We installed external SSDs on our dev boxes a couple of years ago. It reduces boot time (from minutes to seconds). Then I switched to Linux and it stopped mattering (I hardly ever reboot).

Sounds like you are describing twitter.

huh? I don't think x = y implies x2 = xy. How did you get that?

I am using the O'Reilly book Linux System Programming by Robert Love. http://www.amazon.com/dp/1449339530/ref=pe_385040_121528360_TE_dp_4.

This is K&R - other than the if (appPage) not needing braces at all. Nothing wrong here. Move along.

Get the game "Robot Turtles". The kickstarter has expired, but there are games available starting today at [^]

Right now, I am split between my Arduino and my Raspberry Pi. Before that - as a childhood toy, it had to be my Mamod Steam Engine (Mecanno compatible).

I am with you totally. I see complaints like the ones which have already followed your post all the time. Fact is most people have such large egos that it is easier for them to write something than to learn to use code someone else wrote - because they are already "experts" and no longer students. We use boost all the time for as much of what it can do as we can possibly use. We use Google code (kml libs), we use zlib, we pretty much use anything open source that fits our needs. If a half decent C++ dev can't wrap a library to give us a stylistically appropriate interface in less time than it would take to write the entire library, then that C++ dev is no use to us. Most of the arguments against are straw men (presuming open source here). Will a 3rd party library be maintained going forward? Dunno - but sure as heck our own home grown solution won't be maintained by anyone else either. Is it any good? There are a large number of excellent libraries out there for many, many common programming needs. They have had thousands of eyeballs and hundreds of consumers testing them and fixing them. Sure beats the size of our QA team. Code Project itself is an excellent resource for working code that has been peer reviewed the heck out of. Do your research. Set aside your ego. Borrow code.

I knew what PM meant. It just does not exist within SCRUM. Such a post is considered overhead, and is to be avoided. That is to say, if you are following the formal methodology of SCRUM, there is no Project Manager within scrum.

And out of curiosity, who the heck is the PM? SCRUm has no PM.

What you are experiencing has nothing to do with scrum. Scrum is the antithesis of what you describe. You just work at a horrible workplace. No methodology can fix that.

The "you do not trust" is undeterminable. To me, the rule is "do not publish any data to any website that you don't mind the world (including your empoyer and mother in law) reading. That said, for data to be valuable across apps, copying the data into another long term store is just a case of wearing two watches.

It annoys me that software would COPY information into its OWN store. Really, address and contact info is dynamic, people move and change numbers all the time. The API should be used on the fly to extract the information JIT.

Anyone smart enough to write an IDE for Linux already knows vi, emacs or both and recognizes the inherent power of them. It would be a come-down to use an IDE (and I am familiar with Visual Studio and Eclipse). I still fall back to vi and make when I am getting work done quickly in Linux.

A map is essentially a collection of tuples, and I find maps incredibly useful. Often times I have a tuple in my code consisting of:

pair >

especially in database mapping.

Maybe there is a separate job here to write a program that helps the customer create the file in the appropriate format?

I use the browser (a lot), I use navigation (with GPS) very often. I use the bar-code/QR code scan when shopping, Calendar - run my life with it, E-mail (gmail), Evernote - write down stray thoughts before they escape. Music (of course), camera, video, YouTube app, kids apps (for my 3-year-old), and Klondike. I have played (for a while) Mediaeval Castle Defender, some drag-racing game and others that I forget. I am not much of a game player on the phone (or anywhere else for that matter). Mind you, I use to use a Palm pilot (m100, then handspring visor, then Treo, then Centro), so the concept of a smart handheld device is deeply embedded for me.

My apologies - I read the line "

Windows does not play nice with others - and entrusting your Ubuntu to the care of Windows (VM or otherwise) in my opinion, is risky business - and since it is your business at stake, is it a gamble you wish to take?

" as meaning the other way round to which you intended. It may be clear to you, but I can (now) see how it could read as either way.

What? Because Windows is badly behaved you are suggesting one gives it control? Do you have children? Because Windows is badly behaved, it SHOULD be relegated to a VM where it can be safely contained, and not allowed to stomp on its neighbours. I have run Windows (several version) in virtual machines for years. I currently use KVM and Qemu. One advantage is the ability now to tunnel into my Windows VMs using unix protocols such as ssh, or use VNC to access my Windows VM. I can even access my Windows applications in their own windows on my Linux Desktop - and create shortcuts to them on my desktop, or on the desktops of any Linux machine on the network. I can run these VMs WITHOUT anti-virus, and (intentionally) disable their Web browsers (and other clients) from going outside the local network. This is another significant benefit. I can still test my Web server apps using IE and other on Windows - but without Internet access in the VM, I don't need anti virus. That said, you should always install windows first in a multi-boot environment. You should usually install Linux root into a secondary partition (so you do not use up one of the (ONLY) 4 possible primary partitions, of which Windows needs one, and your PC probably ships with a recoevery partition (or two) that uses another. I recently bought an HP machine that had all 4 primary partitions used, with only one OS (Windows 7) installed, (and only one partition visible to the user). I deleted a "system restore" partition, resized the main Windows partition, and divided the released 4th parition into multiple secondary partitions in order to install Linux Mint (with its own swap partition). So - to give an overview of what has worked well for 15 years in various versions of Linux and Windows - Dual boot, Linux and Windows (Windows in a small partition), live in Linux. Windows in VMs using your favourtite Virtual Machine manager (I used to use VMWare, recently moved to KVM and Qemu).

You can use a simple windows CD to boot and reinstall the MBR. No need for additional software.