Messages

196

General Programming / Brief refresher on C?

« on: January 23, 2011, 10:10:11 pm »

Google sucks at knowing that I want C and not CPP. Anyway, it's been a while since I've programed in C. Does anyone have a good small refresher in programming C? Preferrably online, not a paper book.

197

General Discussion / Re: One space or two spaces after a period?

« on: January 21, 2011, 02:33:14 pm »

I disagree.  I find the extra space, even in situations in which I'm typing or reading in an adaptively-spaced font, to make it easier to find the ends of sentences and such.  It provides an extra visual clue to your brain even if you're not cognitively aware of it.

I'd say it depends on the medium you are reading. If I'm reading printed things, it makes no difference or the two spaces are sometimes enough to actually slightly disrupt my reading flow. I'm reading x86 on a screen that's ~20" wide. There double spaces makes a slight difference, but I still see it "sticking out" like a sore thumb. Fonts are typically autokerned now to make a single space after a period appear larger, anyway.

That is where I am coming from.  I read an OPED in Texas Tech's student paper where some pretentious douche was whining about this shit, so I decided to post this to my more educated forum people.  And honestly, I'm 24 and learned to type on a typewriter...not a computer...like a fucking mechanical non-electric typewriter.

I noticed in my case books that the authors only have one space between sentences.  Also, recent Supreme Court decisions use only one space.  I guess I should attempt to switch.

A link to that oped would be for the lulz. College op-eds are a true societal gem.

It really depends. Most law style guides I've seen say to single space, but YMMV.

198

General Discussion / Re: One space or two spaces after a period?

« on: January 20, 2011, 10:40:37 pm »

So.. what you're saying is that the single space is older?  'archaic' isn't the right word! 

Age does not correlate to relevance. From dictionary.com (I'm sure the OED has a similar definiton, I'm too lazy to look it up there though):

marked by the characteristics of an earlier period; antiquated: an archaic manner; an archaic notion.

The use of double spaces in regular typeset is due largely to the use of double spaces in monotype. Since 99% of text is not monotype, I say that double-spacing is archaic.

199

General Discussion / Re: One space or two spaces after a period?

« on: January 20, 2011, 07:23:23 pm »

"archaic"?  I don't think that's a good word for this situation.

I use two.  The choice is completely arbitrary, and there are advantages to both ways.

From my understanding, two spaces after a period spawned from the typewriter generation. The monospaced font used was not very clear in what was a broad space (eg those found at the end of sentences) and a regular space, so two spaces were adopted for ease-of-reading. In the modern day, it's font-face dependent. Most fonts that people use on a day-to-day basis don't need to be adjusted.

And, of course, the typewriter generation taught OUR generation how to use computers/write, so they passed down the legacy of double-spacing.

200

General Discussion / Re: One space or two spaces after a period?

« on: January 20, 2011, 02:32:34 pm »

If the period is to signify the end of a sentence, then two.  If the period is to signify an abbreviation, such as in a title like "Dr. No," then one.  No spaces if the period is "at the end of a quotation."  But, you follow the closing quotes with two spaces in that situation. 

MLA and CMS disagree with you. APA is the only style guide I've seen that advocates the archaic method of 2 spaces after a period.

201

General Discussion / Re: College Education

« on: January 19, 2011, 02:08:51 pm »

Yeah, that's not what math is supposed to be like.  Good math courses are the ones that give you a few tools to work with and then make you solve problems on your own.

Don't assume that you'd hate math just because you had one bad introductory course...

To be fair, the class was called "Sequences, Series, and Foundations of Mathematics" so I don't know that it was intended to be a logic/proofs course. That's how the semester started, but the logic aspect was gone after we covered induction. Then it was just rote memorization. My grade dropped significantly after that because I stopped giving a shit.

That's a terrible sample of potential careers for a computer science student/graduate.  IT is immensely different than software engineering, which is greatly different than industrial research.  Just because you don't like being an IT guy doesn't mean you wouldn't like working in industry.

I like being an IT guy, just not how undervalued IT is. I enjoy my job as it is right now. I just can't see myself sitting in front of a computer ad infinitum, if that makes any sense. Software engineering isn't something I envision myself doing either. I haven't done any computer science related research, but to graduate with distinction I will need to do so. I think when I experience that I'll be able to figure out if I want to do a CS-related job.

Also, from what I've seen, the pay sucks and management treats you like shit anyway. A field in which raises commensurate with experience/skill or advancement only come if you constantly leave companies doesn't sound like a fun life.

202

General Discussion / Re: College Education

« on: January 19, 2011, 02:37:11 am »

I suppose I can now actually respond to this thread with a story that only a handful of x86ers know.

I started full-time college as a junior in high school because my school didn't offer the right courses for me and, most importantly, was overrun with douchebags. Because of my upbringing and interests, I wanted to be an MD. All my previous teachers thought it would be  a good academic fit, and it was what occupied my brain since childhood. I started my college tenure intending to get a BS in neuroscience. After a couple of biology classes in which all I did was memorize things, I got irritated. After exclaiming "Fuck it" and throwing my hands up to the heavens, it had already been two full years.

The nice part was that those two years were tuition-covered by the state of Minnesota's wonderful PSEO program. During this time I started doing my first University research (as a lab bitch -- er, "data analyst") and started networking with people that are still my closest friends. In comes my official undergrad career, in which I started as a BS in biomedical engineering. I looked through the required courses, and despite a strong interest in Chemistry and synthesis/materials science, I didn't want to go through all the other prerequisites that would never have grasped my interest. I knew I had to switch. But to what?

This past summer (2010) I switched into the Computer Science program. After breezing through Scheme and Java while gaining official exposure to data structures and algorithms that I would not have picked up otherwise, I knew CS was going to be the best fit for me.

I originally intended a math double major, but after taking a basic proof class I realized I hated it. I can't write "for every n in N" every line, I have better shit to worry about. Additionally, the math that was being taught was just "memorize these proofs and regurgitate these theorems", nothing about the logical approach one should take in dealing with math issues.

CS instead let me blend my love for math and computers and actually manages to keep my interest. I've gone to almost all my lectures, which I have an absolutely dysmal record of doing. The joy that you get from solving a complex problem or debugging a piece of code is unbeatable. Additionally, because I'm so far "ahead" in my university career, I have lots of fre etime to take courses I want. Instead of a math double major, I will be getting a minor in math and probably a second minor in chemistry.

Will I do grad school? I'm not sure. Research and being a professor/teacher sounds interesting, but not with how the country is set up to "reward" those that choose an educational vocation. Will I work in industry? Doubtful. I work as a systems admin and do day-to-day programming for an on-campus department where I deal with all kinds of server issues (both from a distributed computational cluster standpoint and from your run-of-the-mill LAMP/etc servers). It's interesting, but the IT field is going to be absolutely dysmal to work in. With the advent of cheap labor coming in combined with the cluelessness of managers that think IT is just another high-level secretary, it's a hard road.

Still, I have two years (and a semester) to figure out what I want to do, so I'm in no rush.

203

General Discussion / Re: Story from a professional cheater

« on: January 16, 2011, 12:48:43 am »

Are you sure said list isn't suggestive? The suggestion for Computer Literacy at FSU was a course that taught Microsoft Office. However, it wasn't the only course that satisfied computer literacy.

I remember looking through a large course guide book that listed courses and requirements they met. That's how I found Russian Literature as an option to satisfy some cultural and writing requirement.

My undergraduate years were a blast. There wasn't a single course I took that was inherently uninteresting.

I assure you, I understand how my university system works. They have set classes that fulfill requirements based on a review by the Regents / departments. Subtract classes that conflict with other (read: better) classes, classes that sound like a complete tardfest (who the hell really wants to study gender studies?) and you're left with a handful of classes. And I'm at one of the largest universities in the US. I can only imagine what it's like for people at small universities/collegs.

In addition, factor in that many of the more interesting classes have been cut because of recent budget setbacks that cannot afford classes of 30 each semester in a discipline, and college sucks.

I enjoy college. I enjoy the classes I chose. Liberal education requirements are the stupidest shit on the face of the planet though. Sociology, mass communication (I've done public speaking since I was about 7), etc. have not benefited me in any discernable way.

204

General Discussion / Re: Story from a professional cheater

« on: January 15, 2011, 09:24:08 pm »

I mean, for example, my computer literacy requirements were met by a Linux Device Drivers course... Are your university core requirements so strict that you must take only the inherently uninteresting ABC1234, 1235, or 1236 to satisfy X requirement? I mean c'mon ...

Yes.

205

General Discussion / Re: Story from a professional cheater

« on: January 15, 2011, 06:23:03 pm »

I don't think any class I took was worthless or stupid. I always took courses that interested me despite any potential difficulty. You know those cultural credit requirements that everyone tries to satisfy with easy fluff? I tried my hand in Russian literature and (Scholarly) Biblical courses even though I come from the technical side of campus. I took these because I thought they were interesting, not for reasons of difficulty that most people abide by.

If you thought any courses you took were stupid, you wasted your time and money.

For many people, taking advanced courses that don't actually suck is impossible unless they have lots of free time. My choices for some of these required "lib ed" courses boiled down to a handful of stupid 1000-level courses. I assure you, if I had an alternative to "Introduction to Sociology" I would have taken it.

206

General Discussion / Re: Windows 7 vs OS X vs Unix

« on: January 09, 2011, 01:37:32 am »

I was planning to build some computers when I get the money for it... and I was thinking about putting some SSD drives in there. From what I know of SSD, it is a million times faster in reads (exaggeration) but also a good deal slower in writes. Is this true in your experience? Does the time you save on reads beat the time you lose on writes? And is it really that bad on writes?

IIRC it's during random-write that SSDs struggle. If you're doing linear-write (eg: a primary hard drive on which your OS and software are installed) it's still faster.

207

General Discussion / Re: USB Cable that Accepts Multiple Video Card Formats

« on: January 05, 2011, 08:55:35 pm »

It reads video data from a video card onto a computer through a USB adapter. It can accept multiple types of video cards - I'm talking about the memory cards you have on videocameras.

So he wants an SD/compactflash/etcetc card reader?

208

Ender's Book Club / Re: What are you currently reading?

« on: January 04, 2011, 01:38:40 am »

Trust me, I'm the type of person that usually gets lost in the story.  I don't try to analyze everything.  I don't care if the science is ridiculous or grossly inaccurate.  I'm willing to grant all of that without much thought.

It's not the inaccuracy or the scientific absurdity that bothers me.  Some of it is just. plain. goofy.  The chapter when Miro and Valentine first conversed felt like I was sitting in a philosophy class with a bunch of stoned hippies.  It hurt me.

Ah. It's usually a fault I have. It's very easy to go "Wtf is up with this?" and then pull yourself out of a book.

That's really my only complaint, though.  I'm still enjoying the books.

Thanks for the recommendation.  I'll probably try to finish up the series, though.  The silly crap doesn't ruin the book for me, but it certainly makes it a little less enjoyable.

Ah. Yeah, just be ready for super weird shit to happen throughout the end.

P.S., thanks for the recommendations, everyone.

I looked into that first series you recommended, rabbit.  Sounds like my kind of book.  Amazon doesn't have a kindle edition, though.  Very sad.  Maybe I can find somewhere else to get an ebook from.

I'm also considering the following books.  They seem like the kinds of things I should read:

1. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand (already got a copy of this)
2. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Phillip Dick

Any other recommendations along these lines?

Atlas Shrugged is a really long read if you haven't experienced Rand's particular style of writing. For a less pronounced philosophical Rand novel, I always recommended "The Fountainhead".

I'm trying to power through War and Peace. Books in which little happens early on are just death.

209

Ender's Book Club / Re: What are you currently reading?

« on: January 04, 2011, 01:09:02 am »

Mmhm.  That's why I liked Ender's game, and that's why I continue to read the other books in the series.  It gets progressively harder to suffer through, though.  There was very little of it in Ender's Game, there was a little more in Speaker of the Dead, and there's a whole chapter in the first quarter of Xenocide that talks about the "philotic connections between people".

Have you read the other books in the series?

I don't mind the space travel stuff at all.  That's kind of enjoyable, actually.  It's interesting to read about a world that sees the effects of relativistic space travel.  I was actually quite pleased that OSC included those details.  The other scifi details are starting to become a little painful, though.  The "philotic connections", the pseudo-sentient subatomic particles, the details of the piggies' reproductive cycle, and descriptions of the Descolada are getting ridiculous.  I continue reading because I enjoy the bits in between (especially the initially separate story about the girl on Path, the Chinese world), but holy shit that chapter aboute the philotes was fucking paiiinnfful.

I've read the entire series, including the Bean saga. It's probably my favorite sci-fi series. That said, some of the science is a bit ridiculous. I agree. I just say "so what?" and continue reading. It's easy to lose yourself in the story if you stop trying to analyze everything.

If you dislike the weird pseudoscience then you may want to just stop because Children of the Mind (book 4) will make you cry. Start reading the Bean saga instead -- it's full of what OSC does well. The entire saga is about his relationships with people. It has some pseudoscience in there, but it's moreso just to progress the story than as a central axiom, imo.

210

Ender's Book Club / Re: What are you currently reading?

« on: January 04, 2011, 12:46:04 am »

I finished Speaker of the Dead a few days ago, now I'm reading Xenocide.  I'm starting to regret it, though.  The pseudoscience and crappy metaphysics are kinda painful.

I have a Kindle and an Amazon giftcard to blow through.  Anyone have any "must read" suggestions?

The psuedoscience isn't why you read those books. I love OSC's writing because he does an excellent job in creating human relationships and getting you to empathize with a character's suffering while understanding his decision process.

Also, relativistic travel is not really that unheard of. His science is internally consistent, which is more than can be said of other sci-fi novels I've attempted to read.

I love Cryptonomicon.  I read it a couple times, and it's definitely worth the time.

Sidoh, I definitely recommend Jack McDevitt's Hutch series.  Starts off with The Engines of God.  As for a must read...try out Pratchett's Watch series if you haven't already.

I can't power through it. It's just so damn boring and long. Brevity is beautiful.