Co-author of the discordant book Real Programming (2021) with Sjur Julin. Instead of relying on random code written by strangers on the internet, hard problems are looked at from a new angle. Simpler and faster solutions to "solved" problems are provided in the only useful programming languages remaining: C, Assembler, and GLSL. Like all things in life (at least for those who don't take anything for granted), it's a matter of applying yourself and trying something different. A BFG 9000 is applied to all the modern development failures: Programming languages, methods, software management, and compilers. The chapter introductions present a distorted look at popular media from the 2000s.
The book received some press coverage in 2023 with a lot of dingbats people meaning a lot
about it... without ever having read it. I still think it's hilarious. Have a look at the
2024 Real Programming Anniversary Awards
for more information.
I have authored several articles about high performance programming. All of them can be found in the articles section. Roughly 100000 lines of code can be found in the source code archive: 75000 lines of C and C++, 15000 lines of Assembler, and 10000 lines of GLSL. I occasionally hold lectures based on this material. They are known to be both dry and terse.
I started programming in the early 80s. A Sinclair ZX81 was soon followed by other computers, the most noteworthy ones being Commodore 64 and Commodore Amiga. Professionally, though the line is blurry, I've programmed systems based on DEC Alpha, AMD Élan, Atmel AVR, TriMedia/PNX, PowerQUICC, Tilera, ARM NEON, Intel SSE/AVX, and Movidius Myriad X. Major works include video pipelines, threading frameworks, menu systems, camera controllers, video switches, and OpenSSL replacements. I've also done lots of general optimization work and written numerous drivers.
The art project known as The Xmas Demo has been going on since 2017. The original version is well documented. A seminal work in optimization, it goes to extreme lengths to make a dainty NVidia TX2 run advanced visual effects in 60 fps. The 2023 version is maxed out for a higher end AGX Orin. The summer preview is just that, a preview. This year: Is it possible to combine depth information from a shader with OpenGL 3D objects on a puny NVidia Jetson Nano? Signs point to yes. More videos in the videos section.
Other interests include, in no particular order: Mechanical wristwatches, tube amps, walking, music, off-beat movies, nimble cars, printed books, and classic games.
I recommend using LinkedIn for that.
If you want to send me an email, the disposable email system is back... until it breaks down again. Click here for information. A modicum of effort is required to make it work.
For professional enquiries, contact Ignorantus AS.
ignorantus.com is my personal website. It has been online since 3 September 2009 and is hosted on servers located in Oslo, Norway. It uses 150 MB of disk space. Most of it is actual content: Source code, articles, and related imagery. No cookies are used anywhere. There are no commercials anywhere, either, except for blatant attempts at peddling the book. Get used to it.
I care about keeping energy waste to a minimum. All pages are made as simple as possible (but no simpler) and delivered as human-readable HTML5. Here's a rundown of the energy wasted by a couple of Norwegian programming-adjacent websites: Warriors of the Wasteland.
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