The 2nd Monitor

Legato

22:00

Hopefully not reading skills, amirite?

nhgrif

I've not. But after one interview... and with interaction with people in general...

Legato

Oh okay. not-crazy

nhgrif

The thing I'm most trying to assess, personally, isn't how talented the person is... but how much babysitting they will need.

It's impossible to tell purely in an interview...

But a programmer who gets a project done in 2 weeks is better than one who gets it done in 4 weeks, right?

But how about a programmer who gets it done in 2 weeks, but consumed 1 week's worth of another programmer's time?

Especially if that other programmer could've just finished the project in 1 week?

I prefer the programmer that took 4 weeks and did it on his own to the programmer that took 2 weeks + 1 week of someone else's time.

Simon André Forsberg

@Legato I think @janos is a better person to ask at than I am. Also @rolfl. I have never interviewed anyone in my life. And so far, it doesn't feel like I have been to any "real" interviews. Only been "interviewed" for a programming job once, but didn't have to write any code (I still got the job though).

Manny Meng

Looks like the N queens problem is back:

0

Q: Arranging 8 queens on an 8x8 board

Print all the ways of arranging eight queens on an 8x8 board. Rules: Queens should not share the same row, column, of any diagonal. Any comment on my solution? I didn't write unit tests but I checked visually the solutions. public class solution { public static void printMatrix(char[][...

Simon André Forsberg

22:05

@Legato If I would interview someone though, I think I would look for someone who "knows what they're doing".

Captain Obvious

0

Q: Dying in Flappy Bird Type Game in Swift

Im trying to make a flappy bird type game in swift. The game runs fine now but there is no way for the the game to end. Unlike the normal flappy bird game i want the game to end when the when the bird leaves the screen to the left so i set up a node called offScreen. I would like the game to rest...

swift sprite-kit

rolfl

Interviewing is complicated, and depends on your role in the process.

When I have been in interviews, my purpose was to assess how the person ranks in comparison to the existing team.

Will they fit in, do I think they will work in the team dynamics.

janos

@Legato for junior Java programmer: loves to code, knows the most commonly used interfaces and implementations of collections, and their differences. Can explain the difference between database and csv file. Can communicate well. Passes the fizzbuzz test and simple SQL. It's a far cry from what I'd really like to see ("smart and gets things done"), but this is about the budget where I am. Sadly almost nobody I've seen knows the basic maven commands and branching and merging with version control

3

rolfl

That includes things like whether they will be able to catch up and learn and change at the same rate as the others.

nhgrif

The interesting thing is... the guy I interviewed today has a BSBA in Information Systems with an ERP focus...

He'd probably actually understand the user-end of the software I write better than anyone else that already works here...

janos

22:10

Candidates must write code at the interview, Java + SQL. But it's simple (fizzbuzz + simple SQL: simple select with JOIN, and a COUNT with GROUP BY)

nhgrif

We did a select with join, an update, and a sum today.

janos

The homework assignment filters out a lot, and saves wasted interviews

Simon André Forsberg

@janos That makes me wonder, is it us who knows to much, or everyone else who knows too little?

janos

we have to keep in mind that we're not juniors anymore

Simon André Forsberg

@janos I can imagine that. I can imagine a lot of people failing especially on the JUnit part.

@janos I don't think I've actually, technically, been a junior. At least not employed as one.

janos

22:13

we also have to factor in that the best candidates will find better places

Simon André Forsberg

Although when I was in Gothenburg and worked briefly, I did get called junior once. I guess perhaps I was a junior. Especially as I wasn't doing Java.

@janos that is true. or the better places find the best candidates...

recruiters

janos

once in a while recruiters send us homework solutions from non-juniors. The difference is often spectacular

nhgrif

0

A: Multithreading in a 2D Mining Game

Personally, I don't really care for Grand Central Dispatch. I prefer NSOperationQueue. Although, if I'm honest, I'm not sure what the performance difference (if any) there exists between the two. To me, NSOperationQueue just looks cleaner. But with that said, I do see some problems. For exam...

Well, I'm not in charge of doing the advertising for the position... but I've only had 4 resumes sent to me.

One of them... I don't know why his was sent to me... and he didn't show up today, so it's just as well.

One of them was the guy I mentioned having interviewed today.

Another, I think we're scheduling an interview for, he might be okay...

but it's been 12 years since he's had any actual programming work experience... if he's not a hobbyist, he'll almost certainly be too rusty... and he says he wants to be an IT manager... but that's the position he already has... so... I don't know...

And the 4th, well... we're on a budget, and he won't even give us a price range in terms of what kind of salary he's looking for. I don't know if we'll go any farther with him.

Simon André Forsberg

@nhgrif and I guess an IT manager is not really who you're looking for...

nhgrif

No, we need a developer.

janos

22:19

that's a clear no then

Hosch250

Where are you located?

nhgrif

I think he could potentially satisfactorily fill the job... but I don't want to hire an IT manager who wants to be an IT manager as a developer...

Hosch250

If you are anywhere near MN, would you need an intern next year?

nhgrif

We're no where near MN.

Hosch250

OK.

nhgrif

22:20

We're in Fayetteville, AR.

Although, we'd be totally open to hiring an "intern"

As in... someone who works part time and gets paid part time... but is working as a developer... and if we like them, we'll offer a full time position.

Hosch250

I'd love to come down, but my parents want me to get a job where I can live at home to save expenses (unless it would pay enough to cover most/all expenses).

Don't think I'm advanced enough, but I learn quickly.

janos

the fact that you guys are here definitely puts you ahead of the bunch

Legato

Wow guys. Thank you so much.

I may take on your homework assignment as a programming challenge @janos

Hosch250

I am getting an IT Manager BS, but I don't want to be an ITM.

nhgrif

The owner also isn't opposed to hiring someone with 5-10 years experience and paying what he thinks someone with 5-10 years experience should be paid.

Hosch250

22:23

I want to develop.

Legato

Why aren't you CS?

Hosch250

The U of MN only has ITM online for computer classes.

bazola

@nhgrif thanks for the answer! the work that is happening on that background queue is the loading of all of the chunks from disk, or creating them if they don't exist on disk

Hosch250

Seriously, I've learned more in a day or two debugging than I have in entire classes here.

nhgrif

For the record, a "Flappy-bird-type-game" will never make it passed app-store review. — nhgrif 5 secs ago

Simon André Forsberg

22:25

@janos totally agreed. CR users are likely better than non-CR users.

Legato

^ facts

nhgrif

@Hosch250 That's kind of ironic...

Hosch250

Isn't it?

Simon André Forsberg

@nhgrif really? Isn't there a bunch of flappy-bird style games already on iOS?

Hosch250

I should go work at the local Starbucks and get a degree from the U of Arizona.

nhgrif

22:26

@SimonAndréForsberg There are. There aren't any new ones.

Hosch250

They have CS.

nhgrif

Apple will shut down clone games when they get too bad.

Hosch250

Good for them.

I wonder, is Android buried in clones?

Simon André Forsberg

@Hosch250 Android doesn't have the same filter as iOS has. Android apps are automatically approved instantly.

Hosch250

Whoa.

Simon André Forsberg

22:29

And then taken down after publication if they break guidelines.

nhgrif

Article 2.11 from the App Store submission guidelines

> Apps that duplicate Apps already in the App Store may be rejected, particularly if there are many of them, such as fart, burp, flashlight, and Kama Sutra Apps

Hosch250

Windows Store apps have to pass a malware filter and a couple other filters, but they also have a fair amount of clones/bad apps.

janos

anyway, TTGTB, see you guys later

Hosch250

See you.

Simon André Forsberg

There are ~~thousands~~ hundred-thousands of crappy apps on Android.

Hosch250

22:30

MS will remove apps when they receive complaints, and they scan periodically for bad apps.

Simon André Forsberg

@nhgrif I pretty much read that as: "such as wtf, wtf, wtf, and wtf Apps"

nhgrif

Article 3.1

> Apps or metadata that mentions the name of any other mobile platform will be rejected

Article 3.11

> Apps that recommend that users restart their iOS device prior to installation or launch may be rejected

Article 8.4

> Apps that misspell Apple product names in their App name (i.e., GPS for Iphone, iTunz) will be rejected

This one is actually new... I haven't seen it before...

Article 14.2

Hosch250

3.11 and 8.4 are perfectly reasonable.

nhgrif

> Professional political satirists and humorists are exempt from the ban on offensive or mean-spirited commentary

Hosch250

3.1 I bet would not stand in court.

nhgrif

22:35

What?

How is court even relevant?

Being in the app store is a priviledge--not a right of any sort.

Hosch250

I guess.

But, there are anti-monopolistic laws that might apply.

nhgrif

Your rights aren't infringed by Apple rejecting your app from their store.

There aren't--not to this scenario.

You couldn't make a product and put "KMart" and "Target" on the packaging and expect Wal-Mart to sell it in their stores.

Hosch250

Of course not.

nhgrif

This is the same thing.

Simon André Forsberg

@Hosch250 It's not about monopoly. You are still free to submit your app to other platforms. You just shouldn't mention "Android" in your iOS app.

Hosch250

22:37

Not quite.

nhgrif

Exactly.

It's the exact same thing.

Hosch250

Suppose I write the "History of iOS"

nhgrif

That should be on the iTunes book store--not an App.

Hosch250

I would have to mention the competition of Android at a minimum, so my app would get rejected.

nhgrif

So you'd be rejected for other reasons.

Legato

22:38

@Hosch250 It's the exact same thing.

Hosch250

OK.

nhgrif

At still, at the end of the day, it's their app store.

It's up to them what to put on the shelf.

Simon André Forsberg

You don't have to like it, you just have to agree to it.

nhgrif

Wal-Mart could choose not to put a book called "The History of Wal-Mart" on its shelves if they didn't like it.

Legato

@Hosch250 Having a section in history that's related to a competitor is different than package what you're selling with the competitor's name on it.

Hosch250

22:39

@Legato They ban both.

nhgrif

The book would be disallowed because it's a book--not an app.

It's not really relevant to discuss whether they'd ban a book submitted as an app for any reason other than it isn't an app and shouldn't be submitted as such. Do you have a better example?

Hosch250

However, Walmart probably wouldn't ban a book on the history of Corporate America because it mentions Target or KMart.

If they chose not to sell it, it would be for other reasons.

Apple is different, but its their store...

Well, not at the moment.

nhgrif

How is it different?

Hosch250

Given that books aren't allowed anyway, there shouldn't be any situation like this.

nhgrif

They're not "banning" books.

They're choosing whether or not to put them on the shelf.

You make decisions on what to put on your shelf based on what earns you the most profits.

Hosch250

22:41

Exactly.

Legato

I don't even get what you're arguing.

nhgrif

If a particular book will lead to your customers shopping at other stores instead of yours, that book is insanely non-profitable for you, and you won't put it on your shelf.

What Apple is doing is the same--except for Apps.

Hosch250

Yeah.

Legato

...

Captain Obvious

0

Q: Making my CSS effects work in Jquery function

I wanna apply jQuery effect on my website, when you hover over title that it will fade - half opacity and my list hidden list menu will appear. The code seems to work but not together. Thanks for any help <script> //Fade effect when hover over and display list menu $(document...

jquery html css

Manny Meng

22:56

3

Q: Arranging 8 queens on an 8x8 board

Print all the ways of arranging eight queens on an 8x8 board. Rules: Queens should not share the same row, column, of any diagonal. Any comment on my solution? I didn't write unit tests but I checked visually the solutions. public class solution { public static void printMatrix(char[][...

java algorithm programming-challenge recursion

Anyone want to pick on it for its lack of tests? ^^^^

I've had enough of answering it...

Jeroen Vannevel

23:14

> class StandardShip extends EntityObject

Might as well call it EntityObjectBaseTypeClass

rolfl

C++ person here?

Duga

Code dumps don't really do well on Stack Overflow. Is there a particular piece of this code that you know has a bottlekneck? Can you describe your methodology so that we don't have to sift through your code to figure it out? Maybe try on Code Review Stack Exchange. — zero298 9 secs ago

Simon André Forsberg

@JeroenVannevel what code is that?

Jeroen Vannevel

-1

Q: Unusual bad program performance in Java

I'm a novice programmer, I'm make my first game in Java, and I just implemented a target AI, and now whenever I run it, always lags at start, I would like a explanation on why please or a way to do this better, Thank you in advance. Code:(for what is most Likely causing the lag) public class H...

java performance for-loop optimization arraylist

Simon André Forsberg

@JeroenVannevel I am surprised no one directed it to... oh wait, they have.

Legato

23:22

They did? Where do you see that?

Nevermind.

Jeroen Vannevel

kikm bevermund to you too

Legato

I love how SO is the only site that complains about voting in any way.

Simon André Forsberg

@Legato Oh we've complained here as well.

Legato

In an automated sense?

I'm curious what you mean regardless.

Simon André Forsberg

May 26 '14 at 16:59, by Mat's Mug

guys no pressure, but VOTE LIKE IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO BREATHE

Dec 11 '14 at 14:31, by rolfl

Vote, people, vote. Why are people answering questions with answers that say things like: You did well. ... but the question has score 0?

Legato

23:26

I meant the other way around! You vote on answers in SO, it complains you need to vote more on questions.'

Simon André Forsberg

Oh

I've had that happen to me here as well.

Hosch250

It is because of your vote ratio.

Legato

Answers just tend to be way better than questions, it still makes sense to vote on the questions too, of course.

Hosch250

68 answers to 7 questions.

Legato

Most questions are like the one simon linked.

Hosch250

23:27

Well, find some good ones.

If you ever learn anything because of a question, vote on both the question and the answer.

2

Legato

It was a bad question, but it featured someone who answered it anyway.

Noo.

Simon André Forsberg

You don't have to upvote, just... vote!

Captain Obvious

1

Q: BackgroundWorker and Task usage in WPF

I have this code running in many places, Background thread with dispatcher calls and Task for a loop of objects which needs to be pushed on to UI for rendering which elements are bound to a control using data context. Could you please review and comment this approach? If there are any efficient w...

c# .net wpf

Simon André Forsberg

Vote down all the off-topic questions, for example.

Legato

Even though you don't want to delete an off-topic question on CR because someone already gave it a great answer, doesn't mean you should up vote the off topic question

Wait @Hosch250 You've seen my votes!?

Vogel612

23:29

@SimonAndréForsberg That's a waste of good votes...

Thered cv / flagging for that

Simon André Forsberg

@Vogel612 No vote is a waste.

Hosch250

They are listed on your homepage.

Vogel612

But if you're not getting to DVLR then it might be an option.

Not that I should talk...

Hosch250

I used to DVLR daily.

Not lately, but I did today.

Vogel612

It's been months since I dvlrd....

Jeroen Vannevel

23:30

> 2,077 up - 4,319 down

Downvote that crap

Legato

LR?

rolfl

Daily vote limit reached

Hosch250

But don't lose your ability to vote!

Vogel612

@JeroenVannevel that SO stats??

SirPython

@Legato Nice new profile picture

Jeroen Vannevel

23:31

@Vogel612 yes

Legato

Oooh, thanks @rolfl, and thank you @SirPython

Vogel612

Meh... I am flagging much more than downvoting.... I think I got more helpful SO flags than downvotes..

And it's true.. 439 helpful flags.. 300 and a bit downvotes...

Well after the deleted posts were removed I think...

Hosch250

Does this look like stub code to anyone?

1

Q: BackgroundWorker and Task usage in WPF

I have this code running in many places, Background thread with dispatcher calls and Task for a loop of objects which needs to be pushed on to UI for rendering which elements are bound to a control using data context. Could you please review and comment this approach? If there are any efficient w...

c# .net wpf

Jeroen Vannevel

2797 helpful flags, 30 declined here. 514 helpful/6 declineds for comments

Captain Obvious

0

Q: F# Command Dispatcher for messaging using MailboxProcessor

The purpose This code is intended to process commands in a CQRS+Messaging system. It will parallelize the message processing to the degree you specify by the msgToIdFn parameter. The function's intention is to extract the target ID from the command message. This will be used to correlate all mes...

f#

Vogel612

23:35

@Hosch250 no... the indentation is too messed up.

Hosch250

OK, because they have a ton of if and loops that do nothing.

Vogel612

There's just little context though.. why not just add a comment askibg for more context?

Okay who's shooting at my answers that are close to badges??

Duga

If this code is fully working, you could post this over at Code Review. — Hosch250 1 min ago

This might be a starting point for you codereview.stackexchange.com/questions/46751/…. — Pete 1 min ago

mjolka

23:51

@Hosch250 it's broken code, won't compile afaict

Hosch250

@mjolka OK. I specified fully working.

I don't know jQuery.

mjolka

@Hosch250 sorry, not that one, the c# one

1

Q: BackgroundWorker and Task usage in WPF

I have this code running in many places, Background thread with dispatcher calls and Task for a loop of objects which needs to be pushed on to UI for rendering which elements are bound to a control using data context. Could you please review and comment this approach? If there are any efficient w...

c# .net wpf

Hosch250

Oh, that one.

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