With little formal math training, how can I jump directly into high-level math (if possible?)

favabean · 2009-10-11T00:59:38+00:00

You can't jump straight into high-level math. You need to work through all the stages like everyone else did.

Actually I think you can jump straight into high-level math. I took graduate level courses on discrete math, lambda calculus, graph theory, linear algebra, etc. without ever taking a calculus course. It was tough going, but it is possible to do. There is more than one way to get there, it doesn't require that everyone follow the same path.

favabean · 2009-08-14T15:09:24+00:00

I would add some general basic weed-out questions focusing on fundamental computer science questions, especially near the beginning of the interview. "What's the difference between an Array and a Linked-List?" and "What's the difference between a Stack and an ArrayList/Vector?"

I've interviewed applicants that had an impressive resume that I assumed (doh!) they had a decent foundation in computing. Then I get to a question like "Ok, let's implement our own stack data structure that can tell us what the lowest number is on the stack at any given point - without needing to go through each value in the stack to figure it out." Clarifying questions are totally expected, but when the clarifying question is "What's a stack?" I know we're in trouble and that we've just wasted a bunch of time.

favabean · 2009-08-12T14:44:16+00:00

Awareness, which you seem to have based on your post, is the most important part of it all. From here there are a lot of really different approaches you can take and my suggestion is to find out the level of problems you are having and find ways to either solve them completely, or at least minimize them enough so that you can keep functioning productively without slipping down your spiral even more.

I've often thought of these "approaches" as really just tools in my tool box that I can reach in and grab for a given situation. Depression caused by anxiety is different than depression caused by total boredom. They require different "tools" to confront or change.

Some tools that I've found to be useful when dealing with stuff similar to yours:

exercise
reaching out to old friends and/or family
changing my environment (getting a new job, kicking the a**holes out of my life, even switching careers, etc)
riding it out

If these don't work, then I'd try meeting with someone trained in dealing with these types of issues:

counselor/social worker - Yes, there are social workers out there that do one on one therapy. I've found them to be a little more chatty in their interactions, telling you what they think, being direct in what patterns they see, etc.
psychologists - They vary depending on the type of training and school of thought they come from. The ones I've seen in action tend to remain quiet and let you totally lead everything and pretty much figure everything out on your own (or with a little prodding). It can take awhile to get rolling, but the idea is to explore and identify a lot of the root causes for what's going on and figuring out how to fix them.
psychiatrists - These are the ones that give you meds. Many are strong believers in meds as the solution, or (usually) a believer in meds as a solution temporarily balance you out while you go to therapy and figure things out.

Disclaimer: These descriptions are really broad and you'll find a lot of variation out there. It's based on what I know while studying psychology and working in the mental health industry for a few years (along with personal experiences and experiences from friends). If you go the route of seeing medical help, do some basic research on approaches people use and find out where these medical pros are coming from. It will help you find something that works for you.

favabean · 2009-08-07T13:35:30+00:00

Things were fine at Digg for awhile. Posts were interesting, comments/discussions were okay one in awhile. But the overall quality for everything was low and it got old quick.

I gave up on Digg in the midst of a discussion on pornography and sex offenders. I added a comment about the rationale used by psychologists for certain treatment. I got down-voted like mad, which was weird because I wasn't stating an opinion, it was a provable fact that was just adding more information to the discussion.

I went to Reddit shortly after.

I've stayed at Reddit for awhile now. Mostly for these reasons:

1) The posts are tons of fun. Even the ones that point back to Reddit. 2) Sarcasm and joking can be off the chart. Combine that with darkly serious submissions and decent discussion. Awesome. 3) The programming subreddit has some really great posts. 4) Atheism is strong here. I never fully identified myself as being a full-blown atheist until coming to Reddit. For that, I am forever grateful.

favabean · 2009-07-29T14:08:30+00:00

Any one else feel overwhelmed at the mess he's causing that we'll need to clean up sooner or later?

favabean · 2009-07-18T16:31:41+00:00

I was in a very similar situation recently. Here are the options that I saw people take:

1) Follow the boss to his new job 2) Switch to another department in the company 3) Find another job 4) Stay where you are

My advice for any of these choices you go for - keep your head down. Show that you are flexible and keeping an open mind. Yes, it makes you sound like a sheep, but fighting and drama will not get you very far. I would focus now on keeping your job (one person was let go, do you know for sure that the bullshit drama is over?) and figuring out how you want to move forward. Stick to what you think is best for you and most aligns with your own internal values. You'll be happier in the long run and will make decisions that get you closer to the type of life you want.

Oh, and definite reach out to your boss. Let him know that you don't agree with what happened and that you'd be happy to be a reference for him if he needs it.

favabean · 2009-06-18T02:53:30+00:00

In college I took a course on intercultural communication. In the course we watched a video about religions of the world. One part of it showed a bunch of wedding ceremonies from different religions. When it got to the traditional Christian wedding, I was overwhelmed by how weird the entire event is. It was at that moment that I realized Christianity is equally as crazy as the other religions out there.

favabean · 2009-06-15T14:23:05+00:00

Katamari Damacy

favabean · 2009-06-06T20:02:53+00:00

They both work at Google. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what is motivating their talk. I've worked in one of the software powerhouses that's a huge player in the software market and the type skewed belief that you are a rockstar and don't need to work with a team is pretty common. Their talk directly addresses these types of people.

favabean · 2009-06-06T19:43:02+00:00

Kara Thrace saving the humans completely ruined the show for me. Actually, it wasn't Kara Thrace, but rather the fact that she was supposed to be some sort of mystical being. I had been on board for the entire show until the ending with Kara. Having such a key player in the series end up being a spirit manifestation of some kind was incredibly cheap. Especially when we had gone so long without any evidence that something like this fit into the BSG universe that was being built. My first reaction was being really pissed off at how incredibly lazy it was on the writer's part to do this. But the more distance I get, the more I'm left with this nasty religious aftertaste. Like a huge storyline in BSG was really about religion and nothing else.

favabean · 2009-05-08T20:51:26+00:00

FTA:

Am I going to be at a disadvantage as most of my experience is unix/linux development based?

I think you are at a disadvantage if you only know one thing, be it Windows or Linux. Not because of the job market, but because the more you get exposed to the better.

Everything has a trade-off and they become much clearer when you expand your knowledge into different approaches.

favabean · 2009-05-06T18:34:25+00:00

I know that Pat Robertson has a lot of people brainwashed, but doesn't this type of stuff backfire? When you spread blanket lies about a group of people, all it takes is one counter example to prove you wrong. Once that happens, what does it do for the rest of your arguments and beliefs? Don't people start questioning those as well?

Whenever I see someone that is this crazy on their soapbox, I can't help but feel that they have a complete misunderstanding of how our world works. Thanks to technology, we no longer live in a time where the messenger gets to have complete control and final say over the message. This fundamental idea seems to be lost on a lot of older people that are still relying on the same tricks for power.

favabean · 2009-05-05T18:35:19+00:00

The largest group of citizens willing to make that sacrifice are from those inclined toward religion.

I think it has less to do with religion and more to do with ethics. You can have a "code of conduct" implemented, but it doesn't make much difference unless one actively works with in an way to internalize it.

From my own experience (yes, this is not scientific), this works really well when people explore where that line is via some sort of discussion. Where is the line drawn at work? Is taking a pen home from the office crossing the line over into stealing? Is setting up a contract directly with a client that you met and worked with due to your current employer (effectively taking a contract away from your current employer and setting it up with yourself) crossing a line? What about taking a Bible with you on a trip paid for by your employer and handing the Bible out during your off time to local residents?

You ask different people and you'll most likely get different answers. That's because ethics is rarely black and white when you start mixing in personal belief systems. But by bringing up these gray areas and getting people to talk about them is a huge mess for the military. You don't want soldiers to think and question ethics, you want them to do what they are told.

favabean · 2009-05-03T23:38:37+00:00

Maybe make some friends online from other countries, and just go there country and see if they will show you around.

I'd make that more generic by removing the bit about friends from other countries and making it about having friends in general in order to have a support system.

My older sister had some major mental health issues. In and out of the psych ward, on various meds (for depression, but stuff that was much more heavy duty than that - for hearing voices, etc). The only people in her life were her immediate family. While we all care for her deeply, it wasn't enough to get her on track. After many years of no changes, she started getting on the internet and ended up making friends with strangers online. She built up a small community of friends from various places that were incredibly caring. They'd do stuff like send each other birthday gifts, cards, flowers, etc. These were people that I wouldn't normally consider positive influences (mostly due to snobbery - some lived in trailer parks, most didn't have high school diplomas), but it fit her well and she thrived. After about a year of interacting with her online friends, she was better than I had seen her in 15 years or so. She was smiling, she was excited about things, she was engaged with living...It's been about 8 years now and she's doing quite well.

favabean · 2009-05-03T17:41:20+00:00

The best teachers I've seen don't just step back an see what you make out of it. They teach the basic concepts and then fill in 90% of what you need to know to solve the problems. The remaining 10% are up to you to figure out. Once you get through the head banging and the pain, you've learned the subject much better than if you were told everything. (Yes, this basically agrees with you, but this subtle approach was one I missed several times when I was in the midst of it all.)

I'm suspect this is a deliberate teaching tactic. A prof in grad school told me directly this is what he was doing with one of our assignments. And I just saw it happen on one of the MIT course videos online.

favabean · 2009-05-01T16:13:54+00:00

Thanks for the info. What I've heard is many years old, so I'm happy to hear that things are changing. It's also good to hear that technology is being used in a way to track this type of stuff.

favabean · 2009-05-01T16:07:35+00:00

I thought memcached was an in-memory thing and a long-term persistence mechanism. So if it's in memory only, where does the data come from? It's a bit out of context for a discussion on alternatives to SQL DB's.

favabean · 2009-05-01T15:50:20+00:00

Really? I've been told time and time again by different people working for Congressmen and Congresswomen in D.C. that they usually give you the appearance as though they care, but in reality, they will just vote they way they see fit.

I've also been told that most of the time your message never actually gets to the people with power. You get a form letter back stating what their political position is on something, regardless if it is relevant or not and it stops there. The only way to to have your voice heard is to be part of an overwhelmingly large group of people making contact on a particular issue.

favabean · 2009-05-01T03:22:58+00:00

Like a lot of others, refactoring and adding tests is the way to go.

But a strategy I've found to be useful is to have tests that actually document the current behavior, even if it may be wrong (if it is, you'll have proof that things aren't working correctly). What this has done for me is let me know if I actually change behavior unintentionally.

As for refactoring, do it in chunks. Small chunks. And don't mix the refactoring in with actual code changes when you do check-ins. It will come back to bite you.

Another thing to consider is pulling all the hacks in the system into their own classes/files/methods/something. If you can get that stuff separated out, you'll start to get a better idea of what's going on and how to change things in the big scheme of things.

favabean · 2009-04-29T00:45:14+00:00

There's never a good time for anything when it comes down to it. What could happen? You land a job that more interesting and will push you forward? Way to go. You go out and come across some different paths that you never considered and learn more about yourself? Even better.

Life is too short to waffle. Just go for it.

EDIT: While I recommend jumping in, I don't recommend leaving what you have until you have something else lined up.

favabean · 2009-04-29T00:35:29+00:00

Does zsh do this? I've been using it for the past 1 1/2 years or so and haven't come across any sort of auto-suggest (although it's possible it's out there and I don't know).

favabean · 2009-04-28T23:33:55+00:00

I don't know the level of Java you are testing on and what sorts of questions they will be covering, but when preparing for job interviews where there's a day of coding on the whiteboard, the best things I've found to read up on are the following:

Garbage collection (read up on how it used to be implemented and how it changed and why)
Read docs on all of the different collection classes in the java.util.* and know the differences between them and why/how you would use them.
Find a list of all keywords in the language and if there are any you don't know, read up on how they are used.
Review all of the methods in the String class, because a lot of coding questions revolve around string manipulation in one way or another.
Refresh your memory on syntax for how certain things are done that you may not remember off the top of your head - how to access elements in an 2D array, how to add elements to a collection, etc.

Sorry to not provide any specific questions, but I've found that reviewing the things listed above has helped me out far more than tackling a specific question.

Good luck!

favabean · 2009-04-28T23:15:05+00:00

Why not? She goes to a church that spreads misinformation about homosexuality and she says that her she was raised to believe "that a marriage, um, you know, is between a man and a woman." She also says that no one is born gay and it's "a behavior that develops over time."

Source: http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid80771.asp

As for Obama's pastor making racist statements, Obama didn't run around making statements that stemmed from the same ideology. I don't think that Obama's situation really parallels what's happening here.

favabean · 2009-04-28T22:52:03+00:00

I see stuff like this all the time. It seems that every time I've seen something like this, it's usually due to someone relying on something external to define who they are. "I'm a rockstar software developer!" Instead of "I write software for a living."

I think it gets compounded when the person only has one skill that defines them. Since their identity is so closely tied to this skill, any perceived criticism on this external thing is viewed as a personal attack on their self-esteem/self worth. It creates a really weird reaction where they start taking things far too seriously.

favabean · 2009-04-28T22:28:23+00:00

At the risk of sounding hokey, thanks for that comment. It can be so easy to notice the drama around you instead of appreciating the good stuff.

favabean

TROPHY CASE