computerjunkie
Joined 13 years ago
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478
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132
Member since
Jul 1
Recent submissions
Comment · 9 years ago
Comment · 10 years ago
Story time. I grew up in a African nation were political instability, corruption and a poor economy for a country is not surprising. My family was doing fine, not great, but my parents valued education, kindness and respect above anything else. They did everything they could to ensure that we got the best education. It was until when my father fell ill and passed away when I was 10, thats when things started to go downhill.
My mother had to provide for a family on her own. Most of the relatives from my father's side didn't bother to help, they had their own problems to deal with, add all of this on top of a economy which was non-existent in 2008. We had no place to stay for 4 months because we couldn't afford rent. I couldn't watch shows my peers watched because we couldn't afford cable/satellite TV, let alone a place to stay. There was food, electricity and water shortage for years(still is). Inflation was so high the government had to discontinue the currency.
Teachers in my public school began to flee to other countries so that they could still provide for their family.I had to teach myself Physics, Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics.I took up subjects I was never assigned to do in order to get decent grades so that I could go to college. I had to do two A levels, instead of three because teachers thought my grades weren't good enough, other students made fun of me because of this.The environment I was in was a perfect recipe for disaster, for a young mind.
But here I am, with a degree in Computer Science and working for a software company with like minded people because my father bought and introduced to me a cream rectangular box, big monochrome monitor and taught me how to type with a keyboard at the age of 5. This machine would become my identity project. Computers have been my survival tool, my passion, even when my peers thought I was delusional for pursing a career in Technology(they even made fun of me for thinking I had a chance).
Environment plays a big part in your life but you have the choice to let it dictate your life or you take the wheel and determine your future. I could have given up but I chose not to, even though everything around me constantly said I should.
I'm not in a place where I can say I made it but, but its sure as hell better than what I have experienced in my late childhood and adolescent years. For those young folks that are reading this and are in somewhat a disadvantaged situation, stay positive,stick to your identity project and never give up!
Comment · 11 years ago
I have people asking me in slightly shocked tones why I don't use an iPhone, and their certainty is always based entirely on social proof
I cannot count the amount of times I have experienced this phenomena. A couple of years ago, when I first got an android phone, I remember someone say "Ha, you don't have an iPhone, your poor!"... the content of the comment didn't really disturb me, what did was the reasoning which lead the person to generate such a perspective.
Comment · 11 years ago
Thunderbird user here. Email clients are really useful when you have more than one email account. Everything is in one place and you don't have to keep signing into multiple accounts all the time.
I've been using Thunderbird because I simply cannot find an email client that provide that much functionally, respects your privacy and doesn't randomly break.
But there is email client that I am looking forward to called [0]mailpile, that I will probably switch to once its reached v1.0 (early October)
Comment · 11 years ago
I agree that its neccessary to make a better effort to execise, but I've seen the older you get, the more walking feels like a strenuous exercise. Especially if you don't walk plenty.
So don't sweat it. Keep on walking and enjoy life!
Comment · 11 years ago
Eat well, sleep enough and walk plenty.
Sleep is something which is seriously overlooked in general. From personal experience, getting enough sleep and eating well are requirements that need to be met first before exercise.
There is nothing is worse than exercising whilst you are deprived of sleep and mal-nourished.
Speaking about exercise, don't get hung up on dogmas and "this is the only way" personality that is common in the fitness industry. Pick what works for you. Just make sure you are moving on a daily basis because sitting down 8 hours everyday is not healthy at all.
Go for long walks in the park with family or friends. As silly as it sounds, it works. Walking is not only good for you physically, but also psychologically [0]. Walking is a basic human movement pattern and is one of the first things we learn how to do early in our lives.
My grandfather passed away at 94 two years ago from old age. He never went to the gym, never participated in long marathons and he was a frequent beer drinker. But he did long walks everyday on the farm in the morning and evenings, he also ate well and by 10pm he was in bed.
Morale of the story is that, go back to the basics and stick to them. You won't go wrong.
Edit: Added a reference.
[0] http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/april/walking-vs-sitting-...
Comment · 11 years ago
I used to be a heavy facebook user. Now I log in once a week for messages.
Privacy was not the major contributing factor of me stopping the usage of facebook, but how "nosy" I felt in other peoples lives when I don't even talk to them. The more I used facebook the more alone I felt.
Another issue was the cluttered feel to it. The addition of a twitter clone feed made everything feel like an "all-in-one" solution.
After going on a month long without Facebook, whenever I met my colleages, I would have a lot more to say to them and genuinely ask questions about whats going on in their lives. I default alot less to my phone after I meet with friends.
Comment · 11 years ago
Agreed. I think its not about hate and envy, but the "my life is perfect" image shown to you when in actual fact everybody has their own insecurities or are going through tough family, friends and relationship (personal and professional) issues. We all know life has its ups and downs, but we pretend like the downs never exist.
The majority of the population never speak about the "bad" things happening in their lives, because it makes you vulnerable which is a feeling we refuse to show in todays world.
Comment · 11 years ago
It will be a interesting perspective as it becomes more common to eat insects in Western countries. The main barrier to break down would be the 'ick/ew' factor, which has been mentioned in this threads comments, that is usually cultural.
But judging from the way some domestic animals are treated by some farms, the ick/ew factor of eating insects becomes less of a barrier.
Comment · 11 years ago
I grew up in Zimbabwe, Southern Africa. I speak in general that eating insects is a delicacy and is favoured as a snack most of the time.An example, the [1] mopani worm is an excellent source of protein and is increadibly cheap in Southern Africa.The guts are removed, cleaned and dried in the sun before being packaged for sale. They also taste delicious once fried in butter and mixed with vegetables.
It might be a novelty right now in the western world but its been years of tradition in African or Asian countries.
Comment · 11 years ago
we beat ourselves up about how unproductive we are, not understanding the intrinsic nature of self-teaching.
Agreed.
Comment · 11 years ago
"Tot Facienda Parum Factum" - "So much to do, so little done"
This article resonates with me so much. I don't know if every other self taught developer goes/went through this, but its truly annoying.
Its so easy to get caught up in a another_new_JavaScript_framework.js or front end framework, but if you look back you begin to see that you wasted time focusing on the trendy things (author mentions he does this).HN, Techcrunch, Github, Bloggers and other resources all influence us with these shiny things. Sooner or later, priorities will change and you will begin to make rational decisions on how you spend your time.
I only realised this when I started working a couple of weeks ago at this temporary gig. You soon realise that there are not a lot of hours in the day to use all the shiny things you want.
I've come to the point where I have stopped looking at the shiny new things and started focusing on a small set of tools for job at hand.Tools that have been proven to work, and will continue to work regardless of what is currently trending.
Rather than learn 3-4 tutorials about a languages syntax for months, pick one comprehensive but concise tutorial on the language and straight after that start a small project in it and stick to it till its finished. Programming languages (or domain tools) in general all have similar concepts. If you learn python, then ruby or other interpreted languages should be easy to understand.If you learn Photoshop, then Gimp or other image manipulation software should be easy to understand and grasp. Understand the concepts, not the tool.
Pick a technology you are comfortable with and make stuff. Because at the end of the day, your average Twitter, Instagram, Facebook user doesn't even know(or care) if Scala, Python or PHP is scalable and if the application used best design patterns. All what matters to them is the content, likes, shares, comments et. al.
A couple of articles I found truly eyeopening on my journey in software development in general;
1. http://blog.codinghorror.com/php-sucks-but-it-doesnt-matter/
[0] https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/home
[1] http://www.scotsman.com/business/markets-economy/bill-jamies...
They have mentioned that Vanguard will be looking to give access to Europe in 2018.
[Edit] - Removed Financial Times link as they have a paywall.