Posts made by David I Hunt

David I Hunt

In the interview for my first programming job, they asked me if I knew "design patterns". At the time, I had no idea what that phrase meant. So after being hired, I downloaded the original GoF book and started reading. I got about 3 chapters in, flipped through the rest, then deleted it to not waste the 500KB of disk space on such inane blather. Design Patterns are a fancy names for basic algorithms and techniques that should be obvious to anyone who actually understands indirection and a few basic (lists, trees) data structures. What struck me the most was that the authors say this in the first chapter. In fact, the authors actually insult their readers since needing to read the book means they are sub-par programmers to start with. :P This could be because they aren't programmers at all yet (just starting off). But most often in my experience the people who use the names for 'patterns' and harp on the supposed greatness of design patterns simply have no real understanding of what they are doing, and are doubly ignorant in thinking they have reached a professional level of coding. I have unfortunately worked with many of them, and cleaned up their broken, messy, brain damaged code often.

I have nothing against VB or .NET; all Turing-complete languages are respectable. It just seems that some languages attract one echelon of programmers, and other languages attract an entirely different echelon of programmers. :P

David I Hunt

You're welcome. That's what bitter forum trolls like me are here for :)

I have nothing against VB or .NET; all Turing-complete languages are respectable. It just seems that some languages attract one echelon of programmers, and other languages attract an entirely different echelon of programmers. :P

David I Hunt

The difference between developers and the other engineering fields is this: the PHB's in charge stay in charge, because the cause of software failure is not obvious to the layman (the bosses). For example, if a company builds a bridge they first do a bunch of math on known specifications. They know exactly how long the bridge will be, how many lanes, and therefore the maximum number of osmium-filled tractor trailers that can fit on the bridge at once bumper-to-bumper. They also know the exact environment for the bridge, meaning that if the bridge is built in Tampa, Florida, they need not anticipate 10 foot thick ice flows. From these long standing well tested mathematical formulas, they can create a blueprint. An exact blueprint. This blueprint will be submitted to various local and state authorities for review by their engineers. Once approved, construction begins. We have been building bridges for thousands of years, and the most of the methods now in use have been around for over a century. There is no hype stirred up by advertising. No paper companies are going around hyping up paper mache as a building material because "materials are cheaper than engineers". No 15-year-old bloggers are weighing in on concrete slip-form "best practices". Foremen know how much work a man can do in a day, and measuring that work is blatantly obvious even to casual passersby. The quality of the work is also easily measurable, and shoddy workmanship will become apparent at some point. Once the bridge is done, it's done. There is maintenance of course, but there is no such thing as "beta testers" for a bridge. Clueless upper management don't go out for a drive on the bridge when its half-done and then complain about poor cell phone reception on the lower decks and demand that the whole thing be retrofitted using fiberglass instead of steel. If the bridge collapses for some unfortunate reason one day (if it were built by the average software company it would collapse twice a week), inspectors and engineers would come in and investigate. The causes would be found quickly, and demonstrated with models and proven with math and measurements. If it was an engineering issue, the engineers get the blame. If it was lack of maintenance, the politicians get the blame. If it was cheap workmanship or faulty materials, the builders get the blame... and so on. A politician who cut the maintenance budget cannot come out and claim that a giant sea serpent was secretly humping the bridge at night. No PHB's can dodge the blame for forcing

David I Hunt

I'd build a computational knowledge engine that would logically prove to executives how and why everything they say is stupid. It would have the unique feature of being able to break down the complicated $6 words like "specifications" into a form that they can actually pretend to understand. This would save programmers hundreds of millions of man-hours around the world.

I have nothing against VB or .NET; all Turing-complete languages are respectable. It just seems that some languages attract one echelon of programmers, and other languages attract an entirely different echelon of programmers. :P

David I Hunt

Seeing as how superheroes do not actually exist, I'd become a supervillain. My plan is to build a giant orbital peanut farm in order to manufacture a 1000 meter wide ball of peanut butter. This giant ball of peanut butter would then be equipped with airfoils, retrorockets and a heat shield. Simultaneously, I would secretly amass thousands of liters of sulfuric and nitric acid at an underground facility located in Kentucky. Using genetically engineered super-gophers, a tunnel would be created from the acid storage area into the basement of the target, and then lined with Teflon. With a big red button and an evil laugh, I would commence the Master Plan. First, the giant ball of peanut butter would be carefully hurled from orbit onto Fort Knox. With 100 meters of peanut butter making entry and exit from the fort impossible, the final leg of pipe would connect into the basement of the vault. In a rush of pure liquid evil, the sulphuric and nitric acids would be pumped into the vault forming Aqua Regia. Metal security doors pose no challenge to the powerful acids. In a few short hours all the nation's gold will have dissolved, allowing me to easily pump it out. But since I just told you the details of my evil scheme, I'd probably just get a job as an auto mechanic.

I have nothing against VB or .NET; all Turing-complete languages are respectable. It just seems that some languages attract one echelon of programmers, and other languages attract an entirely different echelon of programmers. :P

David I Hunt

I don't know what your accent training says, but here's four things that would help you IMHO: (native of Florida) 1. Confidence. Many Americans have a bad habit of saying whatever we want whenever we want. If you want to have a convincing American accent, you must not be hesitant or reserved in your speech; even shy or soft spoken people have a certain tone of confidence in their speech compared to people from other countries. 2. Watch the vowels. I don't know about your native language, but vowels in an American accent do not often change tone over the course of their pronunciation. In other words, vowels do not generally have a rising or falling inflection. It's a very subtle detail, but can be rather annoying to a frustrated American with broken electronics. (you seem to be doing well in this area) 3. Informalness. American English is not very trim and proper. Use contractions (can't, don't, shouldn't, etc) a fair amount, not that you shouldn't ever say "should not". Be kinda lazy with you speech, only half pronouncing certain ending "g's" almost like "endin'" but not totally leaving off the "g". Learn a few word pairs that are often sorta joined together like "sort of -> sorta", "a lot -> alot" ("UHlot" instead of "ay-lot"). These are really cultural things more than accentual, but it goes a long way into tricking someone into thinking you are American. 4. Slang. Learn what common phases Americans use to say things. This is 60% of the difference between British English and American English. For example, we say "hold on" to mean "wait for a short period, but don't go away", and "chill out" to mean "calm yourself". Sporadic use of common slang makes you sound warmer and more friendly. My recommendation: watch American news broadcasts, and lots of it. It may turn your brain to mush, but you will learn to speak American in no time. :-D

I have nothing against VB or .NET; all Turing-complete languages are respectable. It just seems that some languages attract one echelon of programmers, and other languages attract an entirely different echelon of programmers. :P

David I Hunt

I can't say that I've stayed in many hotels in my home city, but I called around and checked some prices. Try this place; they quoted me $43 per night (~$300/wk) online. It's in a good part of town on the north end, close to lots of stuff. (about 10 min. from downtown) http://www.suburbanhotels.com/hotel-lakeland-florida-FL971?promo=gglocal[^] Safar Inn quoted me $220/wk + $50 deposit on the phone: 1817 E Memorial Blvd Lakeland, FL 33801 (863) 688-9221 Its not the greatest hotel in the world, but its cheap and not in the ghetto. Really, you just want to avoid any place on US-92 / Memorial Blvd. -- everything about a mile north of that road is a bad part of town when you turn off the main roads. Some places around there we don't even drive during the day time. The exception is when Lake Parker is immediately north of 92, as with Safar. South of Memorial is OK though. Anything near I-4 will be nice, and anything on the south side will be nice as well. Hope this helps.