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Life Advice / Dream job... kinda sucks...

« on: August 15, 2013, 08:35:48 am »

So, last April I started what I had thought would be my "dream job". A professional programmer at age 20. The only job I'd thought about for 5-6 years. They even hired me not-quite-done with college.

The problem is it kinda sucks... and I can't quite say why. There's nothing I can point at and say "That! That's why I don't like coming into work."
The people I work with are all great. The office is... well, an office, nothing remarkable. The M-F, 8-5 schedule is nice.

It's just... boring? I guess? The past year seems like a dull grey blur, especially compared to the 9 months I was at my last (and only other) job, retail.

In mid-June I went to the doctor with an unpleasant swelling, turned out it was an abscessed pilonidal cyst. Surgery was a success, wound vac, healing well, etc. But I've only just started trying to work part time, and the feeling of "why am I subjecting myself to this?" is back strong... (Savings and insurance will have the medical bills covered.)

So Bay12, any advice for a 21 year old who's not sure what he wants out of life other than "not this"?

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**General Discussion / I'm slightly ashamed of you B12: no dragon*con thread?**

« on: September 01, 2012, 10:35:34 pm »

Been in Atlanta since Thursday afternoon. My first con and so far it has all been EPIC.

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General Discussion / Quick Desura question

« on: November 13, 2011, 09:45:38 pm »

Anyone here use Desura? I notice they seem to have official support for Linux (a definite +1 vs Steam IMO), but I can't find out if buying a game will get you any/all versions of just one.

In other words, if I were to buy a cross-platform game there, could I play it on both Linux and Windows without having to buy it twice?

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Life Advice / Money => more Money... But how?

« on: October 04, 2011, 04:18:22 pm »

Okay, let me set the scene a little:

Twenty-year old college student, recently started my first job. I have a decent stash of money, and I know I can use it to make more money. But how?

I know the simplest thing would be to open a savings account and put as much as feasible in it, but I suspect the interest rate would be disappointingly low (I haven't actually checked yet though).

Any (fairly simple) suggestions?

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Life Advice / VB.NET: of ComboBoxes and DataBindings

« on: July 09, 2011, 10:42:01 pm »

For a school project we're making a cost estimator, it involves pulling an item list from a database, filtering the items by type (phone, computer, etc.) and displaying them in appropriate ComboBoxes (more commonly known as drop-down boxes).

This all works, but I'd really like for each box to include an empty 'null' option, ideally as it's default. Each box gets it's items from a different BindingSource object (with an appropriately set Filter property), which is bound to the DataTable for the item list.

The only methods that comes to mind are to add empty rows to the database (and it'd have to be one for each item type thanks to the filtering), or completely discard VB.NET's data binding stuff and manually populate the lists from the database (and then update other stuff when the box is changed by the user).
Obviously neither option is attractive :-/ I've tried some googling and can't seem to find anything...

EDIT: i'm an idiot, tried some more googling after posting this and i think i've found a solution >_>

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General Discussion / 3D: First movies, now TV's and even games; but should we really care?

« on: July 03, 2011, 12:44:56 am »

The other day my gf and I went to see Cars 2 in 3D. It cost $25. Later I found myself wondering how much of that $25 was for the 3D... because I really can't see me paying for another 3D movie.

It works, it's cool tech, but does it really improve the experience? I've seen a few movies in 3D now (including Avatar), and my answer is 'no'. After the first 10 minutes the effect is almost completely unnoticeable.

So Bay12, is 3D the next big thing, or just a passing fad?

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Other Games / Terraria... Looks like Minecraft + Metroid?

« on: April 23, 2011, 03:46:32 pm »

Trailer

Is it just me, or does this look really freakin' awesome?

For those who can't/don't want to watch the vid: Think 2D side-scrolling Minecraft (complete with some kind of multilayer) with Metroid-like platforming and, if i'm seeing right, items/upgrades.

The main site is rather barren, but from the vid it looks pretty polished...

EDIT: Devs have posted an LP, didn't see it at first.

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DF General Discussion / 2010 bugs?

« on: December 24, 2010, 08:06:22 pm »

I haven't seriously played DF in a while, not since before the April release. Tried a bit at first, but the bugs in the military management kinda killed it for me.

I have had fun with the new Adventure mode features though

So, is it again possible to have a functioning army in Fortress mode? Training etc. working (at least better) now?

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General Discussion / USB cables...

« on: December 12, 2010, 01:57:34 pm »

Anyone know if/where you can get usb cable without end plugs pre-attached?

I'm looking to cable a printer in one room to a home-server in another room, running the cable through the wall, but the hole isn't big enough to fit the USB-B connector through.

I'll be doing something similar with an ethernet cable, and i know you can get cable and end connectors separately and manually attach them... but i've never heard of the same thing w/ usb...

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General Discussion / Linux

« on: October 23, 2010, 11:20:30 pm »

I'm a huge fan of Open-Source software in general, and especially Linux.

Currently my favorite distro is Arch. I tried an Ubuntu derivative (Xubuntu), but found it a little too "newbie-friendly" for my taste. (Updates should not silently overwrite config files! That could be another entire post/topic...)
I've built both a nice laptop system and a (relatively) simple home server using Arch. I'm still fine-tuning both, but getting each functional was fairly straight-forward.

The main thing I like about Linux: options. There's seldom only one package that'll do what you want, and virtually everything can be configured via a plain-text file (which often has it's own manual page). Also, bash pwns CMD so hard it's not even funny.

I'm not sure if I can completely abandon Windows though... 7 is by far the best yet, and the sheer amount of games*cough*software available is kinda hard to ignore.

So, any other Bay12 Linux users out there? I know there's a few from the Desktops thread

What distro(s) do you prefer? What's your favorite thing about it and Linux in general?

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General Discussion / O_O

« on: October 14, 2010, 04:21:20 pm »

http://kotaku.com/5664111/what-is-this

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

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Life Advice / Trying to start a career in IT

« on: October 12, 2010, 12:36:07 am »

Title gets the main point, but here's my right-this-minute conundrum... I'm not sure exactly what I want to do in IT... I enjoy programming, networking, web development...

Being a shut-in for most of my childhood, I spent a lot of time tinkering with computers. I'm in college now (early 2nd year of a 2 year program) and have been bored in most of my classes. I'm tempted to say I could've learned more if I hadn't been in college, then i'd have more free time...

Looking at other local (4 year) colleges' computer science programs, I've been disgusted by the lack of actual computer courses... But from the research on the job market I've done, an associates degree doesn't mean near as much as a bachelors.

Where's the sense in that??? I've already taken more computer courses than USC upstate requires for a bachelors!

Any real-world tips for getting into IT as a college student? Everything I've come across requires experience and/or 4 years of college... Even a help-desk position (which I've heard is a decent way to get your foot in the door) requires 2-3 years experience...

sorry if this is a bit incoherent, i'm confused, mildly irritated, and sleepy atm

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Other Games / Minecraft is winning!

« on: October 02, 2010, 02:27:18 pm »

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/09/30/working-16-bit-computer-built-inside-minecraft/

Minecraft players are beating us! We have to do something!!!

(sorry if this's already been posted about)

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Life Advice / Joysticks...

« on: September 19, 2010, 01:04:38 am »

I've got a couple of joysticks, one fairly old (early USB), the other really old (MIDI/gameport).

I'd really like to be able to use them together with my laptop... I guess I can find a gameport-to-USB adapter somewhere, haven't really looked yet...

But what I really want to be able to do is use them in conjunction with each other, but I don't think many (any) games let you use more than one controller at once...

Anyone know of a program that'd work around this? Create a virtual composite device or something?

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