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I will be the supreme ambassador between the humans and the machines!

SinisterPurpose — Mon, 04 May 2009 11:05:21 -0800

What are the possible pitfalls of my new life plan? Okay, I've been accepted back into my alma mater (UWGB) with plans to pursue a second B.S. in Computer Science. My B.A. ended in 2002 with a double major in Humanistic Studies and English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. It has been a struggle to find employment in which my education is viewed as an asset. It's been a struggle to find work in which these skills are even relevant. In short, it's been a struggle.

I have four strong reasons for choosing to do this now. 1) The economy. Unemployment in my area is right around 10 percent and I am included in that number. Rather than hustling around trying to scrounge another unsatisfying job, I'd like to use this time to learn a new skill set. 2) Interest. I have always had interest in technology and programming, but never pursued it at any length because I had decided that I was terrible at math. I no longer think this is the case and have decided to stop limiting myself. 3) Weariness. I am just plain sick and tired of the the constant attempts to legitimize my previous coursework to employers. 4) Self-Actualization. I don't have any regrets and I don't wish to change the past. The pursuit of my B.A. and the places and friendships it has brought me have enriched my personal life in ways impossible to enumerate. But I feel a strong desire to study this field and am actively excited to overcome the obstacles which it presents.

Also, I have strong reason to believe that my previous degree will mesh well with my proposed degree. I see a very distinct and discernable value in the ability to communicate aspects of computer science in the layperson's tongue.

The pursuit of my prospective degree will not be anything like the pursuit of my first degree. There will be no general education classes. There will be no electives. I will be immersed in Comp Sci and supporting Math classes non-stop for approximately two and a half years. It will be intense. But that's kind of what's exciting me about it.

So now to the primary questions: What am I missing? Are there fundamental aspects of programming and computer science which I am not fully appreciating which should further inform this decision? Am I mistaken in my thoughts that the two degrees will combine well together? Do any of you have experience with a radical career course correction?

I look forward to any information you see fit to share with me. Please don't feel hemmed in by the specifics of this question. If you have information, anecdotal or otherwise, which you believe would inform this decision, please share it. If you require further information from me I will be actively monitoring this thread. Also, feel free to use the email in my profile to contact me if you prefer.

Thanks to all in advance.

"Embrace your code with the elegant grip of Python...-" Wait, what?

curagea — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 00:45:34 -0800

An overly romantic person in a non-romantic world... help! Let's start with some background:

I am SERIOUSLY romantic. I think in romantic terms and sometimes want to do something purely through intuition and emotion. It's not like "Oh, thine eyes shine with the stars", nothing overly cheesy, but I'm one of those people who stares at the night sky and dream of the beyond, the city lights, the freeways, and how everything comes together, who's watching from that building across the street. Then I stare down at a stray cat on the sidewalk and think "Where are you going, kitty in the streetlight? Were you searching for the meal that never came?" Or I could go on a journey and never come home, finding enlightenment along the way. Stuff like that. It doesn't help that this romanticism seeps into my daily life so that I view even the most casual banal things in a romantic light ("the car blinkers throb in impatience...").

Which leads to me feeling alienated. Growing up with a huge imagination and no one to share it with, I always felt like the odd one out. I rather stare at the city lights and compose the next poem in my head, but this may happen at a CompSci get-together, the most recent case being a rooftop party for Microsoft recruiting candiates. Since I'm a CompSci major, I encounter a lot of techies, but true to stereotypes, they are mostly "hurhur, GTA!" or discussing tech-related jobs and code. And I honestly can't relate to them, I can't think like them, leading to me drifting off to the side and sitting alone.

Don't get me wrong: I like technology. I can code well and learn programming languages; currently I'm fairly fluent in Java, C/++, Python, and hopefully Ruby on Rails soon. I like following the latest tech trends. But I'm also a very artsy person, in fact more creative than technical, and love to talk about philosophy and other similar subjects like how the human mind works, even if I barely know enough about these things. I want to talk in my "natural" language - full of imagery and description, rather than "That was AWESOME" (which I feel is terribly overused). And I have a head full of ideas that aren't remotely CompSci-related.

Sad thing is, even the more "artistic" people - poets, artists, and writers - that I've met so far don't have that romantic edge that I have. Their world is full of postmodernism (highly unromantic IMO) and increasingly, digital media (by the way, I'm talking about Berkeley). It's like human romance/true love is a dying art or something. So I'm left feeling like I don't belong to ANY group at all, and no one can love as I can. There's a few people that I find solace in, but I'm emphasizing "few".

Am I overthinking? Am I just old-fashioned, a modern Thoreau or Robert Frost or Shakespeare? Am I putting a romantic or philosophical spin in the wrong places? I've long accepted that it's not necessary to fit in a group, that I could even form my own niche and be the sole member, but sometimes.... it gets lonely.

if (a || (b and (c or d)) and (not e or (f and g and h))) then ???

grumblebee — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:24:44 -0800

Comp Sci: What's the best Design Pattern or structure for dealing with a complex relationship between many booleans? I'm working on an app that has a zillion configuration options. I need to deal with situations in which the user choses Option A and (Option B or Option C) but not (Option D and (Option E or F)). That sort of thing.

Using tons of if/then/else's is clearly wrong. It's totally confusing. The State Pattern seems like the right direction, but unless I misunderstand it, it's too simple. It assumes that an app is in State A, State B or State C. What about apps that are in States A and C? In other words, there are 50 options and any combination of them can be on/off.

What's the best way to manage this?

I'm an Actionscript Programmer, but I'm pretty comfortable translating concepts from C-family languages.

Help my friend find a dream job that requires both Japanese and Computer Science!

EduTek — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 21:08:40 -0800

What is the next step for a soon-to-be graduate of a large school in Pittsburgh, PA who has degrees in both Computer Science and Japanese? So here's the deal. My best friend since like kindergarten will graduate from Pitt in December with a degree in Japanese and in Computer Science. He just spent a semester in Japan, absolutely loved it, and wants to go back. What's the perfect career path for him?

Japanese is his true passion, but he is also a very talented compsci major. Current level of Japanese is roughly JLPT 3; also has excellent usage of polite (honorific/humble) speech. I don't know his exact GPA, but knowing him i'd place it between 3.8 and 4. How can he mix both fields?

Ideally he would like to have the opportunity to travel back and forth between Japan and the US, but wouldn't mind living there either. Definitely open to suggestions!

Should he go to grad school instead? Should he enroll in a professional language school in the US (Do you know of any non-university sponsored programs)? Thanks everyone.

How do I write a .Net compiler

Luddite — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 10:22:40 -0800

Can anyone recommend a book (or online equivalent) that teaches the theory and practice of writing compilers, specifically those targeting the Microsoft CLR (ie .Net)? I'm trying to build a compiler for an evil custom language used at my workplace (hideous details available on request.) Lexing and parsing isn't a problem, but I don't really know where to go from there. .Net seems to have a whole suite of libraries to help with this stuff but, again, I don't really know where to start.

Any reading suggestions would be welcome. (I located the source for the lolcode.net compiler, which I suspect is about as simple as it'll get, and which convinced me I should really try and learn the theory rather than just hack my way blindly through it.)

Should I code at a hedge fund?

jobby — Mon, 07 May 2007 13:34:29 -0800

Tell me about being a junior programmer at a hedge fund. I recently graduated with a degree in Computer Science and am looking for a job in the financial industry. I'm not happy at my current job and was recently contacted by a recruiter who thinks that, based on my academic record, I should look at hedge funds. I've interned at a large investment bank before developing backoffice apps in Java and I was quite comfortable with it. How will working at a hedge fund be different from this? What is the typical working 'culture' like? What sort of projects can I expect to work on? How about hours and pay? This is in London, UK. Thanks!

The missing de meets the Big O

langeNU — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 13:59:17 -0800

Given two unsorted lists, size N and M (N < M), how long [ O (???) ] and how much storage [ O (???) ] would be required to find elements in common between N and M (the number of common elements could range from 0 to N)? How would you go about doing this? Is there anything that could be done to improve this time by restructuring the data (i.e. sorted list or something else entirely) and what benefit would this have on the time and storage needed?

Note: This question was inspired by the MeTa meetups sidebar, which says there is an April 12 meetup in "Berlin, DE" which to me could be interpreted as either Delaware or Germany. Fortunately, there is no Berlin in Delaware, but I was curious about how to go about finding such collisions if we had full lists of all towns/cities in 2 places and determining where colliding meetups might be possible.

What books should be on my "personal CS degree" reading list?

jacobian — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 07:33:44 -0800

I'm trying to come up with a reading list for a "personal comp. sci. degree" (along the lines of Josh Kaufman's "personal MBA" reading list). What books should be on my list? I'm already a professional programmer, and I've been doing it for quite some time now. And not to be cocky, but I think I'm pretty good at it; I'm the lead developer in my department, and I'm the co-lead of a pretty successful open-source project.

Still, I never studied computer science (in college I majored in literature). In some sense I think this puts me at a disadvantage — not in terms of hireability or pay grade or anything professional, but when I'm talking to other programmers, it often seems there's a shared vocabulary I'm missing.

So I'd like to come up with a reading list of essential computer science books. I'm thinking big here: I'd like to spend at least the next year or two reading heavily, and I read very fast. If possible, I'd like to put together a list that rivals what one would read in a graduate CS program.

So, hive mind, what should I read?

First programming job

cillit bang — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 09:36:45 -0800

I'm a competent self-taught programmer with zero commercial experience and no relevant qualifications. How do I go about getting my first job? The problem is that everything I've worked on so far I've done by myself. I've done some fairly elaborate things (have a look at Projects), but it doesn't seem like employers care. All the jobs I've applied for have rejected me for lack of experience. They seem to care a lot less about my degree (Media Technology) not being Computer Science, though obviously it doesn't help. It also doesn't help they have no non-programming jobs to put on my CV/resume.

So what do I do? I'd like to sell myself to employers as a useful junior programmer who can get things done, since I'm not really in any position to sell myself as an expert-who-you-must-hire. But the people hiring junior programmers are only interested in recent graduates with internships, and the people handing out internships are only interested in current CompSci students. Am I screwed?

I'd probably be looking for PHP/MySQL/JavaScript/Web 2.0 work (though not web design). I can also write desktop applications for Macs (which no one is hiring for). I know zero Microsoft technologies. This in London, UK.

(btw The answer I'm expecting is "Find a non-profit that wants a website designed". That doesn't sound to me like something employers will care about much, especially if I want to do actual programming. Am I wrong?)

Help me chart the battle against program complexity

koenie — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 11:19:43 -0800

I'm doing some research for a paper about the ways in which computer science has been coping with program complexity throughout its short yet interesting history, and I'm worrying I might have overlooked some fundamental developments. We're not talking about run-time complexity, I'm only interested in paradigms, methods and techniques that aid humans in understanding and managing a given codebase.

Currently, I've identified the following techniques:

Structured programming: restricted list of language constructs including assignment, composition, iteration and selection
Modularization: subroutines, coroutines, namespaces, packages, components, libraries, frameworks
Object-oriented programming: classes and objects, encapsulation, polymorphism, inheritance
Parametrization, templates, generic programming
Meta-techniques: design patterns, coding standards, conventions
Miscellanea: type checking, exception handling, garbage collection

Undoubtedly I've forgotten some fundamental developments in the field. Would you care to enlighten me? Any recommendations on seminal articles about the subject are highly appreciated too. Thanks a lot!