/whoiam

[MyndFyre]

Well I've been posting on these boards for a while, so I think I shall finally contribute for those of you who don't care the information that points to who I am.  =)

My name is Rob - I live in the great, hot state of Arizona.  I'm a second-year student at Arizona State University, double-majoring in computer science (B.S.) and political science - emphasis in public policy (B.S.).

For me, programming is a little bit of hobby, a lot of drive to just solve a damn problem, but mostly about making things better or easier than they are.  If I spend two months writing a program that will save 5 people 2 minutes every day, then hey, I feel good, as irrational as that may be.

I consider my self an abstract programmer....  I'd rather not get nitty-gritty into machine operations (like one would with assembler), although I can - it just takes me a while.  I started programming with Javascript, mostly web-based (first client-side and then ASP), and moved onto C#, which is my strongest language.  Since then I learned VB.NET and then VB6, Java (and its MS-rip-offs, J++ and J#), JScript.NET, and I'm in the process of learning 16-bit assembler and C/C++.  I just interviewed for a Microsoft summer internship about a week and a half ago.

I speak Spanish pretty well now....  I can often read (that is, see something written and be able to read it with the native pronunciation) although not understand French, Italian, Portuguese, German, and Latin, and most of the time be able to distinguish between them.

I largely believe in the sharing of pluggable components (and thus modularity), although not necessarily sharing of source code - although this does have its merits.  I'm a Microsoft junkie, although I just bought SuSE Linux 8.2 (I think), and have been playing around with that in my spare time.  Hard to enjoy, though, when half of my stuff doesn't work.

Well, that's about it...  Actually no, I got involved in this whole foray because I'm a leader of the Angels of Armageddon clan, http://www.clan-aoa.org/.  I'm working on a bot initially geared for use in that clan, but it's grown into a much larger project.

now THAT's about it.  Any more - feel free  =)

--Rob

[Adron]

Hard to enjoy, though, when half of my stuff doesn't work.

What is "my stuff" in this case? Things you wrote, or applications like Microsoft Office?

[iago]

For me, programming is a little bit of hobby, a lot of drive to just solve a damn problem, but mostly about making things better or easier than they are.  If I spend two months writing a program that will save 5 people 2 minutes every day, then hey, I feel good, as irrational as that may be.

I think calculus is even worse for that...

[Yoni]

I can often read (that is, see something written and be able to read it with the native pronunciation) although not understand French, Italian, Portuguese, German, and Latin, and most of the time be able to distinguish between them.

Hmm... Isn't Latin dead as a spoken language? In which case, nobody would know today how it's supposed to be pronounced... Or would they?

[Skywing]

I can often read (that is, see something written and be able to read it with the native pronunciation) although not understand French, Italian, Portuguese, German, and Latin, and most of the time be able to distinguish between them.

Hmm... Isn't Latin dead as a spoken language? In which case, nobody would know today how it's supposed to be pronounced... Or would they?

Dead primarily meaning that you don't see people going around and using it for every-day conversations, not necessarily that nobody knows how to pronounce it.  I'm pretty sure people do know how to pronounce it, especially as there are phases which get referred to not-too-rarely (i.e. "carpe diem").

[Hitmen]

Latin is offered as a language at most highschools in the US.

[MyndFyre]

Hard to enjoy, though, when half of my stuff doesn't work.

What is "my stuff" in this case? Things you wrote, or applications like Microsoft Office?

My hardware - I use a Belkin USB wireless network adapter that doesn't work, and my modem doesn't work, so I have _no_ internet access at all.  SuSE Linux comes with a ton of apps, so that's not the issue.

[Adron]

What is "my stuff" in this case? Things you wrote, or applications like Microsoft Office?

My hardware - I use a Belkin USB wireless network adapter that doesn't work, and my modem doesn't work, so I have _no_ internet access at all.  SuSE Linux comes with a ton of apps, so that's not the issue.

Ah. That sounds like a nuisance yes. No way for you to just get a cheap PCI nic and plug in? I don't think there's any PCI ethernet card that isn't supported.