• Franz Kafka (unregistered) in reply to Josh
    Josh:
    Oh my. This reminds me of when I decided, on a drunken whim, to attend DeVry. Since I had already been developing software professionally for 4 years (and writing code years before that), I thought I'd take the test to breeze through the basic, numb, boring, "Here's how to type a paragraph with Microsoft Office" class. So I took the test.

    What makes you think developing software makes you good at using office? Sure, you can write a word processor, but so what? You aren't writing 100 page docs for your job.

  • (cs) in reply to Andrew
    Andrew:
    halber_mensch:
    The only stipulation was that the hash table data structure should be a pointer-based linked list. ...I was most comfortable with C++ .. so I happily tapped a '#include <list>' and went on my merry way implementing the hash table. It worked beautifully. I was devastated when I got my grade back and it was a 10/20, with the explanation form the TA written in red ink: "Not use linked list".

    This is terrible whether you used Java or C++ STL linked-lists. This excercise doesn't teach you anything much. Programming students should practice building data structures from scratch.

    What was your hash function? How did you resolve hash collisions? Did the class teach anything about data structures?

    An interesting set of questions, to be sure; and although you have the misplaced pedantry required to be a TA at that particular school, I feel you only score 1/20 for a truly literal interpretation of the task.

    It's a tom-fool task in the first place -- what the hell do linked lists have to do with hash tables, other than being one of several obvious answers to your second question (and thank you for asking) -- but here's my solution.

    (1) A hash table is nothing but a set of buckets into which data items are dropped. You can have as many buckets as you deem necessary, given space and timing constraints. Of which I see none in the rubric. I choose a single bucket.

    (2) A hash function can be anything you like -- nobody said it had to be an efficient hash function -- so long as it identifies a bucket for any given input item. I choose f(x) = 1 for all x. (Of course, I'd make this function a parameter of the hash table implementation, in the unlikely event that future improvements are required.)

    (3) The rubric specifically states that I have to use a linked list, and I think you can see where this is going... I've just pared down the essentials of yer actual hash table implementation to their bare minimum, so I now have all the time in the world to develop a really nifty linked list so that I can cope with collisions.

    (4) Curiously, the hash function always chooses the same bucket. Which is just as well, since there's only one. Never mind -- all I have to do is to traverse to the end of the linked list, and, hey presto! Hash table insertion implemented almost exclusively with a linked list!

    Detecting whether or not a data item is already present in the hash table is an exercise left to the reader. Admittedly, efficiency does tend to degrade from the expected O(1) in the edge cases where n > 1, but I didn't see any requirement for that in the rubric, either.

    Stupid bloody question, wasn't it?

  • Khanmots (unregistered) in reply to Franz Kafka
    Franz Kafka:
    What makes you think developing software makes you good at using office? Sure, you can write a word processor, but so what? You aren't writing 100 page docs for your job.

    I'm a software engineer and one of the tasks that I get hit with every couple years is to write the scripts that pull the documentation of our software design out of our modeling tool. I know waaay more about Word now than I ever wanted to.

    On another note... as an engineer there's a lot more documentation that you should be involved with. Take trade studies as an example. Or white papers.

  • Derlin (unregistered) in reply to halber_mensch
    halber_mensch:

    Fail. Students that implemented the program in Java with the LinkedList class were given full credit. The course was Data Structures, a senior level class. We'd all demonstrated years earlier that we could built a linked list type in Computer Science 2.

    The acceptability of using the Java LinkedList class wasn't mentioned earlier. Knowing that I'll gladly agree that STL <list> should have been accepted. Of course, you could have gone all wiz-bang and used the Java class in your C++ program, but that's usually a problem worth avoiding.

  • VB.NET Developer (unregistered)

    The real WTF is the fact that on every article, someone chooses to re-phrase the article as a clever comment, and it gets marked in blue. That joke was only mildly funny the first time. Since then, it's been done hundreds of times, but apparently someone still loves it.

  • Francisco (unregistered) in reply to Herby

    When I was in my teens (and still at home) I learnt to touch-type on an old typewriter (a model from the 60s). When I went to university I had to learn to touch type again as the keys on an old typewriter are widely spaced and the keys on a 60s typewriter are next to one another.

  • Sean (unregistered) in reply to Markp

    What's a "programming major"? I'm pretty sure every school I've encountered has "computer science" or "computer engineering" or "information technology" or some variant thereof.

  • Steve (unregistered) in reply to Khanmots
    Khanmots:
    Franz Kafka:
    What makes you think developing software makes you good at using office? Sure, you can write a word processor, but so what? You aren't writing 100 page docs for your job.

    I'm a software engineer and one of the tasks that I get hit with every couple years is to write the scripts that pull the documentation of our software design out of our modeling tool. I know waaay more about Word now than I ever wanted to.

    On another note... as an engineer there's a lot more documentation that you should be involved with. Take trade studies as an example. Or white papers.

    Writing documentation is an underrated aspect of IT work. No matter what your task in IT, if you're in a corporate job, you'll be writing documentation. Hell, that's what separates the professional developers from the open source hacks.

  • matt (unregistered) in reply to halber_mensch

    Um... when I was in school, and the instructions said that you had to use a linked list, that meant you had to write your own linked list. STL was considered cheating - the goal being that you needed to learn the ins-and-outs of problem solving, not the ins-and-outs of programming in a specific language. Kids these days...

  • Dan (unregistered) in reply to matt
    matt:
    Um... when I was in school, and the instructions said that you had to use a linked list, that meant you had to write your own linked list. STL was considered cheating - the goal being that you needed to learn the ins-and-outs of problem solving, not the ins-and-outs of programming in a specific language. Kids these days...

    Or maybe (best I can tell) the instructor meant to use a chaining hash table instead of an open address hash table, but called it "linked list" instead of "chaining".

    It makes no sense to be implementing a hash table if you don't already have linked lists mastered anyway.

  • Peter (unregistered)

    Reminds me a little bit of when I had to take an Excel class in college. I think I knew more about Excel than the instructor and it was looking like a waste of a couple of hours. I can't even imagine someone asking me to take a typing class when I type faster than most people I know (self-taught on computer keyboard - I'd be horrible on an actual typewriter).

    And to speak to the original article, why would anyone try the same thing several times in a row? Try once - fail. Try twice - fail. Try 3rd time - do it using the CR to see if I get a different result. I can kind of understand trying it twice, maybe out of disbelief, but I'd try it a different way the last time just because.

    Reading over some of the other stories, I'm really glad that I didn't have to take some of those typing tests. I can't imagine failing under some of those scenarios. That would definitely irritate me.

  • foxyshadis (unregistered) in reply to Jay
    Jay:
    I always get annoyed with tests that don't really test knowledge of the subject but rather one's ability to outguess or outsmart the test-writer.

    My daughter once took an economics class where the tests consisted almost entirely of multiple-choice questions where the choices were all true, but to be marked correct you had to pick the one that was in the textbook. Like -- not an exact quote, I'm not going to search through old school papers just to get the exact words for a blog comment -- one question asked what the value of tools was, and the choices were things like, "(a) Increases worker productivity; (b) Enables workers to produce more with the same effort; or (c) Makes workers more efficient." Not only were all the choices true, they were all the same idea in different words. The "right" answer was the one that was a direct quote from the textbook. We quickly figured out that the way to get a good grade was to memorize likely sentences from the textbook -- sentences that appeared in bold or italics or at the beginning of main sections.

    It seemed to me that this was the exact opposite of a good test. Surely what we really want is for the student to master the IDEA, not memorize the textbook. I would think a good test would deliberately use different wording from the text to tell if the student really understands the idea and didn't just memorize the section headings.

    Consider the consequences of this: If they didn't use exact quotes, a student could just use last year's edition of the textbook, for one third of the cost! That's no way to get an education.

  • Eric (unregistered) in reply to krupa

    I also had to take a typing test on an Apple II in elementary school. However, our program was a little different. It did input wrong characters. The instructions stated that speed is more important than accuracy, and I took this to heart. I typed as fast as I could, and, despite the fact that I usually mistyped at least half of the letters, it would pass me simply for being fast.

  • foxyshadis (unregistered) in reply to Sitten Spynne
    Sitten Spynne:
    halber_mensch:
    This reminds me of one assignment I had to complete in school... if I remember right, the purpose of the assignment was to implement a hash table and use the hash table to find matches to an input word in a data file. The only stipulation was that the hash table data structure should be a pointer-based linked list. Most of the peons in the class trudged along with their Java implementations, but I was most comfortable with C++ .. so I happily tapped a '#include <list>' and went on my merry way implementing the hash table. It worked beautifully. I was devastated when I got my grade back and it was a 10/20, with the explanation form the TA written in red ink: "Not use linked list". I protested to the instructor, and he declined to do anything, referring me to handle the issue with the TA.

    I chatted with a few other students in the class, who had also received half credit because of the same use of STL list. I decided I wasn't going to let this go. I went to the TA, and again protested: "I used STL list, how can you say I didn't use a linked list?". She responded by stating, quite factually and with certainty, that STL lists are not linked lists. I was prepared for this event, because I knew how our population of foreigner TAs operated, and promptly pulled up http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/List.html on her web browser. I specifically drew her attention to the first sentence, which read: "A list is a doubly linked list." She stared at the page in terror for several moments, looking desperately for some piece of evidence that would vindicate her .. and eventually she gave up, and gave me full credit.

    ...

    Honestly I wouldn't have backed down and given you more credit. The purpose of classes is to teach you, and the assignment asked you to create a hashtable pointer-based linked list. Instead, you created one using an STL linked list. Why even bother using the list, why not use the STL map?

    In a work environment, it's awesome to save time. In a classroom environment, you are being tested for your skills. Most of my lab assignments came with explicit instructions that we had to implement our data structures ourselves, since the point of the assignment was to prove we understood them.

    So the real WTF is that your vision of schooling doesn't teach you skills that will be useful in a real job, which is why it takes most graduates so many months or years to acclimate after graduating with their fancy degrees? The only thing smarter in this field than reusing your own work is reusing someone else's - unless you're milking the hours for a client with more cents than sense, of course.

  • Anon (unregistered)

    I thaknfully passed the test on Office I had when I was a freshman engineer in college...

    Of course, we hadddddd to have lectures on how to actually use Office. Nothing really useful, or anything previously unknown to me of course.

    Except for the time we had to learn about Powerpoint. Which was of course...displayed in powerpoint. To top it off, the slides themselves were demonstrating the creation of this powerpoint.

    A powerpoint on powerpoint using a powerpoint that was a powerpoint on powerpoint using a powerpoint that was a powerpoint on powerpoint using a powerpoint that was a powerpoint on powerpoint using a powerpoint that was a powerpoint on powerpoint using a powerpoint that was a powerpoint on powerpoint using a powerpoint that was a powerpoint on powerpoint using a powerpoint that was a powerpoint on powerpoint using a powerpoint that was a powerpoint on powerpoint using a powerpoint that was a powerpoint on powerpoint using a powerpoint that was a powerpoint on powerpoint using a powerpoint that was a powerpoint on powerpoint using a powerpoint that was a powerpoint on powerpoint using a powerpoint that was a powerpoint on powerpoint using a powerpoint that was a powerpoint on powerpoint...

  • ReptilianSamurai (unregistered) in reply to Steve H.
    Steve H.:
    Heaven help me if I ever need to take a typing test again in my life. My first question would be, "can I type in Dvorak"? And I'm certain that the answer I'd get is "What's Dvorak?"

    I was thinking the same exact thing! I used to use an evolved hunt-and-peck where my fingers learned the locations of the keys. Finally, about 2 years ago, I decided to teach myself dvorak, and learned touch-typing with it. Ever since I've felt a lot more comfortable with a keyboard, I absolutely love it.

    But everyone always gives me puzzled looks when they can't type on my computer.

    The sad thing is touch-typing classes should be teaching you dvorak typing. Instead they are training yet another generation to type awkwardly in a layout purposely designed to work against them (qwerty having been designed to prevent type-writers from locking up because people typed too fast on them).

    But then that would make sense. I'm happy as long as I can keep using dvorak.

  • (cs) in reply to krupa
    krupa:
    When I was in elementary school, the library had a bunch of Apple IIe's. Before we were allowed to play Oregon Trail we first had to get through some typing lessons in Paws. A few students (surprisingly or not, the lazier ones) discovered that the program only accepted correct characters and if you just lay your hands on the keyboard you can finish the test in less than a second.

    There was a Mac test when I was in High School (about 1989) that paused the timer while you opened a menu. You could take your sweet time pressing the correct letters. (For the kids, this was before menu shortcut keys.)

    Even better, it had a graph of everybody's results. I had the first 1000+ WPM score, which kind of flattened the rest of the curve.

  • triox (unregistered) in reply to Markp

    best comment by far :)

  • ReptilianSamurai (unregistered)

    http://play.typeracer.com/ I think is appropriate for this discussion. Competitive speed typing in an online game. It's surprisingly fun, especially when you race your friends.

  • Dave G. (unregistered) in reply to ReptilianSamurai

    [quote user="ReptilianSamurai"][quote user="Steve H."] The sad thing is touch-typing classes should be teaching you dvorak typing. Instead they are training yet another generation to type awkwardly in a layout purposely designed to work against them (qwerty having been designed to prevent type-writers from locking up because people typed too fast on them).[/quote]

    Why should they teach dvorak? Like it or not, qwerty is still the typing standard of the world. I type 115 wpm at over 98% accuracy using qwerty so whether or not qwerty was designed with speed reduction in use is irrelevant (I've actually heard this is a myth).

    Most students, when they get to university, will have used qwerty for their entire lives. It makes no sense to force people to shift to an entirely new way of doing the same thing - entering data into a computer.

    Every student would have to rewire their brains and fingers from the ground up. And for what benefit? Do people using dvorak get to type special or extra characters that nobody else can? No, it's the same old shit. Typing letters into a computer.

    If you want to learn dvorak on your own, go right ahead - but what a tremendous waste of time it would be for those of us who don't care.

  • MacMog (unregistered) in reply to ReptilianSamurai
    ReptilianSamurai:
    The sad thing is touch-typing classes *should* be teaching you dvorak typing. Instead they are training yet another generation to type awkwardly in a layout purposely designed to work against them (qwerty having been designed to prevent type-writers from locking up because people typed too fast on them).

    Strangely enough, the fact that it prevents typewriters from locking up actually leads to increased speed because while one hand types a letter, the other hand moves into position to type the next letter. Ergonomic studies show that Sholes (QWERTY) and Dvorak produce statistically insignificant differences in typing speed. In fact, the studies that show dramatic improvements from the Dvorak layout come from Dvorak himself. More on the history and ergonomics in this article.

    So in short, if you type faster with Dvorak, by all means use it, but that doesn't mean teaching Sholes has ruined typists forever.

  • ReptilianSamurai (unregistered) in reply to MacMog
    MacMog:
    ReptilianSamurai:
    The sad thing is touch-typing classes *should* be teaching you dvorak typing. Instead they are training yet another generation to type awkwardly in a layout purposely designed to work against them (qwerty having been designed to prevent type-writers from locking up because people typed too fast on them).

    Strangely enough, the fact that it prevents typewriters from locking up actually leads to increased speed because while one hand types a letter, the other hand moves into position to type the next letter. Ergonomic studies show that Sholes (QWERTY) and Dvorak produce statistically insignificant differences in typing speed. In fact, the studies that show dramatic improvements from the Dvorak layout come from Dvorak himself. More on the history and ergonomics in this article.

    So in short, if you type faster with Dvorak, by all means use it, but that doesn't mean teaching Sholes has ruined typists forever.

    Personally, I've just found it to be a lot more comfortable. Less awkward finger movements, better letter placement. (Who the hell needs a semi-colon on the home row? At least of the non-programmer crowd).

    It's not always about typing faster, it's about typing efficiently, and typing efficiently also reduces stress-related injuries from typing.

    I can only speak from personal experience, of course, but I vastly prefer typing in dvorak now. The sad thing to me is qwerty will remain the standard, just like America will never switch to the metric system. (And that's the real WTF).

  • Hawk777 (unregistered) in reply to danixdefcon5
    danixdefcon5:
    BTW, the ACM ICPC doesn't allow STL, so if you're going to that contest, you should take that in mind. =)

    The hell it doesn't! No idea where you got that crazy idea from, but you can write entries in C, C++, or Java, and you get all the standard libraries of each barring stuff like file or network access.

  • Secundum (unregistered) in reply to ReptilianSamurai

    Qwerty was not designed to slow people down. It was designed to minimize the chance of the type-hammers jamming together by making sure that common letters had their type-hammers further apart. It actually let you type faster, because you weren't always having to unjam the hammers. Hammer-jamming isn't a big problem these days, but the Qwerty layout isn't hard to use by design, and isn't significantly harder to touch-type on compared to other layouts. Perhaps you should have tried learning it before jumping from hunt-and-peck to Dvorak. I suppose you speak Esperanto too.

  • ReptilianSamurai (unregistered) in reply to Secundum

    Don't knock what you haven't tried. I typed QWERTY for most of my life, I was used to it and I was pretty fast. I use computers a lot, as both a programmer and a writer. I'm glad I made the switch to dvorak.

    If you try both, then you can say qwerty is better. Personally, I like barely needing to move my fingers to type. It's just more comfortable.

    I don't see the need to insult me over this choice.

  • Yaamboo (unregistered)

    I switched to dvorak (well, its swedish/finnish-variant svorak) after getting tired of typos with qwerty at some point during last winter. It took me 2 weeks to learn the letter placing by heart, and while I think my typing speed has remained the same, I make a lot less mistakes using dvorak than qwerty and because of that feel much comfortable using it.

    The only problem I get is when I have to use qwerty somewhere, I need to look at the keyboard to find the letters (although after getting it going I get back in qwerty-mode and can concentrate on the screen instead of the keyboard ;)

  • Secundum (unregistered) in reply to ReptilianSamurai
    ReptilianSamurai:
    Don't knock what you haven't tried. I typed QWERTY for most of my life, I was used to it and I was pretty fast. I use computers a lot, as both a programmer and a writer. I'm glad I made the switch to dvorak.

    If you try both, then you can say qwerty is better. Personally, I like barely needing to move my fingers to type. It's just more comfortable.

    I don't see the need to insult me over this choice.

    Your original post stated unambiguously that you never tried to learn to touch-type properly on Qwerty. So if you try both, then you can say Dvorak is better.

  • Vermis (unregistered) in reply to silent d
    silent d:
    Sunday Ironfoot:
    I'm what you might call a 'Professional Hunt 'n' Peck' typist.

    Hunt 'n Peck is not enough, I prefer Search and Destroy.

    After all these years, I do about 25 WPM using the Bible method. (Seek and ye shall find)

  • antivb (unregistered) in reply to VB.NET Developer

    I think the RWTF is that you develop in VB.NET.

  • pedant (unregistered) in reply to Yaamboo
    Yaamboo:
    ... I make a lot less mistakes using dvorak than qwerty ...

    s/less/fewer/

    Oh, the irony.

  • antivb (unregistered) in reply to antivb
    antivb:
    I think the RWTF is that you develop in VB.NET.
    No, I changed my mind. The real real WTF is that I forgot to quote the comment and spoiled a good joke. *sigh*
  • Me (unregistered) in reply to krupa
    krupa:
    When I was in elementary school, the library had a bunch of Apple IIe's. Before we were allowed to play Oregon Trail we first had to get through some typing lessons in Paws. A few students (surprisingly or not, the lazier ones) discovered that the program only accepted correct characters and if you just lay your hands on the keyboard you can finish the test in less than a second.

    A little bit OT, but I have been looking for a typing game for Apple II... it involved typing phrases to possibly get powerups or something, and in the end you could drive or race a car. I remember typing about 70wpm (I think that was the most the program could calculate), and quickly getting to the driving portion, which I was really good at...

    Any ideas?

  • Finibus Bonorum (unregistered) in reply to Saaid
    Saaid:
    snoofle:
    Terri:
    Aaaah, that's better - all registered.

    Oh and, incidentally, I've never bothered to learn to touch type either. And after all these years my brain seems to know where to aim for the right keys even when I'm not watching the keyboard.

    I hate to break it to ya, but that's touch typing...
    In school everyone made a big deal about learning to touch type. Have you tried typing without touching the keys? My words per minute rate using telekinesis sucks.

    ----------------------------------- CAPTCHA: "esse"

    I'm a firm believer in the telekinesis method. Just to show everyone, I performed James' typing test from today's topic introduction:

    The opportunities present for today's college graduates are numerous and 
vast.  Those who choose to perform excellently will achieve the recognition 
that secures promotions.  Commitment to quality leads to victory above all 
obstacles.  The challenges faced by employers, insitutions, and organizations 
require college graduates to work consistently in the pursuit of greatness.

    It took me a mere instant [ie., speed of thought] to type the 52 words/377 characters via telekinesis: 52 words / (0.001s * 60s/min) = 3,120,000 wpm. And I just "know" my accuracy score is 100%. Here's my result:

    The opeointuptris preenst for ta'oyds cgoelle gtreadaus are nureuoms and 
vast. Tshoe who cosohe to pefrorm exllctneely wlil acivehe the rocotignein 
that scueres poroointms. Citomemmnt to qltiauy ldeas to vtrociy avobe all 
oebsatlcs. The cleeanlghs feacd by eyprmoles, intsioniuts, and otgrazaiinons 
rrqieue colgele gdtuaeras to work ctetnonlissy in the pursuit of gesrnteas.

    Curious? Visit http://www.writtenhumor.com/misspeller.html. It works best with one- and two-syllable words.

  • k (unregistered) in reply to Finibus Bonorum

    OMG! the misspeller thing looks almost exactly like my typing. I alwyas refer to myself as a dyslexic typist - right letters, wrong order. Except the spaces are all in the right places, I get them scattered randomly. At least I'll never get RSI.

    Unocrrected version: OMg! the missepller thign loks al most ecaxtly lik emy typiong. I alyways refe to myself as a dysl;ecic typist - right letters wrong orfer. Except pthe spacesare all in th eright places, i get them ascaterd rando,ly. At least I;ll never get RIS.

  • (cs) in reply to HelmondseBoy86
    HelmondseBoy86:
    taylonr:
    Reminds me of when my 4 year old tries to open his car door, but it's locked. Rather than waiting, he just keeps yanking hoping that somewhere between try 5 and 6 the door will concede and open for him.

    the realWTF is that your son has his own car :)

    Nope, TRWTF is that he can squeeze himself inside his toy cars.

  • Simon (unregistered)

    This is more the typer over analyzing the instructions (like a proper lil'coder). Touch typists would just type out exactly as it looks on the page and hit enter each time.

  • (cs) in reply to snoofle
    snoofle:
    Terri:
    Aaaah, that's better - all registered.

    Oh and, incidentally, I've never bothered to learn to touch type either. And after all these years my brain seems to know where to aim for the right keys even when I'm not watching the keyboard.

    I hate to break it to ya, but that's touch typing...

    Hmmm, I "meant" using all my fingers on the correct keys. I use about three fingers.

  • PhysicsPhil (unregistered) in reply to wk633
    wk633:
    taylonr:
    Bot:
    The WTF here is that he A) listened to the lab assistant and B) tried it 3 times, doing exactly the same thing. Obviously, he should've tried it with carriage returns after failing the first time.

    Reminds me of when my 4 year old tries to open his car door, but it's locked. Rather than waiting, he just keeps yanking hoping that somewhere between try 5 and 6 the door will concede and open for him.

    I think it's the positive feedback people get when they hammer on elevator and crosswalk buttons. They keep hammering, and eventually it changes. I've always wanted to tell them that if they can hit it 100 times before the light changes/elevator arrives, they'll win a prize.

    But them I'm a dick.

    Actually, in my city, there are some pelican crossing where if you hit the button four times quickly teh lights change to red, irrespective of how long they have been green. There aren't very many of these lights left, but you still see a lot of people press the light button exactly four times.

  • (cs) in reply to Dave
    Dave:
    Terri:
    heh heh heh, niiiiiice Mouse.

    I would have beaten them both soundly with the keyboard, leaving little indents all over their heads. Preferably little carriage-return shaped indents.

    You indent with tabs or spaces not carriage returns.

    Heh heh heh - thanks, that just made my day.

  • PhysicsPhil (unregistered) in reply to Small, Paranoid Dictator
    Small:
    Apparently Napoleon used to say of his subordinates that he didn't want lazy people, he didn't want clever people, he wanted clever lazy people because they'd always find the shortest way to do something.
    When appointing captains of his major warships he supposedly did not ask if they were good, he asked if they were lucky. (Not that that helped them very much, but still...)
  • (cs) in reply to Vermis
    Vermis:
    silent d:
    Sunday Ironfoot:
    I'm what you might call a 'Professional Hunt 'n' Peck' typist.

    Hunt 'n Peck is not enough, I prefer Search and Destroy.

    After all these years, I do about 25 WPM using the Bible method. (Seek and ye shall find)

    You're all hilarious! :)

  • PhysicsPhil (unregistered) in reply to Bumble Bee Tuna
    Bumble Bee Tuna:
    When you're in a class where you spend *3 weeks* learning that 1 mol = 6.02 + 10^23, you take victories where you can.
    Especially as Avogadro's Number is 6.02 * 10^23.
  • Khalil (unregistered) in reply to Chris

    Yeah I think everyone doing some kind of programming gets this assignment at one point, the problem is you didn't impliment linked list, she should not have changed your grade.

  • PhysicsPhil (unregistered) in reply to MacMog
    MacMog:
    Strangely enough, the fact that it prevents typewriters from locking up actually leads to increased speed because while one hand types a letter, the other hand moves into position to type the next letter. Ergonomic studies show that Sholes (QWERTY) and Dvorak produce statistically insignificant differences in typing speed.
    I suspect the error rate would be lower on a Dvorak keyboard because you would get a lot less errors like "teh" where you don't type the letter from the other hand fast enough. Possibly learning to type on a Dvorak keyboard would help me, because I tend to make a lot of this sort of error.

    My personal typing technique is a sort of evolved hunt and peck, where I tend to look at the keyboard out of habit, but can almost touch type anyway.

  • PhysicsPhil (unregistered) in reply to Terri
    Terri:
    snoofle:
    Terri:
    Aaaah, that's better - all registered.

    Oh and, incidentally, I've never bothered to learn to touch type either. And after all these years my brain seems to know where to aim for the right keys even when I'm not watching the keyboard.

    I hate to break it to ya, but that's touch typing...

    Hmmm, I "meant" using all my fingers on the correct keys. I use about three fingers.

    I've noticed that most people I know who use EMACS for programming or tasks involving typing short section of text in between each command tend to do this, because the "proper" positioning is often inconvenient, and it is easier just to wander all over the keyboard as needed.

  • KäseMeister (unregistered) in reply to PhysicsPhil
    Bumble Bee Tuna:
    When you're in a class where you spend *3 weeks* learning that 1 mol = 6.02 + 10^23, you take victories where you can.

    Mmm. 100000000000000000000006.02. Let me guess - you reckon Irish Girl's 'a perfect 1.661'?

  • (cs) in reply to ReptilianSamurai
    ReptilianSamurai:
    http://play.typeracer.com/ I think is appropriate for this discussion. Competitive speed typing in an online game. It's surprisingly fun, especially when you race your friends.
    I just did 75 on the first run, then 90 wpm on the second. Is that good? :-)
  • (cs) in reply to halber_mensch
    This reminds me of one assignment I had to complete in school . . . She was plainly wrong, and was more than reluctant to admit it.

    I ran into that with an instructor. The assignment (in a digital logic class) was to draw a schematic for a half-adder. My solution differed from the instructors, but had a similar parts count, and when I pushed him to work it through, I did get the credit.

  • Dave (unregistered) in reply to Andrew
    Andrew:
    halber_mensch:
    The only stipulation was that the hash table data structure should be a pointer-based linked list. ...I was most comfortable with C++ .. so I happily tapped a '#include <list>' and went on my merry way implementing the hash table. It worked beautifully. I was devastated when I got my grade back and it was a 10/20, with the explanation form the TA written in red ink: "Not use linked list".

    This is terrible whether you used Java or C++ STL linked-lists. This excercise doesn't teach you anything much. Programming students should practice building data structures from scratch.

    What was your hash function? How did you resolve hash collisions? Did the class teach anything about data structures?

    I store them in the mash table.

  • fa_f3_20 (unregistered)

    Back in the day ("the day" in this case being a Data General Nova II; go Google it), I wrote a typing speed challenge program. What it did was spit out a string of 1-20 random characters, wait for you to type that in correctly, and then spit out another one, until two minutes were up. Your score was the number of characters completed in two minutes.

    The kicker was that, unlike most typing test programs, it considered the entire printable ASCII character set fair game, and every character was equally likely. When we started playing with it, we were amazed at how much our typing slowed down when we had to type back strings like 8*#KH93m#)(@< and hd2:"]{3p2$81`o~. Recalling this, it sometimes still amazes me that anyone ever completes a C or Perl program...

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