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  Thursday, April 21, 2005

You Know You're a Programmer When...

I was just tweaking the blog template, and I accidentally used the wrong symbols to comment out a section of it. I thought I'd list some other programmerisms:


You Know You're a Programmer When...

0. You comment HTML using /* */ instead of <!-- -->

1. You double-click elevator buttons

2. You misdial a phone number and look for the backspace key

3. You know your web address better than your home address

4. You check your email more than your snail mail

5. You want to stay up "just a while longer" instead of going to bed

6. You know perfectly well why the 21st century didn't start until 2001

7. You have to remember that when people say "or" they mean "exclusive or"

8. You get jittery if you haven't used a computer for over a day

9. You start lists at 0 instead of 1


Blog Tag: Humor

8 Comments:

At 4/21/2005 1:00 PM, Blogger Mary said...

Humor, indeed!

I'm not even a programmer and a few of those applied all too well to me.

My favorite thing I ever did was when I sat down to dinner and my hand reached up to the right of my plate to right-click on my folded napkin. I have NO idea what I was expecting my plate to do.

 
At 4/21/2005 1:35 PM, Anonymous Melissa said...

I'm an idiot when it comes to computers and programming, so some of your comments went over my head. I do identify with #5 and #8, however. And, it does scare me, especially #8.

At work, we are not allowed to use the computer for anything but work-related purposes. But when I start to get the shakes, the only thing that helps is to sneak over to the computer and open up my favorite web pages. The relief is immediate and I can then go back to working, satisfied and happy. Is there a name for this illness? :)

 
At 4/21/2005 3:50 PM, Blogger dkgoodman said...

Compuphilia? (Not to be confused with coppafeelia.)

 
At 4/22/2005 12:25 AM, Anonymous Melissa said...

Lol, Dave. :)

I hope that it's okay if I share tonight's work story. I found it amusing. We got a company newsletter that stated we are not to refer to the computers as "dumb terminals." At least they didn't forbid the other, unprintable, terms that we also call the dumb terminals. Oops, I mean PCs.

The same newsletter also said that when asked what we do for a living, we are to reply, I am "a personal advocate of total health for our members." Gee, life was so much simpler when I could just say, "I'm a nurse." I've been practicing this new phrase, but I can't keep a straight face. I love my job. There is always something new to laugh at. :)

 
At 4/22/2005 3:56 AM, Blogger Billy Jones said...

You forgot one: You know you're a programmer when you discover you can no longer count past 8.

 
At 4/22/2005 7:30 AM, Blogger dkgoodman said...

BloggingPoet: lol. You must be an octal man. I always preferred hex. I blow past eight, keep counting after 0A, and don't stop until I reach 0F. The switches on my early computers (late 70's) were in groups of four. But I've used octal, too. Your blog looks cool. I'll have to check it out when I have some time. Try typing haiku into the search field and you'll find the little poetry this blog offers.

Melissa: It's more than okay. Keep 'em coming. When I worked at Pertec in Chatsworth, testing hard drives (the kind with fixed 8-inch platters), we once got a memo from management that we were to stop referring to some of the units as "turkeys".

 
At 4/23/2005 7:58 AM, Blogger meg@mandarin said...

People mean exclusive or?

 
At 4/23/2005 9:46 AM, Blogger dkgoodman said...

Hi Meg! Hope you're feeling well.

When the optometrist asks, "Better here... or here?" he means one or the other, but not both. "Left or right? Up or down? Smoking or Non Smoking?" These are all exclusive-or questions. One or the other, but not both. In programming, OR means one or the other or both, and XOR means one or the other, but not both. People in the real world usually mean XOR when they say "or".

 

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