My geek thread
#1451
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We have legacy code we are migrating away from.
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#1452
Nonsense
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I learned it the hard way and it was also my first language, so the resources I used were straight up stupid and I would not recommend them. Assuming you know a couple of languages already I'd do some code academy stuff to get the syntax down and then put it to use building a basic blog type deal from scratch (no cms or framework, and walk uphill both ways to your desk/computer when you do it). If you can build a blog soup to nuts you can definitely build a website using WordPress or employing a decent framework.
#1453
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I was a programmer in the caveman days of the AS/400, and pretty familiar with MS-SQL, but clueless about PHP. It would be good to learn since that's what our website uses, along with Wordpress.
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#1454
No matches
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I'm a big fan of just writing a program and learning that way, once you have the basics and understand some of the concepts and hopefully didn't learn some bad habits. I'm starting to write a program in C++ for fun, because I've used C++ in the past and read a few tutorials, but I usually didn't really use it correctly and didn't use the object orientedness of it.
Two things tutorials and other stuff taught me that I'm now trying to unlearn are "using namespace std" and "endl". Both things that I think tutorials use for simplicity, but are bad ideas in practice.
Two things tutorials and other stuff taught me that I'm now trying to unlearn are "using namespace std" and "endl". Both things that I think tutorials use for simplicity, but are bad ideas in practice.
#1456
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Anyone looking to learn a new language (or brush up on one you know) I found a new programming competition website that's pretty good for learning too. Hackerrank, similar to CodeChef and others, but has a TON of tutorials to help you along. Everything from "hello, world!" problems to complex data structures, AI, algorithms, graph theory, math theory, all sorts of stuff.
There is also a 30 days of Code thing, that has tutorials, which you can do in any language. There are also some language specific tutorials, but only in Java, C++, Python, Ruby, and SQL it looks like. But PHP is one of the languages for most things.
They give you some basic code to start with generally, and the tutorials may or may not be useful in your language (or correct). And they have some bad habits (like using namespace std and endl in C++).
There is also a 30 days of Code thing, that has tutorials, which you can do in any language. There are also some language specific tutorials, but only in Java, C++, Python, Ruby, and SQL it looks like. But PHP is one of the languages for most things.
They give you some basic code to start with generally, and the tutorials may or may not be useful in your language (or correct). And they have some bad habits (like using namespace std and endl in C++).
#1458
BF's Resident Dumbass
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I mulled jumping ship to Linux from Windows entirely, but my work depends on having quick and automated access to OneDrive/Google Drive, and I haven't found a workable solution (i.e. a client, official or otherwise) to get those integrated seamlessly into Ubuntu/Mint/what have you. I considered using Mega, which are more generous than most with their 50 free gigabytes. The MegaSync client seemed to work, but I didn't find it as easy or as intuitive to use as the OD/GD clients.
All that aside, getting Google Earth/Panoramio to work properly on any Linux is just too much trouble. Of all the times I installed Linux on any of my computers, I only managed to get Panoramio to work within GE once.
And then there are all these graphics driver issues...
That said, Windows 10 Pro seems to be running just fine on our two i3-based desktops and all of our laptops, even the old ThinkPad T60 (albeit that thing overheats like crazy, even with Lubuntu or any similar lightweight Linux installed.)
All that aside, getting Google Earth/Panoramio to work properly on any Linux is just too much trouble. Of all the times I installed Linux on any of my computers, I only managed to get Panoramio to work within GE once.
And then there are all these graphics driver issues...
That said, Windows 10 Pro seems to be running just fine on our two i3-based desktops and all of our laptops, even the old ThinkPad T60 (albeit that thing overheats like crazy, even with Lubuntu or any similar lightweight Linux installed.)
Last edited by sjanzeir; 05-11-16 at 07:37 PM.
#1459
Nonsense
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My only beef with Windows 10: Every time it auto updates it turns on all the swipe gestures I turned off. It's a minor thing but it makes me want to break things.
#1460
Senior Member
Ask someone - that's what I did. Wordpress theme/framework, some tips from a fellow racer who is a bit more involved in IT than me, and site went up. Maintenance, that's another story.
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"...during the Lance years, being fit became the No. 1 thing. Totally the only thing. It’s a big part of what we do, but fitness is not the only thing. There’s skills, there’s tactics … there’s all kinds of stuff..." Tim Johnson
"...during the Lance years, being fit became the No. 1 thing. Totally the only thing. It’s a big part of what we do, but fitness is not the only thing. There’s skills, there’s tactics … there’s all kinds of stuff..." Tim Johnson
#1461
Senior Member
One of my old CDR teammates gave me some programming books. I asked him how he learned. "I told them I knew C in the interview." "Did you?" "No, but I learned a lot in the 2 weeks before I started my job." At the time he told me that story he'd been there probably 10 years.
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"...during the Lance years, being fit became the No. 1 thing. Totally the only thing. It’s a big part of what we do, but fitness is not the only thing. There’s skills, there’s tactics … there’s all kinds of stuff..." Tim Johnson
"...during the Lance years, being fit became the No. 1 thing. Totally the only thing. It’s a big part of what we do, but fitness is not the only thing. There’s skills, there’s tactics … there’s all kinds of stuff..." Tim Johnson
#1462
Rides too much bike
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One of my old CDR teammates gave me some programming books. I asked him how he learned. "I told them I knew C in the interview." "Did you?" "No, but I learned a lot in the 2 weeks before I started my job." At the time he told me that story he'd been there probably 10 years.
#1464
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We've used our PS3 for years to stream hulu, netflix, youtube, etc. We don't actually game with it (or haven't in years). Lately it has been acting up. There is a D-Link DAP1522 bridge in the media cubby. 4 ethernet ports, and it connects to the wireless upstairs. I've never had any trouble with this setup. The DirecTV, PS3, XBOX360, and something else I can't remember are plugged into it.
Over the last few weeks we've been having lots of trouble with Hulu and Netflix (haven't tried youtube) on the PS3. It is slow to load the app, often freezes the first time, and then once we watch a show, it stops after 1-5 minutes and looks like it's buffering, but never really does, so you have to shut the PS3 off and start over. I assumed at first this was just Hulu being stupid, but then Netflix was doing it too. So I assumed it was the PS3 getting old. Running a network test on the PS3 is fine, everything good, decent speeds (not great, that bridge is slow I think, like 10Mbps down). But then we tried to watch some on demand stuff on the DirectTV, and that did the same thing. It downloaded some, stopped, started, gave up. So I suspected the bridge was bad.
I have another little Netgear wireless bridge with a single port (WNCE2001) that we use upstairs on an older BluRay player that doesn't have wifi. So I brought that down and plugged it into the PS3. No go, did the exact same thing. Would start, stop, buffer, crash, slow to load, etc. Again the network seemed fine. So I'm back to suspecting the PS3 I guess. I delete Hulu and Netflix and redownload Hulu on the PS3. Doesn't help. Now I'm just confused.
I know the overall network is fine, because we ended up just plugging my laptop into the receiver and were able to watch all the shows we wanted without any issues at all, never buffered once in a few hours.
So what the hell is going on? Is it the bridge? How is it both of them? If it isn't the bridge, why was the DirecTV also affected? Is the DirecTV just bad in general and it is the PS3?
Meanwhile, in trying to fix the original bridge, I may have bricked it with a reset somehow. It wasn't behaving properly at all. One time I turned it off and back on it actually managed to bring down my entire wireless network and I had to go reset the router. I think my next step might be to do factory reset on the PS3 and start over. I'm leaning towards the PS3 being the issue and the DirecTV being a red herring.
Any thoughts? It's driving me crazy.
TL;DR -
PS3, DirecTV, other things plugged into D-Link wireless bridge.
PS3 has issues with Hulu being slow to load, crashing, buffering. Netflix too.
DirecTV also has issues with on demand buffering, stopping.
Change D-Link bridge to Netgear single bridge. Doesn't help PS3.
Reinstall Hulu on PS3, doesn't help.
Use Laptop to watch Hulu without bridge, just normal wifi, no issues for hours.
Over the last few weeks we've been having lots of trouble with Hulu and Netflix (haven't tried youtube) on the PS3. It is slow to load the app, often freezes the first time, and then once we watch a show, it stops after 1-5 minutes and looks like it's buffering, but never really does, so you have to shut the PS3 off and start over. I assumed at first this was just Hulu being stupid, but then Netflix was doing it too. So I assumed it was the PS3 getting old. Running a network test on the PS3 is fine, everything good, decent speeds (not great, that bridge is slow I think, like 10Mbps down). But then we tried to watch some on demand stuff on the DirectTV, and that did the same thing. It downloaded some, stopped, started, gave up. So I suspected the bridge was bad.
I have another little Netgear wireless bridge with a single port (WNCE2001) that we use upstairs on an older BluRay player that doesn't have wifi. So I brought that down and plugged it into the PS3. No go, did the exact same thing. Would start, stop, buffer, crash, slow to load, etc. Again the network seemed fine. So I'm back to suspecting the PS3 I guess. I delete Hulu and Netflix and redownload Hulu on the PS3. Doesn't help. Now I'm just confused.
I know the overall network is fine, because we ended up just plugging my laptop into the receiver and were able to watch all the shows we wanted without any issues at all, never buffered once in a few hours.
So what the hell is going on? Is it the bridge? How is it both of them? If it isn't the bridge, why was the DirecTV also affected? Is the DirecTV just bad in general and it is the PS3?
Meanwhile, in trying to fix the original bridge, I may have bricked it with a reset somehow. It wasn't behaving properly at all. One time I turned it off and back on it actually managed to bring down my entire wireless network and I had to go reset the router. I think my next step might be to do factory reset on the PS3 and start over. I'm leaning towards the PS3 being the issue and the DirecTV being a red herring.
Any thoughts? It's driving me crazy.
TL;DR -
PS3, DirecTV, other things plugged into D-Link wireless bridge.
PS3 has issues with Hulu being slow to load, crashing, buffering. Netflix too.
DirecTV also has issues with on demand buffering, stopping.
Change D-Link bridge to Netgear single bridge. Doesn't help PS3.
Reinstall Hulu on PS3, doesn't help.
Use Laptop to watch Hulu without bridge, just normal wifi, no issues for hours.
#1466
Gluteus Enormus
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Wireless network problems are a pain to troubleshoot. Is your router dual-band and the laptop on 5ghz (no problems) while the bridge is on 2.4ghz (problems)? I second shovelhd's suggestion to plug the laptop into the bridge for a test. If the bridge has a site survey utility (or use a wifi analyzer) check to see if you have a neighbor encroaching on the same wifi channel. There are times when I have to restart all of my wireless devices to find the one causing problems.
#1467
Elite Fred
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One of my old CDR teammates gave me some programming books. I asked him how he learned. "I told them I knew C in the interview." "Did you?" "No, but I learned a lot in the 2 weeks before I started my job." At the time he told me that story he'd been there probably 10 years.
C is awesome, but very dangerous. You can do anything with it.
#1468
Elite Fred
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Dealing with the "partners" that I had to sign up with to do my last consulting gig. They are the go between for me and the multinational company I am working for. And the "partners" are totally incompetent and fraudulent. I have expressed my displeasure to the company that hired me. In the past it was straightforward: I did the work, they paid me, I got a 1099 and it was up to me to deal with taxes. With these folks I think they have it set up to pocket any excess "self-employment" taxes I might pay. I will max out Social Security payments elsewhere and yet they take out the "self-employment" amount for both me and the "business" side out of disbursements as if I need to pay full freight for Social Security. I keep asking about records about the "business" side when doing my taxes as I should get it all back and all I get is the run around.
I am not that pissed off about making the US Government a loan until I file my taxes, but I am really pissed off about this company stealing my money and telling me it is a service they are providing. Hell, they are already skimming over 4% off the top before this as a service charge.
Yeah, I am pissed off.
I am not that pissed off about making the US Government a loan until I file my taxes, but I am really pissed off about this company stealing my money and telling me it is a service they are providing. Hell, they are already skimming over 4% off the top before this as a service charge.
Yeah, I am pissed off.
#1469
**** that
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One of my old CDR teammates gave me some programming books. I asked him how he learned. "I told them I knew C in the interview." "Did you?" "No, but I learned a lot in the 2 weeks before I started my job." At the time he told me that story he'd been there probably 10 years.
Took me a lot longer than one night to learn C, but then again it was my first language. Looking back not the best to start with, but Java wasn't around yet.
#1470
Elite Fred
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So they just took his word on it? I thought that's what interviews are for!
Learning C overnight... ouch. I guess it depends on what you've done before and to what capacity you "learned it", but damn.
Took me a lot longer than one night to learn C, but then again it was my first language. Looking back not the best to start with, but Java wasn't around yet.
Learning C overnight... ouch. I guess it depends on what you've done before and to what capacity you "learned it", but damn.
Took me a lot longer than one night to learn C, but then again it was my first language. Looking back not the best to start with, but Java wasn't around yet.
#1471
No matches
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I disagree that c isn't a good first language. Maybe I'm old school despite my age but I'm glad I learned C first. I think you should learn how and why things work first, then you can be productive and let the high level language hide everything later. I'm glad I understand at a fundamental level (part of that is having learned assembly and computer architecture too) how and why things work.
#1472
Killing Rabbits
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I disagree that c isn't a good first language. Maybe I'm old school despite my age but I'm glad I learned C first. I think you should learn how and why things work first, then you can be productive and let the high level language hide everything later. I'm glad I understand at a fundamental level (part of that is having learned assembly and computer architecture too) how and why things work.
On a geek note I've been writing mandatory specifications for an x-ray fluorescence spectrometer for the last few days and it feels like I am writing old-testament commandments: "the instrument must [do this]." The instrument shall not [do this]."
Last edited by Enthalpic; 06-02-16 at 08:42 PM.
#1473
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Maybe 19, in 2007 or so, in college. We learned C and a fake simple assembly around the same time at first. I learned everything else after college (C++, C#, Perl, VB, VBA, Java, etc). I wasn't computer science obviously, I was electrical engineering, so I just got the basics.
#1474
Senior Member
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With junior on the way to college and one more year for daughter, I'm starting to work again. I'm thinking of getting a job (employee), but the bike things need to be over first.
#1475
**** that
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I disagree that c isn't a good first language. Maybe I'm old school despite my age but I'm glad I learned C first. I think you should learn how and why things work first, then you can be productive and let the high level language hide everything later. I'm glad I understand at a fundamental level (part of that is having learned assembly and computer architecture too) how and why things work.
That said, I disagree that starting at the low level is the best way to go; yes it's good to understand what a pointer is eventually, but pointers shouldn't block you (and they will!) from learning the basics first.
Getting a SEGFAULT when you print some string b/c your pointer is off is something that every dev will struggle with at some point, but there's no need for a beginner to deal with that!
Python, javascript, (maybe) perl, C#, I think are better places to start. Hell even LISP/Scheme, if you want to go off to la la land.