I'm not a fan of the introvert-worship on HN and related sites- I see it used as a crutch, an excuse, a softer form of the typical claim to having Asperger's to explain how you can't talk to people. Not saying Asperger's or introversion aren't real problems, just that you can make yourself feel OK sitting inside all night by putting a label on it and talking about it on the internet.

I'm not quiet because I'm an introvert, I'm quiet because of past personal failures wherein I didn't learn social skills because I was dicking around with books and computers all day. So now I'm a loser, but at least I can admit the truth rather than wrapping it in pop-science.

(Btw, clearly the OP is not a case of this - just a related observation)

Don't confuse your own failings with introversion. Many people are happier sitting inside all night. It sounds like you're either an unpopular extrovert, or you've been so conditioned by what society expects us to be that you feel shame for doing what you want to be doing. Either way address your own issues as opposed to bashing others for some perceived notion of faking happiness.

> Not saying Asperger's or introversion aren't real problems,

Not saying Asperger's or introversion are real problems, either!

They are descriptions of a person's tendencies; a diagnosis, not a prognosis. They can be either adaptive or maladaptive, depending on circumstances.

It doesn't matter to an individual how he got that way. (It may matter to observes, as a lesson to them.) What matters more is how to make the most of your life, given your current condition, how to use what you've got to get what you want.

Ok, so lots of people bid on projects without fully understanding the requirements, some people understand but want to solve it as an engineering rather than a math problem, and others get it. Where's the hilarity in this or OP? HN Sunday night, aiyiyi...

It's the cautionary tale that you cannot believe the words coming out of a salesman's mouth.

I used to work in a startup where the cubicals had sequential phone numbers. From time to time I'd get a call from one of the sales reps in the field.

"I'm talking to a customer," the rep would say, "Can our product do X?" Where 'X' was something like, oh I don't know, 'Computational Sushi' or 'License plate recognition,' or anything unrelated to what our real-time messaging middleware did.

"No," I would tell them (but using more words).

Then I would move to the next cube and instruct the engineer sitting there that the phone was about to ring, and that they should pick it up, listen and say "No" quite firmly. Repeat for the remaining cubicals.

Salesmen will say anything to make a sale. It's what they _do_.

We used to have customers who would do that. They'd call every number in the company until they found someone who'd say "That sounds do-able." Upon which they'd demand a price reduction because "Your product doesn't do what you said it does."

Since the algorithm can only detect the relative swirled amounts of a set of the same images, a solution could be to, rather than using a set of the same image, use a set of different images swirled different amounts (or with some other transformation), and the user must select the unmodified image.

I actually use my Google email address to log into my Windows account too - they know we don't want yet another email address to manage.

I see him as part of the first wave of the new pop-electronic which I think will be only more popular through this decade. It's certainly not typical traditional electronic music, so no, you aren't missing anything.

I'm starting at Microsoft out of college in July and this worries me. Could I ask which product you were on?

I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. Anyone who thinks his experiences on one team in a 100,000 person company (or even a 10,000 person company!) are in any way broadly representative is full of shit. Microsoft has some dysfunctional teams, as does anyone, but it has plenty of good ones, too. I worked there for quite a few years after college and it was a great learning experience. I had friends in other teams who had both good and bad experiences. It just depends.

OP was an "account manager," which means that anything he tells you has absolutely no relevance to the engineering side of things.

Posts like this always depress me. I spend all my time in class or working, and for no use - my last 8 months of work were removed last week due to a bureaucratic decision - not the first time, so I can't argue that my life has any purpose. I don't really have any friends, have had few opportunities to collect memories or feelings, etc. I'm about to graduate, move 1000 miles away and move on, so I sort of have this assumption that everything will change, but I know myself well enough to know that in all likelihood I will end up playing video games by myself every night.

Remember, a classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read. Spending time with family/relatives/friends is something that everybody wants to have done and nobody wants to do. Hard work is something that everybody wants to have done and nobody wants to do. Don't be afraid to just do what makes you feel good (unless it causes others significant trouble), regardless of what some sacred social convention dictates.

Remember also that the grass is always less brown on the other side. The moment you entertain the thought that some other situation would be better, you suffer. If you think some choice you made in the past was a bad one, it might be because you've only seen the consequences of the one option you chose. The other options might have been just as bad.

It's already hard enough to stay sane here on planet shithole without romanticizing Things As They Aren't.

We're going to start pushing the ACM ICPC competition more, also Topcoder, Spoj, etc. I hadn't heard of codercharts.com, thanks for that. We aren't quite sure how to get people involved in this area though, since freshmen and sophomores aren't confident enough in their abilities to join a competition, and juniors/seniors are too established and seem to rarely want to join a new group.

In that case, CoderCharts would be helpful since for beginners, they don't necessary have to take part in competition. We have non-contest puzzles of various levels for users to try their skills. We have plans to push out more social features to enhance the users' sense of pride in their skills, so this would help nurture freshmen's interest. I would encourage you come to our site and play around yourself, so that you have a better understanding of how to make the most out of it. :-)

Thanks for the suggestion. Good point that I can't expect this to happen overnight.

Starting small and expanding- that's a good thought. I should probably focus on that rather than attacking the entire undergrad email list. Thanks.