Sunday, October 28, 2007

You Know You're an Engineer When...

by Niniane Wang, Tom Wang

1. When you agree with someone, instead of saying "Yeah" or "Okay", you say "Obviously" or "Clearly."

2. You think Track 1 of the CD is the second song on the album.

3. There are things you wouldn't do for $1000, that you would do to win a free T-shirt.

4. You've never dated anyone who doesn't use vi.

5. You've never dated anyone.

6. You think the author line of this article should be written as "{Niniane, Tom} Wang".

7. "Big O" has a totally different meaning to you.

29 comments:

  1. ...or you think track 2 of the cd is the first song on the album, because track 1 is the data track. (obviously.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I use emacs. Oh, well. You don't know what you're missing out on. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. what does big o mean to an engineer?

    ReplyDelete
  4. In point 6, the space after the comma breaks the bash expression:

    % touch Niniane
    % touch Tom
    % ls {Niniane,Tom}
    Niniane Tom
    % ls {Niniane, Tom}
    ls: Tom}: No such file or directory
    ls: {Niniane,: No such file or directory

    In point 4, why would an engineer refuse to date someone who doesn't use the roman numeral for 6? That's almost as dumb as not preferring to use the Vi editor.

    Otherwise LGTM.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thr Big "O"

    6. big o

    the city of Omaha, Nebraska located in the midwest of the United States. Known for it's corn-fed cattle, rich man Warren Buffett, and popular independent record label, Saddle Creek. Often signified by the capital letter O and an exclamation mark- O!

    ReplyDelete
  6. 8. To check out a package also has a different meaning.

    9. You don't giggle when you tell someone to touch a file, to check out the man pages, or install something in a rack. Or maybe you do.

    10. You've asked for cables with male and female parts.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The guys asking about number 7:

    I'm a little rusty, but I believe it has to do with how long it takes an algorithm to process a data set.

    You write out some machine instructions and Big O is a vague description for how long it'll take for the instructions to go through a given set of information.



    "5. You've never dated anyone."

    See thats just wrong. Why would you put salt into someones wounds.

    ReplyDelete
  8. @metal

    Clearly it is because Niniane hates engineers.

    ReplyDelete
  9. lol

    "self-hating bigot"?

    ReplyDelete
  10. It's 2007; even the lowest-spec consumer PC you can possibly find has more than enough memory for several users all running emacs.

    Geez.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I mean seriously. "eight megs and constantly swapping" is completely ludicrous now. I lose track of more memory than that before breakfast!

    ReplyDelete
  12. There's also the fact that emacs is bloated, confusing, unergonomic, often slow to start up, and not as ubiquitous as vi.

    ReplyDelete
  13. "emacs" = "escape+meta+alt+control+shift"

    ReplyDelete
  14. 8. You are oblivious to social etiquette by posting a top 10 list with only 7 items

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hmmm...then how do you know when you are an "engineering manager"

    ReplyDelete
  16. btw, I hope this helps:
    The Big O

    Sort of an improved "Batman:TAS", with a more engaging background narrative and a robot Robin. Overall, an improved, more accessible and useful implementation of the playboy crime crusader character. Like emacs to Vi, if you will.

    ReplyDelete
  17. what happened to the MSFT at 35 post?

    ReplyDelete
  18. It's comforting to know that people at Google use vi (and/or emacs). I would really like it if you could write about tricks you use to get "un-stuck" on a thorny bug or programming challenge. Keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Niniane, please finger me.

    ReplyDelete
  20. 8. You are oblivious to social etiquette by posting a top 10 list with only 7 items

    Its octal, silly.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Its octal, silly.

    0) Then Phillip would have said a Top 010 List.

    1) There's still only 7 items.

    10) People expect a decimal top 10 list, not top 8; this ain't Discworld.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Come on ..

    We all know it is the top

    0111 list..

    Those who do not know this can Nibble me.

    But a good engineer would call it the

    0000 0111 list....

    This would leave more flexibility
    for creeping requirements
    and future enhancements.

    Engineers who do not do this can BYTE me.

    Go optimize yourself.

    Optimize = Debug in a nice way

    ReplyDelete
  23. I think I have a little crush on arc...

    ReplyDelete
  24. I think the "Big O" to a engineer means Big O Tires??????

    As far as the dating thing...you are stretching it with the claim never dated. Never dated the same person more than once is way more realistic.

    When a person is now a engineering manager is when they stop being a engineer and become a babysitter. When they realize that suspenses outweigh full creativity (in other words, stifle creativity/quality in the name of the bottomline, arguably the purist engineer's worst nightmare)

    ReplyDelete
  25. No, Big O doesnt refer to big O tires. *rolls eyes.
    Anyone with half a brain would google that. =P

    ReplyDelete
  26. Two great resources about run-time ("big O"):
    Introduction to Algorithms
    Data Structures and Algorithms

    The first few chapters of each book deal with runtime.

    ReplyDelete
  27. I think I have a little crush on arc...

    "No one likes Milhouse!"

    ReplyDelete
  28. "2. You think Track 1 of the CD is the second song on the album."

    That one made me laugh

    ReplyDelete

Your comment will need approval before it is shown: