IT/Software career thread: Invert binary trees for dollars.

Picasso3

Silver Baronet of the Realm
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Still doesn't explain how he PMed me my address

OK I guess you can just look me up that easily

I found you the hard way and then in using something you posted to verify i had the right address it was directly connected to your rl name.
 
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Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
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what is "the hard way"?

I think my wedding photos may have had my name in the exif data but I only posted those once years ago

I know if you search my name you can find my address which is great and not creepy
 

Picasso3

Silver Baronet of the Realm
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It was for a gold title, man! I'd trade all 7 years of my toenail clippings for a gold title.
 

Picasso3

Silver Baronet of the Realm
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Foler found me through a PayPal link email address I'd posted at least 4 years prior on foh, then pulled and posted vids from fb. That was creepier.
 
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Siliconemelons

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I just did the newest A+ cert, its a fairly easy test - the first one is properly given- the 2nd part however starts to veer into the lets try and make you answer wrong. There where 2 simulations per exam- one was networking and plug types, one was going into windows management the way they want you to (that was given in a question later lol) - and one about stopping a program from start up without deleting the shortcut in the startup folder (also explained how to do it via a question / answer later in the test)

I did it not for the cert as I am beyond that cert in terms of what it "does" for you - I did it because it counted as 6 college credit hours and I wanted to graduate now rather than later, and it was cheaper than 6 college credit hours (2 classes)

Also, the CompTIA has an education market place where the A+ cert test vouchers are only 91$ vs 199 each, and the others are discounted as well - search CompTIA education marketplace , you need a .edu "and to be an active student"

Your certs and education at the beginning need to line up with what you want to do.. If you want to be a DBA or Programmer of some sort, I really doubt a A+ is going to help you. If you want to get into support roles and move up - and have no actual job exp than sure an A+ shows you know how to do computer stuff, customer service stuff and can be a decent tech.

Most degree paths have basic certs and sometimes advanced certs built into them- they are made for working adults so the process is something like Start-->Cert-->Associates-->Cert-->Bachelors-->Advanced Cert-->Masters - and its built so you have some sort of progression to show if you take a long time between those steps, or if you stop at a certain step etc. Networking generally grows into Security etc etc. Sadly as mentioned before almost anything can lead to management - this comes about for many reasons and I would say 9 our of 10 leads to a crappy manager that the company didn't want to loose their skills in direct application so they gave them more money and tacked on management to make HR etc. happy with why you are giving X more $$ than Z @ same job level.

However there are now actual degrees that are IT management, if you do not have that as an option and you really desire to eventually get into management then look at Project Management / Process Management degrees and certifications (CAPM, PMP, etc.) Companies and workers alike need to get over the idea that managers MUST make more than those that they manage- and that goes both ways - you cant have the hot shot programmer not listen to the manager because the manager "does not know what he is doing, he cant even do my job" or simply "I make more than him..." --- I am not saying managers should not have skills of those they manage, typically having been there, done that - you know the processes better than someone who hasn't - and most managers/directors in IT it is resource (people) management, project management and being able to translate IT speak into VP speak.
 
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radditsu

Silver Knight of the Realm
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Yeah I had to go CS/EE because early 2000s did not have proper IT programs. It sucks, it was wrong, and I hated it. I had to tack on an associates from a slightly respected but still for profit so crappy school to actually get a real baseline on skills. It wasn't a fly by night online only course and they actually give you practical experience.
 
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Dr Neir

Trakanon Raider
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Congrats @Xadion
I have a hatred for CompTIA unlike most, that aside. If you work thinks out right you can take another of their exams or one from their "approved" list and that will count for your next 3 year points after this cycle (3year) ends.
Fair warning with them. They lock you down till you pay up your dues if you missed it, and will reset your time if you complete everything on that 3rd year. Meaning, $50 per year, with needed CE points. If you have completed the point total during that time frame, wait near your expiration date to pay up that last $50 due.
Once its paid, your next 3 years start right then! Got shorted some months and co-worker got shorted almost a year. I have yet to get any reminders from them on points or dues needed, expiring, past due. But I sure as hell get all their other spam on other certs they offer but the ones I have.

They completely threw out all my points one year claiming (unclear I might add) why they did. It was due to claiming twice, they dumped all points. At the time they had no tracking on what you added, you could add points and it just....disappeared! You assume it was sent, then months later you forget, look at their site. Nothing....ok, submit again.... Dumped again, reason. I added a document with multiple pages.....
By this time i took some site classes for the points and then later server cert for points.
Shady, very shady joke of a company....very bitter.

@Noodleface
I printed an offer letter, black marker out the pay (didnt want to pay compete, just wanted out), walk in monday after the holiday party the previous week once the bonus check cleared and set it down on his desk with my resignation letter.
Expressed how I have enjoyed working for them and I will be heading off in x weeks/days. Nothing bad or nasty, just encase....which would never happen but still.
 

alavaz

Trakanon Raider
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looks like I'm starting 9/12/16... now to have that really awkward conversation.....

My start date is 9/19. The problem is that I can't leave until my house is sold, which should not be an issue but of course there is always that slim chance it won't. So until I go pending and inspection comes back good, I have to just act like everything is normal.
 

BrotherWu

MAGA
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I've spent most of my career performing or managing other people performing embedded development using C. In the past few years that's expanded to include desktop development C#/.NET/Ruby and now I'm working on a relatively straight forward Android project in Java.

What are the go-to resources (thinking books or tutorials) you guys have used for Android? The OO paradigm and Java language constructs are pretty straight forward but there is so much underlying infrastructure and quite a few concepts to absorb in Android and the official docs are not always the best at describing them.

StackOverflow is a lifesaver but I'm looking for something that is a little more reliable and pragmatic. I mean, I'm pretty much learning by doing, and it is going pretty well, but every now and then I run into a topic that I wish I had understood better earlier.
 

moontayle

Golden Squire
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165
So, fun morning. While I was on vacation a couple of problems popped up with a new app I developed to replace one of the older apps we use since Google deprecated one of the libraries. No big deal since it was running on the Test Network (remember kids, don't test in Production). Been looking into them since Monday, got a couple of them fixed but was stuck on one that was causing an Out of Memory error when trying to upload a large file. I was able to verify the same behavior in the Production version of the app, just with less dire results. It would increase memory when trying to upload a large file, but just didn't get to the point where it couldn't do it anymore and go OOM.

Since the new code mimicked the old code as much as possible, I went looking at the actual calls being made on both versions and found the problem. For some reason, the file data was being duplicated. First, as pure text, regardless of the contents of the file (text, data, etc). Literally read into a StringBuilder object and then attached to one of the Parts of the call. Second, as the file itself ("application/octet-stream"). This is made even more confusing by the fact that it doesn't exist in the Windows version of the application, which is what was used as a reference when the app was originally developed. I do not believe it was used to verify file contents within the call, as there's other ways to glean that information. The part basically exists for no reason, as there's nothing on the server side that makes use of it. And the new library I'm using was doing some extra work holding onto the data and... well, dead app.

I've removed the part in question from the new app and the call comes back 200 and the file is where it needs to be on the server. The call is also, surprise surprise, half the size as before. The memory increase still occurs but it's not a soul crushingly large increase as before. So yay.
 

moontayle

Golden Squire
4,302
165
I've spent most of my career performing or managing other people performing embedded development using C. In the past few years that's expanded to include desktop development C#/.NET/Ruby and now I'm working on a relatively straight forward Android project in Java.

What are the go-to resources (thinking books or tutorials) you guys have used for Android? The OO paradigm and Java language constructs are pretty straight forward but there is so much underlying infrastructure and quite a few concepts to absorb in Android and the official docs are not always the best at describing them.

StackOverflow is a lifesaver but I'm looking for something that is a little more reliable and pragmatic. I mean, I'm pretty much learning by doing, and it is going pretty well, but every now and then I run into a topic that I wish I had understood better earlier.
Two resources I always have on hand:

Commonsware and Big Nerd Ranch. If you have a subscription to CW you get access to a resource that is updated every two months or so. Older versions of the guide are available for free if you dig around. BNR is well regarded overall too.

Online resources (sans SO since you've already marked it as a resource):

Android Dev subreddit.
Android Dev Digest.

Android dev is always in flux what with Google releasing a new flavor every year. The last two are good to stay up with current development trends. If you see anything that identifies Jake Wharton or Jesse Wilson as the author/presenter, watch it. Even if you don't understand the topic at the time, you might find yourself going back to it later. At least half of my dependencies are libraries created by or curated by them.
 
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Asshat wormie

2023 Asshat Award Winner
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What about the Android courses on Udacity? They are created by/together with Google so should be fairly up to date and accurate. MOOCs are hit or miss (mostly miss imo) but Udacity seems pretty decent overall.