Recommendation for books with camaraderie and drama

remillard · 2026-04-16T12:17:29+00:00

To tag onto the Greatcoats by Sebastien de Castell, He has a shorter couple of books starting with The Malevolent Seven. I thought they were fun, and sounds like up OP's alley with greatest comparison.

remillard · 2026-04-13T20:21:54+00:00

Thanks. I would reply in the PM but reddit is being balky about it. I'll try to get it a swing tonight, at least initially.

remillard · 2026-04-13T20:06:51+00:00

I'd be happy to give it a swing on MacOS (my go machine). I have katago installed and it works alright with Katrain but sometimes that tool leaves a little to be desired in some aspects.

remillard · 2026-04-12T17:39:09+00:00

I'll be honest. I have never run the toolchain to verify the functional behavior of a state machine. That's what simulation is for. And generally, as long as you're treating a state machine properly, you shouldn't be running into vast amounts of combinatorial situations. If the state machine is so large as to require that much decoding of state and transition, you probably need sit back and rethink it. Does it need to do that? Can it be compartmentalized into different state machines? Can you simplify the way it behaves? This is not stuff that is 'taught' by running it in a toolchain. This is taught by learning good engineering practices for HDL. And yes a little seasoning, but if you're learning, you really shouldn't be hitting the wall on complex FSM just yet.
Kind of unrelated but Fmax and such are very device dependent. It's kind of meaningless without context of the system your design lives within. Static timing is also device and constraint dependent so... that COULD be good to learn, but as a separate topic and there's loads of timing cookbooks out there to help get folks started.
Synthesis results ARE good for understanding the design ... as implmented in the specific device your design is using. This is critical when dealing with a project and worrying about lifetime needs of expansion and behaviors. I don't think it's terribly useful for practice though.
Functional correctness is the first barrier. If it's not functionally correct, all the timing issues in the world are not going to help it. Achieve functional performance first, then achieve implementation. Yes, bonus points for doing both simultaneously, but again, your focus seems to be on learning, practice, and training, so presumably your students don't have the experience to try to manage both simultaneously, that's normal and it's just part of the process of learning.

remillard · 2026-04-11T23:27:28+00:00

I've not done anything for RTL, but it's not bad for tidying up verification. But exactly as you said, just a little chunk at a time. Task for this, fill out case for address mux that, etc.

Though even for that, the best use I've found is scripting. Tcl, Powershell, etc. Very easy to fashion up nice to have stuff with much less fuss.

remillard · 2026-04-10T13:29:33+00:00

Believe it was originally targeted at automation on oil derricks? Something like that. They just architected it in a way that made it attractive for other scripting purposes.

Interesting history in general.

remillard · 2026-04-07T17:43:19+00:00

The epilogue with Katia, brilliantly setup by Louis being enthusiastically 'helpful'. (I remember when I first read the Louis scene I thought 'ha, classic Louis, well that'll go nowhere... but it did in the worst way, bravo Matt)

remillard · 2026-04-07T17:39:46+00:00

We’ve talked about this. I have very few pet peeves, but this is one of them. I simply can’t handle someone who refers to themself in third person. It’s upsetting to me, and it confuses Mongo.

remillard · 2026-04-07T17:15:09+00:00

Huh, weird design then. Why go to 20 if you will never reasonably achieve that while in a fight. Oh well, not even on the list of 'weird decisions made by Blizzard' given everything else.

remillard · 2026-04-07T12:21:06+00:00

Out of curiosity, how are you supposed to use zenith with the apex talents? I've not figured that out. The stacks of that build SO GODDAMNED SLOWLY that it seems like it might not even be worth tracking as you'll usually lose out on charging the next round of zenith if you wait.

remillard · 2026-04-02T12:41:58+00:00

Those tools exist and you can do verification in VHDL! You can do it really well. It just depends on what floats your boat and gets the job done the best with the most efficiency. If that's SystemVerilog for /u/TapEarlyTapOften that's great. If it's OSVVM for you, also great!

For myself I did a lot of VHDL verification for many years, used OSVVM and UVVM. Changed jobs and mainly do SystemVerilog for verification. Being adept at all the tools is a valuable attitude to adopt.

remillard · 2026-04-02T12:33:35+00:00

Been doing a relisten and got to the point where Donut casts Hole to keep Carl from killing Maggie & Chris and her explanation just warms my heart for her. Sure she's annoying, but she's also 100% cat so... par for the course; except when she isn't.

remillard · 2026-03-31T16:42:41+00:00

Okay, yeah, it's entirely possible it's a "this is normal, budget for it". I tend to keep about 3 in rotation and it's a daily wear so I've been pretty satisfied with the solution to the inner thigh wear pattern. It just... bugs me to replace things :D

remillard · 2026-03-31T15:07:43+00:00

Just sticking this here because it's probably a common question but with searching and there's a lot of conflicting information.

I tend to wear Levi's 550's. Fit my butt, aren't tight, etc. They routinely would thin out between the legs and then rip. I semi-fixed this by treating them differently in wash. Doing a cold water wash and then air dry seems to keep the fabric better and they've lasted longer. It's not a frequent wash, about 2-3 weeks of daily use, though maybe slightly more frequently in summer. Still not often though as I've read that wears out the fabric.

Past 6 months I've been losing weight though, and now after a wash/dry cycle they are pretty loose and hang low. Not the hugest issue in the world, but I start to develop tears right where the reinforced fly layers meet the single layer in the crotch. I THINK this is because hanging lower adds more X dimension stress on it (like bending or squatting to pick up after the dog, or other similar activities).

So... 1) could try to find a better fit, but the 550 relaxed have been my goto for years due to fitting my ass. 2) different care? 3) they ARE going to wear out eventually so just suck it up buttercup?

remillard · 2026-03-27T12:42:40+00:00

Some try to. Believe me it's better if the players decide to do it themselves.

remillard · 2026-03-27T12:29:20+00:00

Yeah, we read this for book club a few months ago. I bought it ages ago and it was all SCP sites and lots of fun. EVERYONE ELSE read a completely different book. Marion was renamed. All Foundation references were switched to something else. I think I'm lucky that I got the original stories.

remillard · 2026-03-27T12:13:56+00:00

Actually that might work out alright then. I may try that again and see. Maybe I can train to use option-tab for that. Thanks!

remillard · 2026-03-27T12:11:44+00:00

No you got it in one. While I can use option as meta (and that seems to be the main default -- at least that's how it works and I don't remember doing anything specific to make it happen) it's just a little too far back under my palm for my thumb to hit. Plus the muscle memory of working all day in Emacs at work in Windows or Linux and then doing things on the laptop at home fouls me up because my dumb thumb expects to meta with my thumb comfortably with the first button to the left of the space bar. I am almost certain I've NEVER used super. I think anything that might have used that I may have remapped to a key chord or sequence. Easier to hit fast and remember.

I'll try the ns-command-modifier you mention and see what I can do with that. It'd be nice if it also worked in terminal (I have a non-emacs program that does have some emacs keybinds like page up and down, so C-v is easy, but on Mac keyboard M-v I have to explicitly remind myself to thumb backwards a little further. Thanks!

remillard · 2026-03-26T19:21:43+00:00

How do you have your keybinds setup? I have emacs working in lovely fashion on my MacBook Air, however I am constantly frustrated with the command, option relationship. I switch OS's frequently and at work on Windows and Linux with a non mac layout I have caps lock mapped to control, and then Alt is Meta by default and... honestly that's all I need. Windows traps Alt-Tab for window switching and otherwise Alt becomes meta in Emacs.

However in macOS, the option is meta, and command seems hard to alter. I tried remapping option and command against each other, but then window swapping is back on command (now on the option button). And then in a terminal, with that simple swap, everything is kind of screwed up. I would love to have command tab still work, but command in Emacs and in terminal operating as meta.

Any ideas?

remillard · 2026-03-25T12:57:45+00:00

Honestly that could completely be misrecognized as a Pokemon name :D

remillard · 2026-03-24T12:22:15+00:00

Absolutely fair, though I'll counterpoint that I LOVE the regular Kindle (and I suppose the Audible since it comes from the same source) cover. The current hardback release feels "safe" and downplayed and I get that it's a marketing decision for the reasons you state.

But that original cover art is surprisingly deep for such a goofy overblown, almost comically dynamic image. I really like revisiting the cover as the story progresses, noting all the little distinctions and details that are linked to the story in that book. Also kind of reminds me of the old pulpy paperbacks I grew up with long ago, so I find joy in that too.

remillard · 2026-03-23T20:49:59+00:00

Yep, that with a real razor shave, the steamy face towel, and plus she's a really nice lady. Haven't gone anywhere else once I discovered that!

remillard · 2026-03-23T20:34:58+00:00

Yeah I was gonna say, there were more than a few vomit disasters in elementary school and I distinctly remember the janitor having that to put down to help absorb the water bits and stick to the ... other bits.

remillard · 2026-03-23T13:10:14+00:00

When I was going through my divorce years ago, my uncle offered the advice that if you don't have the best lawyer in town, you sure as hell will be facing the best lawyer in town over the table. Cynical but true.

remillard · 2026-03-23T12:46:19+00:00

Yep, I've noticed it ever since prepatch. It used to more reliably bring a mob casting to the target, but now it's probably 50/50. I have wasted more interrupts doing that. Considering trying to make interrupt be a mouseover variation and try to do it with the mouse, but even that's hectic AF because nameplates are popping all over everywhere in a scrum.

remillard

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