The Whiteboard

or maybe we're looking at this wrong. All of these heat of fusions are at 1ATM. If they compressed something in there to try and gain more mass we could be dealing with something that would have a higher (I think) melting point

user55340

I really think we're dealing with a custom compound based on glycerine instead... but that's a guess.

Jimmy Hoffa

9:17 PM

@MichaelT Plausibly

Alternatively it could be...

Tert-Butylthiol

| Section2 = | Section3 = | Section7 = | Section8 = }} tert-Butylthiol, also known as 2-methylpropane-2-thiol, 2-methyl-2-propanethiol, tert-butyl mercaptan (TBM), and t-BuSH, is an organosulfur compound with the formula (CH3)3CSH. This thiol may have been used as a flavoring agent, as an odorant for natural gas (which is odorless), and also in a wide range of organic reactions. Preparation tert-Butylthiol likely does not occur naturally, but at least one publication has listed it as a very minor component of cooked potatoes. The compound was first prepared in 1890 by Leonard Dobb...

Ampt

@MichaelT Doesn't the FDA have to approve all foodstuffs labeled "safe" ?

Jimmy Hoffa

If you disregard this part

> The PEL for thiols of most types is 500 ppb, primarily due to reaction of nausea at levels of 2–3 ppm. The LC50 of tert-butylthiol is much, much higher.

user55340

@Ampt They likely do.

psr

@Ampt Unless they are designed by a team of frantically web-searching programmers in a programming chat room, in which case anything goes.

Jimmy Hoffa

books.google.com/…

Ampt

9:23 PM

@psr but we must know the answer!!!!!!!!11!111

user55340

I am amused that people are concerned that the government is interested in our code.

user55340

18

Q: Zero-knowledge code hosting?

In light of recent revelations about widespread government monitoring of data stored by online service providers, zero-knowledge services are all the rage now. A zero-knowledge service is one where all data is stored encrypted with a key that is not stored on the server. Encryption and decryptio...

user55340

Especially the open source people... it confuses me.

psr

@MichaelT I can see the appeal for Zero-knowledge software development though.

user55340

@psr Please don't make fun of my previous employer's management. That privilege is the exclusive right of those who have ~~suffered~~ worked for them.

psr

9:34 PM

@MichaelT I'm not. I'm pointing out advantages. For example, if the NSA spied on their meetings it would learn no useful information.

user55340

@psr Unfortunately, that is true of the participants of the meeting too.

Ampt

@MichaelT It's not that I think they are particularly interested in what I have to say, It's the fact that it is all recorded for future use at any point, by anyone who controls it

psr

@MichaelT We all have to do our part for democracy.

Jimmy Hoffa

@psr that's not appeal you're seeing, that's presence, totally different things.

user55340

Too bad programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/200896/… is deleted, otherwise I'd have a dup target.

Jimmy Hoffa

9:37 PM

@Ampt If you didn't already presume this was happening, you've been sleeping for 2 decades. Let me welcome you to the information age, and by information I mean everyone's.

Ampt

It's the fact that it is now confirmed, no questions asked, and no one bats an eye.

if this is what they tell us is happening, what the hell are they doing that they aren't telling us

user55340

@Ampt From my take, it was an issue about a decade ago and I thought about it and said "ok".

user55340

wired.com/politics/law/news/1999/01/17538

user55340

I'm more worried about what google knows about me than the NSA.

psr

:10877265Are you referring to some kind of Dredmore expansion pack with new attributes? Have you started making comments that require reading The Futelisk to understand them? Grizzled Coder : +2 presence, -3 appeal, +2 find Lutefisk

user55340

9:40 PM

Private companies have huge data stores of information about people that dwarf government's information. And there's even less regulation about it.

Jimmy Hoffa

I'm not even worried about any of that, I've seen enough software evils committed, honestly the only scary systems to me are the ones that know anything about my credit cards, those are the real threats because I know crappy programmers go around writing systems that e-mail credit cards in plain text all the time.

Ampt

how about banking companies that store passwords in plaintext?

Jimmy Hoffa

@Ampt that is the real problem to worry about. all of this privacy nonsense is whatever, so google knows you're a big fan of midget clowns @Ampt, big deal

user55340

@Ampt The register software I worked on... the security that we fixed in it... it was sending plain text credit card data to the logger on a remote system. Any register running over wifi scares me... anywhere.

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT those IPad registers scare the crap out of me

user55340

9:43 PM

And this was big name register software... you go to the mom and pop shop that had some 15 year old coder write their e commerce from a bunch of code they found on SO? shiver

user55340

@JimmyHoffa IPad registers don't scare me as much because the app to authorization connection is encrypted.

user55340

But people who have registers running on a wifi network? The reigster RPC calls to the server or database are rarely encrypted. Break wifi on there, and snoop all the traffic you want.

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT They scare me because breaking into IPads is already a sport among so many, and I don't trust for a second the stores and restaurants that use them to secure their wifi

user55340

The thing is, the ipad isn't doing app -> local server -> authorization, its doing app -> authorization. And that is going over the network so I would hope that they do an encryption of that payload.

user55340

Its the software -> local server that is the real big security holes.

Jimmy Hoffa

9:46 PM

@MichaelT What do you think, people plug the IPad registers into a cat5? newsflash, every IPad register is on a wifi network, and MITM SSL cracks have been done

user55340

Because they're just tossing it onto an MQ server somewhere, or doing EJB calls, or connecting to a database...

Jimmy Hoffa

True. Either way, all of that stuff is the real boogeyman, meanwhile so many people are running around "Google knows where I live, oh the humanity!"

user55340

@JimmyHoffa But the iPad register (square for example) is doing app to authorization. It is assumed that its going over an insecure network. Cracking the local network won't give you anything that watching the public network won't.

user55340

And so... I'm really not concerned about the NSA. They know who I work with and who my family is and who I ~~sext~~ send messages to... but its google that is the one sticking advertisements for ~~various creams~~ beard trimming devices in my cloud email client.

Ampt

They also keep records of what you sent

I guess the difference for me is that google doesn't fund a multi-trillion dollar military force

user55340

9:51 PM

(btw, I was joking about those things... but seriously - wondermark.com/check-out-poets-ranked-by-beard-weight -- look at the BONUS LINK part)

Jimmy Hoffa

10:05 PM

@MichaelT Heresy, they don't have william blake.

(granted he didn't have a beard, but still better than the rest of those schmucks, crazier at least)

Huh, Locke didn't have a beard after all. From this I can only surmise that the lesser the beard the better the poet.

user20683

@JimmyHoffa Think I'd be qualified for this?

user20683

amazon.com/gp/jobs/201063/ref=j_sr_12_t?ie=UTF8&category=

user55340

@JimmyHoffa Tshirts - hirsutehistory.com

Jimmy Hoffa

need to use [ ] ( ) syntax

user20683

aside from the not currently having canadian work permit thing

user55340

10:09 PM

@Weston.h There are similar Amazon jobs in other locales... and yes. Basic entry level job.

user20683

@MichaelT interested in Canada but yeah, other options are options

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT hirsutehistory.com/design/edgar_allan_poe only one worth wearing

user55340

@JimmyHoffa He turned 61 the other day - hirsutehistory.com/design/william_t_riker

user20683

He's also recently lost weight

Jimmy Hoffa

@Weston.h Sure, suit up, sign up, kick ass.

user55340

10:12 PM

sircritter.com/design/sirhammerhead

Jimmy Hoffa

10:30 PM

shirt.woot.com supplies me with enough silly t-shirts

Got my wife this last xmas shirt.woot.com/offers/celebrate-celebrate

Jimmy Hoffa

10:44 PM

@Weston.h Really though, this does look like a proper fit and would be a great opportunity for a variety of reasons. Go for it.

user20683

@JimmyHoffa biggest challenge is the "get working ability in Canada" but I figure I can work that out as I go and I suspect they'd be able to expedite that with disturbing speed if need be.

Jimmy Hoffa

@Weston.h It's canada dude, I guarantee you it's extremely easy, especially when amazon get's involved, they import people from india plenty, I'm sure getting somebody there from the US is the least of their troubles. And surely they do it constantly for that matter.

user20683

yeah

Jimmy Hoffa

The only pains will be managing the tax situation and making sure you document all of that and process it all correctly if you do get the job, the getting rights is the easy part

user20683

aye

user20683

10:50 PM

given how little I make now and it just being W2 and some school stuff...

user20683

no investments

user20683

no owned real estate

user20683

no spouse

Jimmy Hoffa

11:01 PM

@psr hack any more Haskell out lately?

psr

@JimmyHoffa I really don't have time. It doesn't help that it's not a very good end of the day before I go to bed thing. I'm also considering if brushing up on C# and some MS stack (which I've done a lot of so it's not that hard - but therefore also not that important) should take priority when I do.

I've been reading this or that about Haskell on my phone when I'm waiting in a line or something (which would likely be pointless for C#. I suppose I could for F#).

Jimmy Hoffa

@psr Any time you spend on Haskell will make you perfectly functional in F#

F# is just haskell light

or C# extra?

Whatever the case, it's not a bad language it just doesn't have anything interesting to it at all and a few annoyances (it's own types though it relies on the .NET framework none of which takes an FSharp.Core.List so you have to convert things to .NET types etc)

user20683

@JimmyHoffa ML for Windows

Jimmy Hoffa

@Weston.h Something like that

psr

I've not yet encountered an employer that cares at all about F#, AFAIK.

Jimmy Hoffa

11:14 PM

@psr and if you don't feel real strong on C#, definitely probably better to brush up on that; Haskell won't get you an escape from MUMPS, but C# very well may

psr

@JimmyHoffa I actually feel fine on C#, just not prepared for trivia questions on an interview.

user20683

aye, same here, Java's decent and C# I can basically read as is

Jimmy Hoffa

@psr How many generations does a class with a finalizer live for? What do the using and lock statements desugar to? What's the difference between server mode and desktop mode GC? What does this code do: var x = (a, b) => c => a(b(c)); ?

psr

I don't feel fine on some MS technologies that people care about, like WPF. Though I usually do backend. @JimmyHoffa - I've worked at jobs with the title "Senior .NET Developer" before. And been considered by management and co-workers the best coder (in a small shop though). I took a couple of MUMPS jobs during the recession when my (.NET based) company literally fired all the programmers because someone sold them on Java.

Jimmy Hoffa

ok trick question, that code snippet throws a compiler error because it both relies on constraint based type inference which the C# compiler explicitly doesn't support as well as requiring generalized polymorphism which the .NET type system doesn't support

@psr Ah, man that stinks. And that is damn stupid; if you have a bunch of C# devs and want to go to java...just call them java devs and call it a day

@psr Yeah, I'm not particularly comfortable in WPF either, but I've no interest in UI work anyway, I'll stick to web dev when I need to do UI, at least then I only have to do it once

I'm a full stack dev but definitely more backend, that's where all the fun design problems arise anyway

user20683

11:23 PM

yeah, I suspect that's how I'll end up, JS for front end land and Java/C#/Python/Whatever the hell for back end

psr

@JimmyHoffa Without looking anything up : 1. You get one extra generation I think. 2. Monitor, I believe 3. I actually haven't heard of this 4. This would be where I brush up, if anywhere. I really really liked LINQ and all the functional programming extensions, but getting an Enterprise system upgraded to later versions of .NET takes a while, and then I had to bring the other DEVs along in using it, so I'm conceptually good but I've forgotten some syntax and some detail.

@JimmyHoffa We could have gotten by with one experienced Java and no other staff changes. But management literally didn't know C# from VB.NET from ASP.NET and that thought probably never occurred to to them. I think they might well have kept me for the switch anyway, except I had moved and was working 100% remote.

gnat

@psr I think this is quite dangerous position for an interview, especially if your CV points to solid experience. "The guy at the other side" will quite likely read it and prepare to drill deep, and if you skip the preparation, it might turn out really bad...

> I once skipped to specifically prepare to questions on a topic I bragged about in resume since I have a pretty good knowledge of it - you know, repeat basics, refresh fundamentals, stuff like that - what an epic fail it was when a qualified interviewer drilled into it...

7

A: What if I don't have enough work sample for an interview?

To have "samples" of your skills that would be convenient to share consider public activities, like writing your blog, or answering Stack Exchange questions, or participating in open source projects. what is the de-facto standard Based on my experience (I've been at both sides of interview ...

hey this even happened to Eric Lippert, go figure...

> Case in point, I was recently the interviewee and the interviewer asked me a whiteboard coding question that I not only knew the answer to cold, I had written a freakin' blog article on how to do it. I was so mentally worn out after two solid days of talking about programming languages and doing coding questions that I just blanked on it and it took me probably ten times longer than it should have to write the solution. Very embarrassing...

41

A: Engineering interview candidate refuses to use whiteboard

There's a big difference between hashing out code on a whiteboard when brainstorming and hashing code out on a whiteboard when there's a guy who already knows the answer staring at you and waiting for you to make a mistake. Some people get really nervous in that environment. And even if you are n...

psr

11:42 PM

@gnat Yes, but I'm not interviewing at present. I'm just thinking about whether there are things I need to learn before that stage. For Haskell I'm likely some number of years short. For C# I might well be fine waiting until I'm actually preparing for interviews, but since most of the code I encounter at my current job would probably compile in 1.1, it might be worth doing some random thing just to get syntax memory in my fingers and remember class names.

@JimmyHoffa Well, server mode GC is nice to know about.

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