Five Things You Didn't Know About Me (and my office)

blog
21

Nice headphones… EVERY programmer needs headphones.

I’ve got the same office chair, same keyboard, similar headphones, the same lack of appreciation for denim for the same reason, and I freaking failed Calculus II :(.

Nice office.

22

Yep, you were right…these posts actually CAN be interesting. I laughed the whole way down.

Thank you.

23

Nice office, I love the pong clock too. The one thing that struck me about your office is the lack of books. Do you have them hidden in the hutch?

24

The mechanic who does my car has lots of his own tools. Takes them wherever he works. “Professionals” without their own libraries? Bah. You’d never see a Real Engineer so devoid of books. On-line docs are nearly equivalent.

25

are not

26

What kind of desk lamp do you have?

27

When you discussed the Sugar UI recently, you mentioned the dominant OS paradigm, but you did not mention Bob. You can’t deny that it was an effort to get away from the desktop metaphor.

Every time I watch my 82-year-old future father-in-law try to figure out how to get his email, I think again that the conception behind MS Bob was worth pursuing, even if the execution was mocked (by precisely the people at whom Bob was NOT aimed). Maybe he’ll figure out the Sugar UI, tho.

28

Oops, forgot – great post!

29

Thanks for the excellent post Jeff. I’ve always wondered about the man behind the blog, and this tells it all. You should make this entry your about me page (or maybe just put a link on there to this entry).

Your desk is really, really clean though… or did you clean it all up before you took the picture? :wink:

Love the wall-art. Gotta get some of that for my office.

Cheers.

30

Pay no attention to your GRE math scores. My wife recently took the GRE. While studying for them, we noticed something: the GRE is not designed to test your ability in a subject (in this case, math, but I think the other subjects are similar). It’s designed to test your ability to take math tests (it’s a meta-test). As Mathematicians (theoretically), we determined that unless you were some kind of prodigy, there’s no way you could get through the math problems on the test by actually doing the problems. In general, you have to game the questions to score well (look at the possible answers and work backwards from them or look for tricks). Remember, the GRE is not designed to test how much you know. It’s designed to predict how well you’ll do in college. Big difference.

Also, I agree that the Microsoft Natural Keyboard is wonderful. I just wish MS would produce a wireless version. Right now, I’m suffering through using their Wireless Comfort Keyboard (part of the Wireless Laser Desktop 6000 my wife got me). I’m sorely tempted to throw this piece of garbage against the wall and just plug in my old Natural Keyboard Pro.

31

Two things:

  1. I’m jealous of your office. Very.

  2. It feels good to know that someone else out there sucks at math as bad as I do and works as a programmer type like me.

32

You lame. You soooo lame. You probly think this blog is about you.

The Daily WTF makes this blog look like a mentally mastabatory monkey f-ing a football.

33

TERRIBLE AT MATH???

You scored at the 77th percentile on the GRE. You scored better than three quarters of the people who finished high school, graduated from college, and wanted to go on to grad school. Only one quarter of a highly educated population knows more about math than you do. That’s not terrible.

“But…engineers, and physicsts, and mathematicians are better at me than math! There’s so much I DON’T know!” you cry. Granted. Not being the best doesn’t mean you’re not good. Just because you can’t run a mile in under 4 minutes doesn’t mean you’re unhealthy.

Now KWITCHER WHININ’! (Or give a better example of your suckage - like, can you not add 45 and 54? Because THAT would mean you’re bad at math…)

34

Huh, I don’t wear any denim either anymore.

35

Thanks for the link to the math models. I saw them once and then didn’t bookmark the site. Much later my wife asked me about ideas for a gift and I couldn’t find them. I have one Bathsheba sculpture (the mini Metarino) and I love it. I want to get several more but I’ll probably stick with the mini ones.

36

I don’t think that computer programming and maths (as we say in the UK) are closely linked. I think this is a myth that needs to be challenged. I know you said “computers and math”, but let’s interpret “computers” as development, programming.

Certain application domains (e.g. 3D rendering in games) call for some maths (e.g. geometry), but apart from that it’s all about logical thinking and process, not mathematics.

I have developed the following software: networked office workstations (before PCs were networked), multimedia CD-ROMs (inc. Microsoft Art Gallery and Wine Guide), a game, batch-processing software, financial reporting software, a terminal emulator, neural networks, and more over 20 years. All along the amount of maths was really, really minimal - virtually non-existent. Neural networks are mathematical, but someone else “did the math”. The implementation did not involve maths, nor did it require an understanding of the maths (to be honest).

It upsets me to see magazines on occasion advise youngsters “to be a computer programmer you have to be a maths wiz - go get a maths degree”. This is wrong. A computer science degree is much more applicable.

37

That was awesome.

You have so much cool stuff in your office.

/me jealousy

38

I agree that the connection between computers and math is tenuous. I’ve even written about it before.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000298.html

But it still bugs me. Also, of course I have books-- they’re inside the bookcase. Since several people asked, here is what is in my bookcase at the moment:

And there you have it.

39

I have the same keyboard, same mouse, similar Siennheisers, similar monitor setup, and a similar chair. The only thing is, I really like my 3 pairs of broken-in-but-still-ok-at-the-office jeans.

Oh, and I am really terrible at capital-M Math, too. I have a difficult time working completely in the abstract. I need things to have some sort of tangible, rooted base in reality for them to make sense. You may say that computing deals with a lot of abstract ideas, but they’re all rooted in 0s and 1s.

40

Did you vet your soda can so you wouldn’t have to pay Coke/Pepsi any money or is that just a metal coolie?