The Whiteboard

02:59

@genesis, Jon Skeet is not in the business of building blog software. And his blog is at msmvps.com/blogs/jon_skeet

user20683

@ThorbjørnRavnAndersen Would it be fair to say he's in the business of building "Awesome and Win"?

@AnnaLear, very true. Why invent your own special kind of wheel, when you specialize in engine optimization consultancy?

@WorldEngineer, sorry I do not understand what you mean.

user20683

@ThorbjørnRavnAndersen It's an American expression of the younger set, meaning something that's very impressive to the point of inspiring awe. Specifically I'm using it because Jon Skeet seems to have this reputation of being rather god-like or similar.

Programmers

-1

Q: is this question really off topic?

dilemma in a major career decision on switching technology I am in a dilemma on switching technologies and it is purely related to programming and to be more precise programmers. I am a programmer and i have a confusion about something that is purely related to programming and technology and hen...

Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen

@WorldEngineer, I see. John Skeet writes very good answers - comprehensive, concise, easily understood - to a lot of questions typically asked by beginners and intermediate programmers, who need these kind of answers (instead of basically just being told to RTFM). I believe he started doing this to advocate for his C# book, but apparently it has taken a life of its own. The god like status is primarily because nobody else can come even close to the speed he gets more reputation.

user20683

03:13

@ThorbjørnRavnAndersen I consider 50 rep to be an exceptional day but I'm hardly as experienced as any of you

user20683

I like this site because coding is fairly easy, design yields trickier questions

Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen

@WorldEngineer, I jokingly introduced the "Skeet" unit to normalize the reputation over time (as 10000 rep gained over 1 year is more impressive than gained over three years). I'm currently at about 80 milliskeet.

2

on stackoverflow, not on programmers.

user20683

right

user20683

that much I knew

Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen

@WorldEngineer, programmers is more about opinion, or at least was, as opposed to the "what is wrong with this code" approach on stackoverflow. It has changed since it was created. Also there is nothing wrong with being less experienced - there is always more to learn.

user20683

03:22

@ThorbjørnRavnAndersen People do seem very confused about this site's purpose a lot of the time. I wonder if before being allowed to post, the FAQ should be required reading?

Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen

@WorldEngineer, that would oppose the lowest-possible-entry-for-asking-a-question mindset behind this. It is my expectation that the "hey, these previous questions look like what you asked" will eventually be good enough to reduce these to a minimum.

@WorldEngineer, did YOU read the FAQ before asking your first question?

user20683

@ThorbjørnRavnAndersen I did actually but I'm one of those crazies who compulsively reads manuals

user20683

I do have a closed question but that was me poorly phrasing the question

user20683

and not really caring enough to change it, so I didn't bother with an appeal.

genesis

06:24

@AnnaLear yes, you just got it. Thanks for opinions

Pierre 303

08:31

@ThorbjørnRavnAndersen: the Skeet unit is a wonderful comment you made. I'm still laughthing

Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen

09:04

@Pierre303, on programmers I am at 837 millimengal (but that is most likely too much an inside joke)

Pierre 303

@ThorbjørnRavnAndersen: hahaha, 12 milliskeet for me on SO

Pavel Shved

/me has 'round seven milliskeets...

Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen

@Pierre303 - you're still warming up :D

Pierre 303

09:20

@ThorbjørnRavnAndersen: If I work hard and get 50 reputation point more than Jon every day, I can beat him in less than 46 years.

Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen

@Pierre303, then you need to hack the system... Some social engineering!

@PavelShved, answer some more questions then to get a deciskeet or two.

Pavel Shved

09:40

@ThorbjørnRavnAndersen to get more rep I should... answer more questions? Hm, never thought about that...

Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen

10:27

@PavelShved, for further ideas you might consider opening a question along "How do I get rep on Stackoverflow?"

StuperUser

11:14

1.21 Gigaskeets!

Jarrod

14:12

Maybe should get a petition to the S.E. guys for a new set of badges.

100 rep in year: Miliskeet

1000: Kiloskeet

10,000: Skeetlike

or something :)

btw, has there been any more thought about a P.SE blog? Its something I would like to see move forward - I posted a proposal "faq", wouldn't mind getting some more feedback on it; meta.programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/2108/…

Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen

10000 a year is not very skeetlike. 100'000 a year would be more like it.

Jarrod

14:28

lol, yeah - probably right

unfortunately we're capped at 73k rep per year - if someone hits that they should get "Mecha-skeet" or something

Pavel Shved

@Jarrod you see, we are indeed capped at 73k/yr, but Jon Skeet (with his 340k in less than 3 years) is obviously not :-(

Jarrod

well, i shouldn't say "capped" - we're capped a 73k from upvotes - but there is no cap on the 15pt accepted answer bonus

Incognito

I'm considering posting a question about social lives of programmers, to see if I'm the only one so introverted about admitting I write software out of fear, ways to deal with non-programming-programmers who want to talk to you, friends who simply don't understand what I do, etc.

I'm not sure it's a suitable Q for the site.

Feedback?

Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen

14:48

@Incognito, what is it you want to actually know?

Incognito

@ThorbjørnRavnAndersen How should I deal with non-programming programmers who want to be my friend and talk to me about infinite stupidities in real life?

Pierre 303

@Incognito: ask it here on chat because that kind of question is not really welcome on P.SE. I'm very disappointed of that, but that's life. If you really want to ask the question somewhere, try Quora, it's 100% suitable of that kind of questions.

Incognito

"Oh! JavaScript? Yeah I'm awesome at Java! I wrote this guy a full-featured point of sale in Java, fastest five hundred bucks I made!"

Pavel Shved

@Incognito ignore them?

Incognito

@Pierre303 Sounds reasonable.

Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen

14:50

@Inco

Jarrod

yeah, definitely better for chat

Incognito

@PavelShved I don't want to ignore them, I just wish I told them I picked trash for a living.

Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen

@Incognito, that is called "social skills" and is a very useful thing to master in the case you would like to get a partner which is not 100% like yourself

Brant

I used to just say something generic like that I worked in IT, but now I usually mention that I write code more freely. If anyone scoffs at that, screw 'em. :p

Incognito

Sitting at dinner with friends, they try to make references to how something in real life is like OOP code. But they even get the OOP abstraction wrong.

Pierre 303

14:51

@Incognito: when you say "stupidities", you are aware that you are insulting a good portion of the population right?

They are not stupidities, they are other things

Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen

@brant, if you say you work in IT, you get to fix their computer

Pierre 303

Other things you are not interested in. That's all.

Incognito

@Pierre303 No, because most of the population doesn't think they know. I'm fine with people who don't know software not knowing-- they leave me alone for the most part. But it's like someone comes by and says the wrong thing about software endlessly.

Brant

@ThorbjørnRavnAndersen That's the other reason I stopped saying it.

Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen

@brant, trick is only to say it to cute blonds

Brant

14:53

^ best t-shirt purchase I ever made.

Incognito

Here, here's a quote from my facebook inbox, "Here's an idea. If cloud computing is 2D spread accross a newtwork andisn't secure, wouldn't it be more secure if it was 3D propelled and in your hands in the form of a product with a digital barcode printed on it?"

Pierre 303

@Incognito: so you want them to stop talk to you?

Jarrod

@Incognito: Just ignore them - if you're constantly correcting them on these details then you'll turn into "that guy" and you won't have any friends at all

Brant

@Incognito There needs to be a site like thedailywtf.com you can submit quotes like that to.

Incognito

@Pierre303 Only about software. They wouldn't talk about it if they didn't know I wrote software.

Pierre 303

14:54

@Incognito: so you are willing to talk to them about software, but not about the news, is that right?

Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen

@Incognito, WHY do you get such requests in your facebook inbox?

Incognito

@Brant I don't even know what vaporous cloud of ideas he was trying to tape together.

@ThorbjørnRavnAndersen Because I opened my face and said I write code.

@Pierre303 They keep bringing up topics, I try to shift to anything, they keep going.

Pierre 303

@Incognito: how old are you?

Incognito

@Pierre303 23.75 years.

Pavel Shved

@Incognito It's written virtually everywhere in the net near my name that I write code for living. However, I haven't encountered anything close to what you're describing...

Maybe the problem is not in the coding?

Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen

14:57

@Incognito, I think I am missing the point. WHY do your facebook friends even consider submitting stuff like that? None of mine do.

Pierre 303

@Incognito: I understand. I was a bit like you at your age. I don't really know what changed me... But in your case, I simply told the other person I didn't care about the news, or the topic. I did not make many friends with that, but I think it's worse to fake interest.

Jarrod

agreed - and i let my friends and family know that i'm not a resource they go running to every time they have a computer question or thought or idea

Incognito

@PavelShved I have two first-names, and I share those two first names with racecar drivers and professional bowlers, so I'm lucky in that I can't be searched easily :P. Obfuscation!

Pierre 303

Now I enjoy those interactions a lot. Every day at lunch, I go at the table of people not working in software. Discussions are about any topic, and this is a pleasant moment.

On the next table, developers talking about linux.

Between them.

Both are fine. People must take you like you are.

Incognito

@Pierre303 Do you live in some wonderful mecca of thinking people? I try to discuss other topics than software and recent pop culture with people, they're few and far between, and rarely challenge anything I say.

Pierre 303

15:01

@Incognito: when you are in a group, you must first be very cautious and observe them before taking too much place, or you will be rejected. That's one of the basics of Emotional Intelligence.

@Incognito: If you are not challenged, maybe they are afraid or impressed by you. This is not good.

psychology.about.com/od/personalitydevelopment/a/…

Incognito

@Pierre303 I get that feeling a lot that people are scared to stand up to me or impressed by the broad range of topics I know of (rather than depth in any particular one). I probably meet 20-80 new people per month (just socially, not work), go out and do something with the new people in the next week, but I've recently taken to avoiding the question of what I do, and it ends up being awkward. Either nobody understand what I do, or they think they know what I do. I'd say 1/150 people I meet are ok

Pierre 303

@Incognito: stereotypes maybe

Jarrod

the worst thing you can do is be an elitist about being a programmer - just tell people you do programming for a living, and leave it at that

so, any thoughts on a P.SE blog of late? seems kind of dead-in-the-water

Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen

16:21

@jarrod, agree. It's just a job.

Pavel Shved

O_o no it's not!

Programmers

16:51

0

Q: Background image makes the text into jpeg artifacts when used with citrix terminal client

Not sure if it's due to the background image, but i see the text on few stackexchange sites as a low-quality jpeg, when viewed with citrix terminal client. This is likely due to the usage of bachground image under the text. Please consider using a solid color, if background image is not absolutel...

bug design

Jarrod

17:29

@PavelShved - that's fine, but you don't have to prove it to all your friends and every group of new people that you meet.

Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen

19:00

@PavelShved, yes it is. It does not make you a better human being than others, or anything of the kind

Stack Exchange

19:25

Stack Overflow Blog: Welcome Valued Associate Kyle Cummings!

Posted by Alison Sperling on August 30th, 2011

Kyle Cummings joins the Careers Sales team as Associate Sales Representative in the NYC Headquarters. In this role, Kyle is working to help our employer customers fill their open positions and grow the Careers 2.0 service.

Born and raised in Florida, Kyle is a third generation alumni from the University of Florida. Needless to say he is a huge Florida Gator fan. Kyle enjoys traveling with his favorite trips being to Jamaica, Las Vegas and of course to Gainesville, Florida for Gator football games. Not just a sports fan(atic), Kyle stays active playing rec sports, and spending time out …

Programmers

22:35

1

Q: What can be done about "funny" comments?

I've seen a number of questions where there are a few useful clarifying questions in the comments, and then a funny comment, and the funny comment has several upvotes. once the comments fold, this is going to bump a useful comment away. Is there anything sensible to do about this?

discussion

Stack Exchange

22:47

Stack Overflow Blog: Welcome Valued Associate Demis Bellot

Posted by Alison Sperling on August 30th, 2011

The NYC Headquarters of Stack Exchange welcomes Demis Bellot! As a developer on the Careers 2.0 team, Demis is excited to work on a platform with a large and influential reach. Demis is best known online as the creator of http://www.servicestack.net/ – An Open Source Mono and .NET Web Service Framework.

An avid traveler, Demis enjoys taking photos in lovely locations, which often look photoshopped (like these).

While he isn’t a hobbyist per se, Demis can be easily convinced into a game of tennis or golf. With his multitude of skills, Demis is sure to be a strong contributor to the Dev Team. Welcome Demis! …

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