Hacker News: jordigh

Software engineering at the tipping point [video]

jordigh — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 13:38:36 +0000

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n41YjR5QfU

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48383906

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by jordigh in "We're testing new ad formats in Search and expanding our Direct Offers pilot"

jordigh — Thu, 21 May 2026 12:58:49 +0000

An ad is never helpful because ads are designed to mislead me into buying something I didn't need or knew about before I saw the ad.

If nothing else, an ad cannot impartially compare a product with the competition (and sometimes the "competition" is buying nothing at all), therefore every ad lies.

If I already needed or knew about it, I didn't need the ad.

If I was happy with my life without the product advertised, I didn't need the ad.

Furthermore, ads are fueling our capitalist, consumerist economy that is destroying the planet. Ads are a literal existential threat to humans.

New comment by jordigh in "Linux gaming is faster because Windows APIs are becoming Linux kernel features"

jordigh — Thu, 14 May 2026 00:17:18 +0000

A great talk at a conference given by Elizabeth Figura, the main developer behind putting NTSYNC into Linux:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjU4nyWyhU8

New comment by jordigh in "Battle for Wesnoth: open-source, turn-based strategy game"

jordigh — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 19:34:10 +0000

I know it's a very niche domain, but I feel this way about Lizard.

My lizard is the lizard of website: https://rainwarrior.ca/lizard/

My lizard is the lizard of source: https://github.com/bbbradsmith/lizard_src_demo/

"﷽" U+fdfd: Arabic Ligature Bismillah AR-Rahman AR-Raheem (Unicode Character)

jordigh — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 21:39:24 +0000

Article URL: https://unicodeplus.com/U+FDFD

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47509790

Points: 4

# Comments: 1

New comment by jordigh in "No Bookmarks"

jordigh — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 15:50:11 +0000

I don't use phones, so if I have to go somewhere, I have to memorise the route. I enjoy the exercise. I look up the directions on my laptop, mentally rehearse the points of interest that will indicate to me where I need to take particular turns, and then have to put into practice my memory with the actual physical landscape I tour as I follow this route. Sometimes I make mistakes, but correcting them is part of the exercise.

It seems very few people nowadays know how to follow a route, especially an unfamiliar one, without being tethered to their GPS.

It's illegal to build a gaydar in the EU

jordigh — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 22:33:25 +0000

Article URL: https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/high-level-summary/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46624791

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by jordigh in "Carrier Landing in Top Gun for the NES"

jordigh — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 19:27:45 +0000

Rentals too often came without the manual.

New comment by jordigh in "Carrier Landing in Top Gun for the NES"

jordigh — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 18:11:02 +0000

The Japanese release of the game flips around the "soundless" sections with the music section, suggesting that listening to that rocking track for most of your flight is the intended experience.

https://tcrf.net/Top_Gun_(NES)#Music

New comment by jordigh in "Carrier Landing in Top Gun for the NES"

jordigh — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 18:08:02 +0000

The information to properly land the plane is in the manual. The required air speed and altitude have never been a secret, if you read the manual (which I guess most kids didn't).

The real difficulty, not explored in this disassembly, is that the game has semi-realistic physics! My older brother was in flight school at the time and was able to easily land the plane and taught me how to do it.

As the article states, "Altitude and speed are both controlled by throttle input and pitch angle". So you can't just hit the engines or air brakes button to change your speed. If you lower the nose of the plane, you'll speed up and vice versa! So you have to carefully juggle your speed and altitude by altering both your pitch and your engines/air brakes.

My brother taught me that my speed wouldn't reduce if I'm nosediving, so raise the nose a little while opening my air brakes for a quick reduction in speed and then level out to maintain altitude. The game actually models this somewhat accurately!