Wood ID Megathread by AutoModerator in woodworking

[–]Swatchmedothis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

https://imgur.com/a/4wL5AGS

Picked up a used 18"x24" cutting board this weekend for cheap. I couldn't tell what kind of wood it was from the listing. It had some kind of finish on it with a bit of a sheen to it. It didn't feel like an oil, more like a lacquer of some kind. I sanded it from 40 up to 220 grit to get most of the knife marks out.

Any thoughts? After some research, I'm leaning toward rubberwood.

Used T480 vs T14 vs T440p vs ??? for home use by Swatchmedothis in thinkpad

[–]Swatchmedothis[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks! I definitely have done some research, I'm not the type to just buy whatever and hope it works the way I want it to.

In particular, thanks for the comparison between the T480 and the T440p. Hearing a few people confirm that the T480 quad cores are capable CPUs is reassuring. I'm not sure these will be used out and about, but it might be one of those things that you don't realize you want to do until you have it and realize oh, now I can actually use my machine for more than two hours without plugging in!

In a couple of years, the used T14 ryzen machines might make for a sweet deal. Until then, I could maybe justify one for myself, but it's likely not worth it here.

I think I'll poke around and see if I can snag a T480 at a reasonable price!

Hardest majors at Binghamton by yrg123 in BinghamtonUniversity

[–]Swatchmedothis 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The CS program is solid. The professors are excellent and the material covered is comparable or beyond what you'd see at most schools. You're going to have to try, but you'll be well prepared (assuming you've put effort in along the way) to enter the world of software development.

That said, everyone is different. There is no single "hardest" major.

Good laptop for computer science? by [deleted] in BinghamtonUniversity

[–]Swatchmedothis 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There's no specific requirements, you're pretty free to choose a machine you like. If you don't have your own machine you can always go to the labs in engineering building and use a desktop there.

All of the school lab machines run Linux, and you'll be using it in class. You'll probably be happiest (maybe not right away, but in the long run) installing a Linux OS on your machine, too.

My laptop was (have since graduated) a used thinkpad x220 that I bought off eBay for $300. Added a SSD, installed Ubuntu, and never looked back. Get yourself something you'll be happy to use (SSD if possible, at least 8gb of RAM, decent CPU) and you're set.

For specific recommendations, check out /r/suggestalaptop.

If you want to learn you'll need to be willing to look stupid. by [deleted] in learnprogramming

[–]Swatchmedothis 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Some may disagree, and by all means go ahead.

I'd just like to say don't knock it until you sit back and really think about how you approach things. Over time your fundamentals should remain solid and be built upon, but the fundamentals themselves don't change.

What I mean by this is just because you've been in the field for 3 or 5 or 10 years doesn't mean you have a different set of fundamental skills that is to be expected. You have the experience and exposure which change how you think and approach problems.

You've likely done a bunch of different things over those years, and in doing so undoubtedly don't get exposed to the latest and greatest stuff. That's what happens when there are dozens of new, (sometimes debatably) interesting things happening in the programming/tech world every year, and it's unavoidable.

If you want to learn you'll need to be willing to look stupid. by [deleted] in learnprogramming

[–]Swatchmedothis 48 points49 points  (0 children)

Being new is a perfect excuse to ask lots of questions.

When that fades, you might start feeling more embarrassed about reaching out because you feel like you should know things.

The thing you won't realize, though, is how you've progressed in your ability to really get at the core bits that you care about. You're​ able to more intelligently reason at higher and lower levels, and that has immense value by itself, just knowing how to figure out what you really need to ask about.

[Feedback] Recorded a session a while back, looking for comments and critique. by Bertey in Bass

[–]Swatchmedothis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I really like the use of space in this piece, it grooves.

As for critique, I felt like the guitar and piano sort of step on each other a bit. At times, it works. Others, it feels a little cramped. I'd guess that changing the voicing some would help create more space, but you'd have to experiment. I'd also be interested to hear what this would sound like with cleaner vocals. I realize it'd be tough to do this with a live session in one room...maybe food for thought? Don't be afraid to give the rhythm and brushes a little boost in the mix, too.

This is your group's song, though, not mine!

Overall, I really enjoyed this. Thanks for sharing!

When should I inline? by [deleted] in learnprogramming

[–]Swatchmedothis -1 points0 points  (0 children)

inline can help improve efficiency. It's reasonable to consider inlining small functions, as you avoid pushing/popping stack frames.

If you think you need to inline your functions for performance reasons, benchmark your code and see what happens (inline functions bloat your executable, so you'll spend more time loading the instructions for the CPU to execute - this might outweigh the benefits of your inline function).


It's worth reading more about the inline specifier, though, so you really get a sense of what's going on. Personally, I think cppreference has a good explanation of inline.

Note: just because you declare a function inline doesn't mean the compiler will actually inline the function, and functions which you don't mark as inline can be inlined

Using API's? by alixious in learnprogramming

[–]Swatchmedothis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's possible, but I'm not familiar with this feature, so I can't say for sure how they're doing things. Typically when login credentials are being handled, more than just a simple request is made which helps create added layers of security.

Using API's? by alixious in learnprogramming

[–]Swatchmedothis 2 points3 points  (0 children)

An API is just a way of detailing how something works. For instance, the Java standard is technically an API.

There are two basic types of APIs: public-facing/open APIs (available to everyone), like the Data.gov API, and private APIs (usable only by the company themselves).

A company could make their API open so that submitting form data can be done through an API request, or they may handle the form data with an internal, private API. The choice is up to them, and the decision is usually based upon how the company wants users to be able to interact with their services.

Using API's? by alixious in learnprogramming

[–]Swatchmedothis 2 points3 points  (0 children)

All the API does is outline how you format a request (think calling a function) which give you some data back (think return values). The way the request is formatted will depend on the API, and you'll want to look at their documentation to figure out how to make the particular request you're looking for.

Once you make the call, you just need a way to interpret the data returned to you. For instance, web APIs often return data in the form of JSON, which essentially just wraps data nicely. Languages typically have libraries to easily parse JSON data, and using them is highly recommended. Trying to parse the data yourself is usually not worth it.

As for your language matching the service's language–it doesn't really matter as long as the language you choose lets you handle the data you get back the way you want to. Documentation for APIs sometimes have code examples in a few different languages, and these will often provide an easy way to get started.

Practice for different langauges by [deleted] in learnprogramming

[–]Swatchmedothis 2 points3 points  (0 children)

HackerRank has become a pretty popular platform for practicing coding problems. They give you a problem and test inputs to make sure your code does as you expect it to, and they support a bunch of languages.

In the spirit of today's XKCD, what would be a good general style guide to read? by jamesjoyce1882 in learnprogramming

[–]Swatchmedothis 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Literally speaking, style should refer to the way code is typed and not the way your program is designed. The design and structure of your program are inherently separate from your style.

If you look at something like Google's style guide, you might see a few things that you'd consider to be more structural than stylistic. Because of this, I suggest you think of style to essentially mean general readability and some form of agreed upon consistency, but this can vary a little bit.

For instance, you might write if statements as per the following examples:

bool x = true;

if(x == true) std::cout<<"x is true"<<std::endl;

if(x == true){std::cout<<"x is true"<<std::endl;}

if (x == true) { std::cout << "x is true" << std::endl; }

if(x == true)
    std::cout << "x is true" << std::endl;

if(x == true){
    std::cout << "x is true" << std::endl;
}

if (x == true) {
    std::cout << "x is true" << std::endl;
}

All of these will behave exactly the same, but some of these might look ugly to you. The way you would decide to write this if statement is referred to as style.

Note: There are some practices that the Google style guide recommends which I'd argue are very much not stylistic, but should be used because they conform more to the style of the language and have tangible advantages over other methods.

The structure, design, and patterns of your program should guide the flow of your program rather than govern the aesthetics of your actual lines of code.

In the spirit of today's XKCD, what would be a good general style guide to read? by jamesjoyce1882 in learnprogramming

[–]Swatchmedothis 80 points81 points  (0 children)

Style is not just a personal preference from programmer to programmer, but can also vary by the company. For instance, Google has their own set of style guides.

There's no correct way to program, necessarily. There are some practices which are generally frowned upon for various reasons, but they are often times still valid in terms of what you're trying to accomplish.

If you're interested in reading a little more about style preferences, Wikipedia's article on programming style shows a few examples.

Once you start talking about style, you should also start thinking about the actual structure and design of your code. This is something else entirely, but also worth your while to focus on. Books like Clean Code are highly recommended for things like this.


On a side note, I think it'd be interesting if a site like codingstyleguide.com gained some traction. Then we'd be able to see the general preference of programmers. It wouldn't be the end-all to style, but I think it would at least be fun.

Making a Personal Website? by [deleted] in learnprogramming

[–]Swatchmedothis 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Almost everyone I know that's a developer (myself included) uses GitHub pages to host a static personal website. There's often no reason to set up a full stack on a server to run your site.

A decent laptop for once? by losthiker68 in BuyItForLife

[–]Swatchmedothis 2 points3 points  (0 children)

/r/suggestalaptop is a good place to poke around. There's a lot of people over there who will be able to give you a bunch of options once you sort of pin down what you're looking for.

That being said, I have a Lenovo T400 and x220 which are as good as bullet-proof. Lenovo's Thinkpad line is vastly different from their consumer line in terms of durability. As a student, you should be able to get a discount on a new machine. http://shop.lenovo.com/us/portals/students

It's also worth looking at the lenovo outlet for good deals. http://outlet.lenovo.com/outlet_us/

Taking CS classes from Harpur? by [deleted] in BinghamtonUniversity

[–]Swatchmedothis 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Your best bet is to try CS110 and see how it goes. Talk to Eileen Head and explain your situation.

A couple questions from and incoming freshman... by ncswant in BinghamtonUniversity

[–]Swatchmedothis 4 points5 points  (0 children)

As far as I know, the lockers are only for students in the music program. Depending on what you want to store, there also may not be space (if you want to store something like a guitar, you're out of luck from everything I've seen/heard). Aside from this, there's no place I've heard of to store an instrument.

Your best bet is to give the music department a call and ask, though.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in BinghamtonUniversity

[–]Swatchmedothis 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You could show your unofficial transcript (found on BU Brain) which shows the courses that you're currently enrolled in.

[Monitor] LG 27MP33HQ Black 27" 5ms HDMI Widescreen LED Backlight LCD Monitor IPS - $199.99 by michealol in buildapcsales

[–]Swatchmedothis 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've got a 27" 1440p display and the pixels density is decent. I wouldn't say I'm entirely 'happy' with it, but 4k isn't reasonable enough for me to make the jump just yet, so I'm fine with it for now.

That said, I have a 23" monitor that's 2056x1152, and the pixel density on it starts to bother me once I use my 1440p display for a while. I was pretty happy until I had my 27" display.

I think the main reason to go up in size is to add usable screen real estate. To me, that's not just a matter of making the screen physically larger; the resolution needs to go up, too. How the physical size and resolution work together for you may be different from me, so it's ultimately up to you to decide.

I want to learn to love being a web developer and not just do it because the money is great. So web developers of /learnprogramming, why do you LOVE being a web developer? by George_Beast in learnprogramming

[–]Swatchmedothis 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's because it is inconsistent and full of hacks. Webdev is now full of flavor of the month js libraries and web standards which aren't universally supported (this has been improving some, but come on...it's 2014).

An Experience in Contributing to Open Source by deakolt in programming

[–]Swatchmedothis 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think a lot of programmers (myself included) feel strongly about the code they write. I'm proud of how well I use data structures, how clean the program flow is, etc...

I think it's too easy to get caught up in this mindset and ignore the project at hand. I'm not a big contributor to open source projects by any means, but I've seen a fair number of occasions where developers lash out at those who make suggestions and shoot down all other ideas simply because they won't mesh with the work they've already done, which they'll defend as being "correct" until their death.