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  Coder or Clown?

That’s the challenge. Sit down with someone you’ve never met and try to work out if they are a coder or a clown. I don’t mean to insult anyone, of course, and I’m the first to acknowledge the years of training and effort that goes into being a professional clown. But some coders, oh boy. Like the time I interviewed a recent graduate. I’ll call her Ada. Full of sympathy for the novice programmer I started with a gentle warm-up, a soft-ball question to break the ...

   Coder,Clown,State,Profile,Category     2011-08-28 23:04:46

  A Better Way to Learn How to Program

Learning how to program can be a nightmare. An aspiring coder has to jump through many unpleasant hoops and mysterious error messages just to get "Hello, World!" printed on the screen. Then, she's left wondering, "OK, now what? How do I actually build something?"As game developers seeing someone struggle through this, we should be screaming, “NOOOOO!” The whole thing reeks of bad game design: a lot of work with no reward, unclear failure cases, advanced features pushed on new players...

   Programming pattern,Game design,Derivati     2011-09-19 13:51:17

  In praise of impractical programming

Although it’s become a cultural mainstay now, I still remember when I first saw that thick book — the one with the wizard on the cover — about a school for magic where wonders are easily conjured by those who know the proper spells. Of course, I’m talking about the Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. There was that other book with the spells, but the “Wizard Book” sincerely claimed to teach magic. For the past few years, I’ve been ...

   Impractical Programming,Structure,Scheme,Practical     2011-12-05 12:28:58

  Mount DD image on Linux

Yesterday, my Raspberry Pi running Arch Linux was not able to boot with error: Kernel Panic, not syncing: no init found. I spent a night on it, but could not find a working solution. The last option is easy: reinstall the system. That is really the last resort, for I do not want to re-setup everything I have done: samba server, Time Machine server, Xunlei Offline Downloader… Unable to mount the SD card The system does not boot, so I need to find a way to get into the file system to identi...

   LINUX,DD IMAGE     2014-06-24 07:49:14

  Waking up early, 10 tips that work

In this blog post I am going to cover a topic that I have been occupied with for several weeks now: Becoming an early riser. Getting up early can be a great way to help you establish a daily routine which is the first step to becoming more productive. Here I present you 10 tips that helped me in becoming an early riser. 1. Get up The most important step is to get up. Actually not just get up, literally try to jump out of bed. After your alarm rings get up instantly, go to another room and t...

   Body,Rest,Health     2012-04-11 13:44:34

  3 reasons why Alibaba invests on Sina Weibo

Last night, Alibaba announced acquisition of 18% shares of Sina Weibo with $586 million, according to sources close to the deal, after the completion of this deal, Alibaba will become the second largest shareholder of Sina Weibo and may become the largest shareholder in the future.This deal was supposed to be completed before Chinese Spring Festival, but because Alibaba and Sina had a heated argument about the share holding of Sina Weibo which resulted in substantial delay in the time to complet...

   Alibaba,Sina Weibo     2013-04-29 20:30:05

  The requirements of DevOps development

DevOps has become a popular and commonly adopted software development model in IT industry in recent years. Its popularity is partially because it advocates it could improve software development efficiency, delivery speed and cost saving. This is especially favored by managers who become the main force to promote this type of development model in their companies. However, we must be cautious about DevOps model as well. With their advantages, they also bring challenges to development teams and th...

   AGILE,DEVOPS,SPRINT     2018-06-03 23:18:44

  My favorite quotes from "The design and evolution of C++"

"The design and evolution of C++" is a book written by the inventor of C++  Bjarne stroustrup. In this book, Bjarne stroustrup presents the definitive insider's guide to the design and development of the C++ programming language. Without ommitting critical details or getting bogged down in technicalities, Stroustrup presents his unique insights into the decisions that shaped C++. In this book, some statements are very impressive. They are concise but convey much information. Here I summariz...

   C++,statements,type system,compatibility     2012-07-16 10:58:10

  How to help new joiners involve in projects

Usually when a new joiner involves in a new project, he will spend much time on understanding the background of the project, the current status of the project and the requirements of the project etc. It is very easy for them to get lost in this stage. So to effectively help them involve in the project, we need have some people guiding them, giving them some useful instructions. What should we do to help them? Here are some steps I take.1. Project backgroundIn this phase, I will introduce to them...

   New joiner,Experience     2012-05-05 11:06:18

  The 9 lines of code of Google

Are you still remembering the then hot debated news about Oracle suing Google allegedly copying a small portion of codes from Oracle's Java in 2010. At that time, Oracle experts estimated that Google owes Oracle between $1.4 billion and $6 billion in damages if liable. But the court thought Oracle was eligible only for statutory damages for that copying, which were not expected to exceed a few hundred thousand dollars. At last, Oracle agreed the zero damage result. Are you curious about whi...

   Google,Java,Open source     2014-08-15 20:29:52

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