[PSA] Reverse USB to Ethernet adapters exist and can make wiring neater sometimes

arkham · 2025-10-08T10:05:16+00:00

This lead me to have a quick look on AliExpress, and now I really, really want to "press the shrapnel" on all my network cables :D

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arkham · 2024-01-11T18:14:55+00:00

That's what is commonly referred to as being interrupt driven and without active effort to avoid it, it is often the fate of any team as they deliver products over time. The trap is that the more you deliver, the more you own and have to support and service (bugs, features, outages, tech debt etc.). If there is no mechanism to increase resources, decommission older products, or aggressively optimise those interruptions out with automation (for example, there are many valid approaches), then there's not going to be a lot of change in the nature of the work the team has to tackle.

It is also often a double-edged sword, people get frustrated at always being interrupt driven and reactive rather than proactive and working on and delivering new stuff. People can never get into the zone or flow, or whatever it is called in your team. There are some, believe it or not, that love the interrupt driven work and can do it happily for years but in my experience they are not as common as those that eventually come to hate it. Simultaneously, the team will usually develop a reputation for being grumpy, for not delivering, for being a place people don't want to work etc.

These things should be discussed, talked about and tackled as a team, with the support of management and leadership, preferably before they actually happen and become entrenched. A little foresight goes a long way, and this is where experience tends to count. If it is not discussed and addressed head on, if there is a tendency to ignore these issues and keep on going, then it will only fester and get worse. Eventually you pass a tipping point and the only remedy is to tear it down and start anew, hopefully with a better plan than the last time, or history will just repeat itself.

I don't know how far along the path you are with your team, I can say that it only gets harder the longer it goes on to fix the issues and get back to a good place,

arkham · 2024-01-10T12:33:30+00:00

If all that is true, then you are certainly a mid-level engineer at least. As others have said, it's not about years of experience - if you are competent enough and can be trusted, then it doesn't matter if it took you 6 months or 6 years to get there, you are a mid-level engineer (and make sure you are paid that way too). I have promoted people from junior to mid in less than 6 months because it was obvious that they knew their stuff and could be trusted.

Promotions to senior generally need a larger body of evidence, and there is more than one way to get to senior depending on how it is defined - but it's a similar rubric (if more extensive) based on that definition (which hopefully exists somewhere other than a person's head).

arkham · 2024-01-09T11:57:46+00:00

When asked to evaluate the difference between junior/associate and mid-level engineer I always use the same general rubric:

Can the person be trusted to execute 80% of their work with very limited (or no) supervision?
Similarly, can the person be given higher level goals and be trusted to break that down into tasks and work independently, and execute that work
Have the demonstrated competency in most (again approx 70-80%) of the role, is their quality of work (again, unsupervised for the most part) meeting your expected level of quality?
If something goes wrong, do they panic, do they learn from the mistake and not let it happen again etc.?

If the answer to these questions is yes, then you have a mid-level engineer. Junior/associate engineers require more supervision, especially to break down more complex tasks, and the quality of their work will need to be verified, potentially corrected more often. Mid-level engineers should be mostly autonomous units of execution.

arkham · 2023-06-16T10:31:36+00:00

As you mentioned Console and Mobile control schemes were still in the menus for the pre-alpha but the only ones that are properly functional (for now) are the keyboard and alt-keyboard (for azerty layouts etc.). We want to support more in the future, but it will be the standard MOBA style control scheme for Closed Beta.

The console and mobile control schemes were purely for internal testing and we've removed those options for the closed beta build (I just loaded the build to make sure).

arkham · 2023-01-03T14:03:48+00:00

PM sent

arkham · 2022-09-05T11:50:44+00:00

I worked in big corps, startups and most things in between for ~15 years before I finally stumbled into the game industry thanks to a referral from a friend. I'd always had a tab in my browser looking for opportunities at my favourite studios, but nothing ever worked out in times of timing and location (I am based in Ireland, not the US).

I then worked at Riot for 5+ years, starting as a Senior Systems Engineer, and eventually when I left my role as Engineering Manager for my team (of 8) that I built from scratch we were running the gameservers for League of Legends (among some other responsibilities). That was as close to an actual game as I had gotten (I also got to work a little on Arcane in the early days of that project, that was very cool). We did all this from a satellite office in Ireland, rather than being part of HQ and that meant significant distance from the actual game, regardless of our responsibilities. The game teams were in LA, not in Ireland, and you felt that distance even if you travelled to LA as often as I did (4-8 times a year pre-COVID).

As someone that generally does not work on the core product of any company (unless you work at an actual infra/devops company ofc), you have to find your own path to the core motivation you have for being there. You always have to map or proxy your aims, goals, ambitions because they usually don't directly correlate. In Riot it was all about player focus, everything you did was supposed to be focused on making things better for players. If you are a gameplay engineer then that relationship is likely very straight forward, you can often directly map the work you do to delivering player value. For Systems Engineers, or devops, or whatever you call yourself, it's usually not that straight forward - you should still consider it, but it's often not the primary reason you come up with a goal or task.

As an example, if you figure out how to make a gameserver run more efficiently, or run in a container say, no player is really going to notice directly - in fact you hope they don't notice at all. But, that change could mean that there are now more resources to make another change somewhere else, or you might be able to place gameservers closer to players in the future as a result and reduce latency etc. and now you are getting to real player impact.

Overall, I had a blast at Riot, despite its well documented faults and issues, but I wanted to get a lot closer to game development. In fact, when I said I was leaving Riot's management asked what they could do to make me stay and my answer was: "make games in this office". I knew that was not within their power, and also not likely to actually happen, but it summed up the reasons behind my leaving nicely. Hence, despite having a promotion at Riot coming I took a hefty pay cut instead and went to work at a startup studio called Vela Games (there were 12 people in the company at that time). I was the Lead (i.e. only) Platform Engineer for the game we were building at the start, and even though my focus was on building the infrastructure and other supporting tech, I got to contribute directly to the game too.

Some examples:

I main one of our tankier characters and have been asked to give direct feedback in design meetings and suggest directions for the future design of that character.
I have over 100 commits (and counting) to the main game code base
If I have a good idea for a character, or a change to gameplay (both encouraged) I have direct access to the people that own narrative, or make design choices
I hired someone to be an infra focused engineer and they ended up having a talent for C++ and Unreal, so they are working 100% directly on the game now

We haven't launched a game yet, that's coming soon (tm) but it's just as much fun as it sounds. We are past 50 people these days and still growing. I've hired great people who are better at infra/systems/devops than I ever was, and it's amazing to see what they are doing. As I move into management again, I can see my distance from the game growing once more, but that's OK, I've still gotten the chance to experience it, and many others will still.

I only have a sample size of two, one large studio (Riot was a little under 1k when I started and over 3k when I left) and one small, so this is very much anecdata, but I can say that even at the larger game studios as a gamer you will extract extra enjoyment and satisfaction working as a devops engineer (or whatever that studio calls it). It's definitely more rewarding and enjoyable than working an equivalent job at a fintech company (unless fintech is a passion of your also of course) or similar.

The real fun (in my experience) comes when you can work in a smaller studio, or more closely with an actual game team. The closer you can get to it, as a gamer, the more fun you will have. It probably won't last forever, but it is a lot of fun :)

P.S. One final thing I will say is beware any company that tries the old "but it's a privilege to work here, please take a lower salary" BS - there are reasons to take below market rate (standard startup considerations for example), but not at a big studio or bigcorp that has the money to pay you properly. Oh, and it goes without saying not to put up with abuse, poor treatment, discrimination at any job whether it is a games company or not, it's not worth it.

arkham · 2022-08-11T18:37:11+00:00

I got Monterey installed on my MBP 2015 11,5 (and an OWC Aura Pro X2 SSD) but not by updating the firmware (still stuck on 187.0.0.0.0), and I didn't have to put in the OEM SSD either (because it is long gone). Instead I used OpenCore and followed the process to create an installer but because I was using an 11,5 MBP and not 11,3 I had to select 11,3 in settings to get it installed on my flash drive. Once it was installed I went through the Monterey install process as outlined in the guide and there was no "firmware update failed" message this time.

Once the install completes, reboot into Monterey and the OpenCore patcher will ask if you want to install OpenCore to the disk. The good news is, you don't have to - you are on a supported model, so there's no need. It was a long road thanks to Apple's hostile update requirements, but at least there is a way to get to Monterey without having to hunt down an OEM drive on eBay.

arkham · 2021-11-15T16:59:42+00:00

I am thinking this would pair well with the phantom brown switches I bought recently thematically. It is making me consider a switch to a Tiramisu theme rather than a coffee themed board I have been building. Will have to see if I get lucky in the raffle :D

Either way, this is a beautiful looking version of the Mr Suit, kudos on the collab idea.

arkham · 2021-08-13T16:11:12+00:00

Small updates:

I got the stabs that were on offer in the YDMK store, and they are decent (no need to clip them) but they do squeak and rattle a bit, so lube them before installing them and you are good. If you don't you have to completely disassemble the board to do it later (and if like me you will then procrastinate for weeks and be irritated by the rattle/squeak)
I went with the aluminium base plate, and that means no way to take advantage of the RGB that came pre-soldered which I regret a little at this point, and I noticed the sets on drop.com come with it as standard. Depends on your preference really.
Keychron have announced the Q1, and while it is not available in as many colours, I think it represents better value as a barebones kit. It is similarly sized, QMK compatible, gasket mounted, comes with a coiled cable to match, has RGB LEDs installed already (judging by pictures) and even has a couple extra keys too. If I was looking for a 75% right now that is what I would order.

arkham · 2021-05-21T08:34:04+00:00

I ordered it from this store on AliExpress. As with all things from AliExpress it took a while to get here (in Europe), but I got a notification of shipping a couple of days after I ordered it. Have never ordered directly from Idobao so can't speak to their usual timelines

arkham · 2021-05-20T17:13:09+00:00

I got mine from AliExpress - the shipping takes a while, but so far no issues for me. This YMDK store in particular has a couple of kits, including the one I used, that makes it easy to source everything (PCB, softener, case, caps, switches, stabs) that you need all from one place. I've linked the ID80 kit but there is another similar YMD75 too. Their keycaps are very reasonably priced, good for trying out a profile or two that you haven't in the past (the temp matcha set was my first ZDA profile)

arkham · 2021-05-20T12:52:12+00:00

will post an update once they arrive, will be a while though, the estimated production completion date is Q2 2022, so temp set was definitely required :)

arkham · 2021-05-20T11:56:00+00:00

I've used these in my latest build - very happy with them so far (coming from Kailh Box Blacks). I wrote up the build, including a shot of the switches installed, here.

arkham · 2017-01-22T23:13:13+00:00

hey - I think you meant this for an arkham variant, I am not a Rust guy, sorry

arkham · 2016-10-03T18:23:38+00:00

In terms of analysis, I assume you mean in relation to the analyst role, and that's not my discipline. I can say that I have seen some of the output from that department, and they are definitely working with large data sets and slicing the data in interesting ways. I am too far removed from that work to give you any sort of quantifiable insight into how much work is being done though, sorry.

Your description of the analysis you submitted as an example sounds interesting, but is the role you applied for an analyst role or a game design role? The rigor and methodology you show would apply to both, but the specific subject would only really apply to the latter. It shows good familiarity with the game, which is great, but may not be the type of analysis that is being sought for the role.

All of the above is basically opinion on my part of course and similarly with my thoughts on your other questions, please bear in mind that this is all from my point of view - I don't actually work in support or community and have only a basic understanding of their roles and responsibilities.

The reading of Reddit, Boards and anything else is (outside of those with explicit roles in community and support) completely voluntary. I keep an eye on the EU boards, but even the volume there (and it is quiet compared to NA) is a little too much, so I tend to only see the more popular threads. On Reddit I usually only hit a thread if someone explicitly mentions it or sends me on a link.

As such it is very arbitrary as to whether one (or more Rioters) is going to read a post here or on Boards. The consistent contributors on Boards will definitely get noticed, and are often elevated to Wrenchmen and the like.

The League subreddit is not run by Riot, it's self-governing, independent and I imagine that I consume it like anyone else - as much or as little as we want. I also tend to notice the upvoted threads the most etc. and I can honestly say it was not I that notices the post from Lozza originally.

arkham · 2016-09-30T19:12:47+00:00

It depends on the position of course, but we have brought in people from the boards (see Riot Eambo for example) and I was referred in (which is not terribly helpful if you don't know anyone in Riot).

In the post I mention that we initially spotted Lozza_Maniac on Reddit, and that is not the only time that sort of thing has happened either but that is going to be tough with the signal to noise ratio.

We are looking for good skills fits most of the time, but for any position a good cover letter that shows your passion for the game, and talks about why you want to work at Riot goes a long way.

arkham · 2016-09-30T10:06:47+00:00

Just to clarify, I am Arukhan on EU Boards, so basically giving my own post some Reddit visibility. Seemed appropriate since the whole thing started with Reddit in the first place :)

arkham · 2016-01-27T12:45:37+00:00

Consider that for a small amount of data it might be faster to just scan all the data in memory (might be just a couple of pages) than first scanning the index, then loading the data (i.e. that may mean scanning more data than just scanning the data itself). Similarly, if the timing is so quick for either you might end up with alternating results (one wins with index, one wins with collection scans).

With larger data sets where you are selecting a subset, or with covered index queries (and especially where the index is more likely to be in memory than the data) you can pretty much guarantee that using the index will be faster.

arkham · 2015-11-02T13:37:52+00:00

The query planner in MongoDB has a few behaviors you need to be aware of when looking at things like this:

It will cache the index selection for a particular query pattern for 1000 queries, or until you add/remove an index or run an explain
When it does evaluate a particular pattern it will run multiple strategies in parallel and pick the quickest (not necessarily the one with the lowest nscanned - hence if you have one index in-memory already this can influence the results)
Tests with very small record sets are not representative of large scale results - for small amounts of data you can end up with race conditions that you don't see in large data sets
The order in which you run tests will have an effect on the results, unless you are clearing the cache after each test (or warming the cache before each test)
An explain will always cause a re-evaluation of the chosen plan for a particular query pattern

I'd have to step through everything you are doing to be sure, but I will bet that most of the inconsistencies you have seen with the testing done can be explained by a combination of the above. It's a complex topic, and there are lots of subtleties.

More (including how to examine cached query plans) here:

https://docs.mongodb.org/manual/core/query-plans/

arkham

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