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As an "IT Professional" do you/should you get to claim overtime? | byoung2: I live in California, and we have a similar law here:http://www.philtres.com/vlb/CA_515_5.html |
Am I crazy? | mynameishere: I have no idea what you're asking. 1500 dollars isn't much money, so you should probably get a job, at least until you sort out your thoughts. |
what good music composition web apps are out there? | SwellJoe: Nowhere. Latency is just too high with Flash or JavaScript or Java applets, even the best online apps are atrocious. I always tinker with them when I see a link to them, but they always disappoint. Most iPhone and Android music apps are also pretty much useless, unfortunately...I love composing in odd plac... |
Am I crazy? | natch: Damn, I wish I was in the position to think that $1500 was a good chunk of money.Yes, you're crazy, which is a good thing. Embrace it. Do it while you can. |
As an "IT Professional" do you/should you get to claim overtime? | pmorici: So long as I can claim under time and go home when I'm done with my work for the day I don't care much either way. |
Am I crazy? | mkramlich: If you pass through Colorado I can probably introduce you to a couple entrepreneurs: the founders of NetDevil (Jumpgate) and Double Encore, at the very least. I'm also somewhat of an entrepreneur, but just starting out and but a wee little tadpole in comparison to their success. |
As an "IT Professional" do you/should you get to claim overtime? | run4yourlives: Be careful what you wish for.We don't have the exception clause here in BC; every employee is entitled to overtime.If you aren't unionised, it's important however to keep overtime and other such laws in context as they apply to your entire job. In other words, if you want your employer to be a stickler w... |
How do you manage projects? | greaterscope: Sounds like you might have become disinterested in your project? Maybe there's too much on your plate? Maybe there's not enough risk/reward pressure going on?I don't think a piece of software can help you. What about bringing someone else on-board that's a naturally hard worker to help pull you more in th... |
Is version control worth learning early on? | Tichy: Why not learn enough basics to at least keep versions of your code around. You never know, perhaps one day you'll find it amusing to track your progress.You don't have to learn all the ins and outs. I don't know git very well yet. Basically to start usegit initgit add -Agit commit -m "yay, another submit"Also a ... |
Anyone doing Google Code Jam? | Tichy: I tried the first round, just for fun. I don't expect to make it much further than the first round. |
Is version control worth learning early on? | alanthonyc: Do it.A night or two spent on learning how to use git (and maybe setting up a remote repo) will save you tons of headaches later and produce lots of benefits almost immediately. |
Is version control worth learning early on? | zackattack: ohmygod, learn version control from the get-go.http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~blynn/gitmagic/ |
Is version control worth learning early on? | SwellJoe: Learn revision control concepts as soon as possible. This is one of the ancillary things you need to know to become useful to other programmers...those that can teach you.When you work with teams, in particular, being competent with your revision control system is mandatory. You'll be surprised by how easy ... |
Is version control worth learning early on? | lsc: learn a version control. If get/svn is to complex, use rcs. Really, if I was learning today I would start with git.But what you choose does not really matter. Learn a revision control system. |
how do people solve the 3 Google Code Jam problems in 25 minutes? | nostrademons: It looked like you could view the problem statement first, and then the timer only starts when you download the input file? If so, then write out the solution in full according to the spec, proofread it, then quickly download the input, run the program, and submit the solution. The total time taken is o... |
Is version control worth learning early on? | mattj: I hate to go against the grain, but I would say don't learn version control until you know you have to. The first time you get burned, like just lost a week of work burned, you'll know exactly why version control exists and why you need it.That being said, I did use vc (cvs, uggh) from pretty early on, but I sti... |
Is version control worth learning early on? | axod: svn updatesvn add newFilessvn commit -m "I did something"There's not really all that more to learn, just check the docs or "svn help" but it'll certainly be well worth your time to get into the habit. |
Your most successful side project? | MaysonL: Back in '87, I wrote a little Mac shareware INIT that grossed around 20K over a few years. Almost 4K registered users (counting a BigCo license for almost 3K seats @ ~$1/seat).It made a MacUser cover story (along with about 50 other utilities). |
Is version control worth learning early on? | donw: Yes. The first time you accidentally blow away a bit of code that you spent two days debugging, and can get it back because you check in every night, you will be thankful. |
Is version control worth learning early on? | Bjoern: Absolutely as soon as you start working with other people you will need this knowledge. I wouldn't learn SVN because you can interact with SVN via Git. (git-svn). To get startet:Git on Windows, how to install and use it (or see below for Tortoise git)http://www.gitcasts.com/posts/git-on-windowsMov: http://media... |
how do people solve the 3 Google Code Jam problems in 25 minutes? | l0nwlf: In contest like TopCoder I had seen people doing problems in 5 minutes flat. It depends on expertise and regularly solving algorithmic problems (i.e. being in touch). However 3 problems in 25 minutes is awesome !! |
Is version control worth learning early on? | Kaizyn: If you don't take the time to start working with version control from the very beginning, you'll just give yourself bad habits that you will have to break later. Also, you run the risk of losing your code in the event of some catastrophe. I would recommend you use one of the distributed version control system... |
Am I crazy? | dankjaergaard: Yes you're crazy :-) I love it!If you find entrepreneurs who'll be willing to share details like these: http://particletree.com/features/web-app-autopsy/...then you hit a goldmine.So my suggestion is to go and find start-ups that are not yet well known and get no attention from the bloggers, but are will... |
Is version control worth learning early on? | rykov: +1 for version control.1) Do it because it will give you a huge piece of mind (backup & history)2) Do it because you can code review (git diff) the whole feature before committing it, rather than doing it one line at a time and hoping you'll achieve stability in the future. |
Is version control worth learning early on? | bbsabelli: Yes. But don't just learn the tool, learn what problem it solves. Tools have changed significantly over the years, but the principles are the same. |
How do you manage projects? | Skeuomorph: Try GTD, aka David Allen's "Getting Things Done".Book: http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Produc...Read the book, then get a tool like "Things" (for OSX) or try web software like http://vitalist.com/ that works cross platform and supports some group collaboration too.And about those softw... |
how do people solve the 3 Google Code Jam problems in 25 minutes? | mbrubeck: How fast can you type? Once you've implemented an algorithm enough times, you can almost do it in your sleep. My team at the ACM Intercollegiate Programming Competition had so much practice banging out breadth-first search implementations that we used it for everything we possibly could. |
how do people solve the 3 Google Code Jam problems in 25 minutes? | marketer: What's even more insane is that the leader, Neil Wu, is 16 years old.http://www.topcoder.com/tc?module=MemberProfile&cr=22663... |
Is version control worth learning early on? | fookyong: There's really nothing to learn. I only know a few commandssvn up
svn st
svn rename
svn add
svn remove
svn cithat's all I need to know and I've got by with just that for years.version control is so essential to the way I work now that I can't even fathom working without it. it's not just about version contro... |
How do you manage projects? | ricardo: Basecamp is great tool for lightweight project management. It won't solve your motivation problem but it will make it easy to keep things organized. My suggestion: make a to do list about a particular function/feature and quickly jot down those tasks needed to make things happen. Any time the planning urge s... |
Is version control worth learning early on? | sh1mmer: I have to recommend the http://progit.org book, because Scott did an amazing job of explaining it step by step in a clear and concise way. It's also free online, which is an obvious bonus. |
Is version control worth learning early on? | KevinMS: Truthfully version control has never really helped me out on anything other than backing up and restoring. I still have to google svn command just to figure out how to go back to previous revisions.I would recommend you just learn how to set it up and learn a few basic commands like checking in and updating a... |
Is version control worth learning early on? | csytan: I'd suggest waiting until you want to start collaborating on a project. My first few scripts used folders for version control, and it was perfectly adequate.Why wait? Here's a few reasons:
1. If you've only written one script, then your time is better spent learning and working on interesting programming prob... |
bring on the feedback (especially if you like gear) | JacobAldridge: From the FAQs - "It works and it's awesome."No argument there- great concept, cleanly executed. What plans (if any) do you have to expand the product range? |
Is version control worth learning early on? | wlievens: Absolutely. I'm more of an SVN guy than Git, but you should probably try both to get a feel for what suits you best. Version control is an absolute must for any project above 25 lines. |
Is version control worth learning early on? | tolmasky: Learning how to use version control is not such a hard enough task that it will honestly "prevent" you from making progress on programming. This is kind of like asking whether you should figure out how to get car insurance, or not get distracted by that and focus "on the driving" instead. Its not that difficu... |
Is version control worth learning early on? | Jim_Neath: Learn git.It's easy to do and will save you a whole load of ballache down the line.Our front end designers picked it up pretty easily so it can't be that hard :P |
Is version control worth learning early on? | wildjim: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!!!I work as a release engineer, and the sheer number of f*-ups that could be avoided by dev's understanding version control better is truly astonishing.It doesn't matter very much which version control system you use (though there are a few which will give you a pounding headache) ... |
Is version control worth learning early on? | Confusion: I see a lot of people suggesting git, but I understand the interface is still rather, ehmmm, user hostile, with lots of obscure options, which makes it a lot harder to understand. Perhaps it would be easier to start with svn, using http://svnbook.red-bean.com/.Concerning the question itself: yes. Yes. YES! |
Is version control worth learning early on? | arethuza: I would suggest doing it sooner rather than later - there isn't that much to pick up and if you use a hosting service very little to install (I use the free service from Unfuddle - which is more than enough for my personal projects). |
how do people solve the 3 Google Code Jam problems in 25 minutes? | holdenk: I decided to use haskell as it has been awhile since I've touched it, I made the mistake of not compiling with -O for the first question (and it did not complete in the 8 minutes). When I re-ran afterwards (sadly no points) with -O it completed very quickly. |
how do people solve the 3 Google Code Jam problems in 25 minutes? | kobs: The leader is also Neal Wu (http://www.topcoder.com/tc?module=MemberProfile&cr=22663...), one of the top contest programmers in the world. |
Is version control worth learning early on? | Xixi: Lot's of people here are suggesting git. I admit that I never tried it and personally use mercurial hg.I definitely recommend learning version control as soon as possible. It's a life saver, and it's incredibly easy. With mercurial you're up and running by typing 'hg init'. That's it.And then you get to experienc... |
Am I crazy? | onreact-com: You're the right kind of crazy if you ask me. People travel on a much lower budget and I don't mean hobos. Setting up a blog and earning money with it is not a problem. with an original idea like this you get lots of exposure.Focus on travel products and advertise with affiliate ads. Get publicity by inter... |
how do people solve the 3 Google Code Jam problems in 25 minutes? | johnfn: A) is completely possible in a few minutes if you have a prewritten permutation function.for C) I wrote about 30 lines in python - 20 of them file handling - to solve the problem (after a few hours of deliberation). What matters is your speed in figuring out how to write a proper algorithm. The codewriting will... |
Am I crazy? | adolfoabegg: please, do it |
Am I crazy? | jasonkester: I'm a big fan of saving before spending. Go find a job and save up $10k or so. Get yourself enough experience to make yourself thoroughly employable. Then quit and go take that trip.Being in debt sucks, and doing what you propose will put you into debt in about a month. The end result will be several y... |
What to do, blog post or HN post ? | slater: i vote for blogging it, and NOT posting a link to that blog on HN. |
What to do, blog post or HN post ? | mooism2: Post it on your blog, then post the link on HN.Whether you post it here or on your blog doesn't affect whether we will find it interesting (you have already decided that some of us will), but it will affect how easy it is for us to read: mid-grey on light grey is not that legible in large quantities, and it is... |
Is version control worth learning early on? | scharan: Learn some version control and use it. Period. It saved my MTech thesis a couple of times. And that is something. Even if it is for just this one time, blindly take this advice. Will thank HN community later. |
Am I crazy? | scharan: I don't think you are crazy. Wishing you luck with what you want to do. Just make sure you post back your experiences on HN. Also, like someone suggested, blog about it regularly. Will be great to see whats going on with this idea on a daily basis! |
What to do, blog post or HN post ? | cperciva: that seems rather blog spammyDon't worry about that. This point has been raised on many occasions, and the conclusion every time has always been the same: Submit interesting material, and ignore where it comes from. If you've written something which you would submit if it had been written by someone else, y... |
What to do, blog post or HN post ? | mechanical_fish: that seems rather blog spammyOnly if you do it several times a day, or several times for the same post.And you definitely shouldn't write something that long on HN itself. |
How do you want to be remembered? | rjprins: As the guy who invented artificial intelligence. |
Is version control worth learning early on? | discojesus: Sweet jumping jesus YES.And don't start withi git - start with subversion, and move on to git or mercurial later. Subversion is much easier to start out with. |
Is version control worth learning early on? | iamelgringo: If you're doing python development, I'd suggest learning Mercurial (HG). I actually find it simpler to use than SVN. And Python itself is moving to HG for version control.Also, if you're on Windows and you want to do SVN, feel free to pick up Tortise SVN. It adds SVN extensions to explorer, and the tuto... |
Is version control worth learning early on? | silentbicycle: It sounds like you're already getting an overwhelming yes, so I'll just add:1. It's not a bad idea to keep some of your home directory under VC, especially config / preference files and any writing. (This is more useful on Unix, which typically uses text files for nearly everything.) They're also useful ... |
Am I crazy? | hash550: Awesome idea. It sounds a lot like the 'Think and Grow Rich', in which the author (can't remember his name),sought to find and write about the common traits among successfule people at the time. Updating the idea for entrepreneurs, particularly for the sw industry, could be an interesting read. |
Am I crazy? | rickdangerous1: As a 30 something man with corporate career, a wife, child, house and mortgage I say do it. Do it now before you have something to lose.
Doing something like what you're propose, you may find a life path that you could never of dreamed of.
also, check out the life story Napolean Hill. He made a life ou... |
how do people solve the 3 Google Code Jam problems in 25 minutes? | RiderOfGiraffes: Firstly they ask me to create a Google account, then they ask me to register, including giving all sort of details such as my address and gender, and I get partway through the process and just can't be bothered. I've proved I'm a human, why do they need all this other information?If I don't win, they ... |
Is version control worth learning early on? | lo_fye: Absolutely learn it now. I suggest reading "Pragmatic Version Control Using Git" (Subversion & CVS editions also available), from The Pragmatic Programmers. Excellent book. Short & straightforward. |
Is version control worth learning early on? | acg: You could view SCM systems as dropboxes for code. When you write code you want to go back and make edits like you said. These tools allow you to do this and keep track of the life of your program and to learn the basics you would only really need to learn how to get the version you want, put back your changes an... |
Is there Hacker News archive ? | tokenadult: Alsohttp://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Anews.ycombinator.com |
Is version control worth learning early on? | pinneycolton: Yes.Yes.Yes. |
Is there Hacker News archive ? | hwijaya: Apparently, i just posted this yesterday:http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=801605 |
Is there Hacker News archive ? | revorad: Ask YC Archive: http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/startupswiki/Ask_YC_Archive |
Is version control worth learning early on? | tiffani: Definitely learn to use version control of some sort (I'm still stuck on Subversion) as early as you possibly can. Indeed, it'll be great to track your progress as you build up code on more complex stuff. Also, you'll definitely be great in a team environment and it'll foster a somewhat safer team environmen... |
Is there Hacker News archive ? | Stasyan: All replies are good.I was more interested in historical archive of HN though. |
Am I crazy? | NoBSWebDesign: Yes you are crazy. And yes, I say do it. It seems the vast majority of the time, that the less crazy an idea is, the less it's worth doing.Also, I'm an entrepreneur in Ann Arbor, MI, which could be an option for a closer stop if you want to do a trial one close to home first. We have an extra couch you c... |
What language do you think in? | yan: I think in C.Python is a fairly straight-forward mental translation and functional languages I tend to need to spend more energy thinking about unless the problem is embarrassingly recursive. |
What language do you think in? | gdp: It depends on the situation, but I generally think in terms of pure (recursive) functions and types. This then usually provides me with a reasonably quick mapping to my preferred languages (e.g. ML or Haskell), as well as providing a reasonably simple way of mapping back to languages like Java or C or PHP or what... |
What language do you think in? | byoung2: I think in pseudo-code, then figure out what language is best suited for the task. |
What language do you think in? | nathanb: I think in English. Whenever I'm thinking about a problem, my solutions are immediately described in my head at a high level. This allows me to rapidly iterate over the solution space without having to venture down into the pseudocode or code level until I've found something I'm convinced will actually work. |
Is version control worth learning early on? | bitwize: HELL TO THE YES.I'm not l33t enough yet to check /etc into VC, but everything textual that I work intensively on -- code, writing -- gets its own git repo. It will save your bacon later on down the line: trust me. |
Is version control worth learning early on? | mattdennewitz: learn svn, because it's like the english language of version control. then, move on. |
What language do you think in? | eleitl: I tend to do it visually. |
What language do you think in? | tsestrich: I would say I think in pseudo-code, using natural language to describe the problem in a way that can be converted to code ("for all of these values in this array/container...", etc). That said, I work a lot in C#, so I usually go right to that pretty quickly, if not right away for commonly-solved problems. |
What language do you think in? | mlLK: I think in data-structures opposed to one language in particular, if anything I think in markup; everything starts as a list, each item evolves into another list until it eventually ends up as dictionary, which can sometimes spawn another list. . .my thought-process is hopelessly recursive, this is easily my card... |
What language do you think in? | esila: Cypher: ...I...I don't even see the code. All I see is blonde, brunette, red-head. Hey, you uh... want a drink?-The Matrix 1999 |
What language do you think in? | adrianwaj: How about thinking in general, say when waiting to fall asleep? |
Is version control worth learning early on? | lallysingh: Learn both SVN and a test framework now. Do it right from the start.If it seems like too much at first, think of all those programmers who complained about people learning OO or structured programming from the start. |
Is version control worth learning early on? | kellishaver: Learn it early and use it often. It will literally only take a couple of hours to pick up the basics, and then it's jsut practice. Learn more from there as you need to. Even if you're a solo developer, version control is an invaluable tool.As for which VCS to use, I personally prefer Git. I don't find it d... |
What language do you think in? | chaosprophet: It usually depends on what language I'm working in. These days I've been working in actionscript, so that's how I think. I think this behavior is partly because I sorta loose familiarity with other languages when I'm working in one language for an extended period of time. |
bring on the feedback (especially if you like gear) | Derrek: When seeing a new site, my first two questions are "What does this do?" and "Why do I care?"The answer to question #1 was a little unclear to me at first. I read the FAQ but I don't believe that a casual user would take the time for that much investigation. I think the site could improve by explaining on the ... |
What language do you think in? | sli: Op and I should be best friends. I can't count how many times I've solved a PHP problem using Python. Or generated PHP code using Python (won't go into detail, but it wasn't TDWTF material, I promise). Or simply explained something in a given language in terms of Python. |
What language do you think in? | apgwoz: Scheme, though I end up having to translate it to Python 9 times out of 10. |
What language do you think in? | restruct: First I think visually about object classes and data structures, and how they relate to one another. Then I think in pseudo-code. |
What language do you think in? | keyist: I think in the subdialect of English known as social media stream of consciousness.Ask Lazyweb about my blog's new design... that's like using the crowd as a source of wisdom... crowdsourcing...
OMG I invented a new word wait check urbandictionary... oh cool I'm getting answers... upvote... hmm this submission ... |
What language do you think in? | Chirag: I think is algorithm, state-diagrams and images;and curse in Hindi :) |
What language do you think in? | mononcqc: It depends on the problem. If it's something algorithmic that fits into a given data structure, I go through a bunch of mental visual representations; graphs, trees, etc. If the model fits, I usually imagine the code in the language I used the structure the most in.If it's about something I don't know much, I... |
What language do you think in? | psadauskas: I used to think in pseudocode, but once I learned Ruby, it turns out I had been thinking in Ruby all along. Ruby just matches up really well with the way my brain already solved programming problems, then I had to translate it to C or Java or whatever else. |
What language do you think in? | uggedal: Norwegian |
What language do you think in? | warfangle: I tend to think in terms of abstract flowchart of the process/algorithm/structure of what needs to happen.And then I make it happen. |
What language do you think in? | jaddison: I tend to think in terms of workflow. 1. How would user interaction occur?
2. What systems are necessary?
3. How can the problem(s) involved be solved? (what languages/tools/infrastructure)
4. Pseudo-code
5. Get crackin' on code
It's a pretty high level list, so I am probably missing some key points... |
What language do you think in? | dazzawazza: I've been coding long enough that most problems don't need thinking about. I just 'know'.However, I've been alive long enough that if I don't 'know' the solution I need a whiteboard. I can't think without a whiteboard.Age brings wisdom and experience but it certainly has dulled my brain quite a bit :( |
What language do you think in? | Hexstream: I focus on the semantics first: I try to capture the essence of what I really mean to "say". Then I try to imagine the most idealized language that would let me specify as exactly and easily as possible what I really mean, unambiguously.If I have access to such a language, I use it. If I don't, but know how ... |
What language do you think in? | alexgartrell: I think in whatever language I'm writing unless I've just started it. Then I think about what I'd imagine they'd call it and google around for it.Translation from one language to another is just another layer of indirection and makes you slower. It's easiest and best just to learn languages from scratch... |
What language do you think in? | diN0bot: i think in diagrams. |
Is version control worth learning early on? | tmikew: When I first read the question I almost fell off my chair. The answer is YES. I have used source safe, star team (briefly), cvs, svn and now mercurial. I haven't used Git but I understand that it is conceptually similar to mercurial. I keep most everything in mercurial repositories, not just my projects.I much ... |
Am I crazy? | peterhi: You are young so it is a good time to make mistakes. Even if it all goes down the pan you should have something interesting to say at your interview when they ask you what you did after graduation.Just one niggle, serendipity doesn't make house calls so you should not make plans based on it. make things happen... |
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