Humanity wasted 14,526 years watching Gangnam Style

"Humanity wasted 14,526 years watching Gangnam Style"...
This was the title of a link I posted on Hacker News about a week ago which linked to a website I created with a friend of mine (Gil Cohen) - http://www.WastedHumanity.com



It seems like I managed to really annoy some people, and some even claim to hate me!
(The whole discussion can be seen here : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6663474)

Well, I just wanted to say about this whole thing a few words -
The whole idea of this site was only a joke. Just me and my friend sitting in the living room one boring Friday watching some silly YouTube videos ourselves when I started thinking about how many times these videos were watched. It amazed me, so I started calculating it in my head. The programmer I am wouldn't allow me to just calculate this data manually so I started building a site that would do it for me. When we saw the numbers we were amazed and started joking about the things we could have done instead of this 'wasted time'...

I didn't mean to laugh about how you decide to spend your time or make fun of anyone in anyway. I myself 'waste' a lot of time on YouTube, sometimes on silly videos while doing nothing, and sometimes countless hours listening to music as I work. I added at least a few views myself to each one of the videos seen on the site, and many more not on the site. I don't see that time as 'wasted'.

I also know the calculation isn't a bit accurate, and that each (or at least most) of the facts on that site wasn't accomplished by one person so in reality it took much more than written.

So, sorry if I hurt you. I know I made a lot of people laugh in the process, so it was totally worth it! :)

It's time for yet another change...

I started out programming ~13 years ago, when I was only 12 years old. The first language I learned was VB. I was building some small winforms utilities for myself. Then (about a year after) I started learning php and went into web development, building some dynamic websites (mostly php & MySQL) for the next 6-7 years...

Once I drafted to the military (mandatory in Israel), I did some programming for the Air Force. It was then when I got into the .net world, and was doing most of the programming in C#. I got used to it really fast, and learned to like it, so after the military (~3.5 years), I went on to work for ICC (the Israeli VISA company) as a .net programmer for 2 and a half years. After that I immediately got a job for Sears Israel, mostly developing in C# but also doing some java.

The past couple of years I learned a lot of new technologies and new programming paradigms, but it was mostly using the Microsoft platform. I didn't get to work with other programming languages, not to mention working on Linux platforms...

So... I think it's time for yet another change... :)
I'm not talking about quiting my job (note to my employer: no need to worry yet), but I'm talking about learning some new languages and technologies on my own. I'm not kidding anyone here - I've been programming since a young age and have been loving every moment of it. I do it a lot at home and a lot in my spare time just for fun!
I recently decided that I will dedicate my spare time to learning some new technologies and new languages. I'm sure, even this won't pay off immediately at work, the knowledge I will be gaining will still be priceless and will definitely help me in the future, possible even at my current work place.

First step - A couple of weeks ago I installed Linux on my home computer. I went for the Ubuntu distribution, since I heard it's the most user-friendly, and this way I could hit the ground running.
It's only been a couple of weeks, and I already know how to do everything I need from the terminal. Manage my files, install new packages and even work with vim. Seriously, if I didn't need a web browser, I would be installing the server version. Now, I started copying all my old files I want to backup from my Windows installation, and planning on removing Windows all together.

Next steps - I decided I need to learn new technologies as well. Recently reading about nodejs a lot got me really excited and so I started learning it. I also figured it would be easy for me to get into, since after years of web development I can say I know a fair amount of javascript.
I'm already working on a small project just for myself which is coming out really cool (might blog about this soon). I'm working with the expressjs mvc framework, jade view engines, stylus and even implementing OpenId in javascript!

I'm always thinking about how I can use this information to leverage some utilities we have at work... :) Every programming language has its strengths and it's all about choosing the right tool for the job.

What's next ? Well, I think after I finish my project in nodejs I'll go onto learning python which has also been interesting me for a quite a while now...
I already read a lot about it, and now I just need to get my hands dirty a bit too.

In conclusion I will say that learning new technologies is always a good idea, can always be a lot of fun, will always give you new tools to deal with everyday problems and put you ahead of many other programmers that are 'stuck with the same technology for years'. I already feel I have quite the experience - programming in VB, php, C#, javascript, using MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server, (and many frameworks within each language) and having at least a couple of years of experience with each of these. I really believe this puts me ahead of most, especially when it comes to solving new problems - I have a better point of view then others and a lot of experience to lean on.

Solving the "Move the Box" game (Programatically)

CodeProject

A couple of weeks ago some colleagues at work showed me this nice puzzle game called "Move the Box". I've seen dozens of these kinds of puzzle games in different variations, and as usual, I got hooked on it for a while.

I got stuck on a level I couldn't pass a couple of days ago, and this got my programming head thinking...
Hmmm... The board is only 6 by 7 tiles, and the levels only have up to 3 moves maximum... This shouldn't take too long for my computer to brute force through all the levels... :)

So, I got to work, and pretty easily got it solving the puzzles.
It works good on the puzzles i tested it on, which include puzzles with 1, 2 and 3 possible moves to the solution. The annoying part is that you have to enter the whole map of the level you want in a two dimensional array, which can take a long time. Then, all you have to do is tell it how many moves it gets, and hit F5!

Here's a screenshot of what I see when the code solves my puzzle -

Spoiler - This is the solution to the level "Osaka 22"

I put the code up on google code's project hosting if you wanna take a look, but this should come with a disclaimer -
The code is really ugly and hacky! This is only because it is a 'coding for fun' project at home, for something that will never reach any kind of production. The only thing that was important to me at the time coding this was the fact that it will work. I don't see myself using this ever again.
With that said, the logic of the board was still coded using classic TDD. It just seemed logical doing it that way, so it even has some cool tests.

http://code.google.com/p/move-the-box-solution/

...and if you're wondering, the answer is "yes" - This was a stupid idea, since I basically took all the fun out of playing this game for me! :)


Enjoy :)