move to a place where home, work and shopping are within 25 miles of each other and be thankful for it?
Can't speak for anyone else, but if my work, home and shopping were more than 25 miles apart from each other; I'd definitely move. Having to travel that kind of distance for basic necessities is far more of a hassle than its worth. I like that I can walk or bicycle most places I need to and drive for those that are just a little further away (unfortunately, I do currently have to drive to work; since my wife really loves the neighbourhood we're in. I could do it by bike in theory; but while going to work in the morning by bike would be okay, I probably wouldn't be too comfortable with the bike home in the evening after a long day in the office)
Hybrids need to make concessions in weight, engine size and/or luggage space. If I could afford a second car I would have one electric for daily commute/shopping and one gas powered for longer trips. Use the best tool for each job, don't try to do everything with a one-size-fits-all hammer.
Depending on how often you take longer trips, it may also be worth considering simply renting a car for those trips. I did the maths and it works out that for me at least, it'd be cheaper in the long run to do exactly that (given the cost of petrol compared to electricity here in Germany; and my relatively infrequent longer trips).
My next car will almost certainly be a pure electric (although it'll be awhile, since my current car - a 2009 Mazda MX5 - was brand-new only 3 years ago and I need to buy my wife a new one before I get a new one myself (although I might buy her a plug-in Hybrid of some kind))
For practically all people, the cost of their electric bill would increase more than they were spending on gasoline.
This may be true in some areas of the US perhaps (and even then, I'd like to see figures); but here in Europe where many of us pay the equivalent of $8.80 per gallon for petrol, electricity from the grid is significantly cheaper.
We've a pair of chargers in our office's parking garage. There are almost always a pair of cars plugged into them.
To be fair, though, GM has an office in the building.
We just put one outside our office building in the front parking lot. One of the two spots is almost always filled by the electric car we've got all painted up to drive around the city and make us look "green and eco-friendly"; but since we let anyone use it for free, the other spot is quite often in use. (and just to note: we're not in a nice central location or anything like that; the only way anyone will park there and use it is if they're coming in to our building (which is only us; not shared))
I'll probably buy myself an electric vehicle as my next car; but it'll be awhile since my current car is only 3 years old from being factory fresh.
Two or three times, yes... but I decided it's really not for me. I find the "high" doesn't last long; and there was significant impairment in my ability to rationalise decisions (especially those relating to social behaviour - similar problem to alcohol but without the messiness and stumbling all over the place)
Those monkeys must have been damn near overdose, or given the drug at high doses over a long period of time to result in loss of cognitive functionality at that base level.
I don't think they actually CAUSED brain damage using cocaine. They simulated it using cocaine. See the bit I wrote above about impairment in my ability to rationalise.
That said, fuck the cocaine. Where's the damn control group where the regular monkeys used the prosthetic device to help them remember more quickly which decision to make? When you miss a control group that big, the study is hogwash.
I generally agree with you here. It does seem odd to skip the control group of monkeys that weren't given something to simulate brain damage. Especially since their results apparently showed these "damaged" monkeys performing better with the assistance of the device than they performed with neither the device nor the cocaine.
The effects of organic chemicals like cocaine are wildly unpredictable. Hell, Just like Caffeine helps coders code, so does cocaine (when taken in moderation) -- They're both stimulants.
In very light moderation, it might help; but large amounts of either is going to damage my coding. Being impulsive; not stopping to think about better ways to do things; etc. These effects come from both caffeine and cocaine, it's true; but caffeine is easier to moderate to a small dose in general (and legal - not that that bothers me for other substances I do like to take on rare occasions; but for something I use daily like caffeine, I'd be wary about replacing that with cocaine!)
This is more scientific FRAUD, committed by sociopaths who enjoy torturing animals.
What makes you assume the monkeys didn't thoroughly enjoy the experience? I can say from experience that taking cocaine is not entirely unpleasant (I wouldn't do it again; but the two or three times I tried it, it was a lot of fun for a short period of time; followed by disappointment that the feelings go away so quickly)
And besides, even if it WAS committed by sociopaths who enjoy torturing animals, that doesn't make it scientific fraud (as long as they correctly recorded results and didn't distort anything).
I'm can't say with 100% certainty that this Jazan Wild is filing frivolous lawsuits in hopes of getting some easy money, but I find the idea that he truly believes that he invented the macabre carnival idea, or that he coined the term "Carnival of Souls" hard to swallow. In addition, this guy be be completely nuts to think he can sue reviewers for copyright infringement. I say he's just fishing.
In the discussion on the linked Bookalicious page, he has posted quite a bit. He seems to come across as a bit of a dickhead and doesn't get that he shouldn't have sent C&D letters to the reviewers; BUT he does at least seem to have a point with his disputes. He linked this PDF in one of his posts, and I definitely would agree that on the face of it there are TOO many similarities for it all to be coincidence or "generic" macabre carnival stuff.
I'd say at most good companies, it's understood that someone with significant work experience behind them doesn't start again at the bottom
Even if the work experience is in a different industry, such as accounting software vs. video games?
Yes and no... depending on the actual work the person has done. I appreciate the vast differences between accounting software and video games of course; but I don't accept that someone who has spent ten years working on the networking code of accounting software would need to go in as a junior in the game industry - I'd put them mid-level working on network code in the games (the probationary period would determine if they really can do it or not). If they wanted to completely change over and start doing game AIs or something like that, then I'd probably put them a bit more junior, but that'd be their call.
I'm trying to figure out what you meant by "significant".
In my case, I'm a software developer and have been one for the last ten and a half years. Before that, I was primarily in third-level support kind of roles. Most recently (around a year and a bit now), I've become the senior developer / development supervisor at my company and spend a lot of my time discussing specifications; product planning and so forth in addition to managing my team and also writing code (still about 45% of my time). Even before I become the development supervisor, I still spent some time on product planning and specifications; just in a less formal degree than I do now.
The industry I work in is definitely not in Google's realm - I write software that deals with user management, scanning and printing for MFP devices. Quite different to Google; but my skills would transfer to some of their projects quite well and I think I could make significant contributions on fleshing out new projects also (Google always have new things in the pipeline).
Suffice to say, I don't actually care so much - I'm very happy where I am and I consider it their loss, not mine.
Their hiring process showed me very clearly that they had no interest in my creativity and only wanted someone who can churn code, find bugs, and patch systems to keep them running (all important; but not the only thing in the world; and definitely not for me).
I believe it's called "paying your dues", and I believe it's considered standard practice at most major companies.
Actually, I'd say at most good companies, it's understood that someone with significant work experience behind them doesn't start again at the bottom... (especially when you're trying to lure them away from a job they're already quite happy in with no plans to leave)
Certainly noone would accuse Google of hiring slouches.
No, but I would accuse them of having hiring practices that discourage creativity (even if their employment practices promote it).
I interviewed with Google a little while back. Right at the start I told them I was not interested in the job they were offering as it's somewhat "below" what I currently do (and would require moving to a more expensive city for a similar level of pay as what I'm on now). They said they'd like to interview me anyway and perhaps after that offer me a job that would better fit my skills.
The short version is that after going through their rather long and drawn out process, involving mind-numbingly boring "solve this well known algorithm problem" questions, they offered me the job that I said I didn't want. After I turned them down, they then sent me a letter saying that "after consideration, we don't think you're a good match for Google".
Personally, I would've really liked to work there. But NOT as a code-monkey on their generic sites. I'm a pretty good developer (although by no means brilliant); but where I really shine is creating new things from scratch. I'm an ideas person with the technical aptitude to put the ideas in to practice. Their hiring process showed me very clearly that they had no interest in my creativity and only wanted someone who can churn code, find bugs, and patch systems to keep them running (all important; but not the only thing in the world; and definitely not for me).
I wonder how many people here are old enough to get your joke?
At work about 6 months back, I heard a colleague humming "Daisy"; and joined in with the words:
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do,
Getting hazy, can't divide 3 by 2,
My answers I cannoy get 'em,
They are stuck in my Pentium,
I could be fleet, my answers sweet,
With a workable FPU.
What was truly awesome however was that another work colleague joined in about half-way through.
Here's the text of a facebook post I made a few months ago...
1:17am... can't sleep because whenever I lie down, I cough insanely until I sit up again. Having a cold sucks.
Since I feel like it though, here's a little rant about something that annoys me. Homeopathic "medicine". My mother-in-law brought around a large pile of different medicines and so on for my cold (very nice of her). However, included in the lot is a bottle of something called "Meditonsin", marked as a homeopathic remedy.
For those of you who just think "homeopathic" means "natural" or some such thing; let me set the record straight. The word homeopathy derives from Greek and means "like suffering". It's based on the rather stupid notion that giving someone a very dilute form of something that CAUSES particular symptoms will somehow CURE those same symptoms that they already have.
Looking at the list of ingredients for Meditonsin, I notice "Mercurius Cyanatus" in there. For those of you with rusty Latin and no imagination, that's another way of saying Mercury(II) Cyanide - one of the more deadly poisons that I can think of. While I have no doubt that there's probably either none or next to none actually in the solution (due to another stupid principle of homeopathy, which is that the more you dilute something the more potent it is), it hardly instills in me a desire to drink the stuff.
About the only thing in the bottle that would help the cold is that it was originally diluted with ethanol rather than water before the final water was added, and so it's more or less a bottle of 6% alcohol and water with the very slight chance of minute traces of deadly poisons.
So, I think I'll stick to the pseudoephedrine and aspirin I've already been taking, plus the nice tasting cough drops (which contain no medicine whatsoever, but sucking on anything stimulates saliva, which is good for a scratchy throat)
As a final thought: You know what they call Alternative Medicine that actually works? "Medicine".
Wow, Silk Road is still functioning? I would have through with all the publicity it has gotten it wouldn't be trustworthy anymore....
Very trustworthy still. It's basically a service where some people want to buy drugs; and other people want to sell drugs. Add to that the idea that a user rates their purchase (eBay-like) and it's pretty easy to distinguish a legitimate seller from a fake one (theoretically, someone COULD set up a seller account; a bunch of other accounts and then rate themselves on transactions; but so far that doesn't seem to be common, and is usually quite easy to spot).
Publicity only seems to have improved things in general.
Right now, there is a problem with high prices, since a lot of sellers haven't changed their prices since bitcoins were worth half to 3/4 of what they are now; but I suspect that will level out once business starts dropping and they realise they'll make more by lowering their prices somewhat.
Disclaimer: I am only an infrequent purchaser, since I tend to only buy LSD and in lots of 25 tabs for personal use (which means one purchase lasts me a LONG time (my last purchase was around Christmas last year)). I have a friend who also uses it more frequently though, and his experiences are also good (other than the recent price issues).
And what does it matter if bitcoin itself is secure when the places that allow you to extract any value for your play money have joke level security?
Depends on what you mean by "value"... I keep my bitcoins in my personal wallet, never on an exchange. I use exchanges to BUY bitcoins, but never store any there. I also never sell bitcoins for Euro/Dollars/etc - I simply spend them. So for me, the "extracting value" is the spending of them on things I wish to have*
* (yes, feel free to read that as "buy drugs on Silk Road"... that IS my main use of them)
Mind sharing when is the right time to use interfaces? I like hearing the wisdom of other programmers.
I wish I could "elegantly" explain it. Basically, the question comes down to whether to use an abstract class or an interface. It's pretty clear you need to use one or the other in particular cases (or use neither, and end up with a fairly chaotic mess, like most of my code from 10 years ago).
So, deciding between an abstract class and an interface, I generally go for a feel of what the system is going to do.
An abstract class is something I'll use when I'm dealing with things that are similar in design or concept. These things (objects) will be medium to large in size generally, and have functionality that is common between them. Interfaces however, I'll use when I'm dealing with things that have (or more specifically are "required to have") the same kind of structure; but don't have any relationship to each other otherwise.
So, programming a virtual zoo, "animal" is an abstract class that I derive "giraffe" from; but "process for feeding animals" is an interface since the way that animals get fed will be vastly different for each one but there are defined things that must happen.
Sorry... that's not as clear as it could be (and I'm sure other programmers will pipe up to disagree with me on some detail somewhere), but like I said, I do it more from "feel" than any hard and fast rules. It's the "feel" that I was lacking before I got the hang of it.
Ask a rock star to play Jazz or Bach. They also know they cannot. Having limitations and knowing them and learning to fill the holes in your knowledge is what rock star programmers do all the time.
Not a brilliant example, since most of the best rock stars are classically trained and can handle both Jazz styles and classics like Bach fairly well. But I do get your point. I still wouldn't accept being called a rock-star developer though.
Bullshit. The definition of a "Rock Star" developer is that they have a history of producing hits. It's not relative.
I have a history of producing software that gets the job done; sells pretty well; people like using; is very stable without too many bugs; and so forth.
I however would definitely NOT consider myself a "Rock Star" developer by any stretch of the imagination. I'm self taught and have glaring holes in my knowledge in quite a few areas. I often look at code from others and go "ah, that's a better way than I would've used" (and then try to use similar things in my own code in the future). For example, after a good 5 years of coding all day every day as my day job, I finally figured out the "right" time to use interfaces vs other methods. My code before that should've used interfaces worked (and worked well) but would be much more maintainable had I really known about their correct usage before. And vice-versa, I came across some REALLY old code of mine that uses interfaces when it makes absolutely no sense to do so (I assume it was when I first heard what about they are)
What makes me not a CRAP developer is that I know I have these holes in my knowledge and am willing to learn from others. That hardly makes a rock-star though, regardless of how much good stuff I've produced to date.
If you never made a Facebook account, congratulations. You are beyond the test. If you made one sometime ago but stopped using it, again congratulations, everyone makes a mistake once in a while, it's part of being human. If you still have an active Facebook account, that's strike one.
I understand the dislike, distrust and sometimes even hatred of things like facebook, but assuming that anyone with an active facebook account isn't aware of the issues seems to be a common mistake around here.
I have a facebook account. I actively use it. I also understand that anything I put there (or others put there about me) (whether marked as private or not) is potentially as public as me scrawling it in 50 metre high letters on the side of a public building in the middle of town (however significantly more socially acceptable).
I still choose to use it, because it's a good way to keep in touch with my many friends around the world; post pictures of my daughter growing up for anyone who cares to see that; organise events with friends in an easy to manage interface; and so on. I do block pretty much every game, "application" and so on and it's almost beyond the pale to imagine I would ever consider using such a payment system as the one described; however that doesn't mean I have to get rid of using facebook altogether - just don't use what you don't want (and remember the thing about scrawling your information in public, as already mentioned).
I do NOT fear things like potential employers/future business partners/whatever seeing that I was out at a party drunk one day. Anyone who refuses to hire me for that, isn't someone I want to work for/do business with/etc.
Depends on the manager. It's a myth that managers make more money than developers; usually, the lowest-level manager (the one who directly supervises the developers) doesn't make much more (if any) than the developers.
Not much more, but still some... I'm one of those "low level managers" - specifically, my title is Software Development Supervisor. I'm in charge of a small team of developers (and the majority of my time is active development or related activities, with about 25% to 50% spent on managing the team, dealing with other departments, handling spec decisions and other such stuff); but there's three levels above me to reach the company president.
My income is about 25% more than the highest paid Software Developer (by title) in our group.
I've been using mac hardware for the past five years so my input may be aged.
My main two desktop systems at home are both iMacs; my main work laptop is a 17" MacBook Pro; and I've got an old PPC Mac Mini laying around that I'll probably repurpose for something one day. I say this in advance to indicate that I definitely do like Macs. The OS is easy and unobtrusive; I can use advanced shell scripting that I'm comfortable with from the Linux/Unix world; and so far the hardware has been extremely reliable and good.
All that said however, I absolutely can not stand to use Apple's mouses and keyboards. The built in trackpad on the MacBook Pro is fine and I'm happy using it on the road, but when I'm at my desk at work, I have a basic Dell laptop and keyboard that came with the docking station for one of my other laptops. At home, I use Logitech for both mouse and keyboard.
My main complaint with Apple's offerings is comfort. The keyboards don't have enough response to really feel I've typed something, which slows me down significantly; and the mouses don't fit comfortably to my hand for any kind of extended use (but at least they're not specifically right-handed devices; as a lefty, that really bugs me).
Each to their own of course - if you're comfortable with something, use it.
Does the Nethernalds have the european "Coworkers are not to be befriended" thing I've seen in Germany and other places, where white collar workers don't socialize at work?
As a white collar worker in Germany, I have no idea what you're talking about. I socialise with a lot of my co-workers and I know they socialise with each other as well. Nothing like heading down to the pub with a few colleagues after work for a beer or two to unwind and talk about crap instead of work stuff.
I have to ask: are you fluent in German? Are there any sort of assimilation requirements in terms of language/cultural knowledge?
I'd say I'm pretty fluent now, after 5 years here. But when I got here, I didn't speak a word of it. When you get a residence permit (basically think of it an as extended visa for living and working longer term), you are required to take an "integration" course, that the government will pay for (beyond a token 1 euro per day from you). This course is primarily a language course, but also covers some basics of the German political system, history and culture.
How did you go about finding your job there?
I was kind of lucky - I work for a large international firm with head offices located in each region. The European head office is here in Germany; and our company language is English.
I know a bit of German from my 2 years in college, and I know Germany has a huge tech sector, but I haven't seriously looked into it yet, and the language thing would be a pretty big barrier I think.
There are quite a few companies where you can get by in your working life with only English, so trying to find one of those would make the most sense. That way, you can learn German at your leisure (and with the course) so that your social life isn't so terrible (basically, work was fine for me with no German; but I lived like a hermit until I could speak enough German to go out and meet people... now I have a German wife and a gorgeous little bi-lingual daughter)
If you want to seriously look in to it, try looking around on the job portal websites like stepstone.de, monster.de and so on and just search for jobs that require English but don't require German... they do exist. Another possibility might be to sign up on some "ex-pat community" type websites and post a bit in forums to gauge what opportunities there are. Off the top of my head, there's toytowngermany.com and internations.org.
That aside, germany seems like one of the best places in the world to live at the moment from an outsider's perspective.
I've lived in 5 different countries now. Germany has its fair share of things I don't like (excessive and often silly bureaucracy is one of them; annoying social customs where I accidentally offend people from time to time is another); but every country has good points and bad points. Overall I do love it here and would highly recommend it to others.
Slashdot Mirror
move to a place where home, work and shopping are within 25 miles of each other and be thankful for it?
Can't speak for anyone else, but if my work, home and shopping were more than 25 miles apart from each other; I'd definitely move. Having to travel that kind of distance for basic necessities is far more of a hassle than its worth. I like that I can walk or bicycle most places I need to and drive for those that are just a little further away (unfortunately, I do currently have to drive to work; since my wife really loves the neighbourhood we're in. I could do it by bike in theory; but while going to work in the morning by bike would be okay, I probably wouldn't be too comfortable with the bike home in the evening after a long day in the office)
Hybrids need to make concessions in weight, engine size and/or luggage space. If I could afford a second car I would have one electric for daily commute/shopping and one gas powered for longer trips. Use the best tool for each job, don't try to do everything with a one-size-fits-all hammer.
Depending on how often you take longer trips, it may also be worth considering simply renting a car for those trips. I did the maths and it works out that for me at least, it'd be cheaper in the long run to do exactly that (given the cost of petrol compared to electricity here in Germany; and my relatively infrequent longer trips).
My next car will almost certainly be a pure electric (although it'll be awhile, since my current car - a 2009 Mazda MX5 - was brand-new only 3 years ago and I need to buy my wife a new one before I get a new one myself (although I might buy her a plug-in Hybrid of some kind))
For practically all people, the cost of their electric bill would increase more than they were spending on gasoline.
This may be true in some areas of the US perhaps (and even then, I'd like to see figures); but here in Europe where many of us pay the equivalent of $8.80 per gallon for petrol, electricity from the grid is significantly cheaper.
We've a pair of chargers in our office's parking garage. There are almost always a pair of cars plugged into them.
To be fair, though, GM has an office in the building.
We just put one outside our office building in the front parking lot. One of the two spots is almost always filled by the electric car we've got all painted up to drive around the city and make us look "green and eco-friendly"; but since we let anyone use it for free, the other spot is quite often in use.
(and just to note: we're not in a nice central location or anything like that; the only way anyone will park there and use it is if they're coming in to our building (which is only us; not shared))
I'll probably buy myself an electric vehicle as my next car; but it'll be awhile since my current car is only 3 years old from being factory fresh.
Hasn't anyone ever used Cocaine?
Two or three times, yes... but I decided it's really not for me. I find the "high" doesn't last long; and there was significant impairment in my ability to rationalise decisions (especially those relating to social behaviour - similar problem to alcohol but without the messiness and stumbling all over the place)
Those monkeys must have been damn near overdose, or given the drug at high doses over a long period of time to result in loss of cognitive functionality at that base level.
I don't think they actually CAUSED brain damage using cocaine. They simulated it using cocaine. See the bit I wrote above about impairment in my ability to rationalise.
That said, fuck the cocaine. Where's the damn control group where the regular monkeys used the prosthetic device to help them remember more quickly which decision to make? When you miss a control group that big, the study is hogwash.
I generally agree with you here. It does seem odd to skip the control group of monkeys that weren't given something to simulate brain damage. Especially since their results apparently showed these "damaged" monkeys performing better with the assistance of the device than they performed with neither the device nor the cocaine.
The effects of organic chemicals like cocaine are wildly unpredictable. Hell, Just like Caffeine helps coders code, so does cocaine (when taken in moderation) -- They're both stimulants.
In very light moderation, it might help; but large amounts of either is going to damage my coding. Being impulsive; not stopping to think about better ways to do things; etc. These effects come from both caffeine and cocaine, it's true; but caffeine is easier to moderate to a small dose in general (and legal - not that that bothers me for other substances I do like to take on rare occasions; but for something I use daily like caffeine, I'd be wary about replacing that with cocaine!)
This is more scientific FRAUD, committed by sociopaths who enjoy torturing animals.
What makes you assume the monkeys didn't thoroughly enjoy the experience?
I can say from experience that taking cocaine is not entirely unpleasant (I wouldn't do it again; but the two or three times I tried it, it was a lot of fun for a short period of time; followed by disappointment that the feelings go away so quickly)
And besides, even if it WAS committed by sociopaths who enjoy torturing animals, that doesn't make it scientific fraud (as long as they correctly recorded results and didn't distort anything).
I'm can't say with 100% certainty that this Jazan Wild is filing frivolous lawsuits in hopes of getting some easy money, but I find the idea that he truly believes that he invented the macabre carnival idea, or that he coined the term "Carnival of Souls" hard to swallow. In addition, this guy be be completely nuts to think he can sue reviewers for copyright infringement. I say he's just fishing.
In the discussion on the linked Bookalicious page, he has posted quite a bit. He seems to come across as a bit of a dickhead and doesn't get that he shouldn't have sent C&D letters to the reviewers; BUT he does at least seem to have a point with his disputes. He linked this PDF in one of his posts, and I definitely would agree that on the face of it there are TOO many similarities for it all to be coincidence or "generic" macabre carnival stuff.
I'd say at most good companies, it's understood that someone with significant work experience behind them doesn't start again at the bottom
Even if the work experience is in a different industry, such as accounting software vs. video games?
Yes and no... depending on the actual work the person has done. I appreciate the vast differences between accounting software and video games of course; but I don't accept that someone who has spent ten years working on the networking code of accounting software would need to go in as a junior in the game industry - I'd put them mid-level working on network code in the games (the probationary period would determine if they really can do it or not). If they wanted to completely change over and start doing game AIs or something like that, then I'd probably put them a bit more junior, but that'd be their call.
I'm trying to figure out what you meant by "significant".
In my case, I'm a software developer and have been one for the last ten and a half years. Before that, I was primarily in third-level support kind of roles. Most recently (around a year and a bit now), I've become the senior developer / development supervisor at my company and spend a lot of my time discussing specifications; product planning and so forth in addition to managing my team and also writing code (still about 45% of my time). Even before I become the development supervisor, I still spent some time on product planning and specifications; just in a less formal degree than I do now.
The industry I work in is definitely not in Google's realm - I write software that deals with user management, scanning and printing for MFP devices. Quite different to Google; but my skills would transfer to some of their projects quite well and I think I could make significant contributions on fleshing out new projects also (Google always have new things in the pipeline).
Suffice to say, I don't actually care so much - I'm very happy where I am and I consider it their loss, not mine.
Their hiring process showed me very clearly that they had no interest in my creativity and only wanted someone who can churn code, find bugs, and patch systems to keep them running (all important; but not the only thing in the world; and definitely not for me).
I believe it's called "paying your dues", and I believe it's considered standard practice at most major companies.
Actually, I'd say at most good companies, it's understood that someone with significant work experience behind them doesn't start again at the bottom... (especially when you're trying to lure them away from a job they're already quite happy in with no plans to leave)
Certainly noone would accuse Google of hiring slouches.
No, but I would accuse them of having hiring practices that discourage creativity (even if their employment practices promote it).
I interviewed with Google a little while back. Right at the start I told them I was not interested in the job they were offering as it's somewhat "below" what I currently do (and would require moving to a more expensive city for a similar level of pay as what I'm on now). They said they'd like to interview me anyway and perhaps after that offer me a job that would better fit my skills.
The short version is that after going through their rather long and drawn out process, involving mind-numbingly boring "solve this well known algorithm problem" questions, they offered me the job that I said I didn't want. After I turned them down, they then sent me a letter saying that "after consideration, we don't think you're a good match for Google".
Personally, I would've really liked to work there. But NOT as a code-monkey on their generic sites. I'm a pretty good developer (although by no means brilliant); but where I really shine is creating new things from scratch. I'm an ideas person with the technical aptitude to put the ideas in to practice. Their hiring process showed me very clearly that they had no interest in my creativity and only wanted someone who can churn code, find bugs, and patch systems to keep them running (all important; but not the only thing in the world; and definitely not for me).
I wonder how many people here are old enough to get your joke?
At work about 6 months back, I heard a colleague humming "Daisy"; and joined in with the words:
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do,
Getting hazy, can't divide 3 by 2,
My answers I cannoy get 'em,
They are stuck in my Pentium,
I could be fleet, my answers sweet,
With a workable FPU.
What was truly awesome however was that another work colleague joined in about half-way through.
Since homeopathy is:
Sadly, that's only 50% right... the "manufacturers" of these "remedies" will certainly charge a fortune for them.
Here's the text of a facebook post I made a few months ago...
1:17am... can't sleep because whenever I lie down, I cough insanely until I sit up again. Having a cold sucks.
Since I feel like it though, here's a little rant about something that annoys me. Homeopathic "medicine". My mother-in-law brought around a large pile of different medicines and so on for my cold (very nice of her). However, included in the lot is a bottle of something called "Meditonsin", marked as a homeopathic remedy.
For those of you who just think "homeopathic" means "natural" or some such thing; let me set the record straight. The word homeopathy derives from Greek and means "like suffering". It's based on the rather stupid notion that giving someone a very dilute form of something that CAUSES particular symptoms will somehow CURE those same symptoms that they already have.
Looking at the list of ingredients for Meditonsin, I notice "Mercurius Cyanatus" in there. For those of you with rusty Latin and no imagination, that's another way of saying Mercury(II) Cyanide - one of the more deadly poisons that I can think of. While I have no doubt that there's probably either none or next to none actually in the solution (due to another stupid principle of homeopathy, which is that the more you dilute something the more potent it is), it hardly instills in me a desire to drink the stuff.
About the only thing in the bottle that would help the cold is that it was originally diluted with ethanol rather than water before the final water was added, and so it's more or less a bottle of 6% alcohol and water with the very slight chance of minute traces of deadly poisons.
So, I think I'll stick to the pseudoephedrine and aspirin I've already been taking, plus the nice tasting cough drops (which contain no medicine whatsoever, but sucking on anything stimulates saliva, which is good for a scratchy throat)
As a final thought: You know what they call Alternative Medicine that actually works? "Medicine".
Wow, Silk Road is still functioning? I would have through with all the publicity it has gotten it wouldn't be trustworthy anymore....
Very trustworthy still. It's basically a service where some people want to buy drugs; and other people want to sell drugs. Add to that the idea that a user rates their purchase (eBay-like) and it's pretty easy to distinguish a legitimate seller from a fake one (theoretically, someone COULD set up a seller account; a bunch of other accounts and then rate themselves on transactions; but so far that doesn't seem to be common, and is usually quite easy to spot).
Publicity only seems to have improved things in general.
Right now, there is a problem with high prices, since a lot of sellers haven't changed their prices since bitcoins were worth half to 3/4 of what they are now; but I suspect that will level out once business starts dropping and they realise they'll make more by lowering their prices somewhat.
Disclaimer: I am only an infrequent purchaser, since I tend to only buy LSD and in lots of 25 tabs for personal use (which means one purchase lasts me a LONG time (my last purchase was around Christmas last year)). I have a friend who also uses it more frequently though, and his experiences are also good (other than the recent price issues).
And what does it matter if bitcoin itself is secure when the places that allow you to extract any value for your play money have joke level security?
Depends on what you mean by "value"... I keep my bitcoins in my personal wallet, never on an exchange. I use exchanges to BUY bitcoins, but never store any there. I also never sell bitcoins for Euro/Dollars/etc - I simply spend them. So for me, the "extracting value" is the spending of them on things I wish to have*
* (yes, feel free to read that as "buy drugs on Silk Road"... that IS my main use of them)
Mind sharing when is the right time to use interfaces? I like hearing the wisdom of other programmers.
I wish I could "elegantly" explain it. Basically, the question comes down to whether to use an abstract class or an interface. It's pretty clear you need to use one or the other in particular cases (or use neither, and end up with a fairly chaotic mess, like most of my code from 10 years ago).
So, deciding between an abstract class and an interface, I generally go for a feel of what the system is going to do.
An abstract class is something I'll use when I'm dealing with things that are similar in design or concept. These things (objects) will be medium to large in size generally, and have functionality that is common between them.
Interfaces however, I'll use when I'm dealing with things that have (or more specifically are "required to have") the same kind of structure; but don't have any relationship to each other otherwise.
So, programming a virtual zoo, "animal" is an abstract class that I derive "giraffe" from; but "process for feeding animals" is an interface since the way that animals get fed will be vastly different for each one but there are defined things that must happen.
Sorry... that's not as clear as it could be (and I'm sure other programmers will pipe up to disagree with me on some detail somewhere), but like I said, I do it more from "feel" than any hard and fast rules. It's the "feel" that I was lacking before I got the hang of it.
Ask a rock star to play Jazz or Bach. They also know they cannot. Having limitations and knowing them and learning to fill the holes in your knowledge is what rock star programmers do all the time.
Not a brilliant example, since most of the best rock stars are classically trained and can handle both Jazz styles and classics like Bach fairly well. But I do get your point. I still wouldn't accept being called a rock-star developer though.
Bullshit. The definition of a "Rock Star" developer is that they have a history of producing hits. It's not relative.
I have a history of producing software that gets the job done; sells pretty well; people like using; is very stable without too many bugs; and so forth.
I however would definitely NOT consider myself a "Rock Star" developer by any stretch of the imagination. I'm self taught and have glaring holes in my knowledge in quite a few areas. I often look at code from others and go "ah, that's a better way than I would've used" (and then try to use similar things in my own code in the future). For example, after a good 5 years of coding all day every day as my day job, I finally figured out the "right" time to use interfaces vs other methods. My code before that should've used interfaces worked (and worked well) but would be much more maintainable had I really known about their correct usage before. And vice-versa, I came across some REALLY old code of mine that uses interfaces when it makes absolutely no sense to do so (I assume it was when I first heard what about they are)
What makes me not a CRAP developer is that I know I have these holes in my knowledge and am willing to learn from others. That hardly makes a rock-star though, regardless of how much good stuff I've produced to date.
Moa was apparently delicious... hence becoming extinct.
If you never made a Facebook account, congratulations. You are beyond the test. If you made one sometime ago but stopped using it, again congratulations, everyone makes a mistake once in a while, it's part of being human. If you still have an active Facebook account, that's strike one.
I understand the dislike, distrust and sometimes even hatred of things like facebook, but assuming that anyone with an active facebook account isn't aware of the issues seems to be a common mistake around here.
I have a facebook account. I actively use it. I also understand that anything I put there (or others put there about me) (whether marked as private or not) is potentially as public as me scrawling it in 50 metre high letters on the side of a public building in the middle of town (however significantly more socially acceptable).
I still choose to use it, because it's a good way to keep in touch with my many friends around the world; post pictures of my daughter growing up for anyone who cares to see that; organise events with friends in an easy to manage interface; and so on. I do block pretty much every game, "application" and so on and it's almost beyond the pale to imagine I would ever consider using such a payment system as the one described; however that doesn't mean I have to get rid of using facebook altogether - just don't use what you don't want (and remember the thing about scrawling your information in public, as already mentioned).
I do NOT fear things like potential employers/future business partners/whatever seeing that I was out at a party drunk one day. Anyone who refuses to hire me for that, isn't someone I want to work for/do business with/etc.
Depends on the manager. It's a myth that managers make more money than developers; usually, the lowest-level manager (the one who directly supervises the developers) doesn't make much more (if any) than the developers.
Not much more, but still some... I'm one of those "low level managers" - specifically, my title is Software Development Supervisor. I'm in charge of a small team of developers (and the majority of my time is active development or related activities, with about 25% to 50% spent on managing the team, dealing with other departments, handling spec decisions and other such stuff); but there's three levels above me to reach the company president.
My income is about 25% more than the highest paid Software Developer (by title) in our group.
I've been using mac hardware for the past five years so my input may be aged.
My main two desktop systems at home are both iMacs; my main work laptop is a 17" MacBook Pro; and I've got an old PPC Mac Mini laying around that I'll probably repurpose for something one day. I say this in advance to indicate that I definitely do like Macs. The OS is easy and unobtrusive; I can use advanced shell scripting that I'm comfortable with from the Linux/Unix world; and so far the hardware has been extremely reliable and good.
All that said however, I absolutely can not stand to use Apple's mouses and keyboards. The built in trackpad on the MacBook Pro is fine and I'm happy using it on the road, but when I'm at my desk at work, I have a basic Dell laptop and keyboard that came with the docking station for one of my other laptops. At home, I use Logitech for both mouse and keyboard.
My main complaint with Apple's offerings is comfort. The keyboards don't have enough response to really feel I've typed something, which slows me down significantly; and the mouses don't fit comfortably to my hand for any kind of extended use (but at least they're not specifically right-handed devices; as a lefty, that really bugs me).
Each to their own of course - if you're comfortable with something, use it.
Does the Nethernalds have the european "Coworkers are not to be befriended" thing I've seen in Germany and other places, where white collar workers don't socialize at work?
As a white collar worker in Germany, I have no idea what you're talking about. I socialise with a lot of my co-workers and I know they socialise with each other as well. Nothing like heading down to the pub with a few colleagues after work for a beer or two to unwind and talk about crap instead of work stuff.
I have to ask: are you fluent in German? Are there any sort of assimilation requirements in terms of language/cultural knowledge?
I'd say I'm pretty fluent now, after 5 years here. But when I got here, I didn't speak a word of it. When you get a residence permit (basically think of it an as extended visa for living and working longer term), you are required to take an "integration" course, that the government will pay for (beyond a token 1 euro per day from you). This course is primarily a language course, but also covers some basics of the German political system, history and culture.
How did you go about finding your job there?
I was kind of lucky - I work for a large international firm with head offices located in each region. The European head office is here in Germany; and our company language is English.
I know a bit of German from my 2 years in college, and I know Germany has a huge tech sector, but I haven't seriously looked into it yet, and the language thing would be a pretty big barrier I think.
There are quite a few companies where you can get by in your working life with only English, so trying to find one of those would make the most sense. That way, you can learn German at your leisure (and with the course) so that your social life isn't so terrible (basically, work was fine for me with no German; but I lived like a hermit until I could speak enough German to go out and meet people... now I have a German wife and a gorgeous little bi-lingual daughter)
If you want to seriously look in to it, try looking around on the job portal websites like stepstone.de, monster.de and so on and just search for jobs that require English but don't require German... they do exist.
Another possibility might be to sign up on some "ex-pat community" type websites and post a bit in forums to gauge what opportunities there are. Off the top of my head, there's toytowngermany.com and internations.org.
That aside, germany seems like one of the best places in the world to live at the moment from an outsider's perspective.
I've lived in 5 different countries now. Germany has its fair share of things I don't like (excessive and often silly bureaucracy is one of them; annoying social customs where I accidentally offend people from time to time is another); but every country has good points and bad points. Overall I do love it here and would highly recommend it to others.
That you D?
Or is there someone else that moved from Sydney to Hannover? If so, drop me a private message - be good to get to know you.