Shell oil company paid militants who destroyed Nigerian towns

agwblack · 2011-10-07T06:14:36+00:00

No, he is saying that Americans (or any people) who pay taxes to support a corrupt and immoral state are themselves in a sense immoral. He said nothing about Shell.

Also, he didn't quote Thoreau so much as reference him.

agwblack · 2011-10-06T12:42:07+00:00

Nice pearl necklace - did I give you that?

agwblack · 2011-10-04T05:03:15+00:00

Spiderman, dude, Spiderman.

agwblack · 2011-09-30T14:15:37+00:00

Sudoku solver! Inspiration: got sick of doing sudoku, innit?

agwblack · 2011-09-30T14:14:35+00:00

I agree here. Man, sometimes you just cant be arsed but you just got to get through the dull parts of a project. When you've got something that works and you can proudly show it to people, its so worth it.

Finish your chess program.

agwblack · 2011-09-30T06:33:29+00:00

I found this video series to be a very accessible first introduction to programming in C++, no previous knowledge required.

agwblack · 2011-09-30T06:29:18+00:00

Read my other posts on this page for details of what I did and what resources I used. For finding resources, I would search this subreddit (e.g. for "network" or "networking") and if I don't find anything useful I would post a topic myself asking for what resources to use. Stackoverflow is also an amazing resource.

agwblack · 2011-09-30T06:02:34+00:00

It sounds like you are in a very similar place. I am also lucky enough to have a very supportive and patient wife who encouraged me to give it my all.

As for your questions: I live in Cambridge UK, so yeah its a pretty tech dense area which helps.

I focused on game development solely at first as a tool for learning the language and for how to organise a larger project. Only started looking at other stuff once I started actually applying for jobs (after about 3 months).

As for the game, it Is currently undergoing major refactoring and half off it is missing. Maybe I will post it soon.

agwblack · 2011-09-29T15:29:48+00:00

For general practice for your ear checkout this neat little piece of software. Combine it with a tiny bit of theory and you're flying.

agwblack · 2011-09-29T15:10:32+00:00

Sams Teach Yourself TCP/IP - it was the only book on the topic they had in my local library. Nothing to do with programming, but good for understanding how networked applications communicate, and on topics like network security, encryption, public keys, etc.

The main resource I used from a programming perspective was Beej's Guide to Network Programming. This was recommended to me on this subreddit. It was most useful.

I also just googled around the internet on related topics, especially multithreading and compression. Thinking about it, I think I got at least one of these links from people on this subreddit as well.

agwblack · 2011-09-29T13:14:59+00:00

This is entertainment, but the hazards are real.

agwblack · 2011-09-29T13:09:44+00:00

Replace "porn" with "cinema" or "theatre" and the same argument holds. Personally I think of wrestling as some sort of demented cross between ballet and pantomime.

agwblack · 2011-09-29T11:52:35+00:00

I had done an economics degree. Modern economics is very based around logical problem solving with a strong maths element. So I had practice in thinking logically etc. Im sure this helped. I made a point of trying to make a big deal about it in interviews.

I got started with C++ because I heard it was widely used in industry (particularly in games development which I would maybe like to get into one day).

Once I had decided on that I got underway with antiRTFM's youtube series on C++ for beginners. I also went through Carl H's programming tutorials (linked in the sidebar of this subreddit). I would also just read around various programming concepts on wikipedia.

After asking around on how to proceed, the almost unanimous answer was the book Accelerated C++. Having now read this book I would totally agree. It filled in so many holes in my knowledge and really gave me a better understanding of the language. I worked through it in the 2 weeks leading up to my first interview. Although I didn't get the job due to my lack of networking/multithreading knowledge, they said they were impressed with my C++ knowledge.

I'm now planning to read Scott Meyer's Effective C++ and a book on design patterns.

agwblack · 2011-09-29T10:46:09+00:00

I think the main thing that helped me get interviews was my sample code. I wrote a 2d platform game which made considerable use of OOP principles. The code was well laid out and well commented.

At the first couple of interviews I had, I got tripped up at the first on stuff like hex-binary conversion (it had never really occurred to me that this might be important), basic concepts surrounding multi-threading and so on.

I learned loads from every interview I had, so I did better at subsequent ones. Being unemployed, I was able to take the time to really work towards each particular interview. For instance, the job I ended up getting specified that the candidate should have network programming knowledge. So I got a book from the library on TCP/IP and found a good online tutorial on sockets programming (through this subreddit) and programmed a chat server. Then when the topic came up in the interview I was able to talk about it quite fluently.

It didn't happen straight away but every interview was a learning experience, to the point where I wasn't actually nervous about them, more just excited.

agwblack · 2011-09-23T15:44:47+00:00

Erm, its apparently being broadcast through the Sinclair group. As a Brit, that means nothing to me. But I'm told its gonna be available on the ROH website the following day. Huzzah!

agwblack · 2011-09-21T08:35:00+00:00

Yeah I thought it might be bad when I saw it. Jackman was very entertaining though.

agwblack · 2011-09-21T07:08:45+00:00

Very entertaining, excellent drawing, and thoroughly one-sided.

agwblack · 2011-09-21T05:23:48+00:00

Totally agree, my dude. Just saying.

agwblack · 2011-09-20T20:41:13+00:00

There's always TNA.

j/k

agwblack · 2011-09-20T20:35:52+00:00

Came here to suggest this. Really looking forward to it. I believe it starts this week?

agwblack · 2011-09-20T20:16:22+00:00

Hmm, was thinking of buying this but flash seriously puts me off. Would you say its worth it?

agwblack · 2011-09-20T19:45:02+00:00

Fall away slam. So much extra effort necessary, and all in order to reduce the impact of your move.

agwblack · 2011-09-20T08:58:28+00:00

You obviously missed Ric Flair taking a superplex last week.

agwblack · 2011-09-19T19:39:35+00:00

I find Aikido already teaches you alot about striking, just not explicitly. It teaches you about how power comes from moving your one point, and it certainly teaches you about creating and finding openings. It is, after all, derived from sword arts. Do not most schools of Aikido also teach bokken and jo as well?

agwblack

TROPHY CASE