bithush

Unfortunately I do not have any close friends or family who know much about computers at all however there are a lot of good people over on some of the subreddits that are always happy to help out. The C and C++ subreddits are particularly good.

I met up with somebody from the startup world last year for a coffee to chat about things as I wanted to get some advice from somebody with a lot of experience as a developer. It was a total waste of time though pretty much because of what the author wrote about.

He was a nice enough guy but he knew I was new to development yet when I didn't know about something he made me feel like I was an idiot and when I asked questions about good places to start he shot down everything I suggested as if only a moron would start there. It was very demoralising and it knocked me back for a few months as it really made me think "I am not good enough to do this". Very annoying how some people in the industry act like they are some kind of demigod to programming.

I am amazed it is the end of 2014 and Google (and Microsoft) still have not figured out messaging yet. iMessage is far from perfect but it is a hell of a lot nicer experience than anything else.

This is even more true for Microsoft IMHO as they could (should!) have had an integrated messaging app between Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 to allow for transparent SMS/Skype/MSN/WhateverTheyWantToUseNow messaging the same way iMessage does and have everything synced between devices.

Context: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_y...

He did an interview with The Setup http://terry.davis.usesthis.com/

Running your own server is great until something goes wrong and nothing works. It is just too much hassle to run your own mail server these days IMHO. Being blacklisted for spam is a nightmare to sort out and can happen so easily when you stick you server on something like DO. The control and privacy is nice but is there really much difference between running your own server on DO and using Outlook.com or Gmail in terms of privacy?

I hit this back in August when I moved and had to wait 2 weeks for my new line to be installed correctly[0].

I didn't care enough to find out why, I always use a VPN when using WiFi and to be fair to BT they recommend the use of a VPN when using the BT WiFi service.

[0] It took BT 2 weeks to install the line correctly after cocking it up twice! Third times a charm. Great going BT! /s

I am sure you meant well but it is totally off topic and adds nothing to this discussion. It sounds like a terrible thing to happen but this is not the place to discuss it.

Something I am very interest in is this bit

"you’ll find some new things in here, including a new Visual Studio Emulator for Android and support for building Android applications using C++ based off of Clang and LLVM."

Does this mean what I think it means? VS will have first class support for Clang/LLVM? Will it be restricted to just Android projects or can I take a normal C++ project and compile with Clang and MSVC?

It does. It is essentially VS Pro but with a change to the license to disallow use in the enterprise. There are no built in restrictions though so it is possible to make anything you want with it but doing so in the enterprise would be against the license agreement.

One thing to note is that the Community edition does require registration within 30 days to continue using it in the same way VS Express does.

What this means for the express versions I do not know, I suspect they will not be around for VS 2015.

From what I have seen this is essentially Visual Studio Professional with a license restriction for enterprise use. There is, at least was not in the previews I have worked with, no actual limitation built into the software, it is purely a licensing limitation.

Yes because name calling on the internet is the height of maturity.

True. This is the "new Microsoft" EmExEx meaning.

Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, Box. They are all the same when it comes to your privacy to be honest. I wouldn't "trust" any of them with very private things. I use them for convenience of stuff I want easy access to/share with family but don't want to just stick up in the public internet for all to see.

Indeed.

Embrace. Integrate Office with it. Extend. Buy DropBox. Extinguish. Merge DropBox with OneDrive.

Wow didn't expect this comment to bring on the downvotes.

I recently moved away from Gmail because of the lack of push (via EAS) on non-Android devices. When Apple (iCloud) and MS (Outlook.com) offer push via EAS it annoys me Google killed it off unless you pay.

Interestingly moving away from Gmail took me totally out of the Google world. I just switched to an iPhone from a Nexus 5 as the Nexus 6 was just too big and I have very happy using no Google account/services (outside of search).

I wanted to try Inbox and got an invite on day 1 but have not bothered to try it yet as it would mean using Gmail again.

Google bring back free EAS please!

Also it always annoyed me how on Android they have two email apps, one for Gmail and one for other Email. Crappy experience really. The Gmail app should support other providers. I know it is coming soon but it should have from day one to be honest.

I don't see why Microsoft still put resources into Visual Basic.

C++/C#/F#/MSSQL/PowerShell is all they really need to concentrate on.

I just got an iPhone and the built in Podcast app is pretty good. I have subscribed to a couple of the most popular podcasts and have been quite impressed by the quality these days. Last time I listened to podcasts was probably around 2007 or 2008 and the quality was poor and that put me off. Only a few people such as Adam Curry had decent equipment. Now it seems most people can afford decent kit and do a reasonable job at editing.

In a would where companies just release their old (very successful) games on mobile devices with awful touch screen controls hacked in I am so glad Nintendo do not do that. Sure it would make them some money to sell Mario on the iPhone but god damn is it a horrible experience IMHO.

Nintendo have good years and bad years. The Wii U wasn't the success they hoped it would be. But they took a chance with the Gamepad. That is what I like about Nintendo, they do things differently. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't.

Now give me a 1080p60 F-Zero game on the Wii U please :)

I use this video quite often to show an example of one of the best educational videos I have ever seen. The language, presentation, use of graphics (impressive for the time) and demonstrations is just superb.

C is still my favourite language. Sure it has issues but it works how my brain works or is it my brain works how C works? Either way it just makes sense to me.

Well yeah, that is like saying learning C# means mastering .NET, MS Build, Visual Studio, WPF, etc.

The language is the handle of the umbrella, everything else are the spokes and material between them.

Depends on the kind of puzzle to be honest. I enjoy puzzles (as in a physical puzzle like the author is talking about) but only ones that are not stupidly hard like his Escher puzzle. Sod that!

Programming puzzles are very different though. Do I hate programming puzzles? Sometimes. Again it depends on the puzzle at hand.

As for is he still a programmer? Well if he codes and produces something that works how he wanted it too then sure. He might be one of those programmers that hate debugging though so ends up writing more and more code to 'fix' a problem rather than actually find the real problem instead of coding around it.

I had an issue with a single dead pixel on a 3 month of rMBP earlier this year and Apple replaced it (the whole machine!) without any fuss. The Apple tech guy said (and this is pretty much the exact quote) "the rMBP is all about the screen, a dead pixel is not acceptable". Say what you will about Apple but their support is the best I have ever experienced. If I were you I would book an appointment at an Apple Store and get it fixed. I doubt you will have any problems. Backup everything first and be prepared to do a wipe and get a new machine if that isn't too inconvenient.

I miss the editor from pre-VS2010. The WPF based one has so many problems with fonts other than Consolas and Courier New. Such a pain in the ass.

It mentions it uses srm, is that any use with an SSD with wear levelling etc?

Yeah I saw his interview on usesthis.com back in June. I really love that site!

Yup. Terry Davis and his TempleOS are quite well known. I believe he suffers from schizophrenia although I do not know if this has been confirmed by anyone?

He is certainly a gifted programmer.

The inverse is true in a lot of technology companies sadly. I once worked with a "network security expert" who got the job after 2 years as a front end web dev and zero real training in network security. He knew what SSL was so got promoted...

Well I will take needed prescribed drugs :)