Hacker News: polpo

New comment by polpo in "ESP32-S31"

polpo — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 22:23:22 +0000

They've already released the ESP32-S31-WROOM-3 and two development boards based on it: the ESP32-S31-Function-CoreBoard-1 and ESP32-S31-Korvo-1. All are available on Espressif's official Aliexpress store.

New comment by polpo in "ESP32-S31"

polpo — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 17:17:22 +0000

From the ESP32-S31 datasheet: "Single-precision floating-point unit (FPU) per core"

New comment by polpo in "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (June 2026)"

polpo — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 15:03:20 +0000

Atom Computing | Senior Infrastructure Engineer, Senior Software Engineer, Principal Software Engineer, Software Engineering Manager | Boulder, CO (Hybrid) | Full-time

Atom Computing is building large-scale quantum computers using arrays of optically trapped neutral atoms. Learn more at https://atom-computing.com/news-resources/

Our software team works on distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, APIs, developer tooling, orchestration, observability, automation, and high-performance computing that power both research and commercial quantum systems. Quantum computing experience is not required.

Open roles:

- Senior Infrastructure Engineer — Cloud and on-prem infrastructure, developer platforms, observability, automation, and production reliability.

- Senior Software Engineer — Build the software stack behind our quantum computers, including APIs, orchestration, automation, data systems, and developer tooling.

- Software Engineering Manager — Lead a team building the software platform for Atom's quantum systems, spanning APIs, cloud services, researcher workflows, and system architecture.

- Principal Software Engineer — Architect backend services for quantum job orchestration, distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, and production-grade APIs.

STACK: Python, Rust, C++, Terraform, Azure, distributed systems, hybrid cloud infrastructure, and HPC.

Apply: https://jobs.lever.co/atomcomputing - Please mention HN in your application.

New comment by polpo in "Usborne 1980s Computer Books"

polpo — Sun, 24 May 2026 17:24:45 +0000

Stumbling on the Usborne "Introduction to Computer Programming - Basic for Beginners" book in the library bookmobile that came to my school was probably the first domino that set off the rest of my life in computing. I owe a lot to that book. When I had the book checked out my family didn't have a computer at home so I had to imagine what it'd be like to do the things in my head until I managed to get some time in the school computer lab to try out some of the exercises in the book. Being able to tell the computer what to do just felt so powerful to me.

New comment by polpo in "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (May 2026)"

polpo — Fri, 08 May 2026 22:19:01 +0000

Atom Computing | Senior Infrastructure Engineer + Principal Software Engineer + Software Engineering Manager | Boulder, CO (Hybrid) | Full-time

Atom Computing is developing large-scale quantum computers using arrays of optically-trapped neutral atoms. We are building cutting-edge systems for on-premises deployment. Our unique approach to highly scalable quantum computing will enable customers to achieve unprecedented computational breakthroughs.

Available Roles:

Senior Infrastructure Engineer - sits at the intersection of cloud infrastructure, on-prem systems, developer tooling, and production reliability. You’ll work closely with software engineers and physicists to improve deployment workflows, observability, automation, and system performance across a hybrid environment. - <https://jobs.lever.co/atomcomputing/d41b071a-3faa-435c-baba-...>

Software Engineering Manager - Help define the technical direction across externally facing APIs, cloud integrations, researcher workflows, and the productization of Atom’s quantum computers. This is a unique opportunity to lead greenfield development efforts at the intersection of distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, high-performance computing, and quantum technologies. <https://jobs.lever.co/atomcomputing/68b51bf2-f5f6-4657-b827-...>

Principal Software Engineer - architect and build the backend services powering our neutral atom quantum computing platform. This role focuses on scalable distributed systems, quantum job orchestration, cloud infrastructure, and production-grade APIs, working closely with physicists and hardware engineers to turn advanced quantum workflows into reliable commercial systems. <https://jobs.lever.co/atomcomputing/a74fb4af-b45f-4684-b1db-...>

New comment by polpo in "A communist Apple II and fourteen years of not knowing what you're testing"

polpo — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 01:01:52 +0000

I fail to see what company this is advertising?

New comment by polpo in "My DIY FPGA board can run Quake II"

polpo — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 02:57:55 +0000

I had a Cyrix 6x86 when Quake first came out. My disappointment at how poorly Quake ran on it was significant, especially because pretty much every other game at the time ran well on the Cyrix. The FPU performance in Quake was doubly handicapped on the Cyrix: not only was its FPU slower than the Pentium's to begin with, Quake's code was indeed hand-optimized for the Pentium's FPU pipeline. Fabien Sanglard's writeup of Michael Abrash's optimizations for Quake goes into great detail: https://fabiensanglard.net/quake_asm_optimizations/

New comment by polpo in "PicoIDE An open source IDE/ATAPI drive emulator for vintage computers"

polpo — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 17:30:28 +0000

Thank you - you're the first one who suggested that implementing GUS on a Pico w/ PSRAM was a possibility. :)

New comment by polpo in "I cracked a $200 software protection with xcopy"

polpo — Sat, 06 Dec 2025 04:19:41 +0000

The VST itself is $20 (to the end user). The Enigma Protector is the software that costs $200 (to the developer).

New comment by polpo in "PicoIDE – An open IDE/ATAPI drive emulator"

polpo — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 16:17:09 +0000

BTW I'm pretty well versed in getting laser cut and bent sheet metal made, both in China and via US-based providers like SendCutSend - my PicoIDE project uses a metal bracket. In fact when so many other projects were using 3D printed brackets, I decided that was not good enough and dove in and did the work to get nice brackets made affordably. It really elevates the project to a higher level of professionalism.

That being said, $5-$10 sounds about right (if maybe a little on the high side) for something the size of PicoIDE, but unfortunately that is too much for the price point I want to hit. Affordability is a major target for PicoIDE. And also, WiFi is a feature of the front panel and for that reason, metal is a no-go. The WiFi antenna is at the front of the device to give it the best chance of decent reception, so it needs to be plastic.

New comment by polpo in "PicoIDE – An open IDE/ATAPI drive emulator"

polpo — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 16:10:44 +0000

Thanks. Fixed!

New comment by polpo in "PicoIDE – An open IDE/ATAPI drive emulator"

polpo — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 14:16:00 +0000

The repo will be made public when the hardware is launched. Should be a few weeks.

New comment by polpo in "PicoIDE – An open IDE/ATAPI drive emulator"

polpo — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 05:43:46 +0000

A stamped steel plate is not possible at my planned price point. But one thing I will note is that this 3D printed front panel is only a prototype.

New comment by polpo in "PicoIDE – An open IDE/ATAPI drive emulator"

polpo — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 05:31:12 +0000

The price will definitely be lower, and another difference is that PicoIDE will be entirely open firmware and hardware, while ZuluIDE is not.

New comment by polpo in "PicoIDE – An open IDE/ATAPI drive emulator"

polpo — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 03:19:35 +0000

Currently, it implements the ATAPI READ SUB-CHANNEL command and fully supports the current position data format code. Other format codes like ISRC and UPC currently return dummy data, but wiring that up would be pretty straightforward. Supporting image formats like CloneCD's .ccd/.img/.sub that store arbitrary subchannel data also seems doable, but would definitely be more work.

New comment by polpo in "PicoIDE – An open IDE/ATAPI drive emulator"

polpo — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 02:07:17 +0000

Fun seeing this posted - I'm the creator of the project. While it's meant to be a generic IDE/ATAPI emulator the two main use cases I envisioned for the project are in the area of retro computing: CD-ROM under MS-DOS and Windows 9x, where software-only virtual drive emulation options are lacking or nonexistent, and IDE hard drive emulation on early IDE machines where the drive geometries are fixed.

Since the project has been announced, lots of people have come out of the woodwork with other fun potential use cases, such as CD-ROM replacement in arcade cabinets and the Dreamcast, and hard drive replacement in multitrack recorders and samplers.

New comment by polpo in "The day Return became Enter (2023)"

polpo — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 16:19:02 +0000

Outside of the US, they have symbols: ⇥ intead of "tab", ⇪ instead of "caps lock", ⏎ instead of "return", etc.

New comment by polpo in "A Retro YouTuber Wants to Take over Commodore. Yes, He's Serious"

polpo — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 03:19:56 +0000

Did you actually read the article? Doesn't seem like it, the author says he literally talked to Peri in it.

New comment by polpo in "High tariffs become 'real' with our first $36K bill"

polpo — Mon, 12 May 2025 15:49:00 +0000

That's a very uncharitable way to put things. Since my original posts it looks like things have cooled and the worst of the tariffs have been walked back, but at the sky-high tariff rates from before today, my options would have been:

- Raise prices to account for tariffs.

- Not raise prices, therefore not make any profit, therefore not make it worth my time, therefore not make any hardware at all.

I'm not operating at big margins but I do make a profit because I want to balance supporting the community and keeping things at a sustainable level for my sanity. Those tariffs would have wiped those margins out completely.

New comment by polpo in "High tariffs become 'real' with our first $36K bill"

polpo — Thu, 08 May 2025 17:16:18 +0000

I switched to Aisler who are in Germany. They're certainly more expensive than China but still way less than quick turn options in the US. There will still be tariffs but they won't be nearly as high. There are also smaller PCB vendors in China other than the "big two" of JLCPCB and PCBWay that are willing to be a bit more flexible and not charge the max possible duty upfront via DDP incoterms.