Topics

1

General Discussion / What is clan x86?

« on: November 28, 2012, 11:19:25 pm »

It's hard to define it now. It used to be a battle.net clan. Well, a battle.net programming clan. But then you take the 'battle.net' out, and you even take out the 'programming' since not everyone here would identify that way. Some people passed this way through battle.net. Others found the board via the valhalla legends forum (which, by the way, seem to be down), others from friends of friends. What are you left with? A bunch of people who have been accessing the same URLs for some time now. How else can you describe it?

2

General Programming / Advantages/disadvantages of different open source licenses

« on: November 28, 2012, 06:33:24 pm »

I'm looking at the 'popular licenses' listed at this website: http://opensource.org/licenses/category. What are the advantages/disadvantages to each? Are there any big differences? Any major restrictions present in some licenses that are absent in others? Which would you choose?

I appreciate all input. Thanks in advance.

3

General Discussion / Web frameworks

« on: November 03, 2012, 10:18:50 pm »

Two questions. One, are web frameworks worth it? I'm talking about django, RoR, Java/Spring/JSP, and ASP/.NET. Two, which is the most practical and convenient framework for the individual programmer? If I had to guess it would be Python django or Ruby on Rails. But are they really worth learning... or is it better just doing things purely in PHP?

I like to follow the principle of K.I.S.S., and these popular web frameworks seem to defy it.

4

General Discussion / Hi guys

« on: July 15, 2012, 02:54:51 pm »

Hi everyone,

It's been a while. I graduated college and am now looking for jobs. An English major makes jobs a bit difficult - but I was never interested in money. However, it's practically important, and I thought I would rejoin these forums to get back in touch with my programming roots, hoping to find employment as a software engineer, or independent income as a web designer.

As regards these two goals: (1) software engineering jobs and (2) independent web design, I was wondering what are the best languages and skills that I should pick up to make myself desirable? I'm proficient in Java and Python, good with SQL, rusty with PHP/HTML/CSS. I have the good fortune of being able to put already one IT/programming job on my resume, where I worked as a report writer composing SQL queries and outputting the results in an Excel spreadsheet. I worked this job for a year and a half.

So, if you were in my shoes, what kind of jobs would you go after, what websites would you use (monster.com, craigslist, etc.) and what languages/skills would you acquire in your free time to land a gig?

I appreciate any advice. Really, my plan is to travel, and I have a certain contempt for salaried jobs that would threaten to get in the way. I find temp programming jobs very interesting, as I'm thinking about travelling in the winter and spring. This is also why independent web design has such an appeal for me.

It feels good to reconnect! I had forgotten that I had this resource. But I suppose it's a good resource for all of us. I checked my profile and realized I've been registered for seven years! I must have been in this clan for over five years. Wow! If any of you are in the Chicago area, I'd be open to meeting up.

best,
Andrew

5

General Discussion / Laptop won't boot

« on: February 06, 2011, 12:36:08 pm »

I have an HP Pavilion dv2000 laptop with me and it won't boot up. I hook it up to the charger and press the power button and it's completely unresponsive. I've tried holding the power button down but it still won't boot.

Does anyone know what could be wrong with it, or how to go about figuring out the problem? I was thinking that probably the battery is dead. Is this the only thing that can be causing it? I would hate to buy a new battery and then discover that the battery wasn't the problem.

6

General Discussion / Remote Desktop from Snow Leopard to Windows XP

« on: January 20, 2011, 10:42:55 pm »

So I'm trying to remote desktop from my MacBook (Snow Leopard) into my work computer (WinXP).

I installed Cisco AnyConnect VPN Client and I connect to my work without problem.

However, once connected, I don't seem to feel the "presence" of a VPN. I don't see any computers on the network (nothing in the Places drop-down in my Finder) and I can't ping my work computer either.

It's so very frustrating... am I using my VPN client incorrectly? Do I have route network traffic through the tunnel? (Maybe ifconfig route etc.) If my work computer were sleeping / on standby right now, would that be a problem (would it not respond to a ping while asleep / on standby)?

I'd greatly appreciate any help.

7

General Discussion / College Education

« on: January 15, 2011, 11:44:00 pm »

[Inspired by nslay's discussion on college in "Story of a Professional Cheater"]

For those who have completed their college education, how do you look back on it? What are you glad of, and what are your regrets? What did you major in? Do you wish you had majored in something else?

For me, I studied English literature, and I have three more quarters after this one until I graduate. As I look back, I don't know whether I should have majored in comp sci. The jobs I will be seeking will be "computer jobs", whether they be software dev., systems admin or IT. (I currently work a job in IT with a touch of admin. and software dev.) And it would have really given me a leg up to major in comp sci. At the same time, I majored in English because I wanted to do something different, and because I really do prefer to learn comp sci on my own, individually, so that it's like slowly uncovering a mystery.

I know that Myndfyre majored in poli sci / psychology. Myndfyre, are you glad that you did that? Do you have any regrets? They are not exactly the degrees that a software company are looking for in programmers, but at the same time you seem to be very successful and employable as a software engineer.

For those who majored in comp sci, (I just saw all your thoughts in the recent thread about college, which brings this post to mind), how was your experience? Are you glad you did it? How much did it do in your career?

8

General Discussion / Windows 7 vs OS X vs Unix

« on: January 06, 2011, 07:57:12 pm »

Probably a lot of threads like this, but I'd like to hear your opinions.

Personally, I've never touched Windows 7. My experience is in OS X and Unix.

I think that OS X is basically a lesser version of Unix. The OS X layer of Unix is very unremarkable - nobody uses or cares about Carbon, Objective-C, XCode, etc. It adds no functional power to Unix, which is sad because it takes a very powerful kernel as its starting point. What OS X does, instead, is make Unix painless. So it's OK for the end-user but useless in a server-side/software dev. environment.

Unix, in its unadulterated forms (BSD, Linux, etc) is small, powerful, and reliable. Its advantage over OS X is basically

      OS X = Unix + Garbage
      => OS X is worse for all its garbage

Its advantage over Windows 98, NT, XP is clear: Unix applications, unlike Windows applications, don't crash the system when they crash. Windows 98, NT, and XP simply allow applications too much access to the operating system so that, when they crash, they often drag the OS down with them.

But what about Windows 7? I've never touched it. If a process is going haywire, is it able to do a better job disposing of the process than its predecessors? Unix is able to do this by restricting kernel access much more than previous Windows releases... has Windows 7 done the same? I wonder how the boot-up and login speed compare to that of Linux.

Furthermore, how is Windows 7 as a server? Does its size (the kernel + its libraries must be at least twice the size of a Linux kernel) often rule it out of consideration? Clearly, Windows 7 is a good platform for Software Dev, since I've been hearing that .NET is basically the best programming environment (overtaking Eclipse/Spring/Java). But what about as a server? Another thing that probably rules it out as a server would be the security vulnerabilities... from all the application vulnerabilities to something like the NetBIOS spoofing that iago wrote about.

9

General Discussion / USB Cable that Accepts Multiple Video Card Formats

« on: January 05, 2011, 07:17:13 pm »

Hey guys,

My friend is looking for a USB cable that accepts multiple video card formats/brands/etc. I guess it's kind of like an adapter. I don't know much about it, but he says it's sold "like everywhere", and I told him I would post the question on a forum.

Anyone know what these things are called and where you can find them?

Thanks

10

General Programming / Unix disassembler?

« on: December 19, 2010, 02:15:25 pm »

What disassembler would you recommend for Unix? (poke, poke, iago) Also, what hex editor?

I've been using gdb and objdump for disassembly and HexFiend (OS X) for hex editing, but I was wondering if there were better tools.

(I'd prefer free stuff, though I'm thinking maybe IDA is worth it...)

11

General Programming / pcap / packet sniffing question

« on: December 01, 2010, 02:50:45 am »

So I am writing a packet sniffer using pcap.h and I thought I'd pose a question here that is confusing me.

I have a very simple C program that captures packets from my network device in an infinite loop. But for some reason, it only picks up on packets when I create a new TCP connection. So when I open a browser and go to a URL, do a wget, or start up my IRC client it picks up on a bunch of packets.

However, if I already have my IRC client running, it won't pick up on the text messages exchanged on the IRC server. Furthermore, it won't pick up on any packets when I ping a website.

Does anyone know why this is? My guess is that the network programs I am using (such as X-Chat for IRC or ping on unix) are removing the packets from the packet queue as they process them, so there is nothing to pick up.

Do you think my hunch is correct?

12

General Discussion / Web Host

« on: November 14, 2010, 05:43:03 pm »

I'm looking for a cheap and reliable web host service. Any suggestions?

13

General Discussion / Pacquiao - Margarito

« on: November 14, 2010, 02:03:07 am »

Managed to glean rounds 3, 4, 11, and 12 from online viewing.

** SPOILERS **

Margarito got his ass beat. He had his eye real cut up in 4 and even more cut up come 11 and 12. The referee even stopped the fight. 'Are you okay, man?' 'Are you sure?' But Margarito went on like Cotto taking all the pain and punishment with the hope of a one-punch knockout. And he kept getting more and more beat up and he slowed down. Till by the end in the last thirty seconds Pacquiao went full throttle and illustrated the disparity of their conditions, Pacquiao hopping like he did in the first round and and Margarito getting punched around like a bag

14

General Discussion / NBA

« on: November 11, 2010, 02:55:29 am »

Anyone here follow basketball?

I'm a huge Bulls fan as might be expected. D-Rose all the way. Also like the Heat (though everyone else hates them) and the Wizards (I started liking them today after John Wall's triple-double).

15

General Discussion / What are you planning to do this summer?

« on: May 22, 2010, 09:25:01 pm »

I'll be working full-time at a bookstore, and then taking Spanish language classes at night. I hope to become proficient enough in Spanish so that I can read works like Don Quixote, Cien Anos de Soledad, etc. in the original.

I'm also looking forward to attending several classical concerts downtown. I'm going to keep an eye out for anything by Beethoven. I'm also going to try to get into other composers, maybe Bach and Chopin, because at the moment all I can appreciate is Beethoven.

And of course I look forward to late-night shots of Tequila, Coronas on the porch with a book in hand, barbecues during baseball games...

... and I'd like to date more often, and exercise to lose some weight (I've gained a bit these past months); perhaps I could start a biking habit...

Ah, summer :-)