Spade's recent activity
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Comment on What non-software jobs exist for a newly graduated CS major? in ~life
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Comment on What non-software jobs exist for a newly graduated CS major? in ~life
Spade (edited )Link ParentIt's not something I've considered, but now that you mention it, it'd definitely be a good thing to look into as well. I'll see what my options are, thank you for the suggestion. Fair enough!what about being a TA?
It's not something I've considered, but now that you mention it, it'd definitely be a good thing to look into as well. I'll see what my options are, thank you for the suggestion.
If you're going to speculate, speculate positively
Fair enough!
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Comment on What non-software jobs exist for a newly graduated CS major? in ~life
Spade Link ParentFunny you should ask! I recently attended a networking event focused specifically on the field of biology. It's something I'd love to do, but whether I could realistically get into such a company...Funny you should ask! I recently attended a networking event focused specifically on the field of biology. It's something I'd love to do, but whether I could realistically get into such a company is a bit iffy. The discussions I had with the people there made it seem like a lot of the companies in the space are start-ups or otherwise operating on thin margins. I'm fine with that, but it seems to make it unlikely that such a company would choose to pay a full-time salary to a new grad. It also seemed to be the case that most of the people I spoke with would've wanted me to have a Master's -- mentioning that I'm an undergrad student typically got me a light ribbing. Doesn't prevent me from applying to other companies in the field though, and I'd be very happy to land somewhere in there.
RE: working at my university, it's not something I've really thought of. I think it's probably got the best shot of working though, so I'll look around and see if they've got any positions open. Maybe one of my professors can help me out, if I'm lucky.
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Comment on What non-software jobs exist for a newly graduated CS major? in ~life
Spade Link ParentI have every intention of sticking with my current position until I can find a proper full-time role. The job has been great and, despite the situation, my manager has been nothing but good to me....I have every intention of sticking with my current position until I can find a proper full-time role. The job has been great and, despite the situation, my manager has been nothing but good to me. I'm just worried that
A) I will be working a 40-hour week at that point and still potentially having to crack into savings
B) Employers will write off my years of experience because I am working an internship instead of a "real job"Point A is concerning because, if this is going to be my situation, I will likely find myself looking for early/late shift part-time employment as a store clerk or some such in order to stabilize financially, and the extra hours will definitely hurt the quality of my work in both roles.
Point B is mostly a reaction to some of the job posts that I've seen explicitly telling me not to count internship experience towards YoE. Which, incidentally, is incredibly frustrating. I work with a very small IT department to serve the technological needs of ~250 people. I am expected to self-direct every project I'm handed, write the requirement doc, write the tests, write the code, handle the database mess, sort out the CI/CD, and ship it on my lonesome. If some sort of new hosting is needed, I'm expected to handle the Azure facet of things too. Not to mention all of the Sharepoint/Powerapps slag I'm asked to maintain as well. Maybe I can request a change in title without a change in pay or something. Even if it doesn't make a real difference, I guess it'd soothe my worries.
Sorry, ranting.
RE; AI, I think your advice is solid, and I appreciate it. I've had a somewhat hard time integrating it into my workflow just because fiddling with Emacs to make everything gel is one of my many personal hells, and a lot of our code has pretty high correctness-standards, but I've been happy to have it take some of the pain out of writing almost-but-not-quite-boilerplate code on a probational basis.
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What non-software jobs exist for a newly graduated CS major?
Hey all, I'm a computer science major, and I'm about to graduate at the end of April. My general life situation is a bit messy, so unless I can find a job this month, I am going to have to look...
Hey all,
I'm a computer science major, and I'm about to graduate at the end of April. My general life situation is a bit messy, so unless I can find a job this month, I am going to have to look into some less-than-savory options for housing and feeding myself.
I've applied for ~280 entry-level software engineering positions thus far and have had a few calls back, but once the company realizes that my graduation date is a month out, I never hear from them again (I follow up anyway, just in case.) I also have been working an internship through school for about two years, and expected to get a return offer, but that recently fell through. I can continue to work there past graduation, but I'd still be an intern for the foreseeable future, and that will not be enough to cover rent.
I haven't given up, exactly -- I'm still networking rather aggressively, and, even though it makes me feel bad, I'm milking every connection I have to try to find something. I just don't feel like the chances are good that I land a software job in the timeframe that I've got left, so I want to start looking at what else I can do with just "a degree" as opposed to "a computer science degree." Obviously the job market is horrible for everyone right now, but wider nets catch more fish and all...
So, any suggestions?
32 votes -
Comment on Thoughts on naming things in ~comp
Spade Link ParentYou make a perfectly fair point, I could definitely have been more illustrative of what I mean here. I apologize, this is one of the first things I've written with the intent to actually shove it...You make a perfectly fair point, I could definitely have been more illustrative of what I mean here. I apologize, this is one of the first things I've written with the intent to actually shove it in faces :3
My intent in writing here is to try and make the strengths and weaknesses of using descriptive names and pet names clear. I'm not trying to say that one way is necessarily always better than the other, just that there are some situations which warrant one approach, and others that are best met with another.
So, in the case of a variable that will only ever store data on one specific thing, we would benefit from a descriptive name, because its purpose is as simple as it gets, and it doesn't depend on another function or library or what-have-you.
In situations where we expect things to change relatively quickly, or where we are trying to name things that are made up of a bunch of things, pet names might be better. So, take a website meant to convert GIFs into PNGs. We could name that GIFtoPNG.lol, but that name will become somewhat inaccurate if our service offering expands, or something (imaginary and unrealistic, in this case) happens that fundamentally changes that service offering.
Another commenter also linked to an excellent post that suggests naming on a spectrum over the binary I've been thinking about, which I think is probably the best way to go about this now. As best as I remember, the writer there kind-of suggests descriptive names that get more ambiguous as it gets harder to be descriptive, so as to avoid huge names whilst still providing at least hints as to what is actually going on. I maintain that it is still probably best to try to minimize the amount of situations wherein you need to do this, though.
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Just checked, the comment and post I'm referring to is the one by skybrian linking to this
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Comment on Thoughts on naming things in ~comp
Spade Link ParentHah, I've never considered anything like that. That's really cool, actually. I don't see myself picking it up as common practice, but that's a really creative application of AI.Hah, I've never considered anything like that. That's really cool, actually. I don't see myself picking it up as common practice, but that's a really creative application of AI.
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Thoughts on naming things
12 votes -
Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
Spade Link ParentI appreciate the recommendation! I'll check them out, but it has been a long-time goal of mine to grow some artistic ability, so these will probably only make for placeholders :PI appreciate the recommendation! I'll check them out, but it has been a long-time goal of mine to grow some artistic ability, so these will probably only make for placeholders :P
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
Spade LinkI am currently using Godot to make a minigolf mobile game. The courses are procedurally-generated with an ever-growing pool of parts that I'm modelling in Blender. Ironically, despite the...I am currently using Godot to make a minigolf mobile game. The courses are procedurally-generated with an ever-growing pool of parts that I'm modelling in Blender.
Ironically, despite the relatively no-frills art style I've gone with, I've learnt a lot about shaders trying to give the ball a shadow. Unfortunately, I couldn't get things exactly right, so I ended up just using a moving decal.
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Comment on Having self-control leads to power: a new study with 3,500 people finds that showing self-control influences how powerful an individual is perceived to be by their peers in ~science
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
Spade LinkI've recently been using Zig to write a lightweight IM/VOIP/Videochat suite. I don't have much experience with designing APIs and whatnot, nor experience with HID interactions, so I'm learning plentyI've recently been using Zig to write a lightweight IM/VOIP/Videochat suite. I don't have much experience with designing APIs and whatnot, nor experience with HID interactions, so I'm learning plenty
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Comment on Does anyone else have posting anxiety? in ~tech
Spade Link ParentThanks, I appreciate the reassurance! To be perfectly honest, I'd love to do both or either, it just seems that the impetus to actually get there needs to be so, so large -- and that is probably...Thanks, I appreciate the reassurance! To be perfectly honest, I'd love to do both or either, it just seems that the impetus to actually get there needs to be so, so large -- and that is probably detrimental, because I feel that I often have valuable things to say that I end up not saying.
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Comment on Does anyone else have posting anxiety? in ~tech
Spade Link ParentI hadn't considered that angle -- that's really interesting. I certainly felt something akin to that when I woke up and remembered that I'd posted this. Granted, it was diluted by a hefty dose of...I hadn't considered that angle -- that's really interesting. I certainly felt something akin to that when I woke up and remembered that I'd posted this. Granted, it was diluted by a hefty dose of what I'm calling "ohgodohfuckohshitohfuck," but still. Thank you for sharing!
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Comment on Does anyone else have posting anxiety? in ~tech
Spade Link ParentThank you for sharing. It's nice to hear that I'm not alone in my feelings, and you've certainly struck on a few sentiments that I feel but didn't really articulate.Thank you for sharing. It's nice to hear that I'm not alone in my feelings, and you've certainly struck on a few sentiments that I feel but didn't really articulate.
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Comment on Does anyone else have posting anxiety? in ~tech
Spade Link ParentThat's lovely, thank you for the anecdote. I hope the rogue castle poster is alright ;-;That's lovely, thank you for the anecdote. I hope the rogue castle poster is alright ;-;
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Comment on Does anyone else have posting anxiety? in ~tech
Spade Link ParentUp until just this moment, that was my strategy!Up until just this moment, that was my strategy!
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Comment on Does anyone else have posting anxiety? in ~tech
Spade Link ParentThat's... Actually a very interesting process. Thank you for sharing.That's... Actually a very interesting process. Thank you for sharing.
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Does anyone else have posting anxiety?
To preface, I have accounts on multiple link aggregators, three microblogging platforms, and I have my own (transiently online) blog. I'm a member of more niche Discord servers than I can count,...
To preface, I have accounts on multiple link aggregators, three microblogging platforms, and I have my own (transiently online) blog. I'm a member of more niche Discord servers than I can count, and I'm in a few other nooks where people generally seem to gather and talk. Despite all that, I find that it's incredibly rare that I ever actually participate in any of the discussions that I see taking place, and that's something that I think I'd like to change.
I think part of the problem is that I grew up in the formative years of the "modern" net, and was always taught that you should be careful about what you say online (and, implicitly, that saying nothing is probably even better), lest an axe murderer track you down and explodify your tibia while you sleep.
So, does anyone else, or have stories about, posting anxiety? Anyone gotten over it? Am I just crazy?
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
Spade LinkI've been working on a crazy-eights type game called ono! for about a month now. I don't consider it to be technically impressive, but it has been an excellent way for me to find my way around...I've been working on a crazy-eights type game called ono! for about a month now.
I don't consider it to be technically impressive, but it has been an excellent way for me to find my way around Godot, which I hope to use build some more ambitious projects with later. Unfortunately, despite the time I've spent on it, it is still rough enough that I haven't open-sourced it or put any downloads anywhere. I hope to release both the game and the code after a couple more polish passes.
Now that's some meta-level thinking! I'll give it a go next time I get a couple of free minutes and report back. I'm sure that the available tooling itself has also come a long way since I last tried, so maybe it'll be an easy win.
I highly recommend DOOM Emacs as an entry point. I was told early on that I should start with vanilla to learn everything, but if I were to give my past self advice, it'd be to skip straight out to DOOM. I needed tools that just worked at the time, so while the learning process was valuable, it was also keeping me from getting more high priority work done.