You should also worry about development practices. Just having good coding pratices will not gain you much in the way of robust and easily changed systems. Having good development pratices will.
Specifically, I'm referring to having a complete system of specifying the requirements for any system. Too many coders these days start a project by hacking up the first thing they think is necessary, then the second, then the third, etc. While this ends up working out for most small projects, big projects can quickly become unweildy. Not to mention, if you bring in a new developer after years of working like this, the learning curve for that developer is very steep.
Enter Hatley & Pirbhai's Strategies for Real-Time System Specification. In this book, the authors outline a set of strategies for developing complicated systems and making them as robust as possible. Now, you may be thingking "Who are these guys and why should I care what they have to say?" Well, they used to work at Boeing and they developed their strategies while working on designing a plane. (I think it was the 777, but I could me wrong.)
You should definately read the book, but the strategies they present basically boil down to defining the whole system from the perspective of what, how and when--separately. Here's how it works:
Specify what the system does - This means starting at the top and drilling down until you get down to individual tasks that do one thing.
Specify how each task will be implemented - This is where you write the code, develop the hardware and such thing.
Specify when (and how often) each task needs to run - If you find some task can't be completed as often as you like, it's easy to go back to the implementation and find a new way to do it.
This may seem like overkill, but it's not. I've been working like this for a few years at college now and it has huge advantages. Development tends to go faster, problems can be fixed faster and--most importantly I think--new developers can sit down with the specifications and get up to speed very quickly.
Overall, I think using strategies like Hatley and Pirhbai have developed is far more important than all the coding practices and code commenting in the world.
If there are scenes added in an adaptation to "fill in the gaps" are you really being true to the story?
The movie in question really didn't need to change sharks to eels, but it did. How does that help the story?
I believe it was Shakespeare that said there were only 8 stories and only the details can be changed. I guess at the end of the day, everything is an adaptation.
I have a burning desire to verbally bludgeon the author of this article, but instead I'll give a brief outline of my thoughts.
A) This was your fisrt job. If you truly feel you can judge everything about the working world from your first job, you're shallow, incompetent and pathetic.
B) If you think succesful companies don't have cubicles, you're in for a very rude awakening when you get jobs #2 and #3, etc.
C) You were working for a startup. You should have demanded a very lucrative stock package. Most startups (and I really need to stress most--ask the SBA) fail! That's a risk you take and the stock package is the payoff if the comapny succeeds.
D).NET is highly untested and nuclear power plants are the zenith of mission critical. If any nuclear power plants adopt.NET to run their plant, I'm moving to the moon.
Hey Chris, if you're expetations are this high for your first job, I pity you. You've got a long way to go and a great many things to learn.
Did nobody else notice the complete lack of information in that interview? It seemed to me that Gates had two major responses:
1) We're looking into that and we're going to do it better than everyone else. 2) We suck at that so we're pretending to look into it, but don't expect any actual products.
There was no real information there. Reading that interview was a complete waste of my time and bandwidth. What a complete piece of shite. Whatever happened to hard-hitting journalists that won't let CEOs and others like them just dodge every question?
Then again, what can should I have expected? Fantastic answers to interesting questions? Gates can't really say anything because there's nothing to talk about.
That's true, but the companies who sell mailing lists also seed the lists they sell with mail drop addresses so the lists can only be used once. If they recieve a second piece of mail for the same address, the company gets billed for the list again.
It's true, I used to work for one of the companies that sold the lists--I know, I'm going to hell now.
My BSD flavor (darwin) has a "tr" man page with the date October 11, 1997 so it's not *that* new. Then again, I've been using *nix user since about 1994 and I didn't discover it until a few months ago. I think "tr" is one of those jewels that got lost in the background noise. Too bad really.
There are probably many other ways to get the same effect, but this is the first that comes to mind. I this doesn't answer the question you were asking, oh well.
Is the Metropolitan Museum of Art going to win a case against Kodak, Fuji, Canon and others for making devices that allow people to make backup copies their vacation memories? This is getting insane.
I'm going to go hide under my bed. Will someone please come and get me when the world becomes a little more rational?
I do have something with the word "digital" in it. It's called a digital wireless modem. It works all over town and it's cheaper than a cable modem. Do you want to know what the best part is? I don't have to give any money to the over-priced, blood-sucking cable companies. Remember when cable didn't have commercials? That's how it is supposed to work. I refuse to PAY to have ads thrown in my face.
OK, we all knew it, but maybe this will be enough incentive for the major news outlets to pick the story up. In an ideal world people would see this story, realize that much of the spam they get can be blamed on viruses and patch their systems.
For ages of course Kodak's bred and butter has been film and associated chemicals.
Which is exactly why Kodak was once (and may still be--I don't know) the largest consumer of silver in the USA.
As for their digital photography arm, I've had a DC260 since about 1998 and it is still working flawlessly. It's only 1MP, but the picture quality is still better than a lot of the cameras on the market these days.
Every time I hear about a new show coming out and get excited about it, I invariably find out that it's going to be on cable. Why, why, why? Oh, the humanity. I guess I'll have to wait for the series to come out on DVD (or BitTorrent).
I love that they complain about American jobs being shipped overseas but the first job posting on their site is for a " Senior Software Engineer" in Delhi, India. When will these maddeningly contradictory statements end?
Slashdot Mirror
Step 1: Use iTunes to burn music to CD.
Step 2: Rip CD created in Step 1.
Step 3: Copy unproteced files to iPod.
Problem solved.
P.S. -> Don't tell the RIAA about this. It's a secret.
MTV is a very popular channel, but it's been a long time since I saw a video on it.
Admittedly, I don't watch much MTV, but that's my experience.
I have the Urge to cry...
You should also worry about development practices. Just having good coding pratices will not gain you much in the way of robust and easily changed systems. Having good development pratices will.
Specifically, I'm referring to having a complete system of specifying the requirements for any system. Too many coders these days start a project by hacking up the first thing they think is necessary, then the second, then the third, etc. While this ends up working out for most small projects, big projects can quickly become unweildy. Not to mention, if you bring in a new developer after years of working like this, the learning curve for that developer is very steep.
Enter Hatley & Pirbhai's Strategies for Real-Time System Specification. In this book, the authors outline a set of strategies for developing complicated systems and making them as robust as possible. Now, you may be thingking "Who are these guys and why should I care what they have to say?" Well, they used to work at Boeing and they developed their strategies while working on designing a plane. (I think it was the 777, but I could me wrong.)
You should definately read the book, but the strategies they present basically boil down to defining the whole system from the perspective of what, how and when--separately. Here's how it works:
This may seem like overkill, but it's not. I've been working like this for a few years at college now and it has huge advantages. Development tends to go faster, problems can be fixed faster and--most importantly I think--new developers can sit down with the specifications and get up to speed very quickly.
Overall, I think using strategies like Hatley and Pirhbai have developed is far more important than all the coding practices and code commenting in the world.
Of course, YMMV, etc.
--JamesIf there are scenes added in an adaptation to "fill in the gaps" are you really being true to the story?
The movie in question really didn't need to change sharks to eels, but it did. How does that help the story?
I believe it was Shakespeare that said there were only 8 stories and only the details can be changed. I guess at the end of the day, everything is an adaptation.
Because I am not left handed either.
Read the book again and look for screaming eels.
'nuf said.
I guess someone disagrees with you. /me wants mod points
/me promptly files under "Things to ignore"
I have a burning desire to verbally bludgeon the author of this article, but instead I'll give a brief outline of my thoughts.
.NET is highly untested and nuclear power plants are the zenith of mission critical. If any nuclear power plants adopt .NET to run their plant, I'm moving to the moon.
A) This was your fisrt job. If you truly feel you can judge everything about the working world from your first job, you're shallow, incompetent and pathetic.
B) If you think succesful companies don't have cubicles, you're in for a very rude awakening when you get jobs #2 and #3, etc.
C) You were working for a startup. You should have demanded a very lucrative stock package. Most startups (and I really need to stress most--ask the SBA) fail! That's a risk you take and the stock package is the payoff if the comapny succeeds.
D)
Hey Chris, if you're expetations are this high for your first job, I pity you. You've got a long way to go and a great many things to learn.
--James
Did nobody else notice the complete lack of information in that interview? It seemed to me that Gates had two major responses:
1) We're looking into that and we're going to do it better than everyone else.
2) We suck at that so we're pretending to look into it, but don't expect any actual products.
There was no real information there. Reading that interview was a complete waste of my time and bandwidth. What a complete piece of shite. Whatever happened to hard-hitting journalists that won't let CEOs and others like them just dodge every question?
Then again, what can should I have expected? Fantastic answers to interesting questions? Gates can't really say anything because there's nothing to talk about.
Interviewer: Blah, blah, blah?
Gates: Blah, blah, longhorn. Ooh look, shiny thing.
Hmpf!
*grumble, grumble, grumble*
--James
640KB is enough for me, you insensitive clod!
-- James
Microsoft announced today that they had seen Apple doing something interesting and will now be doing the same thing.
Film at 11
--James
That's true, but the companies who sell mailing lists also seed the lists they sell with mail drop addresses so the lists can only be used once. If they recieve a second piece of mail for the same address, the company gets billed for the list again.
It's true, I used to work for one of the companies that sold the lists--I know, I'm going to hell now.
--James
Today is March 31st. The PR is dated April 1st. You do the math.
My BSD flavor (darwin) has a "tr" man page with the date October 11, 1997 so it's not *that* new. Then again, I've been using *nix user since about 1994 and I didn't discover it until a few months ago. I think "tr" is one of those jewels that got lost in the background noise. Too bad really.
--James
One easy way:
/some/files/and/stuff | tr " \t" "\n" | grep "whatever"
/some/files/and/stuff | tr " \t" "\n" | grep "whatever" | sort | uniq
grep "whatever"
tr transaltes all the spaces and tabs into newlines, then you grep again on the smae words and you get only the words you're looking for.
If you just want a list of all the words you matched so you can filter out the ones like "scrap" try this:
grep "whatever"
There are probably many other ways to get the same effect, but this is the first that comes to mind. I this doesn't answer the question you were asking, oh well.
--James
I'm a single geek. Do you really think my bathroom is more sanitary than any place on earth?
--James
Is the Metropolitan Museum of Art going to win a case against Kodak, Fuji, Canon and others for making devices that allow people to make backup copies their vacation memories? This is getting insane.
I'm going to go hide under my bed. Will someone please come and get me when the world becomes a little more rational?
I do have something with the word "digital" in it. It's called a digital wireless modem. It works all over town and it's cheaper than a cable modem. Do you want to know what the best part is? I don't have to give any money to the over-priced, blood-sucking cable companies. Remember when cable didn't have commercials? That's how it is supposed to work. I refuse to PAY to have ads thrown in my face.
That is all.
OK, we all knew it, but maybe this will be enough incentive for the major news outlets to pick the story up. In an ideal world people would see this story, realize that much of the spam they get can be blamed on viruses and patch their systems.
Too bad we don't live in a perfect world.
For ages of course Kodak's bred and butter has been film and associated chemicals. Which is exactly why Kodak was once (and may still be--I don't know) the largest consumer of silver in the USA. As for their digital photography arm, I've had a DC260 since about 1998 and it is still working flawlessly. It's only 1MP, but the picture quality is still better than a lot of the cameras on the market these days.
Can you say "Room temperature superconductors"? I have a feeling this is a lot further off than 2-5 years. Just vaporscience now.
Every time I hear about a new show coming out and get excited about it, I invariably find out that it's going to be on cable. Why, why, why? Oh, the humanity. I guess I'll have to wait for the series to come out on DVD (or BitTorrent).
I love that they complain about American jobs being shipped overseas but the first job posting on their site is for a " Senior Software Engineer" in Delhi, India. When will these maddeningly contradictory statements end?