Being self taught and getting a degree are not as mutually exclusive as they seem. For example, my Bachelor of Science in Computer Science didn't give me everything I needed to know about any specific job. It merely taught me to solve problems relating to computer science (and how to pick up a programming language fairly quickly). I still had to go out there and learn a few marketable skills on my own. There a few of my fellow students who also did this. We were the ones who found jobs right away after graduation while those who didn't look beyond their coursework ended up struggling to find work. Those marketable skills I picked up on my own get me into a job but what I learned in college en route to my degree is what makes me good at my job. You shouldn't sell a college grad short. Depending on what you need them for, they may be worth the hire.
Speaking of arcade controllers in the home, here is a pic of the controllers I built myself for MAME (and later SFIV). I'm using real arcade parts (some scavenged off a dead cabinet and some obtained from Happ) wired to an ultracheap USB digital gamepad. You pull the inndards of the gamepad out of its casing, solder your buttons to where the gamepad buttons would press, and you have a nice joystick using authentic arcade parts that works anywhere a standard USB gamepad would. I've also built one of these using a 360 controller's innards for SFIV tournaments, but you have to make sure you get a 360 controller with a common ground (not all of them are).
There were times when I couldn't follow links on Google or Facebook anymore. I had to manually copy link location and paste them. There were also a few times that ads would randomly pop crap up even if I didn't have a browser open at the time advertising spyware removal. The one that made me throw in the towel on Firefox was the one that looked like Windows Security Center. That thing was so annoying and I got it several times. I updated Firefox every time I got a notification to do so. I don't install executables unless I know where they came from. I don't go clicking OK on those obvious malware pop-ups. I don't surf porn or play Flash games online. Facebook is probably the sketchiest site I frequent and I don't have any 3rd party Facebook apps installed there. I feel I'm a fairly responsible web user. I don't really care what browser I'm using. I just want it to work without having to fiddle with settings or install plug-ins. Firefox did that for a long time, but it's my experience that time is over. So far I'm 6 months into using Chrome and haven't had a spyware outbreak yet. I hope it lasts but if it doesn't I'll be right back out there looking for new options (and re-evaluating old options like Firefox and IE).
I couldn't quit Firefox either (and had no intention of doing so). But then Firefox went the way of IE in my book. I can't trust it anymore. There are now sites that will install spyware on my machine by merely visiting them in Firefox. That still hasn't happened to me with Chrome so I guess that's my flavor of the week until it starts getting crudded up as well. I'm not thrilled about the way Chrome "feels" but I am used to it by now. The Chrome UI is less annoying than random spyware.
You make a joke, but I personally would've appreciated an explanation of exactly what the fuck GM stands for some time before 1/3 of the way through TFA.
I don't know. On Slashdot, I haven't seen much from the GNAA lately and goatse is finally starting to die. Maybe making it harder to troll does yield some positive results.
Big Bang and How I Met Your Mother used to both be on Hulu. I guess something happened with CBS and Hulu so that Hulu no longer carries CBS stuff. Oh well, CBS' loss.
"Seriously, the only way workers have been paid what they're worth under capitalism is when they organize."
When I feel I'm being asked to work too much, not getting paid what I should, or just generally feel I'm being under-appreciated at work, I go right home and organize. I put together my resume and my contacts and start setting up a space on my laptop to track everywhere I've submitted resumes and which particular resume and cover letter I submitted. I also put notes on who I've talked to and the status of those talks. In about 3-4 months, I generally get exactly what I want. Once it took up to 6 months. And I'm not a terrible job hopper. In 10 years, I have worked for 4 companies(4 years, 1 year, 4 years, and 1 for my current employer). So you're absolutely right. There does come a time when a worker must organize and find a place where he (or she) can be appreciated for his (or her) talents. Oh, you mean unions? I guess you can if you want, but I get better results on my own.
Or many of us have found that paying for support is merely giving money to someone who will blame someone else. Hardware vendor says it's an OS issue. OS vendor says it's a hardware issue. If you're not buying a pre-configured machine or a brand such as Apple or Sun who handle both the hardware and the software, I've found paying for OS support to be a colossal waste of time and money.
"I drink coffee in the morning because I don't feel quite human until I had that first cup. It's more of a routine than an actual need for caffeine though. It's just something I do that's a rote action until my brain starts functioning normally."
I used to tell myself the same thing about smoking. I'm just addicted to the habit of smoking, not that pesky habit-forming nicotine. I was wrong. I was in denial. I'll bet you're wrong, too. Swap it with decaf or hot chocolate. Have a problem with that? Then it's not the routine you're addicted to. It's the addictive chemical you're addicted to.
Yeah, I wouldn't assume stuff I read on the Internet as legal fact. It's time to hire a lawyer. They can get to the bottom of what you allegedly did wrong and what to do about that. If you are in the clear legally, they can also write a letter on your behalf to Google and that tends to carry more weight than a letter you send yourself. If your game isn't worth the couple of hundred dollars it will cost to do this, then please do us all a favor and just leave it off the Android Market.
I hate to tell you this, but the iPad is an appliance, too. It's just a console with wireless abilities and more non-game apps than actual games. And that's exactly how it's market with the "There's an app for that" campaign.
I'm sure it will be a fad. They did that whole "walled garden" approach to video game consoles starting in the 1980's and nobody buys video game consoles anymore, right?
"Netbooks have tried to bundle with 3G but I think it is safe to say it has been fairly unsuccessful."
Yeah, they've tried to rape us with $50 - $60/month 3G access and we didn't bite. I'll gladly pay the $30/month the iPad is asking even if I'm limited in the apps I'm using. I'm just waiting at this point to make sure there are no problems with the iPad. I hate being the first to buy a product.
Top posting makes since because I already read everything up until the reply. All I need is the new information. Scrolling to the bottom of every f'ing message I get that's part of a larger conversation is a colossal waste of time, especially since most replies are one or two lines long. I don't need to digest the messages to read later. I just need to read whatever was added to the conversation and have the original text available in the rare case I need to look at it.
That was my first thought, too. Then I... you know... RTFA and that put things in place for me since they mention Jumpman several times. But for what it's worth, his name was officially Mario by Donkey Kong Jr. Mario Bros came later.
I don't know any parents who didn't have some form of in-car entertainment system. That system only recently includes video as an option, but there was certainly a system of some sort. In my childhood, our in-car entertainment system generally included action figures, activity books, reading books, and music. My kids have DVD players, activity books, and toys as their in-car entertainment system.
"With rent $1500 + $2500 for student loans this nearly impossible to feed ourselves. With no accounting or business experience it makes me unhirable for even an entry level job as all the employers want +5 years or they wont even talk to you."
Can you get those student loan terms stretched out some? Even taking a hit in interest may be worth it. Also, you may want to take the GP's advice and rethink where you live. When I was a kid, the residential construction market died in Texas. We lost everything we had. One day, my dad found himself bidding against a family member on a construction job because they both needed it so badly. About a month later we moved to Georgia. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows here but there was work. And over time we ended up better off than if we had stayed.
New products call for new solutions. Why write down the price, take notes, etc when you can just bookmark the page? It took me a while to adjust from using the Palm as an organizer to organizing with my Palm, but once I made the switch I never looked back.
Street Fighter IV was pretty notable. I prefer the PC version because I can use my hacked together arcade-quality USB joystick with it. It annoys me when I play tournaments using a stupid 360 or PS3 gamepad. Charge players like Blanka and Balrog just aren't the same. Which brings up MAME and emulators in general. Oh, and Madden has been multi-player single screen for a long time now for the PC (at least 10 years). The only was your statement really holds is if by "notable" you mean "FPS." And no, there are no PC FPSes I'm aware of that do split screen multiplayer gaming.
I don't know anyone who actually analyzes non-trivial algorithms as part of a professional programming job, but I know plenty who eyeball it. For example, if part of your solution involves a piece that runs in O(n!) time and you're not absolutely sure you can keep the input set small, you need to find a better solution.
Slashdot Mirror
Being self taught and getting a degree are not as mutually exclusive as they seem. For example, my Bachelor of Science in Computer Science didn't give me everything I needed to know about any specific job. It merely taught me to solve problems relating to computer science (and how to pick up a programming language fairly quickly). I still had to go out there and learn a few marketable skills on my own. There a few of my fellow students who also did this. We were the ones who found jobs right away after graduation while those who didn't look beyond their coursework ended up struggling to find work. Those marketable skills I picked up on my own get me into a job but what I learned in college en route to my degree is what makes me good at my job. You shouldn't sell a college grad short. Depending on what you need them for, they may be worth the hire.
Speaking of arcade controllers in the home, here is a pic of the controllers I built myself for MAME (and later SFIV). I'm using real arcade parts (some scavenged off a dead cabinet and some obtained from Happ) wired to an ultracheap USB digital gamepad. You pull the inndards of the gamepad out of its casing, solder your buttons to where the gamepad buttons would press, and you have a nice joystick using authentic arcade parts that works anywhere a standard USB gamepad would. I've also built one of these using a 360 controller's innards for SFIV tournaments, but you have to make sure you get a 360 controller with a common ground (not all of them are).
There were times when I couldn't follow links on Google or Facebook anymore. I had to manually copy link location and paste them. There were also a few times that ads would randomly pop crap up even if I didn't have a browser open at the time advertising spyware removal. The one that made me throw in the towel on Firefox was the one that looked like Windows Security Center. That thing was so annoying and I got it several times. I updated Firefox every time I got a notification to do so. I don't install executables unless I know where they came from. I don't go clicking OK on those obvious malware pop-ups. I don't surf porn or play Flash games online. Facebook is probably the sketchiest site I frequent and I don't have any 3rd party Facebook apps installed there. I feel I'm a fairly responsible web user. I don't really care what browser I'm using. I just want it to work without having to fiddle with settings or install plug-ins. Firefox did that for a long time, but it's my experience that time is over. So far I'm 6 months into using Chrome and haven't had a spyware outbreak yet. I hope it lasts but if it doesn't I'll be right back out there looking for new options (and re-evaluating old options like Firefox and IE).
I couldn't quit Firefox either (and had no intention of doing so). But then Firefox went the way of IE in my book. I can't trust it anymore. There are now sites that will install spyware on my machine by merely visiting them in Firefox. That still hasn't happened to me with Chrome so I guess that's my flavor of the week until it starts getting crudded up as well. I'm not thrilled about the way Chrome "feels" but I am used to it by now. The Chrome UI is less annoying than random spyware.
You make a joke, but I personally would've appreciated an explanation of exactly what the fuck GM stands for some time before 1/3 of the way through TFA.
"You're never going to out-grief the trolls."
I don't know. On Slashdot, I haven't seen much from the GNAA lately and goatse is finally starting to die. Maybe making it harder to troll does yield some positive results.
Big Bang and How I Met Your Mother used to both be on Hulu. I guess something happened with CBS and Hulu so that Hulu no longer carries CBS stuff. Oh well, CBS' loss.
"Seriously, the only way workers have been paid what they're worth under capitalism is when they organize."
When I feel I'm being asked to work too much, not getting paid what I should, or just generally feel I'm being under-appreciated at work, I go right home and organize. I put together my resume and my contacts and start setting up a space on my laptop to track everywhere I've submitted resumes and which particular resume and cover letter I submitted. I also put notes on who I've talked to and the status of those talks. In about 3-4 months, I generally get exactly what I want. Once it took up to 6 months. And I'm not a terrible job hopper. In 10 years, I have worked for 4 companies(4 years, 1 year, 4 years, and 1 for my current employer). So you're absolutely right. There does come a time when a worker must organize and find a place where he (or she) can be appreciated for his (or her) talents. Oh, you mean unions? I guess you can if you want, but I get better results on my own.
Or many of us have found that paying for support is merely giving money to someone who will blame someone else. Hardware vendor says it's an OS issue. OS vendor says it's a hardware issue. If you're not buying a pre-configured machine or a brand such as Apple or Sun who handle both the hardware and the software, I've found paying for OS support to be a colossal waste of time and money.
It doesn't necessarily have to be an FPS. It could be Super Chemo Bros, Non-Emergency Services Center, or Madden's Colon 2011.
"I drink coffee in the morning because I don't feel quite human until I had that first cup. It's more of a routine than an actual need for caffeine though. It's just something I do that's a rote action until my brain starts functioning normally."
I used to tell myself the same thing about smoking. I'm just addicted to the habit of smoking, not that pesky habit-forming nicotine. I was wrong. I was in denial. I'll bet you're wrong, too. Swap it with decaf or hot chocolate. Have a problem with that? Then it's not the routine you're addicted to. It's the addictive chemical you're addicted to.
Yeah, I wouldn't assume stuff I read on the Internet as legal fact. It's time to hire a lawyer. They can get to the bottom of what you allegedly did wrong and what to do about that. If you are in the clear legally, they can also write a letter on your behalf to Google and that tends to carry more weight than a letter you send yourself. If your game isn't worth the couple of hundred dollars it will cost to do this, then please do us all a favor and just leave it off the Android Market.
I am not a number! I am a free cat!
Forget that. I want to the the scene where someone gets killed over a few kilobytes of RAM.
I hate to tell you this, but the iPad is an appliance, too. It's just a console with wireless abilities and more non-game apps than actual games. And that's exactly how it's market with the "There's an app for that" campaign.
I'm sure it will be a fad. They did that whole "walled garden" approach to video game consoles starting in the 1980's and nobody buys video game consoles anymore, right?
"Netbooks have tried to bundle with 3G but I think it is safe to say it has been fairly unsuccessful."
Yeah, they've tried to rape us with $50 - $60/month 3G access and we didn't bite. I'll gladly pay the $30/month the iPad is asking even if I'm limited in the apps I'm using. I'm just waiting at this point to make sure there are no problems with the iPad. I hate being the first to buy a product.
Top posting makes since because I already read everything up until the reply. All I need is the new information. Scrolling to the bottom of every f'ing message I get that's part of a larger conversation is a colossal waste of time, especially since most replies are one or two lines long. I don't need to digest the messages to read later. I just need to read whatever was added to the conversation and have the original text available in the rare case I need to look at it.
That was my first thought, too. Then I... you know... RTFA and that put things in place for me since they mention Jumpman several times. But for what it's worth, his name was officially Mario by Donkey Kong Jr. Mario Bros came later.
I don't know any parents who didn't have some form of in-car entertainment system. That system only recently includes video as an option, but there was certainly a system of some sort. In my childhood, our in-car entertainment system generally included action figures, activity books, reading books, and music. My kids have DVD players, activity books, and toys as their in-car entertainment system.
"With rent $1500 + $2500 for student loans this nearly impossible to feed ourselves. With no accounting or business experience it makes me unhirable for even an entry level job as all the employers want +5 years or they wont even talk to you."
Can you get those student loan terms stretched out some? Even taking a hit in interest may be worth it. Also, you may want to take the GP's advice and rethink where you live. When I was a kid, the residential construction market died in Texas. We lost everything we had. One day, my dad found himself bidding against a family member on a construction job because they both needed it so badly. About a month later we moved to Georgia. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows here but there was work. And over time we ended up better off than if we had stayed.
New products call for new solutions. Why write down the price, take notes, etc when you can just bookmark the page? It took me a while to adjust from using the Palm as an organizer to organizing with my Palm, but once I made the switch I never looked back.
DVR's are so last decade. If Hulu or stagevu aren't carrying it, I'm not watching it.
Street Fighter IV was pretty notable. I prefer the PC version because I can use my hacked together arcade-quality USB joystick with it. It annoys me when I play tournaments using a stupid 360 or PS3 gamepad. Charge players like Blanka and Balrog just aren't the same. Which brings up MAME and emulators in general. Oh, and Madden has been multi-player single screen for a long time now for the PC (at least 10 years). The only was your statement really holds is if by "notable" you mean "FPS." And no, there are no PC FPSes I'm aware of that do split screen multiplayer gaming.
I don't know anyone who actually analyzes non-trivial algorithms as part of a professional programming job, but I know plenty who eyeball it. For example, if part of your solution involves a piece that runs in O(n!) time and you're not absolutely sure you can keep the input set small, you need to find a better solution.