jcarmody

There's a board on the NI forums dedicated to that kind of thing - http://forums.ni.com/t5/Version-Conversion/bd-p/VersionConversion

As a CS prof once said: To become a good programmer you need to write code every day for two years. To become a great programmer you need to write code every day for ten years OR write code every day for two years and take an algorithms class.

I personally see no better education at fundamental level that A Level Computing from AQA board. [...]

I'd seen, and been intrigued by, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs at MIT OpenCourseWare before. Do any of you have any experience with this book/course? Scheme would be an interesting language to learn, and it would help me with Emacs/LISP.

Thanks for your response.

learning at least one traditional text-based language (I'm thinking C or Java here) is worth your time - using multiple languages makes it easier to think about algorithms in a generic sense rather than an implementation in one specific language.

I've got some experience with text programming - BASIC, VB, Fortran, C, Java and now Python. I'm thinking I'm going to go with Python because of its popularity and it works well with Google's App Engine. I'm going to stay away from C if I can. Python!

I've been following these forums for over five years now and can't articulate how much I get out of reading the threads. (I credit passing my CLD-R to reading them.) Over the years I've recognized the gulf that exists between my background and many of yours and have, more and more, wanted to narrow it. (I've often felt guilty about participating in a forum for Advanced Architects, because I'm neither.) I'd like to begin to change that, however, by studying the fundamentals of Computer Science.

Higher education is changing drastically in many exciting ways (don't get me started on how it' looks like a bubble getting ready to burst) and I've begun participating by taking some free, online classes. I'm better than half-way through CS253, Web Application Engineering, on Udacity.com and have signed up for Algorithms, Part 1 and Statistics 1 on Coursera.org starting in August. I've seen many other courses I'd like to take, and I'd like to ask for advice on how to begin.

Specifically, Coursera is going to offer a class on Automata, based on a 100-level course taught at Stanford University. While reading the course description I followed the link to

a free on-line textbook Foundations of Computer Science, written by Al Aho and me [Jeff Ullman], available at http://i.stanford.edu/~ullman/focs.html

I read the introduction and table of contents and think it's worth buying (don't have to, though, 'cuz it's online ), and the course worth taking.

My questions for you are: will the CS courses mentioned above help me move in my desired direction, and what other resources do you recommend for beginning a Computer Science education? I understand that what I'm going to do will take a lot of effort and time and I'm open to taking college classes (but I don't prefer that route), online courses, reading books (purchased or online)... Just about anything, really. Do you have a favorite book that will help? I'd appreciate any advice you can give.

Thank you.

I'm happy to call this type of paradox "undefined" and move on, just like when a math operation results in NaN. I should probably just read more.

A little more reading, this time on Russel's Paradox, makes me question what the implications are to the mathmeticians trying to resolve it. Is it purely academic?

There isn't a verbal equivalent of a semicolon. Spoken english doesn't have "punctuation." It only has speech patterns. When reading aloud written punctuation is communicated to listeners by modifying speech patterns in the form of pauses, tonal inflection, and volume changes rather than saying "semicolon," "exclamation point," or "question mark."

Just for some off-topic fun, I'd like to point out that this has been attempted, sort of.

Congratulations to the beautiful boys, twice the work but twice the fun.

I doubt that it's a linear relationship.

@Mikial - I have no idea why--maybe it's some combination of the colors and cropping--but when I saw your new profile pic the very first thing that popped into my head was, "he's sitting in a bathtub." That's a mental picture I could happily live without thankyouverymuch.

Can't be unseen, now...

They're beautiful! Congratulations

[...]

Any suggestions on who to do it?

Thank you in advance

I was so hoping that I could be the first person to respond to this.

Do any of you use the Runkeeper smartphone app? I've been using it for over a year now and have progressed from not being able to move my (formerly) fat body a half-mile without choking on my lungs to being able to run a 5K in under 30 minutes. I just signed up for one of their fitness classes that will have me running a sub-60-minute 10K in 16 weeks.

I'm looking to build my Street Team with a few like-minded folks. Anyone interested? My Runkeeper profile is here.

Jim

(cross-posted on NI's forum here)

ShaunR and I agree on very few things, but when we do, it is adamant agreement. Whatever your data communications problem you're having, if XML is your solution, you actually have two problems.

That sounds familiar.

Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems.

Found on the Internet...

I can't see your image because my company blocks most outside stuff. Maybe you could put your image directly in your post...

[...] (yes, I know nobody other than myself and Dave are reading this thread anymore, but at least I tried) [...]

Not so.

Maybe sometimes... but often? That would require a level of foresight and understanding of complex systems we just don't have.

I understand. I'm not suggesting that the unintended consequences are known, just that there will be some. I'm just suggesting that the unstated intended consequence (wealth transfer, power grab) is enough to get our rulers to not care.

[...] the one immutable and unrevokable law regarding any public policy is the law of unintended consequences. [...]

Don't forget about the unstated, but intended, consequences. I suspect that, often, the unintended consequences are anticipated but ignored because of these. Where's my tin-foil hat?

PS - You responded without being unkind; I usually come across as a jerk. I've self-diagnosed my condition as Economic/Political Tourett Syndrome.

[...] My Mindstorms kit sits around doing nothing because I dislike the environment so much and I haven't got around to setting up a better one. [...]

Amen.

During run-time? I don't believe so because that would (I've read) require a recompile. Darin.K posted a solution to the opposite question (How to export image from picture ring) here. That might help.

One small change and you're there.

A good one would have been that NI are releasing a "Home/Hobby" edition and service packs for LV 2010 and down.

That would be more mean than funny.

I don't think that property is exposed, so I thought I'd be clever...

... but the formatting doesn't follow when changing the control back to a constant. I should have tried it manually first; it doesn't work that way either.

I'm happy with my svn repository on xp-dev.com. I've been using them on and off for a few years.

All IP or just software IP? (I'm generally in favor of IP laws, though I do think software patents have gotten out of control.)

All IP.

If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.

If I own a piece of metal and cut it into a shape that [you believe] 'belongs' to you, I've legally 'stolen' something from you. I think this is absurd.

[...] Using a resource consumes it. [...]

This is parallel to my favorite argument against "Intellectual Property".

I downloaded it and got a zip file, not a vip. What do I do?

There is a student license that is quite affordable (starting to look into this as I'm taking a class). It has a watermark on all VIs, however may be a solution to having a 'free and clear' license at home.

Arduino+LabVIEW Bundle at Sparkfun.com mentioned in the Idea Exchange here. I just bought this for my son (we're going to have our own little middle-school version of Waterloo Labs).