Re: An average programmer's contribution to Hurd

[arnuld uttre]

> On Sun, Sep 20, 2009 at 10:51 PM, Alan Grimes
>  <address@hidden> wrote:

> I suck because I had such trouble in English 110 in college, and could
> barely manage a minimal course load that I might just barely get my
> BS/CS in time for my 32nd birthday(future tense). I suck because I
> didn't realize how vital it was to select a school that can, among many
> other things, process an application for graduation in less than six
> months.

Hey Alan, greetings, I once failed my English class  :)

Good News:  They way schools (Indian Schools at least) teach English,
I did not see any one learning English in 16 years of my education.


> I suck because my social skills are so poor that

I am poor on them too. My colleagues laugh on me all the time.

Good News:  They laugh on the characters shown in movie Hackers, they
call them Psychos and told me I am "mad" like them.




> I, somehow, inspired
> the moderator of #osdev on efnet, I think, to ban me for ten years.

Can any operator band someone for 10 years. I highly doubt it. Ban
exists for a few hours to a few days.


> He
> was so spiteful towards me that he decided to kill my OS project by
> keeping me away from other OS developers where I might have gotten (and
> even shared!) useful information. Since I suck, he succeeded. =(

you can use other mailing lists and especially Usenet newsgroups.


> I suck again because of my social skills because, at the time at least,
> the vast majority of the knowledge and skills you needed to write an OS
> were not written down anywhere. Instead it was part of an oral tradition
> that must be passed along in good (but not bad) colleges, and
> institutions where you can work only after you get a degree.

I crammed 2 C programs in my college, coz I did not know how to
programs. I never even understood any programming.


Good News:  I was told VC++ was a better language then C++.



> I suck because I can't use the unix utility "find" at all without a
> textbook open in front of me. I suck because I can't use vi even with a
> textbook open in front of me (not that I'd want to).

I myself don't know what find does. I don't even know what "Sed" is.

Good News: When I will need then, I will read them (man pages, Googling etc)


> ... SNIP...

All of the traits you mentioned also belong to but here I am doing C
Programming, reading about Hurd and Insertion Sort algorithm and I can
understand them. So I think you will do good too.

Ia m not excellent at Maths, I am not child prodigy. Unlike other
powerful and talented programmers , I started to program at age 23 ,
when I got my first computer but I am earning enough from my job as a
"C Programmer on Unix platform"  to pay my expanses. Hurd is one of my
loves (with Common Lisp). If you can love something enough, you beat
all the odds. Programming is about how much you love and enjoy
reading/writing code, how much you like creative work and know where
to find when you stuck or get frustrated after hours of mind-grueling
work . As long as you do that, you will do fine.






-- 
http://uttre.wordpress.com/2008/05/14/the-lost-love-of-mine/