Styles' BasedOn Default Style

Just a small how-to/tip... and note to self.

Often you want to modify a control's property while keeping the others the same (maintain the other properties' values).

<Style TargetType="Label" BasedOn="{StaticResource {x:Type Label}}">

This modifies the Label type within the context, but retains it's previous style (in my case a ResourceDictionary).

Deciding to Take Responsibility

After watching Joelle's TED talk and reading her book, it just hit me that most of my life, I wasn’t really taking responsibility. I was responsible in certain areas but in terms of health and actually wanting to live… not really. I trusted things (and people) were going to turn out how they did and I could only go with the flow.

Basically Come What May thinking. My disability and my environment kinda of reinforced that.

Doctors: nothing you do will make a difference… eat whatever you want and hope for a cure

Parents: make the best out of your current situation, you can't really hope for more.

Work: you did a great job… keep working hard (for the little that we give you).

And of course myself: I am disabled, things are hard, what exactly can I hope for? Why set high goals when it seems they will be unreachable, just try to make the best I can out perhaps just enjoy the life you have left…

Well the last part after the or and that thinking in general might be the cause of the downturn in health… I really like chocolate, meat, junk food…. Don't like exercising but hey… I didn't matter… there what the doctor said and you know do I really care when I do.. But then again that belief had to come from somewhere...

So seemed dying ASAP isn't such a bad idea because there's nothing in this world that I like… other than maybe some food and TV. Hence why I binge on both...

But after watching her and Martin Pistorius’ talks, something inside went off… can I actually do better than my current situation and were decisions I made correct or just heavily influenced by my environment?

Did I place my trust in the wrong people… maybe I should've just done what I did back in school…

If I want something done right, got to do it myself. Got to take responsibility… for my own life… all of it…

But now the question remains… is it too late? But I guess YOLO right?

Alright time to give it a shot!

Writing Blog Posts With Word

So just a random tip. If your blog supports input via HTML and you prefer writing posts/drafts in a nicer editor (Microsoft Word, any that supports saving as a HTML file), YOU CAN!

Write the post in Word with all the standard formatting.

DO USE

• standard headers and paragraphs
• standard formats: bold, underline, italics
• links are OK

DO NOT USE/AVOID

• bullets
• indenting/tab/multiple spaces
• images (has to be inserted in the blog)

In Word Save As Web Page, Filtered 

This is very important otherwise Word uses it's own HTML style. May not apply to older versions but if you have this option, use it.

Open the document in a good text editor (recommend Notepad++). Skip the <style> section.

Highlight all the text in your document, should be easy to spot, and copy it

Create a new post and select the HTML section and then paste it all in.

Save the Post and then switch to the regular editor and clean it up. The issues should be minor and very quick to clean.

Clearing My Quora Reading List

Hi! Yes it’s been awhile since my last post but just a lot of things going on lately and also learning algorithms takes A LOT of time and energy. But at least this time I am motivated: I realized this is the final frontier in what I should learn... and I may need it to really get a job that doesn’t feel like work and pays appropriately…

Also... it seems understanding, implementing and applying this stuff to solve real problems... is kind of interesting....

I’m also on vacation (at home) this week so clearing up a lot of things lower priority things on the To Do List, in particular my Quora Reading List. 

Below, I've categorized each into it's own section.

Google

I’m not too serious about working here yet but I was reminded of all the algo stuff by one of their recruiters, so I guess for me it would be a dream goal. Icing on the cake… but honestly… free food is great but I use a lot of their apps … and I’ve found a lot of issues and annoyances…

But... at work I have been complaining for months about a bug in an internal API my team uses. I know the manager directly so finally he said “here’s the source code; you figure it out”. I did… after looking through a few code files in less than 30 minutes… So lately I've also been thinking that I need a change...

https://www.quora.com/What-should-I-expect-in-a-Software-Engineer-interview-at-Google-and-how-should-I-prepare Good tips and I found out who Gayle Laakmann McDowell is.. But yea I have a long way to go… I don’t have any CS background… :(

https://www.quora.com/I-just-had-a-first-interview-at-Google-I-coded-the-right-solution-on-the-board-but-the-interviewer-helped-me-several-times-along-the-way-How-likely-am-I-to-pass

Interviewers at Google are more interested in your thought process and ability to solve problems than your ability to answer a single question

https://www.quora.com/Does-ones-extreme-knowledge-of-Android-programming-alone-able-to-fetch-that-person-a-job-at-Google

No. Google, like most companies of that caliber, doesn't care much about which programming languages/technologies you know.

... 

To be perfectly honest, people who define their programming skills by their languages/technologies tend to struggle more.

https://www.quora.com/How-is-the-work-life-balance-for-staff-software-engineers-or-above-at-Google

I have seen others whose projects were designed so well and the people on it were so knowledgeable that he could take 3-week vacations without a hiccup. Jokes about job security aside, Google is smart enough to value the latter more because it is a cornerstone of good leadership. Moreover, it has the added bonus that people will want to work on your project because they learn a lot and have a chance of growing

Hm…. Since I can take vacations without my code blowing up in Production am I a good developer who automated and documented a lot of things… or just working on a tiny project?

https://www.quora.com/Google/How-much-math-do-you-have-to-know-to-work-at-Google-as-a-Software-Engineer Good to know

https://www.quora.com/Is-it-hard-to-get-a-job-at-Google Based on Stephen Kurtzman’s answer I might have a chance… if I can learn all that stuff… and they actually do something that interests me…

https://www.quora.com/Is-working-at-Google-overrated Apparently not... Not sure what projects though… the one’s I see are pretty…. Meh…

Software Development Questions

I think Quora feels that most of what I like (and I guess that’s true) so I get a lot of these on my Feed.

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-biggest-myths-software-engineers-believe Funny but... Not me…

https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-reasons-a-company-should-choose-Scala-as-its-programming-language Maybe time to revisit functional and Scala. Also Akka…

https://www.quora.com/What-programming-languages-should-a-modern-day-programmer-have-in-his-her-arsenal

Solid experience in all of this takes a while, but it's one of those situations where being ahead keeps you ahead. Once you have breadth and depth, you'll be stronger and more flexible than most professional programmers, which will help you find better and more challenging programming jobs, which will allow you to learn from the work and from others and keep improving your skills quickly.

It’s a pretty long list though and I really doubt I want to know C++…. But actually I think I have like 50%+ already..

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-growth-stages-of-a-programmer Stages are pretty interesting and varied…

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-kept-secrets-of-great-programmers Another fun one

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-best-career-advice-for-a-software-developer-to-earn-a-higher-salary 

So these last few again seem to be saying… revisit functional again…

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-things-that-a-programmer-must-know-obviously-besides-programming-languages

https://www.quora.com/Is-it-extremely-hard-to-be-a-really-good-programmer

https://www.quora.com/What-is-a-good-way-to-train-oneself-to-become-comfortable-with-thinking-recursively-about-a-problem

Investing

Another topic I am kind of interested in… when I am not being burned by Mr. Market

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-key-principles-in-The-Intelligent-Investor-by-Benjamin-Graham

Miscellanous

Random questions I’ve seen or asked.

https://www.quora.com/Is-a-US-debt-default-inevitable

The total US household value is $70 trillion so $16 trillion debt is nothing

Except 90%+ of that can just leave if the government wants to repay debt?

But the other problem they say is this is structural (I agree) but… we have a do nothing Congress (OK they can fight like 5 year olds) and they seem to be here to stay… maybe Trump should be President?... At least he’ll do something… I would hope…

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-best-comment-in-a-source-code-that-you-have-ever-encountered

Some good laughs

Alright "that's all folks!"