I developed a font with a similar resolution that was not nearly as legible for my Pi Zero with an e-ink screen many years ago. It allowed for similar tooling such as the flipper zero and esp32 marauder projects. I should fire that project up and implement this font…
I mean this genuinely and in good faith in case you didn’t already know it: the term for “non-blank, non-comment…” in programming is usually “Significant Lines Of Code” or SLOC.
I think the author’s intent is well-placed, but it does feel a bit sad that this subject is blog-worthy.
I’ve spent a lifetime teaching myself programming, computers, and engineering. I have no formal education in these disciplines and find that I excel due to the self-taught nature of my background.
I take a very metered approach to AI and use it for autocomplete while still scrutinizing every token (not the AI kind) as well as an augment to my self-pedagogy. It’s great to be able to “query” or get a summary from a set of technical documents on demand.
However, I don’t understand the desire to remove oneself from the process with AI. I simply don’t do anything that won’t teach me something new or improve my existing skills.
There’s more to engineering than simply programming. Both the engineer and the intended user base must also understand the system. The value lost is greater than the sum of all the parts when an LLM produces most or all of the code.
> I simply don’t do anything that won’t teach me something new or improve my existing skills.
Not trying to be rude but you either must not be a professional software engineer or your skill level isn't that high yet. You simply cannot always do things that teach you new skills or improve existing ones. In any sufficiently complex project, even the most novel ones, you'll do things you've done many times before.
I think professionals are almost always doing things that are at least 30% new...otherwise they've had a long time in one job which is a fortunate thing nowadays.
My last job started with "here's a book about go programming." 2 years later I was learning FastAPI. Now I'm programming in C again but I have spent most of my time learning about git actions and writing SCCS->git conversion software. I've never used SCCS before.
I'm a bit skeptical too, but I can understand his points. Most of what is rote is probably written somewhere and if you have a library of code and snippets (including the existing project), it's easy to copy and adapt it. And that activity is very inducing to flow state, so you don't mind the time spent.
I’m not a software engineer. Most of my work these days focuses on microcontroller exploitation. I have 15 years of professional experience as a security consultant/contractor.
I’ve had a good experience running Arch Linux on my “gaming” PC in the living room. It helps that I’m very comfortable with Linux internals, but I’d say I have no issues or issues that can be fixed with 2-3 clicks about 95% of the time.
My setup is basically Arch Linux, ProtonUp-Qt (to easily install specific versions of Proton, the compatibility layer), Steam, and the proprietary Nvidia drivers/Vulkan. I generally have no issues with Easy Anti-Cheat games like Arc Raiders, but obviously anything that requires secure boot attestation like Arena Breakout Infinite won’t play. I’ve not bothered to try setting up full secure boot as the games that require it aren’t typically in my wheelhouse.
I hope Linux adoption continues for my own, very self-serving, interests. I get the sense that those who primarily use their computer for gaming are the frogs slowly being boiled by Microsoft who continues to back their these customers into uncomfortable, unnecessary corners.
> I generally have no issues with Easy Anti-Cheat games like Arc Raiders, but obviously anything that requires secure boot attestation like Arena Breakout Infinite won’t play. I’ve not bothered to try setting up full secure boot as the games that require it aren’t typically in my wheelhouse.
I don't think secure boot will help. I use Arch, and have secure boot set up, but don't see how it would help with kernel-level anticheat. The issue is that anyone can sign their own kernels, so while secure boot is valuable from a security point of view, it does not really certify anything from the point of view of a third party.
OpenTitan _is_ a microcontroller, just one with a _lot_ of security hardware (and security proofs).
It's intended to be integrated into a larger SoC and used for things like secure boot, though you could certainly fab it with its own RAM and GPIO and use it standalone.
This is the general premise behind Ken Thompson’s “Reflections on Trusting Trust” and I highly recommend you read it if this is something that interests you.
reply