Well, it is a big list, isn't it? I doubt that the author actually uses all of these tools. Consider that the list contains Cygwin plus a whole bunch of utilities that are native Cygwin applications (Gnu Tools, Tailers, Splitters, and more).
This list left me feeling that it needs to be proctored or maintained. I don't want a list of utilities that somebody tried once; I want a list of good utilities.
From the very first & second paragraphs of the link:
Everyone collects utilities, and most folks have a list of a few that they feel are indispensable. Here's mine. Each has a distinct purpose, and I probably touch each at least a few times a week. For me, "util" means utilitarian and it means don't clutter my tray. If it saves me time, and seamlessly integrates with my life, it's the bomb.
...
Here are most of the contents of my C:\UTILS folder. These are all well loved and used. I wouldn't recommend them if I didn't use them constantly. Things on this list are here because I dig them. No one paid money to be on this list and no money is accepted to be on this list.
It's pretty well maintained. I run not only PowerShell and Cygwin but straight DOS and sometimes I like having, for example, baretail in the path, rather than messing with Cygwin. Also I keep the loose cmd line utils in dropbox and in the path for machines that don't have Cygwin.
Is speed /really/ the reason people don't use Groovy?
If that were true, then I think JRuby be more popular. It is faster yet remains dynamic. There are various efforts to make Groovy fast, but the ones I have seen require you to turn off some of the metaprogramming capabilities.
True here. Groovy has truly pathological performance in some areas.
I wrote a web service that read and processed XML documents. They were large, but not enormous... Couple hundred kilobytes, usually. My first cut, using Groovy and its built in XML DSL, took up to 15 seconds to process a single document. Rewriting in Java/StAX, it was a couple hundred milliseconds.
From then on, my MO was to write my code in Groovy and then rewrite anything that got called more than a few times per request/run in Java. Groovy's fine for glue code, but its performance was a real barrier to regular use.
As for JRuby, I suspect it's because no matter how good JRuby is, it's a second-class citizen to "real" ruby in the Ruby ecosystem, and to built-for-the-JVM languages on the JVM side. It's a great product, but it does have a few impedance mismatches coming from either side.
Do you have any examples of hue multinational companies that allow programmers to insert Easter eggs? I can't think of a single business software vendor that has Easter eggs anymore. Even MS has stopped doing it.
I do all my work in big companies and they have all been universally against humorous test data, humorous naming conventions, or an sort of Easter egg.
Yes, it's 7 that were "never" and 5 more that were "weeks", so 12 total that were "weeks or less". I struggled with that phrasing a bit - either way seemed wrong.
XCode is based on the same framework as the other IDEs, so you can expect excellent refactoring, static analysis, and "code rewriting" features. Also, the version control integration of the platform is top-notch, especially for git. I use IDEA to manage all of my local git repositories, and I only use the command line now for pushing remotes and git-log (I use IDEA for the rest because it is faster for me).
Disclaimer: I'm on the JetBrains "Academy" which means they sponsor some of my speaking and stuff.
There is only one chart that shows relative numbers, such as percentages. The rest just show absolute numbers. These would be much more interesting if they provided a year to year comparison. As they stand now, they just show the population has been increasing and not much else.
Some of the charts need correcting for inflation as well as population growth.
That's not to say the US government doesn't have a real problem --- the third chart (labelled "Chart 9") and the seventh seem to be presented correctly. But it doesn't help to present misleading graphics.
I moved to a German speaking country about a year ago. I'm not brilliant at languages, but I've made great progress and most people are surprised to find out how little German I spoke a year ago. Here are some of my tips:
1) Use Mnemosyne every day. It is computerized flash cards based on the SuperMemo algorithm. Do not skip days. At around 2000 words memorized (9 months) the 'switch flipped'. At 2000 words you can have conversations with about anyone. Business is still hard, but smalltalk easy.
2) Read trashy literature - People, In Touch, Celebrity Rags... these are all written so 10 years olds can read it. Newspapers use bigger words and don't have pictures. Reading about celebrities is a hassle, but it helps and it an appropriate level.
3) Got kids? Turn the Wii and Cartoons to the foreign language. This makes your play time also a learning process.
4) Do Not turn your computer to a foreign language. This will cripple your productivity. I am forced to work in German on a Windows box now and it is really awful and frustrating. Not recommended at all. Not one bit.
5) German Tuesday - Deutsche Dienstag - Every Tuesday was German Tuesday. Anyone caught speaking English to me had to pay a Franc into a Jar. If I spoke English then I paid. This make my German a fun game in the office. Plus we had Bier Freitag at the end of the week. I stole this idea from an outsourcing company I worked with where Tues and Thur were English only days.
UPDATE: For those learning German, the Mnemosyne flash cards on the website are mine. If you have any issues I am glad to update or help.
For me thinking in a foreign language came through immersion and doing a lot of talking to myself.
The following helped a lot also
1)Watch films dubbed into your target language. Turn on English subs if you find it difficult. choose films you actually want to see.
2)Watch infomericials. Seriously. they repeat the same phrases over and over again in a clear accent. The downside is you will randomly find yourself talking about the plus points of the world greatest mop.
3)Read comics before books: the pictures and context will help you figure you meanings
4) Forget fast and relearn by using srs like anki/mnemosyne
5)study mnemonics - roman room is very useful
talk to everyone
Skritter for chinese literacy; pimsleur for beginners
someone please develop some language learning software that isn't glorified flashcards, matching games. The stuff I've come across out there is lazy and unimaginative.
my dream is language software developed by Nintendo.
Fun and intuitive.
I had great luck with the "opposite" of #1. I happened to watch some English language movies subtitled in French and it was a great way to slam a lot of written vocabulary into my head very quickly in an engaging way. That and some other techniques (living with three French girls helps ;>) had me thinking and dreaming in French at the end of a month.
I had a horrible accent, but I could get through basic conversations. A year later I was fluent, with a much better Parisian accent.
After gaining fluency in an additional language, I "disengaged" English as my translation layer and have been able to think in a foreign language much more quickly. At this point when speaking, whatever language I'm using sort of scrolls past the back of my eyes, including English.
Are there a lot of other foreigners where you are? That can make language learning difficult.
Also, there is a whole website called All Japanese All The Time[0] (AJATT) for learning Japanese via an SRS, although they use Anki rather than Mnemosyne.
If you seek out English speaking peer groups, then yes learning German will be harder. Luckily(?) for me I am one of only two English speakers in my company, so none of my friends are English speakers. My wife, on the other hand, has an almost entirely Anglo peer group, making picking up German casually near impossible.
Reading a book you've already read is definitely a good idea. Seeing the grammatical forms you might have heard, and even tried to use, written out (and well-edited!) was for me immensely helpful.
It also helps that you already know what happened: if you don't understand a passage, no big deal. Just skip over it. It beats checking the dictionary many times per page. There's some truth to the notion that you can figure out what words mean from context, but it's often not possible. However, if a word is used over and over, as many important to the text you're reading are, you might get enough context to work out what they mean. If you can't, then reach for a dictionary.
I tried something similar recently. I am learning Japanese and so I dumped audio track from anime to my mp3 player. It seems to help with understanding the language. And it was fun to guess what is going if I haven't seen the series for long time.
This also works if you pickup a series halfway through, having read the first half in your native language, and then finishing it in the new language. I've done this with Harry Potter. Before moving to Canada at 14, I read the first 4 in Romanian and the 5th and/or 6th in English. Since many of the terms were found in previous books, or since i knew them from the movies (example quidditch which the translators decided to translate. Still not sure how they got with the Romanian term from quidditch)
regarding "Read trashy literature", the tabloids are harder to read than normal newspapers. They seemed to just be colloquial ways of saying, "crazy, wild", and never had a point. I found lay science magazines to be great practice; interesting, clearly written and short enough to work through.
“4) Do Not turn your computer to a foreign language. This will cripple your productivity. I am forced to work in German on a Windows box now and it is really awful and frustrating. Not recommended at all. Not one bit.”
That’s interesting. I never thought about it but it makes a lot of sense. The problem with software is that you often need to know the exact translation, especially when you are looking for something in a menu. You might know a correct translation but it won’t help you if that’s not the particular translation the translator picked. The weird vocabulary software often uses only amplifies the problem.
That’s why switching from English Photoshop to German Photoshop (my native language is German) was so hard for me.
I've started using computers a very long time ago. Almost all the computers were in English. Now when I have to use a software in my native language everything fails, specially the keyboards shortcuts. In Office, Ctrl-S make things become underlined! I've even did a macro to make Ctrl-S to save.
I have my computer in English, but all my Google settings to Spanish. I know the layout well enough that it doesn't hinder productivity and getting a new error message always leads to learning a new word.
One thing that helped me to learn English was to watch movies (especially stuff with cool oneliners) with both subtitles and close captions on when possible, so I get a transcript of the dialogue and a translation at the same time. Later on I only needed the English subtitles to verify that what I heard was correct.
Movie quotes are great because they lend themselves to repetition (much to the annoyance of everyone else in the room).
> Read trashy literature - People, In Touch, Celebrity Rags... these are all written so 10 years olds can read it.
Had to laugh in agreement when I read this. I never thought of this before but I guess it's directly related to my little "trick": I never watch TV except when it's in whatever language I am trying to learn. Same principle there. Indeed, TV is for 10-year-old equivalent brains, otherwise it wouldn't work.
The app store version is $25, but the desktop version is free. There's also a free web app that can be used from handheld devices with internet access and a free Android app. You can sync across multiple devices via the web app.
The iPhone version has drastically increased my use of Anki.
I do most of my Anki revision through my iPhone: I can use it anytime I have 30 seconds to spare. Such as waiting for the dentist, waiting at a pedestrian crossing, waiting for breakfast to cook, waiting in line for lunch... etc.
I'm a very patient person as I'm extremely happy to wait for things now :)
I have used Supermemo for five years and learned thousands of Japanese words, and now I'm working through Chinese. Use whatever program you want (Anki, Mnemosyne, Supermemo, etc.), but stick with whatever you are doing, and use SRS to save your progress.
It depends on the language, but I haven't found that useful with Greek, unless you specifically want to learn the formal Greek words for computer-related things. In casual conversation, nobody uses that vocabulary, and it'd be seen as very stilted/old-fashioned (English loanwords are more common, and even where Greek's used, it's often not the same words).
Eh, I haven't found it to be a major problem. I speak fluent oral Greek (learned it when I was a kid to talk to my grandparents/cousins), and can read some Greek, but nobody really expects me to be able to read formal Greek. It's slightly diglossic in that formal Greek is substantially different than the spoken language, partly a relic of the days when it was an actually different language: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharevousa
It's interesting to see such a mature and well-defined process for inclusion as on open source committer. I know the Apache Foundation has some definitions of the contributor levels but, as far as I know, not as defined a process as this one. Are there other OS Projects with such defined processes?
I have heard positive things said about RubyMine from JetBrains. However, it is not free and some complain of slow project parse times at startup. Disclaimer: I do have an off and on professional relationship with JetBrains.
RubyMine is amazing for large Rails projects. I can jump between methods in different modules, classes even across gems (a simple command-click on the method, class or module name). You can quickly traverse source trees without the cumbersome grep/find that you'd do in a basic text editor.
Running specific tests is also a snap; just place your cursor in the desired spec and command-shift-r (built in support for spork).
I'm not in any affiliated with JetBrains (swear); just a satisfied customer.
I have found through experience that different cultures/markets require different qualifications. In the US you can create some practical experience (home projects) for yourself and usually find a lower-paying entry level position with a smaller company. After a few years experience you don't get asked about your lack of formal education anymore (this is what I did by the way, I have a Sociology undergrad).
In London, I found that people are much more interested in degrees and pedigree. Job interviews often started with education questions first, and I feel like I was considered less valuable because of the lack of CS background (that was my opinion at least).
In Switzerland, where I am now, the people I encounter place a very high value on training programs. Scrummaster training is more valuable than Scrum experience and programming certificates are important in a way I never expected. However, the Swiss have a very strong culture of apprenticeship and "Lehrling" programs, and both shops I have worked in have many more interns than I have seen elsewhere. And the interns are often in the last phase of their Masters degree!
This is all just experiential and not very quantitative. But my answer is it depends on where you live. If you agree to work for less than the next person then I think you have a very good chance of landing a programming job.
This list left me feeling that it needs to be proctored or maintained. I don't want a list of utilities that somebody tried once; I want a list of good utilities.