It's kind of funny, but I'm in exactly the same position right now.
Except, I'm offered the opportunity to start a comedy show on tv.
I'm a (hardcore) c++ programmer and I actually like what I'm doing.
I also run a dark comedy web site (with a partner) which has suddenly become 'The next big thing' in my country (radio stations started playing our scenes, invitations to talk shows; my phone never stops ringing).
Two tv stations offerred us a contract and we must choose one of them by the end of this week.
It's really tempting, but I know how show-business is, you can burn really quickly if you're not careful or good enough to handle the stress.
On the programming side, I'm the dev lead on a project which we've been working on for 2.5 years (full time) and will launch the public beta in two months.
This only makes things harder for me - I don't want to abandon the project at this stage, but the show-biz opportunity is very tempting.
I guess I'll try (really hard) to work on both jobs, at least until the final release of our project. By that time, If i'm not dead or in a mental institution, I will hopefully be able to decide what to chose.
Eventually, I think it's best to listen to your heart and go with that.
Even if you fail, it's not the end of the world - you can always start drinking.
Brain normally functions at 36.6 degrees Celsius; sticking your head in an oven will drastically increase your brain operating temperature, yielding Extreme performance.
This only lasts for a short period of time (until cooked), but it will certainly reveal the meaning of life and remove stupidity forever.
Interesting.. Is there a top nation at being fragged?
I think they should also consider:
best croucher, best knife killer, hardest to frag, best jumper, fastest runners, fastest runners while being shot in the back, best sight through smoke-grenade smoke, fastest flash-grenade sight recovery, etc.
It would have been much nicer if they put that effect on the coin's value.
You look from one angle, you have a 5 Euro coin, you look from another angle, you have a 50 Euro coin, etc.
Shops would then accept regular coins and angles of MultiView coins. You show your coin at 60 degrees, the seller takes it and returns it to you at 30 degrees:). Wouldn't that be sweet ?
Here's how you should behave at a job interview. It's guaranteed to get you the job. (C = company guy, YOU = you). YOU: I've come here to save this company! C: ??!?? What makes you think our company needs to be saved? YOU: Well, it's obvious that it's going down, because you don't have ME on your staff yet... C: (smiling) That's an interesting point. And how do you think you can save this company? Do you have any skills that might be suitable for this position, any special qualities? YOU: There are very few skills that I don't excel at. In fact, I can't think of anything that I can't do. I'm not sure about eternal life, though... I'll need to check on that about 50 years later. I also have a lot of qualities that you've been dreaming to see in your employees. C: Hmm.. Interesting... What are those? YOU: One of my main qualities is modesty. C: Aha... YOU: Being so modest, it's hard to talk about my modesty. But just wanting this job proves how modest I am. Indeed, I could try harder, I could find something better than this company, with more potential and smarter management, but I don't need much... you know, as the saying goes: The pleasure is in the small things. C: Ok, you've made your point. What else can you do, besides being modest ? YOU: Lots of things. I can program by dictating the hex, binary or octal instruction values to a typist while having sex. For any processor. The only bug I've made was not a software bug at all, it was an error in the processor I've assembled from beach sand while on vacation. Of course I can also program the Sissy way... C: The Sissy way ? YOU: Yeah, you know... C and the like. Writing in C is an insult to my intelligence, so I just main(){__asm{}} and start reciting the raw code values. It's poetry. And poetry it is: 5, 5, 5; 2c; 25. I'm even thinking of starting a hip-hop band. O well, IT is only one of my specialties.. I can also chop trees, fly assault helicopters, perform brain surgery, investigate crimes, take care of things... C: !!! Take care of things ?! YOU: Yeah, you know... Burry people, track down customers, clean up, you name it. C: OK! You are just what we're looking for! Welcome to the team!....
The problem is that a java-based solution is used to develop a highly scalable real-time system.
This is just not possible.
Whatever you Java-gurus would say, it won't scale, it won't run as fast as it could. Yes, perhaps development time is somewhat shorter in java, but if you want to tweak your app to run 0.75 as fast as a properly developed C++ solution, you would spend 5 times as much time profiling and looking for bottlenecks, when, in fact, the bottleneck is the java architecture itself. In fact, the benefits you get from the java *programming language* are highly overwhelmed by performance problems you get when the system is scaled. I mean, is it THAT hard for a bunch of programmers to write an efficient server front end, that would accomodate thousands of concurrent users in C++ on a *cheap* server? (I mean, 1 GB of RAM for 600 users is ridiculous). No ! It's a month's work in C++ for ONE programmer. Today's programmers are lazy. They want garbage collection, they don't care if 100kb are used when only 4 kb are required, they don't want to mess with pointers and direct memory access, they don't want to squeeze their OS to the limits. Perhaps, the only industry which properly understands this is the game development industry, although not all of them. Don't get me wrong - I'm not against Java as a programming language, I'm against using inappropriate tools to develop a certain task. Here's my suggestion:
- Drop the Java-based solution - it helped create the overall system architecture, now it's time to really implement it. - Fire 90% of the development team; Hire 5 experienced C++ programmers and pay them accordingly. - Use the OS at it's limits. Of course, it's nice to have a platform-independent source base, but do you really need it ? - Use Linux to save on hardware/software costs - Drop the web server and develop your own OR use the web/database servers as efficient as possible.
In several months you will notice an all-time minimum cpu and memory usage and your users will be more than happy to browse your responsive site.
The one thing I miss is the co-workers which you can call to your monitor, show them the code and brainstorm on the problem.
Also, if you don't have to be somewhere in the morning (and your company is 8 hours behind your time zone), then it doesn't make sence to wake up in the morning;). I usually work at night and my day-night cycle is screwed.
It also implies a lot of self-motivation and time-management. I can work for 12 hours a day for two days in a row and then take a day off, which is hard to accomplish when working in the office.
Apart from these, I love working from home - I listen to my music loud, drink my favourite cofee, eat home-cooked meals and keep an eye on my girlfriend:-).
Slashdot Mirror
It's kind of funny, but I'm in exactly the same position right now.
Except, I'm offered the opportunity to start a comedy show on tv.
I'm a (hardcore) c++ programmer and I actually like what I'm doing.
I also run a dark comedy web site (with a partner) which has suddenly become 'The next big thing' in my country (radio stations started playing our scenes, invitations to talk shows; my phone never stops ringing).
Two tv stations offerred us a contract and we must choose one of them by the end of this week. It's really tempting, but I know how show-business is, you can burn really quickly if you're not careful or good enough to handle the stress.
On the programming side, I'm the dev lead on a project which we've been working on for 2.5 years (full time) and will launch the public beta in two months.
This only makes things harder for me - I don't want to abandon the project at this stage, but the show-biz opportunity is very tempting.
I guess I'll try (really hard) to work on both jobs, at least until the final release of our project. By that time, If i'm not dead or in a mental institution, I will hopefully be able to decide what to chose.
Eventually, I think it's best to listen to your heart and go with that.
Even if you fail, it's not the end of the world - you can always start drinking.
Brain normally functions at 36.6 degrees Celsius; sticking your head in an oven will drastically increase your brain operating temperature, yielding Extreme performance. This only lasts for a short period of time (until cooked), but it will certainly reveal the meaning of life and remove stupidity forever.
Interesting.. Is there a top nation at being fragged? I think they should also consider: best croucher, best knife killer, hardest to frag, best jumper, fastest runners, fastest runners while being shot in the back, best sight through smoke-grenade smoke, fastest flash-grenade sight recovery, etc.
It would have been much nicer if they put that effect on the coin's value. You look from one angle, you have a 5 Euro coin, you look from another angle, you have a 50 Euro coin, etc. Shops would then accept regular coins and angles of MultiView coins. You show your coin at 60 degrees, the seller takes it and returns it to you at 30 degrees :). Wouldn't that be sweet ?
Here's how you should behave at a job interview. It's guaranteed to get you the job. ... I'll need to check on that about 50 years later. ....
(C = company guy, YOU = you).
YOU: I've come here to save this company!
C: ??!?? What makes you think our company needs to be saved?
YOU: Well, it's obvious that it's going down, because you don't have ME on your staff yet...
C: (smiling) That's an interesting point. And how do you think you can save this company? Do you have any skills that might be suitable for this position, any special qualities?
YOU: There are very few skills that I don't excel at. In fact, I can't think of anything that I can't do. I'm not sure about eternal life, though
I also have a lot of qualities that you've been dreaming to see in your employees.
C: Hmm.. Interesting... What are those?
YOU: One of my main qualities is modesty.
C: Aha...
YOU: Being so modest, it's hard to talk about my modesty. But just wanting this job proves how modest I am. Indeed, I could try harder, I could find something better than this company, with more potential and smarter management, but I don't need much... you know, as the saying goes: The pleasure is in the small things.
C: Ok, you've made your point. What else can you do, besides being modest ?
YOU: Lots of things. I can program by dictating the hex, binary or octal instruction values to a typist while having sex. For any processor.
The only bug I've made was not a software bug at all, it was an error in the processor I've assembled from beach sand while on vacation.
Of course I can also program the Sissy way...
C: The Sissy way ?
YOU: Yeah, you know... C and the like. Writing in C is an insult to my intelligence, so I just main(){__asm{}} and start reciting the raw code values. It's poetry. And poetry it is: 5, 5, 5; 2c; 25. I'm even thinking of starting a hip-hop band.
O well, IT is only one of my specialties.. I can also chop trees, fly assault helicopters, perform brain surgery, investigate crimes, take care of things...
C: !!! Take care of things ?!
YOU: Yeah, you know... Burry people, track down customers, clean up, you name it.
C: OK! You are just what we're looking for!
Welcome to the team!
The problem is that a java-based solution is used to develop a highly scalable real-time system.
This is just not possible.
Whatever you Java-gurus would say, it won't scale, it won't run as fast as it could.
Yes, perhaps development time is somewhat shorter in java, but if you want to tweak your app to run 0.75 as fast as a properly developed C++ solution, you would spend 5 times as much time profiling and looking for bottlenecks, when, in fact, the bottleneck is the java architecture itself.
In fact, the benefits you get from the java *programming language* are highly overwhelmed by performance problems you get when the system is scaled.
I mean, is it THAT hard for a bunch of programmers to write an efficient server front end, that would accomodate thousands of concurrent users in C++ on a *cheap* server? (I mean, 1 GB of RAM for 600 users is ridiculous).
No ! It's a month's work in C++ for ONE programmer.
Today's programmers are lazy. They want garbage collection, they don't care if 100kb are used when only 4 kb are required, they don't want to mess with pointers and direct memory access, they don't want to squeeze their OS to the limits.
Perhaps, the only industry which properly understands this is the game development industry, although not all of them.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not against Java as a programming language, I'm against using inappropriate tools to develop a certain task.
Here's my suggestion:
- Drop the Java-based solution - it helped create the overall system architecture, now it's time to really implement it.
- Fire 90% of the development team; Hire 5 experienced C++ programmers and pay them accordingly.
- Use the OS at it's limits. Of course, it's nice to have a platform-independent source base, but do you really need it ?
- Use Linux to save on hardware/software costs
- Drop the web server and develop your own OR use the web/database servers as efficient as possible.
In several months you will notice an all-time minimum cpu and memory usage and your users will be more than happy to browse your responsive site.
The one thing I miss is the co-workers which you can call to your monitor, show them the code and brainstorm on the problem. Also, if you don't have to be somewhere in the morning (and your company is 8 hours behind your time zone), then it doesn't make sence to wake up in the morning ;). I usually work at night and my day-night cycle is screwed.
It also implies a lot of self-motivation and time-management. I can work for 12 hours a day for two days in a row and then take a day off, which is hard to accomplish when working in the office.
Apart from these, I love working from home - I listen to my music loud, drink my favourite cofee, eat home-cooked meals and keep an eye on my girlfriend :-).