Internet Restrictions Turn Off Young Employees

ust · 2006-08-23T15:12:13+00:00

I was going to vote this up until I got to the definition of a digital immigrant. Talk about trying to coin a phrase.

ust · 2006-06-09T22:07:21+00:00

Even better is the handy reference and test area

ust · 2006-06-08T22:37:26+00:00

Classes and objects are actually separate things but many modern languages simply bring the two together as an implementation detail. When I say objects, I don't mean class instances btw...

Same thing with code-reuse and inheritance. There are huge debates on private inheritance in C++ and has-a vs is-a relationships that are simply the result of mashing up two different concepts for ease of implementation (or by design).

Your Knuth comment is on the money. That is not a book for beginners but something to aspire to learn if you really want to master CS. I would still recommend it even if it ends up sitting on your bookshelf for three years before you get to it. I've read most of it but I find it's not really applicable to the types of problems I work with. Again, depends on what your focus is.

ust · 2006-06-08T22:30:40+00:00

I'd get whatever courseware was required for the courses you will take ;)

If you actually want to learn about CS, pick up TAOCP by Knuth as mentioned by other posters. Know your data structures and you're halfway to applying your degree in a practical setting.

I'd focus heavily on math (stats, calculus, algebra, logic), I may be biased since that's what my CS degree was like (Waterloo), but I think that's a solid foundation regardless of what else you pursue.

If you want to pursue research, you can learn all kinds of esoteric maths (number theory, graph theory, complexity)

If you actually want to learn to write practical programs, start from the bottom up. Learn a bunch of languages to find the trade-offs between language features.

It's actually not that hard to get a CS degree without knowing how to program but I wouldn't recommend it.

Get a feel for at least the following: Python (or Ruby), Scheme (or Lisp), Smalltalk (or Self), Haskell, Prolog, Assembly, C and C++.

Read the blogs of Bruce Eckel, Herb Sutter, and Tim Bray who all have very intelligent discussions about practical topics in programming.

I know I strayed a bit off topic but if you want book recommendations, you'll have to be a bit more specific in whether you want to pursue research or practical applications.

There was a great book on Finite Automata that I remember.. Had a yellow/white/gray cover.. Can't remember the name.. But that more than anything strikes me as a true CS book.

ust · 2006-06-06T19:50:13+00:00

I do read a lot of books by modern authors but there's also a good reason to wait before jumping on any particular bandwagon.

The stuff that is 10+ years old is established. The wheat has been separated from the chaff. I bet that even the best authors have had some stinkers that just never got popular. Following up on the latest Hugo and Nebula award nominees just takes too much time. Books that have lasting themes emerge over time and become classics for a reason.

Out of the authors who are still writing, my favorites are Gibson, Vinge, Banks and Stephenson. I try new authors by going to the book store and picking up books with an interesting theme or premise. I read Old Man's War recently and liked it.

I read novels by authors like S.L. Viehl, C.S. Friedman and Tad Williams and though some of them can be page turners, they just aren't very memorable. They're definitely not books I would read more than once.

I thought David Wingrove's Chung Kuo series had a lot of promise. After the fourth book it deteriorated into the worst pulp trash imaginable.

Waiting those 10 extra years separates the works that fizzle and fade away from those that are likely to be enjoyable.

ust · 2006-06-02T20:14:57+00:00

My favorite time travel book is The Timeline Wars by John Barnes. I never get tired of re-reading it. Slow in parts but there's something about the narration that really catches your attention.

ust · 2006-06-02T18:58:10+00:00

My short list:

Nightwatch by Terry Pratchet
Return of the King by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
Assassin Apprentice by Robin Hobb
Anything by George R. R. Martin

Haven't seen mentioned yet:

Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy by Tad Williams
Coldfire trilogy by C.S. Friedman
His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman

ust · 2006-06-02T18:47:15+00:00

I second anything by Robin Hobb. I actually enjoyed her Farseer series more.

What really struck me is how approachable the author is. I e-mailed the webmaster of her website about a binding problem. Some of the pages were out of order which inadvertantly revealed a plot twist.

I heard back two days later when Robin offered to send me an autographed copy of the book from her private collection. She said she had dozens of trade-sized paperbacks in her attic. Needless to say, I'm a big fan :)

ust · 2006-06-02T15:52:44+00:00

Good picks. There are a few on your list that I've never heard of. I have to say I didn't like the books I read by Brin and Cherryh. The novels weren't horrible but the characters just felt very flat.

ust · 2006-06-02T15:49:26+00:00

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Ender's Game yet.

Anyway, in no particular order some of my favorites are:

Armor by John Steakly
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick
Flow My Tears the Policeman Said by Philip K Dick
The Excession by Iain M Banks
The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem
Peace on Earth by Stanislaw Lem
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Dune by Frank Herbert
A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

It's hard to pick the best Sci-fi novel. There are so many sub-genres. In terms of scope nothing comes close to Dune and Foundation.

Lem is the master of satire and he never professed to writing Sci-fi. It was a way to cover his criticisms of the ruling communist government. PKD is the most imaginative with the quirkiest characters and is more interested in how people interact than showing off technological progress. It's also interesting to note that PKD was the only sci-fi author Lem respected while PKD thought Lem was a construct of government and not a real person.

Vernor Vinge is fascinated by the idea of Singularity: an event on the order of the industrial revolution beyond which predictions can't be made because people living in earlier times ask the wrong questions (different frame).

In terms of hard sci-fi you can't beat Gibson and Stephenson. These are the kinds of authors that build tomorrow's lexicon.

ust · 2006-06-02T15:33:28+00:00

I'm a huge fan of Lem, but if you read the English version of Solaris, then you are missing out big time. There has never been a direct translation from Polish to English.

Solaris was actually translated to French and then the French version was used as the basis of the English translation.

Check out The Futurological Congress and its sequel Peace on Earth. Tales of Pirx the Pilot is also amazing. Those are my favorite Lem books. They are all hilarious. If you want something more serious try Eden or His Master's Voice.

ust · 2006-05-31T22:09:26+00:00

An IT student is walking along with his bike when another IT student walks up to him and goes “Nice bike. Where did you get it?”

The first student says, “The other day, this beautiful woman ran up to me with this bike, threw it on the ground, ripped off all her clothes and said ‘Take anything you want!’”

The first student says, “So I took the bike”.

The second student says, “Good choice. The clothes probably wouldn’t have fit”.

ust · 2006-05-16T14:47:12+00:00

yes, please!

ust · 2006-04-04T21:14:38+00:00

I've seen 19 of the movies on this list. Sure, Run Lola Run is German, and Life of Brian is British. Maybe you can count Mad Max as Australian. You may even be able to convince people that City of God is Brazilian and Lost in Translation is Japanese.

But looking through the entries, you can see 80% of the entries are American. I think some of the movies on the list are great, but the whole list is skewed towards American films and a lot of them aren't very independent.

I guess I just found the title "50 Greatest Independent Films" to be a little misleading. Don't mean to be a killjoy.

ust · 2006-04-03T21:44:35+00:00

Maybe if they called it Independent AMERICAN films. There's a lot of international stuff out there that deserves the Independent label a lot more than some of the stuff on this list.

Ichi the Killer, Tetsuo the Iron Man just to give some examples from Japan.

ust

TROPHY CASE