Why isn't IBM making more of an effort to recruit developers directly from the Linux community, as opposed to hiring people who have very little if any working familliarity with the platform?
I don't think your question is very fair. IBM has been very active in recruiting people from the Linux community including the Extreme Blue program which recruits college students who are very active in the Open Source community and gives them a chance to work on Open Source software at IBM. I also know of a number of top open source developers who were hired by IBM to work on important technologies.
There's always a need for entry level people and I don't think it's fair to ask IBM not to hire these folks. If they didn't, you would simply complain that they don't hire entry level people and therefore, aren't given anyone a chance to develop marketable skills.
This is not quite true. The so-called smurf attack did lend substantial leverage, but nothing in the realm of thousand-fold leverage, never mind tens of thousands.
Ten thousands is not impossible. A thousand fold was not horribly uncommon either (although I guess much lower figures were more common).
Still though, considering a 56k modem has an uplink of about 3k, using 500 hosts this translates to about 1.5MB which is enough to do some serious damage.
I also assert that a smurf attack is not "easy" to trace.
It is easy to trace via upstream usage as it is a horribly uncommon thing to do. After the fact though, I agree that it is quite difficult to trace. Of course, the people who are tracking most of this stuff are pretty dumb so it would be pretty easy to get away with if enough time was put into preparation.
Of course, as you point out, it's not a very elegant attack.
How about resticting any story about raising children to people who actually are/have raising children.
So your argument is that people who are not undergoing an experience have no right to comment on that experience? I would tend to strongly disagree with this. If anything, typically individuals who are undergoing an experience become bias towards that experience and are unable to objectively view the situation.
One would think that the individuals who's criticism would be most valued by people raising children are those without children as it would be the most objective.
The whole idea is to try and gleam knowledge from your elders. [And here is the eternal problem- young people ALWAYS know better than every elder; regardless if the elder went through the exact same thing]
Well, there is a bit of truth in your statement, but there's a less common problem that you point out in it. Age--and experience--does not automatically create wisdom. In fact, the arrogance typically associated with age tends to be it's greatest downfall. Just as a high school student is arrogant because they are now the oldest ones in school, middle aged folks tend to believe all-the-sudden, they've inherented the knowledge of the world. This just simply isn't true.
Maybe stories of lore, where honor actually meant something?
You describe honor as something that I should never wish to possess. If honor is keeping one's word at any expense, then it is fatally flawed. If I pledged my aid to a friend who, at the time, seemed honorable but then found out he was selling drugs, should I continue to aid him for the sake of honor? I think encouraging objectivity and rationalization is far more important than honor...
There is a very thin line between a "script kiddie" and a hacker. Don't most professional software development books preach reusing as opposed to reinventing?
A script kiddie is someone who only is capable of using pre-written exploits.
A cracker is someone who, although may use existing exploits, has the ability, and uses this ability, to create new exploits.
Software development books do preach code reuse but it is also understood that a software developer could never survive if they had no ability to write software and instead, just banged on the keyboard hoping something would eventually be created. In programming circles, these people are called "code monkeys" as they are about as useful as a monkey pounding on a keyboard.
So, script kiddie is to cracker as code monkey is to hacker.
Yup, a DoS attack with enough punch to take down Yahoo. Originating from... erm... a dialup line. Hmmmm, sounds plausible to me.
It's called a smurf attack actually and it is quite plausible (or at least, was before most routers began blocking spoofed ICMP broadcast echo packets).
It's a pretty simple attack. Just spoof the source address of an ICMP echo packet to your target machine, and then broadcast it to a whole shit load of hosts. Each of the hosts will respond to the spoofed address and you will have N packets per packet you send where N is the number of hosts. Usually, one would pick a thousand or even ten thousand hosts and from a dialup, you could bring down an oc3 in a matter of minutes.
Very few people were stupid enough to actually use this because 1) Most routers tracked these broadcast packets so you were likely to get caught if the receiver complained and 2) This was such a devistating attack that you were likely to do enough damage for someone to complain.
It is not exploiting or "hacking" the host machines though. It surely isn't turning them into "zombies" either. It's a very lame exploit.
BTW: For those interested, here is a link. (Like I said before, this doesn't work any more and if you actually are dumb enough to use it, you will get caught very quickly).
Let me get my word in before this disappears from the front page into the archives.
If your looking to learn CS, then ask all the questions posed here. If you already know anything about CS (above programming with data structures), then no university is likely going to stimulate you academically.
What you then want to look for are the connections that schools have with various Internship programs and/or research assistantships. There are some amazing undergrad internships (IBM's Extreme Blue, Microsoft's Internship, FBI Honors Intern, NSA Intern, etc.). This is what will take you to the next level.
BTW: Lots of people will say partying is important, and well, that's only partially true. I would recommend staying away from overly technical places (unless it's something like MIT) so that you can meet a wider variety of people (especially women since CS women are, well, let's not go there [with the exception of any CS woman who may possibly reading this of course:)]). It's also nice to get some good liberal arts courses too.
You can't see the internal contradiction in this at all, can you?
It's only an apparent contradiction if you believe that "bombing the shit out of Iraq" means carpet bombing raids such as those of WWI & WWII. As demonstrated by actions against Afganistan, modern bombing techniques rely on precision bombing (also referred to as surgical bombing) which results in very low civilian casuality with high tactical effectiveness.
Even with civilian casualities, one has to way these casualities against the number that would die if we do not remove Sadam. We could have prevented millions from dying and if that meant that we would have killed a thousand or so, well, don't the ends justify the means?
Let's be clear, this isn't about an idealogy. I firmly believe that people should be free to believe whatever they wish. This is about a man who is committing crimes against humanity. He is a war criminal and needs to be removed.
I don't think anyone this century has been rash enough to accuse a government of having responsible agendas. Governments exist to self-perpetuate. Fnord.
Democratic government is merely an extension of the people. Many folks like to treat government as a being in itself, and would like to see government as being evil. The truth is that the lack of responsibility is not due to a deficiency in the government, but in a deficiency in the governed. That is why I am petitioning people, instead of the government.
I think the better statement is "Not Invading Iraq to Keep Cheap Oil."
Iraq has a murderous dictator in charge who has waged genocide against his own people and is developing weapons of mass destruction. If we really were a country that believed in freedom and good will towards men, we would have bombed the shit out of Iraq years ago instead of letting millions die at the hands of Sadam.
Since people tend to believe in hollywood so much, just look back to Spider-man and the message that everyone was touting as being so grand, "Great power comes with great responsibility." We sure as hell have the power but we're just sitting around on our lazy asses so that we only have to pay $1.25 a galloon to drive the/. PT Crusier.
anyone coming at me wearing one of those things doesn't stand much of a chance of getting a date, much less getting me to wear it.
In all fairness, any member of the "fairer" sex that told me she hung out on/. reading an article about augmented reality quake doesn't stand much of a chance of getting a date with me:)
Stick to Cosmopolitan. Your success rate will greatly improve.
Does the Constitution of New Jersey give the N.J. Legislature the power to regulate sporting and recreational activities?
Yes, they do have this power actually. One cannot operate an amusement park without obtaining a license from the state. This is because it is concerned a "dangerous activity." Being considered dangerous, allows for regulation of what would otherwise be none of the States business.
New Jersey actually regulates a bunch of things based on this... Various sports and activities are considered "dangerous" and therefore subject to legislation.
There are an aweful lot of roller coasters in New Jersey, and most aren't in big theme parks (like Six Flags and stuff).
Most are on the board walk on small piers, and there have been a number of deaths (actually, usually at least one every summer) from poorly design and/or maintained coasters. Regulating coasters is not necessarily a bad idea.
It makes sense to not allow high speed coasters on little piers that don't have enough staff to maintain it properly. I think that is the basis of a law like this.
If you truly read "Scientific American"->you'd have read the article in the May 2002 issue in the "Innovations" section about a company called "Millenium Cell".
You know, I got Scientific American for a few years but cancelled it about a year ago. I know the whole Scientific America vs. Scientic American gets people all antsy but to be honest, I never cared enough;-)
I seem to remember reading a Scientic America article a while back (I'd link but the charge for old article IIRC) about fuel cells and the problems with mass producing them.
They work great and all for the space station and other speciality circumstances but they rely on a platinum core and therefore are quite expensive. Moreover, they had some statistics regardding how there simply wasn't enough platinum in the world (since it is so rare) for even the small amount needed for fuel cells if they were to go in every car.
I remember reading too that it was quite unlikely that any other element possessed similiar enough properties to build a fuel cell with too.
So I think it is a tad premature to say Fuel-Cell Engineering is going to be the next "hot job."
* pointing at all the half-wit, Windoze using, Kazaamazoo users
HA HA!
* pointing at script kiddie who was too stupid to put a TTL on his worm and therefore, max'd out the bandwidth on his site (along with drawing a whole bunch of attention to himself)
Huh? I suspect you didn't understand the question.
I don't think you've understood the response:)
I think was the poster was suggesting is that instead of making a Personal Computer (i.e. a board with PC buses (PCI, AGP, blah, blah) and standard memory interface), build a single-function board such as a PVR or something of that nature.
Same basic idea of connecting a processor (I personally would recommend a StrongArm) with some memory (just some SDRAM) and then some MPEG encoder/decoder and video decoding chips. Not to mention a tuner (I have not been able to find these very easily though).
I would have to tend to agree that this is a more sensible approach. There are many single board computer projects (LART immediately comes to mind) but I don't know of an open PVR board project (although there are many commerical PVR boards out there).
"the most talented student will always have options."
Right now, the market is tight for programmers. This is no longer the field that anyone can get a degree in and automatically make 60K+ out of school. So, if you just got the degree because it was the hot thing to do, then your screwed.
If you really have a passion for computers though, then you will find that the market is still there. You just need to seperate yourself from everyone else. Forget certifications, that shows little self-direction, instead why don't you spend that effort developing a piece of open source software.
Write a piece of useful software that showcases your skills. Given the ability most folks have right out of college, this will definitely show that your worth hiring.
Or, if you can, take some time to really strengthen your skills. Companies are always hiring *good* programmers, regardless of the economy. Taking 6 months to study all the industry bibles (the GoF book, the Myers books, etc.) and learn the stuff that is actually useful in the real world. Do this instead of putzing around for 6 months looking at getting certs or drinking every night and you'll land a good job.
I'm sorry, but your second example is ridiculus. Moving comparisions outside of the if statement and introducing three extra named variables is not only horribly inefficent, but makes thing unnecessarily complicated.
Things like null comparisions do not need to be commented. Everyone knows what your doing if you have 'aClassName != null'. There is no need to waste disk space but restating the obvious.
That's about all the value from programming competitions...
Well, to be honest, ranking well in various competitions helped land a job for me but personally, I never liked the competitions.
I actually thought the problems are far too easy (especially in high school competitions). I always had a problem with the way the programs were judged too (I was in a C++ competition where the given solution was _not_ object oriented at all nor was most of the entries).
Of course, this isn't so much a problem with things like ACM but the smaller competitions are only as good as the organization sponsering them.
Again though, if you need something to encourage students to join, the prizes are awesome (I got all sorts of software, books, and even a palm pilot).
Lindows.com is a consumer company that brings choice to computer users. Lindows.com, Inc. uses the latest technology to create affordable, intuitive, user-friendly products. Lindows.com, Inc. was started by Michael Robertson, founder and former CEO of MP3.com. At the core of Lindows.com is a new operating system called LindowsOS(TM), a modern, affordable, easy-to-use operating system with the ability to run both Windows® and Linux® software.
WTF! The core of Lindows is LindowsOS??? No it's not! The core is the Linux kernel. Wine is not an operating system, it is an emulator. It's not like they wrote even a significant portion of any of their components (yeah, a little bit on Wine, but not much in comparision to the entire project).
I'm sorry, I just don't see why more people don't despise Lindows... Is this not a big FU to the Free Software community?
For one, Lindows goes to great length to distant itself from Linux. In fact, most non-open source people do not even realize there is _any_ relationship between Lindows and Linux.
Lindows *is* Linux. All it is a regular distro of Linux that has renamed everything and drops into single user mode. Others have mentioned how they renamed KWord and a lot of the other KDE stuff.
Then they don't release their source code (clearly violating the GPL). Free Software is all about preserving credit for the original authors and Lindows seems almost to spit in the face of all the people who have worked on Linux.
I don't care if Linux overtakes Windows. I don't care about Windows and the people who use it. I do care about people abusing the hard work that has gone into developing Linux though.
I personally am disappointed that Lindows won here only because I would have liked to see them fade away. They are not good for the community and I can just imagine the harmful effect they will have when they eventually go belly up.
Re:Just an observation...
on
Bitter Java
·
· Score: 2
One thing that I noted when I first dealt with the problem of C++ (yeah, the language is a problem, we all know that) - is that everyone was writing these "wonderful" classes and yet, I found that not a SINGLE ONE made writing code that much easier.
OOD is to C++ as pointers are to C.
It's a powerful tool if you know what your doing and use it correctly, and when used correctly, no other paradigm can even come close in it's abilities. On the other hand, when used incorrectly, it can destroy a program.
So what are some good examples of OOD in C++? The STL. The most obvious example is the std::string class. Not only does it eliminate most of the common problems associated with strings, it also manages string growth with *more* efficency than is possible in traditional C. This is because it is not just a simple wrapper around a char *, but a wrapper around many complex algorithms to improve resource usage.
The STL containers are also wonderful when dealing with places were old-style arrays and link lists would have been used. The containers are interchangable, and when used correctly, typically much faster than any homegrown solution.
Another huge win for OOD is in threading. Writing multithreaded code in C is a nightmare. Object lifetimes in C++ make the dream a good deal more bareable.
Lots of the cutting-edge C++ development being done by Boost is just amazing too. Things like Typelists and compile-time asserts add a whole new dimension of programming possibilities.
Re:Comp Sci degree == bad code
on
Bitter Java
·
· Score: 2
In my sociology class, I wrote a paper on the effectiveness of a computer science degree. My observations were pretty obvious: academic experience is almost useless in writing good programs in the absense of practical experience.
Something that is commonly overlooked though, is that academic experience has a significant benefit when combined with practical experience. Having one, but not the other, has a whole host of problems.
It's not meaningless to have a comp sci degree, but having a comp sci degree does not, in any way, make one a programmer.
This is one of those instances where I really wish I had mod points to mod up the parent.
Noone else has mentioned this and this is really exactly what you want.
Without having multiple interfaces, you will not be able to handle 25 buttons and LED without using some sort of controller. I recommend purchasing PROGRAMMING AND CUSTOMIZING PICMICRO MICROCONTROLLERS. This book goes into great details (with good examples) on how to make button debounces. It even comes with a circuit board to build your own programmer (saving you quite a bit of money).
With a cheap breadboard, and a couple PICS, you could make a circuit that had a serial port that could address any number of buttons.
If your really ambitious and get the thing to work, you could make a small board run and sell kits on eBay and probably pay for the project while your at it. I'm sure there are plenty of geeks that would pay good money for a flight simulator console.
Slashdot Mirror
Why isn't IBM making more of an effort to recruit developers directly from the Linux community, as opposed to hiring people who have very little if any working familliarity with the platform?
I don't think your question is very fair. IBM has been very active in recruiting people from the Linux community including the Extreme Blue program which recruits college students who are very active in the Open Source community and gives them a chance to work on Open Source software at IBM. I also know of a number of top open source developers who were hired by IBM to work on important technologies.
There's always a need for entry level people and I don't think it's fair to ask IBM not to hire these folks. If they didn't, you would simply complain that they don't hire entry level people and therefore, aren't given anyone a chance to develop marketable skills.
This is not quite true. The so-called smurf attack did lend substantial leverage, but nothing in the realm of thousand-fold leverage, never mind tens of thousands.
Ten thousands is not impossible. A thousand fold was not horribly uncommon either (although I guess much lower figures were more common).
Still though, considering a 56k modem has an uplink of about 3k, using 500 hosts this translates to about 1.5MB which is enough to do some serious damage.
I also assert that a smurf attack is not "easy" to trace.
It is easy to trace via upstream usage as it is a horribly uncommon thing to do. After the fact though, I agree that it is quite difficult to trace. Of course, the people who are tracking most of this stuff are pretty dumb so it would be pretty easy to get away with if enough time was put into preparation.
Of course, as you point out, it's not a very elegant attack.
How about resticting any story about raising children to people who actually are/have raising children.
So your argument is that people who are not undergoing an experience have no right to comment on that experience? I would tend to strongly disagree with this. If anything, typically individuals who are undergoing an experience become bias towards that experience and are unable to objectively view the situation.
One would think that the individuals who's criticism would be most valued by people raising children are those without children as it would be the most objective.
The whole idea is to try and gleam knowledge from your elders. [And here is the eternal problem- young people ALWAYS know better than every elder; regardless if the elder went through the exact same thing]
Well, there is a bit of truth in your statement, but there's a less common problem that you point out in it. Age--and experience--does not automatically create wisdom. In fact, the arrogance typically associated with age tends to be it's greatest downfall. Just as a high school student is arrogant because they are now the oldest ones in school, middle aged folks tend to believe all-the-sudden, they've inherented the knowledge of the world. This just simply isn't true.
Maybe stories of lore, where honor actually meant something?
You describe honor as something that I should never wish to possess. If honor is keeping one's word at any expense, then it is fatally flawed. If I pledged my aid to a friend who, at the time, seemed honorable but then found out he was selling drugs, should I continue to aid him for the sake of honor? I think encouraging objectivity and rationalization is far more important than honor...
There is a very thin line between a "script kiddie" and a hacker. Don't most professional software development books preach reusing as opposed to reinventing?
A script kiddie is someone who only is capable of using pre-written exploits.
A cracker is someone who, although may use existing exploits, has the ability, and uses this ability, to create new exploits.
Software development books do preach code reuse but it is also understood that a software developer could never survive if they had no ability to write software and instead, just banged on the keyboard hoping something would eventually be created. In programming circles, these people are called "code monkeys" as they are about as useful as a monkey pounding on a keyboard.
So, script kiddie is to cracker as code monkey is to hacker.
Yup, a DoS attack with enough punch to take down Yahoo. Originating from ... erm ... a dialup line. Hmmmm, sounds plausible to me.
It's called a smurf attack actually and it is quite plausible (or at least, was before most routers began blocking spoofed ICMP broadcast echo packets).
It's a pretty simple attack. Just spoof the source address of an ICMP echo packet to your target machine, and then broadcast it to a whole shit load of hosts. Each of the hosts will respond to the spoofed address and you will have N packets per packet you send where N is the number of hosts. Usually, one would pick a thousand or even ten thousand hosts and from a dialup, you could bring down an oc3 in a matter of minutes.
Very few people were stupid enough to actually use this because 1) Most routers tracked these broadcast packets so you were likely to get caught if the receiver complained and 2) This was such a devistating attack that you were likely to do enough damage for someone to complain.
It is not exploiting or "hacking" the host machines though. It surely isn't turning them into "zombies" either. It's a very lame exploit.
BTW: For those interested, here is a link. (Like I said before, this doesn't work any more and if you actually are dumb enough to use it, you will get caught very quickly).
Let me get my word in before this disappears from the front page into the archives.
:)]). It's also nice to get some good liberal arts courses too.
If your looking to learn CS, then ask all the questions posed here. If you already know anything about CS (above programming with data structures), then no university is likely going to stimulate you academically.
What you then want to look for are the connections that schools have with various Internship programs and/or research assistantships. There are some amazing undergrad internships (IBM's Extreme Blue, Microsoft's Internship, FBI Honors Intern, NSA Intern, etc.). This is what will take you to the next level.
BTW: Lots of people will say partying is important, and well, that's only partially true. I would recommend staying away from overly technical places (unless it's something like MIT) so that you can meet a wider variety of people (especially women since CS women are, well, let's not go there [with the exception of any CS woman who may possibly reading this of course
You can't see the internal contradiction in this at all, can you?
It's only an apparent contradiction if you believe that "bombing the shit out of Iraq" means carpet bombing raids such as those of WWI & WWII. As demonstrated by actions against Afganistan, modern bombing techniques rely on precision bombing (also referred to as surgical bombing) which results in very low civilian casuality with high tactical effectiveness.
Even with civilian casualities, one has to way these casualities against the number that would die if we do not remove Sadam. We could have prevented millions from dying and if that meant that we would have killed a thousand or so, well, don't the ends justify the means?
Let's be clear, this isn't about an idealogy. I firmly believe that people should be free to believe whatever they wish. This is about a man who is committing crimes against humanity. He is a war criminal and needs to be removed.
I don't think anyone this century has been rash enough to accuse a government of having responsible agendas. Governments exist to self-perpetuate. Fnord.
Democratic government is merely an extension of the people. Many folks like to treat government as a being in itself, and would like to see government as being evil. The truth is that the lack of responsibility is not due to a deficiency in the government, but in a deficiency in the governed. That is why I am petitioning people, instead of the government.
BTW: I have no idea what your reference is...
I think the better statement is "Not Invading Iraq to Keep Cheap Oil."
/. PT Crusier.
Iraq has a murderous dictator in charge who has waged genocide against his own people and is developing weapons of mass destruction. If we really were a country that believed in freedom and good will towards men, we would have bombed the shit out of Iraq years ago instead of letting millions die at the hands of Sadam.
Since people tend to believe in hollywood so much, just look back to Spider-man and the message that everyone was touting as being so grand, "Great power comes with great responsibility." We sure as hell have the power but we're just sitting around on our lazy asses so that we only have to pay $1.25 a galloon to drive the
anyone coming at me wearing one of those things doesn't stand much of a chance of getting a date, much less getting me to wear it.
/. reading an article about augmented reality quake doesn't stand much of a chance of getting a date with me :)
In all fairness, any member of the "fairer" sex that told me she hung out on
Stick to Cosmopolitan. Your success rate will greatly improve.
Does the Constitution of New Jersey give the N.J. Legislature the power to regulate sporting and recreational activities?
Yes, they do have this power actually. One cannot operate an amusement park without obtaining a license from the state. This is because it is concerned a "dangerous activity." Being considered dangerous, allows for regulation of what would otherwise be none of the States business.
New Jersey actually regulates a bunch of things based on this... Various sports and activities are considered "dangerous" and therefore subject to legislation.
Exactly... Atlantic City is pretty bad too...
There are an aweful lot of roller coasters in New Jersey, and most aren't in big theme parks (like Six Flags and stuff).
Most are on the board walk on small piers, and there have been a number of deaths (actually, usually at least one every summer) from poorly design and/or maintained coasters. Regulating coasters is not necessarily a bad idea.
It makes sense to not allow high speed coasters on little piers that don't have enough staff to maintain it properly. I think that is the basis of a law like this.
If you truly read "Scientific American"->you'd have read the article in the May 2002 issue in the "Innovations" section about a company called "Millenium Cell".
;-)
You know, I got Scientific American for a few years but cancelled it about a year ago. I know the whole Scientific America vs. Scientic American gets people all antsy but to be honest, I never cared enough
I seem to remember reading a Scientic America article a while back (I'd link but the charge for old article IIRC) about fuel cells and the problems with mass producing them.
They work great and all for the space station and other speciality circumstances but they rely on a platinum core and therefore are quite expensive. Moreover, they had some statistics regardding how there simply wasn't enough platinum in the world (since it is so rare) for even the small amount needed for fuel cells if they were to go in every car.
I remember reading too that it was quite unlikely that any other element possessed similiar enough properties to build a fuel cell with too.
So I think it is a tad premature to say Fuel-Cell Engineering is going to be the next "hot job."
* pointing at all the half-wit, Windoze using, Kazaamazoo users
HA HA!
* pointing at script kiddie who was too stupid to put a TTL on his worm and therefore, max'd out the bandwidth on his site (along with drawing a whole bunch of attention to himself)
HA HA!
Huh? I suspect you didn't understand the question.
:)
I don't think you've understood the response
I think was the poster was suggesting is that instead of making a Personal Computer (i.e. a board with PC buses (PCI, AGP, blah, blah) and standard memory interface), build a single-function board such as a PVR or something of that nature.
Same basic idea of connecting a processor (I personally would recommend a StrongArm) with some memory (just some SDRAM) and then some MPEG encoder/decoder and video decoding chips. Not to mention a tuner (I have not been able to find these very easily though).
I would have to tend to agree that this is a more sensible approach. There are many single board computer projects (LART immediately comes to mind) but I don't know of an open PVR board project (although there are many commerical PVR boards out there).
To quote a CNN article:
"the most talented student will always have options."
Right now, the market is tight for programmers. This is no longer the field that anyone can get a degree in and automatically make 60K+ out of school. So, if you just got the degree because it was the hot thing to do, then your screwed.
If you really have a passion for computers though, then you will find that the market is still there. You just need to seperate yourself from everyone else. Forget certifications, that shows little self-direction, instead why don't you spend that effort developing a piece of open source software.
Write a piece of useful software that showcases your skills. Given the ability most folks have right out of college, this will definitely show that your worth hiring.
Or, if you can, take some time to really strengthen your skills. Companies are always hiring *good* programmers, regardless of the economy. Taking 6 months to study all the industry bibles (the GoF book, the Myers books, etc.) and learn the stuff that is actually useful in the real world. Do this instead of putzing around for 6 months looking at getting certs or drinking every night and you'll land a good job.
I'm sorry, but your second example is ridiculus. Moving comparisions outside of the if statement and introducing three extra named variables is not only horribly inefficent, but makes thing unnecessarily complicated.
Things like null comparisions do not need to be commented. Everyone knows what your doing if you have 'aClassName != null'. There is no need to waste disk space but restating the obvious.
That's about all the value from programming competitions...
Well, to be honest, ranking well in various competitions helped land a job for me but personally, I never liked the competitions.
I actually thought the problems are far too easy (especially in high school competitions). I always had a problem with the way the programs were judged too (I was in a C++ competition where the given solution was _not_ object oriented at all nor was most of the entries).
Of course, this isn't so much a problem with things like ACM but the smaller competitions are only as good as the organization sponsering them.
Again though, if you need something to encourage students to join, the prizes are awesome (I got all sorts of software, books, and even a palm pilot).
Perhaps you should check your sources before you speak.
I'm sorry, I just don't see why more people don't despise Lindows... Is this not a big FU to the Free Software community?
I'm sorry, but I cannot help it.
For one, Lindows goes to great length to distant itself from Linux. In fact, most non-open source people do not even realize there is _any_ relationship between Lindows and Linux.
Lindows *is* Linux. All it is a regular distro of Linux that has renamed everything and drops into single user mode. Others have mentioned how they renamed KWord and a lot of the other KDE stuff.
Then they don't release their source code (clearly violating the GPL). Free Software is all about preserving credit for the original authors and Lindows seems almost to spit in the face of all the people who have worked on Linux.
I don't care if Linux overtakes Windows. I don't care about Windows and the people who use it. I do care about people abusing the hard work that has gone into developing Linux though.
I personally am disappointed that Lindows won here only because I would have liked to see them fade away. They are not good for the community and I can just imagine the harmful effect they will have when they eventually go belly up.
One thing that I noted when I first dealt with the problem of C++ (yeah, the language is a problem, we all know that) - is that everyone was writing these "wonderful" classes and yet, I found that not a SINGLE ONE made writing code that much easier.
OOD is to C++ as pointers are to C.
It's a powerful tool if you know what your doing and use it correctly, and when used correctly, no other paradigm can even come close in it's abilities. On the other hand, when used incorrectly, it can destroy a program.
So what are some good examples of OOD in C++? The STL. The most obvious example is the std::string class. Not only does it eliminate most of the common problems associated with strings, it also manages string growth with *more* efficency than is possible in traditional C. This is because it is not just a simple wrapper around a char *, but a wrapper around many complex algorithms to improve resource usage.
The STL containers are also wonderful when dealing with places were old-style arrays and link lists would have been used. The containers are interchangable, and when used correctly, typically much faster than any homegrown solution.
Another huge win for OOD is in threading. Writing multithreaded code in C is a nightmare. Object lifetimes in C++ make the dream a good deal more bareable.
Lots of the cutting-edge C++ development being done by Boost is just amazing too. Things like Typelists and compile-time asserts add a whole new dimension of programming possibilities.
In my sociology class, I wrote a paper on the effectiveness of a computer science degree. My observations were pretty obvious: academic experience is almost useless in writing good programs in the absense of practical experience.
Something that is commonly overlooked though, is that academic experience has a significant benefit when combined with practical experience. Having one, but not the other, has a whole host of problems.
It's not meaningless to have a comp sci degree, but having a comp sci degree does not, in any way, make one a programmer.
This is one of those instances where I really wish I had mod points to mod up the parent.
Noone else has mentioned this and this is really exactly what you want.
Without having multiple interfaces, you will not be able to handle 25 buttons and LED without using some sort of controller. I recommend purchasing PROGRAMMING AND CUSTOMIZING PICMICRO MICROCONTROLLERS. This book goes into great details (with good examples) on how to make button debounces. It even comes with a circuit board to build your own programmer (saving you quite a bit of money).
With a cheap breadboard, and a couple PICS, you could make a circuit that had a serial port that could address any number of buttons.
If your really ambitious and get the thing to work, you could make a small board run and sell kits on eBay and probably pay for the project while your at it. I'm sure there are plenty of geeks that would pay good money for a flight simulator console.