fred rosenberger

I know this is an old thread, but they were recently talking about this on NPR.  The show "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me" had a Bluff the Listner Challenge on the Scunthorpe problem.

Knute Snortum wrote:I don't know.  A bad actor can ruin a good script.

And a good actor often can't do much with a bad script.  My family found "Mama Mia" to be unwatchable.  I mean...Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Christine Baranksi...These are not exactly "hacks".  Yet the script was so horrible, we turned it off.

Many people think the script is the most important part.  Sandra Bullock won the Oscar for best actress (The Blind Side) and the Golden Raspberry for worst actress (All About Steve) in the same year.  I don't think her acting skills changed all that much in that year....

I am by no means an expert, but I would say "it depends".  If there is a component you can sell that is functional by itself, I would consider that a product.  If there are multiple pieces, but they CANNOT function independently, then the combination is "the product".

I work in Healthcare, so that's what I tend to think about.  I could develop a component used by a laboratory to enter test, post results, send billing information, etc.  I could do the same for radiology.  Since neither of these components require the other, I would consider each to be a separate product.

However, if i built a system that stored patient document (i.e. PDFs), and another that displayed documents for a patient, I would consider both those pieces to be one product, since neither really works by itself.  It does no good to store data if you can't see it, and it does no good to display data if there is no way to get data into the system...

I'm sure someone smarter than me will come along soon and disagree with me, however.  ;-)

"The American people are perfectly capable of having their say on this issue, so let's give them a voice. Let's let the American people decide. "

- Mitch McConnel

"We should let the American people decide the direction of the court."

- Paul Ryan

"The next justice could change the ideological makeup of the Court for a generation, and fundamentally reshape American society in the process.

At this critical juncture in our nation's history, Texans and the American people deserve to have a say in the selection of the next lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.

The only way to empower the American people and ensure they have a voice is for the next President to make the nomination to fill this vacancy."

- John Cornyn, R-Texas, Senate Judiciary member

" I will oppose this nomination as I firmly believe we must let the people decide the Supreme Court's future."

  - James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma

I wonder if these guys are going to support holding off on Trump's nomination until after the election in November.

Who am i kidding?  Of COURSE they won't.

so what happens when ch is equal to k?

we jump back to line 9.  ch, being k, is less than 'z', so we step into the loop.  What happens in your if statement then?  Where does the code go?

Something that i think can be a TREMENDOUS help is putting in System.out.println statements.  things like "entering while loop body" or "in if condition" or "incrementing ch variable"

try that and see what your program does.

I predict most teams will not win the world cup. 

When does it start?

Samuel Gonzalez wrote:Improving GUI and layout of website to be more attractive and this site has a lot potential. I work with two designers, and im the coder. Mayber i can help. would love to help. Just a suggestion .

I think we're looking for more specific suggestions.  "more attractive" and "improv[e] the GUI" are both rather vague. What don't you like about it now?  How would you make it better/easier?

Campbell Ritchie wrote:

Stephan van Hulst wrote:Counting years is 1-based. . . .

All human counting is 1‑based, isn't it?

umm...nope.  How old are you?  If you were born on Jan 1st, 1990, you are zero years old until you reach your first birthday a year later.  I would call that zero based.

imagine we started over with the calendar.  Today would be Jan 1st, year...1.  the number tells you what year you are IN, not how many years have gone PAST.

So on Jan 1st of the year 100, you've only been through 99 years...you still have a full year to go.  Now just carry that forward, and you'll see why the end of the 21st century will be on Dec 31, 2100.

Tal Tab wrote:I'd really like to learn what would be an acceptable solution...
BTW, the music files were just an example. It should work for any file types.

Much of the time, they're not asking you this question to see what solution you have. It's to see how you approach problems.  One of the worst things you can do as a coder is immediately start writing code, or deciding on an implementation strategy before you understand the problem.  The best thing to do is push back, and find out what the parameters are. Look for edge cases.  think outside the box.

you can't have an acceptable solution until you know as many details as possible. so again, what makes two files the "same"?  If one file has an addition second of silence on the end, but is otherwise identical, is that the same?  What if it's byte-for-byte identical, but one came from a studio album, and another came from a greatest hits compilation?  What if one file name is in all caps, but another has mixed case?

unless you have the answers to these questions (and many others), you really can't come up with a solution.

Starbucks has also been trying to position itself as the "third space" (their term, not mine).  You hang out at home, you spend time at work...they want you to spend time there as your third place.  Like a den away from home. 

but the policy is unevenly enforced, and (perhaps unconscious) racial bias creeps in.  THAT is the problem.  You can't say "we're a place for you to come hang out", and then kick out people who want to hang out there.

so if i go in, order a drink, and leave, i only pay for 2 minutes?  if there is a long line, do I pay more than if there is a short line?  This seems like it would motivate employees to slow down their service, thus increasing profits...

Starbucks certainly doesn't make money from people sitting there all day not buying anything.  They have the right to ask anyone - even a paying customer - to leave at any time.

The issue is when the policies aren't enforced evenly - or even if they are just perceived to not be enforced evenly. 

One could further argue it probably doesn't cost them much, either.  The wi-fi is there regardless of who uses it.  The restrooms are there, and will need to be cleaned regardless. There is probably some minimal addition cost in supplies (tp, water, soap), but think of the revenue lost by everyone who boycotted starbucks these past few weeks.  I know I have gone much less often since the two gentlemen were arrested...

Can i count the dumb terminal my dad brought home from work, along with a 200 baud modem?  I would guess we connected then to a PDP-11, or something from that era.