Hm. But can it launch timbits? Now that would be "friendly fire."

Don't take this the wrong way: what's the difference? A sincere question, not a snark.

I do understand that each of the branches of the US military has its own sense of pride in its mission and mandate, and wants to distinguish itself from others. How do Marines distinguish themselves from other military roles, particularly soldiers?

Please understand, I'm not trying to start a flame war here. I'm genuinely curious to hear about how Marines and soldiers see each other.

That certainly was a fun experience. I use the term "fun" loosely.

One of the trees in the front yard exploded. The trunk just... blew. Wood shards everywhere. Not to mention all the transformer lightshows to rival a 4th of July celebration!

You admit you are not a physicist. That means you admit you do not know what your are talking about.

Not just CERN "geeks" but scientists from all over the world, looking for patterns in the way the universe is constructed. Patterns are useful, because they allow us to distill vast amounts of knowledge into a much smaller number of concepts. It's no secret that scientists try to find patterns that fit observations, and then try to extend their applicability to other potential observations, with the goal of finding those patterns that do the best job of summarizing and conceptualizing our understanding of nature and our ability to predict its behavior.

As I said, you don't know what you are talking about. Astrophysicists don't "make up" hypotheses out of thin air -- they base them on observations of the universe. And they don't use "arcane" math with lots of dimensions just so they can create "weird" scenarios. Rather, they're trying to find patterns that fit observations, per above. The math is a tool that supports this endeavor.

That's putting it mildly.

A failed experiment can do more than advance knowledge. It can start a scientific revolution.

Consider what is arguably the most famous failed experiment in history: the Michelson-Morely experiment that failed to show the presence of an aether on which light was thought to travel. The consequences of this failed experiment included the development of Special Relativity.

Yes, I'm sure Red Hat will be kicked out...

That takes energy. Lots of it. Desalination is not a panacea for drought-relief. Just ask California.

This. Science is a process of progressive refinement, with occasional revolutionary paradigm-changes. Newer, broader understandings of nature almost invariably extend previous work, instead of replacing it.

A good example of the evolution of scientific thought can be found in this essay by Isaac Asimov. TL;DR:

- We used to think the earth was flat. We found out this was an accurate view for short distances, but failed for longer ones.
- Then we thought the earth was spherical. This also was an accurate view for many purposes, but more precise measurements revealed that the earth bulges at the equator due to its rotation.
- Then we thought the earth was an oblate spheroid. This view held until satellites revealed irregularities in the earth's gravitational field due to very slightly larger bulging in the southern hemisphere.

The point is that each successive refinement of our understanding of the earth's shape did not render previous concepts "completely wrong." Rather, it revealed limits on their applicability.

Ha, that's funny. I was disliked by the senior leadership at my last company because they felt that I didn't work my employees hard enough (expectation was a 42+ hour average work week, my team hovered just over 41)

If one person is really into technology, and they come into work with a bunch of coworkers that are completely disinterested in advancing their knowledge, they will either quickly burn out, or leave.

But if I get two people who are like minded, they come to work and bounce ideas off of each other.

I've found that getting 3 of these people together is where it really takes off. At 3 you have enough to make a majority rule, you have enough that even if someone is busy or uninterested for a bit, the cycle continues, you have enough that they start to carry some weight. It switches from 'those noisy kids and their new fangled technology' to 'the guys/gals that are setting the technical roadmap'.

I don't need everyone to be of that mindset, but I'd rather herd cats of a team of people pushing the envelope than have to walk around kicking complacent people in the seat of the pants.

-Rick

Interesting, I can understand that point of view to an extent.

For example, I'm just wrapping up a massive hiring spree for a very specific project. Almost 30 new contractors (Mainframe devs, Java devs, BAs, PMs, etc...) and yeah, we put out very specific technical questions. Because in this case I have very specific, highly focused, unit testable deliveries I need to hit. None of it is system re-engineering, it's all just flipping from one ERP to another and having to adjust workflows and integrations.

But I have another posting coming up where I need someone to work on a composite system that requires GIS, Java, and .Net expertise. Getting a trifecta like that on a resume is damn near impossible, and if someone were to have all three, they would be able to charge a mint for it. Instead, I'm going to be looking for someone with GIS/.Net experience (ESRi focuses primarily on .Net) with additional generalist skills and an aptitude for new technologies. Someone that can jump into the Java side of the house, and stand on their own two feet in short order.

Even my last hire I was looking for a Java dev, but I wanted someone with experience in CI, or at least familiar with the concepts. Sure, having Jenkins, Maven, and Sonar experience would be a bonus, but I'd take someone who understands and has played with GIT/AppVayor.

Toss in someone who shows interest/excitement in abstraction, automation, code organization, etc... and you've got a winner.

As long as they can answer the basics. I've had people claiming 8 years of experience in Java that can't tell me what the 4 member access modifiers are. I had one guy tell me that the 'M' in MVC was the database. I don't even bother with things like Stack vs Heap or thread safe vs synchronized until after they can give me a rough description of the difference between a JAR, WAR, and EAR. Sadly, some people don't get that far. And I would be much more lenient of college grads and people jumping into Java for the first time, but for folks claiming 8+ years of Java experience, these things should be long since encountered.

-Rick

The beauty of this post is that in 2 sentences you have just educated any readers lacking this knowledge to the point that the OP's interview question could be answered.

This is the danger of specific knowledge questions. Knowing the answer of the top of your head is largely immaterial. Google is just a finger stroke away. And thanks to JITC (Just in time Comprehension) specific knowledge is less critical than general knowledge and thought process.

I have a couple of things I like to look for in an interview. I like to know what a person is passionate about. A person who really enjoys coding, who works on open source projects on the side, does game mods, toys with the latest new technologies, etc... is likely someone who is always going to be pushing for a better solution.

I also have a white board exercise I like to do because it has an easy answer but can be thrown a curve ball based on inputs. Most folks miss the curve ball, so when we point it out, we can see how they debug code.

Those two general points helped to form one of the greatest development teams I've ever worked with. There were days where it took a lot of cat herding to keep some of them on task, but most of the time, you put a problem in front of them, and they will attack it with vigor and get you a solid product at the end of the day.

-Rick

Seems ok. Cheaper than gear that's rated worse. The 5 isn't rated as good, which is weird. There comes a point where you have to spend a lot more before you hear a real improvement.

Then check the box requesting your account to be deleted when you die.

Your data (supposedly) goes zap when facebook is notified you're a stiff.

Keep in mind, the rocket has a self-destruct feature. Going up or coming back down, one can destroy it if it threatens populated areas.

FTFY. He was pushed out an airlock.