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svec

264 karma · joined July 3, 2008

Embedded software engineer and all-around nice guy.

https://www.chrissvec.com

submissionscomments
svec··on Compute's Gazette Magazine Returns After 35 Yrs, Will Focus on Retro Computing
Who are the authors for the content of the first month's issue? The articles on the site don't list an author, which makes me think it's all written by Edwin Nagle, which makes me wonder if anyone else will contribute to the monthly issues.
svec··on Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?
I highly recommend Scratch! I wrote a post of the resources that my kid used. It's the lowest friction way I know of to get kids actually creating something fun, with a pretty fast fast feedback loop.

https://chrissvec.com/scratch-resources/

On there I recommend 2 excellent tutorial series by Digipen that got my kid started, and then a higher level "Scratcher" to follow who has excellent tutorials that are more advanced than the Digipen series.

svec··on How video games use lookup tables
Are there any other dev commentaries you recommend (other than the mentions in your post)?
svec··on Wokwi – Simulate IoT Projects in the Browser
Uri Shaked, the creator of Wokwi, is interviewed here: https://embedded.fm/episodes/396
svec··on Sid Meier's Memoir: A Life in Computer Games
If you like his games, or that book, check out this great interview with Sid Meier as part of the Designer Notes podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/designer-notes-23-sid-...

It's 4 episodes long (episodes 23-26). It's an overview of Sid's career, and so it's very similar to his autobiography, but I enjoyed listening to Sid talk about it in a different way than I enjoyed reading the book.

svec··on Ask HN: What do you do with your older hardware?
I offer old hardware to local charities that reuse/recycle it, or on a “buy nothing” Facebook group where people will almost always take it and (hopefully) make better use of it than I will.
svec··on Rob Pike's Rules of Programming (1989)
Pike himself says "there's a 6th rule": https://twitter.com/rob_pike/status/998681790037442561?lang=...

(6. There is no Rule 6.)

And points to the best source he finds for it on the web: http://doc.cat-v.org/bell_labs/pikestyle

svec··on Ask HN: Who is hiring right now?
iRobot | Bedford, MA ONSITE | Embedded Software Engineers | https://www.irobot.com/about-irobot/careers

I'm hiring an experienced embedded software engineer for my team at iRobot in Bedford, MA (just outside of Boston) [0]. Join me in making helpful home robots!

I've also got a 0-2 year experience embedded software role that doesn't have a job description yet: it's basically [0] with less experience.

iRobot is hiring a bunch of other software engineering positions as well. See all open positions at [1].

[0]: https://irobot.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/iRobot/job/US-MA-...

[1]: https://irobot.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/iRobot

svec··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (February 2019)
iRobot | Boston, MA and Pasadena, CA | ONSITE | Software Engineers | https://www.irobot.com/

iRobot (maker of the Roomba, among other robots) is hiring many types of software engineers for our Boston, MA and Pasadena, CA offices, including robotics, computer vision, machine learning, Android, software test, embedded linux, cloud, and more.

Check out all open positions at: https://irobot.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/iRobot

I've been at iRobot for just over 5 years and really like it. We're a bunch of friendly people who enjoy working together to design practical robots.

Please email me with any questions at csvec at irobot.com.

svec··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (November 2018)
iRobot | Boston, MA and Pasadena, CA | ONSITE | Software Engineers | https://www.irobot.com/

iRobot (maker of the Roomba, among other robots) is hiring many types of software engineers for our Boston, MA and Pasadena, CA offices, including robotics, computer vision, machine learning, Android, software test, embedded linux, cloud, and more.

Check out all open positions at: https://irobot.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/iRobot

I've been at iRobot for just over 5 years and really like it. We're a bunch of friendly people who enjoy working together to design practical robots.

Please email me with any questions at csvec at irobot.com.

svec··on Working remotely, 4 years in
Zoom.us is GREAT! Video and audio quality are great, hiccups are rare, the screen sharing features are good, and it integrates easily into our physical offices with a decent iPad app. (I've tried hangouts, hipchat video, appear.in, and a few others, but Zoom is much better.)

I also highly recommend the Owl 360 degree video camera/speaker: https://www.owllabs.com/

As a remote employee, the Owl makes it much easier to be a part of a discussion around a table where most of the meeting participants are in a room at HQ, and a few of us are remote. (I know some of the employees, so I'm biased, but I like to think I would love the Owl even if I didn't know some of the team.)

svec··on Effective Engineer – Notes
+1 Here's a link to Norvig's (self annotated!) github repo: https://github.com/norvig/pytudes
svec··on Ask HN: What service do you use for audio conference calls?
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/204206269-Linux-In...

I haven't used the Linux client, but many others at my company use it.

svec··on Ask HN: Best-architected open-source business applications worth studying?
Re: "This one is freely available -- and quite good."

All of the chapters/essays in the "Architecture of Open Source Applications" volumes 1 and 2 are freely available, in case that's not clear on the AOSA website: http://www.aosabook.org/en/

svec··on Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?
"Programmers at Work: Interviews With 19 Programmers Who Shaped the Computer Industry" by Susan Lammers.

https://www.amazon.com/Programmers-Work-Interviews-Computer-...

This book is from 1989, but it's a timeless and fascinating look at the minds of Bill Gates, Andy Hertzfeld (apple/mac), Dan Bricklin (visicalc), and 16 others.

svec··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (April 2017)
Unfortunately the answer is 'no' to both. (I use glassdoor.com to answer questions like the 2nd one...)
svec··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (April 2017)
No, it's pretty low actually - we have a high growth rate! (company $/product growth, that is)
svec··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (April 2017)
iRobot | Software Engineers | Bedford, MA (near Boston, MA) and Pasadena, CA | ONSITE

iRobot is hiring software engineers like they're going out of style. Which they're not. Quite the opposite, really.

If you want to work with a bunch of friendly humans and robots, you should consider iRobot. We've got a great culture, benefits, and products.

Most positions are for our Bedford, MA headquarters, which is just outside of Boston, MA.

We're looking for people to do embedded (aka firmware for buzzword compliance), cloud, mobile/iOS, test, and hardcore robotics as well. Those aren't the same person, mind you. We're also looking for electrical engineers and mechanical engineers.

We use mostly C and C++, with some Python along the way as well.

You do NOT need any robotics experience - I had none when I joined!

Check out our careers site and email me if anything looks interesting: http://www.irobot.com/About-iRobot/Careers.aspx

Please email me at csvec, the at sign, then the company domain.

svec··on Microprocessor March Madness (Embedded.fm)
Apple ][e is going all the way this year!
svec··on Smart Prosthetics: Medicine, embedded systems and machine intelligence (podcast)
The phrase "self-driving arm" alone is worth the time it takes to listen to this podcast. (the rest of the podcast is good too)
svec··on Ask HN: How were the super bowl led torches synced?
It was a live commercial: http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/25/news/companies/snickers-live...
svec··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (February 2017)
iRobot | Software Engineers | Bedford, MA (near Boston, MA) and Pasadena, CA | ONSITE

iRobot is hiring software engineers like they're going out of style. Which they're not. Quite the opposite, really.

If you want to work with a bunch of friendly humans and robots, you should consider iRobot.

We've got a great culture, benefits, and products.

Most positions are for our Bedford, MA headquarters, which is just outside of Boston, MA.

We're looking for people to do embedded (aka firmware for buzzword compliance), test, and hardcore robotics as well. Those aren't the same person, mind you. We're also looking for electrical engineers and mechanical engineers.

We use mostly C and C++, with some Python along the way as well.

You do NOT need any robotics experience - I had none when I joined!

Check out our careers site and email me if anything looks interesting:

http://www.irobot.com/About-iRobot/Careers.aspx

Please email me at csvec, the at sign, then the company domain.

svec··on Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?
Lisp and C: for robotic control software.
svec··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (January 2017)
iRobot | Software Engineers | Bedford, MA and Pasadena, CA | ONSITE

iRobot is hiring software engineers like they're going out of style. Which they're not. Quite the opposite, really.

If you want to work with a bunch of friendly humans and robots, you should consider iRobot. We've got a great culture, benefits, and products.

Most positions are for our Bedford, MA headquarters, which is just outside of Boston, MA.

We're looking for people to do embedded (aka firmware for buzzword compliance), test, and hardcore robotics as well. Those aren't the same person, mind you. We're also looking for electrical engineers and mechanical engineers.

We use mostly C and C++, with some Python along the way as well.

You do NOT need any robotics experience - I had none when I joined!

Check out our careers site and email me if anything looks interesting:

http://www.irobot.com/About-iRobot/Careers.aspx

Please email me at csvec, the at sign, then the company domain.

svec··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (December 2016)
iRobot | Software Engineers | Bedford, MA and Pasadena, CA | ONSITE

iRobot is hiring software engineers like they're going out of style. Which they're not. Quite the opposite, really. Most positions are for our Bedford, MA headquarters, which is just outside of Boston, MA.

We're looking for people to do embedded (aka firmware for buzzword compliance), test, and hardcore robotics as well. Those aren't the same person, mind you. We're also looking for electrical engineers and mechanical engineers.

We use mostly C and C++, with some Python along the way as well.

You do NOT need any robotics experience - I had none when I joined!

Check out our careers site and email me if anything looks interesting:

http://www.irobot.com/About-iRobot/Careers.aspx

Please email me at csvec, the at sign, then the company domain.

svec··on Rules for Writing Safety Critical Code (2006)
Funny timing: I just suggested those guidelines, and several related ones, in a post over here: http://embedded.fm/blog/2016/11/3/resources-for-software-bes...

(Check out "Rules for Defensive C Programming" by Dinu Madau for starters.)

svec··on Ask HN: Ever been hired through a “who's hiring” post?
Both of the people that we hired through my iRobot posts are embedded software engineers (both on my team, actually).

I'm sorry that we didn't get back to you, though - I saw that I replied to you when you asked about your status, but our HR people should have closed the loop with you too. That's our bad; my apologies!

I think we've gotten a lot better at recruiting communication in the last couple of years, both for "yes" and "no" situations. Of course that doesn't help you from a while ago, but hopefully it's better for more recent candidates.

svec··on Ask HN: Ever been hired through a “who's hiring” post?
Other side of the table: we've hired at least 2 people from the "Who's Hiring" posts at here at iRobot.
svec··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (November 2016)
iRobot | Bedford, MA and Pasadena, CA | ONSITE

iRobot is hiring software engineers like they're going out of style. Which they're not. Quite the opposite, really. Most positions are for our Bedford, MA headquarters, which is just outside of Boston, MA.

We're looking for people to do embedded (aka firmware for buzzword compliance), cloud, iOS, Android, test, and hardcore robotics as well. Those aren't the same person, mind you. We're also looking for electrical engineers and mechanical engineers.

You do NOT need any robotics experience - I had none when I joined!

Check out our careers site and email me if anything looks interesting: http://www.irobot.com/About-iRobot/Careers.aspx

Please email me at csvec, the at sign, then the company domain.

svec··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (October 2016)
iRobot | Bedford, MA and Pasadena, CA | ONSITE

iRobot is hiring software engineers like they're going out of style. Which they're not. Quite the opposite, really. Most positions are for our Bedford, MA headquarters, which is just outside of Boston, MA.

We're looking for people to do embedded (aka firmware for buzzword compliance), cloud, iOS, Android, test, and hardcore robotics as well. Those aren't the same person, mind you. We're also looking for electrical engineers and mechanical engineers.

You do NOT need any robotics experience - I had none when I joined!

Check out our careers site and email me if anything looks interesting: http://www.irobot.com/About-iRobot/Careers.aspx

Please email me at csvec, the at sign, then the company domain.

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