Simple switch based command line menu. If the user hits 'q', then System.Environment.Exit(0) is called.

Now obviously I do not need to bother worrying about any variable assignments here. Unused variables? Hah! The program has terminated.

But C# will not let me compile without assigning SOMETHING to those darned variables that have something assigned to them in every other case statement.

I am programming and I want something at about 160BPM or higher. Last night it was doing GREAT, but this afternoon it started out OK, but has gone down hill. I added some good bands in (Gorillaz, Daft Punk), but Pandora is insisting on playing this low BPM stuff that doesn't even have the rock punch that Gorillaz or Daft Punk have.

Meh. It'll get fixed with time. :-D The joy of statistics!

Ok technically for the sake of type safety they are delegates, but the COOL part is that this:

z1 = z0 - ( f(z0) / f'(z0) )

math formula ends up looking like this:

newResult = previousResult - ( f(previousResult) / fprime(previousResult) );

code.

That is awesome in terms of sheer readability, compared to the insane amount of crud I'd have to go through to write that in Java.

Talking to the recruiting manager on the phone, I basically did not extrude an aura of confidence and independence.

I second guessed myself too much.

The ironic part about this is that *normally* I do not do this. On a normal basis, I am an independent thinker who backs up his assertions.

But during the interviews, for some stupid reason, I keep second guessing myself.

Examples:

When asked to design the relationships between tables (one to one, many to one, etc), I was shown a syntax that I was not familiar with. Rather than spending the 30 minutes muddling through the explanation constantly checking if I had the syntax correctly, I should have just shoved my solution onto the board right away, shown that I knew how to do the problem, and then translated it over to the syntax afterwards if requested.

When coding on the board, instead of asking "can I use this data structure?" I should say "I am assuming this data structure".

Edit: Everything below is wrong, so, umm, ignore it. For the most part.

I just got word that I did not get the job at Redfin. Redfin is providing feedback as to my performance during the interview, something which is much appreciated, and an action that leaves a good impression on me. (I'll still likely be buying a house through them in a few years! :) )

The feedback still has not arrived in my inbox, but here are some guesses as to my problems:

1. Technical Performance: I was worried about the interview the night before, and was not able to sleep that well. The end result of this was that my first interview (and part of my second one) where not up to par. Indeed, I would say that even the remainder of my interview was at 80% or so efficiency. I was able to answer the questions, but not at the lightening quick rate that people who know me are used to.
   -
2. Behavior: While my social nicities have improved to a great extent, I still am a bit rough around the edges. I am afraid that to gain my technical skills, I sacrificed a great deal of human interaction, and as such do not pick up on non-verbal clues as well, nor do I always understand social norms.

   One example that Rosia was yelling at me this morning for was a situation involving writing thank you letters. I had gathered some of the interviewer's email addresses, but was so focused on the interview process, that I did not gather them all. I wrote an email to the Office Manager requesting the email contact information of my interviewers. When Rosia saw that I sent this email, she yelled at me, saying it was a stupid request that no one should follow, and that I should send my thank you letter to the recruiting manager whom I was in contact with, and that she would forward my thanks on to the team.

   I am confused here, since advice in books and online says that when interviewed by multiple people, write each one an individual thank you letter. Very confusing. *sigh* In retrospect, I should have written thank you letters to the people for whom I did have contact information and who had interviewed me, the CEO, the CTO, and a thank you letter to the hiring manager as well. Of course it only took me 5 days and a half hour long argument to figure out...

   Rosia says that I came off as desparate for the job, saying that she knows me and knows I am not desparate, but that the attitude I conveyed was that way.

   The first mistake was arriving too early. There was ice on the roads, so I left to the interview early expecting the typical Seattle traffic problems. I did not encounter any, much to my surprise, and ended up arriving at 8:00 for an 8:30 interview. :( Of course being super focused on the interview, I went in to wait, rather than walking around the area for 15 minutes first, and then going in. Indeed I received immediate negative feedback from my recruitment manager when she saw that I had arrived so early. :(

   This particular aspect of American business culture strikes me as strange. In my logical/mathematical mind, a person who is able to show up early for a meeting is a person who is able to properly run and order their life in such a way as to be able to complete their daily goals and activities in a flexible and efficient enough manner to accomplish an early arrival.
   -

3. Worrying: This is the strangest part. People who know me know that in general I am extremely cool under pressure. When my mother attempted to commit suicide, the first thing I did (after calling 911) was to pull up online medical references and find out the effects of taking X amount of Y medicine. My entire manner was calm, cool, and collected. Was I worried? Yes of course, but my mind takes control of my emotions, and gets things done.

   I am the person who always goes to sleep at 10:00pm the night before a test. I argue that a good nights sleep is more important than a few extra hours of studying.

   I should have taken my own advice.

The thing is, this is actually a job that I *cared* about. I think that is what made the difference. I really love the work that Redfin is doing, and I strongly believe that it is going to have a huge impact on how American's buy and sell houses.

During typical job applications (especially at big companies), I have no clue what sort of a position I am applying to. Indeed, typically until at least the first two rounds of phone screens are over, there is not really an actual "position" being applied to. It is hard to get excited about a job that I know no details about. Tell me I am applying to a job at Microsoft to work on Tablet PC development, hey, awesomeness! Tell me I am applying to a job to develop software for possibly any of the projects at Microsoft, and sure, I am hyped about the Microsoft opportunity, but, I cannot really get into a feel for the job.

(Of course Microsoft's methodology is to take candidates onto their campus and see what group's work excites the candidate, which has its benefits as well!)

The kicker is, I am a smart. Any company that hires me is going to see some damn good work turned out at an impressive pace. I work well with groups, and I do a great job representing my team's interests in meetings, while at the same time understanding and acknowledging the compromises and agreements that need to be made between groups in order to get work done.

I just can't get past in person interviews. :`(

Note to any future potential employeer reading this: Take it as an example of my ability to do project postmortems. :)

Linux is funny. Configured properly, it is one of the sexiest/cutest/machoist/whateveryouwant-ist OSes out there.

Every time I install a new Linux distro, I think to myself "hey, maybe they have solved all the problems with it this time!" and for the first few hours, all is good. Then I need to install a new printer driver, or upgrade my video card drivers, or change screen resolutions, and invariably I have to drop down to the command line to accomplish some task that is a single button click in Windows.

openSUSE 10.2 is the culprit this time. I have done the "we removed MP3 playback support" dance enough times, so I was easily able to restore that by looking up non-oss repositories to add in[1]. Ok so that just took a second, quick enough.

Video card drivers. I follow the instructions given exactly, so of course I get a complaint about my kernel version. Bah, forget it, I have been this route before, I just won't have 3D acceleration. Ridicules, I had working 3D drivers on Windows back in, hmm, lets see, 1996.

Do not even get me started on the Epson inkjet drivers. The ddiwrapper configuration files that came with the openSUSE package are actually wrong for the default SUSE/openSUSE configuration! Oh well, it is .2 alpha software, and hey, SUSE is sponsoring it, so best of luck to them. Though of course I do believe that fostering native Linux driver development is better... The funny part is that Epson refuses to release information on their el-cheap disposable printers that have nothing in the way of trade secrets at all! Well unless their ink cartridges are still doing semi-legal monitoring of the remaining ink levels...

[1] Funny: openSUSE has the repositories on all their mirrors, but they are not enabled by default! Way to hamper usability. People who believe in OSS know enough to remove non-OSS repositories, or just not install non-OSS software, but people who don't know about the entire OSS movement are also likely to be the ones who know least about repositories, and just want their MP3s to play back!

A week ago, apparently (this is what the ISP says) someone started maxing out my apartment's 6mb/s fiber connection.

Ping times ranging from 200 milliseconds to 2 seconds, or even complete time outs, became the norm.

My guess is that someone found a way around the ISPs p2p filtering. Not that this is very hard, I know how to do it, but I also realize that the network is a shared resource and I do not want to ruin the network for everyone else.

Well this person apparently has no such compunctions.

On Friday, the ISP said that they would do something about it. They said that they found the person (whom they said was not even on our network and was in another apartment owned by the same property company), and put a stop to it.

Hmm. That does not explain my 30KB/s download rate right now.

I am tempted to find out where the router/switch room is, and see what unit's light is blinking madly.

*Yank*

Problem solved.

Fortunately for the ne'er do well, the network is switched. (Well thankful for us all really, or performance would be horrible all the time!)

HUGE thing, big red lever connected to a circuit breaker, right outside the laundry room of the apartment building I am living in right now. /Someone/ has to try and guess what it does. Now I admit, whenever I walk past it I always have an urge to push it down to off, but I know what it does, I just want to confirm it. I never actually push it down though!

Obviously someone walked by the room who has a bit less self control than I do...

Cuz... you know.

He was a cool guy. A bit of an ass, but intelligent.

What the....

Wikipedia deleted the entry on him. I hate the removal of information. I understand the policy. From a historical perspective, who cares right? But someone should care.

Of course Encyclopedia Dramatica still has an article on them. Oddly enough, ED is actually useful from time to time as a repository of information. Stuff that no one else talks about, they have info on. Sarcastic, cruel, information, true enough, but still, information.

Edit: The reason for this post: Where is everybody else? Fort Knox is not on, and I wanted to talk to RWS, but he isn't on either, most of you aren't on. Either update your AIM contact in your profiles, or start up a new "my AIM name is:..." journal entry!

Edit: Spelling names properly helps.

Now pay attention, this is called Newton's method, it is very important, we will be using it throughout the rest of the quarter.

m = f`(x_i)

See how that efficiently solves the problem?

No, I do NOT. You just wrote the definition of a derivative on the board and added a subscript i to the x.

Alright, so the interview went... well I was not at the top of my game. Who ever is during an interview though? Stress makes thinking go slower....

I also am a bit slow on the white board. I can explain things quickly, but actually writing them down while explaining them is more than half as slow.

I am tired now, all in all a very busy day.

Everybody I met was really nice of course. Some cool questions, and some questions that I already knew the answers too! Studying does pay off. :) I was asked the Monty Hall problem, and to my immense embarrassment, could not argue both sides of it. :`( I guess it has been too many months since I last went over it.

When I am more awake, I will do a full write up.

How does the following sound for an interview loop that includes the lead SDET, 2 developers, the CTO, and the CEO?

• Black slacks
• Blue dress shirt
• Star Wars episode 1 tie

I am trying to avoid being too overly formal, thus the tie. Does it work, or will it just come off wrong?

(More importantly, are the CTO/CEO big Trek fans instead? :-D )

Passed the phone interview! Yah! Now for the onsite interview!

Oh and Ars Technica rocks! I wouldn't have done it without the hardware level knowledge I learned from that site.

Thanks to everyone who has helped me up to this point! Now to work my way through Programming Interviews Exposed.

Does anyone have advice on what sort of questions I can expect? Does Redfin like asking puzzlers, or more hands on types of questions?

A head hunter calls me. Caller ID just shows # of course. Talk about a way to put me further on edge!

Is there some sort of Bingo game I can play with IT head hunters?

"I got Volt, Spherion, and Kelly Services, BINGO!"

Found this on someone's blog, thought it was awesomely insane and random.

In the year 2007 I resolve to:
Make my own porn video

Get your resolution here.

Kudos to you. The entry got forwarded along to the lady with whom I am in contact with at Redfin!

She said that I will hear back from Redfin's CTO this Thursday.

Thanks again!