I'd say that the AWT's sloppy original design (and later, Swing's mediocre performance) killed the market for full-fledged client-side Java UIs. And Netscape did as much as anyone to kill Java applets. The AWT in 1.0.2 was very sloppy. Many improvements were made for 1.1, but Netscape was VERY slow to get those changes in. Remember when Netscape 4 came out and they claimed it supported 1.1? But it only really supported the java.io improvements. None of the AWT improvements were there until much later. Wihtout those, writing sophisitcated applets was too dicey to be worth it.
IMHO, by the time IE4 came out, Java was already dying in browsers.
pretty much. you have to be careful about initial and terminating conditions, but it isn't hard at all. and it's amazing how many people either A) overengineer it/over-complicate it B) just plain screw up the pointers C) don't understand "in-place" D) do it recursively. this one I'm most forgiving about; I just ask them what the downsides of their solution are and encourage them to consider if there's a general method to do it iteratively as well.
Another one that I find similarly illuminating: reverse a singly linked list in place sooooo many people don't even know where to start, or don't understand pointers many do it recursively, which is fine, but not as efficient as the iterative method. let's you see how they think on a relatively simple problem, and weeds out the people who are incompetent. of course, this is only the base of an interview. next step is to determine things like people skills, work ethic, etc. I could write a book on that
It's not like he's setting the money on fire. It's going to go *somewhere* and thus stimulate some part of the economy. Would you rather he sit on his ass and hoard his money?
Most of what you say is bogus. This post is going to sound like a troll, but it's my honest observation.
Ok, I have lived in both Albany and Austin, among other places, and I still live in Austin now.
Austin does, in fact, have a very good airport. Yes, it is only about 4 years old. The old one, however, was STILL better than Albany County Airport. That airport is poorly maintained, most of the routes are overly expensive and owned by U.S. Air (the crappiest of the northeastern airlines). And the airport's ability to handle the long nasty winters is far less than that of most northern airports.
And speaking of the weather... it sucks. Even for the northeast, it sucks. These are no Boston (and I've lived there, too) or NYC style winters. These are VERY cold, very snow heavy winters, more like Buffalo than Boston in snowfall. Less total snow than Buffalo, but generally much colder as there is no lake to moderate temps. I remember I ended up considering it a nice day to go out to exercise whenever it go above 0 degrees F. And, of course, the winters are LOOONG. You don't get as much fall color as New England (many more conifers, less hardwoods). Spring is non-existent. Summers are hot. Not as hot as central Texas, but summers in Albany yield large quantities of nasty bugs and very green, slimy waters around the Albany area. Those tree covered hills and pristene lakes? They're up at Lake George and the Adirondacks. Yeah, you (and everyone from NYC ) can drive up there on the weekends, but most of the time you're only going to see the Albany slime and bugs. And industrial blight. And most of the urban areas in Schenectady, Albany, and Troy proper will remind you of the slums in Grand Theft Auto.
Unless you drive for an hour to the great outdoors (and only in the summer unless you're going to ski), there is nothing to do. Most of the malls are half vacant. The whole town congregates in one megamall, Crossgates. There are some good bars, especially up in Saratoga, but nothing like a good Texas bar.
Yes, the ground transportation infrastructure is better than Austin (more freeways and railroads, if you consider that a good thing). Cost of living, once all evened out, isn't as good as Austin. Your house may cost less, but you will pay way more in income taxes and insurance. Property taxes are a little cheaper than Texas, but that's because there's New York's state income tax. Sales taxes are about equal, and salaries a significantly lower in Albany than Austin.
And SUNY Albany is a joke. It's primarily a party school. I would not term it "pretty decent" RPI is a good school in a lousy setting and a lopsided male-female ratio.
I wouldn't say there isn't some potential to techify Albany, but I won't hold my breath. Albany has a lot of permanent problems of the sort that are especially toxic to the high-tech worker set.
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How soon we forget...
I'd say that the AWT's sloppy original design (and later, Swing's mediocre performance) killed the market for full-fledged client-side Java UIs.
And Netscape did as much as anyone to kill Java applets. The AWT in 1.0.2 was very sloppy. Many improvements were made for 1.1, but Netscape was VERY slow to get those changes in.
Remember when Netscape 4 came out and they claimed it supported 1.1? But it only really supported the java.io improvements. None of the AWT improvements were there until much later. Wihtout those, writing sophisitcated applets was too dicey to be worth it.
IMHO, by the time IE4 came out, Java was already dying in browsers.
pretty much. you have to be careful about initial and terminating conditions, but it isn't hard at all. and it's amazing how many people either
A) overengineer it/over-complicate it
B) just plain screw up the pointers
C) don't understand "in-place"
D) do it recursively. this one I'm most forgiving about; I just ask them what the downsides of their solution are and encourage them to consider if there's a general method to do it iteratively as well.
Another one that I find similarly illuminating:
reverse a singly linked list in place
sooooo many people don't even know where to start, or don't understand pointers
many do it recursively, which is fine, but not as efficient as the iterative method.
let's you see how they think on a relatively simple problem, and weeds out the people who are incompetent.
of course, this is only the base of an interview. next step is to determine things like people skills, work ethic, etc. I could write a book on that
It's not like he's setting the money on fire. It's going to go *somewhere* and thus stimulate some part of the economy.
Would you rather he sit on his ass and hoard his money?
Most of what you say is bogus.
This post is going to sound like a troll, but it's my honest observation.
Ok, I have lived in both Albany and Austin, among other places, and I still live in Austin now.
Austin does, in fact, have a very good airport. Yes, it is only about 4 years old. The old one, however, was STILL better than Albany County Airport. That airport is poorly maintained, most of the routes are overly expensive and owned by U.S. Air (the crappiest of the northeastern airlines). And the airport's ability to handle the long nasty winters is far less than that of most northern airports.
And speaking of the weather... it sucks. Even for the northeast, it sucks. These are no Boston (and I've lived there, too) or NYC style winters. These are VERY cold, very snow heavy winters, more like Buffalo than Boston in snowfall. Less total snow than Buffalo, but generally much colder as there is no lake to moderate temps. I remember I ended up considering it a nice day to go out to exercise whenever it go above 0 degrees F. And, of course, the winters are LOOONG. You don't get as much fall color as New England (many more conifers, less hardwoods). Spring is non-existent. Summers are hot. Not as hot as central Texas, but summers in Albany yield large quantities of nasty bugs and very green, slimy waters around the Albany area. Those tree covered hills and pristene lakes? They're up at Lake George and the Adirondacks. Yeah, you (and everyone from NYC ) can drive up there on the weekends, but most of the time you're only going to see the Albany slime and bugs. And industrial blight. And most of the urban areas in Schenectady, Albany, and Troy proper will remind you of the slums in Grand Theft Auto.
Unless you drive for an hour to the great outdoors (and only in the summer unless you're going to ski), there is nothing to do. Most of the malls are half vacant. The whole town congregates in one megamall, Crossgates. There are some good bars, especially up in Saratoga, but nothing like a good Texas bar.
Yes, the ground transportation infrastructure is better than Austin (more freeways and railroads, if you consider that a good thing). Cost of living, once all evened out, isn't as good as Austin. Your house may cost less, but you will pay way more in income taxes and insurance. Property taxes are a little cheaper than Texas, but that's because there's New York's state income tax. Sales taxes are about equal, and salaries a significantly lower in Albany than Austin.
And SUNY Albany is a joke. It's primarily a party school. I would not term it "pretty decent"
RPI is a good school in a lousy setting and a lopsided male-female ratio.
I wouldn't say there isn't some potential to techify Albany, but I won't hold my breath. Albany has a lot of permanent problems of the sort that are especially toxic to the high-tech worker set.