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  • Common mistakes made by new programmers without CS backgrounds [on hold]

    - by mblinn
    I've noticed that there seems to be a class of mistakes that new programmers without CS backgrounds tend to make, that programmers with CS backgrounds tend not to. I'm not talking about not understanding source control, or how to design large programs, or a whole host of other things that both freshly minted CS graduates and non-CS graduates tend to not understand, I'm talking about basic mistakes that having a CS background will prevent a programmer from making. One obvious and well trod example is that folks who don't have a basic understanding of formal languages will often try to parse arbitrary HTML or XML using regular expressions, and possibly summon Cthulu in the process. Another fairly common one that I've seen is using common data structures in suboptimal ways like using a vector and a search function as if it were a hash map. What sorts of other things along these lines would you look out for when on-boarding a batch of newly minted, non-CS programmers.

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  • Recommendation for Improving Programming Skills

    - by Moaz ELdeen
    I'm 25, I know C++ syntax since 9 years.. but It seems that I have copied so much code, and I didn't learn that much and didn't solve a lot of algorithms in my own. Currently I'm working for computer vision programmer as a junior and I have difficulity of doing algorithms like blob tracking or object tracking, writing algorithms like KNN, Quadtree,..etc. I don't know what to do, or what to improve, I tried to write asteriods game, I have finished it, and here you can watch it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw0L4aCB4TU What should I do more to enhance my skills ?

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  • Contract Work - Lessons Learned

    - by samerpaul
    I thought I would write a post of a different nature today, but still relevant to the tech world. I do a lot of contract jobs myself and really enjoy it. It's nice to keep jumping from project to project, and not having to go to an office or keep regular hours, etc. I really enjoy it. I have learned a lot in the past few years of doing it (both from experience and from help given to me from others, and the internet) so I thought I'd share some of that knowledge/experience today.So here's my own personal "lesson's learned" that hopefully will help you if you find yourself doing contract work:Should I take the job?Ok, so this is the first step. Assuming you were given sufficient information about what they want, then you should really think about what you're capable of doing and whether or not you should take this job. Personally, my rule is, if I know it's possible, I'll say yes, even if I don't yet know how to do it. That's because the internet is such a great help, it would be rare to run into an issue that you can't figure out with some help. So if your clients are asking for something that you don't yet know how to program, but you know you can do it on the platform then go for it. How else are you going to learn?Use this rule with some limitation, however. If you're really lacking the expertise or foundation in something, then unless you have tons of time to complete the project, then I wouldn't say yes. For example, I haven't personally done any 3d/openGL programming yet so I wouldn't say yes to a project that extensively uses it. OK, so I want the job, but how much do I charge?This part can be tricky. There is no set formula really, but I have some tips for pricing that will hopefully give you a better idea on how to confidently ask your price and have them accept. Here are some personal guidelinesHow much time do you have to complete the project? If it's shorter than average, then charge more. You can even make a subtle note about this (or not so subtle if they still don't get it.) If it seems too short of a time (i.e. near impossible to complete), be sure to say that. It looks bad to promise a time that you can't keep--and it makes it less likely for them to return to you for work.Your Hourly rate: How long have you been working in that language? Do you have existing projects to back you up? Or previous contacts that can vouch for your work? Are there very few people with your particular skill set? All of these things will lend themselves to setting an hourly rate. I'd also try out a quick google search of what your line of work is, to see what the industry standard is at that point in time.I wouldn't price too low, because you want to make your time worth it. You also want them to feel like they're paying for quality work (assuming you can deliver it :) ). Finally, think about your client. If it's a small business, then don't price it too high if you want the job. If it's an enterprise (like a Fortune company), then don't be afraid to price higher. They have the budget for it.Fixed price: If they want a fixed price project, then you need to think about how many hours it will take you to complete it and multiply it by the hourly rate you set for yourself. Then, honestly, I would add 10-20% on top of that. Why? Because nothing ever works exactly how you want it to. There are lots of times that something "trivial" is way harder than it should be, or something that "should work" doesn't for hours and it eats away at your hourly rate. I can't count the number of times I encountered a logical bug that took away an entire's day work because debuggers don't help in those cases. By adding that padding in, it's still OK to have those days where you don't get as much done as you want. And another useful tip: Depending on your client, and the scope, you most likely want to set that you both sign off on a specification sheet before doing any work, and that any changes will result in a re-evaulation of the price. This is to help protect you from being handed a huge new addition to the project half-way in, without any extra payment.Scope of project: Finally, is it a huge project? Is it really small/fast? This affects how much your client will be willing to pay. If it sounds big, they will be willing to pay more for it. If it seems really small, then you won't be able to get away with a large asking price (as easily).Ok, I priced it, now what?So now that you have the price, you want to make sure it feels justified to your client. I never set a price before I can really think about everything. For example, if you're still in your introduction phase, and they want a price, don't give one! Just comment that you will send them a proposal sheet with all the features outlined, and a price for everything. You don't want to shout out a low number and then deliver something that is way higher. You also don't want to shock them with a big number before they feel like they are getting a great product.Make up a proposal document in a word editor. Personally, I leave the price till the very end. Why? Because by the time they reach the end, you've already discussed all the great features you plan to implement, and how it's the best product they'll ever use, etc etc...so your price comes off as a steal! If you hit them up front with a price, they will read through the document with a negative bias. Think about those commercials on TV. They always go on about their product, then at the end, ask "What would you pay for something like this? $100? $50? How about $20!!". This is not by accident.Scenario: I finished the job way earlier than expectedYou have two options then. You can either polish the hell out of the application, and even throw in a few bonus features (assuming they are in-line with the customer's needs) or you can sit and wait on it until you near your deadline. Why don't you want to turn it in too early? Because you should treat that extra time as a surplus. If you said it is going to take you 3 weeks, and it took you only 1, you have a surplus of 2 weeks. I personally don't want to let them know that I can do a 3 week project in 1 week. Why not? Because that may not always be the case! I may later have a 3 week project that takes all 3 weeks, but if I set a precedent of delivering super early, then the pressure is on for that longer project. It also makes it harder to quote longer times if you keep delivering too early.Feel free to deliver early, but again, don't do it too early. They may also wonder why they paid you for 3 weeks of work if you're done in 1. They may further wonder if the product sucks, or what is wrong with it, if it's done so early, etc.I would just polish the application. Everyone loves polish in their applications. The smallest details are what make an application go from "functional" to "fantastic". And since you are still delivering on time, then they are still going to be very happy with you.Scenario: It's taking way too long to finish this, and the deadline is nearing/here!So this is not a fun scenario to be in, but it'll happen. Sometimes the scope of the project gets out of hand. The best policy here is OPENNESS/HONESTY. Tell them that the project is taking longer than expected, and give a reasonable time for when you think you'll have it done. I typically explain it in a way that makes it sound like it isn't something that I did wrong, but it's just something about the nature of the project. This really goes for any scenario, to be honest. Just continue to stay open and communicative about your progress. This doesn't mean that you should email them every five minutes (unless they want you to), but it does mean that maybe every few days or once a week, give them an update on where you're at, and what's next. They'll be happy to know they are paying for progress, and it'll make it easier to ask for an extension when something goes wrong, because they know that you've been working on it all along.Final tips and thoughts:In general, contract work is really fun and rewarding. It's nice to learn new things all the time, as mandated by the project ,and to challenge yourself to do things you may not have done before. The key is to build a great relationship with your clients for future work, and for recommendations. I am always very honest with them and I never promise something I can't deliver. Again, under promise, over deliver!I hope this has proved helpful!Cheers,samerpaul

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  • Backtrack My "Education"

    - by perl.j
    About a year or so ago, I decided to start programming. I really, just jumped into a language (Perl) and went from there. What I regret is that I just jumped in: I didn't learn the basics (if you would call them basics). I didn't learn about Computer Science. This issue, I believe, is holding me back. Where should I "restart"? Are there any books, articles, etc. that I should read? Are there any topics an experienced programmer should know? What's your advice? Thanks! Please don't advise me to take a college/high-school class.

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  • Will learning ColdFusion help me advance my programming skills? [closed]

    - by chhantyal
    Currently I am working with a small web development company. We use jQuery on front-end, Coldfusion for back-end and MySQL as our database. We just started to use HTML5 and CSS3. This is my first internship and job. I know the basics of Python and want to add Django or Ruby on Rails on my skills set. In addition, I want to advance my programming skills with Machine Learning, Compilers, NoSQL and Unix Hacking. I also find front end web development pretty interesting. Should I focus on front-end and become skilled on HTML5/CSS3/Javascript? Or dive into back-end learning ColdFusion. I will probably leave the company after a year since I want to work with great product start-ups. And I live in India, where ColdFusion is not popular. Will learning ColdFusion help me become better programmer?

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  • At what size of data does it become beneficial to move from SQL to NoSQL?

    - by wobbily_col
    As a relational database programmer (most of the time), I read articles about how relational databases don't scale, and NoSQL solutions such as MongoDB do. As most of the databases I have developed so far have been small to mid scale, I have never had a problem that hasn't been solved by some indexing, query optimization or schema redesign. What sort of size would I expect to see MySQL struggling with. How many rows? (I know this is going to depend on the application, and type of data stored. the one that got me thing was basically a genetics database, so would have one main table, with 3 or 4 lookup tables. The main table will contain amongst other things, a chromosome reference, and a position coordinate. It will likely get queried for a number of entries between two potions on a chromosome, to see what is stored there).

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  • Is it safe StringToHash() to use in Unity?

    - by Sebastian Krysmanski
    I'm currently browsing through the Unity tutorials and saw that they're recommending to use Animator.StringToHash("some string") to created unique ids for animation properties (see here). Since I'm a programmer, to me the word "hash" doesn't represents something unique. Like the Java documentation for hashValue() states: It is not required that if two objects are unequal [...], then calling the hashCode method on each of the two objects must produce distinct integer results. So, according to this (and my definition of "hash"), two strings may have the same hash value. (You can also argue that there are an infinite number of possible strings but only 2^32 possible int values.) So, is there a possibility that StringToHash() will give me an id that actually belongs to another property (than the one I requested the hash for)?

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  • Software design methods for Java or any other programming language

    - by IkerB
    I'm junior programmer and I would like to know how professionals write their code or which steps they follow when they are creating new software. I mean, which steps they follow, which programming methodology, software architecture design application software, etc. I would like to find a tutorial where they explain from the beginning which steps I have to follow from The Idea I have in my mind to the final version of the application in any language. Or perhaps how is your programming steps or rules that you used to follow. Because everytime I want to create the an application I spend few time on the design and a lot of time coding (I know, that's not good).

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  • Event notifications for Reporting Systems

    - by Marc Schluper
    The last couple of months I have been working on an application that allows people to browse a data mart. Nice, but nothing new. In this context I have an idea that I want to publish before anyone else patents it: event notifications. You see, reporting systems are not used as much as we’d like. Typically, users don’t know where to look for reports that might interest them. At best, there are some standard reports that people generate every so often, i.e. based on a time trigger. Or some reporting systems can be configured to send monthly reports around, for convenience. But apart from that, the reporting system is just sitting there, waiting for the rare curious user who makes the effort to dig a bit for treasures to be found. Wouldn’t it be great if there were data triggers? Imagine we could configure the reporting system to let us know when something interesting has happened. It would send us a message containing a link that would take us to the relevant section of the reporting system, showing a report with all the data pertaining to that event, preparing us for proper actions. Here in the North West this would really be great. You see, it rains here most of the time from October to June, so why even check the weather forecast? But sometimes, sometimes it snows. And sometimes the sun shines. So rather than me going to the weather site and seeing over and over again that it will be raining, making me think “why bother?” I’d like to configure the weather site so that it lets me know when the rain stops. Now, hopefully nobody has patented this idea already. Let me know.

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  • How to work with scenes in a 2D game

    - by Anearion
    I'm a java/android programmer, but I don't have any experience in game programming, I'm already reading proper books, like "Pro Android Games", but my concerns are more about the ideas behind game programming than the techniques themselves. I'm working on a 2D game, something like Cluedo to let you understand the genre. I would like to know how should I act with the "scenes", for example, a room with a desk, TV, windows and a lamp. I need to make some items tappable and others not. Is it common to use one image (invisible to the user) with every different item a different color, then call the getColor() method on the image? Or use one image as background, and separate images for all the items? If the latter, how can I set the positioning? and should I use imageView or imageButton? I'm sorry if those are really low quality questions, but as "outsider" ( I'm 23 and still finishing my university ) it's pretty hard learn alone.

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  • Know a little of a lot or a lot of a little? [closed]

    - by Jeff V
    Possible Duplicate: Is it better to specialize in a single field I like, or expand into other fields to broaden my horizons? My buddy and I who have been programming for 13 years or so were talking this morning and a question that came up was is it better to know a little of a lot (i.e. web, desktop, VB.Net, C#, jQuery, PHP, Java etc.) or is it better to know a lot of a little (meaning expert in something). The context of this question is what makes someone a senior programmer? Is it someone that has been around the block a few times and has been in many different situations or one that is locked in to a specific technology that is super knowledgeable in that one technology? I see pro's and con's of both scenarios.. Just wondering what others thought.

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  • Why do game engines convert models to triangles compared to keeping it as four side polygon

    - by Grant
    I've worked using maya for animation and more film orientated projects however I am also focusing on my studies on video game development (eventually want to be either programmer or some sort of TD with programming and 3D skills). Anyways, I was talking with one of my professor and we couldn't figure out why all game engines (that I know of) convert to triangles. Anyone happen to know why game engines convert to triangles compared to leaving the models as four sided polygons? Also what are the pros and cons (if any) of doing this? Thanks in advance.

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  • What is the best way to pass data into an API from a website?

    - by Chris Wakoksi
    My main objective is to create a User Interface in order to provision(change the status: activate, deactivate, or suspend) modems. I have received a SOAP developer's guide to the specific type of modem that helps out with the specific values that I need to pass into Iridium's WSDL but I cannot figure out how to do this from a webpage I have created using HTML/CSS, and PHP? I have been told by others that I need to know the portal. I have no idea what that means. I am a beginner programmer who has learned programming for this project. Any suggestions as to how to pass my data into the provisioning API?

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  • C# Concisely by Judith Bishop &amp; Nigel Horspool

    - by MarkPearl
    In my quest to read all the books I have lying on my bookshelf I have finally got round to finishing C# Concisely (ISBN 0-321-15418-5). While this book was fairly old, I found it to be quite useful for a student wanting to learn C# for the first time, and a nice way to review and make I hadn’t missed something when I was learning the language. The book is simple and explains the basic concepts in a clean manner, but is really intended for the beginner programmer – it also had a few chapters dedicated to winforms, which was an indication of its age. None the less, I will keep it on the bookshelf so when I come across someone who is wanting to learn the language I can give them it as a gift.

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  • Avast Antivirus Crashes

    - by user67966
    Well I have installed avast anti virus on Ubuntu 12.04. But after updating, it crashes! So I have made some tweaks like below: 1) I pressed press Ctrl+Alt+T and opened Terminal. When it opened, I ran the command below. sudo gedit /etc/init.d/rcS 2) typed my password and hit enter 3) when the text file opens add the line: sysctl -w kernel.shmmax=128000000 4) made sure the line you added is before: exec /etc/init.d/rc S 5) This is how it should look like: Code: #! /bin/sh # rcS # # Call all S??* scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ in numerical/alphabetical order # sysctl -w kernel.shmmax=128000000 exec /etc/init.d/rc S 6) save it 7) Reboot My question is. Did I do anything wrong. I mean as I have made some tweaks,will it lower the security of avast down like viruses do! Please if you are a programmer check this if it contains bug or harmful intentions...Thanks.

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  • Drawing large 2D sidescroller level terrain

    - by Yar
    I'm a relatively good programmer but now that it comes to add some basic levels to my 2D game I'm kinda stuck. What I want to do: An acceptable, large (8000 * 1000 pixels) "green hills" test level for my game. What is the best way for me to do this? It doesn't have to look great, it just shouldn't look like it was made in MS paint with the line and paint bucket tool. Basically it should just mud with grass on top of it, shaped in some form of hills. But how should I draw it, I can't just take out the pencil tool and start drawing it pixel per pixel, can I?

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  • @CodeStock 2012 Review: Leon Gersing ( @Rubybuddha ) - "You"

    "YOU"Speaker: Leon GersingTwitter: @Rubybuddha Site: http://about.me/leongersing I honestly had no idea what I was getting in to when I sat down in to this session. I basically saw the picture of the speaker and knew that it would be a good session. I was completely wrong; it was the BEST SESSION of CodeStock 2012.  In fact it was so good, I texted another coworker attending the conference to get over and listen to Leon. Leon took on the concept of growth in the software development community. He specifically referred David Hansson in his ability to stick to his beliefs when the development community thought that he was crazy for creating Ruby on Rails. If you do not know this story Ruby on Rails is one of the fastest growing web languages today. In addition, he also touched on the flip side of this argument in that we must be open to others ideas and not discard them so quickly because we all come from differing perspectives and can add value to a project/team/community. This session left me with two very profound concepts/quotes: “In order to learn you must do it badly in front of a crowed and fail.” - @Rubybuddha I can look back on my career so far and say that he is correct; I think I have learned the most after failing, especially when I achieved this failure in front of other. “Experts must be able to fail.” - @Rubybuddha I think we can all learn from our own mistakes but we can also learn from others. When respected experts fail it is a great learning opportunity for the entire team as well as the person who failed. When expert admit mistakes and how they worked through them can be great learning tools for other developers so that they know how to avoid specific scenarios and if they do become stuck in the same issue they will know how to properly work their way out of them.

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  • How can I optimize my development machines files/dirs?

    - by LuxuryMode
    Like any programmer, I've got a lot of stuff on my machine. Some of that stuff is projects of my own, some are projects I'm working on for my employer, others are open-source tools and projects, etc. Currently, I have my files organized as follows: /Code --/development (things I'm sort of hacking on plus maybe libraries used in other projects) --/scala (organized by language...why? I don't know!) --/android --/ruby --/employer_name -- /mobile --/android --/ios --/open-source (basically my forks that I'm pushing commits back upstream from) --/some-awesome-oss-project --/another-awesome-one --/tools random IDE settings sprinkled in here plus some other apps As you can see, things are kind of a mess here. How can I keep things organized in some sort of coherent fashion?

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  • What is it going here in my solution?

    - by bbb
    I am a asp.net mvc programmer and if I want to start a project I do this: I make a class library named Model for my models. I make a class library named Infrastructure.Repository for database processes I make a class library named Application for business logic layer And finally I make a MVC project for the UI. But now some things are confusing me. Am I using 3-tier programming? If yes so what is n-tier programming and which one is better? If no so what is 3-tier programming? Some where I see that the tiers namings are DAL and BIZ. Which one is correct according to the naming convention?

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  • Does C# give you "less rope to hang yourself" than C++?

    - by user115232
    Joel Spolsky characterized C++ as "enough rope to hang yourself". Actually, he was summarizing "Effective C++" by Scott Meyers: It's a book that basically says, C++ is enough rope to hang yourself, and then a couple of extra miles of rope, and then a couple of suicide pills that are disguised as M&Ms... I don't have a copy of the book, but there are indications that much of the book relates to pitfalls of managing memory which seem like would be rendered moot in C# because the runtime manages those issues for you. Here are my questions: Does C# avoid pitfalls that are avoided in C++ only by careful programming? If so, to what degree and how are they avoided? Are there new, different pitfalls in C# that a new C# programmer should be aware of? If so, why couldn't they be avoided by the design of C#?

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  • C# WebForms and Ninject

    - by ipohfly
    I'm re-working on the design of an existing application which is build using WebForms. Currently the plan is to work it into a MVP pattern application while using Ninject as the IoC container. The reason for Ninject to be there is that the boss had wanted a certain flexibility within the system so that we can build in different flavor of business logic in the model and let the programmer to choose which to use based on the client request, either via XML configuration or database setting. I know that Ninject have no need for XML configuration, however I'm confused on how it can help to dynamically inject the dependency into the system? Imagine I have a interface IMember and I need to bind this interface to the class decided by a xml or database configuration at the launch of the application, how can I achieve that?

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  • Touchpad stopped working on an Acer AspireOne D255E

    - by Gustavo
    I have a less than a year old Acer AspireOne D255E with a fresh install of Ubuntu 11.10. Everything has been working fine. Great OS and great netbook. But today the touchpad stopped working. It had been working fine. I closed the netbook and when I opened it again, a couple of hours later, I could not move the pointer with the touchpad. I can not get the pointer to move. I cleaned the touchpad surface well, just in case. Everything else is working fine. All the software updates are up-to-date. I have rebooted several times with no solution. I have attached an USB mouse and the pointer works well. What can I do to troubleshoot the problem? I have gone to the System Settings, touchpad section, and there is not much that I can do there. I would like to determine first if it is a hardware or software issue and then how to resolve it. Is there a way that I can reinstall the touchpad drivers. just in case it is a software problem? I have been using Ubuntu for nearly a year now and am very happy with it. Are there any wise Ubuntu gurus out there who can help me? Thank you for reading this note.

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  • Are your personal insecurities screwing up your internal communications?

    - by Lucy Boyes
    I do some internal comms as part of my job. Quite a lot of it involves talking to people about stuff. I’m spending the next couple of weeks talking to lots of people about internal comms itself, because we haven’t done a lot of audience/user feedback gathering, and it turns out that if you talk to people about how they feel and what they think, you get some pretty interesting insights (and an idea of what to do next that isn’t just based on guesswork and generalising from self). Three things keep coming up from talking to people about what we suck at  in terms of internal comms. And, as far as I can tell, they’re all examples where personal insecurity on the part of the person doing the communicating makes the experience much worse for the people on the receiving end. 1. Spending time telling people how you’re going to do something, not what you’re doing and why Imagine you’ve got to give an update to a lot of people who don’t work in your area or department but do have an interest in what you’re doing (either because they want to know because they’re curious or because they need to know because it’s going to affect their work too). You don’t want to look bad at your job. You want to make them think you’ve got it covered – ideally because you do*. And you want to reassure them that there’s lots of exciting work going on in your area to make [insert thing of choice] happen to [insert thing of choice] so that [insert group of people] will be happy. That’s great! You’re doing a good job and you want to tell people about it. This is good comms stuff right here. However, you’re slightly afraid you might secretly be stupid or lazy or incompetent. And you’re exponentially more afraid that the people you’re talking to might think you’re stupid or lazy or incompetent. Or pointless. Or not-adding-value. Or whatever the thing that’s the worst possible thing to be in your company is. So you open by mentioning all the stuff you’re going to do, spending five minutes or so making sure that everyone knows that you’re DOING lots of STUFF. And the you talk for the rest of the time about HOW you’re going to do the stuff, because that way everyone will know that you’ve thought about this really hard and done tons of planning and had lots of great ideas about process and that you’ve got this one down. That’s the stuff you’ve got to say, right? To prove you’re not fundamentally worthless as a human being? Well, maybe. But probably not. See, the people who need to know how you’re going to do the stuff are the people doing the stuff. And those are the people in your area who you’ve (hopefully-please-for-the-love-of-everything-holy) already talked to in depth about how you’re going to do the thing (because else how could they help do it?). They are the only people who need to know the how**. It’s the difference between strategy and tactics. The people outside of your bubble of stuff-doing need to know the strategy – what it is that you’re doing, why, where you’re going with it, etc. The people on the ground with you need the strategy and the tactics, because else they won’t know how to do the stuff. But the outside people don’t really need the tactics at all. Don’t bother with the how unless your audience needs it. They probably don’t. It might make you feel better about yourself, but it’s much more likely that Bob and Jane are thinking about how long this meeting has gone on for already than how personally impressive and definitely-not-an-idiot you are for knowing how you’re going to do some work. Feeling marginally better about yourself (but, let’s face it, still insecure as heck) is not worth the cost, which in this case is the alienation of your audience. 2. Talking for too long about stuff This is kinda the same problem as the previous problem, only much less specific, and I’ve more or less covered why it’s bad already. Basic motivation: to make people think you’re not an idiot. What you do: talk for a very long time about what you’re doing so as to make it sound like you know what you’re doing and lots about it. What your audience wants: the shortest meaningful update. Some of this is a kill your darlings problem – the stuff you’re doing that seems really nifty to you seems really nifty to you, and thus you want to share it with everyone to show that you’re a smart person who thinks up nifty things to do. The downside to this is that it’s mostly only interesting to you – if other people don’t need to know, they likely also don’t care. Think about how you feel when someone is talking a lot to you about a lot of stuff that they’re doing which is at best tangentially interesting and/or relevant. You’re probably not thinking that they’re really smart and clearly know what they’re doing (unless they’re talking a lot and being really engaging about it, which is not the same as talking a lot). You’re probably thinking about something totally unrelated to the thing they’re talking about. Or the fact that you’re bored. You might even – and this is the opposite of what they’re hoping to achieve by talking a lot about stuff – be thinking they’re kind of an idiot. There’s another huge advantage to paring down what you’re trying to say to the barest possible points – it clarifies your thinking. The lightning talk format, as well as other formats which limit the time and/or number of slides you have to say a thing, are really good for doing this. It’s incredibly likely that your audience in this case (the people who need to know some things about your thing but not all the things about your thing) will get everything they need to know from five minutes of you talking about it, especially if trying to condense ALL THE THINGS into a five-minute talk has helped you get clear in your own mind what you’re doing, what you’re trying to say about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. The bonus of this is that by being clear in your thoughts and in what you say, and in not taking up lots of people’s time to tell them stuff they don’t really need to know, you actually come across as much, much smarter than the person who talks for half an hour or more about things that are semi-relevant at best. 3. Waiting until you’ve got every detail sorted before announcing a big change to the people affected by it This is the worst crime on the list. It’s also human nature. Announcing uncertainty – that something important is going to happen (big reorganisation, product getting canned, etc.) but you’re not quite sure what or when or how yet – is scary. There are risks to it. Uncertainty makes people anxious. It might even paralyse them. You can’t run a business while you’re figuring out what to do if you’ve paralysed everyone with fear over what the future might bring. And you’re scared that they might think you’re not the right person to be in charge of [thing] if you don’t even know what you’re doing with it. Best not to say anything until you know exactly what’s going to happen and you can reassure them all, right? Nope. The people who are going to be affected by whatever it is that you don’t quite know all the details of yet aren’t stupid***. You wouldn’t have hired them if they were. They know something’s up because you’ve got your guilty face on and you keep pulling people into meeting rooms and looking vaguely worried. Here’s the deal: it’s a lot less stressful for everyone (including you) if you’re up front from the beginning. We took this approach during a recent company-wide reorganisation and got really positive feedback. People would much, much rather be told that something is going to happen but you’re not entirely sure what it is yet than have you wait until it’s all fixed up and then fait accompli the heck out of them. They will tell you this themselves if you ask them. And here’s why: by waiting until you know exactly what’s going on to communicate, you remove any agency that the people that the thing is going to happen to might otherwise have had. I know you’re scared that they might get scared – and that’s natural and kind of admirable – but it’s also patronising and infantilising. Ask someone whether they’d rather work on a project which has an openly uncertain future from the beginning, or one where everything’s great until it gets shut down with no forewarning, and very few people are going to tell you they’d prefer the latter. Uncertainty is humanising. It’s you admitting that you don’t have all the answers, which is great, because no one does. It allows you to be consultative – you can actually ask other people what they think and how they feel and what they’d like to do and what they think you should do, and they’ll thank you for it and feel listened to and respected as people and colleagues. Which is a really good reason to start talking to them about what’s going on as soon as you know something’s going on yourself. All of the above assumes you actually care about talking to the people who work with you and for you, and that you’d like to do the right thing by them. If that’s not the case, you can cheerfully disregard the advice here, but if it is, you might want to think about the ways above – and the inevitable countless other ways – that making internal communication about you and not about your audience could actually be doing the people you’re trying to communicate with a huge disservice. So take a deep breath and talk. For five minutes or so. About the important things. Not the other things. As soon as you possibly can. And you’ll be fine.   *Of course you do. You’re good at your job. Don’t worry. **This might not always be true, but it is most of the time. Other people who need to know the how will either be people who you’ve already identified as needing-to-know and thus part of the same set as the people in you’re area you’ve already discussed this with, or else they’ll ask you. But don’t bring this stuff up unless someone asks for it, because most of the people in the audience really don’t care and you’re wasting their time. ***I mean, they might be. But let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they’re not.

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  • Why are so many questions closed? [closed]

    - by Kim Jong Woo
    Why is there so many questions on this stackexchange site closed? I mean far more than usual. Even very high quality discussions are closed. Doesn't this high number of closed questions with high number of views and good quality of content seem like that the current policy that governs the criteria for appropriate question might be going against nature? I mean it feels as if lot of questions or discussions are everything surrounding programmer, programming, and need not be objective or seeking definitive answer. It appears lot of questions are of inquisitive nature seeking insight into other programmers and finding common subjects of interest. Is it possible for mods to relax a bit? I mean lot of great questions with [closed] tag everywhere doesn't do justice. This question in itself is a perfect example of what I am talking about and it will be closed. But I think my point is clear.

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  • South Florida SQL Saturday 2010

    - by ScottKlein
    The South Florida SQL Server Users Group is proud to announce the 2nd annual South Florida SQL Saturday will be held Saturday, July 31st at DeVry University (the same place it was held last year). Like last year, this will be a FREE event, aimed at everyone involved with SQL Server. For those who attended in 2009, this was a great event. We had nearly 500 attendees with 6 tracks and great speakers. We hope to do it bigger and better this year, with more tracks, more speakers, and more people! Our goal is to surpass the 500 attendee mark, with tracks for DBA's, SQL Developers, plenty of BI information, and Azure! Last year I said seating was limited, but what what the heck? No limitation. If you deal with SQL, or want to learn SQL, this is the place to be. To register, click on this link: http://www.sqlsaturday.com/40/eventhome.aspx We already have a lot of registered attendees and many sessions submitted. Many SQL Server experts and MVP's will be speaking so here is a chance to learn from the BEST!

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