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philcrissman | 5 years ago | on: Euler's Fizzbuzz (2020)

Thanks!

Re the margin notes, the footnote numbers are clickable to toggle them inline when the width is too small... I should add a bit of color or underline to them in the css so that this is easier to intuit. :/

philcrissman | 5 years ago | on: Euler's Fizzbuzz (2020)

I was actually asked Fizz Buzz in an interview once, but I did not have this solution at the time.

My favorite FizzBuzz solution is actually:

``` ->(n){[[["Fizz"][n%3],["Buzz"][n%5]].join].find(->{n}){|w| w if !w.empty?}} ```

This is Ruby, of course, probably something very similar can be done in several other languages.

philcrissman | 5 years ago | on: Euler's Fizzbuzz (2020)

Not sure how this came back around into the zeitgeist today, but this is my post from awhile back. Thanks to all who had nice things to say about it.

I'm definitely an amateur mathematician, though I tried my best to write the post like I think I'd try to write a proof. It came about because I stumbled across the equation, but I did not know _why_ it worked, so I was semi-obsessed with figuring out the _why_ for a long time.

I have nothing else to promote, haven't even put anything on the site since this one and only post... Anyways, thanks, news-YC.

philcrissman | 14 years ago | on: Why To Write Tests For Your Code

I don't even ask anymore. If I'm writing an app for you, I'm starting with tests, before I even write a line of executable code. If you don't want tests for your app, you'll need to find a different developer. It's not an optional part of the process, it's how the app is developed.

philcrissman | 14 years ago | on: Most people have no idea what the word hacker means

Maybe this is nitpicking, but did the author this article do zero fact-checking?

>Mr. Mitnick, who ... is publishing his first book in August...

Er... Following the link to his "first book" leads to Mr. Mitnick's website, whose products page lists his... other books...

Not to mention the well-known tech writer Stevy Levy. :-)

philcrissman | 15 years ago | on: Rails 3.1 has jQuery by default

Rspec doesn't really need to be in the default stack; switching to it takes what; a minute? That's not a benchmarked timestamp, but I'm just saying... :-)

philcrissman | 15 years ago | on: How to construct a web developer in twelve months

Totally agree. Reading HN, blogs/etc is fine, but the net result is: more time reading == less time doing [whatever].

Play + Build should absolutely be 90% of the activity of a would-be developer. Most of the rest of the list could go away. Research is fine, but really only if you're going to _use_ it.

I do find local meetups beneficial, _particularly_ if you can work yourself up to do a presentation on something. Presenting on a topic is a great way to make yourself learn it better.

++FIND A CUSTOMER: Maybe the best advice ever. Has the additional benefit that unless you completely mess up, you get paid. And if you do mess up so badly that you don't get paid, hopefully you learn something about how not to repeat that.

I have to add (since this is a list for people learning): learn git or mercurial. If you know one, you can pick up the other. I don't really think this is optional.

philcrissman | 15 years ago | on: Like.fm (YC W11) Is A Social Network For Tracking Songs

Mini-ask HN: Why link to a techcruch article when you could just link to the startup's website? I'm not trying to be ornery, sincerely asking.

I'm not interested in reading a techcrunch article about a new startup. I'd rather go straight to the startup and look at it.

philcrissman | 15 years ago | on: 99 Out Of 100 Programmers Can’t Program – I Call BS

But "Really?" is actually a very good question; it's an appeal to common sense. Do we all work at places where only 1% of the programmers can actually program? I know I haven't... even when I just started and was clearly the least experienced person on the team, I could still get things done...

philcrissman | 15 years ago | on: 99 Out Of 100 Programmers Can’t Program – I Call BS

That might get into a distinction between programming (let's make the computer do what we tell it) and developing (let's follow these processes while we program).

But it's a good point. That said, if I were interviewing someone who was clearly a good coder but who said they didn't test their code, I would still hire them as long as they would be willing to start writing some tests.

philcrissman | 15 years ago | on: Show HN: too long; didn't read, the website.

Yes, it's true, there's not a whole lot to it. It seemed like a good idea at the time, so I made it. I'm honestly not sure if enough people will find it useful for it to gain a community.

Feedback, criticism, questions, are welcome.

philcrissman | 15 years ago | on: Ask HN: Linux from Scratch.. Should I try it?

I never actually did the LFS process, but I used various linuxes as a main desktop for about 4 years.

It depends what your goal is. Linux from scratch will mainly teach you (wait for it) how to build linux from scratch. Systems that are not quite "from scratch" but are lower level than Ubuntu (eg, Gentoo, Arch (others?)) will also teach you some of this. I used Gentoo for years, and after compiling about a dozen kernels in a row to get things to work how I wanted, I guess you could say I'd learned something, if only 'what kernel options I want to enable on this hardware'. :)

But building Linux won't really teach you to _use_ it. If you want to be a power user in the long run, your time (and LFS will take a _lot_ of time!) might be better spent learning your shell/package manager/scripting language of choice in greater depth, compiling your own kernels and adding them as options in grub/lifo, that sort of thing.

All that said, if the LFS process sounds really appealing to you, go for it. You'll definitely learn _something_, but just maybe not as much as you're hoping.

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