airfoil

You might also want to check out Haxe NME (http://www.haxenme.org/) since it targets html5. Haxe may be a good fit since you're familiar with ActionScript.

Solutions to selected exercises can be found at:

http://www2.algorithm.cs.sunysb.edu:8080/mediawiki/index.php...

Also, the course page has some interesting stuff as well (links to assignments, lectures, etc.):

http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~skiena/373/

One great source of Emacs knowledge: http://www.emacswiki.org/

I'm sure there are other info sources, but the wiki has proven to be incredibly helpful for me over the years.

Agree. Some of my best coding and problem solving was done when I was pacing around my office while playing with a stress ball. Sitting in front of the computer is my least productive spot for solving problems. I code best when pacing around, in the shower, or driving...

I started off doing software tech support. While doing support I built tools to streamline and automate things. Managers took notice and offered me a job where it was a blend of coding, system analysis, and handling escalated support issues. I automated pretty much everything in that job as well. At that point I had some useful experience on my resume so I started interviewing for "pure" software engineering jobs.

I've been a software engineer for the last 10 years. No CS degree (though I did study engineering), but I love building stuff and I think that passion came through in my interviews.

I think it depends on what you're trying to learn from your MVP. If you can get the data and feedback you need without building tests then I don't see anything terribly wrong with that.

Sounds similar to my experience. I remember writing a text-based flight simulator on the TRS-80 in BASIC named "F-14" when I was 10 or 11. It was terrible. My takeoff sequence simply incremented your speed, printed it out, and required the user to hit the "stick back" key on the keyboard once you were in the right speed range. The game was basically a text adventure with a few realtime elements thrown in. It also had music which was more like a set of random beeps that sometimes ended up sounding like a melody. Writing about it now makes me want to build it again.

I remember how excited I was when I was able to write data to a floppy from one of my programs. I felt like I could conquer the world.

All I had back then was the BASIC manual, but I was able to learn enough to be dangerous. My first real exposure to probability was the sample code in the manual for a Craps program. Great stuff for a kid to learn!

>Why do black people need their role models to be black? Plenty of white kids in my day looked up to Michael Jordan as an incredibly hardworking athlete.

I didn't mean to say that their role models should only be black. Sorry if I wasn't clear on that. For a black kid, I think the impact of seeing someone who's black and successful is huge. Think about the numbers of black kids who started playing golf because of Tiger Woods. Like I said, it's hard to quantify but it makes a difference.

>The "acting white" derision is pretty much exclusive to blacks, as far as I know. It's certainly not present among Asians or white people. I'm actually not sure about Hispanics but I've never heard of education being frowned upon by them. I don't know what you mean by "that's too easy", but I've heard it cited as the main problem in socio studies, by people like Bill Cosby, and in firsthand accounts in things like reddit AMAs.

The "acting white" derision most certainly exists in other minorities besides blacks. I've seen in it first hand in in some form or another. I'd contend that the "acting white" derision and the "extreme anti-education" sentiment are not necessarily the same thing.

I'd agree that the US school system is not be the primary reason for education problems among blacks, but neither is the "extreme anti-education element." This element isn't exclusive to blacks and I don't see it as significant enough to bring down aggregate measures for blacks. That's too easy. Most black parents want their kids to do well in school. Unfortunately single parent households are prevalent in the black community. When a single parent is struggling to pay bills and keep food on the table that doesn't leave a lot time for helping with homework.

Also, the lack of black role models has an impact. Artists and athletes are the overwhelming majority of the successful blacks that we see and I wouldn't consider them most of them to be role models. How many blacks do you see out front in the most successful companies? The psychological impact is hard to quantify, but it's there. Why should a black kid be an engineer when he can be a rapper? This isn't necessarily "extreme anti-education" it's more pro-do-what-I-see-as-successful. This loop has existed for hundreds of years in various forms and is incredibly hard to break. Black kids desperately need to see success in areas other than entertainment and sports.

Reminds me of the note at the end of the perl man page:

"The three principal virtues of a programmer are Laziness, Impatience, and Hubris."

I'm not a Perl guy, but I love that quote.

Interesting. Best of luck!

Why not try and find another job? In your situation I'd even make a lateral move to something I enjoyed.

Ultimately your current attitude will catch up with you could set your career back. Getting labeled as a slacker could result in you getting crappy projects where you can't grow professionally and personally. You'll become even more bitter/jaded and eventually hit a death spiral. Crappy projects <=> more bitter and jaded. It's very tough to get out of this death spiral once you're in it....

Conrad, this was awesome! Excellent work! Ordering...

I'm in. Working on a game that I've been dinking around with for the last few years. This should help motivate me to get it out there.

Has there been a decision on where to post status and communicate with other folks who are launching?

This story seriously choked me up. Simply incredible and highly inspirational. Thanks for sharing.