ssw1n

Given that it's Veteran day, and the term "foobar" is thought to be borrowed from military term "FUBAR," I am guessing that it is Google's attempt to recruit Tech-savvy Veterans.

There is this no nonsense, star faculty in the department where I did my undergrad.

Urban Legend in the department says that in one of the offerings of his classes, there was this smug student, who would chime in, and comment on the material being presented at every chance he got.

One day, while the faculty was presenting a particularly tough topic material to the class, the smug student raised his hand and asked, "Would it be OK if I ask a stupid question?"

The faculty looked at the student's face, grinned and said, "It is perfectly fine. After all, there is nothing such as stupid question." He paused for a bit, and then completed his sentence. "But there is only such a thing as stupid student."

For a second there, I thought it would be about a Command and Control Bot, and was really intrigued ....

Did the Romanians know it ahead of time?

This ...

What was funny to me was that the author claimed, "Ah, those are just silly, throw-away apps I developed for my kids and friends." at the start of the article, and then jumped to, "I dedicated $500,000 worth of my efforts on these apps!" later on in the article. Well, that escalated way too quickly ....

Also, what is that statement that amounts to "Nobody uses Android in San Francisco"? I found it pretty ridiculous ....

Just curious: Is Amy Ousterhout anyway related to John Ousterhout of Stanford?

If I do not know any better, the first thought that would come to my mind would be: "Wow, this company has really messed-up code base, and people here cannot even get linked-list done right. Do I really want to work here?"

I am sobbing mathematically out of sheer joy !

Of course ! He is THE Jeremy Kun ... :)

It would be hilarious if the seller accept bids for that on eBay ....

It is just to give the "leader" a sense of importance ....

On the next episode, I guess the character Mike will get an offer, and will be asked to move-in to the company house where all 5 employees of the whole company live in the same big apartment?

To me, some important information seems to be missing for it to become a legit brain-teaser: the numbers of rabbits? the number of holes? how does each round work?, etc.

Rabbit Hole and Troll .... :)

Here is a different perspective, all be it in a cynical tone: http://crypto.junod.info/2013/09/09/an-aspiring-scientists-f...

And here's another, with much more objective tone: http://www.pgbovine.net/PhD-memoir.htm

My take on the subject matter is that:

- When getting into the PhD. track, one should be aware of what he/she is getting into, and be prepared for the resulting lifestyle.

- One should have an extraordinary drive (even to the point of personal obsession) to search for answers towards the unsolved problems in his/her field of study despite knowing the consequences that will be imposed onto his/her life by this intellectual journey.

- One should find a PI whose personality clicks with his/hers, and whose research he/she is motivated to work on. It is pretty rare to match these two parameters perfectly, but one can weigh trade-offs, and work with the best available while still maintaining his/her aspirations.

- One should realize that, regardless of popular belief, academia is business with its own business model: understanding the intricate business logic behind the model will facilitate one greatly in his/her quest.

- One should realize that like every human society, academia has its own fair share of personalities and egos, and intrapersonal skills matter, a lot.

So how does it differ from Travis or Jenkins (or any other CI build tool really)?

I will take a 24/7 roaring colleague who roars about all of good and bad to you without reservations than a colleague who will put on smiling face, and back-stabs you when the time is right.

Sadly for most people, it is more about Corporate Culture and Interpersonal Skill and Street Smart and blah blah blah than being really competent and getting real things done.

10 years later, those two programmas in that Brazilian small town would still be recounting to their fellow programmas and friends that:

- There are male programmas in America (in fact, the rumor says that most of the programmas are male) and,

- The strange ritual of male programmas from America is that they start to recite these about 100 strange sounding words, and ask you if you know any of them.

Now, the last reason tying me to Windows is (about to be) gone ....

Good try Facebook, good try ....

It is fully expected, and Gabe probably did not intended this to happen.

It is only human nature: to strive for authority, to build little exclusive clubs around it, and to suck up to such authoritative group of people for a sense of security if one not part of such a group. Decades and decades (centuries and centuries?) of human society has trained people in this mechanism regardless of race, gender or religion. So ValveSoftware, even with good intentions, is fighting against a trait that is part of being human. Regardless of how flat Gabe wants it to be, some people will become more and more important on the part of the company they are working on as their time goes by at Valve. And they will form old-timers club who will feel like they are on the next level, and start to form the barrier from the rest.

Only viable solution towards truly flat structure would be to not give anyone a chance to become an old-timer, a.k.a., one too important/authoritative: recycle people to different parts of the company as soon as arguments like this one arises: "OK group, what you all are suggesting for this product's next phase is really great and all, but we will need to ask Mr. X because he had been working on the product since the first iteration, and he knows about it all, so he knows what is best for the product."

Sequel to the article incoming:

"OMG! I deleted my Facebook account two months ago, and my friends just told me that they wished me birthday on my timeline last night. OMG! Facebook, I trusted you! Why!? OMG!"

Seriously, I love the last sentence of the article: "That is why I may delete my Facebook account. And that is why you should too."

If Facebook will not delete the posts on the Timeline, why is the author still believing that deleting the account will genuinely delete the account? The data you disclosed to the social network is here to stay. The only way you can stop is to not give it more.

Let me add in one:

[6] Fire Safety and Building Security Systems? Yes

I am not a native speaker, and I learned English from movies and TV shows available to me. It is very interesting to see that this idea is being commercialized only now.

It would be really great if options for other languages are available too. I am looking forward to learn French and German. I tried Duo Lingo, but it did not help me much in speech department. From my past experience, it has to be the movies, and TV shows to assimilate the speaking part.

Totally relevant: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1356

gg go next

> I'm not old yet [only 51, software dev. since 1985]

I love your attitude! I am still half your age, but I expect to be rolling and rocking like you do when I am your age, and beyond ! :)

Add this point before yours: whether or not she is taken already.

If you find a smart, sane and beautiful woman doing graduate research, it is highly probable that she is already married or planning for marriage with her boyfriend/partner as soon as she is out of school. (Well, this is from my experiences in Science and Engineering departments. Might be different for other fields.)