Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[linnea]

I just read this on another webcomic blog and saw that Toothpaste For Dinner needs another programmer. I had no idea that a webcomic website would need programming services to the tune of at least 1.5 programmers! I am naive about the ways of the internets, I guess. They are hiring a part-time programmer, so I'm assuming that they already have one full-time? I don't know.

Do any of y'all code? How do you reckon these high-traffic webcomics do crowd control? I bet there is a really well-written Wikipedia article on this very topic. I should go check. I don't even know how to check how many hits Achewood and Toothpaste For Dinner would receive as compared to, say, Penny Arcade.

We are looking for an assistant programmer to begin winter/spring 2008. You must be intimately familiar with Debian Linux, Apache, PHP, and Perl. You must live in the Columbus, Ohio area.

This is a paid, part-time position (10-30 hr/wk.) Duties will include PHP/Perl coding and server maintenance/analytics. Send a letter describing your qualifications in your own words with no attachments to: (We will check your resume and sample code after learning what you have to say about yourself.)

[theinevitable]

I really want to learn some programming knowledge. I took programming in Middle and High School, so I theoretically know a little Visual Basic and a little C++. I successfully made a Yahtzee game, and programs that would retrieve people's names from a little text file. I talked to a professor (now my major adviser) about this, because he has a degree in Computer Science, and he basically said that the comp sci classes here are not very good, which is what I have heard from other people also. He suggested learning Perl. I tried running linux for a while a few years ago, but I feel like I was lacking some kind of baseline of computer knowledge, and this kept me from ever being able to figure out how to get it running well. Mostly because my laptop needed hell of weird drivers and stuff, so I was mucking around with all this code I had no way of understanding, trying to install stuff... messing up and having to boot up in text-only mode and fix my mistakes...
it was kind of cool, but at some point I just wanted to be able to turn on my computer and turn on AIM and play a video game and stuff,

And so, computers are joining Calculus-and-beyond Math and Hard Sciences as something which I am interested in, but do not really know much about, and don't have any good way of pursuing. The science and math classes here are all designed to make Engineering and Pre-Med students quit, and so are just so unnecessarily hard and intense that I couldn't get away with taking them Just for Fun.
Foreign Language is also kind of one of those things, but mostly because I have already taken the equivalent of a full semester of language classes. The Latin classes beyond what I have taken were all about really specific topics I'm not interested in, and Arabic stopped being fun and interesting and started taking up all of my time. Plus, I realized that... I didn't really have that much interest in speaking Arabic, other than on the abstract level that it sounds cool and it would be good to know a foreign language. I started to take Spanish this semester, but I placed out of the first-level class, and wasn't confident that I could handle the second-level class. I tried to explain that yes, I understood the sentences on the placement exam, but it's because I've been hearing spanish my entire life, and because a lot of the words sounded/looked like Latin words.
"So, you should be in level 2 then."
"But... I can't speak spanish."
"You can't?"
"No. Mi mama es de Chile, pero yo no hablo mucho de Espanol. Solo hablo un poquito."
"You just spoke spanish."
"yes. the extent of what I can say is that I can't speak spanish."
"I really think Level 2 is the best fit for you."
"but... I don't know how to speak spanish. I only know a dozen verbs. I don't know the words for common objects."
"level 1 doesn't really teach you that much, I'm sure you would be fine."

At that point I decided I was wasting my time, basically, and switched into a political theory class which I've really enjoyed.
It seems kind of ridiculous, though, that I am majoring in basically Psychology and Linguistics, and can only speak English.

[littlefallsmets]

The only thing that stood between me and a Summa Cum Laude was, like, three freshman courses that I was told I'd be perfect for... yeeeeeeeeeeah. Yeah.

Higher math and foreign language, blah.

[lprkn]

My code is definitely a dog's code, in that I code like a dog, which is to say not at all.

Inev, does your school offer Russian? It's something different, and it is actually a somewhat logical language, and offers the challenge of not being Latin-based. (although I guess you tried Arabic, too) I currently am at the 200 level, and it's fun, although that may have a lot to do with our professor, who is a little old lovable Chinese man and the easiest-going guy ever. I would probably have problems if my professor ended up being a hardass.

[theinevitable]

Russian here is a thing where... apparently we have it, but I don't know anyone who has taken it, or anyone that knows anyone who has taken it.

Supposedly all of the Russian professors left after the administration made some decisions they didn't like.

[Arachno-capitalist]

Russian here is a thing where... apparently we have it, but I don't know anyone who has taken it, or anyone that knows anyone who has taken it.

Supposedly all of the Russian professors left after the administration made some decisions they didn't like.

My favorite history professor learned Russian and Russian history - just in case things went bad for the U.S., he'd still be employed.

[theinevitable]

dang. so crass.

Although, as a guy who is still disappointed that I never learned how to say "Death to the Infidels," I can't really talk.

My Arabic-reading skills are most often used for reading signs in video games my roommates are playing.

[lprkn]

I suppose you could say "Allahu akbar" (God is great), seems to have pretty much the same meaning to a lot of people who wear masks in videos.

Although I've heard that "Salaamu akbar" (peace is great) may actually tee (some) Muslims off.

[theinevitable]

I am also frustrated by that phrase. Because my limited understanding of arabic grammar parses that as "His god greatest." Hu is a possessive ending. hmm.

I really like that in a lot of those countries, the polite response to "how are you is" "alhamdulillah" (I do not know if those word boundaries are correct, they just kind of slur it all together) which means "thanks be to god."

[lprkn]

Yeah, the language can't be faulted for politeness. Must be hard to be an atheist in that society, seems every idiom mentions God in some way.

It's nice that the standard greeting and response is:
"A sa'alam a'leikum"(sp?) - Peace be upon/with you
"A'leikum sa'alam." - And also upon/with you.
Or just "sa'alam"

Cut me some slack if I mess up though, this is all based on a very rudimentary military education on Arabic. Mostly just involved phrases.