand, and instantly searchable.
emp··on Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter
They are quite easy to repair. The outside "shield" is actually one of the wires, so very easy to match the ends as the wires have a completely different make up. I have repaired mine in a few places (no cable can take on a bunny). The main problem is the rubber outside appears to be falling apart, much like the biodegradable plastic bags. No real strain on the areas, it simply split and started peeling away.
emp··on Apple Speeds Up Electric-Car Work
I think there will always be a place for individual car ownership, mainly because of morons. I am a member of a car coop which has 400 or so cars in its pool. When it was a lot smaller it was great. Most people were the kind who do things differently. The cars were left clean with seats returned to normal positions. Now that the coop has grown, I find partly emptied soda cups in the cup holders, seats left in cargo configurations, dirt tracked in with no effort to clean up, dogs in allergen free cars, etc. Masses ruin special things - they are not part of the initial culture. Also costs have risen to the point where I am dusting off my almost 20 year old car (which incidentally feels just as current as the newer coop cars, except for the electric ones which feel like I am driving in the future).
emp··on Swift 2 Apps in the App Store
I love Obj-C (probably because I love Smalltalk). Before Swift 2, I didn't see what the excitement was about. Since using Swift 2, I want to use it everywhere. I will miss some of the dynamic features of Obj-C, but there are other ways to get to the same end. The terseness of Swift while maintaining Obj-C clarity, is wonderful.
emp··on TvOS for Developers
One of the video snippets showed the remote being used to drive a car. Good enough for the casual players.
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