Comments on: I Really Hate These ‘People’

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 05:25:29 +0000

The DoD still specifies Ada for embedded systems, so it is in use locally. Lots of nice features, but no standardized I/O, so it is not in general use. There are ‘Ada systems’ flying over my house most days on their way to the range.

Yes, teaching people to think, rather than telling them what to think. The number of students who asked me what was the best language to learn and getting annoyed when I told them the one that does what you want do with the computer. You can’t convince people that if they can learn one language, they have the skills to learn any language they need.

A lot of the problem is with HR departments demanding paperwork because they don’t understand technical jobs. I have refused to pursue jobs after talking to HR and getting someone who has no idea what their questions mean, or what the answers mean. In one case I only applied as a favor to a project manager that I had known for years and he needed to do something that I had already done. It was a short-term contract but HR got involved and hired someone who didn’t have any idea what the project was about. He bought dinner and I gave him some of the design stuff from my project which pointed him in the right direction without reinventing the wheel.

Thanks for the Java note as it explains something that has been annoying me. I knew there was some change but haven’t had time to look into it as it isn’t something that is important, only occasionally useful.

I built a similar spreadsheet for a totally different purpose – my parents held the mortgage when they sold their place in New York, and I did it to provide the buyers with the annual interest/principal report, as well as showing them what it would really cost to buy the house. I’ve used it every time my Mother talks about buying a house again, so she sees the real cost.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 03:18:15 +0000

The university I attended was big on basic theory, and expected you to simply pick up any computer languages needed to complete the assignments without needing specific instruction in how to write programs in any particular computer language. I was working on a Java program today at work. Java didn’t exist when I was at university. But (shrug). I had to figure out why it wasn’t working the way it was expected (it turns out that some of the Java AWT behavior changed between Java 1.4 and Java 1.6 and the order in which onTop windows got drawn changed meaning that my login window was hidden beneath the splash window, gosh, such gratuitous incompatibilities *never* happen, right?), so I figured it out and I fixed it. That’s the sort of thing that was expected back when I graduated from college, that you’d figure out things without needing anybody holding your hand and the job of the college was to teach you the theory to make sense of what you were looking at, rather than teach you any specific language that was going to be obsolete in a few years anyhow. (Ada, anyone?).

Property taxes are going at about 1.3% of selling price locally. Insurance is actually somewhat cheaper than you’d expect for a $350K home because it’s the land that’s expensive, not the houses on the land, which can be rebuilt for far less than the price of house + land. PMI is running at 0.73% for 5% down. Interest rates are at 3.6% for a 30 year loan. I can plug all that in and figure out the max that I’m willing to pay. Regarding the mortgage tax deduction, if I can’t swing the finances without said deduction, I’m not pulling the trigger. The other cost to consider is the cost of down payment plus fees. 5% down payment plus roughly 3% in various fees, transfer taxes, and so forth, you have to amortize that over the expected amount of time that you’re going to live in the home if you are trying to make sense of the finances, because there’s no guarantee that you’re going to get it back at the end of the period, especially given that you have to pay roughly the same amount in fees to sell the house. I have a spreadsheet for all this stuff and know what my costs were for the last home I owned (err, rented from the bank, I should say), and know exactly what the bottom line is…

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 19:05:22 +0000

Basic theory is still the foundation, which is something that I have found lacking is many of the newer grads. You should be learning how to write 4GLs at the college level, not how to use them. I don’t expect them to write in machine language, like I did, but they should certainly be capable of assembler language coding so they know what is going on, and what the architecture can do.

Oh, don’t forget the property taxes, insurance, and repairs that come with home ownership that get piled on top of the mortgage, and I wouldn’t count on the tax break after the next ‘Grand Bargain’, as mortgage interest is not a problem for the 1%, it will probably be sacrificed in ‘closing loopholes’.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 04:37:14 +0000

Well, the problem is that the housing market here is becoming a bit less depressed, even the ghetto is starting to move. You’re still taking a minimum of $350K for someplace livable with a two-car garage, and it’s hard to justify that cost (around $2500/month) given that a 2-bedroom duplex is renting for $1700/month. You can buy a lot of herring for $800/month! (Though the tax deductions make it more like $400-$500 month difference, but still).

I paid professional moving help to load the truck and then unload it (and haul the books to the middle of the living room) at the other end. But simply boxing up that many books and putting the boxes in a place the professional moving help could get at easily was a PITA. And while there are a few of my books that are obsolete, some of them will never be obsolete. My compiler design textbooks, for example, are as relevant now as they were thirty years ago when I used them in college, every time I need to parse something they’re right there on my bookshelf. And of course Stevens and Knuth have their own shelf…

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 02:51:31 +0000

I just moved across the street the last time, but I spent two weeks moving books a few boxes at a time. I will pay if I have to move again, because I’m too old for that crap.

Yeah, the one big drawback in renting is not being able to make major changes. I hate to think what it will cost you for a two car garage in California, even with the current depressed market, but I understand the aggravation of being ready to do something and then being stopped by bad weather – I have been trying to trim around my house for over a week, but the thunderstorms keep rolling in off the Gulf.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 02:34:52 +0000

A small box of books weighs 60 pounds. You can stack four of them on a hand truck, though dragging that much weight up the ramp into the U-Haul is a bit of a chore so you probably want to stop at three. My last move, I moved somewhere around 40 boxes of books. That’s literally over a ton of books. It took me around a week just to box them up and haul them down the stairs to the garage where my professional moving help could do the actual hard work of dragging them up the ramp into the truck on moving day.

Meanwhile, hauling all my e-books to the new place consisted of, um, closing my laptop, slipping it into its case, and slinging the strap over my shoulder :).

I’m thinking of moving again, but it depends on whether I find the right place. I really want someplace where I can set up a real workshop, a 1 car garage is fine and dandy but a) it’s not big enough to work on my Jeep in it when the weather is bad outside, and b) I really can’t wire up the wiring for a welding machine and air compressor in a rental…

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 22:35:43 +0000

Oh, yes, no doubt about it – if you ever move, moving books is definitely a reason to call the professionals if you can afford it. Even culling out-of-date technical books doesn’t really reduce the load, so I understand about the lure of eBooks.

Some day when I need ‘big type’ books I’ll succumb, but not yet.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 17:37:27 +0000

books, not cats.

i may be a crazy cat lady, but i definitely don’t need 3000 cats.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 17:36:24 +0000

this last move, with 11 semi- and mostly-wild cats to trap and relocate, i decided to get rid of most of the physical books rather than try to trap and relocate 2000+/- books. 🙂

if i ever win the lottery, i am going to buy 3000 more to replace those, because i miss having them [even if i hate moving them].

By: Badtux

Badtux — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 07:23:09 +0000

Physical books to read if the power is out are not a problem in my house, believe me :). I also carry physical books with me on camping trips — usually guide books and history books about whatever area that I’m exploring, none of which are available as ebooks for a variety of reasons (for one thing, many of them are the work of individuals self-publishing via a vanity press and selling it through tourist centers in those small communities).

That said, if it’s available as an ebook, that’s what I’m buying it in, because that’s one less physical book to get rid of to make space for a new physical book. And yes, I have the wall of boxes of books in storage too… but I’m not adding more books to that collection, I’m giving books away to anybody I can find to take them as I buy new physical books rather than stash more books away where I can’t read them anyhow.