I got 90 degrees. I could be wrong, I am good at geometry, but bad at arithmetic. I think B A1 D is 60 degrees off plane ABCD, and B C1 D is 30 degrees off the plane. After I finally figured out what the structure actually looked like, the math was pretty easy. The plane ABCD looks like a kite and is very symetrical. Every angle was 30, 60, 90, and the sides were whole numbers or whole numbers times sqrt(3).
when high school girls think of computer scientists they think of geeks, pocket protectors, isolated cubicles and a lifetime of staring into a screen writing computer code.
Except for the pocket protectors, this isn't a misconception. This is life as we know it, for us software developers.
As much as we hate to admit it, an OS is a natural monopoly. It just makes sense to use whatever everyone else in you "circle" is using. On my home computer, I use to dual boot into both Windows and Linux, using Linux as my programming environment. However, my wife, kids, office, etc. all used Windows. After the Express edition of C++ came out, I switched to Windows for my programming also. It was just more convenient.
This summer, just before my kid takes his laptop to college, I'm going to buy a new computer that will be running (uh-oh) Vista. I have a question for you people who say Vista runs great. How much memory do you have? Do I really need 2 GB? I'm trying to hold the price down so that my wife doesn't yell at me.
I agree with your post as far as it goes. But consider this second scenario: Before JKR writes her first book, I write a book called "Larry Potter and the Muggles of Doom". Then, when Harry Potter becomes popular, I sue her for millions, plus an injunction against writing any more Harry Potter books. If legal action of this sort became common and successful, it would inhibit artistic effort just as much as your scenario.
Unfortunately, in the software industry, lawsuits of this kind have become common and successful. Although a jury could determine that my pathetic attempt at a book had only superficial similarities to Harry Potter, judges and juries don't seem to be able to recognize a trivial algorithm that took 10 minutes to develop. Many of us in the software development business consider software patents a cancer on the industry. You can't blame us for being suspicious of anything that smacks of "intellectual property".
I have my own theory, too. I call it the principle of simplicity. The Universe is as simple as possible. That means it consists of nothing; no space, no time, no matter. There are a few anomalies in the observations, but I hope to get this worked out by next week end.
The slowest thing about Java has been Swing, and the slowest thing about Swing has been the startup times. I switched from Java to C++.Net for my personal programs because of this. However, I installed Sun's JDK 1.6 a week ago, and I was amazed at the improvement in startup time. I just did a "race" with a calculator program that I wrote in both C# and Java, and they both started up in less than a second. When I first wrote the Java program several years ago, the startup time was (if I remember correctly) about 8 seconds.
we still keep trying to compare building software to building buildings
I read a book about the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem a few years ago and it reminded me of software development. First some brilliant mathematician proves a theorem that no one has ever proved before. Then the proof is circulated and an army of mathematicians look for mistakes and bad assumptions. The mistakes are corrected and if the assumptions can be shown to be true, then the proof succeeds, otherwise it fails. This is like software development except for the brilliant part.
This is one reason software development is hard. Most of us can figure out what a "balcksmish" is, but the compiler can't figure out that
if (x = 0)
Should be
if (x == 0)
Coding is inherently error prone. Even the very best programmers make stupid mistakes.
Re:So let the flame wars begin!
on
The Birth of vi
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Jesus saves with Ctrl-X Ctrl-S
Re:So let the flame wars begin!
on
The Birth of vi
·
· Score: 1
Emacs" as well as other so called "free" editors may not be installed
I am an EMACS user, but because some computers don't have it installed, I have learned to stumble around with VI. Of course, I have seen expert VI users at work, and it looks to me as if they are stumbling around too.
1. Neville's parents put the location of the horcruxes in his memory. He will know where they are when he comes of age. 2. Snape was at Godric's Hollow the night the Potters were killed. He tried to warn James that he had been betrayed, but James wouldn't listen. I liked the theory that Snape was immobilized under the invisibility cloak when the Potters were killed, but apparently JKR has shot this theory down. 3. Harry is an accidental 8th horcrux. He will allow Voldemort to kill him when he realizes it. 4. Snape will jump in front of Harry and take an AK for the team. 5. This will reactivate his mother's protection (not sure exactly why). The 2nd AK will kill the horcrux inside of Harry and rebound and kill the now horcruxless Voldemort. 6. The last sentence in the book will be, "On Harry's forehead was a second lightning shaped scar."
One would hope so. At least some of them would be trying to change our ridiculous patent laws, or doing something to stop the ambulance chasers, but I see no evidence of that.
Take this information with a grain of salt. Except for small companies, upper management doesn't make hiring decisions for technical staff. The project manager and the senior programming staff do the hiring at every place I've worked. And we look very hard at technical skills. You need one or two people who can talk to customers and upper management, but most people on a programming project develop software.
The reason people have fewer close friends is because we have become much more mobile. People use to live in one town, at the same house and work at the same job most of their lives. Now people move to places where they know no one, change jobs before they make close friends, etc. So much movement and change in the people you encounter in day to day life makes it harder to make close friends.
Good points. In a modern society some form of a universal identifier is necessary. If you apply for credit, the bank needs to check your credit record to make sure you aren't a dead beat. When you pay your taxes, the government has to match up your taxes with the employer's W2. The problem isn't that we have a unique identifier and the government is going to use it to suppress us. The problem is someone can steal it. A passkey along with a SSN would help to solve the problem. Some people would still write their passkey on their social security card, but some people will always be beyond help.
Why can't they just use the Social Security Number? Surely the government can tell if Pedro Gonzales is using the same SSN as John Smith, or that someone is using an invalid number. The SSN has these advantages:
Already in place.
Already needed to get a job.
Much cheaper than a fence between the U.S. and Mexico.
Has not yet proven to be an effective device for rounding up and shooting all the dissidents.
In America, the Social Security number is used to pay your Social Security tax and the amount you pay is used to determine your benefits at retirement. Employers have to have the number. Except for illegal aliens. We make a special exception for them. (How do they get a job without a valid SSN anyway?).
A few years ago, I was showing my kids how to look up a homework question on the internet (find the names of all the cabinet members). I typed in www.whitehouse.com and got the intern of the month. My kids thought it was pretty funny.
Here are the attributes of the best managers I have had (in order of importance).
1. Actually listen to the people they manage.
2. Have good social and communication skills.
3. Have some domain expertise..
4. Have some technical expertise..
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I got 90 degrees. I could be wrong, I am good at geometry, but bad at arithmetic. I think B A1 D is 60 degrees off plane ABCD, and B C1 D is 30 degrees off the plane. After I finally figured out what the structure actually looked like, the math was pretty easy. The plane ABCD looks like a kite and is very symetrical. Every angle was 30, 60, 90, and the sides were whole numbers or whole numbers times sqrt(3).
Except for the pocket protectors, this isn't a misconception. This is life as we know it, for us software developers.
xero314, there is more good advice in your post than in the entire Allison article.
As much as we hate to admit it, an OS is a natural monopoly. It just makes sense to use whatever everyone else in you "circle" is using. On my home computer, I use to dual boot into both Windows and Linux, using Linux as my programming environment. However, my wife, kids, office, etc. all used Windows. After the Express edition of C++ came out, I switched to Windows for my programming also. It was just more convenient.
This summer, just before my kid takes his laptop to college, I'm going to buy a new computer that will be running (uh-oh) Vista. I have a question for you people who say Vista runs great. How much memory do you have? Do I really need 2 GB? I'm trying to hold the price down so that my wife doesn't yell at me.
I agree with your post as far as it goes. But consider this second scenario: Before JKR writes her first book, I write a book called "Larry Potter and the Muggles of Doom". Then, when Harry Potter becomes popular, I sue her for millions, plus an injunction against writing any more Harry Potter books. If legal action of this sort became common and successful, it would inhibit artistic effort just as much as your scenario.
Unfortunately, in the software industry, lawsuits of this kind have become common and successful. Although a jury could determine that my pathetic attempt at a book had only superficial similarities to Harry Potter, judges and juries don't seem to be able to recognize a trivial algorithm that took 10 minutes to develop. Many of us in the software development business consider software patents a cancer on the industry. You can't blame us for being suspicious of anything that smacks of "intellectual property".
I have my own theory, too. I call it the principle of simplicity. The Universe is as simple as possible. That means it consists of nothing; no space, no time, no matter. There are a few anomalies in the observations, but I hope to get this worked out by next week end.
I would not have until I read the TFA. I would choose an office over cubes, despite all the free food and perks in the world.
The slowest thing about Java has been Swing, and the slowest thing about Swing has been the startup times. I switched from Java to C++ .Net for my personal programs because of this. However, I installed Sun's JDK 1.6 a week ago, and I was amazed at the improvement in startup time. I just did a "race" with a calculator program that I wrote in both C# and Java, and they both started up in less than a second. When I first wrote the Java program several years ago, the startup time was (if I remember correctly) about 8 seconds.
I read a book about the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem a few years ago and it reminded me of software development. First some brilliant mathematician proves a theorem that no one has ever proved before. Then the proof is circulated and an army of mathematicians look for mistakes and bad assumptions. The mistakes are corrected and if the assumptions can be shown to be true, then the proof succeeds, otherwise it fails. This is like software development except for the brilliant part.
This is one reason software development is hard. Most of us can figure out what a "balcksmish" is, but the compiler can't figure out that
if (x = 0)
Should be
if (x == 0)
Coding is inherently error prone. Even the very best programmers make stupid mistakes.Jesus saves with Ctrl-X Ctrl-S
Emacs" as well as other so called "free" editors may not be installed
I am an EMACS user, but because some computers don't have it installed, I have learned to stumble around with VI. Of course, I have seen expert VI users at work, and it looks to me as if they are stumbling around too.
Since we are doing theories, here are mine:
1. Neville's parents put the location of the horcruxes in his memory. He will know where they are when he comes of age.
2. Snape was at Godric's Hollow the night the Potters were killed. He tried to warn James that he had been betrayed, but James wouldn't listen. I liked the theory that Snape was immobilized under the invisibility cloak when the Potters were killed, but apparently JKR has shot this theory down.
3. Harry is an accidental 8th horcrux. He will allow Voldemort to kill him when he realizes it.
4. Snape will jump in front of Harry and take an AK for the team.
5. This will reactivate his mother's protection (not sure exactly why). The 2nd AK will kill the horcrux inside of Harry and rebound and kill the now horcruxless Voldemort.
6. The last sentence in the book will be, "On Harry's forehead was a second lightning shaped scar."
Yea, that. But Harry's most annoying trait is that he keeps interrupting people just before they reveal some amazing clue.
Have you ever tried to do image processing with signed bytes? This is one of the reasons I have stopped using Java for my personal programming.
One would hope so. At least some of them would be trying to change our ridiculous patent laws, or doing something to stop the ambulance chasers, but I see no evidence of that.
This seems like a disturbing trend. I have noticed that more and more bright kids want to be lawyers or MBA's.
Take this information with a grain of salt. Except for small companies, upper management doesn't make hiring decisions for technical staff. The project manager and the senior programming staff do the hiring at every place I've worked. And we look very hard at technical skills. You need one or two people who can talk to customers and upper management, but most people on a programming project develop software.
The reason people have fewer close friends is because we have become much more mobile. People use to live in one town, at the same house and work at the same job most of their lives. Now people move to places where they know no one, change jobs before they make close friends, etc. So much movement and change in the people you encounter in day to day life makes it harder to make close friends.
Good points. In a modern society some form of a universal identifier is necessary. If you apply for credit, the bank needs to check your credit record to make sure you aren't a dead beat. When you pay your taxes, the government has to match up your taxes with the employer's W2. The problem isn't that we have a unique identifier and the government is going to use it to suppress us. The problem is someone can steal it. A passkey along with a SSN would help to solve the problem. Some people would still write their passkey on their social security card, but some people will always be beyond help.
Why can't they just use the Social Security Number? Surely the government can tell if Pedro Gonzales is using the same SSN as John Smith, or that someone is using an invalid number. The SSN has these advantages:
Already in place.
Already needed to get a job.
Much cheaper than a fence between the U.S. and Mexico.
Has not yet proven to be an effective device for rounding up and shooting all the dissidents.
In America, the Social Security number is used to pay your Social Security tax and the amount you pay is used to determine your benefits at retirement. Employers have to have the number. Except for illegal aliens. We make a special exception for them. (How do they get a job without a valid SSN anyway?).
A few years ago, I was showing my kids how to look up a homework question on the internet (find the names of all the cabinet members). I typed in www.whitehouse.com and got the intern of the month. My kids thought it was pretty funny.
Here are the attributes of the best managers I have had (in order of importance).
1. Actually listen to the people they manage.2. Have good social and communication skills.
3. Have some domain expertise..
4. Have some technical expertise..
And my best managers have usually been women.