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I got a few trainees like that, especially the ones right out of the military. They were especially upset about the fact that sometimes you had to make decisions in similar situations that needed different solutions because of very tiny differences.

They really needed everything to be exactly like this, or exactly like that, no middle ground allowed.

I've seen the equivalent mindset in software development as well; and while it is more common with younger, less experienced developers, it isn't limited to them. Some people just have no idea how to look at a problem and break it down into manageable steps for coding, and are incapable of making even basic decisions about how to code an algorithm for themselves ("no, you really want a loop that calls a function here, don't just copy-paste this section of code 10 times"). Everything needs to be spoon-fed, including how to test the module or application once they're finished coding. Sometimes you wonder how they managed to get a degree in the field, and (given that they managed that) why they're still in it; probably just trying to pay off student loans...

The self-taught ones are often better, because they're genuinely interested in what they're doing instead of just "going through the motions". A recent hire at work is a good example -- this guy showed up at a job fair type event, and really impressed the people he talked to. He got invited back for a day of interviews, which went well. Problem was, HR and/or middle management didn't want to make him an offer because he didn't have a CS (or related) degree. Although he wasn't interviewing for a position in my area, my own supervisor was on the team that interviewed him, and successfully lobbied up the chain of command to get him hired. From what I've heard (and from the limited interactions I've had with him since he came on board), he's been doing great. Sadly, he's probably not getting paid what he deserves; but at least he got in the door.

Millennials have an inborn sense for what I had to learn from experience: There is no job security. So some of that fear is justified, really.

Although the new (to the US) concept of "losing face" is mostly a SJW thing and they have only themselves to blame for fear-of-offending. The job thing, though - sadly that's legit.

just brew it! wrote:

The self-taught ones are often better, because they're genuinely interested in what they're doing instead of just "going through the motions". A recent hire at work is a good example -- this guy showed up at a job fair type event, and really impressed the people he talked to. He got invited back for a day of interviews, which went well. Problem was, HR and/or middle management didn't want to make him an offer because he didn't have a CS (or related) degree. Although he wasn't interviewing for a position in my area, my own supervisor was on the team that interviewed him, and successfully lobbied up the chain of command to get him hired. From what I've heard (and from the limited interactions I've had with him since he came on board), he's been doing great. Sadly, he's probably not getting paid what he deserves; but at least he got in the door.

This gives me hope for the future, because self-teaching is how I got myself started. My boss's equivalent on the other product was not enthused with the idea of giving what's become my job to someone with no professional experience, but it's worked out pretty well over the last (almost) two years, and good experience with me has made him open to the possibility of continued growth.

I guess I'll have a little extra leg up because if this does wind up stagnating and I feel like I have to move on, I'll at least have several years of experience by the time I finish my 2-year degree.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bonnie-tyler-to-sing-total-eclipse-of-the-heart-on-eclipse-w498094

Unfortunately it'll be on a cruise ship, but still quite amusing to me.

The Egg wrote:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bonnie-tyler-to-sing-total-eclipse-of-the-heart-on-eclipse-w498094

Unfortunately it'll be on a cruise ship, but still quite amusing to me.

I can no longer hear that song correctly.

ludi wrote:

I can no longer hear that song correctly.

OMG, that's fantastic!

Another way to know you're a nerd: Surfing Amazon in the middle of the night for neodyium magnets, and getting super excited to find magnets small enough to be inset in a 2x4 that are pre-drilled with a countersunk hole.

Peeve of the day, people who go into self checkout with an over flowing cart of items. It's simply not designed for that.

For what appears to be the first time ever, real fresh frozen ice cream has been delivered to orbit.

http://www.sciencealert.com/spacex-just ... -ice-cream

I could see missing ice cream when locked in a SPAM can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHMzKNR7iWc

A 55 minute vid on how Blues Brothers got made.

But but, freeze dried ice cream is awesome... and now i want some.

Bob save me. Wife's work moved the holiday party to tonight given the merger and impending layoffs. The theme is a tropical cruise. I'm stuck listening to bad 1980’s Paul Simon music while watching DVD copies of Love Boat. Even worse, I'm the driver.

Captain Ned wrote:

Bob save me. Wife's work moved the holiday party to tonight given the merger and impending layoffs. The theme is a tropical cruise. I'm stuck listening to bad 1980’s Paul Simon music while watching DVD copies of Love Boat. Even worse, I'm the driver.

You have my sincere sympathies. At least you've clearly managed to get a little surreptitious web surfing in.

Had 5 lbs of pork chops in the freezer that were starting to look a little freezer burned. Decided to make filling for Asian-style pork tacos in the crockpot with them today. The tacos were a big hit with the family.

just brew it! wrote:

You have my sincere sympathies. At least you've clearly managed to get a little surreptitious web surfing in.

The event is at a local university commons, so I have space to get out of the intolerable noise and post my bon mots. SWMBO is actually sympathetic to my distaste for these gigs and lets me just hover on the fringes while I try to keep the noise from ruining my brain.

Came over the wire while I was out. Paul Allen and his cubic dollars have found the wreck of CA-35 USS Indianapolis over 18,000 feet down.

https://news.usni.org/2017/08/19/uss-in ... kage-found

Most younger than I know it only for Quint's soliloquy in Jaws. Those of my age remember that it carried the U-235 for Little Boy (Hiroshima) to Tinian. May CAPT McVay and the rest of his fallen comrades slumber more easily tonight.

The Navy Hymn is appropriate here.

Captain Ned wrote:

Came over the wire while I was out. Paul Allen and his cubic dollars have found the wreck of CA-35 USS Indianapolis over 18,000 feet down.

https://news.usni.org/2017/08/19/uss-in ... kage-found

Most younger than I know it only for Quint's soliloquy in Jaws. Those of my age remember that it carried the U-235 for Little Boy (Hiroshima) to Tinian. May CAPT McVay and the rest of his fallen comrades slumber more easily tonight.

The Navy Hymn is appropriate here.

Wow.

A sad farewell to the Asus P8Z68-V LE which had been hosting an un-overclocked i5-2500K for the past six years. Supposedly supported Ivy Bridge CPUs, but refused to boot with i7-3770S when I attempted an eBay-sourced upgrade, then started refusing to POST with a memory error LED lit even with the original CPU installed. Guess it was on its way out and I pushed it ahead by a few months when moving hardware around.

Replaced with a 4yo Gigabyte something or another that was pulled from inventory at the office some time ago, and said i7-3770S. Naturally, Windows activation has completely locked up, and this machine has a local account, so the online resolution is no-go. Looks like I'm calling the Answer Desk tomorrow during business hours.

For reference c.f. Indy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO60RohuARY

Hopefully, the ship is far enough down to avoid the metal scavengers.

Thank Bob for the years I spent teaching daughter the STEM stuff she never would have received in K-12. She was talking about tomorrow's eclipse and I informed her of the 8 APR 2024 total eclipse for which my house is in the path of totality. A few orbital mechanics discussions ensued (especially on the elliptic nature of orbits) and, on her own, without any prompting, she paraphrased Kepler's Second Law. She's a theatre geek, never taken an astronomy class in her life, and regularly failed to turn in her math homework in K-12, yet she groks Kepler's Second with no prompting?? I have her web logs. It's nothing she's ever looked up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7Jwde4EAVw

This is what happens when you put a 180HP motor in a Piper J-3. They call it a STOL competition but, from my POV, that's pretty much VTOL

You know you're getting old when the highlight of your week is that you finally switched to 90 days prescriptions and get to save a few pharmacy stops.

Heiwashin wrote:

You know you're getting old when the highlight of your week is that you finally switched to 90 days prescriptions and get to save a few pharmacy stops.

Hah, that's not old! You really know you're old when you realize you qualify for the "senior discount" at places like IHOP. Yup, I'm there. And it's a little disturbing.

TIL... Algeria and Chile have military satellites in orbit. Mildly surprising.

And North Korea has as many submarines as the US. (Though ours are nuclear-powered, and theirs are not.)

Nerd Rage: When your employer announces that all employees can download a free copy of the "Blockchain For Dummies" eBook, but it is discovered that it isn't the original well-reviewed "For Dummies" version, but a special (as in, completely different, by a different author) company-specific version for which they've apparently licensed the "For Dummies" branding from Wiley (the trademark owner).

What a weird and confusing thing to do.

Really had one of the internal developer Slack channels going this afternoon.

Business people are weird.

Even though I've been building software for a living for 10+ years now, I realized the other day I'm just not interested in moving up the tree, running a team, and yadda yadda. I just want to build stuff.

That's gotta be frustrating.

The opposite of frustrating is my eBook experience yesterday. I had bought the Kindle version of one of my textbooks (Linux command line, the topic of this thread). Yesterday the class went live on Blackboard and the first announcement stated that you could just download the current version of the eBook (third edition) for free, apparently, since it was released under the Creative Commons license (not sure if there are multiple, so I linked the one the instructor sent). Fortunately I was in that window where Amazon would let me return the book and I'm now $31 wealthier.

Redocbew wrote:

Even though I've been building software for a living for 10+ years now, I realized the other day I'm just not interested in moving up the tree, running a team, and yadda yadda. I just want to build stuff.

I've been doing it for 30+ years now. Ran a small team for a while, many years ago; wouldn't mind doing that again, but wouldn't want to move up into middle management, and TBH I'm perfectly happy being a "Senior Software Engineer" (or equivalent), with no responsibilities for managing other people outside of providing technical guidance.