I couldn't tell from the story - was he actually extradited by Russia? If so, I'm really surprised they're welling to extradite anyone to us these days.
huge difference in tax exposure as a proprietor and freelance contractor vs a salaried employee.
Yeah, good point. I actually meant his effective salary, with all those differences factored in. I.e., is his income similar to what he'd get making $70k/year as an employee, or $200k/year as an employee?
(I realize his ownership in the business's assets is a factor as well, but I'm talking about money he can actually afford to pull out as for personal income in a typical year.)
One thing I'm very curious about is how his personal income has changed over time, relative to what he'd be earning as a typical IT employee. Owning a business has a lot of pros and cons, but for most of us, the extra hours are partly justified by higher income.
I could be wrong but it seems hard to find an all-online Masters that actually retrains graduates from other disciplines with great fundamentals in real-world programming.
I'm not sure about the online offerings. Maybe take a few critical undergrad courses in CS before attempting a master's degree?
Depending on how much you have a particular focus in mind, and how skilled you already are in programming, I'd probably take the following undergrad courses first: (1) data structures, (2) models of computation / analysis of algorithms, (3) operating systems and/or networking, and (4) database and/or compilers and/or graphics depending on your interest.
If you got those four topics under your belt, and you're reasonably bright, you should be okay for most Masters programs.
I really loved that series for the first N books. Then at some point I concluded the story was being unnaturally dragged out. I eventually stopped reading the series before it was done. Which sucked, because at first it was the best series I'd ever read.
Consider my whole sentence, though: "So I wouldn't feel too anxious about that, especially w.r.t. web programming."
Imagine I used "about" in place of "w.r.t.". Then my sentence would have been: "So I wouldn't feel too anxious about that, especially about web programming."
I was concerned that the duplicate use of the word "about" would indicate that the "web programming" was an amplification or clarification of the referent of "that". I.e., I would have been indicating that "web programming" was somehow an amplification or clarification of various topics in theoretical science. Which is most certainly not what I was trying to communicate.
That's why I chose "w.r.t." over "about". If I hadn't used "about" earlier in the sentence, I would have been more willing to use it in place of the "w.r.t.".
I've spent about 20 years refining my programming stereotypes. I think they fit the data pretty well now. Here's my take on you, simply because you're an EE:
* You're smart enough to pick up pretty much any CS concept, from the simple to the arcane. For the most part, only physics majors will simply be smarter than you.
* Your code will look like crap, until you put effort into writing more idiomatically and until you learn the design patterns that help programmers use to tame complexity. Your code will, generally speaking, be harder to read than that produced by CS and physics majors, until you put some work into it.
* You mentioned having only a fragmented understanding of CS theory. I think that's true for most of us (I have a PhD in CS). There's just so much of programming for which good theory has been developed: type systems, parallelism (concurrent sequential processes, deadlock rules), user interfaces (kind of), system complexity, static / dynamic analysis of code, relational algebras, parsing, the expressive power of various languages in the Chomsky hierarchy, graph theory, complexity classes, etc. A lot of these theories can be useful for solving problems, but most programmers muddle by without putting them all together and remembering their implications. Heck, most programmers probably don't know about half of the things I listed.
So I wouldn't feel too anxious about that, especially w.r.t. web programming. But it can be very satisfying to to learn more about them, and may in some cases let you solve some problems that other's can't. If you want to get better at some of the brainier stuff, I'd suggest getting a master's degree in CS from a decent school. But that my be overkill for bog-standard web development, I'm not sure.
If nim has that much going for it otherwise, we could always create a new language, nim++, which is just a front end to nim and translates { and } to proper indentation. (Assuming nim doesn't use { and } as tokens)
It's not just "we want the top 5%," but "we want the top 5% that will take the median salary for the job title in our particular locale"
Ah! Well if you're not willing to dot that, you're clearly not a team player with skin in the game! Good thing they weeded you out during the phone screen!
> A moderate amount of time to himself is fine... it seems to "recharge his batteries" for more social interactions
Isn't that the definition of "introvert"?
I suppose it is. So perhaps my lessons-learned are only helpful to people whose kids just coincidentally both have AS and are introverted.
But given that kids with AS tend to get overwhelmed by sensory overloading, and social interactions can add to the sensory overload, I wouldn't be shocked if there tends to be a positive correlation between having AS and being introverted.
My experience with my moderately Asperger son is a bit different. He can definitely handle the deep end of schoolwork, intellectually. He's a sharp kid.
But there are some areas where treating him like a normal kid would be disastrous. In particular, many kids with Aspeberger Syndrome can become overwhelmed by sensory input and/or frustration. And when they do, they get emotionally "stuck" in a way other kids generally don't. Normal persuasive / coercive methods of dealing with those states are far less ineffective that on other kids, and so using them can be pointlessly cruel.
Long-story short, maybe throw them in the deep end academically, but perhaps not socially.
I've been diagnosed with borderline Asperberger, i.e., it wasn't specifically tested for, but 70% of other people who scored the way I did on certain tests also were diagnosed with Aspberger. I also have a son who's mildly affected, and is positively diagnosed.
This is a little off-topic relative to your questions, but here are some of the things we've found:
A moderate amount of time to himself is fine. It's a little concerning to us as parents, especially because we're worried about him being friendless as he gets older. But he really seems to not be lonely during those stretches, and in some ways it seems to "recharge his batteries" for more social interactions.
He has a good friend who enjoys him just as he is, and I think that's huge. I would never expect him to have a large circle of casual friends the way an extrovert does, but at least I know he's learning give-and-take, caring for another person's needs, etc., via this friendship. So you may find it worthwhile to make sure your child as at least one such friend.
He's gotten some great results from PT's, OT's, and school aides. But we've had different amounts of luck with different persons. I suspect it's something of a crap shoot regarding their talent level, and regarding how well they click with my son. I think there may be no alternative to trying out people until someone works.
Slashdot Mirror
It was broken for me for a minute or two.
Also, once in a while I've been getting SSL certificate errors regarding ./ from Chrome.
Is that lipstick makes a woman look hot, but it's kind of gross when you actually kiss them.
Obligatory
yeah, sorry, I'm not sure how I missed that. Must be time for me to go to bed.
Yes, somehow I missed that when reading it.
Clearly I missed that detail from the story, but your response was extremely rude. I think you owe me an apology.
I couldn't tell from the story - was he actually extradited by Russia? If so, I'm really surprised they're welling to extradite anyone to us these days.
Net income
huge difference in tax exposure as a proprietor and freelance contractor vs a salaried employee.
Yeah, good point. I actually meant his effective salary, with all those differences factored in. I.e., is his income similar to what he'd get making $70k/year as an employee, or $200k/year as an employee?
(I realize his ownership in the business's assets is a factor as well, but I'm talking about money he can actually afford to pull out as for personal income in a typical year.)
"Obama Says He's 'A Strong Believer In Strong Encryption'"
At least he's made it clear: he's 100% against strong encryption.
One thing I'm very curious about is how his personal income has changed over time, relative to what he'd be earning as a typical IT employee. Owning a business has a lot of pros and cons, but for most of us, the extra hours are partly justified by higher income.
I'm not sure about the online offerings. Maybe take a few critical undergrad courses in CS before attempting a master's degree?
Depending on how much you have a particular focus in mind, and how skilled you already are in programming, I'd probably take the following undergrad courses first: (1) data structures, (2) models of computation / analysis of algorithms, (3) operating systems and/or networking, and (4) database and/or compilers and/or graphics depending on your interest.
If you got those four topics under your belt, and you're reasonably bright, you should be okay for most Masters programs.
Because (a) generally speaking I've found it to be true, and (b) I was trying to encourage him/her to not be daunted by the learning curve ahead.
In this situation, it wasn't very relevant to me whether or not other groups might be offended.
I really loved that series for the first N books. Then at some point I concluded the story was being unnaturally dragged out. I eventually stopped reading the series before it was done. Which sucked, because at first it was the best series I'd ever read.
Consider my whole sentence, though: "So I wouldn't feel too anxious about that, especially w.r.t. web programming."
Imagine I used "about" in place of "w.r.t.". Then my sentence would have been: "So I wouldn't feel too anxious about that, especially about web programming."
I was concerned that the duplicate use of the word "about" would indicate that the "web programming" was an amplification or clarification of the referent of "that". I.e., I would have been indicating that "web programming" was somehow an amplification or clarification of various topics in theoretical science. Which is most certainly not what I was trying to communicate.
That's why I chose "w.r.t." over "about". If I hadn't used "about" earlier in the sentence, I would have been more willing to use it in place of the "w.r.t.".
FWIW, I had "with respect to" in mind when I wrote "w.r.t." above.
I've spent about 20 years refining my programming stereotypes. I think they fit the data pretty well now. Here's my take on you, simply because you're an EE:
* You're smart enough to pick up pretty much any CS concept, from the simple to the arcane. For the most part, only physics majors will simply be smarter than you.
* Your code will look like crap, until you put effort into writing more idiomatically and until you learn the design patterns that help programmers use to tame complexity. Your code will, generally speaking, be harder to read than that produced by CS and physics majors, until you put some work into it.
* You mentioned having only a fragmented understanding of CS theory. I think that's true for most of us (I have a PhD in CS). There's just so much of programming for which good theory has been developed: type systems, parallelism (concurrent sequential processes, deadlock rules), user interfaces (kind of), system complexity, static / dynamic analysis of code, relational algebras, parsing, the expressive power of various languages in the Chomsky hierarchy, graph theory, complexity classes, etc. A lot of these theories can be useful for solving problems, but most programmers muddle by without putting them all together and remembering their implications. Heck, most programmers probably don't know about half of the things I listed.
So I wouldn't feel too anxious about that, especially w.r.t. web programming. But it can be very satisfying to to learn more about them, and may in some cases let you solve some problems that other's can't. If you want to get better at some of the brainier stuff, I'd suggest getting a master's degree in CS from a decent school. But that my be overkill for bog-standard web development, I'm not sure.
If nim has that much going for it otherwise, we could always create a new language, nim++, which is just a front end to nim and translates { and } to proper indentation. (Assuming nim doesn't use { and } as tokens)
Seems to me we need to teach people to vote better.
I would agree.
It's not just "we want the top 5%," but "we want the top 5% that will take the median salary for the job title in our particular locale"
Ah! Well if you're not willing to dot that, you're clearly not a team player with skin in the game! Good thing they weeded you out during the phone screen!
Isn't copyright infringement a civil offense?
Democracy my ass.
But the first link was great - thanks for that.
> A moderate amount of time to himself is fine... it seems to "recharge his batteries" for more social interactions
Isn't that the definition of "introvert"?
I suppose it is. So perhaps my lessons-learned are only helpful to people whose kids just coincidentally both have AS and are introverted.
But given that kids with AS tend to get overwhelmed by sensory overloading, and social interactions can add to the sensory overload, I wouldn't be shocked if there tends to be a positive correlation between having AS and being introverted.
I can't believe Slashdot managed to land an interview with someone from Dice! Time to make some popcorn, sit back, and enjoy the fireworks!
"Asperberger"
Not with that lack of care for proper spelling.
Funny, but what you don't know is that I also have a vicious case of ADD which interferes with my ability to effectively proof-read my own posts.
You insensitive clod.
My experience with my moderately Asperger son is a bit different. He can definitely handle the deep end of schoolwork, intellectually. He's a sharp kid.
But there are some areas where treating him like a normal kid would be disastrous. In particular, many kids with Aspeberger Syndrome can become overwhelmed by sensory input and/or frustration. And when they do, they get emotionally "stuck" in a way other kids generally don't. Normal persuasive / coercive methods of dealing with those states are far less ineffective that on other kids, and so using them can be pointlessly cruel.
Long-story short, maybe throw them in the deep end academically, but perhaps not socially.
I've been diagnosed with borderline Asperberger, i.e., it wasn't specifically tested for, but 70% of other people who scored the way I did on certain tests also were diagnosed with Aspberger. I also have a son who's mildly affected, and is positively diagnosed.
This is a little off-topic relative to your questions, but here are some of the things we've found: