jerich (u/jerich) - Readit News

jerich commented on AI Made Writing Code Easier. It Made Being an Engineer Harder ivanturkovic.com/2026/02/... · Posted by u/saikatsg

JimBlackwood · 15 days ago

> Why? Because the bottleneck was never typing code. It was always understanding the problem, making architectural decisions, debugging edge cases, and most importantly - knowing what NOT to build.

For me, this is a bit different. Writing code has always been the bottleneck. I get most of my joy out of solving edge cases and finding optimizations. My favorite projects are when I’m given an existing codebase with the task, “When mars and venus are opposite eachother, the code gets this weird bug that we can’t reproduce.”

When a project requires me to start from scratch, it takes me a lot longer than most other people. Once I’ve thought of the architecture, I get bored with writing the implementation.

AI has made this _a lot_ easier for me.

I think the engineers who thrive wi be the ones know when to use what tool. This has been the case before AI, AI is just another tool allowing more people to thrive.

jerich · 14 days ago

I’m the same way; I feel like Claude is doing more than just writing code, it’s getting me unstuck.

I’ve been pulling projects out of the closet that have been sitting there for years. It’s because I can sit down and get started so seamlessly. Before, I might waste the first couple hours configuring my environment and tool setup, but with Claude Code I can just jump in and start building, start solving the real problem.

I just built something this week where I had the parts sitting in my closet for a couple years, but just got curious to see how Claude does with embedded C, so it got me started. (Turns out Claude scanned my drive and found an abandoned C project that was outside my usual DEV folder, and just built on that). The code was 5% of the project, but it got done because Claude Code gave me the momentum push.

For my personal projects, the last 3 weeks have been more productive than the last 3 years.

jerich commented on Ask HN: What are you working on? (February 2026) · Posted by u/david927

jerich · a month ago

I hacked together a tech demo of a personal project to add a Jetson Orin Nano to augment the Nikon autofocus system. (Camera->HDMI->Jetson processing->USB control->Camera)

https://github.com/jerich/jetson-face-af

It was a personal project to let Claude Code loose and have something to talk about on LinkedIn, hopefully to start a conversation about how to add some more advanced, more personal, functions to the powerful AF systems out there.

“Nikon AF does a great job of recognizing faces, but it doesn’t know which faces I care about.”

But I wanted to augment, not completely take over the camera; keep the Nikon shooting ergonomics intact.

Even the latest and greatest cameras will lag the processing power of something like a Jetson Nano, or even a mobile chipset, and cameras are meant to have lifetimes of years, so I think a smart camera manufacturer (hopefully Nikon) should add an easy external processing loop to let users add some extra smarts and automation.

jerich commented on Ask HN: What are the best programmable holiday lights? · Posted by u/sh1mmer

chris_overseas · a year ago

A lot of people here are recommending WLED for the controller, but I would suggest you look at the Pixelblaze [1] instead. I've used both in a bunch of different projects and strongly prefer Pixelblaze over WLED.

Some reasons why: - It has a much more intuitive user interface - It's far easier to program new patterns. Programming is done in-browser with a language that's a subset of Javascript, with code changes being applied in realtime. - Due to the way its rendering engine works, the patterns it produces are generally far more 'organic' looking and smoother than most of the WLED ones. - It's possible to map LEDs in arbitrary 2D or 3D configurations (think lights strewn all over a Christmas tree), which WLED can't really do at all. - If you have multiple Pixelblazes you can get them to sync with each other over Wifi. - A really helpful community forum.

Downside: - The firmware isn't open source, though some of its tooling is, and the firmware is stable and gets fairly regular updates, so it's not a huge issue to me. YMMV.

For the LEDs, you probably want wired bullet-style strings of LEDs rather than the thin copper LED strips since they're generally more suited to outside use. By far the most common (and generally cheapest) type of LEDs are WS-2812B or similar. They're OK, though you might notice they don't have good definition at low brightness levels. APA-102 or equivalent are a bit more expensive, but have MUCH better dynamic range, so I'd suggest going for these if you can. There are other better (and more expensive) LEDs still, but it starts to become diminishing returns, plus they can be hard to come by or find suitable controllers for. If you're running lengths of more than a 150 or so LEDs then power starts to matter, and you'll either need to inject power regularly into the strips, and/or use LEDs designed to take 12V or 24V. These can come with caveats such as worse power consumption and/or fewer addressable LEDs per meter, so research what you're buying carefully.

[1] https://electromage.com/pixelblaze

jerich · a year ago

This gets such a huge thumbs up that I had to scroll up and reread it to make sure this wasn’t my own post from a revived thread from last year!

I’ve been using a pixelblaze with a long string of cheap 2812 LEDs on my Christmas tree for three years now with tons of compliments from neighbors.

I’m an embedded software guy, and every year I mean to dig in and try roll my own, or do something clever with an RP2040 board (also a shoutout for the Pimoroni Plasma), but the demands of life and “get the light show started” mean I keep using the Pixelblaze.

I even upgraded to their newer versions last year, and used some of the smaller ones to make some LED tutus for my girls that synced pattern with the tree (the tutus were synced with each other for a Christmas show, but it was trivial to then add the tree for fun afterwards).

The mapping is huge for the wow factor, and the pixelblaze makes it so much easier to get something fast and good enough.

There’s so many community-shared patterns to choose from, and it’s been easy to make small modifications to look better once mapped to a tree, though most work as-is.

My project I won’t get done this year is to try to make some calibration patterns and use ChatGPT to analyze some photos/videos to make a 3-D map, but I’ll realistically probably end up with the vaguely-triangular 2-D map again; I can get it done in about 30 minutes now.

The following is a couple years ago. I think last year I was up to 1100 LEDs and the mapping was a bit better, but I didn’t take good videos.

https://youtu.be/hu-RQx_NpAY?si=BMYbafbPAn2XAlU9

jerich commented on New iMac with M4 apple.com/newsroom/2024/1... · Posted by u/tosh

SurgeArrest · a year ago

Reading this on 2017 iMac 27" - is the first 5k iMac that couldn't be used as a monitor after the computer inside is irrelevant. I hope EU will push for some law that requires all AIO computers to work in monitor-only mode if internal hardware is no longer good enough or no longer supported by software updates. I love the 5k screen on this iMac but the CPU is too old for photo or video editing as software got so much slower over the years. I could have used this screen for many more years, but now it will hit landfill... Apple is only "green" in their presentations - in reality they care more about inifite sales only.

jerich · a year ago

Apple should hire a couple hackers to create “end-of-life” firmware for their obsolete devices; give them new life as super-specialized devices. Part green program, part customer delight, even some wacky art projects.

Maybe if an iMac doesn’t have a video input—have it boot as an AirPlay-only monitor.

I’ve got 2 old EOL appleTV boxes sitting in a drawer—again, one last firmware update to make them dedicated AirPlay receivers.

Take my 2011 MacBook Air and make it a dedicated Notes machine/word processor—all it does it run notes and sync with iCloud.

Obsolete iPad picture frame is an obvious one.

They can work on the “Reuse” side of the 3R’s of waste reduction (with reduce and recycle, right?)

PS, I’m available, 9 years embedded SW experience ;)

jerich commented on Earth rotation limits in-body image stabilization to 6.3 stops (2020) thecentercolumn.com/2020/... · Posted by u/pwnna

Euphorbium · 2 years ago

Eventually we will have to compensate for gallactic rotation.

jerich · 2 years ago

Anyone who’s read the short story “The Billiard Ball” by Asimov would have taken it into account.

jerich commented on Most to least common 4-digit PIN numbers from an analysis of 3.4M old.reddit.com/r/dataisbe... · Posted by u/lnyan

Clubber · 2 years ago

Someone tell The Los Angeles Angels.

jerich · 2 years ago

I think they’re over in line behind “The La Brea Tar Pits”

jerich commented on US Says Chinese Seizure of TSMC in Taiwan Would Be 'Absolutely Devastating' usnews.com/news/technolog... · Posted by u/belter

jerich · 2 years ago

So the US sells some bonds, then slips a couple trillion into a brown envelope to buy Baja California from Mexico, then “lease-to-own” it on very favorable terms (0 down, 0% APR, 150 years) to New Taiwan, or Formosa II. Uproot TSMC and an entire culture and move them over, then let China wave the flag over the mound of dirt left behind. Pencil them in to NAFTA and watch the chips flow over to the new iPhone plant outside Mexicali. Tijuana to Ensenada remains Mexico and is a buffer between them and the USA, and the night markets there are the envy of all food-eating people on the planet—-I can’t wait to try the albondigas soup dumplings.

jerich commented on Almost no one pays a 6% real-estate commission except Americans wsj.com/personal-finance/... · Posted by u/impish9208

jerich · 2 years ago

I think AirBNB has the infrastructure to upend the Realtor market. If they just add an “AirBNB listings” buyers can search and scroll through pictures. They’d have to show exact location, but otherwise pretty much the same as what’s there. Seller pays an upfront listing fee, gets referrals for staging and photos if they want to stand out.

Simply add a “30 minute viewing” rental for $25-$50 (AirBNB keeps $10-25), available to registered users (with already-verified ID). Maybe rent the homeowner a bundle of cams for viewings for extra security.

If a buyer is really interested, have an above-market-rate nightly rental—I’d love to spend a night in a house before paying a million+ dollars for it (without the cams, of course). Maybe half refunded with an offer made thru AirBNB Listings; full refund with an accepted offer (again, less AirBNB fees). Maybe partner with Redfin or Zillow to set prices, provide school and property info, and finish the deals. Do it all cheap enough to make it worth sellers forgoing an MLS listing; should be a flat fee, a tiny fraction of 6% in most cases.

A startup couldn’t do it, but AirBNB has the name recognition, and the pieces already there, right? I’m available for consulting, or send me a fruit basket if it all works out, a nice one, without a lot of melon.