Apr 11, 2020 2:35:21 GMT Foos said:

Apr 10, 2020 10:08:25 GMT c said:

Head up Foos , screen time is not necessarily a bad thing. What matters more is what content is consumed on the screen. If you can move the young one into screen stuff he can learn from he will get a net gain. Particularly with math and logic/programming games as he gets older. Too many assume all screentime is bad, but screen time that promotes active construction in the brain is as good, if not better, as other learning forms. That said limiting consumption of passive media that does not promote a learning outcome is not a bad idea. But the point it is not the screen that matters as much as what is on it. Random tik tok videos are not going to result in learning, but math games will. Same with cartoons vs science programming and what not.

Yup. Definitely up to date on latest information out there. He just turned two, so there's no rush to turn him into a screen zombie. Currently my son is a puzzle savant. He's working on 5+ year old puzzles now. The screen time he does get is mostly songs and some Sesame Street stuff. We'll look into leapfrog and other programs once he's older. 

If he keeps up with puzzles as he gets older look into Chris Ramsey on youtube.  He is magician that solves some of the hardest rated puzzles.  Not like assemble picture stuff but really weird things.  He is a goofy bastard but damn are the puzzles he gets into next level.  A lot of puzzle boxes and stuff.

Here is an amazing puzzle box.

Apr 11, 2020 3:38:31 GMT iNCY said:

Apr 11, 2020 3:04:48 GMT RT said:

Not murder my kids.

Do you have a small house?
I would have gone a bit insane if we were in our old place.

Nah not really. I was mostly joking.

But our daughter is at the age where she knows everything and our son needs 17 hours of exercise a day or he flips out.

We’ll be fine.

:suspic:

Apr 11, 2020 5:09:28 GMT RT said:

Apr 11, 2020 3:38:31 GMT iNCY said:

Do you have a small house?
I would have gone a bit insane if we were in our old place.

Nah not really. I was mostly joking.

But our daughter is at the age where she knows everything and our son needs 17 hours of exercise a day or he flips out.

We’ll be fine.

I feel your pain

I will also add that we have found out that our 6yo will be doing remote learning from home. The school doesn't have any platform for teaching via webcam or video. So looks like Mum and Dad are the teachers for all of Term 2.

I actually think our daughter will learn better with us teaching her as she is very bright and will get one-on-one time, but that is the issue... Time... They're talking about 3.5hrs learning a day.

Apr 11, 2020 8:40:49 GMT iNCY said:

I will also add that we have found out that our 6yo will be doing remote learning from home. The school doesn't have any platform for teaching via webcam or video. So looks like Mum and Dad are the teachers for all of Term 2.

I actually think our daughter will learn better with us teaching her as she is very bright and will get one-on-one time, but that is the issue... Time... They're talking about 3.5hrs learning a day.

Wow. Our daughter is 8 (3rd grade) and she gets about 6-8 hrs of work per week. And the school set up a secure Zoom chat room for each class. We barely have to do anything aside from help her when she gets stuck.

She signs in every Mon Wed & Fri at 9:30 and her whole class is in there. The teacher goes over a lesson she wants done before the next meeting. Mostly math and reading exercises right now. They did an Easter art project on Wednesday.

Apr 8, 2020 16:28:09 GMT iNCY said:

Apr 8, 2020 15:32:53 GMT 🤯 said:

Let's see, I guess I'll just treat this as a to-do list:

- Pay state/federal taxes online, mail local tax return, call/text CPA to pay them for their services and see if they need signed hard copies of forms actually mailed or if scans will suffice.

- Follow up with Wal-Mart third party supplier to see actual status of barbell and plate set.

- Get borrowed lawnmower working, and mow grass.

- Troubleshoot non-starting motorcycle.

- Watch Night 2 of CoronaMania 36.

Seems like a good starting point. I'm surely forgetting something (or many things).

If the spark plug and air filter are clean, I have a failsafe way of starting mowers:

1. Pump the priming bulb until you feel fuel in it (if you have one)
2. Flick the Mower to Choke and Pull the cord three times
3. Move the throttle to off and pull the cord three times
4. Move throttle to high (not choke) and pull cord, should go first time.

So model is Troy Bilt TB230. No priming bulb or choke or throttle. And won't start. Pull cord pulls fine now. Fresh gas in the tank. But gobs of oil were in air filter and all over plug. Amazon primed a new plug and filter since I'm not convinced by my cleaning skills, and it's just $10. While I wait, might disassemble carb to clean. Have a strong feeling gas isn't getting to the engine because of gummed up old residue.

The question is, even in quarantine, what's my time worth? Especially considering this is a rental property? At what point do I just slip a note and a $20 into neighbor's mailbox, asking them to mow our lawn too?

No gym getting skinny unfortunately.

My beer consumption has gone up and my yard is looking really good!

Apr 14, 2020 13:31:45 GMT spladle125 said:

No gym getting skinny unfortunately.

My beer consumption has gone up and my yard is looking really good!

Also watched the entire series of Dexter.

Taking an SQL class.

Couldn't revive borrowed mower. Found a massive nest inside engine housing, ultimately gave up. Ordered a cheapo from HD.

Barbell and plates are still yet to be delivered. But been crushing it in the meantime with pull-ups, chin-ups, dips, etc. Getting big.

Apr 14, 2020 13:34:48 GMT 🤯 said:

Taking an SQL class.

Couldn't revive borrowed mower. Found a massive nest inside engine housing, ultimately gave up. Ordered a cheapo from HD.

Barbell and plates are still yet to be delivered. But been crushing it in the meantime with pull-ups, chin-ups, dips, etc. Getting big.

So the SQL class didn't pan out to be of much use. I think even as a beginner's primer, it was still to advanced for what my exposure level is to-date... which is to say zero.

But, it did plant the seed. Not knowing how long lockdown will last or what life will be like on the other side, I've realized how much of a computer/digital age we're in. And I've realized more and more how knowing the "languages" for interacting with computers/machines will only becoming increasingly important as a critical skill (similar to knowing Spanish if you want to run a lawn care company or carpentry outfit). So, I thought, why not use some downtime inherent in these remote work days to try learning?

Not wanting to sign up for classes per se, I thought I could maybe self-teach some basics through a project. Maybe something like scraping websites to pull wrestling results or something... I don't know, I figured if the content of the project was something I could have some later use with, maybe I'd be more engaged/compel to learn. But then everything I've quick googled on website scraping for beginners keeps talking about Python and all this high level shit that is clearly WAY above and beyond me.

So, as I always tend to default... I'm circling back to PW for advice. Any suggestions on where to begin for simple basics in learning coding, programming, whatever, etc. and diving into simple data science projects?

SQL is great and it's the language I use every day in my work. A valuable language to have, and the learning curve is not so steep. Perhaps you chose a poor class?

If you're interested in data science and learning programming, Python is the perfect language. It's very intuitive and easy to learn. Has so many features and programming styles available, but you don't need to use all of them, only the parts of Python you need to use for your work. Should be plenty of great free courses online to learn the language. I picked it up a couple of years ago. Forget which coursed I used to learn it. Pretty sure Python can be used to get data from the internet too, but as a whole I'm not very familiar with anything web development related.

Well, I think I just started Intro to Programming I on Codecademy. Feels super basic so far, but that's exactly what I was looking for. Feel like the kind of learner I am, at least with this, I'd like the build blocks basics foundation first... then build on that.

Just finished learned about variables, data and data types. Onto operators now!

Apr 28, 2020 16:12:01 GMT 🤯 said:

Well, I think I just started Intro to Programming I on Codecademy. Feels super basic so far, but that's exactly what I was looking for. Feel like the kind of learner I am, at least with this, I'd like the build blocks basics foundation first... then build on that.

Just finished learned about variables, data and data types. Onto operators now!

Functions and lists, in the bank! Onto loops.

I feel like I could see myself growing to like this shit.

I wonder if a coding boot camp would be worth it? Then maybe leverage Wife's connects from working in tech and at companies like Google, Uber, etc. to get a sweet paying job where I don't have to interact with anyone I don't want to? MR. ROBOT, BABAY!!~

One step at a time.

And that's a wrap for Basics of Programming I, II & III from Codecademy. I guess let's see what else they offer, where they point me to next.

I would not focus on SQL. Non-relational databases are the current hot thing. NoSQL or MongoDB is what to learn.

If you opt to learn a language, look at python if you want to learn basic programming or javascript if you want to learn programming that may lead to employment. Automate the Boring Stuff with Python is a good book to learn Python. I worked through parts of it in the past and may start it up again next week if I get the meds I want to end my fatigue.

For javascript was suggested JavaScript: The Definitive Guide. Cheap and comprehensive.

There is also Jon Duckett trilogy of books, HTML and CSS, Javascript and jQuery, and PHP & MySQL. The trilogy of books will take you through web development from start to finish. I only worked with HTML and CSS but it was a great book. Amazon sells the first two books for $26 for some strange reason (as they are normally priced $30).

If you need a text editor for coding, I love Sublime Text. I use it as a normal text editor for general purposes but super useful if you need to edit code.


For Javascript, Sunday nights Kitboga usually does code streams on twitch where he makes his tools to fuck with scammers.

If not familiar with Kit and his madness, this is him playing with his fake Google Play gift card redeemer.



If you are into minecraft, Darkosto does live streams on twitch where he makes his modpacks using JSON. He is the guy behind Sky Factory and Sevtech.

Also I laid out how to make a customizable blog using Github if interested in some simpler hands on computing. Then I never updated it   Shit like this is how my mania manifests.  Did it in two days with no knowledge of the syntax of the languages used prior.

oswaldanalytics.github.io/2016/05/10/Creating-a-Blog-Part-1.html

Should renew the OswaldAnalytics.com web domain one day.  

Thanks, c!

What's the difference between relational and non-relational databases?

I might be getting way to ahead of myself and out of my depth here for now.

The next thing Codecademy recommended for me was HTML, so working through their free class on that. Honestly, I think I just need the practice/repetition of getting used to seeing how code is written. Also, thinking I might be more likely to implement HTML in my own little personal side projects for practice more readily first. I'm thinking I'll go HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python... then see where to go from there.

Wife already laughed me out of the house practically when I told her my dream of going all in on this stuff, getting decent enough, and then having her help hook me up with a job. She just shook her head and was like "you have no idea..."

Assuming she means getting hired as a programmer by Google, Uber, etc. is kinda like that drinking game hacking scene in the Social Network for wannabe Facebook interns.

If you want to go all in, pick what you want to do. Web Page design, webapp design or application design. Then learn in a situated manner. Each area has it own tools and specifics. Here are examples of each:

Web Page: This is stuff like a webstore, blog, wiki or health care site. In most cases you will focus on designing the site, and creating the backdone it uses to store and retreive data.

Applications: These are your basic programs. To get into this you will need to learn everything from basic programming, to GUI programming, to control interfaces. A whole lot to learn here so think more of what TYPE of program do you want to make and narrow you study by that. Making games requires interactive graphic design, whereas a making a calculator type app will need heavy GUI design.

Web Apps: These are the mix of Web Pages and Apps. You make a program and host it on your computer then allow access via a webpage to it. Generally web app programmers deal with the intersection of making the programs work.


Also programming is split between front end and back end design. Back end design is the nuts and bolts stuff that make the program work. This is data storage, data retrieval, sorting, ect. This is also called server-side design in the web world and focuses on algorithms to most efficiently what you want to do. Front end design, or client side design, is where the user interacts with the program. This side concerns itself with visual display of information and how the user interacts with the raw programming. Heavy focus on design, user interface programming, markup languages, ect.

The skills for backend vs frontend design are VERY different and even in those areas people specialize further. One person may engineer the program while another deals with the database or one person designs the website layout, another deals with the user interface for the program and a third deals with the compatibility side of things.

Speaking of Kit, my hair is starting to look like that due to no barber access right now.

I've dabbled in a bit of front end development, and web development, but it's not for me. Not interested in GUIs and web design and making things look nice and user friendly. I appreciate the value of these concepts, but I just find it all very tedious. I want logic and action. I want to make things run, and run fast. Back-end work is for me. Not even sure if it's possible to be a Javascript-only web developer, I think some knowledge of HTML/CSS/PHP is mandatory, but not certain.

Regarding databases, I only entered the profession 18 months ago and I've only ever worked with relational databases. Seems to be a huge market for SQL and related skills (SSIS, SSRS, PowerBI etc.) in my local area. However I have no knowledge or visibility of non-relational databases. Sounds like an interesting area to explore.

Need the full editor for the SQL vs No-SQL thing.  Lets say I have want to run a webstore.  To track customer orders in SQL I would need a set of tables.

Products:

Product	Product_ID	Price
Bread	Prod_101	.99
Milk	Prod_102	2.99
Egg	Prod_103	1.99

Customers Orders:

Cust_ID	Name	Payment	Date
101	Bob	1023...	06/06/2020
102	Jim	3456...	06/06/2020
103	Stan	4562...	06/06/2020

Now I would need to link these:

Customer Orders by Products

Cust_ID	Product_ID	Quantity
101	Prod_101	2
101	Prod_102	4
102	Prod_103	4

Now let's say I want to know what people buy together.  For this I would need to use what is called a wide table.

Customer Orders Joined.

Cust_ID	Prod_101	Prod_103	Prod_103
101	2	4	0
102	0	0	4

Now if I had a thousand items that becomes a thousand column table with mostly zeros.  This is where NoSQL comes in.

Here I could assign each order a key-value.  Instead of using tables and links for everything I can link key values, but elements of unequal size.  So for say order one.


So here I can use two tables in one element to store this data much more simply.

Orders:

Cust_ID	101
Data	06/06/2020
Item 1	Prod_101
Item 1 Quantity	2
Item 2	Prod_102
Item 2 Quantity	2
Payment	1023

Cust_ID	102
Date	06/06/2020
Item 1	Prod_103
Item 1 Quantity	4
Payment	3456

Each of these only needs to include the data they need and it eliminates the need for empty space.  This is all super simplified as I am not an expert in this area, and just had to crash course for the paper I did on MOOCs when we got data from Coursera in SQL form that was nearly unusable.

Non-relational databases are a new thing for sure, and not really used for commerce at all, but there is a huge demand for them as shown by the fast rise of the MongoDB stock and the countless jobs looking for people who know MongoDB.  Many have basic SQL skills but few have skills with NoSQL and most who do have skills with NoSQL are mostly SQL users who crashed coursed in the new hot format.  

Here is a good site on the differences:

medium.com/@zhenwu93/relational-vs-non-relational-databases-8336870da8bc

Apr 28, 2020 19:48:27 GMT Emperor said:

I've dabbled in a bit of front end development, and web development, but it's not for me. Not interested in GUIs and web design and making things look nice and user friendly. I appreciate the value of these concepts, but I just find it all very tedious. I want logic and action. I want to make things run, and run fast. Back-end work is for me. Not even sure if it's possible to be a Javascript-only web developer, I think some knowledge of HTML/CSS/PHP is mandatory, but not certain.

Regarding databases, I only entered the profession 18 months ago and I've only ever worked with relational databases. Seems to be a huge market for SQL and related skills (SSIS, SSRS, PowerBI etc.) in my local area. However I have no knowledge or visibility of non-relational databases. Sounds like an interesting area to explore.

18 months ago...

By chance, did you do a boot camp for a career pivot? By buddy is pushing this idea on me, citing two of his other friends who did the same and landed six fig gigs upon graduation. I feel like that's likely the exception instead of the rule, but what do I know? Also, I feel like his friends did this years ago too when boot camps were more novel. Now I get the sense they're way more over-saturated churning out grads to compete for jobs in a market with a not-so-great supply/demand ratio. But again, what do I know?

Right now... nothing.

Also if you are into SQL or NoSQL read up on logic a little. Particular in the A B combination stuff. A lot of database stuff revolves around classical logic. Here is how it relates to joins:


upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c1/LogicGates.svg/220px-LogicGates.svg.png

And Emp had a little more than a bootcamp.

On boot camps. You can crash course into something with a bootcamp but the duration is too short to allow deep understand of the topic. In programming this lead to a whole field of people who are programming but cannot actually program. They just are great at googling and searching stack exchange. Make them program from base and they have no idea how to do anything. Not saying it is good or bad as we need programmers but if you are even in a position to hire them, make sure they know the reasons for doing things and can produce code on demand with proper syntax (not pseudocode).

This is a MASSIVE problem in machine learning where people copy and paste code not knowing what it actually does resulting in this being painfully true.


imgs.xkcd.com/comics/machine_learning.png

Apr 28, 2020 20:25:42 GMT c said:

Also if you are into SQL or NoSQL read up on logic a little. Particular in the A B combination stuff. A lot of database stuff revolves around classical logic. Here is how it relates to joins:


upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c1/LogicGates.svg/220px-LogicGates.svg.png

And Emp had a little more than a bootcamp.

So are boot camps bullshit these days then? Emp, what top secret does c know about you!?

So far this afternoon I've been enjoying the HTML lessons so far. Seems simple enough... kinda just like formatting tags on PW. Might attempt to repurpose www.wrestlesystem.com as a project playground for myself to practice shit I learn. Wonder if GoDaddy will allow me to do that?

Think about what boot camp promote logically. If you enter a new area, what can you really expect to learn in six weeks? You cover a lot of material but very briefly. You do not cover corner cases or what to do if things you expect to work do not (the heart of programming). You also have to survey a large area so you cannot go into depth into any area. You may study loops for instance, but you are will not get into problems with nested loops and how to prevent them. You may study storing data in rows and columns, but it is likely that table vs list debate will not be covered. You will learn algorithms but the heuristics to produce them so you will not know how to solve a problem no one solved before.

That said they are a good introduction to the area but do not expect to get a job like Emp likely has after six weeks.

And the secret if he does not post before I do is Emp went to grad school for CS, and if I recall properly is formally Dr. Emp.  Also a story he does not know, but after a few posts years ago on PW I started to study calc after he suggested it was useful to know.

Holy shit, you're telling me Emperor is a low key genius?!

Actually, not that much of a surprise.

Isn't he the one who plays chess as a pastime for fun? And is so good at it that he finds it boring?

And he can play concert level violin with his left hand while simultaneously writing Latin in cursive with his right hand?

:lol: Interesting developments in this thread. Lots to cover.

Let's start with c's relational database example. The wide table is something you would not store as a static table, at least in the data warehousing models I am familiar with. You'd store the other three tables, and if you want a report of all the products all customers have bought, you'd save a script down which joins the other three tables together, most likely with some filters. Might need to do some pivoting in SQL or some mucking about in SSRS/Excel to get the data to look presentable.

Don't really follow c's non-relational description from that post (I'll read the article later), but it seems like a radical solution to this problem. Of course I know his example is very simplified, and I'm sure there are many good reasons to use non-relational because relational is not perfect. But it is very very good, and has been the database standard for a very long time, and I believe still is. The various SQL database systems, as well as Oracle, are all widely used and all relational.

Dr. c is absolutely right about bootcamps. You don't get that deep understanding that he is talking about. That's what separates a great developer from a good one. But you won't really gain that wisdom in 6 months of doing anything, unless you're a super genius. Discounting that, you either need have lot of on-the-job experience, or you need to study it for years. As I did.

It's not really a secret as I've posted about it at various points in my PW lifetime, but yes, I do have a PhD in Computer Science, so bow down and call me Dr. Emperor from now on please, thanks. My PhD research was sort of an intersection of graph theory and programming language implementation. I hadn't studied a single thing about databases during my university time, but I gained a broad knowledge of computer science and mathematical concepts, both theoretical and practical. This deep understanding, and the fact that I am naturally a quick learner, means I can pick up pretty much anything programming related very quickly.

My career pivot didn't come through a bootcamp, it came from being unemployed for nearly two years failing to get software development work, and taking the suggestion of a recruiter to enter an entirely different area, namely database programming. Got the first job I applied for in that area, 18 months ago. Fortunately the company were on a big recruitment drive and were happy to hire good people with no specific experience. Despite never having written a line of SQL in my life, I learnt it very quickly. It's not the most conventional programming language, but as c mentioned it's fundamentally based on logic and relational algebra and set theory, which is hardwired into my brain at this point, a lot of it is unconscious. Something I've noticed is that I am also highly attuned to any source of code inefficiency, which is something most of my colleagues lack. Guess that's what studying computational complexity theory gets you.

I'm bragging now, but it feels good, so I'll continue. Yes, I play chess as a hobby for fun. Am I so good at it I find it boring? Ummm. Sometimes I get bored of chess, but I don't think it's because I'm too good :lol: I'm probably in the top 5% of amateur chess players based on my rating, but the gap in skill between a great amateur chess player and even a low-ranked master is enormous. I'm still an awful player in comparison, and I'm struggling to improve. Guess it has to end somewhere.

People often call me a genius because I have a PhD, but I don't really believe it. Like most things, a PhD is 95% hard work, 5% other stuff. PhDs have a nice reputation because of the ivory tower of academia, and the fact you're bringing something completely new to the pile of human knowledge, but in 99.9% of PhDs that completely new something is a miniscule addition to an obscure subarea of an obscure field that only 6 people in the world are interested in. Certainly the case for my project. I wouldn't be surprised if nobody has glanced at my thesis outside of my examiners, colleagues who proof read it, and other students of my supervisor who do related work. Still, I have no regrets.

Chess doesn't make me a genius either. There are geniuses who play chess (such as Magnus Carlsen), and there are regular folk who play chess.