strix_varius (u/strix_varius)

strix_varius commented on Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android 9to5google.com/2025/08/25... · Posted by u/kotaKat

rkagerer · a day ago

I've grown increasingly hateful towards both my Android and iOS devices over the last decade. The platforms themselves are increasingly user-hostile, and their appstores are crammed full of shitty, privacy-invading, telemetry-hoovering, dopamine-triggering, ad-filled, lipstick-covered apps that are often garbage compared to the pioneering days of mobile. I miss the days of my old Palm Pilot.

Is anyone working on fixing this? We can do so much better.

strix_varius · a day ago

I tried to screenshot some app on my android the other day and got an error toast reading some bullshit like "this action has been blocked by the admin." Uh I'm the admin and this is my hardware... The sketchy app was trying to prevent screenshots.

strix_varius commented on From M1 MacBook to Arch Linux: A month-long experiment that became permanenent ssp.sh/blog/macbook-to-ar... · Posted by u/articsputnik

wolvesechoes · 4 days ago

Guy is talking about laptop lasting for 5 years as not something that is special, and you respond with awesome sound quality.

Apple threads are always so funny.

strix_varius · 4 days ago

Uh he provided counter points to your distortion field comment, he doesn't have to just +1 the exact point of view of the parent comment.

But here I'll bite: I've had MBPs for work for like 15 years now and I bought a personal high spec Thinkpad. I now regret that purchase because my work machine is better than my personal machine in literally every way. My over $2k Thinkpad just sits there gathering dust because I don't want to use it. And unlike MacBooks, the secondary market for it is nothing so I can't just sell it and recover most of the loss.

strix_varius commented on Go is still not good blog.habets.se/2025/07/Go... · Posted by u/ustad

tex0 · 5 days ago

If you don't like Go, then just let go. I hope nobody forces you to use it.

Some critique is definitely valid, but some of it just sounds like they didn't take the time to grasp the language. It's trade offs all the way. For example there is a lot I like about Rust, but still no my favorite language.

strix_varius · 5 days ago

This article was a well-thought-out one from someone who has obviously really used Go to build real things.

I quite like Go and use it when I can. However, I wish there were something like Go, without these issues. It's worth talking about that. For instance, I think most of these critiques are fair but I would quibble with a few:

1. Error scope: yes, this causes code review to be more complex than it needs to be. It's a place for subtle, unnecessary bugs.

2. Two types of nil: yes, this is super confusing.

3. It's not portable: Go isn't as portable as C89, but it's pretty damn portable. It's plenty portable to write a general-purpose pre-built CLI tool in, for instance, which is about my bar for "pragmatic portability."

4. Append ownership & other slice weirdness: yes.

5. Unenforced `defer`: yes, similar to `err`, this introduces subtle bugs that can only be overcome via documentation, careful review, and boilerplate handling.

6. Exceptions on top of err returns: yes.

7. utf-8: Hasn't bitten me, but I don't know how valid this critique is or isn't.

8. Memory use: imo GC is a selling-point of the language, not a detriment.

strix_varius commented on I forced every engineer to take sales calls and they rewrote our platform old.reddit.com/r/Entrepre... · Posted by u/bilsbie

Aurornis · 6 days ago

> I have been at countless places where the engineers are out of sync with the product.

Me too, but surprisingly it happens more often at places with the most Product Managers.

My worst experience was at a company that tried to enforce a specific ratio of Product Managers and "Product Designers" to engineers. If you added up the designers, product, project, and program people the total was higher than the number of engineers.

It only made everything worse. Fighting your way through the Product Management bureaucracy while trying to avoid having one of the PMs view your input as a threat was a job in itself.

Great Product Managers are invaluable additions to a company. The modern version of Product Management has attracted a lot of people who thrive on bureaucracy and process. The proliferation of Product Management influencers has made it much worse.

strix_varius · 5 days ago

100%, my current team could benefit from a strong technical PM, but the risk of negative impact from a poor PM - and the 10:1 ratio you see of bad-to-good PMs in the wild - has me pushing back against hiring one. The risk isn't worth the reward.

strix_varius commented on Starting game development in JavaScript with no experience jslegenddev.substack.com/... · Posted by u/JSLegendDev

pull_my_finger · 8 days ago

I'm confused by your advice, honestly. Defold is definitely not ultra-light, it's a whole ide/studio engine. If I was recommending for ease of entry, I'd 100% pick a "fantasy console" like Pico-8[1] or one of the many alternatives[2] that are free and use a different language if Lua isn't the person's thing.

Second, Phaser[3] actually IS regular javascript. It's the opposite of Defold that is a whole node based editor thing. Phaser is just a an API you use in a script file, that you just splonk into your html page. I don't know how much more standard JS you can get than that.

[1]: https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php

[2]: https://github.com/paladin-t/fantasy

[3]: https://docs.phaser.io/phaser/getting-started/set-up-dev-env... (linked to the hello world example)

strix_varius · 8 days ago

> Defold is definitely not ultra-light

Defold ships as a ~2MB executable, is designed for lightweight performance on non-cutting-edge mobile devices, and focuses on portability with a commitment to never require any build tooling. Professional game developers and hobbyists alike very much consider it a lightweight platform, but you're welcome to disagree with them.

> I'd 100% pick a "fantasy console" like Pico-8

Ok?

> Phaser[3] actually IS regular javascript ... I don't know how much more standard JS you can get than that.

Your linked example starts with `class Example extends Phaser.Scene` as the base for everything, then fills it with gems like `this.physics.add.image(400, 100, 'logo')` ... For your colleagues' sake, I truly hope that's not the sort of "regular javascript" you use at work.

strix_varius commented on Starting game development in JavaScript with no experience jslegenddev.substack.com/... · Posted by u/JSLegendDev

strix_varius · 8 days ago

I'm curious about the goal here... if you wanted to learn how to turn gameplay ideas into playable video games, then the most effective way would be picking up either an ultralight engine like Defold or an ultra-tutorialized engine like Unity.

If you wanted to learn JavaScript by building games, then you should definitely not use Kaplay or Phaser, etc, since they're so far removed from JavaScript you wouldn't learn anything (other than how to build things in their particular environments). Web standard JS is more than capable of building simple games with no abstractions separating you from what you're trying to learn.

strix_varius commented on Claude Opus 4 and 4.1 can now end a rare subset of conversations anthropic.com/research/en... · Posted by u/virgildotcodes

bogwog · 11 days ago

Did you read the post? This isn't about censorship, but about conversations that cause harm to the user. To me that sounds more like suggesting suicide, or causing a manic episode like this: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/technology/ai-chatbots-de...

... But besides that, I think Claude/OpenAI trying to prevent their product from producing or promoting CSAM is pretty damn important regardless of your opinion on censorship. Would you post a similar critical response if Youtube or Facebook announced plans to prevent CSAM?

strix_varius · 11 days ago

Did you read the post? It explicitly states multiple times that it isn't about causing harm to the user.

strix_varius commented on An engineer's perspective on hiring jyn.dev/an-engineers-pers... · Posted by u/pabs3

Esophagus4 · 18 days ago

> most interview questions have very little to do with day-to-day responsibilities. all good software engineers are generalist and live coding does not select for generalists

If I had a dollar for every time I heard this (flawed) argument, I’d be rich and would no longer have to sell ads on my Hacker News comments. I’m going to get hate for this unpopular opinion but here we go.

So often, “But Leetcode isn’t like REAL programming” is the siren song of the programmer who probably overestimates their coding skills and experience.

Yes, I hate to say it - live coding is actually one of the best signals you can get on a candidate’s seniority and ability to program a computer (and more importantly, their core computer science skills). A good interviewer is trained to know how to probe your CS knowledge during this, and will watch how you structure code, break down problems, debug, and think about testing. They will even ask you to make changes to see how coachable you are and what you might be like to work with. It’s not about inverting a binary tree while sharing your screen, it’s about showing me how you solve a problem, then translate what’s in your head to code.

Take home exercises provide little to no signal, and screen out people who have families (who wouldn’t bother with a 4 hour take home exercise after work). I don’t want to see how you Google, I want to see how you think.

These candidates always want some version of, “But trust me, bro! Hire me: I’m a senior engineer, I don’t remember how to Leetcode! I’m good, I promise!” But what they won’t admit to themselves is that a good senior engineer is able to do all the things a junior can do PLUS all the things a senior can do.

It’s not perfect, but I won’t hire anyone that can’t pass a live coding round.

This comment brought to you by Poppi. Poppi: it’s soda for people who are silly enough to believe soda can be healthy.

strix_varius · 17 days ago

> It’s not perfect, but I won’t hire anyone that can’t pass a live coding round

I'd like to add two points to this:

First, I like that you said "live coding" rather than leet code. The floor for live coding should be super low, with a high ceiling and lots of flexibility. That allows you to say, nope, they didn't pass the floor level, easy binary decision, no hire. Pick a fun toy to build in 90 minutes and the high ceiling + flexibility will yield tons of signal from applicants.

Second, I see live coding sessions like this as a positive sign from potential employers. It lets me know that my future colleagues will have some baseline level of competence. If you've worked on a team that didn't do live coding, and you've had to carry water for someone who can't actually do the day-to-day technical "hard skill" work of software engineering, you probably feel the same way. Never again.

strix_varius commented on ThinkPad designer David Hill on unreleased models theregister.com/2025/08/0... · Posted by u/LorenDB

brikym · 24 days ago

I have always found thinkpads to be the most overrated laptops ever. I far prefer Macbooks in all aspects beit ergonomics, aesthetics or performance. I don't get the love for Thinkpads. Maybe it's just nostelgia clouding people's judgement because I just see something which is clunky, ugly, plastic, noisy with a crap screen and crap battery life. The keyboard is the only thing I like more, but the macbook keyboards are okay these days.

strix_varius · 24 days ago

I use both daily (work/personal) and I've come to agree. My work MBP is just better than my personal Thinkpad in all respects, despite having nearly identical pricetags.

I bought it because I wanted frankly, something different than the Mbps I've had from work for 15 years, and to go Linux-first. OSX annoys me about as much as Linux does, so the software is on par, but the hardware just can't touch Apple hardware. I wish this weren't the case, but it is.

strix_varius commented on NIH is cheaper than the wrong dependency lewiscampbell.tech/blog/2... · Posted by u/todsacerdoti

the_af · a month ago

In which part is Noel disagreeing? He didn't write his own engine either, he just didn't use one (but didn't write everything from scratch either, note he uses lots of game/graphics frameworks, which in a sense is like using a "meta engine").

He's also making a 2D game, which traditionally is closer to game making of old (think 8 bit home computers).

Finally, he's not arguing against engines like Godot or Unreal, he says those are acceptable but he just didn't need them. Much like he doesn't need Windows and finds coding with Linux more comfortable.

PS: out of curiosity, which one is the popular game you mentioned? Looking through his portfolio I see lots of interesting games I'd like to play :)

strix_varius · a month ago

> He didn't write his own engine either, he just didn't use one

It's hard for me to take in good faith an interpretation of that article that determines Noel "didn't write his own engine," but in case a couple direct quotes would help:

"I don't have much to say about assets, because when you're rolling your own engine you just load up what files you want, when you need them, and move on." ... "my City of None engine"

Noel literally describes his workflow as "rolling your own engine" and has a name for the engine he wrote.

> He's also making a 2D game, which traditionally is closer to game making of old

Please read the context of the thread you're replying to, which is arguing against writing your own engine even for games with "simpler 'indie' graphics," specifically called out.

> Finally, he's not arguing against engines like Godot or Unreal

He's not arguing against anything. He's advocating for writing your own engine.

Noel made the indie hit Celeste: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celeste_(video_game)