Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: How to Avoid Working With Awful Legacy Code

Submitted by kramer2718
kramer2718 writes: I have worked for about a decade as a software engineer. I am almost never hired to build new software from scratch, so my work satisfaction tends to be proportionate to quality of the legacy code I have to work with. Some legacy code has been good. Most of it is bad. I know a few questions to ask during an interview to determine the code quality: Are recent technologies used? Are there code review processes? Is TDD practiced? Even so, I still encounter terrible quality code. Does Slashdot have any advice for other questions to ask? Any other ways to find out code quality beforehand?

Comment Dev Certs are Not Worthwhile (Score 4, Insightful) 267

by kramer2718 (#38911425) Attached to: The IT Certs That No Longer Pay Extra

I can't speak to networking/DBA certs, but I will say that in my experience hiring developers, programming certificates are relatively useless.

In fact, when I read a resume, I am happy to see no certificates. The developers who highlight certificates on their resumes seem to be able to parrot back technical specs, but not to think dynamically about programming problems and that is what I am more interested in.

No certificate will replace writing code on a whiteboard.

Comment Re:Old news? (Score 1) 107

by kramer2718 (#37926172) Attached to: Intelligent Absorbent Removes Radioactive Material

Researchers at Australia's Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have now developed what they say is a world-first intelligent absorbent that is capable of removing radioactive material from large amounts of contaminated water

So, they've reinvented zeolite filters which have been used since the 40s to do the exact same task exactly the same way?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeolite#Nuclear_industry

"One gram of the nanofibres can effectively purify at least one tonne of polluted water," Professor Zhu said.

That's extremely efficient.

Submission + - Slashdot Poll 6

Submitted by kramer2718
kramer2718 writes: The Most Evil Technology Company
* Microsoft
* Apple
* Google
* Oracle
* Adobe
* Intel
* I, for one, welcome our new corporate overlords
Medicine

Cutting Umbilical Cord Early Eliminates Stem Cells 139

Posted by timothy from the just-leave-it-on-a-few-years dept.
GeneralSoh writes "Delaying clamping the umbilical cord at birth may have far-reaching benefits for your baby, according to researchers at the University of South Florida's Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair — and should be delayed for at least a few minutes longer after birth. This new recommendation published in the most recent Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine (14:3) notes that delaying clamping the umbilical cord allows more umbilical cord blood and crucial stem cells to transfer from mama to baby."
Image

Jetman Attempts Intercontinental Flight Screenshot-sm 140

Posted by samzenpus from the a-jetwing-and-a-prayer dept.
Last year we ran the story of Yves Rossy and his DIY jetwings. Yves spent $190,000 and countless hours building a set of jet-powered wings which he used to cross the English Channel. Rossy's next goal is to cross the Strait of Gibraltar, from Tangier in Morocco and Tarifa on the southwestern tip of Spain. From the article: "Using a four-cylinder jet pack and carbon fibre wings spanning over 8ft, he will jump out of a plane at 6,500 ft and cruise at 130 mph until he reaches the Spanish coast, when he will parachute to earth." Update 18:57 GMT: mytrip writes: "Yves Rossy took off from Tangiers but five minutes into an expected 15-minute flight he was obliged to ditch into the wind-swept waters."

Comment Article misrepresents complexity theory (Score 2) 421

by kramer2718 (#30039458) Attached to: What Computer Science Can Teach Economics
From the article: "By showing that some common game-theoretical problems are so hard that they’d take the lifetime of the universe to solve, Daskalakis is suggesting that they can’t accurately represent what happens in the real world." But he didn't actually show this. He showed (again from TFA): "Daskalakis proved that the Nash equilibrium belongs to a subset of NP consisting of hard problems with the property that a solution to one can be adapted to solve all the others." I.e. computing the Nash equilibrium is NP-complete. These problems have no efficient solution if (and only if) P != NP. That is if there is a polynomial (efficient) solution for any of these, then there is a polynomial time solution for all. We don't know WHETHER THAT'S TRUE. Computer scientists suspect very strongly that there is no polynomial time solution for these problems, but it isn't known for sure.
Image

Rotten Office Fridge Cleanup Sends 7 To Hospital Screenshot-sm 410

Posted by samzenpus from the step-away-from-the-handle dept.
bokske writes "An office worker cleaning a fridge full of rotten food created a smell so noxious that it sent seven co-workers to the hospital and made many others ill. Firefighters had to evacuate the AT&T building in downtown San Jose on Tuesday, after the flagrant fumes prompted someone to call 911. A hazmat team was called in. Just another day at the office."

Comment CO2 is Balanced (Score 2, Informative) 468

by kramer2718 (#27424705) Attached to: Is Alcohol Killing Our Planet?

Actually shouldn't have TOO much effect. I can't comment on the cylinders of CO2 used in pumping or carbonation, but the CO2 that the yeast releases is balanced by the CO2 which the plant absorb in order to produce the sugar that is fermented.

As to how many petrochemicals/fossil fuels are used in the production/creation of those plants and that sugar, that's a different story, but that is less related to alcohol specifically and more to how our agricultural/transportation system function generally.

Slashdot Top Deals

The Tao is like a glob pattern: used but never used up. It is like the extern void: filled with infinite possibilities.

Close