instruction stringlengths 4 105 | output stringlengths 8 56.7k |
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Where to buy a desktop PC? | Rust: I would likewise suggest that you build your own, not so much for cost (although it does tend to be cheaper), but for satisfaction. Just make sure your RAM voltage <= CPU/Motherboard supported voltage. Using 1.75v RAM in a board that only likes 1.65v RAM makes an unstable system :)Having said that, I've always found Dell desktops to be really good. A bit less extra crap pre-installed than some other manufacturers (I'm looking at you, HP), and you have a 50% chance at good support (I've called in 4 times over the years - 2 were teh sux0r, 2 were great help). So if you gotta buy online, Dell is my recommendation.If you build your own, try and find a local shop (here we have bCom and Memory Express) - they will almost always be cheaper than Future Shop and Best Buy. |
I need a brainstorm on how to collect several thousand quality RSS feeds | pramit: Postrank.com has plenty of feeds. |
I need a brainstorm on how to collect several thousand quality RSS feeds | Barnabas: Have you considered using the PostRank Topic API?http://www.postrank.com/developers/api#topic |
I need a brainstorm on how to collect several thousand quality RSS feeds | apowell: Have you tried Alltop.com? |
Should I create one website or many? | pramit: Focus on one site, one big keyword, e.g. "infograph" and all the smaller keywords related to it, e.g."finance infographs"- make these either subdomain or http://infographs.com/finance-infographs.In addition, make sure your CMS automatically creates titles and your all your pages have the right titles e.g. wall street infographs + Finance infographs \ infographs.com.Just my two bits. |
How to encourage curiosity in developers | bediger: Problem solving contests. The "Regular Expression of The Week" challenge, or solving a Raymond Smullyan logic problem, or smallest program that does X challenge.You'll have to mix it up to encourage a lot of participation, as some people are scared of regexps, others of number theory, and others of prgramming challenges. |
Do you recommend giving out equity for legal services? | jacquesm: Definitely not. Mint did it, it worked for them but there is a very good reason not to go this road. As the proverb says 'a lawyer representing his own interests has a fool for a client'.By having your legal representative be a part of your business you may skip a bit on legal fees, but in the end the lawyer may not have the exact expertise that a certain situation requires, may be required to represent both the company and himself, will not have the distance required to keep his head cool, or will always be in a conflict of interest situation and so on.It's a recipe for trouble.Legal advice is best contracted out on a per-case basis.Maybe Grellas or some other legal eagle on here can comment on what they think of that, this is just my $0.02. |
Where to buy a desktop PC? | joshfinnie: My suggestion would to buy a high quality laptop. It has been a long while (san gaming rigs) since I found a laptop that wouldn't perform every one of my needs.If you do feel you need a desktop (if you want dual SLI graphic cards or TBs of hard disks in raid 1), I have to agree with the concensus and build your own. It is fun to learn, easy to do, and cheaper. |
please check out my magical startup - TwitFlush | vital101: Nice work on the UI. It doesn't get much cleaner then that. |
I need a brainstorm on how to collect several thousand quality RSS feeds | dabent: Maybe Regator?http://regator.com/#feedsearch:section:20:0 |
Where to buy a desktop PC? | vital101: Falcon Northwest has always made some outstanding PCs. http://www.falcon-nw.com |
please check out my magical startup - TwitFlush | swombat: Ok, I realise this is meant to be some kind of joke.Unfortunately, I don't think it's actually funny. |
I need a brainstorm on how to collect several thousand quality RSS feeds | jplewicke: http://seekingalpha.com/ syndicates a whole bunch of financial blogs. They don't have feeds for individual contributors and I'm not sure of the quality of their topics feeds, but if you crawl carefully you may be able to find your way to the original blogs of many of their contributors. |
please check out my magical startup - TwitFlush | tjarratt: You'll probably regret this when something breaks and you have to get your hands dirty to fix it. |
I need a brainstorm on how to collect several thousand quality RSS feeds | fauxfauxpas: You might find YQL (Yahoo Query Language) useful for parts of what you want to do. |
please check out my magical startup - TwitFlush | Oompa: Reminds me of http://twitter.com/pooptag |
Hackers/Founders in Munich/Germany | rmoriz: only 2? :( |
please check out my magical startup - TwitFlush | raintrees: I think the name itself would be a useful verb... |
Do you recommend giving out equity for legal services? | newy: This is pretty standard in SV (the #'s mentioned by Mint are market). |
Do you recommend giving out equity for legal services? | grellas: I think the issue needs to be decided case-by-case, and it depends on the early-stage legal needs of the startup.A few thoughts on what to consider:1. As indicated by jacquesm, you should never do this where the amount of the equity will cause the attorney to have a conflict in the representation. A rough rule of thumb in the profession is that less than 2% is acceptable for this purpose but I use a less-than-1% measure when I occasionally do these. Very important to keep this part clean.2. A deferred-fee deal is based on an extension of credit by the attorney performing early-stage services. For example, the attorney might extend up to $20K in fees prior to the earlier of 6 months or first funding in exchange for, say 0.5% of the company. There is real credit risk associated with this because, if the company fails, the attorney has no recourse except against a dead entity. In such a context, it might make sense for a founding group to want to do such an arrangement to avoid having to require members of the founding team to pay their share of such fees and to cut the risks of the formation and company launch.3. Given the rationale in point 2 for when this might make sense, there are various situations where it obviously does not: (a) where the company does not expect to have too much in the way of early-stage fees (e.g., if it will incur incorporation expenses and not too much more in the early phases, particularly where it will not be going for outside funding - in such a case, the anticipated legal expenses at this stage may be a low as a few thousand dollars); (b) where the deal among the founding team assumes one lead founder will advance such costs and the lead founder is willing and able to do so; (c) where a sole founder is willing to incur the early costs and can comfortably do so; and (d) where a founding team is willing to incur the up-front costs among themselves and does not want to give up the equity.The prototypical case where deferred fees make sense is a founding team going out quickly for VC funding. This is the "big firm" model. In such cases, unless the founders are serial entrepreneurs or otherwise quite capable of paying the rather high up-front fees of such firms, they should at least seriously consider doing a deferred-fee deal. In all other cases, do so only with caution, as the deferred-fee arrangement often makes no sense for the startup (I can say this from the attorney side as well).General rule: always consider it as an option but be careful before entering into such a deal. |
What problem is REALLY bugging you? | Hume: I don't have a business, just an office drone; but I have to find out about legal ownership of companies all the time, when our customers issue purchase orders we have to make sure that the names on the invoices we generate match them.Changing the names in our CRM/ERP systems is a laborious process and we have to get the customer to sign legal documents confirming that all the software licenses owned by the previous company are now owned by the acquirer/new merger.I think that a website containing all the name change documents, press releases and possibly a service that tracks legal ownership (though this could be hard to scale) could be worth pursuing, along the lines of a Duns and Bradstreet ( http://www.dnb.com ) type company.It could be something like a more focused docstoc or perhaps a legal wolfram alpha. |
Best practices for quickly selling a small company? | brk: You might be able to expect a 5X annual profit sale if you could manage to find a competent investor who wanted to grow it.It's unclear though from your COGS line though if there really is any actual profit, or if you're just managing to cover salaries and necessary R&D efforts.The best way (IMO) to expedite a sale would be to:- Have accurate accounting data for the last 5 years readily available and organized.- Set a realistic price, with some justification of the price ("I am looking for $500K based on year over year sales growth for the last 5 years and a $100K bottom line profit last year. The market is Y and this brand has the ability to grow to own X% of Y based on Z. " Etc.)- Be available to answer questions- Offer to be available (for free or on retainer) for the first 6 months after acquisition to help with any transition items....just some thoughts... |
Should I pull an April fools at my Google interview on Thursday? | unshift: i don't recommend it. your interviewer most likely views this phone screen as a chore, and isn't anywhere near as excited about it as you are. |
Should I pull an April fools at my Google interview on Thursday? | bgnm2000: This would be risking/wasting an amazing opportunity |
Should I pull an April fools at my Google interview on Thursday? | seasoup: If you don't care about the job, do it! It will be fun. Otherwise, don't. |
Going to Grad School, which language/framework should I learn? | hajrice: C/C++, Python ? |
Going to Grad School, which language/framework should I learn? | keefe: Grad school is writing and reading papers, not writing code (most of the time). Learn LaTeX and subscribe to ACM digital library and get to reading. You're expected to have programming skills in advance (at least where I went) but you should be language indifferent. Read SICP and learn the basics of C, C++, Java and Python. |
Going to Grad School, which language/framework should I learn? | dpritchett: Clojure:- Functional programming is sufficiently different from C# to expand your mind in a good way. New paradigms will make you a better programmer even if you stick with C# in the end.- Open source foundations allow you to get all the tools you need for free.- Java interoperability gives you access to libraries you'll need for specialized projects.- Clojure is growing and has an excellent community on Google Groups and on Freenode IRC.http://clojure.org/ |
Would you sell your future earnings for cash today? | bgnm2000: Its interesting, but no - I wouldn't do it. I'd rather try to accomplish my goals without taking any money - especially feeling like I'm literally selling part of myself. |
Should I pull an April fools at my Google interview on Thursday? | agent86: If you REALLY want to do something, given the options you listed, I would answer their favorite product question with their April Fools product. Something along the lines of "Well I'm partial to the new Google Time Machine... but in all seriousness I spend my life in Gmail".It's the most benign thing you could do, breaks the ice a little, and it actually demonstrates that you've paid close attention to what they're doing.All that said, I personally wouldn't do anything. |
I need a brainstorm on how to collect several thousand quality RSS feeds | dpritchett: Marshall Kirkpatrick asked his internet friends for OPML files for his birthday:http://marshallk.com/its-my-birthday-you-should-make-me-a-pr...It could work for you too... |
Should I pull an April fools at my Google interview on Thursday? | jarsj: I used to be on the other side of phone some time back. Don't do it. |
Going to Grad School, which language/framework should I learn? | ahi: You don't say what you are going back to grad school for? Masters in CS? |
Should I pull an April fools at my Google interview on Thursday? | jacquesm: If you're just kidding then why the posting. If you're not think about whether or not you really want that job...A phone interview is limited in time and scope, if you use it to pull an april fools joke it says that you are not able to see when is the appropriate time to be serious and when not. |
I need a brainstorm on how to collect several thousand quality RSS feeds | blakeweb: Check delicious? I myself sometimes tag blogs I find that only _might_ be useful later, rather than subscribe to them. At first pass I pulled a bunch, with a pretty low false positive rate at least on the first few, using economics+finance+blogs as tag filters. |
please review my app - html to pdf API | deutronium: The pdf conversion is awesome! I just tried printing http://times.com/ to a pdf in firefox and it ended up putting the main content of the site on page 2, whereas yours seemed to render it perfectly. |
please review my app - html to pdf API | dpapathanasiou: Have you thought about the reverse, i.e., a tool that could convert pdfs to html faithfully?I would be willing to pay money for a reliable tool that didn't need much manual editing after processing.Unfortunately, the pdftohtml project (http://pdftohtml.sourceforge.net/) has been inactive, and the current version has trouble with even moderately complex layouts. |
please review my app - html to pdf API | DanHulton: Well, your default HTML generates one screwey PDF. When viewed in Mac OSX Preview, I get the text "T pe our HTML here..." Then, when I select the text, certain letters get partially removed or overwritten and I end up with gibberish.I've just spent weeks working on HTML -> PDF conversion code, so I know it's not just my viewer. I've put all kinds of crazy stuff through there. |
Hackers in LA? | iphpdonthitme: After seeing a few of these kinds of posts over the last few, ahem, years, I am going to take a stab at organizing a Los Angeles based Hacker News group. Let's start really small. Send me your email address if you are interested inA) being on an email list
B) getting together in person (only one meeting for now)iphpdonthitme of gmail |
please review my app - html to pdf API | pstinnett: Haven't tested this, but great idea. I've used a couple of the PDF creation tools and it seems so tedious to build out even a simple table view on a PDF. Good luck with this! |
please review my app - html to pdf API | washingtondc: I like it, but my site didn't come out correctly (www.convertyourcds.com). Perhaps my html is screwed up? |
please review my app - html to pdf API | asnyder: Why no PHP API binding? |
please review my app - html to pdf API | raffi: The quality of http://www.princexml.com is amazing. It's not open source and there is a cost to use it commercially (<1K, if I recall). I used it to convert my HTML documentation for Sleep into a camera-ready PDF.http://sleep.dashnine.org/manual/ - original docs
http://sleep.dashnine.org/download/sleep21manual.pdf - result |
New project, pick.im, A Freelancer Marketplace | andrewhyde: Clickable links:
http://pick.imInvite: http://pick.im/request/invite |
Which technology should I use for client-side web encryption? | johnm: What are the threat models that you care about (in some sort of rough rank order)? |
please review my app - html to pdf API | ricmo: have you seen this? http://code.google.com/p/wkhtmltopdf/ |
Which technology should I use for client-side web encryption? | cperciva: All encryption will take place on the browser, using Open PGP standards. The server will see only encrypted data.You've already lost. If someone can compromise your server, they can serve up a web page containing modified code. |
New project, pick.im, A Freelancer Marketplace | bradleyjoyce: Andrew, look forward to seeing this project grow! I think it will be super useful! |
please review my app - html to pdf API | sjs382: A lot of html to pdf conversion is useless if page-break-* properties are not followed. Shame, too. I've been building something like this all week. |
Which technology should I use for client-side web encryption? | shrughes: How is what you're designing any more secure than a typical website that communicates over HTTPS? The user can't prevent you from sending a broken Java applet or a webpage with broken encryption code, so the user still has to trust you. Look at what happened with Hushmail. |
please review my app - html to pdf API | oskee80: Worked great for me, good job. I'd be interested in a PHP binding too, and knowing what the eventual cost will be. |
please review my app - html to pdf API | qeorge: This is awesome. I'm at once excited about using this in the future, and dismayed thinking of the time I've spent manually generating PDFs because none of the HTML -> PDF options worked.I fed it my homepage, and it nailed it. I'm impressed. |
please review my app - html to pdf API | ivan_ah: NICE!
You have beat me (and I am sure a dozen others hackers) to the realization of this idea...Here is an idea for an extra feature: make a print bookmarklet -- clicking on it you get a nice PDF version of the page you are viewing right now. I can't stand firefox's print renditions of some pages... terrible...(also you might want to set the page size to letter or A4 depending on the geolocation of your visitor's ip address) |
please review my app - html to pdf API | va_coder: I tried a relatively complex site - CNN - expecting the results to look bad, but it looks great |
New project, pick.im, A Freelancer Marketplace | JonAtkinson: Hi Andrew. I've just registered, looks like a great service.A few initial impressions: I'd like to be able to express my pricing in both an hourly rate and full project value. Also, support for multiple currencies would be nice, there will be plenty of users who want to bill in EUR or GBP. |
please review my app - html to pdf API | latortuga: We used an html->pdf conversion service (I believe it was http://www.htm2pdf.co.uk/ but I'm not positive) for awhile to do billing and our biggest problem was that it went down all the time. We ended up purchasing a (pretty cheap) license to a Java library that does pdf generation for us and is pretty easy to use. This is definitely a service that people will pay money to use - best of luck to you! |
What makes you happy? What is your American Dream? | jacquesm: for me happiness is:- health for those around me and myself- the ability to create- music- the freedom to travel and meet new people |
New project, pick.im, A Freelancer Marketplace | duck: Looks like a good idea. I like sites that base your location via IP, but when there is no results I think it is better to show at least the closest result so there is some context. I.e. do I need to put the next town over or do I need to put in the closest big city. |
please review my app - html to pdf API | thepsi: Nice execution - as per the comment below, something like this would've saved me lots of manual fiddling back when I was doing lots of PDF stuff.Given the focus on APIs I guess you're aiming it at those wanting to programmatically generate PDFs using a familiar markup, rather than conversion of existing (static) content into PDF? If so, maybe investigate the ability to overlay rendering onto an existing PDF template at some point - in my experience it's been a common requirement (think form letters, account statements, etc).Interesting that it appears to execute Javascript; guess it's a sign of the times that you need to in order to render many sites correctly nowadays. I haven't poked it too hard, but suspect there might be one or two security challenges there... |
New project, pick.im, A Freelancer Marketplace | steverb: Looks great. It'd be nice if I were able to put in more than one website address for where folks could find out more about me.I use stack overflow's cv publishing, but have my own site. Don't want the headache of keeping two CVs up to date. |
New project, pick.im, A Freelancer Marketplace | eberfreitas: What did you use to Geo Location? |
New project, pick.im, A Freelancer Marketplace | davidcann: I like it, but I'd suggest an option for searching "anywhere" or at least by country. I freelance full time, but rarely work with companies near my physical location. |
please review my app - html to pdf API | carbocation: This is great! The only downside that I saw after converting one of my pages is that the colors dulled substantially. |
please review my app - html to pdf API | watmough: Excellent stuff.I notice there are some questions about how to make money. One may be to position yourself as a way to get PDF reports generated from phone apps, in which case you may want to do per app licensing and provide facilities for email delivery of PDFs.I could see this being useful porting apps from iPhone (can easily generate PDFs) to Android (which does not appear to support PDF output). |
please review my app - html to pdf API | alilja: Why do I need this? |
Going to Grad School, which language/framework should I learn? | leff_f: If you have 4 years of experience in C#, stick with C#!
It will be tough, but most of the people in academic environment don't have professional experience as developers... so you should be ahead of them with your C#. |
New project, pick.im, A Freelancer Marketplace | Zak: The price range doesn't take in to account rates. For some developers, a two week project is $2000. For others, that's one billable day. |
please review my app - html to pdf API | karanbhangui: Slick design, but out of curiosity, why wouldn't developers just use http://code.google.com/p/wkhtmltopdf/ ? |
Would you sell your future earnings for cash today? | ig1: There's nothing to stop someone bankrupting themselves to get out of the debt.And if there was it would likely fall foul of anti-slavery laws and international treaties on the same. |
please review my app - html to pdf API | petesalty: I can easily see a use for this. I'm doing a pro bono project for a small non profit, and part of the project requires generating simple PDF reports. They don't have any money so we need to keep it low cost.One of the ways of doing this is to host it on a simple shared server (it's not a heavily used app).Downside of this is that it's unlikely we'll be able to use any of the PDF tools I've used in the past (since they need to be installed). This should work fine for our purposes.Thanks, I was wondering how I'd get around this.To all those who were dissing this because they couldn't immediately see a use for it, try to have a more open mind. |
New project, pick.im, A Freelancer Marketplace | pxlpshr: So, the difficulty here is not being able to give enough feedback where it counts: the talent/portfolio section because Austin shows "empty". So to echo feedback already left, perhaps change it to operate like:I need a [Designer] based in [Anywhere] and my budget is [Bootstrapped].This would make it immediately more useful until you have critical mass on a per city basis -- and even then, isn't the trend being able to work essentially from anywhere? It's definitely nice to be able to zone talent by city, but in the end I don't really care if a landing-page rockstar is based in NYC if they fit the style and price I'm looking for.Good idea though, keep at it. Look forward to this getting populated. |
New project, pick.im, A Freelancer Marketplace | davidcann: Two more issues I noticed:* The keywords I enter on my profile keep getting re-ordered automatically by your software. It wants to put javascript first, but that's not my primary language, so I don't want it appearing first below my name. I've opted to delete it from the list instead.* I'd suggest that the "time to complete" and "cost for similar" fields in the Add Project form to be optional. I prefer to not have this kind of information posted publicly, so I had to enter dummy values. |
Should I pull an April fools at my Google interview on Thursday? | anactofgod: Apparently, you've already fooled them into interviewing you.So, the only way to top that would be to fool them into thinking you are actually qualified to work there. That's a joke that could be good for days... weeks... even years worth of laughs before they figure it out.<shaking head ruefully> |
Should I pull an April fools at my Google interview on Thursday? | coryl: You should ask them about the big balloon and camera they use to photograph the world for Google Earth. |
please review my app - html to pdf API | juliancox: Looks good. I'm keen to use (and pay for) a service like this - if its reliable and quick. With a ruby gem its particularly attractive as all other rails to pdf solutions are incomplete, require a pdf specific dsl or are very expensive. |
Best practices for quickly selling a small company? | hga: Well ... one approach would be to find someone like my father (who's 77 now and happily retired). Give him a 1/3 commission, agree on the minimum terms (i.e. the above plus a price) and stand back.However, anyway you look at it, unless you're willing to spend some number of months to do it right, you're not likely to get a good deal. It's always possible, but I wouldn't count on it.And that's one reason to hire a specialist, someone who can play the game without conveying that you want out yesterday. And I've seen my father do this sort of thing, it can be done.Good luck! |
please review my app - html to pdf API | jrockway: Uh, "a2ps file.html"? Doesn't even need an API key... |
Should I pull an April fools at my Google interview on Thursday? | kjbekkelund: "My favorite Google product is definitely Gmail Paper! I have already done so much amazing for the environment."http://mail.google.com/mail/help/paper/more.html |
How many have learned a language they hated just to get a job? | makecheck: Learning a language you hate takes you very close to hating the entire job, which is no way to work. Never settle for that, life is too short.Keep working on side projects that do interest you, and make them public, so that it's always easy to show prospective employers what you can really do. Spend your time boosting your skills and having fun, even if your first actual income comes from something completely different, like mowing lawns.One thing about programming is that it can be done from anywhere; try applying for a job that's outside your local area, and see if there are any that allow remote work. Some companies won't offer this unless you have years of experience, but some might do it anyway; it all depends on how good they think you are. |
How many have learned a language they hated just to get a job? | d0m: I just wanted to tell you that what you've learn in other languages are usually usable in many languages, even if it's not standard procedure. For instance, with C++, you can use Boost and use foreach with a (kind-of) lambda. It's not a real closure, but still, my point is that don't dismiss things of your favorite language when you need to use other ones.I remember implementing a genetic algorithm in C++.. I used a functional way of doing it and it turned out to be a real pleasure. I even made it multi-threaded using a STL-like threading library which encouraged a functionnal style.And also, don't forget, by learning new language, it will make you a better programmer, period. There are also way more than "programming" in a software job.Communication between developpers, Communication with the client, designing a robust system, etc. Implementing in your not-so-favorite language might only be a small pourcent of the real job.That was my 5 cents on the subject :p |
How many have learned a language they hated just to get a job? | gte910h: You're looking on the wrong job boards most likely. I almost never see any of those languages where I end up seeing jobs.Try looking at meetups (which allow job posts), job postings advertisements on programming sites, etc instead. |
How many have learned a language they hated just to get a job? | bmcleod: I would suggest that the correct thing to do at that point is to move somewhere with a better tech community in the languages you do like.I moved(without having and commercial experience behind me) to a more technical city just as I was finishing Uni and managed to find a much better job with much better coworkers than I could have had in my starting city quite quickly. |
How many have learned a language they hated just to get a job? | yourabi: Think about moving after graduation.If you hate your job it will seep into other aspects of your life. Life is too short for that.Go out and find your adventure. |
How many have learned a language they hated just to get a job? | ax0n: I generally despise development. I can "program" (make small tools, scripts, etc) but I don't have the "developer mindset"I learned PHP and MySQL to get a promotion when my boss was considering hiring from outside the company. I generally don't hate PHP -- in fact, these days, I rather like it -- but I did have to do something I was averse to in order to land a job. |
How many have learned a language they hated just to get a job? | cperciva: On my CV I have "Languages used: C, sh, perl, awk, Maple, x86 assembly" immediately followed by "Languages NOT used: C++, Java, Erlang, Haskell, Python, Ruby, PHP, C#". I'm sure it has resulted in me not being offered some jobs, but I'm not sure if it has cost me any jobs which I might have considered accepting.Don't ask what languages are being widely used. Ask first what jobs/companies you're interested in; then find out what languages they require. |
How many have learned a language they hated just to get a job? | shib71: Programmers these days.In my day we programmed in Java and liked it. ASP was the GOOD web programming language. We had to code up hill in both directions...But seriously, there are good and bad points to every language. Sometimes I think the willingness to just love the good and work around the bad is half of being a really good developer. |
How many have learned a language they hated just to get a job? | vital101: I very nearly learned C# just so I get could a job in my geographical area. Turns out, if I was a bit flexible there were a lot of jobs out there doing the PHP development that I really enjoy.Don't make too many compromises though. Learning a language that you don't like is going a bit too far to get a job I think. |
How many have learned a language they hated just to get a job? | windsurfer: I never "hated" Perl, but I only learned how to use it because I heard it was pretty useful. It grew on me and I now love it. |
How many have learned a language they hated just to get a job? | bcrescimanno: By not broadening your skill set and opening yourself up to opportunities using the languages you've listed, you are seriously limiting the scope of your job search anywhere. Don't let the "big buzz" on the web fool you, the majority of developers are holding jobs in shops that use Java, C, and C++.That said, take the advice of people here and don't constrain yourself locally. You're at a perfect time in your life to be free and go wherever to find the work you really want. Take advantage of that freedom! |
How many have learned a language they hated just to get a job? | waterlesscloud: Thesis- hating a language is a mark of a good but not great developer.Hating the sort of work a language is usually used for is something different, however.Perl is the one exception, of course. All right-thinking humans hate perl. |
How many have learned a language they hated just to get a job? | pragmatic: So you don't want to work with .NET or Java or ColdFusion or ASP (classic ASP 3.0?). What do you want to work with? |
How many have learned a language they hated just to get a job? | abstractbill: I've learned a bunch of languages while working at justin.tv, and have disliked each of them to some degree. Think of it as the price of admission to being able to do interesting things. |
How many have learned a language they hated just to get a job? | strlen: I wouldn't worry about the language bits (as long as it isn't something entirely brain rotting like ColdFusion, ASP, PHP or COBOL), as much as by the fact they all seem like the usual enterprisey "read text from a database display it on a screen" jobs. A CRUD app in Ruby or Python is certainly a lot more fun to build than in Java (and most importantly, easier to maintain and modify), but it's still a CRUD app.I'd suggest looking into a different geographic area, joining a technology company (which produces a software product; serious Internet companies fall under that umbrella).I'd recommend high-traction, well funded start-ups that have been around the block (with serious technical identities); big tech companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft or Yahoo are a good bet too: they solve very interesting problems and are willing to mentor you. Yes, they typically use various forms of blub for production code. However, no one will object to you writing a prototype in Python (or an IDL->code translator in OCaml), and you'll be able to pick up skills that are rare and meet serious hackers.The reason I don't recommend smaller start-ups is that their goals aren't always aligned with yours: your goal is to build up the skills needed to solve big, interesting problems; depending on the founders, investors and the market the goal of a start-up might be to make any product, even if there isn't much technical skill (for you) to be gained by building that product.Knowing something others don't know (it could be machine learning, search, compiler construction, systems programming, numerical analysis, etc...) means you're not a commodity. If you're not a commodity, you're much more likely to be allowed to use non-commodity tools (e.g., start a pilot project in Python, Erlang or Haskell instead of Java or C++, or start adding Scala modules to an existing Java application). It also means better pay in the long term, but you should not use pay as a yard-stick when deciding on your first job: an MBA-type "founder" might be really desperate for you to a web app for him, but a software company is making an investment in you.Edit: see the comment from cperciva -- if you have skills (in his case security and mathematics, from his FreeBSD and academic work) that others don't, you can find ways to use tools that you enjoy using: either by finding a workplace which uses these tools or having enough "clout" to introduce those tools to other companies. |
How many have learned a language they hated just to get a job? | zavulon: I feel your pain. For my first "big corporate" programming job, I had to do PowerBuilder development. Coming from Java/C++ background, it was like hell on Earth.I stuck around though, did PB for a while, and 2 months later a Java position opened up, which turned out to be great.So - I wouldn't get too caught up in that, but YMMV |
How many have learned a language they hated just to get a job? | dkarl: If you don't like the idea of uprooting yourself to find a job, you'd better move to a big tech area now. Don't put down roots in a place where your every career decision will be compromised by the lack of opportunities. Eventually some local downturn will force you to uproot yourself anyway, and all your career sacrifices will be for nothing. Just move to a huge tech hub right away, and then you can feel (relatively) comfortable putting down roots. |
Rate my startup - Backpedalify | zavulon: I'm very confused... who are the users of your site? Actual politicians? When I click on "Backpedal", nothing happens... Are you expecting Bush/Clinton/Gore/Kerry to actually come to your site and use it? |
How many have learned a language they hated just to get a job? | btilly: My first programming job was in VB 3.0. It was a horrible and awful experience at a churn and burn consultancy, but it was a job and gave me a chance to make connections, learn Perl, and get a better job that I liked much more.If you don't have any experience you should accept that your first job is going to suck in some ways. I would suggest not worrying about the quality of the company or environment so much as the presence of opportunities to do different things, grow, and move on. Which you will do at some point.And in this market, being picky is particularly unadviseable. :-( |
Rate my startup - Backpedalify | bretpiatt: It is an April Fools joke site linking to their Backupify service, cute... |
How many have learned a language they hated just to get a job? | noodle: my advice would be to simply apply to any job that you think you might be interested in, regardless of the language. most entry level positions have an expectation of a learning curve.submit a cover letter that states how quick you are at learning new things and how you're willing to put time into learning their chosen language before you arrive.for most companies, entry level hires are about picking up the talent, not the experience. demonstrate your talent and drive and you'll have a decent chance.thats how i got my job, at least. |
How many have learned a language they hated just to get a job? | jey: Get a job somewhere with cooler jobs? Like the SF Bay? Seems like the obvious fix. |
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