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February 2007 - Posts

Wednesday, February 28, 2007 10:14 PM

Teaching My Son To Program

A few months back I read the article , "Why Johnny can't code" by David Brin. He talks about the trials he had teaching his son to BASIC. Just yesterday, I came across this article by Nat Torkington entitled, "Why Johnny Can't Program." This one talks
Posted by SteveRowe | 5 Comments
Tuesday, February 27, 2007 9:58 PM

Programming, Bridges, and ... the Halting Problem?

Jt Gleason contends that building software is not like building bridges because of the halting problem. He describes a situation where you build bridges but random things can go wrong. The bridge works fine for a VW but not for a Volvo. Sometimes two
Posted by SteveRowe | 1 Comments
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Friday, February 23, 2007 8:35 AM

In Defense of Logic Questions

Microsoft has a history of asking logic questions in its interviews. Because of this, there are many web sites talking about the questions and given answers to them. There is even an entire book dedicated to the subject called How Would You Move Mount
Posted by SteveRowe | 3 Comments
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Thursday, February 22, 2007 5:23 PM

Crossing the Uncanny Valley

The " uncanny valley " is the name for a phenomenon in computer graphics where the closer something looks to reality, the more the mind rejects it as being real. When you see something like a cartoon--say, Finding Nemo --you don't think about it being
Posted by SteveRowe | 1 Comments
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Thursday, February 22, 2007 10:55 AM

Hiring Great Testers - Interviewing

A friend IM'd me yesterday saying he was being considered for a test manager position somewhere. In that position, he would be responsible for building up his test team. He solicited advice on what to look for and how best to interview for testing positions.
Posted by SteveRowe | 1 Comments
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Wednesday, February 21, 2007 4:49 PM

Disneyland After Action Report

Met the mouse. Lived to tell about it. Disneyland is a lot of fun with young children. I'm also a fan of fast roller coasters but not super big fan of the drops involved in most coaster. Disneyland has a lot of the merely fast coasters. Space Mountain
Posted by SteveRowe | 3 Comments
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Thursday, February 15, 2007 12:16 AM

I'm Going To Disneyland!

We're taking the munchkins and heading to southern Kalifornia. Don't expect to see any new posts from me for about a week. I'll be busy riding Star Tours and Pirates of Caribbean. Well, that and I don't think I'll have a network connection down there.
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Wednesday, February 14, 2007 8:14 PM

Copy As Path

Here's a cool little Vista trick I just learned: Browse to a file. Hold down shift and right-click on the file. Select "Copy as Path" The path for the file, include the filename, is now in your clipboard. You can paste it into any app. This is useful
Posted by SteveRowe | 5 Comments
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Tuesday, February 13, 2007 8:40 PM

Display Adapters Demystified

The world of display adapter types is an alphabet soup of options today. HDMI, DVI, VGA, UDI, DisplayPort? Which will become the standard in the next few years? HDMI looks like a sure bet in the consumer electronics space but it is failing to make inroads
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Tuesday, February 13, 2007 12:53 PM

Hiring Great Testers - How Important Is Testing Affinity?

When it comes to the increasingly important role of test developer, hiring managers have a choice to make. They must decide what is the controlling criteria for hiring. Which is more important, testing skills or development skills? Sure, you want both
Posted by SteveRowe | 7 Comments
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Saturday, February 10, 2007 11:28 AM

Programmer Humor

A friend turned me onto this online web comic called XKCD . Some parts are really funny. Others, quite lame. Anyway, here are some of the funnier ones from a programmer's viewpoint: http://www.xkcd.com/c138.html http://www.xkcd.com/c221.html http://www.xkcd.com/c208.html
Posted by SteveRowe | 1 Comments
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Friday, February 09, 2007 12:02 AM

February Netcast Update

It's been a while since I posted my list of netcasts. I've had less time of late to listen to netcasts so my regularly scheduled netcasts have dwindled. Here is a list of those I listen to on a regular basis: This Week in Tech - Leo Laporte hosts a roundtable
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Thursday, February 08, 2007 10:55 PM

What Is Your Greatest Weakness?

If you've interviewed much, you've probably been asked this question. Art Vandalay examines some of the potential answers and their outcome on his blog. There's also an interesting conversation in the comments over there. The consensus of those being
Posted by SteveRowe | 3 Comments
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Sunday, February 04, 2007 10:23 PM

The Sorry State of HD Television

I attended a Superbowl viewing party at a friend's house today. No, the screen wasn't larger than 55" so the NFL doesn't need to worry. I don't happen to have an HDTV at home yet so this is one of the few times I've seen the programming. What I saw doesn't
Posted by SteveRowe | 2 Comments
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Saturday, February 03, 2007 5:55 PM

Why Writing Software Is Hard

Scott Rosenberg just published a new book called Dreaming in Code about a project to create a new personal information manager called Chandler. As many software projects, this one is late. Rosenberg was recently interviewed about the subject of software
Posted by SteveRowe | 3 Comments
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