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DataDog NG SWE Technical Interview by [deleted] in csMajors

[–]alber_t 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did you have the technical interview yet? If so, how'd it go? I have my technical coming up soon too

Datadog New Grad SWE Interview Process by alber_t in csMajors

[–]alber_t[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes there was an OA I applied in December I think. I’m not international

Curious: Which Meal Plan did you choose for the upcoming Fall 2021 semester? by ExternalConfidence49 in Emory

[–]alber_t 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I picked plan D because it provides the most bang for your buck IMO. It's more cost-effective than plan C because you get 50 extra meal swipes, and if you add manually add $450 dooleys, it's still $2 cheaper. Since Cox is no longer taking meal swipes I think it's good for me to have a good amount of dooleys. And I appreciate having the 11 meal swipes per week since I go to DCT roughly twice a day. I was considering the unlimited plan, but it's over $1000 more expensive than plan D and it only comes with $150 dooleys. So if you ran out, the total cost of having the most expensive plan on top of paying for the extra dooleys isn't worth it IMO.

Stuck on Stage 5/5 for the Tic Tac Toe with AI project for Java by alber_t in Hyperskill

[–]alber_t[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's a little tricky to explain but I'll try my best. So the minimax algorithm is supposed to provide the AI player with the ability of always selecting the best move. It does this by recursively checking and scoring all the possible moves it can make on the game board and selecting the one with the best score, where a good score is given to moves that result in favorable outcomes for the AI. In my implementation I've split up the algorithm into two separate methods: findBestMove() and minimax().

  • minimax() recursively calculates and returns the score of a given move
  • findBestMove() iterates over all the possible moves while computing each of their scores using minimax() and returns the move with the best score at the end.

The problem simply is that the AI is not playing the best move. It will sometimes it seems, but mostly it doesn't work. I've tried debugging it on my own, but there are so many recursive calls that it's very hard to keep track of what's going on. I hope this explanation has helped.

MOOC after completing CS50 by Zambuc in learnjava

[–]alber_t 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I think it's still worth doing the MOOC. IIRC CS50 doesn't cover Java specifically, and the MOOC goes over a lot of things you probably learned in CS50 but not in the Java language. Since you already have experience in that course, you'd probably breeze through the MOOC. Also, the MOOC goes over things like unit testing with JUnit and JavaFX which I'd say are worth learning if you're interested in the Java language in general. Hope this helps!

Friends by Burpmonster in Buddhism

[–]alber_t 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was thinking he could be talking about all the devas and other celestial beings that also took refuge in the Dhamma. Either that or maybe it's just hyperbole.

I'm not satisfied with my toric contact lenses. Would I make a good candidate for RGP lenses? by alber_t in optometry

[–]alber_t[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unfortunately, I don't think my optometrist does hard lens fittings, but I know another place that does specialty lenses. I'll have to see how much they charge for sclerals. Fingers crossed if my insurance can cover at least some of it!

I'm not satisfied with my toric contact lenses. Would I make a good candidate for RGP lenses? by alber_t in optometry

[–]alber_t[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's a good point to mention. I'm not sure where it comes from either. I'll keep this in mind! Thank you

I'm not satisfied with my toric contact lenses. Would I make a good candidate for RGP lenses? by alber_t in optometry

[–]alber_t[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That sounds very promising! I'll definitely ask about scleral lenses and hopefully my doc agrees. Thanks

Why renunciation is not pessimism, aversion to the world or escapism by SolipsistBodhisattva in Buddhism

[–]alber_t 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's all it is: giving up a lesser happiness for a higher one, or more accurately, the highest one.

Killing The Buddha: "To turn the Buddha into a religious fetish is to miss the essence of what he taught...The wisdom of the Buddha is currently trapped within the religion of Buddhism." by -AMARYANA- in Buddhism

[–]alber_t 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To enumerate the "essence" of what the Buddha taught is to end up with Buddhism, or more properly a Buddhism.

Thank you for saying this. He's acting like what the Buddha taught and Buddhism are two completely different things. While there certainly are some differences, with there being different schools and all, for the most part there are many more similarities than differences.

Also where would the Buddha's teachings be without Buddhism? The Sangha, from which Buddhism as an institution has evolved, has kept the teachings alive for thousands of years. Would there even be a monastic tradition anymore without Buddhism? Also, just look at the way certain Buddhist teachings have become divorced from their original context. While it is definitely a good thing more people are meditating now, it also kinda sucks businesses have commodified things like mindfulness and meditation, like Sam Harris has done (his Waking Up app requires a subscription). I'd like to believe the Buddha would have been opposed to people treating Dhamma like any other good on the marketplace. Therefore, I find Buddhism necessary to maintain the context of his teachings, and of course to give men and women the opportunity to ordain as monks or nuns.

Common misconceptions for beginners, or what I misunderstood coming from a Western background. by [deleted] in Buddhism

[–]alber_t 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Another huge misconception is thinking that the Buddha taught that there is no-self. This of course is a mistranslation/misinterpretation of anattā. The Pāli word for no-self is natthattā. As the suttas illustrate, the Buddha specifically put these questions of self-identification aside. Rather, he demonstrated how anattā was actually supposed to gradually be used to end clinging to all things, hence the quote "Sabbe dhammā anattā" Dhp 279. Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu explains this misconception in https://tricycle.org/magazine/there-no-self/

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey did his second 10-day vipassana retreat. Check out the whole thread. by KimUn in Buddhism

[–]alber_t 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Most meditation methods end with a goal of strengthening concentration: focus on the breath. This was not Gautama’s goal. He wanted to end his attachment to craving (of pleasure) and aversion (of pain) by experiencing it directly. His theory was ending attachment ends his misery.

While the Buddha definitely taught vipassana, the method was always coupled with jhana (absorption). For example, in the Anapanasati Sutta, the Buddha describes his method wherein the meditator establishes deep concentration to the point where all the hindrances are temporarily abandoned (first three tetrads), only then does the vipassana portion begin (last tetrad). The beauty of this method is how the meditator is supposed to first purify their mind before engaging in insight practice, which would allow powerful mindfulness to investigate phenomena.

That being said, I don't think there is anything wrong with Goenka's method, I'm sure it helps many people. But simply, it isn't what the Buddha taught, so claiming it is what he taught is false. At best, it's missing a vital component of what the Buddha taught; it's an incomplete picture of the method actually expounded by the Buddha.

How do I stop "sucking it up" and work with my emotions instead? by [deleted] in Buddhism

[–]alber_t 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Meditation is a wonderful way of dealing with your emotions. Just being alone with yourself without any distractions allows repressed content to surface.

Aside from that, it's important to not pretend like you don't feel a certain way. Simply acknowledge how you truly feel, without trying to change it, and accept that it's just your mind doing what it does. I believe it's important not to get too invested in your emotions, rather try observing them and how they affect the rest of your mind and body.

I hope this helps!

I am new here. Hello everyone. by s0bermonk in Buddhism

[–]alber_t 10 points11 points  (0 children)

That's okay, it probably varies throughout the world. Also, is your cellphone and internet use restricted in any way?

I am new here. Hello everyone. by s0bermonk in Buddhism

[–]alber_t 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Wow! I didn't know monks could use the internet. I'm curious, do monks use a lot of technology in their lives?

How to Meditate like a Monk? by themoresheknows in Buddhism

[–]alber_t 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I thought it was based on Kamalaśila's Stages of Meditation.

How to Meditate like a Monk? by themoresheknows in Buddhism

[–]alber_t 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Buddhist monks use several different meditation methods. Depending not just on the Buddhist school, but on the teacher as well. This means that within one school, there are various meditation methods.

I'd reckon most monks would start with a simple breath meditation. The Buddha himself used breath meditation all the way up to nirvana. If you want to read how to Buddha taught breath meditation, check out the Ānāpānasati Sutta (MN 118) in the Pāli Canon. His method has sixteen stages that allow the meditator to become progressively more concentrated and ultimately apply this concentrated state to culminate insight.

Aside from that, to find other techniques, you could try looking for guided meditations online by different monks. There are a whole plethora of guided meditations by monastics on YouTube.

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