Ask HN: What is the most impactful thing you've built?

Post by shireboy » Sun, Nov 20, 2022, 1:05 PM UTC

HorizonXP wrote: post #587

Most impactful, in order: 1. Was the intern that coded the mechanism to open/close the LIDAR cover on the Mars Phoenix Lander, so it runs on another planet. I also did circuit work, and other tasks for the CSA’s contribution to that mission. That was also the internship where I (re)met my wife. 2. Was on the Android team that brought video to Instagram back in 2013. We brought gyro stabilization to the iPhone, couldn…

Post by shireboy » Sun, Nov 20, 2022, 1:10 PM UTC

Post by shagymoe » Sun, Nov 20, 2022, 1:24 PM UTC

froh wrote: post #559

shagymoe wrote: post #527

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The labels printed directly to the warehouse floor where parts were being sequenced. So, for example, the Rear Right Fender Flares printer would print barcodes labels and the person sequencing would pick up the next label in sequence, look at which color fender flare it specified, go pick that part, apply the label and put it in a sequencing rack. When the rack is full, it gets loaded on a truck bound for the plant.

so you kept the just in sequence supply chain of some Chrysler plant alive with a perl script that could import their sequence orders from floppy disks into your system, just as if they had arrived via wire? amazing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_in_sequence

Post by wazoox » Sun, Nov 20, 2022, 2:05 PM UTC

itsthecourier wrote: post #330

wazoox wrote: post #139

I designed and implemented the whole graphic system for the World Cup '98 (working 100h weeks for months). Billions of people have watched in real-time the result of my work and I earned absolutely nothing from it :) (there's a fun story to write about this, the tremendous amount of work, setting up the WAN connecting the SGI machines together, building the remote control hardware, etc).

Please follow up

Post by scrumlord » Sun, Nov 20, 2022, 2:16 PM UTC

egberts1 wrote: post #308

keepquestioning wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you find all these product market fits? Have you made more than a typical SWE?

It was actually a wandering hyperactive/ADHD mind that often said "why isn't there one" and follows through doggedly to the very end. It is one of those traits where a mind clicks and said "this is it and how" and surprisingly gets into the most illusive hyperfocus/high-energy mode (without using any drug). Slow-path network processing (arguably me) was commercially made in Ascom Timeplex in 1982 and someone else lea…