no one QA’d this AAA game
Actually, that game breaking bug was caught weeks ago by QA. Unmoving deadlines set by upper management meant that a fix couldn’t be made in time for the content schedule.
(IT support) I actually don’t know where that random setting in your application is, I’m just really fast and good at guessing from doing it a million times in applications I’ve never heard of before.
Similar to that, just because someone works in IT, doesn’t mean they can fix your computer problem. I’ve worked with a lot of developers who were great coders but couldn’t resolve networking or random OS issues.
That I could fix Windows PCs. Nope. When my work PC has issues, I call IT. I design computer chips.
Hey! Can I ask you about that? What type of chips? What are your most used skills/technologies and what helped get started when you were new? I want to work with fpgas, and I’d love to know what your experience with that has been like
I started with programming about anything that is programmable and not up on a tree at the count of three. I did industrial control units, and I worked on a Cray X-MP, and about anything between. I wrote computer games, compilers, an OS, database engines, and loads of applications. I’ve probably forgotten more programming languages than todays students have heard of. One day I ended up in embedded systems.
As our company had only one FPGA developer, I got sent on a three day course to learn VHDL from the source (Eugen Krassin, one of the original key developers of ISE). Right after that, I started developing FPGA firmware for our company. Luckily, I had some hardware experience from my work on the C64 and earlier, so I had a good understanding of clocks and signals. I know that even seasoned programmers really hit a wall when entering the world of HDLs.
I started with ISE back then on Spartan S3 and S6, then Xilinx f-ed us up so hard that the boss slammed the phone down after the last call with those guys and told me to find a more reliable company STAT. We now use Efinix FPGAs which has the big advantage that people there actually listen and help when I ask a question.
My field is isosynchronous low-latency networks for audio applications.
Woah, you’re on OG! I’m unfamiliar with a lot of those things and had to look them up. Crazy!
Hah! ISE - I used that for a hot second, and you still see tutorials using it as well.
My goodness, tell me about it, I’m new and I already find myself frustrated with Xilinx sometimes. It feels like there are very few resources from them for learning, but I thought that was just because it’s a niche subject. I’ll have to take a look at Efinix. I guess I thought it was safer to stick to the biggest name while I’m trying to get established. At the moment I’m trying to get some example projects working on a Zybo Z7. I’m finding out that it’s a lot to take in
Thanks for taking the time to reply! I feel strangely honored to hear from such an OG :) Cheers!
Whenever you are looking for a supplier for something, keep in mind that there are advantages and disadvantages when choosing one.
If you are in a small niece company, and your supplier is THE BIG OLD COMPANY, you are completely at their mercy. On the other hand, they usually have vast resources you can tap, like training capabilities and software you won’t get elsewhere, or at least nor for the price.
That was our relationship with Xilinx. Yes, you get trainings and tutorials for everything, and they have a “light” version of ModelSim thrown in for free in their IDE, but on the other hand, they basically cut us off from one day to the next. And that was not even our fault.
So we went looking and found Efinix. Small, but growing, their IDE has a few edges that need to be rounded off, and they can’t afford to throw in a free simulator, so we had to spend quite a few bucks to buy that (and it was not even ModelSim we bought, so I had to re-train). But at least they are open and helpful. You ask a question in their forum, and they come back to you to help. I’ve been talking to real people who are directly in contact with the dev team. When I had a strange compiler problem, I had a fix within 48 hours. THAT is gold in a supplier.
I’m finding out that it’s a lot to take in
Yes, indeed. The step from CPU-based programming languages to Hardware definition languages is hard for most programmers, and for some, it is even insurmountable. Once you get the hang of it, it gets way easier.
I met a student once in a Reddit sub once who had issues with her code. I helped her and gave her a few tips how to improve it, and at the end, she asked me of my opinion of the project. I told her that it was a nice little beginner project, something to pass a boring Friday afternoon. Her reply: “Thats my Bachelor Thesis!*”. What looks big and difficult to master will one day look simple and meek when you look back, so don’t let it drag you down if things don’t work on the first try.
That what I do is easy and that I’m “just pushing buttons”. Yeah, I’m pushing the right button at the right time because the whoke shebang has been program’d, cued, mixed over weeks of rehearsals so that, come show time, it’s all by magic. Magic of pushing the right button at the right time while also reading the brochure, watch the stage, issue cues to other dept sometimes in 2 different languages.
Easy peasy!
People generally assume stay at home parents only choose that if their spouses make a lot of money, that they are bored or unsatisfied with their life, and that it’s a job that is very hard and not much fun.
Obviously I don’t speak for SAHPs and maybe these things do apply to some, but my life is freakin awesome! We choose to live very simply and frugally on a single below average income and it is completely worth it every single day for us.
I have so much control over my own schedule, I can’t get enough of spending time with my kid and have so much fun with them, I have more time for my own interests, self care or friendships when my spouse can take over at times after work, we get fun family time all together almost every day because we don’t have to spend all evening cooking and cleaning (plus our schedule is more flexible), and this is the only job where everything I do all day long directly benefits myself and my loved ones (beyond financial support).
There is genuinely nothing in the world I would trade for this. But man do I get tired of the negative comments from nearly everyone who finds out what I do.
My brother in law is a stay at home dad too. He’s a wonderful father and supportive spouse. Yall deserve a hell of a lot of credit!
That’s so cool, thank you very much!! 😁
That they could get the same level of table service if waitresses were paid a flat wage.
That waitresses rely on tips to make up for a deficient wage instead of the other way around.
That less ice will mean more drink in the glass.
That the 185°F water from the coffee machine will clean the silverware better than the much hotter sterilizing rinse of the industrial dishwasher.
That they should wait to complain to a manager instead of telling me right away if something is off so I can fix it.
I’m a physicist and we are actually dumb as a box of rocks.
As a mathematician I will reiterate what my supervisor told me: Math is not hard, it is only we that suck at it (said in context of me complaining about having used way too much time on what I in retrospect found to be simple).
Physicist: Makes a weird formula, uses it for decades without knowing why it works.
Mathematician: Looks for an approach that makes sense for decades, dies.
I get annoyed with the way they use math sometimes, but I have to keep in mind there is an advantage to it (I guess).
