Rate Yourself From 1-10

This… is genius.

In technical programming interviews a common (terrible) question that interviewers may ask is, “rate yourself from 1-10 on x”, where x=one or more programming languages.  I’ve been asked that myself, but I’ve never seen what 1-10 would actually correspond to until now.  It’s a very fuzzy measure and most everybody (from junior to senior) seems to rate themselves about a 7.

Without further ado:

  • 10 – Wrote the book on it (there must be a book)
  • 9 – Could have written the book, but didn’t.
  • 8 – Deep understanding of corner cases and esoteric features.
  • 7 – Understanding and (appropriate) usage of most lesser known features.
  • 6 – Can develop large programs and deploy new systems from scratch.
  • 5 – Can develop/deploy larger programs/systems using all basic (w/o book) and more esoteric features (some w/ book, some without)
  • 4 – Can develop/deploy medium programs/systems using all basic (w/o book) and a few esoteric features (w/ book). Understands enough about internals to do nontrivial troubleshooting.
  • 3 – Can utilize basic features without much help, manage a small installation competently.
  • 2 – can write hello world without looking at a book, kind of figure out how a system works, if necessary.
  • 1 – Can read programs, make small changes to existing programs, or make adjustments to already installed systems, w/book handy.
  • 0 – No experience.

Credit goes to /u/icydocking for providing the list on reddit.

GCC Tuning

File this under “things that should be obvious but I just found out about”.  GCC will tell give you optimal flags for your processor.  To wit:

echo "" | gcc -march=native -v -E - 2>&1 | grep cc1

Stick the results into your make file or command-line call to GCC and your executable should be as optimized for your processor as GCC can make it.

You could, of course, always use --march=native  and forget all that but that doesn’t work so well if you’re cross-compiling.

Fortune

I take it you already know of tough and bough and cough and dough? Others may stumble, but not you, on hiccough, thorough, laugh and through. Well done! And now you wish, perhaps, to learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of heard, a dreadful word, that looks like beard and sounds like bird. And dead — it’s said like bed not bead — and for goodness’ sake don’t call it deed! Watch out for meat and great and threat (They rhyme with suite and straight and debt)

A moth is not the moth in mother, nor both in bother, broth in brother. And here is not a match for there, nor dear and fear for bear and pear. And then there’s dose and rose and lose — just look them up — and goose and choose, and cork and work and card and ward, and font and front and word and sword, and do and go and thwart and cart — come, come I’ve hardly made a start. A dreadful language? Man alive. I’d mastered it when I was five.

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They remembered the fires. The pounding of the hammer. The freezing cold of the water, and then the finishing touches. The man filing the rough edges, and checking their locks.

They remembered the arms of the man. They’d held his arms high over his head, while the whip came down again and again. They remembered being left where everyone could see. They hadn’t been cleaned.

They remembered the arms of the woman. She tried to stop the man from taking the boy away. They’d held her, and she stayed. He left. She cursed them, and the man. He took them off when the bleeding stopped.

They remembered the day they wound up in the tree. The people sang all around. The big white house sat quiet, the family pretending not to hide inside. The man took them from their hook, and flung them, end over end, up into the tree. And they stayed there. It was nice to be out of sight.

The rain came, and washed them clean. The snow came with the cold, like the waters before. The summer heat came and went, and the cold came again. The tree began to swallow them. It felt good to be held, not to hold. Winds came, and more rain. More cold, and more heat.

Things changed around them. The white house was empty. There was no more screaming or singing or crying. It was quiet. They liked that.

Then the singing started again, but different. People came, but no one noticed them so high up in the tree, almost one with it. Just a little longer.

The people dragged the white house away. The tree grew. Now only one of them remained. The other was inside, held like they held so many. They would be together again soon. The tree would keep them forever out of sight.

The lady came one more time. She looked at the tree, and was glad. The chains that held were gone, surrounded by green new life. And it was good.

Pork Chops and Rice

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups of rice
  • 3 cups of water
  • half a spoonful of minced/chopped garlic
  • half a spoonful of chicken bullion

Place all above ingredients in a rice cooker, and kick it off. It should be done in about 25 minutes

  • 1/2 inch thick Pork chops
  • 1 Tbsp butter for each chop
  • Italian breadcrumbs (about a cup)
  • Parmesan cheese (enough to add some yellow to the bread crumbs)

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Heat a large, oven safe skillet on the stove over about low-medium heat.
  3. On a plate, mix the Parmesan and the bread crumbs.
  4. On another, microwave-safe, plate melt the butter
  5. Dip the pork chops in the butter on both sides, and then dredge through the breadcrumbs. Place them on the nice, hot skillet.
  6. Once they are all on the skillet, give them a couple of minutes, and then flip them all over. Cook them for another 3 or 4 minutes.
  7. Place the whole skillet in the oven for 15 minutes (for 1″ chops, 25 minutes).

Serve with the rice, applesauce, and some green veggies. Makes as many chops as you need.

Pasta Twists with Broccoli Sauce

From http://www.momswhothink.com/quick-and-easy-dinner-recipes/pasta-twists-with-broccoli-sauce.html

Ingredients

  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1 medium onion
  • 2 medium stalks broccoli
  • 1 large red bell pepper
  • ¾ pound pasta twists (about 4½ cups)
  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil
  • ¾ teaspoon oregano
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • black pepper to taste
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

  1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
  2. Finely chop the garlic and onion.
  3. Separate the broccoli tops from the stems, cut the stems and tops into bite-size pieces. Coarsely chop the red bell pepper.
  4. Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook until al dente, 10 to 12 minutes, or according to package directions.
  5. While pasta is cooking, in a large skillet, warm of 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking.
  6. Add the garlic onion mixture and stir-fry until browned, about 5 minutes.
  7. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, the broccoli tops and stems, the bell pepper, oregano, salt, and black pepper.
  8. Stir fry until vegetables are crisp-tender, about 5 minutes.
  9. Add the heavy cream and Parmesan and bring the mixture to a gentle boil over medium heat.
  10. Cook, stirring, until the mixture thickens slightly, 2 to 3 minutes.
  11. Drain the pasta and toss with the vegetables and sauce. Serve with warm Italian bread.