You should print out and hang up my favorite Charles Babbage quote:
"On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
Nice. There was a programmer here who was in way over his head and eventually starting referring to bugs as "anomalies" that he wasn't going to be able to fix (or even find the cause, for that matter). The military clients loved hearing that explanation. I was scared to try to fix his code, if I saw a misspelled variable name then fixing that misspelling may break the program further. I saw one small section of his code where he used a word as part of a variable name, I think it was "assessment", and he spelled it three different ways for three variables, none of which were actually correct. It was a wonder his code ran at all. That project currently resides in the "pending a complete rewrite" section of purgatory.
I don't get requests to solve classic computer science problems, all of my requests are concerning feature additions or changes to our application. Our customers don't care about proving if a problem is NP-complete (or even something fun like shortest-path). They want to add new columns to a report or implement single sign-on or an automatic FTP transfer or something.
You are most certainly at least as clueless about what THEY do as you think they are about what YOU do.
While this may be true, I also don't go around asking them if it's possible to write a proposal or if it's possible to create a sales presentation or marketing plan. I know what's possible in their jobs, but they see our application that has been built over 4 years with up to 100,000 lines of code, where a programmer built each feature, and they still ask me if it's even possible to change a feature to work a different way. That means they don't understand my job at all. I built the feature from scratch to start with so, yeah, it's possible to change it. It's not just a choice of phrase either, sometimes someone will walk all the way across the office to find me (even though I've got a phone sitting right here), ask me if a certain thing is possible, and walk away.
Although really the worst thing is when I see people quoting a new feature to a customer which already exists in the application. So not only do they not know what is possible, but they also don't know what the application already does. This class wouldn't fix that.
It's a course in HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Javascript is the only one of the three that is an actual programming language, they aren't teaching people how to program. They're teaching people how those three languages interact to create a web page. It actually seems like a pretty useful course for developers who work in any company that produces online products to send their marketing and sales teams to, so that those teams can at least get a glimpse about how these things work just so that they have a better understanding of what they're asking us to do. Or, so that they have more of an idea of what's possible. The #1 question I'm asked is "is it possible to..." Yes, it's possible, it's always possible, it's a question of time and money. I don't know how many times I have to answer that question before people realize they can just skip straight to the second question ("what does it take to do it"). A class like this may clue them in.
That could cause an anti-migraine pill to make the situation worse, or cause reduced kidney/liver function as my body works overtime to purge the sugar from my blood
Would 100mg of sugar really cause problems for your liver?
Taken individually, you're right. But you may be able to make a claim on a game that shows an isometric projection of a 3 walled house, has 6 basic personality types for people (athletes, artists, romantics, socialites, businessmen, villains), uses different traits and animations for the different personalities, has various interactions between different characters, etc. Yeah, you can't really make a claim on any of those. Tetris can't claim that no one else can create a game that has falling blocks. But when you have a specific set of blocks, and they're specific colors, and you show the next block in a certain way, and you clear the board with a rising wall of squares when the game ends, and you can have random garbage rows at the start, etc etc, then that's something that you can stop other people from copying wholesale. It's the entire game that matters, EA isn't suing because Zynga made a game that shows a house from an isometric perspective.
Tolkien's writing of the Lord of the Rings does not prevent anyone else from writing fantasy with orcs and goblins themselves.
That's broadly true, but can I write and publish a story about a group of 4 little people, called Hobbins, who team up with people called Argon and Gendelf on a quest to destroy a magic ring sought after by the evil Sarone? They go to Riverdale and meet up with Borowmor (from Gander), Gelmi, and the elf Lagelos, go through the mines of Moira, travel through Fangrow Forest, meet the riders of Rahon, etc? Can I call that my own work and publish it? I haven't played either game, but have you seen the screenshots? A lot more than "the idea" was copied, specific implementation details were copied (such as personality types with different names, character animations, etc). The creativity that Zynga put in was what I did, thinking up new descriptions for the same exact things.
Altitude? The altitude of Phoenix is just over 1100 ft. That's similar to places like Atlanta and Topeka, neither of which are known for altitude sickness.
The closest thing to the description of "most large cities on the east coast" would be Atlanta and the listed cities in NC. No major city on the east coast farther north than NC is cheaper to live than Phoenix, Glendale, Scottsdale, Mesa, and Tucson.
As I posted below, I don't think these ads are for Apple's current customers.
Did you figure that out all by yourself? Why would Apple advertise to people who are already buying their crap? They're trying to sell their crap to people who aren't buying it, like every other business ever.
Even Santa Clara is practically a paradise [walkscore.com] compared to Phoenix.
That data does show Phoenix above the national average. Tempe is way above average.
They built the Brickyard right after I graduated, as a computer science student I would have loved that resource. I don't doubt there are chains on Mill now, but that's a far cry from everything being boarded up. At least there's still Greasy Tony's and the Chuck Box. I heard Hooter's caught on fire though. Again.
Well, as someone with 33 years of living here, allow me to retort.
It is over 100 degrees for a significant amount of the year. If you go for a walk at night, it is still in the high 90s.
Instead of saying "significant", let's put a number on that (from Wikipedia):
The temperature reaches and exceeds 100F (38C), on average for 110 days of the year, including most days from late May through to early September. Highs top 110 F (43 C) an average of 18 days during the year.... Overnight lows greater than 80 F (27 C) occur frequently each summer, with the average July low being 81 F (27 C), and the average August low being 80 F (27 C). On average, 67 days throughout the year will see the nighttime low at or above 80 F (27 C).
I would say a third of the days in the year could be considered "significant". It's not a huge problem though, the main thing that the heat dissuades me from doing is going on runs through the desert in the summer. That's a tradeoff I'm willing to make for the ability to go on runs through the desert during the other 8 months.
It has no semi-cool counter culture like nearby Tucson.
It does, but nothing is centralized. For example, there are similar bands that play in North Phoenix, Mesa, and Tempe, but they all have different audiences. The same types of people going to the same types of shows, but everything is so spread out that the different pockets never join up into a larger cultural influence. Downtown hosts the art walk once a month as well (this Friday in fact, which I may go to if it wasn't for the fact that I'll be at the Fear Factory show at the Marquee).
the idea of people flocking there for hot tech jobs is insane
It's not so outlandish when the cost of living here is 40% or less compared to other major cities.
Would you raise your children in a city where the only place you see grass is golf courses and cemeteries?
Would you jump to move to a city with no distinctive downtown, but rather 4 million people living in uncontrolled desert sprawl, completely devastated by the housing crash?
Yes, a lot of people would jump into a city with a very low cost of living which also happens to have a ton of low-cost homes currently available. The housing crash isn't bad for everyone, just bad for people who bought houses they couldn't afford. It didn't affect me at all, my home price shot up by about 250%, went back down to about 80% of where it started, and has since risen to just above what I paid for it before the bubble.
There's a lot of drivel there that doesn't deserve comment ("very few decent places to eat"? are you old or broke?), but this is ridiculous:
It's been rated by several places as the worst city in America to drive in, mainly because it's so chaotic and because there's no consistent driving style (the frequent road-rage shootings don't help).
What's the problem, does the square NS-EW street grid confuse you? You're going to need to back up that claim, because Phoenix is nowhere near the worst cities to drive in:
In fact, if you look closely, you can see Chandler listed by Allstate as one of the safest cities to drive in.
violent home invasions are common
Define "common". The police claimed that for 2008 there were "over 300" home invasions and kidnappings (fewer than 1 per day, in an area with 4.2 million people), and that claim was investigated by the feds to see if it was exaggerated to get more funding:
You can't bicycle here (one of my favorite outdoor activities) because of the heat most of the year
People bike here year round, Facebook posts from other people doing just that are proof. You choose not to, that doesn't mean other people don't do it also. There are people enjoying the Phoenix Mountain Preserve, Dreamy Draw, and South Mountain year round.
They used to have Mill Avenue in Tempe that was kinda fun to walk along, which used to have a bunch of quirky little independent shops, but the Tempe government drove all those out of business to make room for a bunch of mall stores and high-rises, which of course went south when the economy crashed, so most of the place is boarded up now.
Really? The main recreational area next to the largest university by enrollment in the country is boarded up now, huh? That's weird.
This place sucks, and I can't wait to move out in a couple of months.
Neither can I. Let me know if you need help leaving.
Omaha is the 43rd largest city in the country with a population less than a third that of Phoenix, and yeah, it's not known for technology or culture. I'm not sure what that has to do with Phoenix though, or the post that GP was replying to for that matter (the one about "has anyone been to Phoenix"). In terms of metro areas, the Omaha area has about 870,000 people, the Phoenix area has over 4.2 million.
The only piece of "electronics" I've had fail where I suspected the heat as the cause was the alternator in my old Ford Bronco, during June 2 or 3 summers in a row. You know what's really bad for electronics, and metal in general? Humidity. We don't have that here for much of the year. That's why our cars don't rust and our masonry doesn't crumble. It just gets a little dust on it from time to time.
why in the name of everything holy would tech startups want to base themselves in an area that regularly experiences triple-digit temperatures?
Maybe because we don't store our valuables and equipment in the parking lot. We DO have buildings here, you know.
These idiots are are NOT cops. They are civilians with guns that shoot first. That's just a sample of AZ.
Just out of curiosity, how many of them have you ran into? I've lived in Phoenix for 33+ years and I can't say I've ever actually seen a Minuteman. Maybe not the best "sample" to use for the population in the 6th largest city in the country.
Too bad all the sheep have already bough into the scam.
You really feel bad for someone who thought it was a good idea to buy Facebook at $38/share? Do you also feel bad when gamblers, err sorry, I meant "commodity speculators", take a loss? You felt sorry for the Duke brothers in Trading Places, didn't you? Poor Randolph and Mortimer.
Slashdot Mirror
If you having the wrong algorithm then you're misunderstanding what the machine does, which is a completely different issue.
You should print out and hang up my favorite Charles Babbage quote:
"On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
Nice. There was a programmer here who was in way over his head and eventually starting referring to bugs as "anomalies" that he wasn't going to be able to fix (or even find the cause, for that matter). The military clients loved hearing that explanation. I was scared to try to fix his code, if I saw a misspelled variable name then fixing that misspelling may break the program further. I saw one small section of his code where he used a word as part of a variable name, I think it was "assessment", and he spelled it three different ways for three variables, none of which were actually correct. It was a wonder his code ran at all. That project currently resides in the "pending a complete rewrite" section of purgatory.
I don't get requests to solve classic computer science problems, all of my requests are concerning feature additions or changes to our application. Our customers don't care about proving if a problem is NP-complete (or even something fun like shortest-path). They want to add new columns to a report or implement single sign-on or an automatic FTP transfer or something.
You are most certainly at least as clueless about what THEY do as you think they are about what YOU do.
While this may be true, I also don't go around asking them if it's possible to write a proposal or if it's possible to create a sales presentation or marketing plan. I know what's possible in their jobs, but they see our application that has been built over 4 years with up to 100,000 lines of code, where a programmer built each feature, and they still ask me if it's even possible to change a feature to work a different way. That means they don't understand my job at all. I built the feature from scratch to start with so, yeah, it's possible to change it. It's not just a choice of phrase either, sometimes someone will walk all the way across the office to find me (even though I've got a phone sitting right here), ask me if a certain thing is possible, and walk away.
Although really the worst thing is when I see people quoting a new feature to a customer which already exists in the application. So not only do they not know what is possible, but they also don't know what the application already does. This class wouldn't fix that.
It's a course in HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Javascript is the only one of the three that is an actual programming language, they aren't teaching people how to program. They're teaching people how those three languages interact to create a web page. It actually seems like a pretty useful course for developers who work in any company that produces online products to send their marketing and sales teams to, so that those teams can at least get a glimpse about how these things work just so that they have a better understanding of what they're asking us to do. Or, so that they have more of an idea of what's possible. The #1 question I'm asked is "is it possible to..." Yes, it's possible, it's always possible, it's a question of time and money. I don't know how many times I have to answer that question before people realize they can just skip straight to the second question ("what does it take to do it"). A class like this may clue them in.
My former female geeky/nerdy, awesome, and smart boss goes to Defcon. She's a hacker. And yes, she's taken by someone else.
Well if "she" is a former female, then I don't want "her" anyway.
That could cause an anti-migraine pill to make the situation worse, or cause reduced kidney/liver function as my body works overtime to purge the sugar from my blood
Would 100mg of sugar really cause problems for your liver?
No way man, "warhead of unknown designation" sounds way more scarycool.
Right, the one with the elf queen, Chlamydia.
Taken individually, you're right. But you may be able to make a claim on a game that shows an isometric projection of a 3 walled house, has 6 basic personality types for people (athletes, artists, romantics, socialites, businessmen, villains), uses different traits and animations for the different personalities, has various interactions between different characters, etc. Yeah, you can't really make a claim on any of those. Tetris can't claim that no one else can create a game that has falling blocks. But when you have a specific set of blocks, and they're specific colors, and you show the next block in a certain way, and you clear the board with a rising wall of squares when the game ends, and you can have random garbage rows at the start, etc etc, then that's something that you can stop other people from copying wholesale. It's the entire game that matters, EA isn't suing because Zynga made a game that shows a house from an isometric perspective.
Tolkien's writing of the Lord of the Rings does not prevent anyone else from writing fantasy with orcs and goblins themselves.
That's broadly true, but can I write and publish a story about a group of 4 little people, called Hobbins, who team up with people called Argon and Gendelf on a quest to destroy a magic ring sought after by the evil Sarone? They go to Riverdale and meet up with Borowmor (from Gander), Gelmi, and the elf Lagelos, go through the mines of Moira, travel through Fangrow Forest, meet the riders of Rahon, etc? Can I call that my own work and publish it? I haven't played either game, but have you seen the screenshots? A lot more than "the idea" was copied, specific implementation details were copied (such as personality types with different names, character animations, etc). The creativity that Zynga put in was what I did, thinking up new descriptions for the same exact things.
How do we nominate a Slashdot post for a Pulitzer?
Altitude? The altitude of Phoenix is just over 1100 ft. That's similar to places like Atlanta and Topeka, neither of which are known for altitude sickness.
Not really. Here's a list of cities with a low cost of living:
http://www.areavibes.com/library/10-cities-lowest-cost-of-living/
The closest thing to the description of "most large cities on the east coast" would be Atlanta and the listed cities in NC. No major city on the east coast farther north than NC is cheaper to live than Phoenix, Glendale, Scottsdale, Mesa, and Tucson.
As I posted below, I don't think these ads are for Apple's current customers.
Did you figure that out all by yourself? Why would Apple advertise to people who are already buying their crap? They're trying to sell their crap to people who aren't buying it, like every other business ever.
Even Santa Clara is practically a paradise [walkscore.com] compared to Phoenix.
That data does show Phoenix above the national average. Tempe is way above average.
They built the Brickyard right after I graduated, as a computer science student I would have loved that resource. I don't doubt there are chains on Mill now, but that's a far cry from everything being boarded up. At least there's still Greasy Tony's and the Chuck Box. I heard Hooter's caught on fire though. Again.
Well, as someone with 33 years of living here, allow me to retort.
It is over 100 degrees for a significant amount of the year. If you go for a walk at night, it is still in the high 90s.
Instead of saying "significant", let's put a number on that (from Wikipedia):
The temperature reaches and exceeds 100F (38C), on average for 110 days of the year, including most days from late May through to early September. Highs top 110 F (43 C) an average of 18 days during the year. ... Overnight lows greater than 80 F (27 C) occur frequently each summer, with the average July low being 81 F (27 C), and the average August low being 80 F (27 C). On average, 67 days throughout the year will see the nighttime low at or above 80 F (27 C).
I would say a third of the days in the year could be considered "significant". It's not a huge problem though, the main thing that the heat dissuades me from doing is going on runs through the desert in the summer. That's a tradeoff I'm willing to make for the ability to go on runs through the desert during the other 8 months.
It has no semi-cool counter culture like nearby Tucson.
It does, but nothing is centralized. For example, there are similar bands that play in North Phoenix, Mesa, and Tempe, but they all have different audiences. The same types of people going to the same types of shows, but everything is so spread out that the different pockets never join up into a larger cultural influence. Downtown hosts the art walk once a month as well (this Friday in fact, which I may go to if it wasn't for the fact that I'll be at the Fear Factory show at the Marquee).
the idea of people flocking there for hot tech jobs is insane
It's not so outlandish when the cost of living here is 40% or less compared to other major cities.
Would you raise your children in a city where the only place you see grass is golf courses and cemeteries?
C'mon now. My neighborhood, for instance.
Would you jump to move to a city with no distinctive downtown, but rather 4 million people living in uncontrolled desert sprawl, completely devastated by the housing crash?
Yes, a lot of people would jump into a city with a very low cost of living which also happens to have a ton of low-cost homes currently available. The housing crash isn't bad for everyone, just bad for people who bought houses they couldn't afford. It didn't affect me at all, my home price shot up by about 250%, went back down to about 80% of where it started, and has since risen to just above what I paid for it before the bubble.
That's true, it's a good thing that the Forbes article doesn't say "just because a lot of people live there."
There's a lot of drivel there that doesn't deserve comment ("very few decent places to eat"? are you old or broke?), but this is ridiculous:
It's been rated by several places as the worst city in America to drive in, mainly because it's so chaotic and because there's no consistent driving style (the frequent road-rage shootings don't help).
What's the problem, does the square NS-EW street grid confuse you? You're going to need to back up that claim, because Phoenix is nowhere near the worst cities to drive in:
http://fillmyemptyblogspace.com/2010/12/24/10-worst-american-cities-to-drive-in/
http://www.businessinsider.com/cities-with-most-car-crashes-2010-10?op=1
http://autos.yahoo.com/news/15-dangerous-cities-for-driving.html
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/05/22/going-nowhere-10-worst-u-s-cities-for-traffic/
In fact, if you look closely, you can see Chandler listed by Allstate as one of the safest cities to drive in.
violent home invasions are common
Define "common". The police claimed that for 2008 there were "over 300" home invasions and kidnappings (fewer than 1 per day, in an area with 4.2 million people), and that claim was investigated by the feds to see if it was exaggerated to get more funding:
http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2011/01/26/20110126phoenix-crime-stats-federal-audit.html
You can't bicycle here (one of my favorite outdoor activities) because of the heat most of the year
People bike here year round, Facebook posts from other people doing just that are proof. You choose not to, that doesn't mean other people don't do it also. There are people enjoying the Phoenix Mountain Preserve, Dreamy Draw, and South Mountain year round.
They used to have Mill Avenue in Tempe that was kinda fun to walk along, which used to have a bunch of quirky little independent shops, but the Tempe government drove all those out of business to make room for a bunch of mall stores and high-rises, which of course went south when the economy crashed, so most of the place is boarded up now.
Really? The main recreational area next to the largest university by enrollment in the country is boarded up now, huh? That's weird.
This place sucks, and I can't wait to move out in a couple of months.
Neither can I. Let me know if you need help leaving.
Omaha is the 43rd largest city in the country with a population less than a third that of Phoenix, and yeah, it's not known for technology or culture. I'm not sure what that has to do with Phoenix though, or the post that GP was replying to for that matter (the one about "has anyone been to Phoenix"). In terms of metro areas, the Omaha area has about 870,000 people, the Phoenix area has over 4.2 million.
Also, heat is bad for electronics
The only piece of "electronics" I've had fail where I suspected the heat as the cause was the alternator in my old Ford Bronco, during June 2 or 3 summers in a row. You know what's really bad for electronics, and metal in general? Humidity. We don't have that here for much of the year. That's why our cars don't rust and our masonry doesn't crumble. It just gets a little dust on it from time to time.
why in the name of everything holy would tech startups want to base themselves in an area that regularly experiences triple-digit temperatures?
Maybe because we don't store our valuables and equipment in the parking lot. We DO have buildings here, you know.
but the cost of living there is just outrageous compared to more-reasonable places that are also full of hackers and startups.
Name one.
Austin.
These idiots are are NOT cops. They are civilians with guns that shoot first. That's just a sample of AZ.
Just out of curiosity, how many of them have you ran into? I've lived in Phoenix for 33+ years and I can't say I've ever actually seen a Minuteman. Maybe not the best "sample" to use for the population in the 6th largest city in the country.
Too bad all the sheep have already bough into the scam.
You really feel bad for someone who thought it was a good idea to buy Facebook at $38/share? Do you also feel bad when gamblers, err sorry, I meant "commodity speculators", take a loss? You felt sorry for the Duke brothers in Trading Places, didn't you? Poor Randolph and Mortimer.