Thoughts from the Loo

Higher Learning

2009-10-03T17:33:55Z

I have just finished a round of interviews for a programming position in my company. We were looking for a competent beginner in Java, with some RDBMS experience. The job vacancy add was posted on the site of EE/CS department of out good old local 340 years old university.

Despite the position being clearly described as "software development in Java", most of the candidates studied telecommunications with just two or three CS courses taken. Virtually everyone stuffed their resumes with claimed competence in relational databases, C, C++, C#, Java, networks, Linux, Windows, you name it. Yet, perhaps one out of four was able to explain the difference between inner and outer join (most seem never to have heard of the concept), clearly describe the concept of object oriented programming, remember that Java runs on a virtual machine and explain what that means, precisely describe at least one sort algorithm (and in all but one cases it was bubble sort). Half of those graduating in communications had difficulty explaining some basic concepts of inter-networking with TCP/IP. One recent graduate claimed that Unix was a single-user operating system, as opposed to Windows....

The most common excuse they offered was that what we asked was "theoretical knowledge", and they were "hands-on people". Next time I will spend more time on this and have a machine or two with Eclipse waiting, just to prove them wrong. It seems that nobody was expecting to be actually asked something about their claimed competencies. It also seems that such fundamental books like Wirth's Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs are not something the graduates were exposed to during their study. What they were doing all those years!?

Next week two more are coming, both having graduated CS. Call me cynical, but I am not holding my breath.

Conflict of Interest

2009-10-03T16:57:53Z

I would like to post about many things that happen in my country, but I am or might be doing business with the parties directly or indirectly involved.... Another reason to eagerly await retirement ;)

Lisbon treaty

2009-10-03T16:50:32Z

As you know, Lisbon, apart from being the capital of Portugal, a gorgeous city and theme of half of Madredeus songs, is the site of signing of Treaty of Lisbon, a half-baked replacement for European Constitution, which would, upon being ratified by all member states, make decisions in growing EU easier by replacing consensus by qualified majority decision-making in most occasions, and give temporary job to Tony Blair (who is expected to become the first elected President of the European Council for 30-month term).

Irish voted yesterday on a referendum about the Treaty for the second time. First try went 53% against to 46% for. Yesterday's result seem to be more to the tune of 2:1 in favour of the ratification of the Treaty. What changed? Well, perhaps our Irish friends noticed the role of EU, its institution and its money not only in bailing out its spectacularly failing financial system, but in creation of the "Celtic Tiger" in the first place. It's amazing how much good will several hundred billion euros will buy you... So, it would seem that another instance of sabotaging the Union was prevented by Mickey Mouse real estate "economy" across the Pond.

Germany has completed its fancy footwork among various Bundes-whatevers concerning the ratification. Now only two figureheads with delusion of grandeur, Check and Polish presidents, are left in the way of the Treaty coming into force. You are excused if you didn't know that the two stall the formal act of signing the ratification acts passed by their respective parliaments, with various pathetic excuses, pretending they are something akin to American presidend, with real power and responsibility... Sigh...

I intended to elaborate here on the comedy of absurd that is Slovenian blocking of Croatian accession negotiations with EU (and the sudden change of heart, without any additional concession by Croatia), but that is really too absurd, from Slovenian arguments to the spin Croatian politicians put to it.

BTW, check out the Aussies I am listening to. Highly recommended, especially live recordings from the Eavesdropping series of concerts.

Annoying ads

2009-10-03T15:46:12Z

This morning I stumbled upon this my moribund blog and noticed one of those annoying, epileptic seizure-provoking "You are visitor # 999.999.999" ads, the kind you see on torrent-sharing sites, in the right hand column. I don't recall checking an option saying "Scare off my visitors by idiotic ads" or similar. Does anybody know how it got there (it did disappear once I logged in, but I would prefer that those few lost souls who might wander in here be spared from it).

Metropola

2008-01-01T23:53:16Z

Aaargh! Ako još jednom čujem "Zagreb metropola" počet ću urlati ono dalmatinsko "Drš'te me da ga ne ubijem!"!!

Dakle:

Krenem ja tako na doček nove godine, na uobičajeno mjesto, kod prijatelja kod kojih se često okupimo, i koji vole dobro skuhati pa onda jesti i piti. Kako sam bio naumio ponešto popiti, krenem tramvajem, a natrag ću taksijem. Svakako...

Tramvaji su bili poluprazani i stizali brzo (Sigečica->Zapruđe). U Zapruđu mi pažnju privuče prvi radeći "semafor" s podacima o dolasku sljedećih tramvaja koji vidim. Hm, s jedne strane pruge je osvijetljan, s druge ne, ali se svejedno vidi pročitati, ako se dovoljno približite. Piše u koliko sati tramvaj dolazi, umjesto za koliko minuta. Više od minute nakon što je tramvaj s kojeg sam sišao otišao, još uvijek je na vrhu popisa. No, dobro, početni problemi, nadam se....
Ugodno društvo, dobro jelo i pilo, zanimljivo čavrljanje.... Vrijeme je za povratak kući (oko 3:30; automobilni gosti su već otišli; domaćin je prilično popio).
Silazim do stajališta taksija, praktički pred kućom. Nigdje nikoga.
Pokušavam dozvati taksi telefonom. Promijenili su broj; sad se naplaćuje (988 radi dobro). Zovem novi broj: "Ovaj se poziv naplaćuje 4 kune i...; svi su operateri zauzeti...". Pa opet. U dva puta po oko 5 minuta (provjerio sam na telefonu) od operatera ni mu ni bu.
Taksi s uključenim svjetlom na krovu skreće u naselje. Zaustavljam ga. "Kamo biste išli? Ah, nije mi zgodno, idem doma; pozvat ću nekog". Ponavljam, svjetlo "slobodan sam" je bilo uključeno.
Je li taksist zvao kolegu ili ne, ne znam, ali u sljedećih se par minuta nitko nije pojavio.
U daljini vidim svjetla tramvaja. Prelazim na tramvajsku stanicu i ulazim u noćni tramvaj broj 31. Odvest će me do na dvije stanice do kuće. Na onom "semaforu" pišu zadnji dnevni tramvaji, od prije 4 sata. Dakako, nikome ne treba znati kad dolazi rijetki noćni tramvaj ("posljednji, slučajni" rekao bi Bulat Okudžava). Ne, ovo nisu početni problemi, ovo je diletantizam ili kriminalna indolencija.
Kroz stražnji prozor tramvaja vidim još jedan kako nas slijedi. Dakako, opet 31! Noćni tramvaji voze svako pola sata ili rjeđe, ali onda dva idu u konvoju!
Cijelim putem do kuće (uključujući dvije stanice pješke) nisam vidio više od pet taksija, punih ii praznih.

Kad se ona riječka taksi tvrtka čije su vožnje po užem gradskom prodručju u promotivnom razdoblju koštale 5 kuna (a ni sad nisu više od 10) drznula pokušati osnovati zagrebačku podružnicu, gradonačelnik im je s gnušanjem odbio dati koncesiju. "To bi samo izazivalo zbrku!", veli on. Da zamislite tu zbrku: kud god se okrenete, slobodni taksiji, i to jeftini! Nepodnošljivo.

Zagrebački taksisti, izgleda, očekuju da s dvije-tri vožnje dnevno, od devet do pet s pauzom za juhicu kod kuće, zarade za život. Ne pada im na pamet raditi, zamislite, kad su potrebni. Nema trenutka kad vam taksi treba više nego u novogodišnjoj noći. Ali, njima je predobro da bi se ponizili radeći u vrijeme kad im je to nezgodno. I ne daj bože da ih gradska uprava tretira kao javnu službu, koja, ako ništa drugo, u zamjenu za zaštitu monopola ima i neke obaveze, npr. da obavlja svoj posao.

Osvrnite se oko sebe u Beču, Parizu ili, još gore, na Manhattanu (ili Ateni, Beogradu, Bukureštu), i prebrojite omjer taksija i "običnih" automobila. Naći ćete da su kod nas taksiji bar deset puta rjeđi. Ništa zato, nedostupnost nadoknađuju cijenom (i bunom na samu ideju da bi trebali koristiti sigurne, udobne, klimatizirane automobile).

Plaćam najveći prirez u zemlji. Plaćem preskupa neefikasna gradska poduzeća. Ne bih li za to mogao očekivati da gradska uprava, ako već ne čini ništa konstruktivno, bar ne sabotira pokušaj boljih i jeftinijih pružatelja usluga da jedan aspekt života u Zagrebu digne s razine selendre (ako već i ne stigne daleko na putu za metropolu)?

Happy Everything (another year passes....)

2008-01-01T23:10:59Z

It wouldn't do to scream at our city departments (that's what the next post, in Croatian, will be about) after a year of absence without at least extending best wishes to my audience of about one. So, merry whatever and happy new and all subsequent years!

Here I am again!

2006-11-01T21:46:31Z

Hello, my faithful readership (which counts, I know, about zero)! I don't have neither any more spare time than usual nor illusions that anybody reads this (or, in the strange event that somebody does, that the fact would make any difference to them or anything). But, my 'to blog' bookmark folder was already emptied several times, and I am currently looking for excuses not to work, so here is a handful of supposedly interesting links:

Hey, you are supposed to watch them!

The New York Review of Books has this piece on Human Rights Watch report on this latest Mid-East, err, episode, and on resulting rabid attack on the report, the organization and its executive director, Kenneth Roth. Apparently, the cream of Jewish intelligentsia in USA still screams 'Nazis!' at any attempt to criticize anything done by the State of Israel. 'My country, right or wrong' is not the best way to improve the object of one's patriotism.

Free trade and free elections

Sequoia Voting Systems Inc., a manufacturer of electronic voting machines, is under fire, not because its machines are less secure than those from, say, Diebold, but because its parent company is owned by, gasp, Venezuelans. So, I suppose, now the machines will send every vote to Hugo Chavez for approval and tampering, instead of.. gah! You know.
The link.

BTW, notorious Bruce Schneier's blog contains lots of insightful articles on electronic voting, identity theft, airline security and other ways the boys in power pull the wool over our eyes (is that the phrase?) Again BTW, the guy recently sold his Counterpane to British Telecom, no less!

Hot!

Bespectacled guys from the World Bank are not exactly typical examples of tree-hugging environmentalists. And we all know that implementing Kyoto protocol would mean more or less the end of free world economy, right? Well, according to BBC, Sir Nicholas Stern, a distinguished development economist and former chief economist at the World Bank, is not a man given to hyperbole, but his study shows that not curbing greenhouse emissions will cost us 5% to 20% of our global wealth in the long(ish) run.

How come I returned?

2006-05-14T16:54:10Z

I forgot to tell you what prodded me to return to LJ after a year or so. Well, it was a message from this gentleman. He is a freelance journalist who, it seems, writes mostly about football (soccer to you USianas), at least now that World Championship (or something) is near. However, I run into a rather unique article of his (Google news is prone to lead to such discoveries), written on the occasion of death of Slobodan Milošević, that showed much better insight into "the troubles" we had here in what is now called Western Balkans than what one could read in European or American papers (though they also changed their story a bit lately, together with most of "world community" politicians - that's EU candidate status for you). I left a comment on the story and wrote an e-mail to that effect to the author (I like it when on-line papers have "contact the author" link). He replied after taking the trouble to research a bit who is that obscure guy and commented favorably on my ancient and feeble blogging attempts, thus reminding me they existed.

Anyway, here I am, babbling again.

Back to work now, I am afraid...

Accession

2005-09-29T07:22:21Z

Not to Heaven, but just EU, that is.

I have no much illusions about my country, the extent of rule of law in it, quality of government on various levels etc, but I am quite sick of the game with the start of EU accession talks that some former powers play. It is difficult not to agree with local hard-core nationalists who claim that we are being punished for spoiling the plan for having just one, supposedly easily controlled dictator in "Western Balkans". Anyway, it was nice to see that we seem to have some friends.

It must be fun to work at Novell

2005-09-29T07:02:37Z

Apparently, a server set up by a Novell employee, on Novell corporate network, solely for gaming purposes and without much thought spent on security was hacked into and used for some mild net-wide mischief. It seems there were more such servers. Wow, those bosses at Novell look like a very permissive bunch...

Microsoft defending fair use!?

2005-09-29T06:55:58Z

Microsoft and Intel sided with Toshiba (and against Sony) in HD-DVD vs. Blue-Ray format wars. The former seems to be cheaper and easier to make players compatible with legacy formats. So far nothing unusual. But what I found amusing is this explanation by a Microsoft spokesman: "Microsoft decided to jump on the HD-DVD disc format because it also enables consumers to legally make a copy of the disc onto their hard drive — be it a personal computer or a consumer electronic device with a hard drive" (source).

Since when does Microsoft defend consumers' right to use audio or video content they bought how, when and where they want? Something is changing...

Freedom

2005-09-29T06:43:57Z

New York governor George Pataki decided that International Freedom Center, a museum "which would feature historical exhibits expressing the worldwide struggle for freedom", would not be built next to memorial to 9/11 WTC victims. Some victims' families, groups of firefighters and police officers and public officials said the center "would detract from the Sept. 11 themes and provide a possible forum for anti-U.S. messages".

So, they seem to agree that USA usually tended to be on the wrong side of struggle for freedom?

Sovereignty, open data and "intellectual property" (a.k.a. Microsoft)

2005-09-25T14:27:51Z

People have all kinds of opinions on ideological arguments for open source (a la Richard Stallman's manifesto), or technical and economical ones (like Eric Raymond's "Cathedral and Bazaar"). However, there is a kind of "openness" in IT that is, in my opinion, much more important than that of code: it is openness of public data. Data that, say, a state collects in the course of its normal functioning (not only data on citizens, but everything from Constitution down to minutes of the most obscure local council meeting) belongs to the constituency, to citizens, and cannot be allowed to depend on some corporation's "intellectual property", such as closed file formats.

Here is an interesting article on struggle that Commonwealth of Massachusetts is mounting against Microsoft, in efforts to assure openness, vendor-independence and durability of electronic documents it is maintaining.

Needless to say, our (Croatian) government prefers to sign multi-year, no question asked, no offsets, no anything exclusive deals with Microsoft (ah, yes, similar with SAP). Even license "agreements" are printed in Turkey!

Cure for slashdot effect

2005-09-25T14:01:07Z

I have never been slashdotted, but some sites I frequent have, with (temporary) crippling effects. These guys think they have a solution (at least for sites with static content): "CoralCDN, a decentralized, self-organizing, peer-to-peer web-content distribution network". The idea is that volunteers run a piece of software that, essentially, mirrors popular content. When refering to a site in danger of bing overwhelmed by trafic, simply add .nyud.net:8090 to the URL. Coral will, as far as I understand, act as proxy for first access, and later the content will (or will not) be transparently mirrored at one or more of its nodes. Interesting.

Sons of MoodLogic

2005-09-25T13:45:12Z

Two new (for me) products/services that prepare for you playlists of tunes matching certain criteria or simply being in some way similar to something you show them.

Pandora, an outgrowth of the "Music Genome Project".

Predixis MusicMagic Mixer (free version comes as a bundled plug-in with Winamp 5.1).

I am not quite sure what to think of them. The later takes ages to "post-process" my library in Winamp, whatever that might mean, consuming inordinate amounts of memory. Perhaps my 18.5k tunes is a bit on a large side...
(Update: Predixis customer support is superb. They actually listened to my feedback, promptly answered my questions via e-mail although they have decent support forums on their site etc. From that aspect at least, highly recommended. BTW, it seems it's normal that song analysis (as opposed to mere fingerprinting) takes as long as the tune's running time, if not longer...)

BTW, this huge "current mood" drop-down calls for some random choices...

Hm, perhaps I will settle here for a while....

2005-09-25T12:07:34Z

The title says it all. I will (at least temporarily) relocate my blogging activity, such as it exists, here. Not that I suppose anyone will notice... :)

Edit: Hm, I no sure anymore. Getting things look and work as expected here is as frustrating (if not more) than on Google's Blogspot from where I intended to migrate... Blurb text doesn't alow HTML, break at the end of the post is ignored (aha, empty paragraph works!), I don't see how to have more than five links (which don't work quite as advertised), where is 'Mem' link, some customizations don't 'hold' from Semagic client, navigation leaves a lot to be desired... Sigh! Anyway, I will keep trying for a while.

bonzi_zg @ 2005-09-24T20:38:00

2005-09-24T18:38:44Z

A post in Anna's journal (see Friends) prompted me to re-take this fun litlle test. It looks as if I have mellowed somewhat over time - I seem to remember my result being a bit more extreme a few years ago...

You are a
Social Liberal
(71% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(16% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Socialist

Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid

More testing

2005-09-17T08:28:47Z

Let's see Latin2 handling:

Đače je očerupalo Šćurekovu kokoš, a žena ga je šutnula đonom. Drugim riječima: Čč Ćć Đđ Šš Žž...

Testing, testing....

2005-09-17T01:58:00Z

....the Semagic client. Neat, so far.

Proceed, ladies and gentlemen, nothing to see here!

bonzi_zg @ 2005-09-17T03:41:00

2005-09-17T01:42:17Z

Hello, World!

I am not sure whether I will post here (my old pathetic attempt at blogging is at http://bnz.blogspot.com). For now I will just explore the platforma and read my friends' journals.

Cheers!