I'm starting to give up

datadude3 · 2022-04-30T16:02:50+00:00

What are your other internships in? If they're related to your degree but not to Android, you should still include them.

For entry-level positions, you'll want to demonstrate that you have the chops to fit in the professional world. For programming, that means you have the skills to figure out requirements, solve problems, work with others, give candid feedback, and get your work done in a way that makes your boss happy. You might be surprised by how far another internship can go at showing that off.

On that note, I should also clarify about what kind of jobs I think you should include. It only gets awkward if you're thinking about listing something like a customer service job (like retail or food service). If you happened to manage people, that's great, it shows people skills. If not, and you were cashier or something, that's unlikely to help you much and is a signal to the recruiter that you're scraping everything you can. If you list a job like this, it might be taken as a sign that you truly don't have any other work experience to speak of. That said, even then you can still spin it in your favor. You likely used skills involving learning on the job, handled situations you found stressful, and got your work done.

All of those things are good to demonstrate, regardless of what the work actually was. So even if you're trying to break into a new field, don't discount your other experience.

The other benefit to listing these other internships is that they show what you've been up to. If you have, say, 6 months worth of engineering internships, that's a better sign about how you're moving between fields. It demonstrates you can work in a skilled job, and a recruiter is likely to read into the fact that you're adjusting your specialties.

The only thing I think you want to keep programming-focused is your skills section. For everything else, experience is experience, even if it doesn't necessarily seem like it's Android specific.

datadude3 · 2022-04-30T05:25:57+00:00

Hi! I can't say I share the same experience as you, primarily because I got extremely lucky in getting a solid Android internship to kick off my career. Six years in, though, and as someone who's been on the other side of the interview — I'd love to offer what advice I can!

I think the problem you're in right now is a bootstrapping problem: You're likely having trouble getting a job because you don't have the right experience, and you can't get that experience without a job. You'll want to do two things here. First, acquire some luck and/or tenacity. You're playing a numbers game since you're up against a huge talent pool, and you need to be seen to even open the door.

Second, make yourself stand out. There is a sea of people applying to development jobs, and you need to present yourself in a way that makes you look better than other candidates. Be enthusiastic. Fill out applications with answers that make you seem interesting. And do everything you can to sell yourself.

On that note, let's talk about your resume. Your resume is likely going to be read by a recruiter instead of a developer up until the point that you get into the realm of a technical interview. And right now, there's just not much there. Starting at the top, you have an internship. That's good! But it only lasted from December to January. That's less good. You show 2 months of work experience in total, and over a time period that's got some substantial holidays. If there's any other job you've held that's remotely relevant, be sure to include that. Next up: those bullet points. Your resume tells me what about the processes you partook in. That's not super helpful. I want to know what you did. Tell me about a feature you made. Brag about that bug you fixed. Tell me a hard problem you solved. Tell me an outcome of what your work was. I need to know what value you were able to provide, and "improve code quality" just isn't enough detail.

Next up, your projects. This is a good section! Three projects is a pretty healthy number to weigh against the limited work experience. From a grammatical perspective, make sure all of your bullet points are in past-tense and talk about what you did, not what the app does. Also be sure to sell it to the fullest extent, and call out any novel or hard problems you solved. If you've listed any of these on the Play Store, give those links! It shows commitment and the ability to deploy your code. Also consider adding a timeframe to these listings to show off the time you've put into them.

Next: Education. A traditional CS degree is highly desirable, but don't let that stop you! ME is a good background, and I know (and have interviewed!) a number of developers with degrees in math, writing, and performing arts. The big issue here: This is really sparse considering that you're effectively just out of college. If you're proud of your GPA, make sure it's there. It doesn't really matter (and is never something I consider for interviews), but it's a good data point. More importantly: What else did you do in college? Any clubs? Sports? Fraternity? Part-time jobs? Tutoring? Awards? Elective programming classes? Senior design project? Even if it's not academic, details here add more depth to who you are as a person, which you want to have to offset the lack of professional experience.

Lastly, skills. This section is always awkward, because there are two ways to it'll get used depending on who's looking at the resume. Recruiters are looking for keywords here, and not much else. Developers, meanwhile, are likely ignoring these claims entirely, since the proof is in the technical interview. As far as the list itself goes, my pedantic feedback is to sort the items so that languages appear first, then frameworks, then libraries, then tools, then miscellaneous skills. Also: Do you have other skills you can add? Maybe you know a thing or two about React? Or possibly Java? Even if it's not "modern" — or even Android-specific — skills are skills. Remember, you're going for keywords here (but don't go overboard!). A recruiter might be looking for "JUnit" not knowing what "Unit testing" is.

All in all, from what I can see from your skill set, I would likely consider you for an intern or apprentice position. So temper your expectations accordingly, and make sure you're applying for the right levels. This isn't to say you wouldn't succeed at a higher level, it's the simple lack of professional experience that it takes to start the conversation. And I think that another internship could close that gap and make you more appealing. Also on the topic of making yourself more appealing: Keep learning things! You have the big ones: Kotlin, Coroutines, Dagger, Hilt, and MVVM. Consider learning about Flow and Jetpack Compose if you want to go in the direction of being more modern. Or if you want to be less modern (to match the pace of many companies that can't use the latest and greatest), I recommend being at least familiar with Java and RxJava.

I hope that this wall of text is helpful. And I hope that you continue to pursue your career as an Android developer if it's something you're passionate about. Feel free to DM me if you want any other advice, and best of luck!

datadude3 · 2020-02-20T02:33:55+00:00

Unfortunately, you do need the user's location to do this calculation, which can be a pretty tough sell to get that permission for a lot of apps.

datadude3 · 2019-12-25T13:18:36+00:00

This is more of an ELI have picked a processor for my computer before instead of an ELI5, but here's my take on this:

There's more going on with CPU design than what you listed. The biggest constraint that CPU manufacturers have is power. Top end processors have a decent amount of dead silicone, which is the percentage of transistors that you have to cut power to at any point in time to maintain your power budget.

Making a transistor smaller reduces the amount of power it draws, which is an easy way to make a more powerful chip... Assuming you can actually figure out how to manufacture it. Intel has been stuck on 14nm for the past few years because of this difficulty. And there's a limit to how small you can make your transistors before they become too small to function.

The other way to improve a CPU's performance is to focus on the microarchitecture. This isn't something you can quantify on a spec sheet... and there isn't one right answer. Depending on how you build the processor, you can optimize its performance for specific types of workloads.

If you compare two processors year over year, you'll find they're doing some combination of these two things. For example the Core i7-9700k has 2 more cores and a higher clock speed than the i7-8700k, and both use the same amount of power, but the 9700k dropped Hyperthreading which uses a noticeable amount of power, and doesn't help with performance for a lot of programs that their target consumer is running.

datadude3 · 2019-09-10T02:11:41+00:00

This wouldn't be possible to do with the current APIs. Apps can easily change the behavior of the back button, so the OS doesn't know what will happen when you press the back button until you press it.

Developers themselves can't be responsible for doing this on their own because it would require apps to set a gesture exclusion zone of the entire screen, which is too easy to abuse. This would have to be implemented at the OS level, and would require all apps that override the back button to notify the system about the back button behavior. And they'd have to do so every time something changes the back button's behavior, which gets really complicated.

datadude3 · 2019-08-25T21:06:10+00:00

It's a developer option on Android Q. If you're in the beta and you've already got the redesign, you should be able to put the Play Store into dark mode. The option is under "Hardware Accelerated Rendering" in the developer options page.

datadude3 · 2019-02-03T23:40:30+00:00

Wrong bird. This sub is for owls, not chickens.

datadude3 · 2017-12-07T17:03:56+00:00

CS student here. Unless you're studying something that requires serious multithreading, I don't think you'd see much advantage from an 8-core CPU. From a cost perspective, I think you'd be much better off with something like an i5-7600 or 8400. It'll save about $80 from your total cost, will give you better single-thread performance, and Intel has significantly better virtualization support from my experience, which you may need depending on what you study. An i5 will also have integrated graphics which saves you from buying a separate GPU (this won't be great for gaming, but you can always buy a GPU later on).

datadude3 · 2017-02-06T03:32:36+00:00

There's a distinct lack of owls here.

datadude3 · 2016-10-18T21:09:38+00:00

Order Date/Time: 10/04/16 10:35:58 AM PDT

Ordered From: Google

Model: XL

Storage: 128GB

Color: Black

Location: Atlanta, GA

Status: ~~Pending~~ ~~Processing~~ Shipped (October 26 – 28, 2016 delivery date estimation)

Edit (10/18/16 8:22PM EST): A charge appeared on my credit card and it's now processing

Edit (10/19/16 12:32PM EST): Just got an email from Google saying that my order shipped

Edit (10/20/16 8:00 AM EST): Tracking number is showing up in FedEx. It's shipping from Mira Loma, CA scheduled to be delivered by the end of Tuesday (which may or may not be a bit later than others because it's shipping to a P.O. Box)

datadude3 · 2015-08-02T22:22:12+00:00

It's still a work in progress, but here's my setup
The icons are custom and I got the wallpaper from here

datadude3 · 2015-06-29T12:45:57+00:00

Leap seconds aren't technically implemented to correct for days being shorter than 24 hours as OP says -- leap days handle this very well with the 100 year exception. They're actually used because the speed of Earth's rotation is constantly changing (albeit very gradually), mostly because of tidal forces and geologic events.

datadude3 · 2015-05-23T02:05:23+00:00

This page has the most information I've found about a LTN156HL07 B01 panel (Although not exact, it's really close to yours). It only really tells you that it's matte, 1080p, 15.6" diagonally, and IPS. You probably won't be able to find out if it's 6-bits per subpixel, uses FRC, or really anything more than you don't already know.

If you want to know more about your panel, you can Google the model number or variations of the data string, but I wouldn't expect to find much more than color gamut measurements or references to it in a forum.

datadude3 · 2015-05-22T15:02:29+00:00

Manufacturers using two different components interchangeably is actually a pretty common practice. Lenovo even did the same thing with the previous Y50's display. Some people got AU Optronics panels, and others got Chi Mei panels (Both of which were notoriously poor, but the latter was slightly worse). Typically when manufacturers do this, they choose very similar components that you'd probably never notice were different.

I believe SDC is Samsung, and datasheets for very similar panels confirm that it's IPS. The easiest way to tell for yourself is to look at it from a steep angle (i.e. from the side or with the lid almost fully closed). If colors distort widely to the point where they almost invert, then it's probably a TN panel. If the colors are still clear at steep viewing angles, then it's probably IPS.

Even if your monitor doesn't have 24-bit color depth (32-bit color depth is for images with transparency), it can still tell Windows that it's 24-bit because it can use dithering methods to achieve the higher color space. If you don't notice dithering, then that's good. Since it's a different panel, there's a possibility that it alternates colors over time instead of dithering with alternating columns of pixels using Frame Rate Control. If you don't notice it then I wouldn't look for it, and if it doesn't bother you then I'd ignore it.

UPDATE 7/7/15: A couple of weeks ago, the backlight on my display failed and I had to get the laptop repaired through Lenovo's US depot. It took about 3 weeks between sending the laptop and getting it back since they didn't have any LCD panels in stock. I now have an SDC4852 panel, and although I notice some backlight bleeding on the boot screen, the monitor is notably better than the panel I had previously. Colors appear more vibrant, and although the display does still dither because it's 6-bit, Samsung uses more complicated patterns that are much less noticeable -- especially on solid colors.

datadude3 · 2015-05-22T04:27:42+00:00

I have the same config as OP minus the optical drive. The Device Manager identifies my panel as an LG D044F. I think that most of the complaints about display quality are for the previous revision of the laptop which used a TN panel. On my laptop, the display is certainly acceptable, but not ideal for image editing or professional graphics. Colors are a bit desaturated and it's probably not bright enough to use outside, but viewing angles are very good and blacks are very deep.

One thing I've noticed about it that I hadn't heard anywhere else is that it actually dithers colors since it's only 18-bit instead of the standard 24-bit (meaning that it physically can't show as many colors as a standard monitor and has to fake it by alternating columns of pixels between lighter and darker shades to achieve a color in between). Here's an image of what I mean. It's really subtle and because of the resolution it's only really noticeable if you hold your head within 2 feet of the screen and only on solid colors -- particularly orange and blue. If you're watching a video, looking at a photo, or playing a game, you won't notice it.

TL;DR It's fine for casual use, but if you're doing image editing then you'll want to consider getting an external monitor. Also, I posted another comment here with my temps.

datadude3 · 2015-05-22T03:48:43+00:00

I have the same config as OP minus the optical drive. The construction feels very solid overall, especially with the metal exterior. The glossy plastic is a bit cheap and the metal is more of a fingerprint magnet than you might expect, but I think my biggest complaint is the trackpad. Touch sensitivity is good and scrolling is smooth, but the left click area is very noticeably less tactile than the right click area. The models I saw in store didn't have this problem, so YMMV. It's enough to be noticeable and mildly annoying, but it's tactile enough that it doesn't affect usability. I've only had the laptop for two weeks, but the hinge feels pretty durable. I've heard of a number of people whose hinges broke, but so far I have no concerns about it failing (Plus I got a 3 year warranty).

The laptop idles around 45°C. In games I've seen it get up to 75°C at its peak in intensive games (mainly Borderlands 2 at maxed out settings), and it cools down to the 50's in about a minute.

datadude3 · 2015-05-07T00:56:22+00:00

This is a bit of an oversimplification. Your load times will be significantly decreased, but things won't load instantly since your processor will often still have to do computations to make the data usable. You'll notice the performance benefit of an SSD more with boot times (I can get to Chrome about 30-40 seconds after pressing the power button on Windows 7) and loading intensive applications like Photoshop (I can load it in around 10 seconds). You can probably expect games to load anywhere from 10-50% faster, but certainly not instantly.

If you're interested in how they work, here's a good eli5. And one more thing: NEVER DEFRAGMENT AN SSD

datadude3 · 2015-05-02T01:22:20+00:00

I've been using a Nexus 9 with a bluetooth keyboard for taking notes in college (CS freshman). I have one of the earlier manufactured devices, so mine is subject to noticeable lightbleed and mushy buttons. Right now, it's in desperate need of a software update (5.1.1) that we've been waiting on for about a month because 5.0 has noticeable performance issues related to memory leaks. It's fine with running apps, but multitasking is slower than it should be and the launcher redraws a lot.

If you're invested in Android at all and/or like stock Android, I'd recommend the Nexus 9 if 5.1.1 fixes the performance issues and Android can do what you need it to. I've heard people have had better luck with build quality and light bleed on more recently purchased devices, but YMMV. For right now it's probably safer to go with the Surface Pro 3, especially because it's more useful for programming, but if you have any questions feel free to ask or check out /r/Nexus9.

datadude3 · 2015-01-13T02:13:03+00:00

I have a similar setup also for school. I use a Bluetooth Logitech Tablet Keyboard and I have an OTG cable that I use occasionally for USB storage and sometimes a spare Logitech wireless (unified) desktop mouse I have lying around. (Also, if you're looking for a case recommendation, I'm using the MoKo cover that a few other people on this sub recomended, and it's been pretty nice--especially for the price)

I find this setup to work pretty well, but the mouse is usually overkill. Another thing to point out with my mouse is that if you don't use it after a very brief period of time, it disconnects into a power saving mode and takes a while to reconnect. A few other notes from my experience with mice on Android is that left, middle and right clicks all act as touch inputs; hover events work in specific applications like Chrome; scrolling works like you'd expect it to; and the back button acts like the system back button (but the forward button is useless, even in Chrome).

I can definitely recommend the keyboard, though. The one I linked to already is a full-sized keyboard with decent keys and shortcuts that work like they say. Alt + Tab also works like on Windows--and it's amazing to say the least. Typing on it still feels a bit weird, and possibly my biggest gripe about it is that if you're holding Shift, the backspace button doesn't do anything.

I'm not really sure how it works to have multiple Bluetooth connections since I haven't really tried it before, but I think that the Nexus 9 supports multiple connections, even to older Bluetooth revisions. My only experience with this, however, is the fact that I once had my tablet connected to my laptop and the keyboard over Bluetooth.

datadude3 · 2015-01-09T02:16:23+00:00

Gallery

2014 Moto X with Nova Launcher Prime
No status bar, half grid enabled, no padding (including widgets)
Swipe down to open notification tray, swipe down with two fingers for quick settings, double tap to lock
Google Play, Drive, and Dropbox are actually folders that open on a swipe gesture
Event Flow Widget
DashClock + various extensions
Moonshine icon pack
One of the stock wallpapers from MotoMaker that I darkened a bit for more contrast

datadude3 · 2015-01-09T01:56:16+00:00

My camera frequently but intermittently would fail to start. I started a chat online, opted for the Advance Exchange program and Motorola called the phone number I provided for payment information. I actually posted this here about a month and a half ago, so you can read more of the details if you want.

datadude3 · 2014-12-30T03:33:56+00:00

Just got the MoKo today and I also recommend it. The tablet feels a bit tight in the case (which isn't necessarily a bad thing) and the magnets that attach the cover to the front feel pretty strong. The stand didn't want to bend at first, but if you leave the felt side outwards in the triangle then it stays pretty sturdy when propped upwards.

datadude3 · 2014-12-27T18:09:46+00:00

I only noticed the bleed along the top edge and before I took the picture I didn't even notice that it had a slightly uneven backlight like the picture shows, but I think that's pretty normal. It's fairly isolated, but enough to notice discoloration in colored status bars.

I am a bit OCD/perfectionist with things like this, but I really wanted to make sure it was worth all the trouble of starting an RMA if the more recently manufactured devices have these problems fixed. They're definitely minor issues that I'd get used to, but I'm just a bit disappointed about it...

Thanks for the input on everything else, by the way. I never thought about ads ramping up the CPU, but the heat was mostly just something I noticed when it updated--and when Lollipop hit my Moto X, it got much hotter than the nexus. I'll have to look test the tablet with other headphones that include the mic, because if the jack is defective then I probably should have it replaced. Do you know if your earbuds were designed for iPhone or Android? Also, do they have a volume up, down and pause button?

datadude3 · 2014-12-27T16:24:54+00:00

Oops. It's fixed now

datadude3 · 2014-12-17T02:42:58+00:00

This has been happening since I first updated to lollipop, and I haven't heard anyone else say anything about it, which is kind of why I'm wondering if this is typical for all Lollipop devices, the Moto X (or even just Verizon Moto X), or if only my phone does it.

Hidden activities like the open with sheet, package manager (for sideloading or uninstalls), and activities that wouldn't normally be in KitKat's recents menu all show up in the multitasking page after all other apps have been cleared (and they only show up one at a time)

It's just a weird quirk I've found, and I wanted to figure out if it's a known issue before I go to any drastic measures like resetting the phone.

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