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  • user defined Copy ctor, and copy-ctors further down the chain - compiler bug ? programmers brainbug

    - by J.Colmsee
    Hi. i have a little problem, and I am not sure if it's a compiler bug, or stupidity on my side. I have this struct : struct BulletFXData { int time_next_fx_counter; int next_fx_steps; Particle particles[2];//this is the interesting one ParticleManager::ParticleId particle_id[2]; }; The member "Particle particles[2]" has a self-made kind of smart-ptr in it (resource-counted texture-class). this smart-pointer has a default constructor, that initializes to the ptr to 0 (but that is not important) I also have another struct, containing the BulletFXData struct : struct BulletFX { BulletFXData data; BulletFXRenderFunPtr render_fun_ptr; BulletFXUpdateFunPtr update_fun_ptr; BulletFXExplosionFunPtr explode_fun_ptr; BulletFXLifetimeOverFunPtr lifetime_over_fun_ptr; BulletFX( BulletFXData data, BulletFXRenderFunPtr render_fun_ptr, BulletFXUpdateFunPtr update_fun_ptr, BulletFXExplosionFunPtr explode_fun_ptr, BulletFXLifetimeOverFunPtr lifetime_over_fun_ptr) :data(data), render_fun_ptr(render_fun_ptr), update_fun_ptr(update_fun_ptr), explode_fun_ptr(explode_fun_ptr), lifetime_over_fun_ptr(lifetime_over_fun_ptr) { } /* //USER DEFINED copy-ctor. if it's defined things go crazy BulletFX(const BulletFX& rhs) :data(data),//this line of code seems to do a plain memory-copy without calling the right ctors render_fun_ptr(render_fun_ptr), update_fun_ptr(update_fun_ptr), explode_fun_ptr(explode_fun_ptr), lifetime_over_fun_ptr(lifetime_over_fun_ptr) { } */ }; If i use the user-defined copy-ctor my smart-pointer class goes crazy, and it seems that calling the CopyCtor / assignment operator aren't called as they should. So - does this all make sense ? it seems as if my own copy-ctor of struct BulletFX should do exactly what the compiler-generated would, but it seems to forget to call the right constructors down the chain. compiler bug ? me being stupid ? Sorry about the big code, some small example could have illustrated too. but often you guys ask for the real code, so well - here it is :D EDIT : more info : typedef ParticleId unsigned int; Particle has no user defined copyctor, but has a member of type : Particle { .... Resource<Texture> tex_res; ... } Resource is a smart-pointer class, and has all ctor's defined (also asignment operator) and it seems that Resource is copied bitwise. EDIT : henrik solved it... data(data) is stupid of course ! it should of course be rhs.data !!! sorry for huge amount of code, with a very little bug in it !!! (Guess you shouldn't code at 1 in the morning :D )

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  • Configure autocomplete in intellij with hamcrest and mockito dsl

    - by sgargan
    I'm wondering if its possible to configure Intellij's smart insert to suggest hamcrest and mockito dsl idioms when in test classes. Really I'm looking for something like eclipse's 'static favorites', so that when I hit ctrl + space or ctrl +shift +space the idioms are present. In general is it possible to configure autocomplete/smart insert or the suggestions balloon for that matter. I've looked through the settings without much luck but could easily have overlooked something.

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  • iPhone Exception Handling

    - by Coocoo4Cocoa
    I have one crash in my iPhone application that does throw an NSException. The crash reports are completely ambiguous in where the error is and what exactly is causing it. Is there a smart way for me to set a top level exception handler somewhere to see what is causing it? I can't replicate the problem myself, but a few of my beta users certainly can. What's a smart way to handle a problem of this nature?

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  • Multiple data centers and HTTP traffic: DNS Round Robin is the ONLY way to assure instant fail-over?

    - by vmiazzo
    Hi, Multiple A records pointing to the same domain seem to be used almost exclusively to implement DNS Round Robin as a cheap load balancing technique. The usual warning against DNS RR is that it is not good for high availability. When 1 IP goes down clients will continue to use it for minutes. A load balancer is often suggested as a better choice. Both claims are not completely true: When the traffic is HTTP then, most of the HTML browsers are able to automatically try the next A record if the previous is down, without a new DNS look-up. Read here chapter 3.1 and here. When multiple data centers are involved then, DNS RR is the only option to distribute traffic across them. So, is it true that, with multiple data centers and HTTP traffic, the use of DNS RR is the ONLY way to assure instant fail-over when one data center goes down? Thanks, Valentino Edit: Off course each data center has a local Load Balancer with hot spare. It's OK to sacrifice session affinity for an instant fail-over. AFAIK the only way for a DNS to suggest a data center instead of another is to reply with just the IP (or IPs) associated to that data center. If the data center becomes unreachable then all those IP are also unreachables. This means that, even if smart HTML browsers are able to instantly try another A record , all the attempts will fail until the local cache entry expires and a new DNS lookup is done, fetching the new working IPs (I assume DNS automatically suggests to a new data center when one fail). So, "smart DNS" cannot assure instant fail-over. Conversely a DNS round-robin permits it. When one data center fail, the smart HTML browsers (most of them) instantly try the other cached A records jumping to another (working) data center. So, DNS round-robin doesn't assure session affinity or the lowest RTT but seems to be the only way to assure instant fail-over when the clients are "smart" HTML browsers. Edit 2: Some people suggest TCP Anycast as a definitive solution. In this paper (chapter 6) is explained that Anycast fail-over is related to BGP convergence. For this reason Anycast can employ from 15 minutes to 20 seconds to complete. 20 seconds are possible on networks where the topology was optimized for this. Probably just CDN operators can grant such fast fail-overs. Edit 3:* I did some DNS look-ups and traceroutes (maybe some expert can double check) and: The only CDN using TCP Anycast seems to be CacheFly, other operators like CDN networks and BitGravity use CacheFly. Seems that their edges cannot be used as reverse proxies. Therefore, they cannot be used to grant instant failover. Akamai and LimeLight seems to use geo-aware DNS. But! They return multiple A records. From traceroutes seems that the returned IPs are on the same data center. So, I'm puzzled on how they can offer a 100% SLA when one data center goes down.

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  • Broadcom NIC Teaming w/ 802.3ad and Dell Powerconnect 2824

    - by Carltoncl
    We have a Poweredge R210 running WS2K8R2. The server has two Broadcom 5716C NICs running Broadcom BASP. I can team the NICs using the 802.3ad protocol on the server end no problem. I have no VLAN. Now I go to the 2824 switch (default settings all round) running in managed mode and create a LAG with ports g1 and g2. As soon as I add these ports, I lose the ability to send traffic to or from the server. I am much more of a server guy than a networking guy, what am I doing wrong here? Server Static IP Address: 10.10.61.15 Network mask: 255.255.255.0 Gateway: 10.10.61.51 The 2824 switch has an IP address of 10.10.61.51 and in turn has its gateway as our firewall server running ISA Server at 10.10.61.50.

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  • OpenLDAP and Samba, can't log onto Samba share from Windows

    - by Jakobud
    The former jackass IT-guy that I'm taking over for had a Samba share setup on a Fedora server that uses our OpenLDAP server to authenticate users who want to log in from Windows. We recently added a new employee and I jumped through the LDAP hoops to add them to the system. However, I can't seem to use their login to access the Samba share. I'm looking through the LDAP settings and Groups and comparing the new user account to existing ones, and I can't figure out what settings in LDAP are required for this user to be able to access the Samba share. Of course the former idiotic IT-guy didn't document a single thing and has all sorts of weird setups on the network. So I'm at a bit of a loss on knowing what to look for here. Where should I start? On the server that is hosting the Samba share, he has samba running obviously but also has smbldap-tools loaded as well.

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  • Using FTP to update files on a server

    - by Neville
    I know the FTP username and password for a site we own and need to know how we can update some files on the server. It seems quite a small thing to do and I'd like to have a go at doing it myself. A few years ago a friendly local guy help set up a website for my wife's floristry business. The site has a "contact us" page, and messages are forwarded to our home email address. We've now just changed our home email, and so I now need to reset the forwarding function on the website. The helpful local guy seems to have moved away, or retired - there's no way I can find him now. I tried to get help on how to change the forwarding address from the hosting people, but they say they can't help me. How do I go about updating the pages on the site? A step-by-step guide on how to do it would be great.

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  • Does Juniper Networks provide keyloggers with their software?

    - by orokusaki
    I noticed that I had a "USB Mass Storage Device" plugged in when there wasn't in fact anything plugged in to any USB port. I turned it off via Windows (XP), but it's quite concerning. This was after installing Juniper Networks' software for VPN access to an IT guy's stuff. I also notice there is a service called "dsNcService.exe" which apparently is sending information over the internet (even when I'm not in VPN access). The process restarts itself when I end it. Should I be worried that this software is tracking my keystrokes and broadcasting them to my IT guy?

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  • Full disk encryption on linux (ubuntu) w/o re-installing - possible?

    - by sa125
    Hi - I work at a company that takes security very seriously (like most). Our IT guy came in today to prepare us mentally to re-install our systems after he'll apply the new encryption policy (which will basically scrape our HD clean). For our team this means about a week of re-configuring, installing, and tweaking our desktops until we are back to work capacity - anyone who has to re-install a development machine probably knows what I'm talking about. So, I guess my question is if there's any way to perform full disk encryption on a linux (ubuntu = 9.04) system without having to re-install EVERYTHING [sigh]. IT guy said there isn't any - please prove him wrong. thanks :)

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  • Linux or Windows for a server?

    - by Matt
    I'm a Linux guy when it comes to (web) servers for the following reasons Legally free Fast software updates (Unless you're running Cent OS :) Powerful CLI management of services Easy to secure (in terms of users and groups) Web server software is, well, built for Linux... Apache, PHP, Python, etc, are Linux programs that get ported to Windows - I'm 90% sure of this Unless the web server needed to run ASP, I wouldn't use Windows. My boss' IT friend is a Windows guy, though. He recently got a server setup in the office to run Microsoft Exchange and some other shit. What I'm asking is, if he wanted to start running websites on this thing, what would be good reasoning to convince him otherwise? He's not very bright in terms of IT and the IT friend is all Windows. So it's two against one here... What would you say to running a Windows web server?

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  • Unable to bring back terminal launcher in fedora

    - by Sandeepan Nath
    Our office housing keeping guy sat on my linux (Fedora 7) system and somehow removed the main panel. By panel I mean where all the menus are there - Applications, Places, System etc. and contains a tab for every running application. I brought back the panel but now I don't see the terminal launcher and I can't find it anywhere. It used to be there in "Applications - System Tools - Terminal" but now the System Tools option itself is not present there. System - Preferences - Look and Feel - Main Menu. There one System option is unchecked but I can't check it and apply. I am logged in as root. How do I bring it back? Please help. This is very irritating and weird. That guy doesn't even know what he has done so no use of asking him. :)

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  • unable to decrypt certain files with secret key pgp 6.5.8, any advice?

    - by pythonian29033
    Ok so I do some stuff for a client of ours that requires me to decrypt some of their suppliers messages, the thing is, something weird happened the other day and I can only decrypt some files with an old decryption script, but for certain files I get the error: "Message is encrypted. Cannot decrypt message. It can only be decrypted by: 2048 bits, Key ID 98627E12, Created 2000-03-02 "Other Guy "" as you can see, the key is ancient and I was still 9years old when it was created, so I have know idea who this "Other Guy" is. . .and I can't understand why I'm able to decrypt some of the supplier's files with the decryption script, but for others it fails. PS: the supplier only uses one public key, so this should work for all the files, any advice?

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  • Shopping for Fast USB Flash Drives

    - by Jim McKeeth
    I would like to pick up some really fast USB flash drives in the 16 - 64 GB range. When looking at drives they just list their size, their form factor (key chain hook, slider, etc.) and the fact that they are all Hi-Speed USB 2.0. It seems like I have heard that different drives have different performance and life expectancy. The sales guy tells me that they are all the same performance any more, but it wouldn't be the first time a sales guy had the wrong technical details. Our objective is to run Virtual PC images off of them, so good speed and resilience to rewrites it important.

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  • postfix, webmin installed. whats next?

    - by Johnny Craig
    Im trying to get imap running and dont know the problem. i a developer, not a network guy.( our network guy left) we had postfix installed already for outgoing mail on 8 domains. we only had incoming on 1 domain. but that mail server is located on a different ip. now we want incoming on another domain, but we dont want it on another ip, we want it on the same ip as the website itself. I installed dovecot today because my hosting company said i needed it. it seems to run fine. do i need dovecot AND postfix? or are they the same thing? dovecot does not show up anywhere in webmin what i cant seem to figure out how to do is add a user email so i can try to telnet in on port 143. i think i have evrything installed, just need the next step.... sorry for the newb question

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  • Putting a Windows DC, Exchange in a DMZ

    - by blsub6
    I have one guy at my company telling me that I should put FF:TMG in between my main Internet-facing firewall (Cisco 5510) and put my Exchange server and DC on the internal network. I have another guy telling me that I should put the Exchange server and DC in a DMZ I don't particularly like the idea of having my mailboxes and DC's usernames/passwords in a DMZ and I think that Windows authentication would require me opening up so many ports between my DMZ and my internal network that it would be a moot point to have it out there anyways. What are some thoughts? How do you have it set up?

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  • How to apply Outlook Junk Mail rules using Hotmail Connector?

    - by Bobb
    I use Outlook 2010 with Hotmail connector. MS says that you can sync your Outlook rules with your Hotmail but I cant see how. My actual problem is - I add a guy to my Junk blocked senders list (and I check it visually - it is in the list). But I keep receiving emails from this guy. It doesnt go to the Junk folder in Outlook. I need my Outlook to honor the rules locally at least. Is it possible?

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  • Can I move a copy of Windows 7 from one machine to another?

    - by Chopper3
    This is a pretty basic question sorry but I've looked in the 'related questions' and couldn't find an answer. When Windows 7 came out I bought a copy of Home Premium, the retail box with both 32 and 64 bit versions, to install via Boot Camp on my macbook. I've just got a retail (32 and 64 bit) copy of Windows 7 Ultimate that I'd like to install instead-of/over the Home Premium version and it struck me that I should, at least in principal be able to install the Home Premium version on my son's machine - is this the case and if so is there anything I should do first or once they're installed to let MS know I'm being a good guy about this? Sorry it's such a dim question but I'm a serverfault guy really and know very little about Windows. Thanks.

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  • INCLUDE ON YOUR SOLUTION ORACLE'S BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE SOFTWARE / 22 Fev 11

    - by Claudia Costa
    Convidamo-lo a assistir à sessão ISV Partner Embedded BI que decorrerá no prximo dia 22 de Fevereiro nas instalações da Oracle, em Porto Salvo. Não perca esta oportunidade de descobrir como pode modernizar a sua aplicação através da inclusão do Oracle Business Intelligence (OBI 11g). Durante esta sessão, ficará a saber como tornar os seus relatórios e a informação de apoio à gestão mais competitivos, e em simultâneo como pode proporcionar aos seus clientes informação de gestão com um visual apelativo. Qual a importância que esta temática tem para si? Ao encorporar a solução Oracle BI na sua aplicação, poderá mais rapidamente endereçar oportunidades de mercado, acrescentando valor ao seu produto. Poderá também baixar o custo total de propriedade (TCO) e proporcionar um retorno de investimento maior. Em caso de dúvida ou eventual esclarecimento, por favor contacte Claudia Costa - Telf: 21 4235027 ou email: [email protected]. Contamos com a sua presença! Agenda 09:15 Registo 09:30 Boas Vindas e Introdução - Paulo Costa, ISV Manager Oracle Portugal 09:40 The BI&EPM Market and Oracle's Strategic Position - Mike Hallet, BI and EPM Director Oracle EMEA 10:00 Oracle Business Intelligence 11g - Most Complete, Open, Integrated and Embeddable solution - Guy Ernoul, Master Principal Sales Consultant 11:00 Coffee Break 11:20 Introduction to the embedded BI program for ISV partners - Mike Hallet, BI and EPM Director Oracle EMEA 12:00 Partner showcase of an Oracle Embedded BI solution 13:00 Lunch 14:00 Technical Presentation - Guy Ernoul, Master Principal Sales Consultant OBI Administration: Architecture Creating & Manage the (Presentation, Model, Physical) Layer Administration using FMW control Diagnostic and performance for Enterprise Manager Demonstration OBI Utilization: Analyse & Dashboard Reports Action Framework Map & Scorecard APIs for Embedding OBI 11g (Go, Xml, ADF) Demonstration 16:00 Encerramento22 Fevereiro de 2011 9.30 a.m. - 4.00 p.m. Instalações Oracle Showroom Lagoas Park - Edf 8 Porto SalvoAssista a este evento exclusivo Inscrições Gratuitas. Lugares Limitados!Registe-se já!

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  • Advice: The first-time interviewer's dilemna

    - by shan23
    I've been working in my first job for about 2 years now, and I've been "asked" to interview a potential teammate (whom I might have to mentor as well) on pretty short notice (2 days from now). Initially, I had been given a free rein(or so I thought, and hence agreed), but today, I've been told "not to pose bookish questions" - implying I can only ask basic programming puzzles and stuff similar to the 'fizbuzz' question. I strongly believe that not knowing basic algorithmic notations(the haziest ideas of space/time complexities) or the tiniest idea of regular expressions would make working with the guy very difficult for anyone. I know i'm asking for a lot here, but according to you, what would be a comprehensive way to test out the absolutely basic requirements of a CS guy(he has 2 yrs of exp) without sounding too pedantic/bookish etc ? It seems it would be legit to ask C questions/simple puzzles only....but I really do want to have something a bit different from "finding loops in linked lists" that has kind of become the opening statement of most techie interviews !! This is a face-to-face interview with about an hour or more of time - I looked at Steve's basic phone-screen questions, and I was wondering if there exists a guide on "basic face-to-face interview questions" that I can use(or compile from the community's answers here). EDIT: The position is mostly for a kernel level C programming job, with some smattering of C++ required for writing the test framework.

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  • Any good C++ Component/Entity frameworks?

    - by Pat
    (Skip to the bold if you want to get straight to my question :) ) I've been dabbling in the different technologies available out there to use. I tried Unity and component based design, managing to get a little guy up and running around a map with basic pathfinding. I really loved how easy it was to program using components, but I wanted a bit more control and something more 2D friendly, so I went with LibGDX. I looked around and found 2 good frameworks for Java, which are Artemis and Apollo. I didn't like Artemis much, so I went with Apollo, which I loved. I managed to integrate it with Box2D and get a little guy running around bouncing balls. Great! But since I want to try out most of the options, there is still C++/SFML that I haven't tried yet. Coming from a Java/C# background, I've always wanted to get my hands dirty with C++. But then, after some looking around, I noticed there aren't any Component-Based frameworks for me to use. There's a somewhat done porting of Artemis, but, aside from not being completely finished, I didn't quite like Artemis even in Java. I found Apollo's approach much more.. logical. So, my question is, are there any good Component/Entity frameworks for C++ that I can use that are similar to Artemis, or preferably, Apollo?

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  • What is the best book on Silverlight 4?

    - by mbcrump
    Silverlight/Expression 4 Books! I recently stumbled upon a post asking, “What is the best book on Silverlight 4?” In the age of the internet, it can be hard for anyone searching for a good book to actually find it. I have read a few Silverlight 4/Expression books in 2010 and decided to post the “best of” collection. Instead of reading multiple books, you can cut your list down to whatever category that you fit in. With Silverlight 5 coming soon, now is the time to get up to speed with what Silverlight 4 can offer. Be sure to read the full review at the bottom of each section. For the “Beginner” Silverlight Developer: Both of these books contains very simple applications and will get you started very fast. and Book Review: Microsoft Silverlight 4 Step by Step For the guy/gal that wants to “Master” Expression Blend 4: This is a hands-on kind of book. Victor get you started early on with some sample application and quickly deep dives into Storyboard and other Animations. If you want to learn Blend 4 then this is the place to start. Book Review: Foundation Expression Blend 4 by Victor Gaudioso If you are aiming to learn more about the Business side of Silverlight then check out the following two books: and Finally, For the Silverlight 4 guy/gal that wants to “Master” Silverlight 4, it really boils down to the following two books: and   Book Review: Silverlight 4 Unleashed by Laurent Bugnion Book Review: Silverlight 4 in Action by Pete Brown I can’t describe how much that I’ve actually learned from both of these books. I would also recommend you read these books if you are preparing for your Silverlight 4 Certification. For a complete list of all Silverlight 4 books then check out http://www.silverlight.net/learn/books/ and don’t forget to subscribe to my blog.  Subscribe to my feed CodeProject

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  • SharePoint 2010 PowerShell Script to Find All SPShellAdmins with Database Name

    - by Brian Jackett
    Problem     Yesterday on Twitter my friend @cacallahan asked for some help on how she could get all SharePoint 2010 SPShellAdmin users and the associated database name.  I spent a few minutes and wrote up a script that gets this information and decided I’d post it here for others to enjoy.     Background     The Get-SPShellAdmin commandlet returns a listing of SPShellAdmins for the given database Id you pass in, or the farm configuration database by default.  For those unfamiliar, SPShellAdmin access is necessary for non-admin users to run PowerShell commands against a SharePoint 2010 farm (content and configuration databases specifically).  Click here to read an excellent guest post article my friend John Ferringer (twitter) wrote on the Hey Scripting Guy! blog regarding granting SPShellAdmin access.  Solution     Below is the script I wrote (formatted for space and to include comments) to provide the information needed. Click here to download the script.   # declare a hashtable to store results $results = @{}   # fetch databases (only configuration and content DBs are needed) $databasesToQuery = Get-SPDatabase | Where {$_.Type -eq 'Configuration Database' -or $_.Type -eq 'Content Database'}   # for each database get spshelladmins and add db name and username to result $databasesToQuery | ForEach-Object {$dbName = $_.Name; Get-SPShellAdmin -database $_.id | ForEach-Object {$results.Add($dbName, $_.username)}}   # sort results by db name and pipe to table with auto sizing of col width $results.GetEnumerator() | Sort-Object -Property Name | ft -AutoSize     Conclusion     In this post I provided a script that outputs all of the SPShellAdmin users and the associated database names in a SharePoint 2010 farm.  Funny enough it actually took me longer to boot up my dev VM and PowerShell (~3 mins) than it did to write the first working draft of the script (~2 mins).  Feel free to use this script and modify as needed, just be sure to give credit back to the original author.  Let me know if you have any questions or comments.  Enjoy!         -Frog Out   Links PowerShell Hashtables http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee692803.aspx SPShellAdmin Access Explained http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2010/07/06/hey-scripting-guy-tell-me-about-permissions-for-using-windows-powershell-2-0-cmdlets-with-sharepoint-2010.aspx

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  • Software development is (mostly) a trade, and what to do about it

    - by Jeff
    (This is another cross-post from my personal blog. I don’t even remember when I first started to write it, but I feel like my opinion is well enough baked to share.) I've been sitting on this for a long time, particularly as my opinion has changed dramatically over the last few years. That I've encountered more crappy code than maintainable, quality code in my career as a software developer only reinforces what I'm about to say. Software development is just a trade for most, and not a huge academic endeavor. For those of you with computer science degrees readying your pitchforks and collecting your algorithm interview questions, let me explain. This is not an assault on your way of life, and if you've been around, you know I'm right about the quality problem. You also know the HR problem is very real, or we wouldn't be paying top dollar for mediocre developers and importing people from all over the world to fill the jobs we can't fill. I'm going to try and outline what I see as some of the problems, and hopefully offer my views on how to address them. The recruiting problem I think a lot of companies are doing it wrong. Over the years, I've had two kinds of interview experiences. The first, and right, kind of experience involves talking about real life achievements, followed by some variation on white boarding in pseudo-code, drafting some basic system architecture, or even sitting down at a comprooder and pecking out some basic code to tackle a real problem. I can honestly say that I've had a job offer for every interview like this, save for one, because the task was to debug something and they didn't like me asking where to look ("everyone else in the company died in a plane crash"). The other interview experience, the wrong one, involves the classic torture test designed to make the candidate feel stupid and do things they never have, and never will do in their job. First they will question you about obscure academic material you've never seen, or don't care to remember. Then they'll ask you to white board some ridiculous algorithm involving prime numbers or some kind of string manipulation no one would ever do. In fact, if you had to do something like this, you'd Google for a solution instead of waste time on a solved problem. Some will tell you that the academic gauntlet interview is useful to see how people respond to pressure, how they engage in complex logic, etc. That might be true, unless of course you have someone who brushed up on the solutions to the silly puzzles, and they're playing you. But here's the real reason why the second experience is wrong: You're evaluating for things that aren't the job. These might have been useful tactics when you had to hire people to write machine language or C++, but in a world dominated by managed code in C#, or Java, people aren't managing memory or trying to be smarter than the compilers. They're using well known design patterns and techniques to deliver software. More to the point, these puzzle gauntlets don't evaluate things that really matter. They don't get into code design, issues of loose coupling and testability, knowledge of the basics around HTTP, or anything else that relates to building supportable and maintainable software. The first situation, involving real life problems, gives you an immediate idea of how the candidate will work out. One of my favorite experiences as an interviewee was with a guy who literally brought his work from that day and asked me how to deal with his problem. I had to demonstrate how I would design a class, make sure the unit testing coverage was solid, etc. I worked at that company for two years. So stop looking for algorithm puzzle crunchers, because a guy who can crush a Fibonacci sequence might also be a guy who writes a class with 5,000 lines of untestable code. Fashion your interview process on ways to reveal a developer who can write supportable and maintainable code. I would even go so far as to let them use the Google. If they want to cut-and-paste code, pass on them, but if they're looking for context or straight class references, hire them, because they're going to be life-long learners. The contractor problem I doubt anyone has ever worked in a place where contractors weren't used. The use of contractors seems like an obvious way to control costs. You can hire someone for just as long as you need them and then let them go. You can even give them the work that no one else wants to do. In practice, most places I've worked have retained and budgeted for the contractor year-round, meaning that the $90+ per hour they're paying (of which half goes to the person) would have been better spent on a full-time person with a $100k salary and benefits. But it's not even the cost that is an issue. It's the quality of work delivered. The accountability of a contractor is totally transient. They only need to deliver for as long as you keep them around, and chances are they'll never again touch the code. There's no incentive for them to get things right, there's little incentive to understand your system or learn anything. At the risk of making an unfair generalization, craftsmanship doesn't matter to most contractors. The education problem I don't know what they teach in college CS courses. I've believed for most of my adult life that a college degree was an essential part of being successful. Of course I would hold that bias, since I did it, and have the paper to show for it in a box somewhere in the basement. My first clue that maybe this wasn't a fully qualified opinion comes from the fact that I double-majored in journalism and radio/TV, not computer science. Eventually I worked with people who skipped college entirely, many of them at Microsoft. Then I worked with people who had a masters degree who sucked at writing code, next to the high school diploma types that rock it every day. I still think there's a lot to be said for the social development of someone who has the on-campus experience, but for software developers, college might not matter. As I mentioned before, most of us are not writing compilers, and we never will. It's actually surprising to find how many people are self-taught in the art of software development, and that should reveal some interesting truths about how we learn. The first truth is that we learn largely out of necessity. There's something that we want to achieve, so we do what I call just-in-time learning to meet those goals. We acquire knowledge when we need it. So what about the gaps in our knowledge? That's where the most valuable education occurs, via our mentors. They're the people we work next to and the people who write blogs. They are critical to our professional development. They don't need to be an encyclopedia of jargon, but they understand the craft. Even at this stage of my career, I probably can't tell you what SOLID stands for, but you can bet that I practice the principles behind that acronym every day. That comes from experience, augmented by my peers. I'm hell bent on passing that experience to others. Process issues If you're a manager type and don't do much in the way of writing code these days (shame on you for not messing around at least), then your job is to isolate your tradespeople from nonsense, while bringing your business into the realm of modern software development. That doesn't mean you slap up a white board with sticky notes and start calling yourself agile, it means getting all of your stakeholders to understand that frequent delivery of quality software is the best way to deal with change and evolving expectations. It also means that you have to play technical overlord to make sure the education and quality issues are dealt with. That's why I make the crack about sticky notes, because without the right technique being practiced among your code monkeys, you're just a guy with sticky notes. You're asking your business to accept frequent and iterative delivery, now make sure that the folks writing the code can handle the same thing. This means unit testing, the right instrumentation, integration tests, automated builds and deployments... all of the stuff that makes it easy to see when change breaks stuff. The prognosis I strongly believe that education is the most important part of what we do. I'm encouraged by things like The Starter League, and it's the kind of thing I'd love to see more of. I would go as far as to say I'd love to start something like this internally at an existing company. Most of all though, I can't emphasize enough how important it is that we mentor each other and share our knowledge. If you have people on your staff who don't want to learn, fire them. Seriously, get rid of them. A few months working with someone really good, who understands the craftsmanship required to build supportable and maintainable code, will change that person forever and increase their value immeasurably.

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