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Will you be my Advisor? | kls: To any of you that are looking for an adviser, I can offer some assistance the only caveat is that I have to find the technology you are working on compelling. If you shot me a high level via email (in my profile), I will shoot back an I'm interested or a good luck.Full disclosure, I do work with a venture group from time to time and an incubator, but any advise I give will be no string attached until said time that I tell you that strings would be attached to continue the relationship. |
Things you wish you'd learned about programming in college? | nwjsmith: I'm in my final year of CS undergrad, and I've learned a couple of things outside of class that help me, all stuff I wish they would teach (well) in class:* Learn how to write a Makefile, your builds should be one button/command away* Learn how to test your code using assert.h, JUnit, whatever, just test all the fucking time.* Learn GDB, stop using printf to debug.* Use source control for everything, but especially group work. The groups in your classes emailing code around are doing it wrong, and by the time they'll find out, it will be to late.* Spend some time in a functional language, and apply what you've learned to your Java/C/C++ class work. Minimizing side effects will minimize errorsMost of all though, get involved with your faculty or department, and try to affect some positive change. The connections you will make with other students and faculty could change your programming career more than anything else you do in school. |
Things you wish you'd learned about programming in college? | ivankirigin: I wish I took a software engineering class earlier than my junior year. I started programming my freshman year, and didn't realize how badly I was doing it till that class.I also wish I didn't learn a compiled language first. I almost think there should be two beginner classes: lisp or python and then a unix tools class where you learn scripting.Operational things like getting a box setup, code deployed, etc. would also have been nice.I guess I'm saying I learned enough theory and math, and wanted more practical knowledge. |
Things you wish you'd learned about programming in college? | timr: Don't waste your expensive and valuable college time on software engineering tools, source control, and other mundane crap that any monkey can learn quickly. Every programming tool that I learned about in college is now either unused (CVS, RCS, Motif), or dismissed by the l33t rock-stars as dinosaur technology (C++, Java, Perl). Today's l33t tools will be just as dead in ten years. Learn enough to do your assignments well, but view the time invested as a sunk cost.If you want to learn how to be a coder, go to DeVry, or read some O'Reilly books and hack away. Your career will be mercifully short and uneventful.If you want to be a computer scientist, spend your time learning math and theory, and learn it inside out. Then take business classes, chemistry classes, language classes, art classes -- anything to make you marketable in a non-technical way. The only way you're going to survive to old age in software (if that's even possible) is by acquiring talents that grow more valuable with age and experience -- skills that can't be cheaply exported to the next younger guy who is willing to work 80 hours a week for low wages and free soda. |
How to consistently generate traffic and new customers for Ramamia? | apsurd: Why not do both?I'm hustling to get my new app out and I plan to use a kind of "hybrid" system. Perhaps it has a name but the premise is just that you have to attach VALUE to whatever it is you are giving away. If you price something as "FREE" and then give it away, then the user does not feel like he's really getting anything. If you price something for $200.00, and then give it away, well they just got $200 for FREE - AWESOME!!So my current plan of attack is have 3 pricing tiers that all costs money. Then as of now, I'm in "beta" so I have this huge "sale" "this month only" where all users get "PLUS accounts FREE FOR LIFE!". And clearly right there, Plus accounts normally cost $100/yr, so I'm reasoning that a customer would derive more value from signing up than if I had just called the Plus plan "free" with a fat ass zero for the price.So in other words. Be a premium product so everyone understands you are worth something, and then have sales, and reasons to give those oh-so-valuable plans away.HTH |
Which are some of the most expensive off-the-shelf sw products? | RK: One of my relatives works in the petroleum exploration industry as a consultant. He told me that on a recent stint in Moscow he came across a real, physical software black market. He said that they basically told him they could get him anything he wanted, including the $100k+ software packages his firm uses for oil exploration with cracked hardware dongles for authentication. They just needed a couple days notice and were charging a few hundred $. |
Things you wish you'd learned about programming in college? | InclinedPlane: Highly relevant stackoverflow.com thread: "What is the most important thing you weren't taught in school?": http://stackoverflow.com/questions/258548 |
How to consistently generate traffic and new customers for Ramamia? | jasonlbaptiste: Here's one idea im just shooting out there for the hell of it. Seriously, it might be absolutely retarded and just designate it as so with comments: Microtransactions. Give people x amount of free videos and x amount of free photo albums. After that, they pay for each one posted (something really small). |
Things you wish you'd learned about programming in college? | edw519: Don't forget about all the non-technical stuff. No one programs in a vacuum...The Systems Development Life Cycle: analysis, design, development, testing, security, deployment, project managementUnderlying systems theory, regardless of language: architecture, databases, frameworks, MVC, properties, methodsUnderlying logic, regardless of language: iteration, branching and conditions, functions and routines, variable typing and scopeAnyone can go to webmonkey and learn how to write a "Hello World" program. But these basic underlying concepts that you use for the rest of your life: that's what college should be for. |
Things you wish you'd learned about programming in college? | wheels: "Take initiative. You're not going to learn to be a programmer in college. Do open source, internships, summer jobs... Make sure you work with people better than you."And then focus on getting the most out of the stuff that college is good at teaching: fundamentals and theory. Do you really want to learn how to be a practician from a career academic? |
Things you wish you'd learned about programming in college? | wowus: Experience is the best teacher. Just build programs! The more you build, the better you'll be. Note how I said build, not write. Think about it.Oh yeah, and contributing to open source is the bomb. You learn so much about real-world applications of your knowledge. |
Things you wish you'd learned about programming in college? | DanielBMarkham: The whole purpose of learning about technology is to make technology do something for people. So somehow we got the idea to focus exclusively on the technology and hope the people part takes care of itself.Smart people can learn all sorts of interesting technical stuff. In fact, if you're smart, you're going to learn all sorts of stuff like SDLC, functional programming, OOAD, ER Modeling, etc.What they don't teach you is the part about interacting with regular people -- people who have no idea how to make technical things happen.Interviewing. Negotiation. Conflict resolution.I know it sounds fluffy, but I see smart guys all day long. What separates the truly successful from the rest of the pack is how well they interact and solve problems for people, not tech smarts. Technical smarts [and a willingness to develop them more] are a given by the time you get into the field. |
Things you wish you'd learned about programming in college? | bgray: What pg said: http://paulgraham.com/hs.html |
Things you wish you'd learned about programming in college? | sukuriant: I wish I had learned C++, personally. A number of the places I was hoping to work for required many years experience in it. Like or hate the language, it's used frequently. Or at least it was.Some other things I wish I had done/learned:
* working with external libraries in C
* working in groups on LARGE projectsSomething I did learn through extracurricular activities, not school work for the most part:
* SOLVING PROBLEMS!!! UVa, TopCoder, Google Code Jam, ACM Programming Contest. Learn how to take a given problem and convert it into code. |
Things you wish you'd learned about programming in college? | Hoff: How to research.How to ask a question.How to communicate.How to come back to a program you've written after a year. Or after ten.Distributed source code control.Incremental development.Integrated debugging. Planning for failure. For support.Finding and using libraries or frameworks.Backup.Source code archeology; how to understand and extend and maintain complex applications.How to work within a team of programmers.Upward-compatibility and code longevity; the multi-edged sword of an installed base.The game (tools, operating systems, languages) changes at least every five to ten years, or more often.You're an integrator first, and a programmer second. Or third. When you need to. |
Things you wish you'd learned about programming in college? | jrockway: Functional programming. |
Things you wish you'd learned about programming in college? | wastedbrains: I wish I learned more about testing, Source Control, and using and integrating with existing code and libraries. |
Is it acceptable not to pay interns? | maconic: One thing is for sure: unpaid internships are probably illegal nine times out of ten. Employers are legally required to pay interns at least minimum wage if they fit the definition of an employee. Given the way most startups use interns, they would be considered employees.According to the Department of Labor, if an intern's work benefits the company, then the intern should be treated as an employee. There is a six factor test, more on this here:
http://www.clark.edu/student_services/employment/documents/L...A related point, I think paying employees only with stock options is also illegal for a startup. The stock options likely don't have much value in a startup, and also the employee may lose the stock options if they quit (or are fired) prior to their vesting date.So, both interns and employees should at least be paid minimum wage unless the company literally cannot even afford paying minimum wage. That said, the company will probably only have a legal problem if the underpaid intern/employee files a complaint. |
How to consistently generate traffic and new customers for Ramamia? | DTrejo: The Jones family name you use in your screenshots has some bad connotations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeping_up_with_the_Joneses |
Things you wish you'd learned about programming in college? | tlrobinson: Compilers.Somehow I got a BS and MS in computer science without taking a single compilers course, and I've regretted it.I recently saw someone make a comment along the lines of "I'm a web developer, why would I ever want to learn about compilers?" Many people seem to think compilers are just programs like gcc that turn a language like C into machine code, but that's really just one kind of compiler. |
Github or your own git server? | how_gauche: I'd never use Github if money was on the line, it's down all the time and source code is core competency stuff, you do it in-house. Gitosis + gitweb aren't that difficult to set up.There's also "Gitorious" but I tried to use it once and spent two days unsuccessfully trying to get it to work. |
Github or your own git server? | cmelbye: I'm using GitHub. It may occasionally be down, but they have a really innovative new server architecture, and once they've ironed out the problems (which I believe they've almost done), it should be as stable as a rock. Plus, it's git so you have a full clone of the repository that you can work with even while it's down. |
Things you wish you'd learned about programming in college? | seldo: How to collaborate with a large team of others. We had group projects, sure, but they were small enough that usually one or sometimes two guys would do all the coding and everybody else would just fuck around.The stuff you have to learn to effectively collaborate -- including task estimation, task splitting, source-management, communicating progress effectively, knowing when to ask for help, and more -- is basically what you spend the first year or two of your working career learning.I don't know if it can be effectively taught in an academic context, but I really wish it had been. It's a timeless skill that transcends the actual technology used to get it done. |
What's the best way to dispose of a huge amount of old floppy disks? | cperciva: My dad used to run a company that was contracted to program defensive missilesSounds to me like there's probably classified information there, in which case step #1 is probably to phone the government and ask them what they want done. |
Things you wish you'd learned about programming in college? | wallflower: First, congratulations on being offered the opportunity to talk to your peers. I would echo many of the comments here to go outside academia and CS and focus on what you have learned by coding for pay and pleasure.How to build your personal online coder reputation, begin contributing to the community (open source, blogging) - focus on what you personally have done/not done and your experiences good and bad with sharing and collaborating. And what's it like starting? or working at a startupMy point here is focus on experiences that have made you learn. Come in as peers who have been out in the external-college real world and tell them about the real world (calibrate their expectations)I think most of the students are expecting a standard tech briefing, and I challenge you to switch it up on them. Promise some soup du jour tech topic but change it to talking about the real business world (change it after audience is seated so you get the students who probably would have skipped a real-world/business topic oriented lecture).One of the most valuable lectures I've ever crashed was one for Ch.Eng seniors on how to get the job you really, really want. I directly respect the impact of that lecture with giving me enough real knowledge to apprach interviewing with confidence. |
What's the best way to dispose of a huge amount of old floppy disks? | bhousel: 10 Ways to Reuse or Recycle Floppy Disks: http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tech-transport/reuse-recycl...#1 on the list is send them to Greendisk, a company that takes disks and all other kinds of stuff too, including the magnetic tape. |
Github or your own git server? | jhancock: I use it for closed source work, but I consider it mostly a backup repo. It costs me $7 a month and I feel I get enough value from the many other projects I track to make it pay for itself as a one-stop interface. |
review my webapp, tunemiser.com | RevRal: Bookmarked. Your app is awesome.The very first thing I'd do is find an alternative to the "hammer time" animation, as much as I love that animation.Have a background with a darker border behind the iTunes price, similar to your Amazon price. Make it light blue.I would try to get three colors at the top. Definitely choose a good background color/gradient to apply at the top, to accent the tunemiser text. This is to draw the attention away from the fact that hard text is not anti-aliased.Get to work on a logo, and good luck! |
Things you wish you'd learned about programming in college? | Mongoose: Will your talk be recorded? I'd be interested in seeing it. |
Things you wish you'd learned about programming in college? | paraschopra: Code versioning and unit testing are the only two things I wished I had known from the start (though I still avoid them, god knows why). |
How do you register domains for non-technical clients? | JayNeely: We're planning to use eNom for this:http://www.enom.com/resellers/overview_api.aspThe testing we've done so far, as we continue to build our service (pre-launch), has found the API capable of everything we need it to do, from domain checking and registration to e-mail forwarding address creation.Would love to chat, as I suspect we'll be dealing with some similar issues (e.g. how to walk non-technical customers through transfering an existing domain name). You don't have any contact info in your HN about section, but feel free to send an e-mail to the address listed in mine. |
Github or your own git server? | mbrubeck: The last two companies I've worked at both use GitHub. There are more GitHub vs. self-hosting comparisons (including mine) in this earlier thread, with a focus on security: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=936187 |
How to consistently generate traffic and new customers for Ramamia? | djm: with regards to the decision you have to make about fremium/premium etc there is one thing I think you need to consider that I can't see anybody else here has mentioned.If a whole family sign up to your site and like it enough to use it they will probably become long term users. After all it would be a pain in the ass for them to try and collectively move to another service.With this in mind, if you go the premium route, it may be in your interests to consider offering a more substantial sign-up discount - a 21 day free trial wouldn't excite me to try out your product.Good luck in any case and keep HN up to date with how you guys are doing :) |
How to consistently generate traffic and new customers for Ramamia? | joez: Just a quick thought, the holiday season (Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas Gifts) is when a lot digital cameras are sold (especially DSLRs this year). You might be able to get some traffic (premium) by writing a blog post on tips on taking family photos, different DSLR settings, poses to try, etc.This is my thought on how to target consumers who just bought/received a fancy camera and need a way to share the thousands of photos they took. That's the quality traffic you want. There might be other ways to target this group? |
What's the best way to dispose of a huge amount of old floppy disks? | Shooter: I gave a few thousand old floppies to an artist on Etsy. She recycled 100% of them into art items, and then sent my wife some cool jewelry to thank me for the raw material. Some of the jewelry was even made out of the floppies I sent, although you wouldn't know it to look at the jewelry. She also made some fancy photo frames and some other items.I just came across the artist's "floppy disc artwork" by accident while looking around on Etsy, which then prompted the idea to get rid of the old floppies I had in storage. I'm sure there are other artists who use floppy discs for art material...[EDIT: bhousel's post has some better suggestions...the ACT Recycling program sounds especially neat.] |
Things you wish you'd learned about programming in college? | known: I'd suggest you know the difference between selling software &
selling consulting |
Things you wish you'd learned about programming in college? | dedalus: First, never confuse schooling with educationSecond learn stuff thats in this book: http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-General-Systems-Thinking-...Third,The general idea of good education is to prepare you for the future rather than learning about the past |
Advice for seed-stage startup funding firm in India | shabda: APart from the money what makes you a good investor? |
Is it acceptable not to pay interns? | dkersten: Besides the legal issues, you get what you pay for. Really, if I was doing work (especially if I can see it making someone else a pile of money) and I wasn't being paid for it, I wouldn't be motivated to put any effort into it and you'd probably find it cheaper to just pay someone instead. |
Things you wish you'd learned about programming in college? | teeja: Make up (or find) as much gnarly, twisted data as needed to throw at your code to convince yourself that it will respond gracefully no matter what comes along. (Then if you can, get someone else to.) If it can't - or you can't test all conceivable ways it can fail - then you need to either rethink your design or switch languages. |
Any startups looking for a free marketing guy? | pemo: Could you give me further info on gmail I'm pemotheodore? Thx |
Achieving high security and privacy by daily re-imaging of your system | charlesmarshall: how about a more random one... use version control on the disk and do a clean checkout on boot.. big overhead to store the repo and probably not too fast to checkout .. but on the plus side you can include specific files as time goes on ... so the next service pack can be added to your repo when it comes out without having to make an entire new image. |
Achieving high security and privacy by daily re-imaging of your system | bhousel: Option #4 has been working very well for me over the past year. I'm a huge fan of VMWare now.VMWare also lets you take snapshots of your VMs, so that if anything goes wrong, you can revert to an older version. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | jasonlbaptiste: Not at all. If I could choose between either an entrepreneur with an entrepreneurship major or a CS major, the CS major would win hands down every time. It seems a lot of CS/CIS majors prepare you for "coding jobs" in fortune 500 IT, which is a real shame. The degree is what you make of it. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | bhousel: What's a "stereotypical coding job"? I didn't know such a thing existed..Working in a 3 person startup in a loft is very different from Fortune 100 IT dept, different still from writing code in a research lab, or freelancing, or out in the "field" in remote places, or programming lathes and CNCs on a machine shop floor. I know people who started with CS degrees doing all of these things.Since you're still in college, I'd suggest you just finish your degree and try a bunch of different challenges. If you love coding, you'll find a place where you fit in. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | BigZaphod: Maybe. But your major doesn't have to define who you are or will become - it's just a thing. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | david927: Dijkstra said, "Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes." It's more than that though. Computer Science is no more about most programming languages than astronomy is about telescopes.There are a lot of people who code giant Java or PHP projects and think it's Computer Science. It's not. It's not even interesting.Computer Science, at its heart, is a form of mathematics. Its progress, at best, stems from that, and is simple, elegant and beautiful. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | rw: You are not in trade school. Take control of your life :-)Most things in CS are able to be studied both empirically and theoretically. For example, Scott Aaronson is a CS theorist at MIT who has admitted to doing just a little BASIC programming in school. I took no computer science courses, but now I code full-time.Are you passionate about something? What is it? Do that, and don't worry about your major. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | mikek: In my experience, the best managers / product designers of programmers know how to program. This helps them tremendously in understanding how to set goals and expectations. It is very difficult for non-coders to know what is a very difficult task (e.g. data deduplication) vs. what is an easy feature to add. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | timcederman: Sounds like you'd be a good candidate for an associate product manager role at Google. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | tjr: A classmate of mine graduated with a degree in computer science, and went on to law school. I was initially puzzled by his decision, but now applaud him! Society needs more lawyers with a solid understanding of software technology. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | igrekel: Your first job doesn't mean it's what you'll always do.My first job was a mostly coding job (even tough it was really not "just" coding) but it quickly morphed into something else. If you are good and you are interested, there are many other things possible than just sitting at your desk 9 to 5. Nowadays I very rarely code on my day job and when I do, it usually is fun (unless its Excel macros, that doesn't count). |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | maukdaddy: I was once at the same place you are with regard to CS, albeit at Virginia Tech (go Hokies!). I would suggest seriously considering an MIS program in your business school. I switched to Business Information Technology (VT's MIS program) after two full years of CS, and it was the best thing I've ever done. The programming experience I gained through CS has served me well, but the business skills learned in the business school have served me far more. I'm currently working on my MBA, something I definitely wouldn't be doing if I had stayed in CS.If you're interested at all in starting your own company, which you definitely seem to be, I'd definitely recommend switching majors. The network of people you will meet in a business program will prove far more valuable than CS.Edit: Good luck in the ACC champ game! |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | bengiuliano: I am exactly in the same position as you, just got my bachelor in CS - albeit in Europe (Switzerland), and don't want to code for a living, even if I enjoy it.In my opinion one solution would be IT or management consulting. You'll be travelling around, getting to know many people, etc... And I think it gives you the exact tools you'll need if you want to become a entrepreneur later (social network, overview of how businesses are managed, what they need, you get the picture).Some consulting companies that love to hire CS majors here in Switzerland:
- The big 3 (BCG, McKinsey, Bain)
- Accenture (seems to be present in Europe only)
- ... |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | prakash: Look at Product Manager and/or Sales Engineer openings. There are a few companies that hire people right out of school for such positions. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | pmorici: Depends, if you by "I don't want to code" you mean you suck at it so you're thinking of going into management then yes I'd say you are in the wrong major.Junior year is the point when most CS programs really start to get difficult if it were just about not wanting to code might you not have figure that out freshman year? |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | nzmsv: Honestly, switching majors isn't that big of a deal. It is better if you figure this out now, rather than after you've worked in the industry for 5 years. Some people see it as a "failure". This is wrong. You are just figuring out what you like, and what you are best at.I'd imagine a lot of your credits would transfer to a program in management. Alternatively, finish your CS degree and go to law school. There is a shortage of lawyers who understand tech. Or do an MBA. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | sofal: I don't think the corporate-slave orientation is limited to CS students. If you're into entrepreneurship, you'll probably feel out of place in any technology-related major, especially if you only look for job prospects at campus job fairs. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | jhancock: Here's a few thoughts for you:1 - I know of no major whose job outside of college resembles what you study.2 - I went to Georgia Tech, '87-'92. Yep, a long time, as I was a co-op student and had several entrepreneurial jaunts along the way. I chose EE as a major as I specifically did not want to study CS since I had been programming for 5 years prior to college and the first 2 years of the CS curriculum looked boring to me. I have not used my EE education any more than I would have any other discipline in my entrepreneurial life.3 - My work as a co-op student gave me clear perspective that what I was learning in school would not be what I would do afterwards. Changing majors would not have effected this. In fact my work as a co-op gave me a better "MBA" than what I feel most learn from the world's most revered MBA programs. I can't say this is the case for all co-op students as I was handed a dream job surrounded by industry veterans that loved to be my mentor. Even with that, I still didn't know what I wanted to be for the rest of my life ;).4 - Don't worry about your job outlook. It will change by the time you graduate. Stay the course with your CS degree and continue your entrepreneurial thread. A true entrepreneur is one for life. You have no idea what you will do or if and when you'll make a windfall of money.5 - I don't always like to code, it just happens that I'm pretty good at it and was able to fall back on coding work to supplement my income to support bootstrapping my own projects. It comes and goes. I enjoy a job well done even when it was tough to get motivated. You will most likely have to bootstrap things yourself and coding skills can play a big role. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | edw519: Am I in the wrong major?Yes.You (and some others) may not like what I'm about to say, but you asked for it, so here goes...In all the years I've been in technology, it has typically taken me about 28 seconds to determine if another person was "fluent" more than one or two levels below the surface.Those that were were almost always programmers, engineers, or technicians at one time or another. Everyone else was at best managers and business people, or at worst, administrators or posers.I know some might disagree with me, but a Computer Science major who doesn't want to code is like a dental student who doesn't want to look into anyone's mouth.To get good in technology, and I mean really good, you must get under the hood, deeply and often. The best and most logical way to do this is by programming. And you will have to do this intensely and for long hours, so you have to love it.The single biggest difference I've seen between great programmers and everyone else is a pure love for what they do. Intelligence matters, work habits matter, ability to work with other people matters, but make no mistake about it, there is no substitute for passion.Great technologists love what they do so much, they can't wait to get back to it. They have to check on their work after dinner. They have to review their notes at bed time. They are often the first in the office in the morning and just as often the last to leave. They read and learn voraciously and can't wait to apply their skills to new problems. They're so busy doing what they love, they don't even think of it as "working 9 to 5".By your own description, you do not sound like this. So do yourself (and the rest of us) a favor and find something you love and major in that. If, on the other hand, it's too late or it doesn't make sense to switch majors, then go ahead and finish your CS major, but please find a direction to follow that puts you in work you love. Be forewarned, though. Unless you're a programmer first, you probably won't make a very good sales engineer or project manager. You may want to consider sales or even (dare I say) proceeding on to business school for your MBA. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | nkohari: Yes, you are in the wrong major. If you're looking to be involved in the business aspect of a technology company, a computer science degree will not be very useful. I have a BS in computer science, and in my experience, the curriculum was often too theoretical even for people who become full-time programmers. If you're not interested in the nuts and bolts of software, it offers even less.Unless you're planning on continuing education to get something like an MBA, switch majors now. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | CrLf: Well, I'm a CS major (or whatever you want to call to the european equivalent) and I don't code for a living.I'm a systems administrator, and while I like to program and do so fairly frequently (both for fun, and on the job), I just can't see myself as a programmer, at least in the near future.I find most "real-world" programming to be quite boring. And doing it day-in day-out would just burn me out of it real quick.Of course, there are some programming jobs I can see myself taking. But making business apps or web stuff isn't one of them, and that's pretty much the whole market right now. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | krobertson: Does your college have an MIS focus? When I was in college, you'd chose a few focus areas for some of your electives. In the Business dept, they had an MIS focus which included some of the entry level CS classes, software process type stuff, and then some management-type classes from the business dept. It might be more for you.Generally though, I'd agree. If you don't want to code, CS isn't the best fit for you.Although in our field, it is quite unique that what your degree is in really doesn't matter. I several coworkers, who are great developers, with degrees in Political Science, History, and other completely non-tech fields. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | jwecker: Ask HN: Math major who doesn't want to write equations. Am I in the wrong major? |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | Kliment: Being in a coding job is one thing, enjoying writing code and building things is another. I can fully understand not wanting to be the stereotypical code monkey who sits in a dark room and outputs code. So the real question is, do you dislike the subject matter or the imagined career. If the former, then you have a problem. If the latter, you can probably escape the stereotype by founding or working at something smaller. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | mindstab: I'd say no. I've been continually disappointed in the coding part of the university education. It is much more about theory than a technical degree. I'm a code monkey, all I want to do is write code, and learn to write better code.You on the other hand would be great for management, which I've seen lots of my friends with CS degrees who don't like coding more into in the work force. Stick with it, there are plenty of jobs for you! |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | gaius: We can see you can't code from the <p> tags you've scattered everywhere... |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | charlesju: No I don't think you are in the wrong major. I was in your same boat, for the majority of college I wanted to switch to being a political science major. But now I started my own company and I code everyday. The worst part, I love it, coding and all.So I think you have two options coming out of your major in your position. (1) you don't code, but that's ok because at least you'll have a technical background which will enable you to do a lot of cool things (tech consulting, tech ibanking, project management, etc.). or (2) you find out you really do like to code, at which point you're happy anyways.Last, but not least, most things in college you can learn by simply picking up a book and reading about it. The only critical classes I took in college were several of my upper-division CS classes that I would not be motivated to learn about (ie. how to build a CPU) and accounting 101. As such, whatever your choice, at least you gave CS a shot, and that has defined another set of paths for you given your current disposition. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | rit: A few thoughts come to mind here for me.First ... So don't take a stereotypical coding job; whatever your definition of that may be. I've personally in general avoided big companies my whole career to avoid what I see as the stereotypical coding job - too many meetings, too much waterfall style development and way too much bureaucracy which I find myself unable to navigate. It's served me fairly well in that I get a chance to do a lot of different things. Small companies need more versatile staff - people who can do systems and network work as well as coding. Who can help design and architect systems as well as coding. These things from my standpoint let me enjoy technology while not going insane spending 12 hours a day producing cogs and widgets. And of course the option exists for you to go the route you are obviously culturing of Entrepeneurism. If you can handle both the technical and business sides you may have an advantage as you can work both sides of the equation. But beware of becoming the dreaded business-guy who produces crappy code and expects his programmers to take it as holy writ from upon high. If you plan on blending business and technical keep your skills and knowledge polished and relevant. (Yes, I've had a few of those. Including one who would "Align" all his code in the gutter [aka no freaking tabs] and freak out if anyone reformatted it)Second... The degree does not make the man. Personally, I'm an autodidact although I originally pursued a Criminal Justice degree. The best programmers I've worked with personally (keep in mind the plural of anecdote isn't data) have all had either no degree, or had a degree in an unrelated subject. I've worked with chemistry, physics, English and history majors all of whom were stellar programmers. While the fundamentals are important, it's the capacity for learning and doing something that you enjoy that matters much, much more. If you think you have the core concepts of CS at a point that they're useful to you, change majors. Go get a business degree, or one in physical education if it makes you happy.Just use what you know, and what you think you can learn in the future to best advantage. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | ErrantX: No. Despite what people are saying there are a bazillion such jobs for a smart, non-coder, person to grab hold of.Ultimately "the wrong major" comes down to the course content. CS courses can vary wildly - the one at my uni (I never was on it) was very business oriented for example. If your enjoying the course then there seems no reason to consider it the wrong one.However beware: do talk to people who are happy to be critical of you (and you trust to tell the truth) and find out if you ARE a people person. With the best will in the world every single person I have ever met claiming to be a "people person" generally isn't. I'm sure you are: but it's worth checking :) |
Will you be my Advisor? | Tawheed: You should convene your group of advisers at http://AskMyBrainTrust.com |
Will you be my Advisor? | Tawheed: Also -- I'd be happy to help. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | DenisM: The most profitable ventures are always at a junction of two tings. In your case a junction of someone who can code on one hand and who can see the point of another coder and negotiate to the agreement on the other hand is very valuable in any large company. Product development in large companies always requires more coordination between different teams than is available, so you just can't go wrong by targeting this niche. Do both and you will do well.As a matter of staging, get a coding job in a large company. Straight out of college the expectations will be fairly low for you, so meeting coding expectations would be easy. Use the spare time to seek out right-sized communication gaps in projects that are important for your skip-level manager, suggest improving it, provide your budget (I will spend one week on this, this and this) and make a tiny but clearly measurable progress. If you make a decent effort you will be noticed, if you succeed after first three attempts you will be fast-tracked.Remember that engineers respect other engineers, so if you start with coding and especially a coding achievement you will come from the position of strength compared to any regular program/project manager. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | HeyLaughingBoy: No, you're not in the wrong major but you do need to look at fields outside just "programming."A smart girl I used to work with realized that she was more interested in the business than in coding & testing and left to become a Business Analyst. The job suits her personality much more than being a coder did and she's good at it. Basically her job now entails meeting with customers to elicit requirements and understand their needs from a business perspective. Having a CS background gives her the ability to talk to both business people and technical people and be able to translate between either "world."In software development today, your interpersonal skills are much more valuable than technical skills. I rarely turn down an job candidate for tech skills: it's almost always a personality problem. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | crs: No, you are not in the wrong major. There are many career paths available to you. I work for Boeing, and we have a lot of people in systems engineering roles. They define requirements, perform integration, and generally do a lot buisness like tasks on the engineering side of the org chart. There is Quality Assurance, where you need to understand code but not necessarily write it. In addition to that there is Configuration Management. Our current SCM lead is not a coder but you need general technical ability.Those are just a few examples, but it shows that there are careers out there that require a technical background but don't involve coding.However don't expect to jump int business/marketing/management" out of the gate with a cs degree. Your going to be competing against mba's, and people with marketing degrees. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | caffeine: Your major doesn't really have much to do with your job. The CS you learn in school doesn't really make you a good programmer anyway... |
Review our webapp - Apollo | saurabh: You solved my problem there. Just make sure it can be used to clients intuitively and you're on. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | kvs: If you're good at interacting with people and a computer science major you do have an edge over most computer science majors:-)Perhaps you can minor in business or other area and see whether that helps with your job prospects better. I think you're "selling yourself" wrong... |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | mdragon: I think CS is too heavy for most programming jobs, much less for non-coding technology jobs. You'd probably be much better served having a business major or some sort of technology commercialization or even some sort of technical (or not ) writing, or psychology or math degree. CS is about reading papers other CS guys wrote, writing papers for other CS guys to read, and typically doing very little real world work. There's an exception to every rule, but I had CS professors who I feel would have been amazed if you showed them this amazing Internet concept that had flourished by building on top of the OSI model... :P That being said, your major != your career... though don't tell any HR department employees that or they'll tar and feather you. |
How do you do your usability testing? | jrwoodruff: Just wanted to thank everyone for their input and add some info for posterity's sake;I stumbled across Silverback about 5 minutes ago and it's what I was looking for to help along testing. It simultaneously records a video of the user and a screencapture, so you can analyze where they're confused, happy, etc.http://www.silverbackapp.com/Disclaimer: I have NO connection to this company, just found this useful. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | icco: I'm not sure if I want to say you are in the wrong major, but I think there is a current disconnect between what people learn in high school and what people learn in college.High-schools need to start informing students that what ever their major is in college, it doesn't necessarily affect what they will do out of college. I know a lot of great programmers who were history majors, and a lot of tech industry managers who were engineers.What matters in college is that you are taking classes that you enjoy. If you are spending $20,000+ a year to just get a piece of paper, you are wasting your time. you need to find something that makes you happy and increases your knowledge of the world. for me, that happens to be CS, but if you aren't happy taking CS courses, get out now! Find something that you enjoy and do it, you are wasting your time and everyone else's if you are in something just for the money. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | Elepsis: At some point around the third year of my CS degree at Georgia Tech I went through a similar realization (I wonder if it's something about the curriculum): I understood that while I was smart, competent, and able to get through the curriculum with good grades, I was never going to be a "rock star" programmer. And, indeed, I realized I didn't want to become one, because it wasn't really my passion in life.Do I think that means I finished my degree with the wrong major? No, not really. Like you, I'm interested in technology and I felt I could still contribute something worthwhile to that world. The understanding and ability to code are still things that have a huge benefit.There are plenty of opportunities for people with that background as well -- from technical sales (on the more people-oriented side of the scale) to program or product management at software companies (on the more tech-oriented side). I'm a Program Manager at Microsoft, and while I don't code as part of my job, I feel like I wouldn't be able to interact with developers and testers nearly the same way if I didn't graduate with a degree in CS. You should look into positions like this and see if they sound interesting. Here's a great writeup by Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows division at Microsoft: http://blogs.msdn.com/techtalk/archive/2005/12/16/504872.asp...Long story short: Stick with CS. There will be plenty of opportunities to get further away from the technology if that's what you decide to do, but very few opportunities to get back into it if you let your skills wither while you're still in school. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | gte910h: Howdy fellow GT CS person (although I graduated many moons ago)You have plenty with a capital P jobs available to you as a CS major with no love of code.However, the entry level position with someone in your degree will typically be, pretty much, coding. You don't know enough about anything else to even be marginally useful. (Remember, I have the same degree you're pursuing). Depending on how much you've co-oped or interned, you may be one hair of one bit useful, but chances are you aren't even that, in anything, not even coding, but you're more likely useful in a coding position than in anything else.Other jobs:
MS Has entry level PM track positionsConsulting companies such as Deloite, etc (of which there are lots) have positions which are more about meetings and less about coding (but require ~80% travel).There are LOTSS of technical sales jobs about. You work on commission though, for the most part, and you often have to have pretty good base knowledge of the field, for some you have to code pretty well, others not so much. Honestly, if you're still a 3rd year, and want to learn sales, I'd go start a Clear wireless dealership right now and sell sell sell (They are in Atlanta at the moment, and appear to be cheap to start. Franchises are the most likely to succeed form of small business out there).Now onto jobs past the first couple years:First off: I too am quite "outgoing" as you'd say. I run a small consulting and product development company. But I'm also a deep deep code guy. Liking talking to people does not by any means mean you're going to be one of those unwashed guys in the Old CoC smelling like BO and playing wow all the time in their time off who's height of social interaction is a LAN party or anime fest (sorry to pander to stereotypes).In our field today, there is a HUGE premium for translators. I land so many contracts because I can explain deeply technical issues to businesspeople in the terms that they care about (risks, costs, etc) while still getting across the technology. If you can get fascinated by the technology as well as working on your communication skills, you can land similar positions.Secondly: CS is still paying well, and hasn't hit a huge of a downturn as many of the other majors available to you that fit your current skill set. If you're interested in doing something entrepreneurial, then CS is by far one of the cheapest fields to do that sort of thing in. That alone should keep you looking at CS as a means to the end and make you learn how to do something deep.Lastly: CS is not just programming. While I studied systems and embedded programming, there is a LOT of work in software engineering that is pretty much herding people all day long. I will caution you against spending too much time in that department, because you will strangle any entrepreneurial endeavor under too much process if you get that stuff too much in your blood (it's really better suited to mid-large sized companies).Additionally, if they haven't changed it massively since I went there, GT is WAAAAAAY too in love with somewhat older, non-MS languages.Try some python or some C#, or even some AS3. You may be surprised how joyfully productive those languages are for you at this point compared to some sort of matlab/C/java/scheme things you've had tossed at you so far. Hell, buy a mac mini or $999 macbook pro and release a iPhone app or two, Objective C is like the best parts of C and Smalltalk rolled into one. (Although apple is a bit controlling).PM Email me (iphoneappsiphoneapps@gmail.com) if you'd like to go to lunch and talk, I live in midtown. |
easy noprocrast loophole | NathanKP: If you are that addicted already then you'll probably need to use something like this:http://visitsteve.com/work/selfcontrol/ - For Mac OS Xhttp://www1.k9webprotection.com/ - For Windows, designed to block porn but it can block any site you want.Have fun! |
Review our webapp - Apollo | Vandy_Travis: You should work on your copy on the main page. It isn't clear exactly what the app does. You discuss what it is (a way to get comments from another group), but I had trouble trying to picture exactly how it works. As near I can tell, I work on a doc (image, whatever), then can share it with other people who can comment on it, within a protected area of a site. That isn't too clear from the front page. |
License Manager in Ruby/RoR | there: you'd need a code obfuscator that can turn it into an executable, otherwise the source code could just be modified to disable the licensing checks.http://www.rubyencoder.com/ is one such product, but i've never used it. |
How important is it for a site to have its own custom search? | tjpick: it is important for a site to provide users, who are already there, an easy way to search. It complements navigation. Doesn't really matter if it's custom or backed by something like google.Some random standalone search specifically built against another site is not that useful, but is a sign that the built in search is not as good as it should be. |
easy noprocrast loophole | revorad: An easier loophole is to go straight to http://news.ycombinator.com/logout. Then you can continue reading.If you're really struggling, seriously try working on a computer without an internet connection (See http://www.paulgraham.com/distraction.html). |
Are there any on-demand Django deployment and management solutions? | cmelbye: Google App Engine is a scalable low-cost Platform as a Service run on Google's infrastructure. You get to use their toys (Datastore based on BigTable, large network of servers and datacenters, etc), but it will not "just work" with most Django/Python web applications. For example, you have to use their API to interact with the Datastore, and some things just don't work. Once you do the work to get your app running there, though, it turns out to be a fairly good deal. |
Things you wish you'd learned about programming in college? | bricestacey: This will obviously vary depending on how much the school focusing on CS or CE, but I'd stress mastering the basics of several programming languages in different domains (e.g. C, Java, PHP, Python, Lisp). There is a lot to be taken from each of these, even if you think they suck on their own.I don't think you can effectively give a talk about "using and knowing the tools" without being too specific. If you're specific you fail. Instead, I'd focus on simply drilling it in people's mind that they should feel incredibly comfortable using their editor. It's the only thing they will always be able to control and it's the only place you'll be modifying your code. I'd encourage you have them pick an OS, and a standard library for each programming language and get super familiar with it.I'm not sure interaction in the form of social coding would work in a single presentation. If this were a regular thing, sure. I think you can provide greater value doing something else.One thing that I feel is often missing from my fellow students is confidence. They're all a bunch of babies and school is torture for them. I think an interesting talk (and judging by your experience, I'm sure you could make it awesome) would be to emphasize the confidence and empowerment that comes with mastering a programming language and doing some cool shit with it (a side project). There are too many people in my classes that are always sinking, who have not yet realized that they can actually do cool things because they're too busy sucking at class. They need to learn something really cool on their own, which will drive them to learn and finish school because they'll finally see dots starting to connect. |
CS major who doesn't want to code. Am I in the wrong major? | roundsquare: Nah. I'm a CS major who just left his first job (which was a coding job) for something different and hope to go to law school soon. Half the people I work with are CS majors who decided to go into business.But being a CS major has helped. From being able to break down a problem and create a concrete solution to the fact that our spreadsheets work better and are easier to read, the things we learned as a CS major are very helpful.Treat it as learning a particular way of thinking and I think you'll be fine. Treat it as "learning how to code" and you might regret it.However, now that you've realized other majors might be interesting, I would suggest minimizing your CS courses and finding other courses that interest you. Take a marketing class instead of a class on compilers or something. Get a minor in something you really want to go into. Or, better yet, study something you'll never get the chance to learn about again (at least until you retire).Edit: Sorry, one thing I didn't consider is that some colleges do core classes for 2 years and then classes for the major afterwards (didn't do this at my college). If thats the case for you, then I'd suggest looking into a CS minor and maybe some other major. |
Clojure as a first progamming language? | fp: I think Clojure is not a simple language. The reason is, that you have to learn about 1) Lisp, 2) Clojure's approach to concurrency (immutable data structures + reference types) and 3) the JVM. These are all fairly complex systems on their own. The combination of them is what makes Clojure interesting, and, in my opinion, you can't leave one out and still have a great language.Depending on your knowledge, this may make it a bad choice as a first language because it's so much to learn at once. You could be better off, to start by learning something more similar to what you already know (possibly Python/Django or Ruby/Rails for web programming).That said, Clojure is learnable, of course. It may just take more time. If it feels right to you, then go for it. Enthusiasm about the tools will help your learning. And either way, it's not like you are making a mistake. |
Clojure as a first progamming language? | mechanical_fish: I feel there’s a chance an experienced programmer has a certain connection with his/her "native" programming languageSure, you will tend know more about the language that you have worked with the most, which in turn tends to be the one you prefer. But that need have nothing to do with the language you learn first.A very large number of the programmers you will meet today learned programming via something like C64 or Applesoft BASIC, or (at best) Turbo Pascal. These languages were not exactly Lisp. In those days, BASIC only had global variables. Our growth was not stunted. The idea that learning BASIC stunts your growth was a load of crap at the time, and it remains a load of crap.If you have the startup itch and want to teach yourself good habits, here's my advice: Don't dither, and don't pick up habits that encourage dithering. Like fretting too much about your language of choice. If you actually plan to build web software, take up Ruby, Python, or even PHP. You know, something normal. Something which features lots of libraries and blogs and books and colleagues and infrastructure.And learn Lisp too. At the same time. Start with SICP, which involves starting with Scheme. Another useful Lisp to tinker with: emacs Lisp.Eventually you will learn at least four languages, so don't worry too much about which comes first. |
Clojure as a first progamming language? | JimmyL: If you want to learn a language from the perspective of getting something done (in the startup webapp sphere), go for Python/Django or Ruby/Rails - they both have mature, well-established communities with plenty of documentation and available libraries.Clojure seems quite cool, but it's a relatively new language and, especially when compared to the other two platforms mentioned above, it lacks the wealth of institutional knowledge about delivering good webapps that forms a significant portion of the value of Rails or Django.Clojure is the exciting new thing you blog about. Rails or Django is what you used to write the blog itself. |
Not raising expectations of the customer is not a defeatist attitude? | charlesmarshall: The old axiom "Failing to plan is planning to fail" comes to mind.I wouldn't say sell yourself short but always be realistic. For example if its a deadline you want to give for a project will take 2 weeks, build in some space for running over (a % based on complicity and client) and give that.In your case I think your talking features. You can promise the basics first and discuss a 'stage 2' which adds more functions later.. If you get those done before planned thats a big plus.Most clients only remember failures, not success. So I would agree with you on this one. |
Not raising expectations of the customer is not a defeatist attitude? | Kliment: The best thing you can do is satisfy all user expectations, including the ones they do not know they have. People love being positively surprised. So the proposition is this: By the model of your partner, you create expectations for users, and then satisfy them. This essentially means people get excited about something, wait for it, and, at best, it eventually happens. So they think "Yeah, it's finally here.". Your proposition is to keep all that but also have them think "Yeah, it's finally here, and it's even BETTER than I thought it would be!". This is distinct from surprise releases and no release schedules, which I suppose is what your partner is thinking about. Raising client expectations is an excellent idea. Exceeding those new expectations is even more excellent. Promise something good. Deliver something better. |
Not raising expectations of the customer is not a defeatist attitude? | stonemetal: Expectations should be just right. Low expectations is lost business. If I don't think You can solve my problem or not solve it well, why do business with you? Elevated expectations are lost repeat business. If you promise steak but deliver hamburger, why would I come back? |
Review My (Common Lisp backed) Startup | arnorhs: Looks nice, but goddamn... These things are always US-only...!! And I'm not talking about the language.If some startup would actually make anything, literally anything that was global, I'm sure it would get a segment of a market that nobody's utilizing.edit: And a Javascript alertbox letting you know you're going to see new york instead... That's not helpful. |
Review My (Common Lisp backed) Startup | smanek: Hey guys, I've been working on Postabon for the last few months (full time for approximately the last 2). We've been beta testing in NYC for the last few weeks - and feel we have enough content there to launch now. Any feedback (especially criticism) you have would be greatly appreciated.The basic idea is that we want to help you find and share discounts near you. The video (click 'Watch a Video' on the left) will help explain the concept/history if you're interested.Our iPhone app's release is pending Apple approval (hopefully just a few more days ...).HN contributed to this in a very real way. Two years ago when I started visiting HN I had no intention of ever trying my hand at a startup. But being surrounded (at least online ...) by the entrepreneurial spirit here really inspired me.The Lisp thing isn't actually a selling point - I just thought that the crowd here might find it interesting. If there is demand, I'd be happy to write some blog posts on the how/why of some of our architectural decisions. We're using a 'NoSQL' key-value (with btree indexing) persistence layer too :-D |
Review My (Common Lisp backed) Startup | mahmud: Just signed up, smanek :-)Looks well polished. Try to let business owners upload their own offers, that will make it easier for you; instead of hunting for bargains or waiting for users, you can just buy a mailing database and do a blast to those who care (or scrape the contact emails from Google Local, like I did.)Also, try to define "bon's" somewhere; does it stand for bonus or coupon? The tag line could explain "shop. save. share <whatever it is we're sharing>"One more thing, spill the beans on the architecture ;-) what do you have behind nginx? Hunchentoot? The html source doesn't look like cl-who, it has comments, perhaps a template system of sorts.I already have most of your site's functionality somewhere in my private repo, and I am sure many people do too. It's a pity we all have to write it from scratch.Cheers and good luck! :-) |
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