Messages

61

General Programming / Re: Let's talk IDEs

« on: August 02, 2013, 05:34:18 pm »

The thing is, there are IDE plugins that replicate 95% of the needed functionality in vim. I use IdeaVim for IntelliJ.

Yes, you can navigate around a couple of files with great speed and efficiency using only vim, but that's not where the most significant benefit in using an IDE comes from.

There are certain functionalities that IDEs have that stuff like vim just can't have without either (usually both):
a) an obscene amount of overhead involved with setup.
b) clunky, difficult-to-use interfaces.

Here are a few decent examples that illustrate this:

Let's say I'm using only vim while working in a codebase that's spanned by dozens of projects and there's an interface in a project that's upstream of everything else. How would I go about finding all implementations of that interface? In IntelliJ, I put my cursor over the interface and press Ctrl+Shift+7, and BAM. There's a list.

What if I'm missing an import and I didn't feel like thinking about which package LoggerFactory comes from. In IntelliJ, unambiguous imports are automatically added.

What if I want to move a package into a different parent? Click and drag. That's it. No fixing the package declarations or imports. It's all done for me.

Don't even get me started about the interactive debugger that magically interfaces with code external to the project you're working in (i.e., you can add it as a module and add breakpoints in the foreign code).

I'm sure the guy you worked with managed to be very productive just using vim, but I guarantee you he spent a lot of time doing things that an IDE could've take care of for him.

62

General Programming / Re: Let's talk IDEs

« on: August 01, 2013, 02:27:12 am »

Yeah. I'd high-tail out of any work environment like that. All of my engineering coworkers are within 2-3 years of my age and are all really excellent programmers.

63

General Programming / Let's talk IDEs

« on: July 31, 2013, 07:19:28 pm »

I think those kinds of standards are a little goofy when an IDE can just reformat code to your liking.

We have "standards", but it's really only to avoid conflicts due to formatting.

Depends on the IDE, but yeah, tools are the best way to enforce coding standards.  However, this only works if you have such tools, the tools are configured properly across the entire team, and everyone is using them.

If your IDE can't reformat code, it's not worth using.

Doing those things are much easier than expecting/trusting people to write code to conforming to standards.

64

General Discussion / Re: Let's update!

« on: July 30, 2013, 02:37:31 am »

I think those kinds of standards are a little goofy when an IDE can just reformat code to your liking.

We have "standards", but it's really only to avoid conflicts due to formatting.

65

General Discussion / Re: Let's update!

« on: July 06, 2013, 07:07:07 pm »

Last I remember you were talking about Hampden Sydney and your frat there, and you were a staunch Republican with political ambitions.  Has much changed?

he isnt at HSC anymore. haha.



Sidoh, what/where is SV? Silicon Valley?

Yes, silicon valley. I'm in San Francisco.

66

General Discussion / Re: Let's update!

« on: July 05, 2013, 04:30:58 pm »

Working in SV as a software engineer.

67

General Discussion / Re: Let's hear it!

« on: July 02, 2013, 03:41:42 am »

I often find myself zoning out, and when I snap back into reality, I'm staring at a page that says "No unread topics found since your last visit. Click here to try all unread topics."

It's pretty pathetic.

68

General Discussion / Re: NSA Leaks

« on: June 14, 2013, 01:19:26 am »

By some definition, it's treason. I don't think I'm against it morally, though. The people should have more control over what their government has the power to do.

69

[x86] Announcements / Re: 2013 meetup!?

« on: June 04, 2013, 01:34:11 am »

The thing about that is it's the best place to live. You can't really blame us.

70

Academic / School / Re: Anyone else still in school?

« on: March 21, 2013, 02:37:15 pm »

I'd never say that people with PhDs have a hard time getting a job. I'm sure their task is no more difficult than someone without the extra training. I only meant to say it's very likely not a good financial investment. I know lots of people at those companies, some with PhDs, most without. I don't really think they generally care very much about the PhD.

71

Academic / School / Re: Anyone else still in school?

« on: March 17, 2013, 02:08:22 pm »

For what it's worth: "job security" in software jobs is a non-issue if you're even reasonably good. There are some positions that tend to only hire Ph.D.s or pay a little more based on degrees, but generally they're pretty rare these days. I'd say he's either confused/misinformed, wants to get tenure and slack off for the rest of his life, or is uncomfortable with the idea of leaving academia (most likely).

Getting tenure-track is hard, especially at a half decent university, much harder than getting a secure high paying job.  Once you're on tenure track, it's still a long road to a full tenured position, typically up to 15 more years of intensely stressful and relatively low paid work.  No sane person would go through that pain just to slack off once tenured.


I have seen rare cases of professors getting tenure and seemingly doing very little, but it's more a case of luck than anything.  You'd be better off buying lottery tickets.

I dunno. It is, of course, very stressful, but I'm quite sure there are people who'd pay that cost to avoid having to work hard afterwards. This is especially true if they're willing to work at a university that isn't  "half decent".

On the topic of PhD-level jobs, they are actually quite plentiful, but you have to be in the "right" field.  If your PhD has a good mix of computer science and statistics, and it's from a prestigious university* (it's stupid but sometimes necessary, unfortunately), you're eligible for all sorts of high paying PhD-only jobs, particularly quant jobs at hedge funds, but also full-time "researcher" positions at Google, MSR, Amazon, Facebook, and startups.

*or you have a well known supervisor, or collaborator.

Right, sure. I didn't mean to say they didn't exist, just that the job market as a whole doesn't seem to favor Ph.D.s very much. I'm sure the average Ph.D. starts with a higher salary than the average person with a B.S., but the Ph.D. probably had to wait 5-7 years to start. In that time, the person who's already started has been making good money and has probably gotten raises that make their salary competitive with what the average Ph.D. starts at.

Of course if you're interested in research, you'll have to do one.

Not that this counts for much, but: as for startups, I have a friend who recently finished a PhD at an ivy league school. Her thesis was on machine learning (I don't remember the exact topic), and she took a research-oriented job at a startup. Her salary is higher than the average straight-from-undergrad newhire, but she's making about the same (a little less) than many of my friends who only have B.S. degrees and have been working for under two years.

I think my point is: if you're doing it for money, you probably shouldn't.

72

General Discussion / Re: potential freelance job

« on: March 14, 2013, 04:25:23 am »

I'd say it's pretty hard to come up with any kind of quote without a reasonably well-defined list of requirements. $5,000 for this might be reasonable, but it depends on exactly what you want.

Have you considered recruiting a high school/college student to do some work?

73

General Discussion / Re: Let's hear it!

« on: March 14, 2013, 04:23:30 am »

For what it's worth, I can't recommend staying away from MS Access (et al.) strongly enough. I've heard horror stories of legacy access DBs morphing into hideous monstrosities over years. However simple it seems now, I can nearly guarantee that it'll become more complicated, and it'll probably evolve to the point that it exceeds what access is capable of.

74

Academic / School / Re: Anyone else still in school?

« on: March 14, 2013, 04:15:45 am »

For what it's worth: "job security" in software jobs is a non-issue if you're even reasonably good. There are some positions that tend to only hire Ph.D.s or pay a little more based on degrees, but generally they're pretty rare these days. I'd say he's either confused/misinformed, wants to get tenure and slack off for the rest of his life, or is uncomfortable with the idea of leaving academia (most likely).

I'm pretty well convinced that graduate school in CS is a waste of time and money unless you enjoy doing it for what it is, or you intend to be involved with academic research. It doesn't do much for your starting salary, and whatever it does do is completely offset (and then some) by the opportunity cost of not working. If you're decent, you can pretty easily get 80-100k starting with a bachelors.

congrats on graduating!

75

General Discussion / Re: Let's hear it!

« on: January 27, 2013, 02:23:51 pm »

Uh. He's working at Yahoo! :|