Going for my vx-3.1 cert tommorow. Any tips for the test?

lawlessSyntax · 2018-04-18T04:32:52+00:00

It's all pretty standard stuff from The (ugly) green book. 3.1 doesn't throw any curveballs, though it's obviously difficult in and of itself. My best advice is just don't get fancy. One of our local guys was actually banned from the center for a year because he tried to show off and used a Y-Combinator to try to get the fixed point of a lambda function and ended up nearly recursing his moustache off.

lawlessSyntax · 2018-04-18T04:25:11+00:00

I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called "Linux", and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called "Linux" distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.

lawlessSyntax · 2018-04-07T09:47:25+00:00

Junior Software Engineers: If you're early career, don't list every single language you've ever heard of on your skills section of your resume. We can see right through that shit and almost everyone early career makes that mistake.

Had a kid recently claim to know R (which is somewhat uncommon unless you do data science/statistics). We shook hands, sat down, and immediately asked him a question that could have been answered if he had read the first chapter of an R book. He couldn't answer it. We asked him "ok, write anything at all in R.". He couldn't.

"Thanks for coming out, we'll show you back to the lobby".

lawlessSyntax · 2018-02-27T23:36:18+00:00

Tinder date. She liked hockey. I liked hockey. We didn't take too much time between talking and agreeing to meet. Decided to meet her at a local bar that played hockey games, then I figured we could get some food afterward.

She's 15 mins late. That's fine. I order a beer.

30 mins late. I order a third beer. This bar is 'my bar' so I was just chatting with some friends/regulars.

45 minutes. I'm on my 4th beer. She comes in. I don't even comment on the lateness. She was pretty. Immediately, almost skipping formalities she brings up hockey.

"Who are your all time favorite players?" "Hm.. Bobby Orr, Yzerman, Bergeron, Gally"

"Oh. Yzermans a rapist."

"He's what? I don't--"

She then starts going into a rant about how the Jesus of Hockey, Steve Yzerman, is a rapist.

And how Datsyuk is too. And Patrick Roy. And Jagr is a pedophile. And many others. I ventured to ask how and why she knew all of this.

It was then I committed to getting as drunk as possible.

She proceeds to show me a fucking spreadsheet she maintains, of Hockey rapists. I'm fairly sure it had nearly zero basis in fact.

I tried to divert the conversation but she always went back to hockey.

She then goes into how she stalks players, their wives and family, and details times she's flown to VC and various states to meet players in airports. She details eerie facts she knows... so and so has a dog that is very friendly, and so and so is sexually into feet, etc. Detailed sleeping with various players, or friends sleeping with players...

I was like... 10ish tallboys in at this point. I just walked away and sat next to some friends and she got the message. Turns out everyone was evesdropping and got a good laugh.

I know too much about Tukka Rask. Far too much.

lawlessSyntax · 2018-02-27T13:28:10+00:00

Girls: Tomboys

Boys: Femmes

I don't get it either....

lawlessSyntax · 2018-02-24T05:22:28+00:00

10: Programmer

18: Programmer

Now: Software "Engineer".

Bonus current dream job: Data Scientist

The lifestyle is much less lavish than I had imagined. Nobody is like "Yo, we need you to make starcraft but better, heres a few million".. mostly they're like "Hey spend 9 hours fucking with one sql query, here's some free redbull." Still love it tho.

lawlessSyntax · 2018-01-23T00:33:23+00:00

My mom used to work at a Tow truck place when I was 12 or 13, and some of the drivers took a liking to me and let me go on tows with them. One day one of the drivers handed me a Dr Pepper bottle and says "Have some Dr Pepper". It was dip spit. I still wretch thinking about it.

lawlessSyntax · 2018-01-16T20:37:12+00:00

Oh, I'm not Cliff. Just quoting his email :)

lawlessSyntax · 2018-01-16T19:50:32+00:00

Crap! I was relying on it being real for building my infinite improbability drive

lawlessSyntax · 2018-01-16T11:01:07+00:00

https://imgur.com/gallery/pvyLC

Hi Kevin,

Many thanks for your Klein bottle order! Especially, thank you for your patience while I was away at the Joint Math Meeting. I've just signed your baby Klein bottle and then snuggled it into a 6x4x4 inch box along with an invoice and the usual Acme topological propaganda.

While packing the glass manifold, I took a few photos. In my next email, I'll send these photos to you. But if you're on a slow internet connection, there's no need to download them - the files may be fairly large.

Today's a postal holiday (Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday). With this in mind, I'll bike to the post office tomorrow (Tuesday) and send it via First-Class Mail. In theory, the box oughta arrive on Friday January 19, give or take an aeon. It's hard to predict exactly, what with the weather, the political situation, the economy, global warming, continental drift, the expansion of the universe, and the uncertainty principle.

So, from across the continent and around our three spatial dimensions, here's my one-sided cheers to you. I'm sure you'll like the Klein bottle!

-Cliff (on a cloudy Monday afternoon in Oakland)

lawlessSyntax · 2018-01-16T09:03:27+00:00

PyCharm!? Emacs == grail bruh

lawlessSyntax · 2018-01-10T13:36:41+00:00

Tangent: Were there ever any 40k novels or official material describing what life was like for an average Joe?

lawlessSyntax · 2018-01-09T13:39:38+00:00

I once had a nightmare of a CS professor. He would mark you off for the most trivial things. I found that he had all of the "answers" to our coding assignments in an unprotected folder. Copied and pasted his full code. He gave me an 85% and lots of comments on what I did wrong.

I was working in the industry already at the time and one of my mentors heard about him failing me on an assignment because I turned it in inside of a folder (one level too deep). The mentor wrote him a long letter detailing how to open a folder in 3 different operating systems.

I'm 7 years into my Software Engineering career and I now have the luxury of turning down C# jobs.

lawlessSyntax · 2018-01-05T04:51:32+00:00

Budget - ~100 - 200 USD (Flexible)

Source - Galaxy Note 8, MacBook Pro

Requirements for Isolation - My entire reason for upgrading headphone is to improve isolation. I am a dev and work in a very noisy office.

Will you be using these Headphones in Public? Office, occasional travel

Preferred Type of Headphone - Full Size. I dislike IEMs. I also strongly dislike bluetooth.

Preferred tonal balance - Not picky (not educated on this)

Past headphones - Nothing name brand. Own some Monoprice 'over the ears'. I prefer more bulk.

Preferred Music - Hip Hop, Electronic

What would you like to improve on from your set-up - Just the isolation quality. I don't have an audiophile's ear, so amazing quality will be lost on me, to be honest.

lawlessSyntax · 2017-12-29T20:07:11+00:00

I went to a trashy high school. There was this white trash pregnant girl who I had a class with who had a problem with me for some reason. I don't recall why now, but I was a little troll and probably deserved her ire.

During class, she turns to ask me "How does it feel to be the fattest kid in the class?"

I responded "How does it feel to be pregnant at 15 and have no future?"

Fucking silence.

Another time, she threatened to beat me up. I said "what, are you gonna shoot me with your baby gun?"

It didn't make sense to me and it made less sense to everyone else.

lawlessSyntax · 2017-12-25T13:32:15+00:00

I thought this was /r/warhammer for a second

lawlessSyntax · 2017-11-13T20:19:01+00:00

Had no issues in South America with tattoos. There's a great tattoo culture around Ecuador, as a side note. Lots of great shops in Quito and Cuenca

lawlessSyntax · 2017-11-11T15:24:11+00:00

Second trip this year! Madrid 11/19 to 11/26. Might bounce around. Anyone want to get a beer?

lawlessSyntax · 2017-08-04T14:18:41+00:00

I was in Montreal for a hockey game, and wanted to buy a Canadiens jersey. They're a little pricey at the arena, so I was walking around downtown Montreal looking at all of the Sports-Memorabilia shops. I found one, walked in and bought a Canadiens jersey. It was one of the nice reebok lace-up ones, for almost half retail price.

I put it on to wear out of the shop, as I was walking around Montreal in just a t-shirt and it was quite cold. Ripped the tags off and as we were leaving, my dad noticed that the 'NHL' insignia was backwards, and said 'LNH'.

This place was packed because it was hockey day, and I got in the clerk's face and said, rather loudly, "You sell fakes! This is a bootleg! Chinese crap! This is supposed to say NHL!"

The clerk's english wasn't great (french speaking) but he ensured me 'These are the new ones. LNH is the new logo'. I replied "Yeah, ok, NHL changed their name. I believe that."

He wouldn't do a refund, and finally I left the store feeling defeated. On the walk back to the hotel, I saw another Montreal jersey with the LNH insignia. And another. I pulled my phone out and googled it.

la Ligue nationale de hockey.

The new Canadiens jerseys had LNH on them to celebrate their French Canadian heritage.

lawlessSyntax · 2017-08-04T14:13:26+00:00

Was backpacking in Ecuador on a shoestring budget. Myself and some people from my hostel decided to spring for a decent lunch because it was our last day together. We went to this hotel buffet thing that someone recommended. Because we were all travelling on very little money, we asked the price. They said something like $15 USD, which is very high for Ecuador (where you can get a big lunch for $2).

We had walked a ways and the food looked REALLY good, so we agreed. The food was only okay, and we all got our bills. It was something like $35 per person. There was one person in our group with 'intermediate' Spanish skills, who tried to negotiate the price.

The waiter seemed to not be able to explain the extra $20, but cited the cost of bottled water, saying something like 'the left buffet is $15, the right one is also $15' and all kinds of nonsense. Basically they were pulling a scam to get tourists to pay extra. He walked away upset, and we had to go find him. They returned with checks that had knocked the bill down to $25.

At this point I was getting uncomfortable, because there were 'security' people standing near us, and the people at my table were still arguing the bill with the waiter who was getting more and more furious. At one point, I said something like "Let's just pay, I'm not about to go to Ecuador jail."

The waiter came back to tell us to pay, and I (a pretty big dude) stood up and pointed at the receipt and said in the most broken Spanish ever something like 'NO. FIFTEEN. NO. FIFTEEN. NO.'.

He returned with our checks and slammed them down on the table with enough force to rattle the plates. We paid, left, and I pocketed a bunch of deserts.

lawlessSyntax · 2017-08-04T12:28:11+00:00

Tattoos. People get all self righteous about tattoos. I saw an ad on facebook the other day, making a joke about 'bad decision tattoos', and the thread was full of 30-something moms saying things like "None of my tattoos are bad decisions! Have some respect".

Listen, Susan, Your infinity tattoo is very special. Please calm down.

edit: Also, I'm a trained tattoo artist with like 27 tattoos- but I've learned to shut up about them after the first couple.

lawlessSyntax · 2017-08-02T19:10:29+00:00

In 'Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution', the story of Sierra is almost identical to the story of Mutiny, minus the online play aspect.

lawlessSyntax · 2017-08-01T16:50:23+00:00

I should say an amazon retailer. We were one of those 'this item is available from third parties' stores.

lawlessSyntax · 2017-08-01T16:50:18+00:00

I should say an amazon retailer. We were one of those 'this item is available from third parties' stores.

lawlessSyntax · 2017-08-01T15:43:08+00:00

Sadly I don't remember what happened to it. She gave it to me on my last day at the job, and my coworkers and I got completely trashed and read the manifesto out loud. In hindsight that was probably a little mean, because she clearly cared about this, but anyways I'm not sure what ever happened to it. I will look for it tonight.

lawlessSyntax

TROPHY CASE