What was your first professional programming gig?
My first and only, so far, professional programming gig is at Data-Tronics. COBOL, VBScript ASP with JavaScript clientside, VB.NET (both console and WinForms apps; not much ASP.NET though). Although, it's not the first time I got paid for code or markup.
If you knew what you know now, would you have started programming?
I'm not sure. Probably, I would, but I'm also interested in and somewhat knowledgeable about the hardware side of things. Sometimes I feel that would be a bit slower: unless there's a problem or new hardware requirements, things could be pretty quiet. It's not that way at our shop, but we've got thousands of systems interacting.
If there was one thing you learned along the way that you would tell new developers, what would it be?
I can't write just one, so here's 2-3:
Learn how to maintain code. Learn how to write maintainable code. They're hard to do outside of a professional gig, but they're important. There is such a thing as objectively maintainable code, but I haven't seen any (including my own) that looked it.
Get used to other people seeing your code. There will always be someone who thinks it's crap, and usually someone who thinks it's good (as long as it works, anyway).
To second Brian, get involved. Even if you don't want to spend an excessive amount of time learning, you should always learn something new. I don't care if it's programming, computers, science, art, or history. The act of learning keeps your mind flexible, which keeps you employable.
What's the most fun you've ever had... programming?
It's a toss up between the final group project for a video game programming course we convinced out college faculty to "teach" and getting a joystick to run a little robot for JPL (it was a summer research fellowship) over a wifi connection.
Tag, you're it!
I'm not sure who to tag with this, so I'll hit some of Brian's up.
July 14, 2008
How I Got Started in Programing, Part Two
How I Got Started in Programing, Part One
I've been called out, so here's a response. At least, as good of one as I can think at 6:10 in the morning.
How old were you when you started programming?
I don't really remember for certain, but I'd say fairly young. Probably by the time I was 10.
How did you get started programming?
I think I got started on either Timex Sinclair or a TI-99 4a. It appears that I'm following a path not unknown to most programmers of that era: I copied down games in BASIC. That's right, I think I had a book of BASIC programs that were just games.
Of course, not all of them worked, and I stopped after a few years - mostly. See, my dad's in the other side of the computer business. He's been a lot of things over the years, but now he's the Technical Support Manager for a state organization. So I've been around a lot of computers.
What was your first language?
BASIC. I remember, in addition to copying down some games, writing some really simple math programs. My first "real" language that I took seriously though was C++. Like Brian, I think this is why I'm more comfortable in C# - although sometimes I wish it would stop asking me for semicolons. Not all the time though, because it's nice to no have to use a line continuation character.
What was your first real program?
I'll take this to be the same question as Brian did. I'll also answer the same way: my capstone project at Arkansas Tech University. In our case, though, they have us do what's effectively "community service" programming. I don't think it ever saw real use, but my group and I wrote a fairly standard news system (and some other stuff - I think we had job listings and profile pages) for the CS Alumni site done in PHP with a MySQL backend on Linux.
What languages have you used since you started programming?
In college: C++, PHP, I think several different Motorola Processor Assembly languages. Real World: VB.NET, Javascript, COBOL, a really weird in-house macro'ed assembler (barely), VBScript. I've dabbled in some Python and C#, but haven't really finished anything in either language.
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I know this is supposed to be a one post thing, but I'm running short on time this morning. I'll finish up this evening.
May 27, 2008
Back Home
Well, not yet, but I'll be on my way back to the Fort later this morning or early this afternoon. At which time realtime blogging will recommence, at least for a day or two.
Read More......May 20, 2008
The Placebo Effect
This really isn't intended to be a post about placebos, but for those not familiar with the term, the "placebo effect" refers to the effect of inert medicine (think sugar pill) or ineffective therapy.
Well, the only reason I could feel as good as I am right now is not because of medicine. Instead it is the prospect of treatment that has me feeling better. Relief at the increasing possibility that the light at the end of the tunnel is really a way out and not just an oncoming train.
Make a Difference
Don't think for a second that I think the world revolves around me, even if I sound like it. It's weird to me that I just wrote that, but I think it needs to be said.
I had a little more introspection this morning and have come to this still incomplete, still not quite there, thought: I want to make a difference in people's lives - and I don't mean the stockholders. I don't think I made a bad choice of careers when it comes to that; it may not be ideal, but it's still doable. What I may have made a bad choice of is exactly where in that profession I made my home. At my current place of employment I may not have much choice (the only areas I can think of that might make a real difference are two of the smaller, harder to get into [IMO] groups).
I'm not even sure that I have the focus to do so on a regular basis - but that may be another problem. I've been growing to suspect over the course of the last year or so that I may have some sort of attention disorder (yeah, I know, self-diagnosis means jack squat). It would definitely explain my lack of ability to stay on task and my very erratic websurfing habits. It also provides the only explanation I've ever seen that makes sense for an outburst I remember from 2nd grade. Of course, it doesn't explain how I was able to survive schooling with as high marks as I did. The only thing could handle the two together is my old frequent caffeine usage. It's not medically recognized as a treatment but it is a stimulant, and in college I had to use some "controlled dosages" to get me through some of my papers.
I hope that doesn't bore or alarm my 3-5 readers (according to feedburner, that's my subscriber count, averaging 3) or any of the 14 IP addresses that have visited here.
May 19, 2008
A Man Falls Into a Hole
So apparently that crappy post from this morning was my 100th post. Hooray?
This guy's walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can't get out.I think I'm going to the doctor tomorrow to try and rule out anything physical. Maybe get some recommendations on who to go see, though I've got those coming out my ears now. Read More......
A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, "Hey you. Can you help me out?" The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on.
Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, "Father, I'm down in this hole can you help me out?" The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on.
Then a friend walks by, "Hey, Joe, it's me can you help me out?" And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, "Are you stupid? Now we're both down here." The friend says, "Yeah, but I've been down here before and I know the way out."
-- Leo McGarry, "Noël", The West Wing
May 18, 2008
Potential Energy
Right now, I'm feeling really weird. It's a feeling I've encountered before though.
It feels like I have this mass of potential energy (energy that could be used for say, hours of programming in that oh-so-special "zone") in my mind that is staying just that: potential. It's almost like it's energy meant for one specific task, but I don't know what it is. When I get like this, it's incredibly difficult to concentrate on any one thing.
I've had this happen as a sort of recurring problem throughout my life. I remember as child going up to my parents and having this conversation:
Me: "I want to do something."
Mom: "What do you want to do?"
Me: "I don't know."
Like I said, this makes it incredibly hard to concentrate. I can't even do my semi-ADD web surfing, it's that distracting. I wish I had the insight to figure out exactly what it is that my brain wants to do.
Know Thyself
Barely making the "time" on this one. I said I'd post something on trust between people and I will. I just need time, kinda.
Suffice to say, where this whole thing comes from is probably my inability to completely trust myself.
May 16, 2008
Hurray for Mornings?
Yeah, not really. I may have been doing slightly better since venting last week, but it wasn't that much help. So in order to avoid another breakdown at work (potentially wasting two people's time on the company's dime), I'm going to try and take it easy this morning.
It won't be another series, but I think I have some more stuff to talk about. Trust in both people and computers, maybe some other stuff. Whatever it is, you'll see it here, obviously.
May 13, 2008
Morning Update
So, after a four day weekend, I'm still not feeling that well. I'd say I'm feeling better than before I wrote my big treatise on why I wasn't feeling well, but that it probably just pushed back the tide for while.
On a lighter note, I think I'm going to do a multi-part review of Lost Odyssey, a game I finished a few months ago.
May 11, 2008
Output, Part 5
This is actually going to be the last part of this. I know I said six parts, but the sixth is really just about software development in general and not about my current situation in particular.
I find that there are certain things beyond my control that still manage to frustrate me. Most of the time I'm able to adopt a certain stance about such things that lets me live with them, but some I just can't.
The biggest one of these is that, at work, we're expected to shepard projects through the entire software development life cycle. Sure sometimes it gets broken up because the person who got the requirements, designed, and estimated the thing has higher priority tasks, but generally speaking we have "teams" with very few team projects - even those team projects we do have rarely require high levels of interaction between more than two people. Ideally, we'd have true business analysts who'd get requirements, designers who do the design, and programmers who work with the guts of the applications. Honestly, I think I could deal with being the last two, possibly even any two of the three, but being all three at once puts a bit more of a strain on me than I'm entirely comfortable with.
Also: we have no standards for automated testing. Currently, most testing is done by hand. Admittedly, this is probably largely due to barely having set foot into the modern era of programming. The company is still a mostly COBOL shop with some ASP (not .NET) and Javascript. Only in the last 3 or 4 years did they start dabbling in VB.NET, and any sort of entrenched business position is going to take quite a while to ramp up to more modern practices. It will take some of our people's retirements before it can ever fully happen.
Anyway, I hope I can find it in myself to accept my current position for what it is, whatever that may wind up being to me.
May 10, 2008
For All Those Who Are About to Rock!
By the time this appears on my blog the following will have happened:
- I will have seen Iron Man (I'm actually seeing it in about an hour - I'm writing this on Friday).
- I will have gone to the Renaissance Festival in Muskogee with some of my friends (you may even see the pictures in my Flickr stream in the next day or two, though we don't dress up...yet).
- At the time this post actually becomes visible, we should've surprised my graduating friend with a party of pizza and Rock Band! I expect there to be pictures of many of us making fools of ourselves after that as well.
May 9, 2008
Life Begins at the Intersection
Alright, time to move into a tangential topic or two before finishing up the tale I've been telling.
I've been a fan for long time of spiritual music that mostly skirts of the edge of naming any one particular religion. I don't know why, but it rings truer to me. This has led me to the likes of Switchfoot, Anberlin, and others like them.
This one's about a dreamIn the depths of a dream the man is offered everything he's ever wanted or needed. But the figure giving the offer is fairly creepy and it makes the deal seem off. (I realize I may not be saying much "new" here, but bear with me)
I had last night
How an old man tracked me home
And stepped inside
Put his foot inside the door
And gave a crooked smile
Something in his eyes
Something in his laugh
Something in his voice
That made my skin crawl off
Said I've seen you here before
I know your name
How you could have your pick
Of pretty things
You could have it all
Everything at once
Everything you've seen
Everything you'll need
Everything you've ever had in fantasies
You've one life, you've one life,This bit isn't immediately evident to me. It subtly changes at the end of the song, though. It's important though: we only have this one life to be who we want to be.
You've one life left to leave,
You've one life, you've one life,
You've one life left to leave
I woke up from my dreamThe man wakes from his dream to find that the offer in the dream was true, and it's worse than he feared.
As a golden man
With a girl I’ve never seen
With golden skin
I jumped up to my feet
And she asked me what was wrong
And I began to scream
I don’t think this is me
Is this just a dream
Or really happening
You've one life, you've one life
You've one life left to leave
You've one life, you've one life
You've one life left to leave
What direction, what directionThis is the first of two parts that really hits me at home. The man wonders what path his life should take. The one he's stumbled into clearly isn't it. But this lack of direction is his "personal disaffection."
What direction, what direction
I’m splitting up, I’m splitting up
This is my personal disaffection
What direction, what direction
What direction now
I looked outside the glassThis has two important points. The man is vehemently rejecting this world of gold, the offer of his soul for all his earthly desires - because, as it turns out, he doesn't really want them. The second, that a heart that's may of gold isn't real, can't beat, can't sustain life.
At golden shores
Golden ships and masts
With golden cords
As my reflection passed
I hated what I saw
My golden eyes were dead
And a thought passed through my head
A heart that's made of gold can’t really beat at all
I wanted to wake up again
I wanted to wake up again
Without a touch of gold
Without a touch of gold
What direction, what directionAnd again, to the part that moves me most. I wasn't actually aware of the "death or action" bit until just now. That makes what comes after even more power: life begins when we make the choice of how we want to live, and make it for ourselves.
What direction? what direction?
What direction? what direction?
What direction? what direction?
What direction? what direction?
What direction? what direction?
What direction?
Death or action,
Life begins at the intersection!
What direction? what direction?
What direction now?
I woke up as beforeThe man wakes up from his second dream to realize that his life is back to normal. You know what? He's figured out that the life he's in is the one he's going to live, and it brings such joy and harmony to him. You'll note the change in the ending lyrics: he's not going to leave this life, he's going to lead it.
But the gold was gone
My wife was at the door
With her night robe on
My heart beat once or twice
And life flooded my veins
Everything had changed
My lungs had found their voice
And what was once routine
Was now the perfect joy
You've one life, you've one life
You've one life left to lead
You've one life, you've one life
You've one life left to lead
Sad that I feel adrift so often, then. Read More......
Output, Part 4
For today (I wrote this all on Wednesday, in case you didn't know), I think this will be the last part of this series. Not just because this incessant worrying has tired me out, but because I'm struggling to come up with more things that have to do with my current situation (I think I've got one more part in me somewhere though).
Ever since High School, at least, I've been a definite procrastinator. Not usually the "get things done the last possible second" type, but more of a "start things when I think I have just enough time" type of procrastinator. To give an example: my freshman year of college, I waited until the last week or so to truly research and write an 8 page (I think, my memory's fuzzy) history paper that was supposed to be our "final" project for the class.
I've worked out a few semi-effective semi-habits for dealing with this (since obviously this approach shouldn't/doesn't work in my current office environment). I call them semi-habits because I lapse periodically from adhering to them. These include a slight auto-prioritizing and self-prioritizing of my inbox, and keeping track of things that need to be done on my whiteboard. It's always a good sign if I can strike one or two the sub-tasks on the board out in a given day. It means that I've effectively used my time (usually) and that I broke the parent task down into at least one achievable sub-task. Unfortunately, not all my tasks are SMART.
Sometimes the procrastination has to do with my social anxieties (I'll put off meeting with users or other developers if I have other things I can work, sometimes even if I don't), sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes I think I have ADD with the way I flit around between ideas and tasks. It's an odd brain I have overall, and I hope that this has given you some insight into it. Now I think I'm going to finish listening to the BSG episode 403 commentary podcast I started earlier.
May 8, 2008
Output, Part 3
One of my friends, a different one from the one mentioned last time, has occasionally reminded me that they think highly of me because I "don't change myself for other people". This much is true, for the most part. I do avoid certain topics around people who've expressed strong disinterest, but that's about it.
What you don't see from that description though: I crave validation. So, I may not change to make people like me but I really, really want them to.
I also don't believe in myself all the time. One of the "slides" on the TV's at the entrance to my office building this week has a quote from Liberace, "Nobody will believe in you unless you believe in yourself." To which I retort in my head, "But how do you start believing in yourself if no-one believes in you?"
I suppose it may be more correct to say that I don't have particularly high self-esteem either, although that depends. In general, I tend to not think highly of myself, but I think the reason that I don't is because of the standards that I set for myself. They're so high, I think it's rare that I ever meet any of them. Admittedly, they may only be too high once you factor in my limitations (see the other parts of this series).
To repeat what I once told someone years ago, this morning I felt that "the world had fallen out from under me".
Output, Part 2
I haven't mentioned that the only reason I'm doing this is because one of my friends thought that if I went home "sick" because of this I shouldn't treat it like I did last time where I just distracted myself for about a week (and took some Xanax, though I still dislike the idea of psychological-use medicating when not necessary). So instead, I'm trying to voice these issues I have, over the medium that has the most potential for advice. So what if it gets me labeled as a "emo" kid.
So last time I mentioned that I have a tendency to try to do things by myself, even if it's not necessarily the best idea at the time. For example, I moved my TV and its stand up to my second floor apartment all by myself (it's a 37" LCD, so not the worst it could've been). Looking back at my admittedly short-so-far life, I think I know why this is.
I picked it up during my K-12 days. I was always one of the best performers throughout my schooling and I was always irritated by how slow some people seemed. I got griped at during "read-aloud" sessions of class because I read in my head faster than another kid did aloud; this meant that when I got called on to read, I may have read the section in question, but I didn't know where the last kid had left off. Anyway, those two attributes combined to make me highly likely to just do all the work if the group I was in didn't have firmly delineated tasks for each member and/or the other members were disinterested in actually doing the work.
That changed in college, when generally people (at least past the first year or so) were as motivated to get things done as I was. It didn't help me unlearn my bad habit though. I'd learned too well that I was the only person I could depend on to get anything done.
This is something I need to overcome as well, but I'm really not sure how.
(edited in prior to publication but after writing: for those wondering, this is probably going to be a 6 part series. I've written and set up scheduled publishing on 4 of them, and have "focus" topics for the other 2)
May 7, 2008
Output, Part 1
As I've said before, I have some major anxiety issues. They've come to a head again today. Those of you who know me well, also know this isn't the first time it's happened.
Obviously, because of my anxieties I find it hard to talk to people. Mostly those I'm not familiar with, but also people in positions of authority above mine. That second group isn't too bad if they've managed to prove to me that they're normal people too. That sounds a little odd, but what I mean is that they've proven their someone who's been in the trenches - someone who's been where there subordinates are.
As an example of the former group: I once spent three days on a couple of beaches in Southern California and it wasn't until the near the time we left the beach that I asked if I could borrow someone's board - after the first day, we were pretty much on surf-only beaches too. For the second group, I only have to point to my immediate supervisor. I'm sure he's a perfectly normal guy who knows what I'm going through - I have reason to suspect he takes a while to open up to people - but I never see much of that (to be honest, I don't see much of him anyways since at most talks to me once a day). Since I haven't connected with him, it's hard for me to talk to him about some of the problems I have. A year and a half ago I had a project that was destined to go way over-estimate, and it took me breaking down - I was basically away from work for a whole week or so of sick-time - to get me to talk to him about, to get some help, and finally put the project to bed.
I've come to a point like that one again. In this case though, I'm don't think the issue is that I need help to bring things to a close; I just need someone to understand where I'm coming from. I work on the project for over a month and suddenly, after one demo with a user, my whole sense of direction on the project is swept out from under me. I haven't been able to find it since, despite the non-result of one poorly organized/unnecessary meeting and suggestions from my supervisor. I'm to the point that I'm thinking maybe it needs a fresh pair of uninterested eyes turned to it for a redesign/reorganization of ideas.
I honestly don't know how to overcome these anxieties, but they're there and right now they're crippling my ability to enjoy life and do my job.
This is getting to be quite the ramble, so I'm splitting it up. Thanks to Blogger's recently added "scheduled publish" option, I should be able to type all of this up and then just schedule the pieces to let themselves out over the next day or so.