tom_b

15 ms·

91.
by tom_b 13y ago
Hi, I'm definitely not a top 1% developer and I use Clojure. Because I'm not a top 1% developer, I have found some success by picking tools that were a bit "on the outside looking in" and trying to essentially use these
92.
by tom_b 13y ago
Awesome link. Epic is the right descriptor. You could do much, much worse if you were looking to understand data integration in practice. The links section at the bottom alone are a tremendous resource. I've stumbled across most of
93.
by tom_b 13y ago
GUI and visualization tools seem to be an afterthought for the big EHR vendors. Peeling the surface layers off of EHR systems, it seems they are essentially big ERP systems with a medical bent. So they require multitudes of system-buildin
94.
by tom_b 13y ago
My experience at IBM in the US (six years worth) was that management "strongly suggested" patent submissions as part of the review/promotion game. On one occasion at a meeting of a second-line managers entire org (4 or 5 team
95.
by tom_b 13y ago
To clarify, two SQL questions were asked during an interview round for a job description that specifically required the ability to write ANSI SQL against databases for reporting/analytics purposes. Opposed to bringing candidates in fo
96.
by tom_b 13y ago
I consider the critical path to SQL performance to be understanding what the data looks like and the type of queries to be executed against it rather than general guidelines. To be frank, knowing the difference in how to write an inner and
97.
by tom_b 13y ago
As a non-traditional programming language fan, I'd love to see candidates throwing up working solutions or providing code samples in any language they choose. My co-workers, though, are a little more stuck in traditional thinking on th
98.
by tom_b 13y ago
A follow-up question for interviewers lurking here on HN: What are your thoughts about candidates who code correct solutions in a language not in use at your workplace? I have a nagging feeling that some positions in my group have gone unfi
99.
by tom_b 13y ago
I would like to read details about the model -> production code that the IAP product uses. I've been developing an interest in statistical modeling and moving those models to production code (and of course, quantitative finance is a
100.
by tom_b 13y ago
My friend, of East European descent (immigrated to the US as a teen), has started a company with a small number of software engineers from his home country. He is US-based and seems to be having success with these engineers building a plat
101.
by tom_b 13y ago
Yes, both 'The Elements of Statistical Learning' and 'An Introduction to Statistical Learning with Applications in R' are available free in pdf. For fans of hard copy, I recently found that if your local (university?) li
102.
by tom_b 13y ago
I enjoyed "The Bee Keeper's Lament" - this book covers the domestic US honey bee industry. Super interesting, especially the description of how hives are trucked all around based on crop pollination needs. You are correct th
103.
by tom_b 13y ago
Heck, in grad school I wrote C to hack data in memory layouts designed to minimize page faults. Lots of bit-twiddling nuttiness. I don't think I could write a simple echo clone in C anymore. I miss C, but since entering the "real
104.
by tom_b 13y ago
Congrats, I hope all the awesome Cascalog hackers at Climate Corporation made out well in the acquisition. I was impressed by these guys out at Clojure/West a couple of years ago.
105.
by tom_b 13y ago
An intriguing part of the article asks about the Twitter Ruby-to-Java migration and posits that any language would be fine for a services architecture. I'm not much of an object-oriented hacker, but when I was at larger IT firms, what
106.
by tom_b 13y ago
Are acqui-hire employees particularly rewarded in these situations? If you are identified as a critical or especially-sought-after employee at a company in this situation, what types of retention structures and contracts actually wind up ha
107.
by tom_b 13y ago
“Experienced” people often have higher personal burn rates and sometimes you’ll need to pay them more, but remember that great companies are not usually created by experienced people (with the exception of a few roles where it really matte
108.
by tom_b 13y ago
FTA (favorite part for me) Most time isn't spent programming anyway - programmer time is spent: a) fixing broken stuff that should not be broken b) trying to figure out what problem the customer actually wants solving c
109.
by tom_b 13y ago
Failure #4: Tolerating mediocrity We ended up building a culture where managers too often compensated for the failings of employees by working around them, either working harder themselves, hiring someone else to fill in the gaps, or just
110.
by tom_b 13y ago
Thanks for organizing a Clojure meetup, it is much appreciated. My only recommendations are quite generic - for smaller meetups, make sure a group introduction is on the agenda and actually happens. Might be nice if there were easy ways to
111.
by tom_b 13y ago
As someone who learned a little Lisp in the last few years, I think there is a good collection of books available for the newbie who wants to learn. For Common Lisp, Land of Lisp , Practical Common Lisp , and Ansi Common Lisp all seem
112.
by tom_b 13y ago
Quantitative trading seems interesting because I would hazard that you need strong math background along with solid hacking skills. There are other problem domains with similar requirements, but I'm quite curious to hear stories from o
113.
by tom_b 13y ago
Nothing is quite the gut punch like a job that simply evaporates. Good luck in your search. Commenting from the enterprise programmer perspective, I have seen talented, well-credentialed, strong portfolio-wielding, but lesser-networked hac
114.
by tom_b 13y ago
Quite fun to see neural networks in the news. A million years ago I took a class on neural networks, using backpropagation to train networks to do image classification. I will never forget the feeling of "you've got to be kidding
115.
by tom_b 13y ago
Trust me, companies recruiting for internships know that you don't know anything yet. I interned and did co-ops after my first sophomore semester. Probably more than half the purpose of big corp internships is to fill the recruiting
116.
by tom_b 13y ago
Interesting to hear $60K starting here in RTP now. That's not much of an increase in the last 10 years . . . Of course, in 2001 the undergrad CS starting numbers I was hearing ranged from $45K to $55K (a little lower at SAS). About $
117.
by tom_b 13y ago
Good for you! My thoughts are that it would be cool to mix pure "learning" exercises with "portfolio" pieces. The learning exercises might consist of simply coding up a few simple exercises in the areas you have listed.
118.
by tom_b 13y ago
Upvoted, but please consider that those breeds most associated with protective tendencies are high-maintenance. I am an experienced dog owner and currently have a super-intelligent and high-drive dog. But she's not a pet. Can'
119.
by tom_b 13y ago
I'm particularly interested in the idea of programming practice. Hickey specifically mentions Coltrane, who apparently was famous for marathon practice. As a workaday hacker, my own practice has been more sporadic than I want. This t
120.
by tom_b 13y ago
I've been using the same Lenovo X200 for four years and have been extremely happy with it. I'm running Linux on it these days after getting tired of dealing with Windows for the first year. The display resolution has become a dra

More ›