simmons

10 ms·

61.
by simmons 4y ago
Sure, I've been using RSS (or Atom) for... probably around 18 years or so. In that time, I've moved from Thunderbird to Liferea to Google Reader to Newsblur. I subscribe to many feeds related to my work, but also various Google Al
62.
by simmons 4y ago
I have a distinct memory of very early Linux kernels being able to use higher-resolution native VGA text modes. This would have been around the early 1992 / Linux 0.12 time frame. After being used to my PC showing 80x25 text in MS-DOS,
63.
by simmons 4y ago
I haven't had to do any business travel since the pandemic started, but I agree that proximity to a good airport can be an important consideration. There are probably a number of other reasons keeping me in the Denver area, but the abi
64.
by simmons 4y ago
I've been doing this for over 20 years, and it hasn't really been a problem. During the occasional real-life interaction that requires someone to confirm my address and they express surprise, I just tell them that it's correc
65.
by simmons 4y ago
> How does a client know whether a provider that charges double is also twice as efficient? I suppose it might work if you have a long relationship with said client, but if you are talking to a new client, it seems they'd just go wi
66.
by simmons 4y ago
I've thought about this before. Some people will be likely to try to "milk the contract" by taking more time to deliver than is needed. Besides being necessary to deal honestly with one's clients, I strongly think it&#x2
67.
by simmons 4y ago
> I've yet to take a holiday cause I always think this week of holiday will cost me $$$ I'm a long-time hourly freelancer, and it's absolutely true - the lack of revenue for that period will indeed cost you money. But no
68.
by simmons 4y ago
I've been working as a freelancer for many years, billing hourly. I have absolutely no hesitation to take vacations. If anything, it makes me more likely to take a few more days off, since I don't feel bad about a client paying me
69.
by simmons 4y ago
From the Wikipedia description, Heaven's Vault sounds fascinating. Thanks, I'll keep an eye on it!
70.
by simmons 4y ago
Thanks for the suggestion! That does sound like an interesting game, and I'll add it to my list. I also get the impression that the 1986 game Starflight may have a little bit of this, but I've only barely started playing.
71.
by simmons 4y ago
Wow, what a great question -- it seems like everyone here has been sitting on a wish list for a while. :) Here's one of mine: Ever since reading Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth as a kid, I've thought some eleme
72.
by simmons 5y ago
> I'm also pretty sure (I'm not an accountant) the first year you're self employed you won't get penalized for not paying quarterly taxes. I'm only chiming in here since I've become somewhat of a reluctant e
73.
by simmons 5y ago
I'm a bit uneasy about some things in this license (including the "fair" bit), but I doubt there's any legal problem with discriminating licensees based on revenue or head count. (Disclaimer: IANAL, etc.) Microsoft alrea
74.
by simmons 5y ago
Ah, yes. Back in the day, we'd run both xsnow and xearth on our SPARCstations, so you could see xsnow's Santa Claus sailing around the earth. :)
75.
by simmons 5y ago
Greetings, neighbor! I was traveling at the time, but I did hear something about Denver getting some slight precipitation, but not enough to qualify as snowfall. Now, given your comment, I'm wondering if we got inches of snow here in O
76.
by simmons 5y ago
The TV show is actually better than I expected, although after watching the trailers I had low expectations. I was totally prepared for the major surgery required to adapt a work like Foundation to the screen. However, I think my biggest pr
77.
by simmons 5y ago
I was a brief DOS user for several months (in between C64 and discovering UNIX) around the early 90's, and my opinions of it from the time mostly align with yours. I think the early 90's was an especially rough period for DOS user
78.
by simmons 5y ago
ZIP is a product of the microcomputer era, which was filled with hobbyists, many new programmers learning the craft without the benefit of experience with mature systems and the preceding decades of CS work, and even experienced programmers
79.
by simmons 5y ago
Yes. My first x86 computer was a 25MHz 386 bought in 1991. Even though 486's were available, it was still the envy of the kids at school. (For a very short time.) I remember seeing some 486 systems advertised for $4-5k, which in 1991 d
80.
by simmons 5y ago
One thing that keeps me driving an older car (2002 Honda Accord) is the greatly increased total cost of ownership of newer vehicles. Whenever something needs replaced -- windshield, tires, whatever -- it's often dirt cheap, and the car
81.
by simmons 5y ago
Well... at least you synced! Your comment about Solaris reminds me of the time I learned the hard way that "killall" doesn't do quite the same thing on Solaris as it does on Linux.
82.
by simmons 5y ago
I switched away from Roku to an Nvidia Shield (an Android TV device) precisely because of the Roku HBO Max thing. Maybe these smaller players don't have the sheer number of captive eyeballs needed to demand such commissions. Although I
83.
by simmons 6y ago
I think the rotation thing is explained by tidal locking.
84.
by simmons 6y ago
I was reading an article about the Z-Machine recently [1], and I was quite surprised that in addition to being a virtual machine, it also implemented virtual memory! Thus, pages could be swapped in and out of disk as needed. (Since CPUs lik
85.
by simmons 6y ago
Whenever I get Windows-curious, the one thing holding me back is all the telemetry and privacy compromises I hear about on forums like HN. One thing I'd love to see in a "switch to Windows" list is a simple list of steps to h
86.
by simmons 6y ago
When I was a kid growing up in a small town in the 1980's, radio was my way of finding out about the outside world. I would stay up late at night listening when I was supposed to be sleeping. I often ended up listening to Larry King&#x
87.
by simmons 6y ago
A number of devices in this category seem to have popped up recently. I picked up an RG351P a few weeks ago, which I'm guessing is similar to this device. It really is a lot of fun playing around with it, and it's hackable like a
88.
by simmons 6y ago
I think working less than 100% time, even as low as 50% time, is sort of a holy grail for software engineers, and can be well worth the reduction in pay. Any of your extra time you choose to spend on education will pay dividends in the futu
89.
by simmons 6y ago
This may not be a useful answer for you depending on your situation, but the best money I've spent on professional development has been funding sabbaticals between gigs where I engage in deep study on topics that are harder to learn in
90.
by simmons 6y ago
I'm about as close to a free-speech absolutist as there is, and it's very frustrating that the market for these platforms seems to be settling into ruts where we have to choose between the hyper-conformity of highly managed platfo

More ›