God kills a kitten. Please, think of the kittens.
And I know somebody who's got a furry body count you wouldn't believe.
Man, been slow around here. I'm a bit down on posting because of a release that's coming in the next week. I'm still trying to get test data in the database. I'd love to whip up a camwhore-like shot of Obama trolling for underage girls on MySpace, but I can't find the time right now.
Anyhow, Roll Call! Post if you give a shit. All subjects... Kinda, I dunno, kinda like an open discussion. Yeah, an open thread. That sounds cool.
Huh? Where everybody, it is? Nobody loves me.
Some amazing information has been leaking out over at FARK about the supposed "melting" of steel and the so-called "collapse" of the government-named "road" in I've-only-been-told-it-exists-but-have-no-proof "California." Below the fold lies madness; below the fold lies truth. Be warned; you may never be the same again.
Breaking: Fuel fire melts steel. Buy stock in tin foil; hat production expected to skyrocket.
Ace on the bizarre occurrence:
Physicist Kip Thorne believes the area may in fact be a "naked singularity," a region in space in which the normal physical laws that govern the universe simply fail to operate. He suggests that the National Guard be activated to surround the area at a "safe distance," in order to keep the curious well away from the site. "Strange energies may be radiating from the wreckage as we speak," Thorne said. "Bizarre forms of radiation, atoms and quarks previously unseen in our reality. Maybe even wizards riding dinosaurs and crazy shit like that."
Shit like this is why I have a man crush on Ace. The guy is fucken hilarious.
Someone just posted on DotNetKicks about what to expect from an interview. We're hiring an entry level position currently, so I recently spent some time thinking about interview questions and the whole interview process. I've got some suggestions you might be interested in.
Obviously, the best source for interview questions is your vanilla interweb search engine. Google is thick with 'em. Browse, read and answer. It will help highlight those areas where you aren't up to snuff.
If you find you suck at .NET, get you a copy of Jeffrey Richter's CLR Via C#. If you program in .NET, you program the CLR. Understanding the common language runtime is essential. Also has tons of info on the ins and outs and implementations of C#.
Back to interviewing... Of course, what youre asked will depend highly on the organization you're interviewing for. If you want to narrow your choices, look into their products and what technologies they use. Ask your interviewer (before the interview) about the position you're being hired for. What will you be working on? What tools will you be using? If they answer web app libraries and smart-client frontends, you know to brush up on ASP.NET and the compact framework.
Personally, there would be three areas that I would brush up on: General programming skills, specific programming skills, and tool knowledge.
For general programming skills, I'm talking about techniques that cross language barriers. For instance, know your patterns. Understand that the event model in .NET is based on the publisher/subscriber model. Know some legitimate uses for the Singleton pattern. Be able to describe the Factory pattern without sounding like an idiot.
For specific programming skills, concentrate on those areas where you are deficient and on those that you will be working on (remember what I said above). Know common patterns in .NET, such as the dispose pattern, thread-safe event invoking, and the "using" pattern. Don't get bogged down in syntax. Any interviewer worth anything shouldn't expect you to be able to write a 100% syntactically correct program without using a developer tool. If you are ever asked to write code on a whiteboard and you're not sure about a particular point in syntax, point it out and state that you are not 100% sure it is correct and would use intellisense to check syntax at this point.
For tool knowledge, review those tools the company uses. These can include program development tools such as visual studio, source control tools like CVS, and database tools like Sql Server Enterprise Manager. If you can, sit down and play with each for a few hours. Open menus and look at what's inside. Do you know what each does? If not, find out. You don't have to know it inside and out, but if they ask you, for instance, what Sql Server Profiler is, you can at least say, "I haven't used it, but it is a program you can use to see all communication between a SQL server and connected clients." That's a hell of a lot better than "Uh, um... uh, er... I think, uh, its um..."
This brings up a final point--you don't know shit. Not in the big scheme of things. Nobody does. You do know a small subset of the big picture. That's okay. Be confident in what you know. If there is anything you're not sure about, don't be afraid to say so. IRL, what would you do if you were faced with a situation where you were unsure of what something was? You would research it. When faced with something in an interview like this, state that you aren't sure about it or that you do not know. Be clear; don't equivocate. If appropriate, describe what your process would be in order to research the point. For example, you might say, "I'm not exactly sure if you can null a struct; I'd have to check my copy of CLR Via C#." Or you might say, "I actually have heard of that situation before, but I've never personally encountered it in my programming experience. I'd definitely consult MSDN prior to making any decisions."
So that's my advice about prepping for an interview. Don't forget: Google "dotnet interview questions" and read/answer them. Brush up on general programming skills. Research the company you're interviewing with for specific programming skills you'll need to study. Know your tools. And don't be afraid not to know something; just be clear and honest about it.
So the big weight loss competition ended at work on Friday. I came in second with 11.something% body weight lost. NotMcGurk on here won first with over 13%. No, we weren't the only ones competing; about twenty people signed on at the beginning, and about ten still gave a shit at the end.
In celebration, I give you a treat: Old Sturbridge Village Oatmeal Cookies. They're the best oatmeal cookies I've ever had. Probably the best of any type cookies I've ever had. Also, they are great as a base for other types of cookies (PB, chocolate chip, etc). The recipe is as follows:
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (mix with whole wheat flour if you prefer)
- 3 cups rolled oats
- 1 ½ tsps baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsps vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 375 and grease two cookie sheets. Cream together the sugar and shortening, add beaten eggs, vanilla. Combine flour, soda and salt and add with oats. Mix well. Put some white sugar in a wide bowl. Pinch off walnut size pieces of dough and roll them with your hands into balls and roll the balls in the white sugar before placing them on the cookie sheets. Bake 12-15 minutes. Recipe makes about 4 dozen large soft cookies. The dough may also be fashioned into long rolls and chilled and then sliced to make 6 dozen thinner crisp cookies.
You can optionally add chocolate chips or peanut butter (half cup of each) for additional flavor.
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I didn't watch it. Today was the last day in our weight loss challenge here at work, so last night I downed three or four saphire and sodies (my preferred method for dehydration), got into beddie bye early and watched "Coonskin" on the laptop. At least I started to; the GF woke me up twice to tell me to put the laptop away.
Apparently, I didn't miss much. Our democratic candidates have no plan for dealing with the growth of islamic extremism other than to go back to September 10th, 2001. Its not surprising. A recent poll ranked people's concerns. It amazingly matched up with the issues the candidates were concerned about:
