HN user

JJMalina

610 karma
Posts16
Comments41
View on HN

I think the example could be better in this article. Let's say you have a function that takes a database id, an email address, and a name. They're all strings. If you pass arguments to this function and you mess up the order for some reason then the compiler has no idea. Hopefully your unit tests catch this but it won't be as obvious. Branded types solve this problem because you can't pass a name string as an argument that is expected to be an email address.

If you argue that this is not a common problem in practice, then I tend to agree. I haven't seen code with mixed up arguments very much, but when it does happen it can have bad consequences. IMO there is not a big cost to pay to have this extra safety. In TypeScript it's ugly, but in other languages that natively support this typing like Scala, Rust, Swift and Haskell, it works nicely.

Whether the term "vaporware" applies to SC is kind of subjective IMO. The server meshing feature has been advertised for a long time and it still hasn't been shipped. Though they did add object persistence a few patches ago which really changed the game for salvaging.

I bought the game based on what I see people doing in it already, and it was fun enough for me. That definitely won't be the case for everyone and I recognize that. So to me it's not vaporware and there are lots of other people still enjoying the game today.

There's quite a lot you can do in game and there are tons of ships with many different specializations (cargo, salvaging, mining, exploration, fighters, bombers, corvettes). Some need multiple players to crew effectively

PVE - Cargo delivery missions (from small to large size) - Bounty hunting (in space and on planet) - Mining - Salvaging - Cave exploration/rescue - Escaping from prison

PVP - Bounty/pirate hunting

Just search for Star Citizen content on YouTube. You fill find a lot. My favorites are https://www.youtube.com/@CaptainBerks and https://www.youtube.com/@Morphologis

Over the past two years I've played maybe 10-20 hours of SC. I paid $45 for the starter ship and then made some money moving boxes and doing bounties to upgrade my ship and then have enough to buy a bigger one. The game is pretty fun if you're used to MMO style grinding. The only problem is that during the past two years there have been many server state wipes so you lose everything except for the starter ship you purchased. On top of that there have been intermittent stability issues which would cause you to disconnect in the middle of doing something. It seems that it's become much more stable. So yeah, you're at minimum paying $45 for a game that's alpha, which is questionable value. My justification for this was that there isn't really any other game on the market that gives you the same experience. Starfield is releasing soon, but that's all single player, and I don't think it has space flight sim combat like SC does. Despite this, it's still a fun game with a lot of things to do, however it will not be everyone's cup of tea. Check out https://www.youtube.com/@CaptainBerks and https://www.youtube.com/@Morphologis for a better idea.

I really hope server meshing pans out, but I'm skeptical that RSI has the chops to pull it off. The number of objects in SC is huge and the world is seamless. This not something that's entirely new though. EVE Online has meshed servers for persistence of tens of thousands of concurrent players in a single universe successfully for decades now.

Glad to see this article.

I've been running Xubuntu on a Lenovo X1 Carbon 5th gen with since 2016 with no issues. Totally wiped Windows from the beginning. The only frustration I have is when using a non-hidpi external screen I have to change the dpi to match what the external screen is capable, so the laptop screen effectively becomes very small.

Plasma 5.25 4 years ago

How is Plasma in terms of CPU, memory, and graphics load? When I switched from Mac OS X to Linux six years ago I tried Ubuntu but I found Gnome to be incredibly slow and resource intense. Then I tried Xubuntu and I've used it ever since. I'm pretty happy running XFCE on two 4K screens with my desktop and on my hidpi Lenovo laptop. I've noticed Plasma continuing to improve and people recommending it so now I'm more keen to test it out.

Besides the improved UX are there any other advantages of Plasma over XFCE?

Hydrofoiling 5 years ago

Foiling has made it possible to do all of these sports with less power. I can now go windsurfing in 12kts on the same size sail that I would use for 20kts.

I remember seeing foils in the late 90s and early 2000s but they weren't available to purchase. I wonder why. Maybe it's because the construction process hadn't been commercialized yet.

I didn't know about Darktable or Kdenlive, so I'll have to check those out. Peek is awesome for GIF recording.

I've been using a ThinkPad X1 Carbon running Xubuntu since 2016. Before that I was using a MacBook Pro.

The things I like about this machine/Linux are - It's light - The keyboard is great/better - The battery is really good coupled with the low resource usage of Xubuntu (except when I have Zoom, Docker, and lots of Firefox tabs) - Don't have any trouble with audio when using Bluetooth - I don't have to worry about MacOS breaking my dev environment - Setting up dev environment is a breeze

Things I dislike - CPU is not as powerful as a MacBook Pro - The most recent X/Ubuntu broke wake up from sleep - Some software doesn't have a Linux equivalent (Webex) - If you want to dual boot Linux and Windows, getting full disk encryption on X/Ubuntu is challenging - Plugging into a non-hidpi monitor is janky because it can't change dpi per screen - Speakers on this machine suck

For me doing strictly software development, the benefits of a stable and easy to use environment outweigh the warts of Linux.

If I were to get a new machine I'd consider Lenovo again. The new Dell XPS also looks great. I might also give Windows and WSL2 a try in my dual OS desktop. Windows feels a lot smoother compared to Linux (on a very powerful desktop though), but it's constantly notifying you about things which is a distraction.

Broken 7 years ago

I've come to accept that most OSes are inevitably broken in different ways. OS X has always broken my dev environment on every update. So over three years ago I switched to a ThinkPad X1 Carbon with XUbuntu and have no issues other than having to change my DPI when I connect/disconnect to a non HiDPI screen. Then I recently built a gaming PC with an AMD CPU and an Nvidia GPU, which did not go as smoothly with Linux: I had to install experimental Nvidia drivers, audio is a little wonky, and sometimes the wifi doesnt work and I have to restart. But overall I'm quite happy on XUbuntu and it gives me fewer problems or annoying prompts than Mac OS or Windows ever did. For gaming I use Windows of course.

ChatID (NYC, Austin, San Francisco) http://chatid.com

ChatID is a quickly growing platform for brands and consumers to directly communicate via chat across any website and on any device. Our chat product is live for partnered brands on Walmart.com, Sears.com and Newegg.com

Our current engineering openings:

* Dev Ops Engineer

* Product Designer

* Senior Integration Engineer

* Automation & QA Engineer

All of our openings and their job descriptions can be found here: http://jobvite.com/m?3dx3vhw4

About the company:

- We're 40+ people based in NYC, Austin and San Francisco

- Our chat services are written in Lua and powered by Prosody [https://prosody.im/] an open source XMPP server maintained by two of our cofounders, one of which is a member of the XMPP council

Technologies we use:

- CoffeeScript, Backbone.js, Angular.js, Flux and React, D3, SASS/LESS

- Python, Flask, PostgreSQL, InfluxDB, RabbitMQ, Apache Spark, Cloudera Impala

- Lua, OpenResty/NGINX, Prosody

Sound interesting? Apply at http://jobvite.com/m?3dx3vhw4 or send us an email at careers@chatid.com

ChatID (New York, NY) http://chatid.com

ChatID is a quickly growing platform for brands and consumers to directly communicate via chat across any website and on any device. Our chat product is live for partnered brands on Walmart.com, Sears.com and Newegg.com

Our current openings:

* Head of Engineering

* Junior Python Engineer

* Engineering Intern

All of our openings and their job descriptions can be found here: http://hire.jobvite.com/CompanyJobs/Careers.aspx?k=JobListin...

About the company:

- We're 25+ people mostly based in NYC, but also SF and Austin

- Our NYC office is in Flatiron between Union Square and Madison Square

- Our chat services are written in Lua and powered by Prosody [https://prosody.im/] an open source XMPP server maintained by two of our cofounders, one of which is a member of the XMPP council

Technologies we use:

- CoffeeScript, Backbone.js, Angular.js, Flux and React, D3, SASS/LESS

- Python, Flask, PostgreSQL, InfluxDB, RabbitMQ, Apache Spark

- Lua, OpenResty/NGINX, Prosody

Sound interesting? Apply at http://hire.jobvite.com/CompanyJobs/Careers.aspx?k=JobListin... or send us an email at careers@chatid.com

ChatID (New York, NY) http://chatid.com

ChatID is a quickly growing platform for brands and consumers to directly communicate via chat across any website and on any device. Our chat product is live for partnered brands on Walmart.com, Sears.com and Newegg.com

Our current openings:

* Data Engineer - join our data team and work on building our analytics solution which gives brands and retailers a view into how chat is driving their business.

* Frontend Engineer - join our frontend team and work on our core product which is a 3rd party JavaScript chat widget that runs on desktop and mobile web

About the company:

- We're 20+ people mostly based in NYC, but also SF and Austin

- NYC office is in Flatiron between Union Square and Madison Square

- Newegg.com recently awarded us a 2014 Eggie award for "Best Marketing Platform"

- We like contributing to open source https://github.com/chatid Technologies we use:

- For our chat server we use Lua and Prosody [https://prosody.im/] an open source XMPP server started by two of our cofounders, one of which is a member of the XMPP council

- CoffeeScript, Backbone.js, Require.js, Angular.js, Flux and React, D3, SASS/LESS

- Python, Flask, PostgreSQL, InfluxDB, RabbitMQ

- Chef for infrastructure automation, but we're working on switching over to using Ansible and Docker

Sound interesting? Send us an email at careers@chatid.com and feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions: jeremiah@chatid.com

ChatID (New York, NY) http://chatid.com

ChatID is a quickly growing platform for brands and consumers to directly communicate via chat across any website and on any device. Our chat product is live for select brands on Walmart.com, Sears.com and Newegg.com

Our current openings:

* Frontend Engineer - we're building real-time communication interfaces for mobile and desktop web using Backbone.js, XMPP, and BOSH

* Client Services Engineer - work with frontend and client services to help technically support new and existing clients

* Data Engineer - help us build a data pipeline and analytics service to give our clients insights into chat and consumer behavior on retailers. (this one isn't listed yet but if you're familiar w/ Python and skilled in SQL, and NoSQL, please reach out to us)

* You can find full job descriptions for these openings at https://chatid.gethired.com/ as well as other non-technical openings we have

About the company:

- We're 16 people mostly based in NYC, but also SF and Austin

- NYC office is in Flatiron between Union Square and Madison Square

- Newegg.com recently awarded us a 2014 Eggie award for "Best Marketing Platform"

- We like contributing to open source https://github.com/chatid

Technologies we use:

- Lua and Prosody [https://prosody.im/] an open source XMPP server started by two of our cofounders, one of which is a member of the XMPP council

- CoffeeScript, Backbone.js, Require.js, Angular.js, D3, SASS/LESS

- Python, Flask, PostgreSQL, InfluxDB, RabbitMQ

- Chef for infrastructure automation, but we're working on switching over to using Ansible and Docker

Sound interesting? Send us an email at careers@chatid.com and feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions: jeremiah@chatid.com

ChatID (New York, NY) http://chatid.com

We're building a quickly growing platform for brands and consumers to directly communicate via chat across any website and on any device.

Our current openings:

* Frontend Engineer - we're building real-time communication interfaces for mobile and desktop web using Backbone.js, XMPP, and BOSH

* Client Services Engineer - work with frontend and client services to help technically support new and existing clients

* Data Engineer - help us build a data pipeline and analytics service to give our clients insights into chat and consumer behavior on retailers. (this one isn't listed yet but if you're familiar w/ Python and skilled in SQL, and NoSQL, please reach out to us)

* You can see all of our open positions at https://chatid.gethired.com/

About the company:

- We're 15 people mostly based in NYC, but also SF and Austin

- NYC office is in Flatiron between Union Square and Madison Square

- Newegg.com recently awarded us a 2014 Eggie award for "Best Marketing Platform"

- We like contributing to open source https://github.com/chatid

Technologies we use:

- Lua and Prosody [https://prosody.im/] an open source XMPP server started by two of our cofounders, one of which is a member of the XMPP council

- CoffeeScript, Backbone.js, Require.js, Angular.js, D3, SASS/LESS

- Python, Flask, PostgreSQL, InfluxDB, RabbitMQ

- Chef for infrastructure automation, but we're working on switching over to using Ansible and Docker

Sound interesting? Send us an email at careers@chatid.com and feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions: jeremiah@chatid.com

ChatID (New York, NY) http://chatid.com We're building a platform for brands and consumers to directly communicate across any website and on any device via chat.

Our current openings:

* Frontend Developer - we're building real-time communication interfaces for mobile and desktop web using Backbone.js, XMPP, and BOSH

* Data Scientist - in addition to chat messages we have a lot of data about consumer behavior which we want to use to help brands provide better service

* We're also looking for a Product Manager and Sales & Business Development representatives to help build out our brand partnerships

* You can see all of our open positions at https://chatid.gethired.com/

About the company:

- We're 11 people based in NYC with one in SF and one in the UK

- NYC office is in Flatiron between Union Square and Madison Square

- Newegg.com recently awarded us a 2014 Eggie award for "Best Marketing Platform"

- We like contributing to open source https://github.com/chatid

Technologies we use:

- Lua and Prosody [https://prosody.im/] an open source XMPP server started by two of our cofounders

- CoffeeScript, Backbone.js, Require.js, Angular.js, D3, SASS/LESS

- Python, Flask, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, RabbitMQ

- Chef for infrastructure automation

Sound interesting? Send us an email at careers@chatid.com

ChatID (New York, NY) http://chatid.com

We're building a platform for brands and consumers to directly communicate across any website and on any device via chat.

Our current openings:

* Frontend Developer

* Product Manager

* Sales & Business Development

About the company:

- We're 11 people based in NYC with one in SF and one in the UK

- NYC office is in Flatiron between Union Square and Madison Square

- Newegg.com recently awarded us a 2014 Eggie award for "Best Marketing Platform"

- We like contributing to open source https://github.com/chatid

Technologies we use:

- Lua and Prosody [https://prosody.im/] an open source XMPP server started by two of our cofounders

- CoffeeScript, Backbone.js, Require.js, D3, SASS

- Python, Flask, PostgreSQL, MongoDB & RabbitMQ

- Chef for infrastructure automation

Sound interesting? Send us an email at careers@chatid.com

Like you mentioned, that in your experience it leave you groggy, personally I think this depends on the person and how their body reacts to beer. I've found that one beer (500 ml) at least an hour or two before sleep doesn't leave me groggy in the morning at all. If I drank beer right before sleep that probably wouldn't work well.

I agree. As a third year undergrad also I've noticed that the focus on the code itself has diminished to almost zero from CS 101. At least in that course my professor mentioned a few things about code quality and design like DRY, loose-coupling, etc. My data structures professor's sample code which he would give out had single capital letters as variables, single lowercase letter variables, and awful and inconsistent indentation. I understand that it's data structures and not an open source project being maintained by the professor, but there were students in the course who barely had any experience programming outside of school. My guess is that the professor's neglect for any sort of code conventions will carry over with those students.

My school does offer a class called "Production Quality Software" but it's a graduate course and if you want to take it as an undergrad you only get 3 credits.

IMO the situation is not good.