Latest posts of: DarkEL

Cool - sent you a PM

Quote from: Isgrimnur on May 30, 2013, 04:08:15 AM

I've spent the last 5.5 years coding banking systems using HTML, JavaScript, ASP.NET, the occasional foray into JQuery, XML data transfer to a proprietary transactional middle tier system, and performing system integration with legacy mainframe systems using a variety of solutions such as SOAP and Web services. And I've been working with various database systems since 1996, SQL since 2003.

Quote from: Isgrimnur on May 29, 2013, 01:44:53 PM

I'm out of a job as of Friday. I've got marketable skills and my current recruiting employer has a right to represent to try and find me some new contracts.

A quick perusal of other jobs at my target companies show a good number of Java positions, so my new "job" next week will be to spend half the day looking for employment and half the day learning Java. Finally.

Do you already know any programming languages? Or are you looking to get into an entry-level programming job by learning Java?

Saw it with my family on the IMAX over the weekend. They hated it. I thought it was meh (at best).

I just hope they bring back Fry's dog somehow for one last heartbreak at the season finale.

Quote from: Jimmy the Fish on April 15, 2013, 11:17:15 PM

One of the two confirmed dead was an 8 year old boy.

What the FUCK is wrong with people these days?? It's all so frustrating and depressing...

(surprisingly) Patton Oswalt had a really good post about this stuff....

https://www.facebook.com/pattonoswalt/posts/10151440800582655

For the last year and half I've been traveling around the country doing software consulting to large companies.

Few different things that I've won.

In junior high - I once won a raffle and got a $100 bill which they gave to me at lunch. Unfortunately someone else stole it from me before the end of the day and the school had called my father to tell him that I had won the money. So when he came to pick me up after school and we discovered it had been stolen - I got a beating and was grounded for two weeks.

In the mid-90's i entered a contest on AOL (I know... the shame...) for the movie Hackers (with a young angelina jolie). Apparently not enough people entered, so with my one entry they sent me 3 copies of the movie on VHS and two posters.

Back in the late 90's I won a brand new palm pilot 5 from the tucows website, along with a bunch of fun little desk toys.

During the first year that American idol was on the air, I entered a ford contest during the show and won a high end VCR.

So obviously i don't know much about the character outside of the fact that he was supposed to be magic / martial arts based.

But one thing I'm seeing in that picture is a lot of military references. His robes seem to have a lot of old-school military style camouflage as the under-pinnings. And the statue on the right has a lot of dog-tags hanging from it along with a helmet on the top.

Is that normal or is that possibly something they've added to the character for the movie?

Few things I'm proud of:

- Serving my country in the U.S. Marines after high school.

- Have written and had two books on Programming published. Also been the technical reviewer for several other popular books.

- My career - I wasn't able to afford to go to College, but even without a Computer Science degree I've been able to work hard, learn, and grow over the years. The amount of influence I have today continually amazes me.

- My daughter (she's not perfect but she's pretty frickin awesome).

I'd assume that whether you have someone write a script or pay someone to do it manually - somebody will need to follow up and check the work (even if it's just a few random things).

So I would also suggest going the script route. It'll be more consistent and less prone to human mistakes. If it's literally just editing data in the database, probably not very hard to write and could even be tested "offline" to validate that it doesn't cause any issues prior to working on the live data set.

What about Knights of Badassdom (http://knightsofbadassdommovie.com/)?

I know it's been on-hold for some silly reason - but last I heard it was going to be released in 2013.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/21/the-nra-blames-video-games-for-school-shootings-sigh/

So apparently we're all ticking time bombs and of course they propose that the only solution is more guns

DarkEL

(is that bad for me to vote for my own?? - I just really liked it)

Quote from: Purge on July 08, 2012, 12:13:14 PM

I was waiting for you to POST. Tongue

Ah well.

Ahhh.. Sorry

Quote from: Purge on July 07, 2012, 05:45:04 PM

DarkEl isn't around? Tsk Tsk. I'll wait a bit.

Huh? I voted.

For the few people who might not have seen it

Kate Upton doing the Cat Daddy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34hWlRJHCqs

Ah dangit- never got a chance to post..

Oh well - here's the rest of the series for you.

Quote from: morlac on June 09, 2012, 12:10:31 PM

Quote from: Lordnine on June 06, 2012, 07:03:58 PM

I would just recommend not skimping on price. I purchased a pretty cheap memory foam mattress about a two years ago and it was great for about the first year but now I seem to have worn it out and most nights I end up sleeping 6 inches deep in the center of it.

I have a philosophy of not skimping on anything that is used almost daily. I don't buy cheap shoes, mattresses, eye glasses, etc. S

Ditto - you get what you pay for is true most of the time.

We were due for a new bed a couple of years ago and ended up buying a tempurpedic. Absolutely love it. Wife complains anytime that she has to sleep anywhere else now.

I travel to Chicago almost every week so I can give a few recommendations.

My favorite Steak in Chicago - Fulton's on the River
The only 3 Michelin star restaurant in Chicago - Alinea (about $200 a person w/o wine but fairly fun experience)
Famous Mexican Restaurant Rick Bayless Frontera Grill

However some of the best food (and whiskey) I've had in Chicago was at Longman and Eagle. It's out in Logan square and can have quite a wait - but oh my god.... it is worth it.

As for Garrett's popcorn I really love it but recommend avoiding the cheese flavor (it's far too sweet). I usually get the caramel and almond popcorn.

If you're going to go to one of the observatories - skip Willis (used to be sears) and go to Hancock. It's far more interesting and has a better view.

Let me put on my grumpy old developer hat for a moment....

One of the best things I ever did was stop using any of those visual / GUI based tools. They give a temporary speed increases at the cost of developing actual muscle memory for syntax, typing speed, etc. In other words - you become dependent upon the tool.

I used to use TextMate and loved it while I used it - however development did stall on it a bit but there is a TextMate 2 beta out now.
I've had to help some people who use sublime and while I know some other developers who seem to like it, I wouldn't want to use it.

I would strongly recommend that you use the opportunity to learn a tool like Vim or Emacs (I prefer Vim). If you use brew - you can even install a GUI based version of Vim with 'brew install macvim'. There's also a brand new book (literally) on learning to use Vim that's pretty good - http://pragprog.com/book/dnvim/practical-vim

If you're going to stay in MS development - I think C# is more marketable these days. However, even if not, having solid experience in both would definitely be a boon for you.

I've dealt with long commutes in the past (and I travel full time these days) - it's amazing how quickly you get used to it. That new company might even give you some flexibility to deal with it (i.e. working 4 / 10 hour days to get a 3 day weekend, etc)

So I'd say Go for it. Sounds like it would be a win for you.

I've written a couple of programming books.

Couldn't stop reading it today and finished the book tonight. Enjoyed it very much.

However I was wondering if I was the only one that suspected:

Spoiler for Hiden:

Picked this up a few days ago based on recommendations in this thread. About half-way through and really enjoying the story so far. Actually forcing myself to take a break from reading right now.

Thought I'd post a follow up here as I had to actually make my purchases and expense them today (nothing like debating on a decision until the very last minute). I thought about picking up an Android Tablet like the Galaxy or even the Kindle Fire in order to experiment with building apps for them but ended up feeling that with the fragmentation of that market - it wouldn't be a good use of my time.

Some of the things i did purchase though:
1. A few extra power adapters for my Macbook, iPad and iPhone (so I can avoid having to transport them from place to place)
2. A new minimal laptop case to take on planes with me http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000RPLMCI
3. A wireless presentation controller since I plan on doing more speaking next year http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002GHBUTU
4. A nice USB microphone http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002VA464S to experiment with creating some screencasts next year.
5. A bunch of books on software development best practices, object oriented design and some on languages (C++, IOS, Clojure and Javascript)
6. Annual subscription for Dropbox
7. Pre-purchased a set of 10 software development screencasts

Was able to come in a mere $7 shy of completely using my bonus.

I read in some article that it is definitely set in the same universe, and that while there are things that will reference the Alien films - they were trying to down-play it as an Aliens prequel.

Quote from: PeteRock on December 09, 2011, 02:34:36 PM

Robert Downey, Jr. has really come into his own as an actor (between this, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, Iron Man, etc, he really is becoming a personal favorite)

I certainly won't disagree that he has become quite good in recent years.

But just as a reminder in-between Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and Iron Man - he was the bad guy in Disney's the Shaggy Dog.

Quote from: morlac on December 05, 2011, 04:02:35 PM

2 chicks at the same time?

We have a winner!!!!!

Took my family to see it last night. I thought it was decent, but wife and daughter hated it.

Yeah - I was sorta waiting for an iPad 3 before I upgrade since I didn't think the 2 offered enough of an upgrade - especially this close to end of life.

And I've been looking for training I could book now ($ has to be spent before end of year - even if class is in 2012), but software development training is typically in the 2.5 - 5k range. Unless I can find something remotely interesting via online.

So my company sent out the following announcement this last week - to let us know that they're giving all employees the ability to purchase up to $1,000 worth of stuff that we think would make us more productive this month.

Quote

Would an iPad make you more productive while traveling? Would a training class in a new language make you more productive on a future project? Would learning Portuguese make you more productive in your assignment to Brazil? Listed below are some suggested items that can be purchased from today through to year-end. We encourage the spirit of creativity. If you think of something not on this list, please speak to your local contact (listed below) for approval before purchasing. You may choose to spread productivity enhancements across different items as long as total does not exceed the amount applicable for your country.

Ideas for Productivity Purchases:

iPad/Tablet/Laptop
Smart Phone
Related data services paid or prepaid in 2011
Training Classes – new languages, Lean, consulting, etc.
Language Classes/Programs – (i.e. Portuguese, Mandarin, German, English)
Software licenses, Networking equipment, etc.
Additional books, subscriptions, etc.

So very cool considering that there's somewhere around 1800 employees. Unfortunately I've already got an iPhone 4S, and iPad (first gen though), a Kindle DX, a Macbook Air, Wireless Broadband modem, Noise cancelling headphones, etc. (yeah I'm a gadget freak). So I'm really stumped on what I could spend it on.

Anyone have any suggestions for me?

Quote from: Abaddon on November 12, 2011, 04:25:52 AM

Quote from: DarkEL on November 11, 2011, 03:02:03 AM

As a ~~Ex-~~ Former Marine - I celebrated with a large amount of Rum and Tequila (and almost got into a fight when the girl that was driving me around stole a parking spot).

Good night. :-)

El

Thanks! l blame the alcohol.

As an Ex-Marine - I celebrated with a large amount of Rum and Tequila (and almost got into a fight when the girl that was driving me around stole a parking spot).

Good night. :-)

El

Quote from: Purge on October 15, 2011, 06:11:14 AM

Quote from: DarkEL on October 15, 2011, 05:15:22 AM

Still no update on my shipping status from AT&T. They suck beyond words

However.....

Wife picked me up from my business trip and had a brand new White 64gig Iphone 4S in my seat. Apparently she went to the Apple Store before coming to pick me up and they had plenty in stock still. She went through the whole painful process with AT&T (who of course refuse to cancel the order they can't fulfill) and Apple did everything they could to try and make it work.

In the end - she added another line to our account and got me the new iphone. Supposedly - we can return the other phone once we receive it and get my number transferred over to it.

An expensive solution (and not something I would have done) but I know her heart was in the right place and so I can't fault her.

That's love, man. smile

or guilt... I was gone for a week