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otto2

128 karma · joined August 31, 2015

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otto2··on I designed a cube that balances itself on a corner
Cool functionality aside, it looks beautiful.
otto2··on Belgrade's kafana pub culture
I don't know where are you from, but imagine your country being under devastating economic sanctions, then bombarded by enormously more powerful armies, then annexing a part of the country, all of that against international law. Make that process displace hundreds of thousands of people. Now when you imagine that, be honest with yourself and see if you would keep conversations at weather and sport.
otto2··on Galaksija: The Soviet-Era, Z80-based microcomputer
It was really "popular" in 1984 and 1985, and for hobbyists only. If you started being interested in computers after 1985 there was a big chance to never hear of it.
otto2··on Galaksija: The Soviet-Era, Z80-based microcomputer
It is not correct to refer to it as Soviet-Era. Using the logic from the title, Apple Macintosh is also Soviet-Era. Yugoslavia was never part of Warsaw bloc, it had its own political system and no USSR army on its territory.
otto2··on Article reply “Godot is not the new Unity” from Juan Linietsky (BDFL of Godot)
You can still optimize this. If the scan has to establish line-of-sight between bots, your engine can establish that, and when firing raycasts, to skip those that are known to be misses. It doesn't change anything for the bot that fires raycasts. You could also calculate extremes (leftmost and rightmost) and return positives in between. This would decrease number of raycasts by two orders of magnitude. Also add a possibility to skip every 2nd, 3rd etc frame so that you can evaluate if it impacts game play.
otto2··on Discovery shines light on Church's protection of Jews during Nazi persecution
On the website of the Holocaust Museum in New York you can find interviews of the people who were in that concentration camp as kids. It is not easy to watch.

The summary of the last one says: "the decapitation of her mother by a guard; her transfer to Jastebarsko children's camp with her brother; life in Jastebarsko, including the poor treatment of the children by the attending nuns;"

https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn44661

https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn505922

https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn44862

https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn45368

otto2··on Discovery shines light on Church's protection of Jews during Nazi persecution
Catholic church has history of being the lead in genocide, as for example in Croatia, where priests participated in killings of Serbs, Roma, Jews and Croats. Church also ran the only concentration camp for kids (Stara Gradiška) with countless kids killed by beating and starvation.

Any source about Church role during WWII coming from the Church itself should be taken with a lot of doubts.

otto2··on New Norwegian land could emerge from the Atlantic Ocean
Western powers didn't give up their doctrine easy. There was entire movement of anti-colonialism and non-alignment, sometimes followed by the wars for liberation - French Indochina, Vietnam, Algiers, just to mention few. If there were no wars, I doubt that western powers would give up on their colonies on their own.
otto2··on Simulating protected mode in the Z80 [video]
The sixth unit had CP/M disabled, so accountants wrote it down as 0.7 units.
otto2··on Better.com CEO fires 900 employees on Zoom call
In Canada/Quebec too.
otto2··on Ask HN: People who cashed out early and stopped working: What is your life like?
Probably getting smaller contracts, and not being employee.
otto2··on Is this the simplest (and most surprising) sorting algorithm?
Back in time I was sorting records on disk using Atari ST and (probably) Omikron BASIC. I applied RADIX sort (or a variant) that I saw in one magazine. It worked as a charm on RAM disk, but once when I tried it on a floppy disk, it just took forever.
otto2··on Pompeii’s fast food joint unearthed in 2019 opens to public
It might be. However, I am from these parts of the world, and never heard of it.
otto2··on Google reports soaring attrition among Black women
Back in time I switched completely to left-handed mouse. It took about a week to get to a workable speed.
otto2··on Google reports soaring attrition among Black women
I am sorry for your health problem. I don't know if anything like that exists, but could you use your legs/feet to drive a mouse-like device? When I was a child, a teacher told us of a woman who learned to type on a typewriter (it was before computers became popular) using her toes. I wish you luck with figuring out what works for you.
otto2··on Google reports soaring attrition among Black women
Me too. I suffered few years being called "Clive" and "Sinclair" by bullish peers.
otto2··on Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC
Me too. Due to some issues with right hand I retrained myself to use mouse with my left hand. Now I can use mouse by both hands, and in both button orientations.
otto2··on DIY Single-Chip 2D Retro Game Console
Voja Antonic, creator of this project, is also creator of the first widely built and used personal computer in SFRJ (Yugoslavia in communist period) named Galaksija, back in 1983. The very first computer magazine there printed complete manual how to build it in its first issue, and so triggered personal computer revolution.
otto2··on Interslavic Language
As non-native speaker of Spanish and French, the text is easily understandable, more so than written Portuguese or Italian.
otto2··on Women Coders in Finance IT Say They're Given the Worst Jobs
I worked number of years in IT in financial institutions. Almost none of that work was very interesting on its own. A lot of IT work in finance is about moving data, transforming data etc.

There is maybe some fancy work out there - algorithmic trading, super-low latency trading etc, but rest is mostly boring.

otto2··on When People Are as Predictable as Water [video]
Resume: moving of a crowd can be simulated using fluid mechanics.

Video is a video of researcher talking about it.

otto2··on ‘I’m Broke and Mostly Friendless, and I’ve Wasted My Whole Life’
I moved continents twice, starting 18 years ago. I feel your pain.
otto2··on Elementary OS – Fast, open, privacy-respecting replacement for Windows and macOS
Lenovo Thinkpads are in general well supported and have hardware that works out of the box. I run Mint on Thinkpad 450s and have no issues at all.
otto2··on China can apparently now identify citizens based on the way they walk
This will cause people to start walking on the street in the same way as Fremen in Frank Herbert's Dune, by varying frequency and step length in order not to attract a (government) worm.
otto2··on H-1B: As immigration furor roils Silicon Valley, Canada smooths way for techies
Your visa is essentially a visitor visa. You are not authorized to work in USA - you can visit for business while being paid by foreign entity.

It is very different from H1B visa that is tied to a specific employer.

otto2··on Colour Clash: The Engineering Miracle of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum
Coming from ex-Yugoslavia - it was not forbidden to OWN a computer - no one cared about it, it was forbidden to import computer costing more than some arbitrary sum, in order to protect domestic 'industry'. In Yugoslavia that amount was LOWER than price of ZX Spectrum, hence need for people to smuggle computers.
otto2··on Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age
I started to run to work and back, and during the weekend to run before anyone else at home wakes up.
otto2··on The Collector’s Fallacy
Kudos for 8-bit machines. And Microdrive!

I understand your tabs behaviour - I am the same, but once when I come to 90-ish, I start culling session to cut it to more reasonable number.