This (and other reasons) is why I believe public school textbooks should be free/open source (as in speech, as well as as in beer, aside from a nominal small printing/distribution charge - which will not be needed once all schoolchildren own iPads or other e-readers) and wiki-editable with review before publishing. Get the textbook companies out of the business of making massive profits off the backs of our school system, and involve the public in the education process. Find a way to review that will weaken agenda-driven edits.
"PC LOAD LETTER"??? What the f does that mean??
Oh, there it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_LOAD_LETTER
Not to mention the fact all these protections makes it more difficult for legitimately licensed users, to use the products. With Dell machines we used to use, it was a lot easier to install pirated copies of Windows than the legit copies (that were in any case crammed with unwanted bloatware).
One of the reasons I like OSX - no product key complications, and the "family edition" or corporate licenses aren't outrageously expensive.
Cookies are often used to store user variables when they go from one page to another - patching holes the stateless web protocol forces on the user experience. Session or server-side variables may also be used for this, but that's more work for the web designer, who usually is up to his neck trying to support different versions of IE misbehavior.
Sites I've worked on have never used cookies to send back personal information, but they have used them to improve the user experience.
It should be obvious from the walk-around/interview if and how the company is using Lean or Agile or similar team-based short-term development cycles. Drill down.
"How is it working out for you?" Seems like most Agile implementations have problems, more so as they're getting started and learning the system.
If they aren't, "Have you considered/are you planning to try Agile". There's a lot of pain that goes along with that transition.
Compare their answers to how you personally feel about these methods.
If so, which ones do we get to try? Because there are some new ones out there that I've heard are awesome.
Agreed, that's the only sensible choice. If it's permanent, then those plastic splice connectors work fine.
But what about when the "bosses" require a certain kind of documentation (ISO 9000?) that fits some ugly formatting standard, does not help you understand the code or the process, and no one ever reads?
You're right, but the thing is, you can see the value most developers put in comments, in the quality and emphasis that programming languages put on comments. At best they're an afterthought, implementing what other languages have done before. I've never seen comments done "right" so I end up doing it myself.
I currently write in html, php, javascript, css, perl, sql, and command line script. Comments are supported differently in each. CSS is particularly awful, only supporting
(mini-rant)
There are many types of comments.
To begin with, there's code-header comments - program name, change date, inputs and outputs, platform, etc. I used to program in COBOL and these were mandatory. In some languages this can be used to autodocument.
There are declarative comments - the kind you usually expect. They tell what a function or program section should do.
There are temporary notes and to do comments - "remember to change this so that it won't fail if we get a negative", etc. I use #! and #? for these (or
Then there's comment-out: places where I leave the previous code in for a while so I can see what I changed. If I can I put the # in the left column for these; wish there was a whole different symbol for it.
Finally, there's well-formed/best practices code as its own "self-documenting" - but that does not substitute for good comments.
(here's my blog rant)
http://www.obtainium.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=234:250&catid=7:programming&Itemid=2
Yep, when children show above-average understanding of math, it's hard to choose between whacking them with a ruler and burning their hands on the stove.
...because you can count to 1000 (1023) on two hands, or 31 on each hand; from there you can do fun addition/subtraction/multiplication/division. Seems like kids around 8-10 years old should be able to "get" this.
Agreed - seeoms a lot of time ends up trickling away to useless meetings, chatting with colleagues, web surfing, reordering MP3s, smoke breaks, etc..
For me it varies between 2 and maybe 6 hours. Strangely, the more actual work I get done, the better I feel about my job.
Sometimes if I'm extremely creative, I can work 10 or 12 hours in an 8-hour day, by over-multitasking.
Wishing without work is like fishing without bait. -- Frank Tyger