I find myself disagreeing with most of the comments below, although the ones I read all have merit. As someone who's been programming since 1973, (professionally since 1975), I find learning new frameworks and methodologies not only interesting but important. When mentoring younger programmers who lack a CS background, I try and recommend the classics:
Design Patterns -- see what you do and don't do based on what you read here;
Prefactoring -- learning some good habits fundamental to all development;
Knuth -- it's like a granite foundation in a box;
Once you've gone through these, I hope it will have opened your eyes to evaluating new frameworks, languages, and methodologies.
This should help you hone your discretion as you evaluate (and reject) various options you encounter.
Also, think about extending your skill sets through building APIs, developing data management skills, client/server (not just REST), etc.
I've had to learn 4 or 5 new systems and APIs in the last 6 months, with 6 more to come, as well as providing API and server infrastructure support.
Good luck, if I can do it, you can.
Given that the war in Iraq is costing US taxpayers about $2 Billion per week (pre-interest),
Sandias program is budgeted at roughly 40 minutes worth of the direct war effort,
and given that new approaches to distributed and other forms of HPC will come out of this,
with some real-world application (and ROI), this is relatively high value.
Hopefully, Slashdot readers will also read some of the technical papers published as a
result of this work, and bring some real value out of it.
Well, I've used a trackball for about a decade (or more ) now as a concession to desk
space and I quickly go crazy when I have to use someone elses mouse. That being said,
where I work (where we have 100s of Digital Artists), if someone sits down at my
workstation, their thumb goes offline after about 7 minutes of work. It takes some
time to develop the fine control and muscle support for lengthy continuous work
that is text-minimal. I also have a tablet for paint tasks (although I'm primarily
in management and software development). Of course, after a long motorcycle
ride (over 200 miles) or an upper-body weightlifting session, a mouse is actually
easier to use than the trackball (fine motor thumbs go out the window)...
Slashdot Mirror
I find myself disagreeing with most of the comments below, although the ones I read all have merit. As someone who's been programming since 1973, (professionally since 1975), I find learning new frameworks and methodologies not only interesting but important. When mentoring younger programmers who lack a CS background, I try and recommend the classics: Design Patterns -- see what you do and don't do based on what you read here; Prefactoring -- learning some good habits fundamental to all development; Knuth -- it's like a granite foundation in a box; Once you've gone through these, I hope it will have opened your eyes to evaluating new frameworks, languages, and methodologies. This should help you hone your discretion as you evaluate (and reject) various options you encounter. Also, think about extending your skill sets through building APIs, developing data management skills, client/server (not just REST), etc. I've had to learn 4 or 5 new systems and APIs in the last 6 months, with 6 more to come, as well as providing API and server infrastructure support. Good luck, if I can do it, you can.
Given that the war in Iraq is costing US taxpayers about $2 Billion per week (pre-interest), Sandias program is budgeted at roughly 40 minutes worth of the direct war effort, and given that new approaches to distributed and other forms of HPC will come out of this, with some real-world application (and ROI), this is relatively high value. Hopefully, Slashdot readers will also read some of the technical papers published as a result of this work, and bring some real value out of it.
Well, I've used a trackball for about a decade (or more ) now as a concession to desk space and I quickly go crazy when I have to use someone elses mouse. That being said, where I work (where we have 100s of Digital Artists), if someone sits down at my workstation, their thumb goes offline after about 7 minutes of work. It takes some time to develop the fine control and muscle support for lengthy continuous work that is text-minimal. I also have a tablet for paint tasks (although I'm primarily in management and software development). Of course, after a long motorcycle ride (over 200 miles) or an upper-body weightlifting session, a mouse is actually easier to use than the trackball (fine motor thumbs go out the window)...