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On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:44:15 +0100, Invisible <voi### [at] dev null> wrote:
>
>You can't do that without a postal address. (And stamps. Do you have any
>idea how hard it is to purchase stamps?!)
Petrol stations!
--
Regards
Stephen
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> And then there's the minor detail that although I know a lot of stuff
> about stuff... how many people actually need to know what a Huffman tree
> is? None. Nobody needs to know this. It serves no useful purpose.
Of course it does, it is evidence that you are *willing* and *capable* of
learning such things. That is more important than what you actually know.
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>> And then there's the minor detail that although I know a lot of stuff
>> about stuff... how many people actually need to know what a Huffman
>> tree is? None. Nobody needs to know this. It serves no useful purpose.
>
> Of course it does, it is evidence that you are *willing* and *capable*
> of learning such things. That is more important than what you actually
> know.
Certainly a point worth making, and one I always try to emphasise. Heck,
that's how I got *this* job in the first place! ;-)
I think anybody who decides to "learn PostScript" in their lunchbreak
just out of boredom is a fairly unusual type of person.
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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Invisible wrote:
> ...OK, actually I can only think of 2 things to use a Min Heap for:
>
> 1. A heap sort.
>
> 2. Building Huffman trees.
>
> Can anybody else think of a good use for a Min Heap? (Or even a Max Heap?)
Answer:
http://wordaligned.org/articles/top-ten-tags
--
Computer Lie #1: You'll never use all that disk space.
/\ /\ /\ /
/ \/ \ u e e n / \/ a w a z
>>>>>>mue### [at] nawaz org<<<<<<
anl
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Invisible <voi### [at] dev null> wrote:
> ...OK, actually I can only think of 2 things to use a Min Heap for:
> 1. A heap sort.
> 2. Building Huffman trees.
Priority queue.
--
- Warp
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Warp wrote:
> Priority queue.
See, I knew Warp would come up with a good answer...
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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Invisible wrote:
> A Huffman code is a similarly straight-forward idea.
Tell that to Huffman. ;-)
Seriously, put together some essays and/or whitepapers about this stuff,
explaining it. You might be able to get a job teaching, or find a
publisher who will pay you to write a book. If you can write clearly
enough to teach complex stuff like this to youngsters, you can have a
pretty good career.
If nothing else, go to your local high-school and ask them if anyone
needs tutoring in computer programming.
--
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
Helpful housekeeping hints:
Check your feather pillows for holes
before putting them in the washing machine.
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Invisible wrote:
> Plus, all their software development stuff clearly says all over it
> "prior experience of developing large-scale applications is an absolute
> requirement". So I guess I fail, right there.
Yoda would think otherwise. You can only fail if you don't try.
Well, that's not quite true. But believe me, you won't get past the
phone interview if they're actually serious about that.
> Hmm. Tell me something - all that stuff I just posted? Does it make any
> semblance of comprehensible sense?
Quite! That's what people are trying to tell you. You explain things
very clearly.
--
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
Helpful housekeeping hints:
Check your feather pillows for holes
before putting them in the washing machine.
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Invisible wrote:
> As for examples of my work... it strikes me that I've almost never
> produced a "finished" program in my life.
I don't know anyone who ever thought their program was finished. Even
games that go out the door aren't "finished" as far as the people
working on them are concerned.
> And then there's the minor detail that although I know a lot of stuff
> about stuff... how many people actually need to know what a Huffman tree
> is? None. Nobody needs to know this.
Actually, the cool places do. Read some of the google whitepapers and
actually look at the algorithms they use. It's the first place in 25
years I've seen using Bloom filters.
> You can't do that without a postal address. (And stamps. Do you have any
> idea how hard it is to purchase stamps?!)
Now you're just making up excuses. :-) I'll admit stamp purchasing is
unobvious in Europe to someone from America who would expect to be able
to buy stamps at, say, the post office, but it can't be *that* difficult.
--
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
Helpful housekeeping hints:
Check your feather pillows for holes
before putting them in the washing machine.
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>> Of course it does, it is evidence that you are *willing* and *capable* of
>> learning such things. That is more important than what you actually
>> know.
>
> Certainly a point worth making, and one I always try to emphasise. Heck,
> that's how I got *this* job in the first place! ;-)
Any decent company will have this mentality while interviewing too. Do you
pick the person who has spent 10 years learning the exact skills you need,
or the person who has spent 5 years learning a dozen different skills that
are all just as difficult as the one you need?
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