Choose your first programming language

So you wanna learn programming. Of course you have to choose your native programming language. If this ain’t your first article(and google analytics says it’s not), then  you probably heard that c++ is everything and you’re pretty sure this is gonna be “your first”, but you just wanna be as sure as you can be.

First of all, you have to know that the language is not such a big thing, it’s mostly a symbolic thing, it’s really just “your first”, there’s gonna be a lot more afterwards.

Secondly, you really have to know more than one PL(programming language)  to be a programmer, it really doesn’t matter that much which one is the first one.

But still, you have to choose, so which is gonna be?

I’ll assume you want to start with a procedural(imperative) language and continue with OOP(object oriented programming). If you don’t know what imperative or declarative programming are, don’t worry, you don’t have to, but you can read everything about programming paradigms on wikipedia.

C++ is the most used system at the moment, but would you choose something just because it’s the most used? I wouldn’t. But if  C++ is the most used, isn’t also the best? Not now, but it definitely used to be.  There was a time, aeons ago, when a shorter syntax meant a shorter compilation time, therefore a better language. As time passed, of course that a lot of people learnt the best programming language and they also passed their skills to their youger apprentices and that’s how C++ got to be the most programming language of our times.

To learn to program, you need to understand the hundreds of examples on the internet. What do you understand easier between the following examples?
void main{
int i;
for(i=0;i++;10){
if(i=5||i=7){
cout<<i;
}}

or
program name;
var i:integer;
begin
for i=1 to 10 do
if i=5 or i=7 then
write(i)
end.

or
Sub name()
Dim i as Integer
For i=1 To 10
If i=5 Or i=7 Then
Console.Write(i)
End If
Next i
End Sub

For me the most legible is the second one, and that’s Pascal, but the third one, Visual Basic, is also better than C++, but I already am a developer and I can program in any of these 3 languages and others, what is your flavor?

In my country, everyone says you have to learn to program from low to high, where low means without any IDE and high means using a RAD. In my opinion this is completely wrong. If I am an absolute beginner, how the hell am I supposed to transform a blank, stupid text editor into an executable program. I advocate for high to low programming learning. A good RAD(rapid application environment) is your best friend through this journey. When you don’t know what to do, a RAD usually helps you. Also, it has a comprehensive help for your programming language. Of course it hides some super-complicated stuff from you, but you’ll learn that, when you’ll need it. This is the second big advantage of Pascal, the best RAD that has ever been build is built for Pascal and that is Embarcadero Delphi(formerly known as Borland Delphi). Delphi costs, a lot for a learning software, but I wouldn’t necessary pay for a software unless I need it for commercial use or I really want to support the developer. If you don’t want to break any law and the 30 day trial isn’t enough for you(of course it isn’t, you won’t be a programmer in 30 days) you have an alternative, LazarusLazarus is a free, opensource alternative for Delphi, which looks a lot like an older version  of Delphi. Lazarus is for Delphi what LibreOffice is for Microsoft Office. It’s not as cool, but most times it does the same job. But that’s not all, the best and the coolest thing about Lazarus is that it has a Linux version that is 99% the same, this means that is somehow easier to port your code between Linux and Windows.

If you are already a Linux user, then Pascal and Lazarus is your best combo. If you’re a Windows user and you want to learn programming, I wouldn’t recommend you to start learning on a new OS, because you’ll spend your time learning the OS instead of programming.

At the end of the day, the most important thing about choosing a programming language is what do you prefer {} or begin end; In my opinion if you use Pascal to learn programming, it is a little bit easier and if you use a RAD, is a lot more fun and enjoyable. When you’ll be a programmer, you’ll have to know multiple programming languages, so it doesn’t really matter which do you choose to be your first, but when I was young, I choose the sexier one.

If you have any questions or comebacks please comment.

What did Obama tell Hillary about Basescu

Here’s an imaginary conversation between Barack Hussein Obama II and Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton about the impeachment of the president Traian Basescu.

Even though the text is just a product of my imagination, I wouldn’t be surprised if CIA would ask me where do I have the transcript from. Actually, I would be surprised even if this would have been a real transcript, because I don’t think CIA gives a damn about what som guy in Romania writes on his blog.
Obama[thinking]:”Wtf’s happening in Romania? how could that stupid dumb ass get an impeachment vote again? I better call Hillary, she’s in Europe anyway.”
Obama: Hello! Hillary?

AFP PHOTO / POOL / Saul LOEB

Hillary: Yeah!
Obama: You’re in Europe. Aren’t you?
Hillary: Actually I’m in Asia. Why?
Obama: Why are you in Asia? Weren’t you supposed to be in Europe?
Hillary: You f***ing sent me in Turkey, remember… I have to calm them down as they’re our only willful alies in the area, regarding Syria…
Obama: Yeah, sure. I just thought that’s in Europe.
Hillary: Actually… they have like… few miles in Europe, but the most of the country is in Asia. It’s pretty neat. Yesterday I travelled between Europe and Asia 5 or 6 times, by car, without even leaving the city. All I had to do was to pass a bridge.


Obama: Not bad. Well, If you’re there anyway, here’s the thing. Basescu got impeached…
Hillary: Again? Really?
Obama: Yeah, I don’t know what he’s doing to his people, but they really hate him. Actually, they already voted, it was like 9 to 1 for the impeachment. Can you please go there and do something so that Basescu stays president.
Hillary: Wtf am I supposed to do, they already voted, he’s f***ed and that’s that.
Obama: No! That can’t be. We have, like, a dozen of antique fight planes which won’t buy themselves and also there’s the missile thing… with the russians. I need Romania to be with us on this and I won’t start negotiating with some other dumbass romanian again. Basescu stays!
Hillary: Okay, okay, but there’s no way I’m actually going there.
Obama: Somebody has to, and it ain’t gone be me.
Hillary: Yeah, ofcourse, I’ll send Philip, he knows his way around Europe. He’s friend with Merkel and that other guy who thinks he rules Europe…
Obama: Barosso?
Hillary: Him too, but I meant the other guy… Martin Schulz… I never got it why they have to have so many f***ing presidents if they’re run by a women with no actual position anyway.
Obama: Merkel‘s a women?
Hillary: Well… that’s what she says.
Obama: Really? I always felt there’s something odd about the dude.
Hillary: How am I supposed to know? I just read her CV because you made me do it.
Obama: Anyway… that’s not the point, get the job done.
Hillary: Phillip’s already on its way… He just told me he did expect this and he already called some of his european friends. I don’t know how he does it. I suppose he reads european newspapers and shit.
Obama: Ofcourse he reads newspapers. That’s why I pay him. What I don’t know is why do I pay you…
Hillary: You’re the President because I supported you. You owe me that one.
Obama: Yeah, ofcourse, sorry, won’t happen again.
Hillary: That’s what I thought!
Obama: Anyway… Get the job done!
Hillary: Okay, but no more monkey business, after I’m done with Turkey I’m coming straight home.
Obama: Why are you eating turkey? it’s f***king August, who eats turkey in August… oooh…. the country….. yes, of course, come back when you’re done.
Hillary: Moron!
Obama: What did you say?
Hillary: It’s nothing… I said ‘morning, like in good morning, it’s morning over here.
Obama: Well, good morning to you too if that suits you, but I’m going to get some sleep.
Hillary: Goodnight!
Obama: Bye!

What happened next? Here’s a video with part of the meeting between the “governor” Traian Băsescu and Philip Gordon. Enjoy!

Apple’s karma (romanian)

Aveam de gând să scriu despre drepturi de autor, licențe de softuri sau despre scandalul cu protv care crede ca va elimina concurenta facându-i reclamă. Nu mă pot abține, o să le fac și eu puțină reclamă, e vorba de vplay.

Poate altă dată o să abordez și subiectele astea. Am găsit ceva mult mai tare. Apple a dat în judecată o firmă micuță din Mexic încercând să-i oprească să mai folosească denumirea de iFone, pe care aceștia o înregistraseră de pe vremea când iPod era un display alb-negru cu o mare roată pe el. iFone e înregistrat în Mexic din 2003, pe când iPhone-ul a apărut în SUA în 2007. Apple i-a dat în judecată pe cei de la iFone din 2009, dar a pierdut abia acum. Puteți citi articolul original pe pagina ziarului El Universal. Glumeam! Îl puteți citi aici. Cât de prost poți să fii să-ți numești produsul iPhone și să te aștepți ca absolut nici unuia dintre ceilalți 7 miliarde de oameni să nu le fi tricut prin cap denumirea asta? Cât de îngâmfat poți să fii să vii cu denumirea de iPhone și să ai pretenția să fii numit revoluționar în denumitul de produse? Și ultima și cea mai importantă întrebare, cât de proști îi crede Apple pe mexicani dacă își imaginează că lumea de acolo n-o să facă distincția între iPhone 5 și iFone, care nici măcar nu e un telefon?

Abia aștept să-i dea în judecată pe cei de la Microsoft peste vreo câțiva ani. Pentru ce? Cum pentru ce!? Pentru utilizarea denumirii de PC, mult prea similara cu iPC, care va fi inventat cât de curând. Adevărul e că… doar un geniu care a lucrat pentru Apple ar fi putut veni cu revoluționara denumire Personal Computer pentru un… calculator personal.

Câteodata stau și mă gândesc cum de mai există Apple? Apoi îmi amintesc de legea antitrust, și total separat, de filmulețul de mai jos. Când mă gândesc câte persoane, ca cea din interviul de mai jos, sunt în lume, trebuie să recunosc că și eu aș fi procedat până în cel mai mic detaliu ca Steve Jobs.

Și dacă asta n-a fost suficient de amuzant, Apple a fost obligat să-și ceară scuze în Marea Britanie, față de Samsung, pentru ca a susținut, că aceștia le-ar fi copiat produsele, adică iPhone. Evident, nimeni altcineva nu s-a mai gândit și nici nu s-ar fi putut gândi la un dispozitiv touch-screen pe care poți atât să te joci, cât și să vorbești.

A personal impression on the new Trimble R10

the new Trimble R10

Read UPDATES

As some of you already know, Trimble launched the new Trimble R10 system two days ago(Oct. 9, 2012) in HANNOVER, Germany at INTERGEO 2012, the so called “world’s largest conference on geodesy, geoinformatics and land management“, so I’ll write my personal impressions on the new Trimble R10.

You can read the original news release by trimble here, but I’ll make a summary for you about what’s new about this new system.

Of course Trimble knows how to market their products, so they unveiled lots of “new excitement features”. As I see it there are 2 or maybe 3 things that are really new features and not just minor improvements of the now-old Trimble R8 system.

Let’s get started with the coolest(or hotter, whatever) new feature, Trimble xFill. It sounds like some sort of simple stakeout feature, but it’s not. It’s a system that allows you to get some extra signals by satellite or by cellular. During the last decade GNSS systems improved that much, that an extra-signal might not seem so impressive. We already have GLONASS, Galileo, Compass, SBAS and lots of other systems, so at first xFill didn’t impressed me too much either.

The really cool thing about xFill is that it wasn’t created to improve the overall accuracy, but to provide a reasonable accuracy in some harsh conditions. In my opinion, this is genius of Trimble that they didn’t push it  for an extra mm accuracy, just for the sake of it, maybe they learned from Apple’s failure with their extra 1cm iPhone5.

So, what does it do?

Let’s suppose you’re doing some RTK VRS surveying in some remote area(for most of the surveyors this is pretty standard) and the cellular coverage is poor and it drops every few minutes which also disconnects you from the VRS server. In this kind of conditions you must wait and hope you’ll get cellular signal again. Now with the xFill you don’t have to wait anymore, if you get disconnected from your main source of RTK corrections(VRS, single-base or whatever) you can continue to work for some extra-minutes(3 to 5 minutes) at a reasonable accuracy. Of course the accuracy will drop a little during these cellular signal(or radio) shortage, but it will still be surveying level. Here’s a graphic that shows how accuracy drops when using xFill during cellular signal shortage.

horizontal positioning error during xFill with Trimble R10

I haven’t actually did the test myself. This graph is taken from this white-paper from trimble.

How does it work?

Data from a permanent GNSS station network is sent to some servers, processed, then the corrections are sent to Trimble’s satellites which send the corrections back to your Trimble R10. You can also get these corrections by internet, instead of getting them through Trimble’s satellites, but if you don’t have enough bars on your cell to connect to your main RTK corrections source, then you won’t be able to use xFill either. Here’s a flowchart taken from the same white paper.

diagram of how the new Trimble R10 uses RTX and Trimble xFill

What’s the catch?

UPDATE2: There’s no catch anymore, here is the new Trimble xFill coverage.

xFill Coverage

If you live anywhere in the Americas, there’s no catch, it just works. If you don’t live in the Americas, then you should check the underneath map or the interactive map from trimble for the RTX satellite service, but take my word for it, you’re out of luck.

Trimble RTX satellite coverage
Trimble RTX satellite coverage

The only option left for those of you who, like me, don’t live in the Americas is to use some sort of internet connection to receive xFill corrections – the gray crossed option in the previous diagram – but as I stated before, if somehow you get an internet connection you’ll probably connect to your primary RTK corrections source.

The bottom line is that for European market, this system is only useful for those who rely on radio based RTK systems, who, for some reason, don’t control the GNSS base which sends the corrections through radio. I find this situation to be extremely rare, in Romania at least, so I’ll check this feature out again when Trimble will have satellite coverage over Europe too. Launching this pretty cool feature at INTERGEO in Europe(9-11 October), with Trimble Dimensions 2012 on its way to Las Vegas(5-7 November) seems odd and it feels frustrating and somehow annoying. It’s like they just wanted to brag on themselves about how great America and Americans are.

Going on to the next R10 cool feature – the eBubble

The eBubble is nothing else than a digital bubble displayed on the controller. So it’s basically what is already known as a G-Sensor in the smart-phone slang. It’s nothing new to the world, smartphones have it, total stations have it, the GNSS systems were the only one left out with a traditional bubble. The eBubble was bound to happen a long time ago. I don’t actually understand how nobody thought of using a G-Sensor in a GNSS system. Leica, Topcon, and others, WAKE UP!

Side note: If any of my teachers is reading this, hear me out. Anyone is calling it a bubble, because it’s a bubble. Of course there are a few who use fancy terms like spherical level and fine-level for bubbles, but I’ll continue to use the word bulă(exact translation of the word bubble in Romanian)

What’s so great about an eBubble?

1. You don’t have to look in two places before storing a point. You have the bubble right on your screen.

eBubble and xFill on Trimble Acces connected to Trimble R10

2. The actual tilt of the pole is recorded. Combine this with the height of the pole and you can use this to process your data even more. The new Trimble Business Center 2.8 supports Trimble R10, so I suppose it also support tilt data.

Other new features

Of course, the new Trimble R10 is smarter, faster, lighter and even better-looking than any  of its predecessors or any other existing similar product on Earth. It’s a new product, how else could it be?

I got most of the information to write this post from the following sources:

  1. Trimble News Release http://www.trimble.com/news/release.aspx?id=100912a
  2. White Paper – Trimble xFill RTK – English http://www.trimble.com/survey_wp.asp?Nav=Collection-92139
  3. Trimble Correction Services – Coverage Maps http://www.trimble.com/positioning-services/interactive-map/interactive-map.aspx
  4. Trimble R10 Datasheet http://www.trimble.com/globalTRLTAB.asp?nav=Collection-90566

When I’ll get a price for the new Trimble R10, I’ll update this post.

UPDATE1: My dealer told me that the new Trimble R10 is about 2000E more expansive than Trimble R8, which means about 20 000E. Compared to R8, R10 has a fair price. Compared to other brands, any Trimble product seems a little bit too expensive. I suppose they charge us with some kind of jewelry tax.

UPDATE3:Regarding Trimble R10’s price, the actual price is just a little bit higher than 20.000E. The difference between R8 and R10 is really the xFill features, if you have strong internet connection, or you always roll with a base receiver, than R10 or R8 will satisfy you just as well. If you really need to buy a new receiver go for R10, because R8 prices didn’t go down, and they won’t.

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