Month / August 2009

by Aaron

Aza Raskin’s “The Over-the-Phone Test”

Read it here.

Thus our test: We ask ourselves, “Would I be willing to teach my Grandma how to use this over the phone?”. If the answer is “Definitely”, we know we’re doing well; if the answer is “Maybe”, we know we can do better; and if the answer is “No”, then it’s often time to rethink the whole thing.

Definitely a smart way to consider the usability of many features.

by Aaron

You gotta be freakin’ kidding me!

“Alumna sues college because she hasn’t found a job”

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/08/03/new.york.jobless.graduate/index.html

On July 24, she filed suit against the college in Bronx Supreme Court, alleging that Monroe’s "Office of Career Advancement did not help me with a full-time job placement. I am also suing them because of the stress I have been going through."

In her complaint, Thompson says she seeks $70,000 in reimbursement for her tuition and $2,000 to compensate for the stress of her three-month job search.

I’m sorry she hasn’t found a job after 3 whole months of job searching. That’s got to be so rough. Right. When I started years ago, it was normal to not have a job lined up right after graduation. I started about 3 months to the day after graduation. It was stressful for me and my parents. But, did I think about suing my college for me failing to get a job? No freakin’ way.

The article goes on to say that she had a 2.7 out of 4.0 for her GPA, and a solid attendance record. Wow, be still my heart. Clearly a superior GPA. Wait, not so much. (I’m not a big believer in the GPA system, but I can recognize that someone with a higher GPA may be a better candidate than one with a 2.7 GPA, and in the world economy and job market, every thing counts).

I’m skeptical that the school signed an agreement with Miss Thompson suggesting that they were obligated to find her an employer after her graduation.

She’s suing for the entire amount of her college degree – so here’s what I’d suggest the Bronx Supreme Court does:

Give her the money back and take away her diploma, as she clearly doesn’t need it.

by Aaron

Hello World – in 428+ ways!

Take a look at the 428+ ways you can write the classic C “Hello World”  at the Hello World Collection.

 

There’s C#

// Hello World in Microsoft C# ("C-Sharp").

using System;

class HelloWorld
{
    public static int Main(String[] args)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Hello, World!");
        return 0;
    }
}

Python

# Hello World in Python
print "Hello World"

Good old QuickBASIC:

REM Hello World in QuickBASIC
PRINT "Hello World!"
END

XSLT

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- Hello World in XSLT -->
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
    <xsl:template match="/">
        <xsl:text>Hello World!</xsl:text>
    </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

And even Commodore-64 assembler:

; Hello World for 6502 Assembler (C64)

ldy #0
beq in
loop:
jsr $ffd2
iny
in:
lda hello,y
bne loop
rts
hello: .tx "Hello World!"
       .by 13,10,0

Do you know any languages that aren’t listed (non-proprietary of course).