The Whiteboard

user20683

12:59 AM

@MichaelT Stock Response for all questions for homework doing demands: data.whicdn.com/images/38600179/…

1:23 AM

I feel you brother, but what are you really asking here? What should you do? You should go to Burger King for lunch today. It is too broad to be answerable, but there really is some good advice posted. If you want to find out what kinds of questions are good to ask then please read the FAQ for more information. If you are struggling with particular aspect of programming or software development and need help then post back. Good luck. — maple_shaft May 2 '12 at 1:39

^^^ Haha! Equally parts funny, appropriate, and respectful.

user20683

@JimG. I feel for many of these guys, software is a bwildering world and most college students aren't taught proper research techniques

Jim G.

@World Engineer: 100% agree. // I quoted him somewhere on StackExchange, but Carl Franklin from Dot Net Rocks once said, "As an industry, we suck at apprenticeships." I've never forgotten that quote because I think it's right on the money.

user20683

@JimG. I think it's the issue of preparing students for grad school vs preparing students for industry

user20683

they aren't mutually exclusive but they need to be handled better

user20683

people ask me now and then about doing game programming

user20683

1:34 AM

I tell them to go get a physics degree and learn as much C++ and 3D math along the way as they can. Engineering and Math degrees work too I'd say. Even CS if you play it right.

user20683

but I think on the whole many teenage programmers (I was once one) suffer from a lack of direction due to a lack of self confidence.

user20683

they get paralyzed by the choices out there because they've no way to evaluate them

Jim G.

@World Engineer: Some really great points there.

@World Engineer: Are you a game programmer?

user20683

@JimG. I had ambitions at one point

user20683

I found myself less interested as I've gotten older

user20683

1:38 AM

neat hobby maybe but not something I'd like to do as a living

Jim G.

@World Engineer: Same here.

user20683

@JimG. I find myself more interested in UX and information visualization/processing

user20683

I'm also a language nut

Jim G.

@World Engineer: You can do a lot with both. // On last week's TWIG, Leo Laporte said that he thinks that voice-enabled apps will soon be far more pervasive than touch-enabled apps.

Yannis Rizos

Damn, I'm getting upvotes even when I beg to be downvoted...

1

A: Down-voting mechanism is broken

The root cause of the issue is that the voting system is horribly skewed in favour of upvotes. A much simpler solution would be for upvotes on answers to cost reputation. Let's put our money where our mouth is...

-1

Q: Shifting to java from C/C++ background

I have around 10 years of system development experience on Linux/C/C++. I am currently doing my Masters (part-time).I am about to start my thesis next month.An interesting project has come up which is very well suited for my masters thesis.I am very interested in the technology and the domain.How...

software-industry

^^^ The Workplace O_o

Jim G.

1:58 AM

@YannisRizos: ^^^ Hmm. I agree that there's a problem (a small one perhaps), but I have difficulty imagining how StackExchange would function if it "cost" rep to upvote.

user20683

@YannisRizos I...WAT

Jim G.

Did anyone see Jeff Atwood's post on rage-quitting?

Yannis Rizos

@JimG. It's not a serious answer, there are various problem and there's absolutely no chance SE would go for it. Just having some MSO fun...

Jim G.

Interesting that Stack Exchange has a rage quitter every six months.

@Yannis Rizos; Aha! You had me fooled! :)

Yannis Rizos

@JimG. Just read that about 10m ago, and I found it a bit distasteful to be honest.

Jim G.

2:02 AM

@Yannis Rizos: It is a bit controversial.

Yannis Rizos

@JimG. You wouldn't believe how many of my Meta posts aren't really serious ;)

Jim G.

@Yannis Rizos: Well that's one way to keep people on their toes. IRL, I employ a fair bit of sarcasm to keep people guessing.

Yannis Rizos

It's not really intentional, I'm just not really good at conveying emotion through writing. Some of my posts read like rants (when in truth I couldn't care less) and some of my posts may seem apathetic but be about things I deeply care about. It's a combination of things, starting from how tired I am at the moment I start writing the answer. Right now for example it's 4am here and I'm exhausted. Which reminds me: goodnight ;)

user20683

@JimG. I've been fairly torn up about Aaron's death in subtle ways

Jim G.

2:45 AM

@World Engineer: Yeah, me too. And like I said - I didn't know who he was when he was alive.

user20683

@JimG. I was long involved, at least tangentially, in Demand Progress.

user55340

2:36 PM

@YannisRizos Could someone flag and respond to this comment on that question over on workplace? "career advice about programming should be on P.SE" should get nipped before it becomes commonplace thought there.

user55340

You can find some similar questions on programmmers.stackexchange , which is the appropriate place for this question. For example: programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/136133/… — deworde 4 hours ago

user41796

3:45 PM

@MichaelT - you got your request fulfilled twice. Both @YannisRizos and myself posted a comment indicating that question would be off topic in P.SE. Way too localized.

user41796

Feedback request: Any recommendations on what else I could have done to edit this question to be more on-topic?

http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/184449/why-does-internet-explorer-have-so-many-incompatibilities-with-other-browsers

user55340

@GlenH7 Thank you. Bad advice to migrate comments are one of those things that causes grief for us (I know we have some bad ones for suggesting to move to workplace - though I think that we are a bit more hesitant to migrate bad questions given the P.SE history)

user55340

@GlenH7 I doubt it is possible to find it documented. Such things were internal policy and culture at MS and not documented.

user41796

@MichaelT - I think the bad migrations are a natural thing and gets better with time as users in both sites get to know the other, related sites better.

user55340

@GlenH7 Looks like there is some documentation chasing the links from wiki.

user55340

3:52 PM

Embrace, extend and extinguish

"Embrace, extend, and extinguish", also known as "Embrace, extend, and exterminate", is a phrase that the U.S. Department of Justice found was used internally by Microsoft to describe its strategy for entering product categories involving widely used standards, extending those standards with proprietary capabilities, and then using those differences to disadvantage its competitors. Origin The strategy and phrase "embrace and extend" were first described outside Microsoft in a 1996 New York Times article entitled "Microsoft Trying to Dominate the Internet", in which writer John Markoff ...

user41796

@MichaelT - it's interesting watching that question ride the up / down votes. The original version of the question was pretty ranty, which is what I tried to edit out. I don't think it's a great question by any means, but I thought there was something valid in there nonetheless.

user55340

5:09 PM

@GlenH7 as much as I like the "why" questions, they are often awkward because they delve into speculation. "Why doesn't Java have feature XYZ." My downvote (since cleared, but not upvoted) was likely reactionary to the speculation aspect of the "why?"

GlenPeterson

6:44 PM

I don't see why this question is closed (or don't agree with the close reason): programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/184449/…

user55340

6:59 PM

@GlenPeterson I believe the close was against the first version which was speculative and ranty.

user55340

programmers.stackexchange.com/revisions/184449/1

user55340

(hmm, includes don't include vs version history)

user55340

> ... So I spend my precious time struggling with the issue. And it is my labour time. Multiply it by the total number of developers around the world wrestling with IE every day and you will get some hundreds of work years...
>
> Any idea? Any known thorough analysis of that situation, or an interview with an insider (like Joel Spolsky) that would clarify the cause? Is it the corporate culture, or design process, or QA flaw, or some horrid unknown legacy?

user55340

(meh, can't get the quote to work either...)

user55340

In its current form, its better... probably a matter of getting the re-opens.

user55340

7:04 PM

@gnat thanks for the edit on that meta answer.

gnat

@MichaelT consider this as returning favor for your advice on Vance's branching article :) - I almost completed studying it, working on integrating it into the references

Jan 16 at 16:15, by MichaelT

@gnat I glanced at your great wall of text... another resource for you - http://www.vance.com/steve/perforce/Branching_Strategies.html

user55340

@gnat Have you found that useful?

gnat

@MichaelT yes. Not that I learned much of what wasn't in other references, but it makes a pretty good reading and covers some "holes" in the list. Explanation for the release (packaging) role is certainly the best I've seen Did you notive by the way it builds rather heavily upon [WING98]? That is, over perforce.com/perforce/bestpractices.html - there are 10 references to it, as opposed to other resources referenced no more than twice

notive=notice :)

new article in SE Mod blog, with guidance and explanations on migration, reviews and plagiarism...

moderator.stackexchange.com/2012/12/…

Summer and Fall 2012 Omnibus Newsletter

new mod template for plagiarism, "re-usable" for us mere mortals to an extent...

> It has come to my attention that several of your answers consisted primarily or entirely of text copied from other answers or websites, without any indication that you were quoting nor any reference to the source of the text. Such plagiarism disrespects those authors who put effort into the original answers, and will not be tolerated.

user55340

8:01 PM

@gnat Did you glance at that starred "Pro-forma comments for SE" page?

Yannis Rizos

9:29 PM

[closed] was replaced by [duplicate] for dupe closures

3

user41796

9:40 PM

@GlenPeterson - the question currently has a reopen count of 4, so there's a decent chance it will reopen. The original version was ranty and I think that aspect attracted a number of downvotes in response. It's been edited to get rid of the rant, so there's a chance the community will go for the reopen.

gnat

9:58 PM

@MichaelT nope, haven't seen it. I only recall reading couple MSO questions that mentioned pro-forma comments but haven't seen the page.

user55340

Jan 18 at 19:38, by Yannis Rizos

@MichaelT Pro-forma comments for SE

user55340

@gnat That is the one that Yannis linked for me when talking about standardized comments for frequently reoccurring needs.

gnat

10:21 PM

@MichaelT I see, thanks! Have been considering this script for a while, haven't yet been pressed hard enough to make a move :)

Yannis Rizos

11:22 PM

@MichaelT I've no idea what to do about your last flag, so... helpful!

user55340

11:42 PM

@YannisRizos I've got no idea either... its more a "this isn't ever going to get answered... should something be done so that people don't try?"

Yannis Rizos

The problem is that drawing attention to the fact that the asker is an obnoxious troll may lead to the question getting a ton of downvotes. It's not a bad question, regardless of who asked it and of his rather offensive comments (which you might or might not have seen).

user55340

I've got some comments in there... yep... gotta admit, he's not as bad as the "I don't do faq" guy who appeared to have been a bit more problematic.

Yannis Rizos

I can close and delete it, that's the only way of stopping people from wasting more time on it... But that would also penalize the answerers.

@MichaelT That's the same guy ;)

user55340

le sigh

user55340

His questions are all fishing for the answer he wants. They are frustrating in that way - he's looking for his answer as some form of validation or confirmation on what he is doing... and maybe a bit of attention too.

user55340

11:54 PM

If I was a mod and could do anything I wanted without answering to anyone (MWHAWHAWH!) I would be tempted to protect that question for a period of time. Right now it is the top question on the hot questions. It will continue to attract attention for some time. Letting it sit quietly for a time is something that might be good for the question.

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