POS system needs sound effects and a looping theme song, NES style.

I totally get what you're saying, but this isn't a standard four-year program. I think there's some sort of deal that they take grads (who are ~half prepared) and grind them down to see who can survive/learn enough to be useful.

At least, that's my understanding of the situation.

I guess my worry is having a background that'll get me in the door but also doing something not too terrible on a day-to-day basis. This semester is already half over and we've only studied memory and how to play around with pointers in various ways in memory. That's about it.

Oh, and swapping ascii to int values.

Middleware for C++ too. In my view starting out with C++ is not a good idea for you. I mean gaming_mouse has a point, it is complicated, involved, extensive, not that hard to have code crashes and burns that are extremely difficult to debug IE not recommened for your initial foray into software development.

There are a lot of reasons to prefer C++ over C but there are a lot of problem domains where C is necessary. Obviously though there are a lot of problem domains that don't require either C or C++ where growing companies need software developers. I don't know much about JavaScript (I'm looking at it in my "spare time'), I've worked a fair amount with Python now. Those two languages would seem like a better fit for what you want to accomplish. Even Java or C# would be better choices.

I remember some of your posts about why you are undertaking C++ and quite frankly those seemed to be ego driven more than anything else. Btw somebody contacted me about a job in Hawaii programming Python unsolicited a couple of weeks ago. That assignment couldn't have been too bad. So there are opportunities galore right now. Don't get stuck in a "rabbit hole" tryhing to learn something that you really arent' that interested in. Be fluid, adapt, be flexible, stay interested and enjoy it. It is actually fun when you find your niche.

This is when you need to pull some House of Cards maneuver. Tell him that the sprites idea is really great and that you will help him create all the visual layout. You don't deliver a thing.

While in behind the scenes, you quietly code the whole thing. Come next meeting with the professor, you sit quietly and watch the train wreck that ensues. After which you casually interject saying "Me and <non-sprite dude> worked on this code and wanted your thoughts on it". <non-sprite dude> didn't actually help you but you need to make it seem like you are a team player. <non sprite dude> will go along since he wants the credit after he sees that professor likes your project.

Moving forward the professor and everyone will think you are the smartest person in the group doing all the work and everyone will ignore sprite dude.

In all seriousness, I would just try and get your own prototype up on your own. Tell the group that even though the sprites idea was cute, this is what we are going with, and if sprite guy refuses, tell him that's fine, he can code the sprites on his own but he won't be turning in that pile of garbage with the team's name on it.

Easy game.

jmakin;

What does everyone else in your group think of this situation? If they are universally against this, then you have a pretty easy uprising.

I hate telling people to be "that guy," but have you brought up this situation with the professor?

And also, in the real world, people simply refuse to do things and that's how power struggles are ultimately won or lost. There's much to be said about making the other person look the fool, but it takes a certain amount of cleverness to not toss him or her under the bus while doing it.

In the "real world" it is CYA and act completely in your self interest when confronted with a situation with someone who is clueless but doesn't realize it.

To make it more real world, the prof should give the group leader a binary A or F grade depending on quantity and quality of work. Everyone else shares in the real grade.

After one day of arguing, your architect would step down or relent to the democratic uprising. If he really kept it up for a week, it is obvious you are dealing with a psychopath.

Good ole office politics. On the contrary, sometimes the person isn't as clueless, but perhaps just stubborn and doesn't want to be wrong. In this case you will often have to give them an out, as a way to save face without getting thrown under the bus.

The truth shall set you free.

[php]
$myvar = 'Hello World!';
for ($i = 0; $i < 10; $i++)
{
echo $myvar . "\n";
}
[/php]

Hehe, neat

This requires way too much finesse and is too nuanced for me tbh. I agree that people get stubborn, have pet ideas, pet projects, etc. However, when someone is holding a view that appears to be completely ridiculous then the motivation doesn't concern me too much. Honestly, I very rarely encounter situations like these where someone is acting completely clueless.

I'm a little concerned about jmakin's account here actually. We are only getting one side. In the "real world" disagreeing with a decision the boss makes that results in at least one of the workers grumbling about it happens fairly often. My experience is people exaggerate a lot about how bad the manager/decision is when they don't like it. I really think that is often very counter productive. I pretty much just defer to the decision made and try to carry out my assignment(s) to the best of my ability basically trying to make the decision work. I provide my input before the decision but after the decision is made I just buy in assuming management has more knowledge and investment in the direction the projects are headed.

You're also not in school working on a group project where the "manager" is a randomly selected person with roughly the same skills/information as you have.

I just love these kinds of posts, so hilarious to me. Read the comments.

http://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerques...i_doing_wrong/

Lol what the heck are you suggesting? He wants to use sprites to do a thing that's very easily done with built in tools using a variety of different platforms. He wants to use sprites to make stuff like blinking cursors and hard code his own custom made buttons to use for our POS system. I posted the class pseudocode he wanted me to implement.

What the hell do you think I'm exaggerating then? The guy IS clueless. This is not the manager of a professional project, this is some kid with a massive ego that has hijacked a group project of a 200 level class that has no prerequisites. lol.

Even his resume gives off a weird vibe.

This is actually the hardest part of dealing with other managers. Of course, they are more clued into their job that you are... it is very difficult to figure out decent compromises, and there is one I deal with in particular that won't budge for anything, but I do understand where he is coming from.

Saying "no" has to be balanced with admitting you can be wrong sometimes, or at least be willing to settle for ideas that aren't totally yours. Some people are excessively territorial and they refuse to budge for this reason alone.

It also doesn't help that I work in a toxic company, which actively encourages territorial fights, discourages dialog or solutions to problems, and openly ignores issues that are obvious and easy to fix.

Jmakin is dealing with a territorial dog and his situation, if it isn't toxic already, is going to explode when people who have been silent have an emotional moment.

Cookbrite is currently a Stealth Mode Startup, and so I must honor my agreements of confidentiality.


As someone who struggled to find work all my life, I have no room to talk bad about this guy. Perhaps he is a bit misguided, but he is reaching out for help, which is a good thing.

how does one's resume even get to 8 pages? does one not take a minute to look around on the interwebs for general resume advice? shouldn't that be stop number one for someone who is not getting calls back from turning in his resume?

"The only info they have about me is a short novella. They aren't calling me back. The problem might be with...?"

The only possible thing to examine there is his resume. "Resume tips" in google must surely turn up some results that say, "Don't make your resume longer than your tax return forms."

Too many exes. All of the moves weren't to better positions, so it begs the question. (And, I guess, answers it for some employers)

Seems like he might be a freak and a weird dude.

In respect to the general population (bad), or relative to the profession (very bad!)?

For those who don't get the reference http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/54...rd-dude-52809/

He's making an "internet reference". I'm guessing you haven't ever browsed the poker section of 2+2?

Meh, I've seen plenty of the poker sections (while being a terribad player), haven't seen that thread before. Thanks for the link.

Not sure if I find this amusing or sad. This isn't the only company that does this, but they are the most aggressive or spammy, depending on your interpretation.