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mikehoward's comments

mikehoward | 13 years ago | on: Patent #7028023: Linked List

I believe that doublely linked lists are described by Knuth in the Art of Computer Programming volume (something). My recollection is that it may have been in a problem or note. They are definitely used in UNIX for the run queue where rapid traversal was necessary. I recall them from an internals course I took at UNIX expo back in the mid '80's.

Additional pointers are trivially implied so I don't think that this patent should not stand.

What a mess!

mikehoward | 13 years ago | on: So you want to learn to code

You guys seem to be missing the real point I was trying to make here.

We are in a Not Enough Programmers Boom and it will be followed by a deflations in about 4 or 5 years. I taught CS during the mid 1980's during one of these.

Most of the people who are going to 'learn to code' don't really want to be programmers - they want a job. They aren't going to be competitive when the Bust happens, so they would be better off planning their careers for when that happens than living under the illusion that they are going to be Programmers.

I didn't write this 'poor article' for you guys. I wrote it for the rest of the poor slumps who are being conned by the 'Learn to Code!!!!' hype.

Lighten up.

mikehoward | 13 years ago | on: So you want to learn to code

Every field has stars and 'everybody else'. Physicians know who to send send their family members to. Quality chef's command more respect and make higher quality food. etc. I speak from experience.

The same is true in programming.

mikehoward | 14 years ago | on: Buying Adobe Photoshop CS6

Try to find out what the licensing is for Creative Cloud.

I spent a couple of hours on their help forum - which is manned (and womanned) by frustrated users and some adobe employees (probably contractors) who don't seem to understand the questions.

I finally succeeded in finding a pdf document containing all the terms and conditions in N (where N is large) languages. No index, toc, or hyperlinks. English language (actually attorney-eeze) was way down in the doc.

Ordering isn't the only thing Adobe has screwed up. Their CS6 documentation has no index nor table of contents. I've wasted hours simply trying to find answers to simple 'how do I . . .' questions.

This is a real startup opportunity - if you can negotiate the IP nightmare.

mikehoward | 14 years ago

just the 'obvious' - look into stripe.com & moneybookers. Don't really know if either will help but stripe is aimed at developers & moneybookers is in Europe, so they probably actually know how to manage exchange rates etc

mikehoward | 14 years ago | on: Apple Says there are Only Two OS's - OS X and Windows 7

These are strange ideas.

Apple was a computer company until they brought out the iPod. I believe that about 80% of their income now comes from non-computer products - with an emphasis on entertainment.

Running windows was critical to Apple's acceptance at the time they switch from power pc to intel processors because of Microsoft's dominance of the computer market. Bootcamp allowed Apple to sell into the PC space - without which they would not have been able to overshadow Microsoft.

Just think back about 5 years.

And why should they bother supporting Linux? Read Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham

mikehoward | 14 years ago | on: Apple Says there are Only Two OS's - OS X and Windows 7

my main machine is an mbp - which is maxed at 8 Gig. Every day it starts paging under at most a modest load. This is an artifact of the operating system and Safari (which leaks memory)

I had the same issues with uSoft windows which led me to switching to Mac's. Early macbooks and mbp's did not do this, but have been getting progressively worse since Snow Leopard. Lion has a very nice interface and a lot of convenience, but, for me, it's getting intolerable.

I'm reverting to Linux for development work. I'll probably keep the mac for graphics

mikehoward | 14 years ago | on: Interview Programming Problems Done Right

look up doc - edit - compile - test - repeat is pretty close to interpreted language repl cycles. But then I started on punch cards, so maybe my perspective is different. [one to three compile & test cycles/day makes anything interactive look good]

Appreciate the comment though. Gives me food for thought.

mikehoward | 14 years ago | on: Interview Programming Problems Done Right

Problems on a whiteboard don't test programming skills simply because the whiteboard isn't executable. You don't get the feedback that REPL gives you, so you can't build up your solution - and understanding of the problem - iteratively.

Seems to me that holding a code retreat and pairing with interviewee's would be more realistic. It would eliminate at least some of the pointless stress of interviewing and would get closer to a real programming environment.

It's not like nobody has enough computers so you have to use whiteboards.

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