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00:00 - 21:0021:00 - 00:00

user41796
9:00 PM
Hitting the up/down vote limit locks you out of 1st post and late answer review queues
 
user55340
@GlenH7 mwhahwahaw! Time for me to get the robocop while you can't...
 
user41796
yeah, just noticed that too. I need one from either of those to get my 5th queue
 
user41796
z'alright though. I just got a boater hat
 
user55340
Need to get the 'steal a checkmark' one.
 
user55340
@GlenH7 and if you get 5 more, you'll get 21.
 
user41796
9:09 PM
@MichaelT honestly, I think that would require collusion to pull off
 
user41796
not that I'm opposed to sich. Just saying it would be required.
 
user55340
Find an ok accepted answer on a question asked by an active user and write a much better one.
 
I've managed to golf a typechecker for a kernel ML language to 30 lines.
Winter break rocks
 
break? kids these days :(
 
user55340
@enderland Break - its what happens to software when you take vacation to look after your kids.
 
user55340
9:11 PM
Thus, "winter break"
 
user55340
Also related is the "you broke the exchange server by not deleting your 4000 messages you get/day - instead you forwarded them to your manager who forwarded them to the team lead... all the extra email on the system broke exchange"
 
oooh I can cause that to happen!
"oops my automated email system went into an infinite loop!"
 
user41796
I once got paged out by one of the staff attorneys. It was an official 3 day holiday weekend, and said atty had chosen to work from home that day.
 
user41796
One of their routine, non-emergency, non-critical programs wasn't working from home (worked just fine at the office). So they chose to page out.
 
what do you mean "page out?"
 
user41796
9:14 PM
I felt really bad for the help desk person who had to take the initial page, as the atty had given her an earful.
 
user41796
@enderland literally - paged out. I was on call and had pager rotation in that particular life.
 
oh
 
user41796
yeah. And I had just put in my 2 weeks notice that week.
 
I got duel monitors yesterday, so a solid 30% of my worktime is now giggling while dragging windows in between them and watching my cat try to chase them
3
 
user41796
But I was pretty polite and outlined to the help desk person why it wasn't an emergency situation and what the staff atty needed to do on the next actual business day!
 
user41796
9:16 PM
@jozefg 3x24 is da bomb. I miss that config
 
@GlenH7 wow what res? 800x600 x3 is a lot less impressive :P
 
@GlenH7 When did you have that? Work?
 
user41796
1920 x 1080, I think? They were full 24" monitors
 
user41796
yeah, work. Previous life. And I think they were widescreens. But I think all 24"ers are widescreens
 
I've got 2x 1920x1200 and 24" widescreen right now
 
user41796
9:18 PM
also had 2x30" for a while
 
I'm going to cry if/when I lose these
 
user41796
24" monitors are cheap - they start at $150 and quality ones are just a few hundred.
 
user55340
@jozefg ever read the onion article about dual screens?
 
@GlenH7 can you talk with my IT departmnet please? PLEASE omg
 
rocking a core 2 duo, 4gb, and a 24" at my workplace
 
user41796
9:23 PM
@Mike Weren't you asking about giving notice yesterday? And would the programming environment have anything to do with that? :-)
 
@GlenH7 Yes and yes
 
if my company forced me to use crap hardware/software (again..) I probably would begin actively looking for a new job
and if they ask why I'd be 100% honest with them - "I spend 40-50 hours a week here and you can't be bothered to give me a decent machine/monitors? I'm not going to be frustrated every day because of htis"
 
user41796
@enderland Easier to just throttle the amount of work you get done. If the company isn't willing to invest in your productivity then it's not worth worrying too much about.
 
@GlenH7 yeah but it bothers me personally when that happens. I don't care the company is losing more significantly, it just really annoys me on an individual level when a company doesn't even want to do something like that
 
@enderland that's more or less where I'm at with the place, it is a culture of "sloppy" from top to bottom and everybody else there is quite happy with the way it works, so I figure it is time for me to stop trying to help and simply go somewhere else
 
user41796
9:29 PM
@enderland silly work ethic. Don't let that get in your way. :-)
 
well there's a reason I'm using my own mouse/keyboard LOL.
 
user41796
@Mike I would encourage you to land an offer before providing notice. Much safer for you that way. And if the environment is truly as you describe, then they won't care about 2 weeks notice.
 
user41796
Flip side of that in at-will states is the employer can walk you out the door the moment you provide notice. Make sure all of your personal effects have been taken home days before you give notice.
 
yeah I plan on having my new job lined up before I give them my notice and simply avoiding any new long term projects that might come up in the interim
 
user41796
@Mike if you can't avoid long term projects, just document what you've done and what needs to be done. That becomes part of your transition documents
 
user41796
9:33 PM
been there, done that. :-)
 
user55340
@Mike You are more valuable if you have a job than if you're out of work while interviewing.
 
user55340
@MichaelT thanks. I tried searching on stackoverflow for an answer to this too but couldn't find anything. Seems you are a better searcher. — Danny 6 mins ago
 
user55340
My google-fu extends to the mainsite too!
 
user41796
@MichaelT regrettably, there is a bias against the unemployed when looking for new jobs
 
user55340
9:41 PM
@GlenH7 If you are unemployed, there is a reason you are so - which means you weren't good enough for someone else, you're unlikely to be good enough for us either.
 
user55340
@jozefg ... but your 30% cat time is offset by an additional 50% increase in productivity... right?
 
user55340
 
user55340
>
Here, we describe a new acoustic cryptanalysis key extraction attack, applicable to GnuPG's current implementation of RSA. The attack can extract full 4096-bit RSA decryption keys from laptop computers (of various models), within an hour, using the sound generated by the computer during the decryption of some chosen ciphertexts. We experimentally demonstrate that such attacks can be carried out, using either a plain mobile phone placed next to the computer, or a more sensitive microphone placed 4 meters away.
 
user55340
I really think that this will lead to government sites that have secrets resulting in naked coding. Your cell phone camera isn't just the issue anymore. Just go into the office, strip down, and make sure you don't have a usb device in any cavities.
 
user55340
This also gives a way for waste data center heat to be reused - you need to keep the development area at a warm temperature... so just pipe the data center exhaust into the developer cubicals.
 
user41796
> What is your current Stack Overflow reputation?
 
user41796
Rant: Why the bias against the other sites with their annual poll?
 
user41796
10:05 PM
Oh wait, because all of the other sites combined don't add up to the volume of SO. Nevermind...
 
user55340
We don't get career 2.0 adds on P.SE either.
 
user41796
I'd like to think that our volume would justify them, but I'm afraid that ain't the case.
 
user55340
Much is about targeting those ads correctly. If we got them... we might show up on the questionnaire.
 
user41796
It's okay. I know that all the cool kids hang out on Programmers anyway.
 
user55340
SO: 6M visits / day. P.SE: 51k. We're not even 1%
 
user55340
10:08 PM
Now... SuperUser - they've got about 0.5M visits/day - might be sensible to include them on the network.
 
user55340
Though an even better approach would be to have a checkmark of "sites you participate on" and rep - however that starts to getting close to disclosing specific people and deanonomizeing the data.
 
user55340
"I have between 15k and 20k P.SE rep and 500-1000 SO rep..." that fairly much says its me.
 
user41796
yeah, I'm still <500 on SO
 
SO moves way too fast for me, questions pop up and get 1 sentence answers right away that are then edited 5 times to get the actual content in there so the person doing the answering can have the first response and maybe get the first upvote
 
yeah. and on the less popular tags you don't get much upvotes no matter how well you answer a question :)
 
10:13 PM
indeed, and the PHP / javascript that gets posted makes my eyes bleed
 
user55340
@Mike I've more than once stolen a checkmark from someone who did that hours after the question was asked
 
user55340
stackoverflow.com/posts/20233780/timeline - me, stealing a checkmark
 
@FrostEngineer If you're not busy, I'd like to talk about the blog. My winter break starts Friday and lasts two weeks, so I'll have a lot of free time coming up.
 
user55340
@Dynamic did you see/heard the idea awhile back of "short topic" to try to get a bunch of people writing about it? Ie: "The best starting programming language is..." and then get a bunch of people writing about that topic.
 
that sounds like a pretty awesome idea @MichaelT
 
user55340
10:22 PM
"The way to break into the industry I work in is..."
 
put all the "closed for being opinion based" questions into a hat and pick one out
well, pick a good one out
ok, forget the hat, we need a fishbowl
 
user55340
"If I could offer one piece of advice to the class of 2014, sunscreen would be it... the rest of my advice follows..."
 
user55340
(I really hate doing this...) could I get a non-mod flag on this comment:
 
user55340
the non-mod ones sometimes get handled faster than the mod ones.
 
user55340
I've already got a free form mod comment on it.
 
user55340
10:25 PM
(things you find while checking up on migrations)
 
user55340
And yes, @GlenH7 he's the author of that deleted meta.P.SE question that we glanced at a bit ago.
 
@MichaelT I was in that discussion, actually :P.
 
user55340
Ahh... well... sometimes I don't get cache hits for my discussions lookup... though everything Yannis says is saved for eternity.
 
Where are you as far as blog participation? Would you be willing to help out?
 
user55340
@Dynamic If it's a short enough and directed enough topic... with a deadline... might do something.
 
user55340
10:30 PM
The "write something, sometime, about something" ones... I can keep putting those off forever.
 
user55340
And you'll need something to counterbalance the crazy FP types suggesting that you learn Haskell as a first language.
 
Sounds good!
 
user55340
After all, the answer is perl...
 
At least in my case it was...
 
user55340
@Dynamic you know you want to write something in rail (not rails)
 
user55340
10:35 PM
Oh... that's another question: "My favorite esolang is..."
 
user55340
After all, the answer is perl...
 
psr
@MichaelT @jozefg's first spoken language was Haskell.
 
user55340
@enderland is this something that should head over in the direction of TW.SE?
 
user55340
0
Q: Does a potential hiring gives a motive to work harder?

yannis hristofakisOver the last 6 months I'm doing my internship in a small office. I'm very satisfied. In the past they told me that business go well and they might need to hire a developer. The last month I asked them if they have plans afterwards and they declined, they told me the opposite than first place. ...

 
Do this question actually deserve downvotes?
http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/221804/why-is-javascript-faster-than-jquery
damn, how do you nicely link a question?
 
user55340
10:39 PM
@MetaFight On a line by itself. As the entire message
 
@MetaFight He didn't do much research.
 
I know the question is a bit annoying, but the asker was doing research. They simply don't know enough about the subject matter to ask an informed question. It's not for lack of curiosity or trying
 
user55340
@MetaFight (surprisingly) not a downvoter on that one... the research is likely the issue.
 
Disclaimer: not a downvoter
 
user55340
"This question does not show any research effort" is the first bit on the downvote mouseover.
 
user55340
10:41 PM
Just searching for jquery on wikipedia points out one of the misconceptions in the first line:
 
user55340
{{Infobox software | name = jQuery | logo = | author = John Resig | developer = jQuery Team | released = | latest release version = 1.10.2 ()2.0.3 () | latest release date = | programming language = JavaScript | platform = See Browser support | status = Active | genre = JavaScript library | license = MIT | website = | size = { class="wikitable" style="margin:0;" - ver gzip prod dev - 1.x 31 90.9 266 - ...
 
user55340
Yea, that got mangled nicely... good job wiki)
 
user55340
> jQuery is a cross-platform JavaScript library designed to simplify the client-side scripting of HTML.
 
psr
He might have understood that JQuery is a library and still asked the question.
 
I dunno. I think it's quite possible that user did a lot of research for their skill level, and are just asking a question beyond their abilities. While annoying, it's also nice.
 
user55340
10:42 PM
If he looked at that and said "thats javascript too", he could have gone to ask a question that didn't require repeating what should be common knowledge.
 
@MetaFight @psr Yeah, but the question has been answered in depth before...
18
Q: What benefits are there to native JavaScript development?

MikeGiven how much simpler jQuery development is, when compared to native JavaScript, what makes people forgo libraries like jQuery altogether? Is this because jQuery has limitations or it is slow? I mean, if jQuery is so easy compared to native javascript, what reasons do people have to still use...

 
so I guess there's an expected minimum amount of knowledge when asking questions.
 
@MetaFight Just an expected minimum amount of research
 
user55340
-1
Q: JQuery speed vs javascript speed

Richard GrantI know Jquery is just a library of javascript. is Jquery animation and events slower then javascript? If so, how much slower. i am trying to decide if i should rewrite my site in native javascript.

 
user55340
149
Q: When to use Vanilla JavaScript vs. jQuery?

jondavidjohnI have noticed while monitoring/attempting to answer common jQuery questions, that there are certain practices using javascript, instead of jQuery, that actually enable you to write less and do ... well the same amount. And may also yield performance benefits. A specific example $(this) vs th...

 
user55340
10:44 PM
21
Q: Advantages of using pure JavaScript over JQuery

Shivan DragonWhat are the advantages of using Javascript-only versus using JQuery-only? I have limited experience with JavaScript and JQuery coding. I've added bits and snippets of each to HTML pages but I've mostly coded server-side stuff in other languages. I've noticed that while you can theoretically do ...

 
48
Q: How much research effort is expected of Stack Overflow users?

Anderson GreenI'm well aware that a certain amount of research effort is expected of Stack Overflow users before they post any new questions, but I'm not sure just how much research effort is considered adequate. Recently, I've noticed that there's been some controversy about the issue of how much research ef...

 
user55340
All from the first page of google search for "jquery vs javascript performance"
 
I understand that bit. I just think there are cases where no amount of research is going to help somebody who's asking a question beyond their current understanding.
 
psr
@MetaFight Agree with him or he won't stop Googling.
 
lol
 
user55340
10:44 PM
(I'm done - just wanted to show its been asked before and answered again and again and again if they just search for it)
 
@MetaFight I see where you're coming from. But the understanding that Javascript and jQuery are not the same thing is enough to do research, and he had that understanding.
 
ok
 
I really need more close votes....
Please close this:
0
Q: What are some collective nouns in use in the software development world?

alakraIn the animal kingdom, we have collective nouns that refer to a group of that type of animal, e.g. a murder of crows or an army of ants. Is there anything like this in the software development world that are used to refer to a set of abstract programming language idioms? e.g. a stab of la...

 
user55340
@Dynamic Mine's on it.
 
user55340
People! You're making it very hard for me to consider trying for the frosty hat tommorow.
 
10:48 PM
It's crazy that people are answering that question.
 
user55340
Mouseover on answer downvote: this answer is not useful
 
user55340
@Dynamic I can't believe that someone upvoted the question.
 
lol You have been haunted by shame for 7 times.
114
A: How much research effort is expected of Stack Overflow users?

user414076A lot. An absurd amount. More than you think you are capable of. In fact, asking a question on Stack Overflow is the absolute last thing you ever want to do. You want to avoid it at all costs. You want to think of it as a horrible shame1 that will forever haunt you and pass down from you to your ...

 
user55340
what does "stab" has to do with lambda?? the only thing i could find is some ruby slang of using an arrow (->) for anonymous functions and calling it a 'stab'. very far from "abstract programming language idioms" — Javier 5 mins ago
 
user55340
Oh! I know... a spaceship of operators! ($a <=> $b)
 
user55340
10:56 PM
A pod of documentation!
 
WTF??? how did we got that low-quality attack?
 
user55340
Wow! CogSci on that BS HR test...
 
user55340
3
A: How do personality tests work that require you to choose one of two statement that applies most to you?

Jeromy AnglimThere is a large general literature evaluating the degree to which personality tests predict job performance. In particular see for example the review by Barrick et al (2001). In general such reviews find that personality measures provide a small but meaningful prediction of job performance. Ips...

 
7 crappy questions in an hour (there was 8th one but asker removed it)
 
@gnat I'd say a combination of people wanting hats and the usual reasons.
 
11:01 PM
has the question quality decreased once the hats were introduced?
 
@MattD From what I remember, it did last year.
It also did when we ran the contest.
 
its also school holidays
so lots more morons on the interwebs
 
True'
Don't forget about this:
 
yet another hit...
-1
Q: Why is my program not working?

user112167I've used the cout statement after the cin's before the switch to determine that I'm having a problem with the second number and the character op and for some reason Iget into an infinite loop!!! I have a feeling that I'm making a small mistake in the syntax but I cant figure out what is it. ...

 
i think thats a good thing
maybe we need a noob.stackexchange.com
 
11:05 PM
@MattD Yes, but I can see how that would draw in low-quality questions.
 
oh boy
0
Q: Moving sprites with gameTime, why do I need to use +=?

user2056166I'm trying to move a 2D test sprite with the variable gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalMilliseconds; The code to update the sprites position that works is this: spritePosition.X += (float)gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalMilliseconds; With the above line the sprite moves to the right on runtime as ...

 
-11
Q: Propose Newbie-Overflow site or section

AxemanBecause the perl section is looking like that right now. I believe that Stack Overflow is going out of it's charter in becoming a newbie FAQ when as far as the original reasoning it was meant to be something along the lines of an expert site. This is a good example of what I mean in Perl. It pro...

 
yeah. I'm not sure what the answer is
SE's useful because there are answers to specific questions. answering a lot of simple beginner questions will dramatically increase the noise to signal ratio. but conversely there's obviously a need to answer those questions because people are asking them (and also a lot of people dont know how to search for information).
 
Maybe the Q/A approach is not the solution. Maybe these questions would be better asked in a designated chat room?
 
quite possibly. I'd be happy to field beginner questions :) (probably not quite as many when im at work obviously)
 
11:20 PM
chat with a dedicated code-pasting section would be nice.
I hate seeing code pasted directly into chat.
 
user55340
@MetaFight You could gist it.
 
user55340
Assuming, that is its working...
 
user55340
Nope, not working again... or I'm doing something wrong with that one.
 
there's always pastebin
 
user55340
11:28 PM
export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.6`
source ~/bin/git-prompt.sh

PATH=$PATH:~/bin/

# from stackoverflow.com/questions/5687446/…
export MYPS='$(echo -n "${PWD/#$HOME/~}" | awk -F "/" '"'"'{if (length($0) > 14) { if (NF>4) print $1 "/" $2 "/.../" $(NF-1) "/" $NF; else if (NF>3) print $1 "/" $2 "/.../" $NF; else print $1 "/.../" $NF; } else print $0;}'"'"')'

# export GIT_PS1_SHOWUPSTREAM="auto"
export GIT_PS1_SHOWUPSTREAM="verbose"
 
user55340
But you can do fixed font with expanding... not too bad.
 
user55340
It has worked in the past...
 
user55340
Oct 29 at 20:32, by MichaelT
gist: destructive update extension, the horror!, 2013-10-29 20:29:23Z
evalThen :: Env a -> Lambda a -> (Maybe (Lambda a) -> b)
evalThen env (Var a) then = then $ M.lookup a env
evalThen env abs@(Abs {}) then = then $ Just abs
evalThen env (App fun arg) then = then $ case fun of
  Abs id body -> evalThen env arg >>= \a -> evalThen (M.insert id a env) body
  _           -> Nothing
evalThen env p@(Prim {}) = then $ Just p

eval env term = eval env term id

exec env term = eval env term (\x -> case x of
  (Var a) -> alter (\y -> x) a env
  _ -> env)
 
I get asked to interview a candidate, and then i get told i have to ask him fizzbuzz
ffs
 
user55340
@MattD It filters a surprising number of people.
 
11:40 PM
its a for loop and a % operator
 
user55340
You might want to ask if you could ask a tougher question that is in the same vein.
 
user55340
May 8 at 22:05, by MichaelT
Given that Pi can be estimated using the function 4 * (1 – 1/3 + 1/5 – 1/7 + …) with more terms giving greater accuracy, write a function that calculates Pi to an accuracy of 5 decimal places.

It’s a problem that should make you think, but shouldn’t be out of reach to a seasoned developer (it can be answered in about 10 lines of C#). However, many of our (supposedly pre-screened by the agency) candidates couldn’t even begin to answer it, or even explain how they might go about answering it. So after a while I started asking simpler questions like:
 
i am :)
 
user55340
(now, to find where I quoted that from...)
 
thats a good one
id have to sit down and work through it
 
user55340
11:42 PM
Ahh!
 
user55340
342
A: What's your most controversial programming opinion?

Greg BeechIf you're a developer, you should be able to write code I did quite a bit of interviewing last year, and for my part of the interview I was supposed to test the way people thought, and how they implemented simple-to-moderate algorithms on a white board. I'd initially started out with questions l...

 
@MichaelT thats a totally trick question isnt it. as the precision is not related to the accuracy
 
user55340
Even without the 'trick' aspect.... don't worry if they have the tailor series down... just can the write it?
 
user55340
(I used that problem to tackle some clojure)
 
user55340
May 9 at 16:57, by MichaelT
(defn pi
  ([] (float (* 4 (pi 1 0.01 0 true))))
  ([term tol accum pn]
    (let
      [t (/ 1 term)
       a ((if pn + -) accum t)]
      (if (< (* 4 t) tol)
        a
        (pi (+ term 2) tol a (not pn))
      )
    )
  )
)
 
user55340
11:49 PM
The clojure bit works rather neat... though gets a big bogged down with that implementation. Clojure uses rational numbers... so you get 1/1 as the first term, then 2/3 as the second term, then 3/5 as the third term and 4/7 as the next term...
 
user55340
(I think I got those terms right)... but its rational numbers, not floating points... and the lcm between the two terms can get HUGE rapidly.
 
user55340
Still, the lightbulb moment for me with FP was in that code: ((if pn + -) accum t)
 
i cant quite read FP, but i get the gist.
 
user55340
(if pn + -) returns the function + or - depending on pn
 
user55340
which is then used as (+ accum t) or (- accum t)
 
user55340
11:54 PM
As I said, that was my lightbulb moment. Still - that code isn't hard to write in $preferedLanguage.
 
user55340
And its not something they studied for how to do fizzbuzz.
 
user55340
The other approach to that interview question is to ask them to write something simple (not fizzbuzz simple) and then ask them to modify it for a new requirement, and then another new requirement...
 
user55340
See when they realize they'll have to step back and redesign. Its not so much a "you know how to code" (thats important too) but also a "when you realizing that adding another arm on the monster isn't a good thing."
 
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