sybreon's comments

sybreon | 14 years ago | on: Poll: How long have you been programming?

I started with LOGO in 1989 and BASIC in 1992. So, 20-odd years or so. And still at it!

Though, I've got a lot less time to focus on it now, with all sorts of other worldly responsibilities.

sybreon | 15 years ago | on: Ask HN: Who is Hiring? (April 2011)

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Aeste - http://www.aeste.my/hiringnow

Swimming (and drowning) at the software-hardware boundary.

We are currently looking to fill several full-time engineering positions.

If you are looking for a place to experience an alternate work culture within Malaysia, feel free to apply. At AESTE, you will be given the opportunity to impact the world in unexpected ways.

sybreon | 15 years ago | on: AS HN: How much Bandwidth do you consume per day? How can I reduce mine?

An alternative:

Install a proxy server, such as squid, on your local machine. Point your browser to use the local proxy server. Some stuff will get cached on your proxy server and will not be loaded from the Internet.

You can install some additional filters and chain your proxy servers so that they strip out adverts and what nots.

sybreon | 15 years ago | on: Ask HN: Cost of living across the world (Ramen PPP Index for hackers)

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I assume that this is for an entry-level position.

Monthly salary : ~ US$650-$950 (Average US$800).

EPF deduction: 11% Room Rent: US$150. Food: US$250 (3 ramen sized meals) Car Installment: US$100 (Perodua Viva) Petrol: US$50

These are the costs for survival mode living.

Optional Movie ticket: US$3-5 Internet (1Mbps): US$35 Mobile (300 mins): US$10 Alcohol: Forget it.

sybreon | 16 years ago | on: Ask HN's FPGA users: FPGA tool woes & wants?

With a web-app like this, I would be concerned about IP issues. Half the industry is banking on IP unless they are open-source like the OR1K. Otherwise, a proprietary house might be hesitant to upload HDL code even if it is over a secure SSL connection.

For simulation with Icarus Verilog, it might be possible to upload the compiled VVP binary. You can sell your computing power as a utility (ala cloud computing) and help people save cost from buying an expensive server and save time from having to wait days for results.

For FPGA selection, I personally doubt that your tool would be that useful because this decision is primarily dictated by the cost of parts - rather than the specific features. The hardware business is very cost-driven. What you can do is to provide customers with the ability to perform synthesis over multiple architectures for the purpose of 'testing' that their code works on them all.

sybreon | 16 years ago | on: Designer of the ARM chip discusses energy efficient desgin

Measuring the relative power draw due to flipping logic can definitely be done with present day simulation tools. The question is whether there is any significant advantage in saving X% of power in the processor core. In a complex system, the processor rarely sucks up most of the power. Someone should actually do this as a research and find out if there are any significant savings.

I am guessing that it will all be architecturally specific. An ARM will have a different power profile to a MIPS running the same C code. Personally, I would like to see the option of a -Op switch to GCC that selects power-optimised code paths.

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