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John Carmack is reading and contributing to OpenBSD source code

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Re: John Carmack is reading and contributing to OpenBSD source code

#41

Post by ksec »

AndrewBissell wrote: post #37
ksec wrote: post #24

As someone who is not following closely, did he ever mention why he is looking into alternative OS? And why OpenBSD instead of say NetBSD or FreeBSD? I assume he has many experience with linux already.

He wrote awhile back about why he chose OpenBSD to get more familiar with Unix during a coding retreat. tl;dr: the offline documentation and quality of the source code were major draws for him working with slow/no internet. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2110408722...

I guess that is why I missed it. I deleted my Facebook.

I dont understand why anyone make long post on Facebook and Linkedin instead of the good old blog post. But thanks for the link.

Re: John Carmack is reading and contributing to OpenBSD source code

#42

Post by AdmiralAsshat »

wmichelin wrote: post #20

Here is your daily reminder to read "Masters of Doom", a book about the early days at ID Software. It's an amazing look into a really cool time in gaming and software as a whole. It's a great book, mostly about John Carmack and the guys at ID! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masters_of_Doom

This thread reminded me that Carmack has been a free software advocate in the past, and my citation is, quite amusingly, that book:

> It was February 8, 1998, and Carmack was about to put his brain to the test: counting cards in blackjack. This had become something of a new fascination of his. “Having a reasonable grounding in statistics and probability and no belief in luck, fate, karma, or god(s), the only casino game that interests me is blackjack,” he wrote in a .plan file. “Playing blackjack properly is a test of personal discipline. It takes a small amount of skill to know the right plays and count the cards, but the hard part is making yourself consistantly [sic] behave like a robot, rather than succumbing to your ‘gut instincts.’ ” To refine his skills before the trip, Carmack applied his usual learning approach: consuming a few books on the subject and composing a computer program, in this case one that simulated the statistics of blackjack dealt cards.

> His research proved successful, netting him twenty thousand dollars, which he donated to the Free Software Foundation, an organization of like-minded believers in the Hacker Ethic.

Re: John Carmack is reading and contributing to OpenBSD source code

#43

Post by jlengrand »

yuribro wrote: post #32

This is such a positive and wholesome example - both the mail itself (getting to know the preferences of the project), the proposed fixes (naming functions in a better way, adding explanatory comments), and on the higher level - the humility in which it was done, and the time being invested by him for a project he isn't part of.

My thoughts as well. Gentle suggestion, looking into other's suggestions first. Everything is there.

Re: John Carmack is reading and contributing to OpenBSD source code

#44

Post by djhworld »

wmichelin wrote: post #20

Here is your daily reminder to read "Masters of Doom", a book about the early days at ID Software. It's an amazing look into a really cool time in gaming and software as a whole. It's a great book, mostly about John Carmack and the guys at ID! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masters_of_Doom

I recommend the audiobook version too, narrated by Wil Wheaton

Re: John Carmack is reading and contributing to OpenBSD source code

#45

Post by adventured »

Insanity wrote: post #39
wmichelin wrote: post #20

Here is your daily reminder to read "Masters of Doom", a book about the early days at ID Software. It's an amazing look into a really cool time in gaming and software as a whole. It's a great book, mostly about John Carmack and the guys at ID! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masters_of_Doom

It's a great book, and they're also turning it into a series. :)

I hope they bring in some of the people that made Halt and Catch Fire work so well. The Romero id Software years were filled with just enough drama and chaos to make it work.

Re: John Carmack is reading and contributing to OpenBSD source code

#46

Post by selykg »

ksec wrote: post #41
AndrewBissell wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He wrote awhile back about why he chose OpenBSD to get more familiar with Unix during a coding retreat. tl;dr: the offline documentation and quality of the source code were major draws for him working with slow/no internet. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2110408722...

I guess that is why I missed it. I deleted my Facebook. I dont understand why anyone make long post on Facebook and Linkedin instead of the good old blog post. But thanks for the link.

I didn't check the link, but keep in mind he worked for Oculus, which was acquired by Facebook. Not sure it was a requirement from Facebook, but was probably some choice around that.

Re: John Carmack is reading and contributing to OpenBSD source code

#47

Post by Trasmatta »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #42
wmichelin wrote: post #20

Here is your daily reminder to read "Masters of Doom", a book about the early days at ID Software. It's an amazing look into a really cool time in gaming and software as a whole. It's a great book, mostly about John Carmack and the guys at ID! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masters_of_Doom

This thread reminded me that Carmack has been a free software advocate in the past, and my citation is, quite amusingly, that book: > It was February 8, 1998, and Carmack was about to put his brain to the test: counting cards in blackjack. This had become something of a new fascination of his. “Having a reasonable grounding in statistics and probability and no belief in luck, fate, karma, or god(s), the only casino g…

Didn't he also end up getting banned for life from that casino for counting cards?

Re: John Carmack is reading and contributing to OpenBSD source code

#48

Post by erk__ »

yuribro wrote: post #36
mikorym wrote: post #23

Is there any more context to OP's post? I guess someone just noticed in the mailing list, but it's not clear whether maybe John Carmark does this with all code everywhere in the universe. And then probably still has some interesting coffee break conversations... On a different note. I am something of a Ubuntu fan and try to be more involved there. But then again the xBSDs where x = {Free, Open, Net, ...} are one of t…

I would suggest to just install OpenBSD and try it (maybe in a VM?), one of the selling points is the simplicity of the setup process. It can be a one evening project.

I recently went and installed FreeBSD on my laptop. It has until now been a pretty good experiance. The main reason I went with FreeBSD over OpenBSD at the moment was that NVIDIA only supports FreeBSD. FreeBSD is also pretty simple (at least compared to linux) so it wins there as well.

Re: John Carmack is reading and contributing to OpenBSD source code

#49

Post by elyseum »

blakesterz wrote: post #5

If you're like me and can't remember names very well but thought "I know I've heard of him"... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carmack "He co-founded the video game company id Software and was the lead programmer of its games Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake and their sequels."

Omg never knew he did Commander Keen too. CK2 probably was the first video game I played (as far as I can remember). Go go pogo sticks!

Re: John Carmack is reading and contributing to OpenBSD source code

#50

Post by AdmiralAsshat »

Trasmatta wrote: post #47
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This thread reminded me that Carmack has been a free software advocate in the past, and my citation is, quite amusingly, that book: > It was February 8, 1998, and Carmack was about to put his brain to the test: counting cards in blackjack. This had become something of a new fascination of his. “Having a reasonable grounding in statistics and probability and no belief in luck, fate, karma, or god(s), the only casino g…

Didn't he also end up getting banned for life from that casino for counting cards?

Well yes, it wasn't the part that interested me about that paragraph, but if you want the whole thing...

> His research proved successful, netting him twenty thousand dollars, which he donated to the Free Software Foundation, an organization of like-minded believers in the Hacker Ethic. “Its [sic] not like I’m trying to make a living at [blackjack],” Carmack wrote online after his trip, “so the chance of getting kicked out doesn’t bother me too much.” It didn’t take long for him to find out just how he’d feel. On the next trip, Carmack was approached by three men in dark suits who said, “We’d appreciate if you’d play any other game than blackjack.”

> The others at the table watched in disbelief. “Why are they doing this to you?” a woman asked.

> “They think that I’m counting cards,” Carmack said.

> “They think you can remember all those different cards?”

> “Yeah,” Carmack replied, “something like that.”

> “Well, what do you do?”

> “I’m a computer programmer,” he said, as he was escorted out the door.

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