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plnewman's comments

plnewman | 12 years ago | on: GameBoy Programming Manual

I'm not sure if I define CS that narrowly, but anyway I was working with the C compiler, not the asm code. It was a good learning tool for me because of the simple output and the slow processor, which meant that I didn't need to worry much about the graphics and that poorly performing code was immediately, painfully noticeable. There were plenty of data structures to work with sprites, characters, screens, etc.

My CS course (in the late 90s) kind of went the other way. One of the earliest courses was one that taught how a cpu operates -- what a register is, what the accumulator is, etc. There was no actually programming, just working through the steps of what the computer does to perform a given operation. After that there were a number of directions to go in.

plnewman | 12 years ago | on: GameBoy Programming Manual

Back when I was teaching English in Japan, I stayed up late hacking on Game Boy code to keep that part of my brain active. It was during that time that I really realized that I wanted to work in software, or at least something with some creative output.

I didn't use any of this though, I found a Japanese book on the GBDK C compiler. It's still available here: http://gbdk.sourceforge.net/ and there are more resources here: http://devrs.com/gb/software.php#assemble

I've thought since then that working on a simple machine like that is a great way to learn the fundamentals of computer science.

plnewman | 13 years ago | on: Nobody Cares

I return the "how are you?" question with equivalent replies in shops all the time and if recipients were annoyed by it, I don't recall noticing. Being pleasant frequently helps me feel more pleasant. And anyway, I actually do hope they have a great day. I hope everyone has a great day.

plnewman | 13 years ago | on: India's street children bank on the future

"I ran away from home at the age of 11 after my father beat me for stealing a kitchen appliance," said Samir who works in a sweatshop.

[snip]

"I have saved 4,000 rupees (70 US$) in the last seven months. It's a good feeling to have some money. I will buy a shirt and a watch for my father and send it to him to seek his apology."

"He might forgive me and ask me to be with him at home."

For me it is heartbreaking that this child was beaten and still feels that he owes his abuser an apology.

(edit: formatting)

plnewman | 14 years ago | on: Inside Aaron’s Apartment: A Most Amazing Bedroom

Reminds me of this:

JERRY: (To Kramer and Morty) What is this about?

KRAMER: I'm completely changing the configuration of the apartment. You're not gonna believe it when you see it. A whole new lifestyle.

JERRY: What are you doing?

KRAMER: Levels.

JERRY: Levels?

KRAMER: Yeah, I'm getting rid of all my furniture. All of it. And I'm going to build these different levels, with steps, and it'll all be carpeted with a lot of pillows. You know, like ancient Egypt.

plnewman | 14 years ago | on: Ask HN: Who is Hiring? (December 2011)

Rearden Commerce in Foster City, CA

Two mid-career to senior level software engineering positions open in internal applications. We work in Python and whatever other technologies we choose, and take on projects involving deployment automation, test automation and devops-y stuff.

Please view my straight to the point job descriptions here: http://www.heyimhiring.com/.

Feel free to contact with any questions: [email protected].

plnewman | 14 years ago | on: Nintendo Projects First Ever Annual Loss, Misses Half-Year Forecasts

I'm actually pretty underwhelmed by the 3D on the 3DS. I was really looking forward to it but it doesn't seem to add anything to the games.

Market saturation is another one. Nintendo is traditionally strong in it's home market, but I was watching a TV program in Japan prior to the 3DS launch saying that one in four Japanese owns a DS. Hard to imagine they can sell more hardware units.

plnewman | 14 years ago | on: NYT Skimmer

When I opened the page, my browser threw this warning.

The website “http://www.nytimes.com” is requesting 10 MB of disk space to store “Stored content for nytSkimmerSections” as a database on your disk.

I'll pass on that.

edits: formatting.

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