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Gun Collectors Club - Colt Cobra .38 Lightweight Revolver
REVOLVERS Referred to as Wheel Guns
SEMI-AUTOS John Browning didn't invent the semi-auto, but...
LONG GUNS Rifles and Shotguns
Semi-Autos
Colt Cobra
Lightweight Double Action Revolver
Serial Number Table
Cobra, Aircrewman, Courier and Agent Serial Numbers
Note: Aircrewman began 1951 and ended 1959. Courier began 1954 and ended 1956. Agent began 1962.
Use the Colt Serial Number Database Lookup Tool.
Colt Database Search
I paid $400 for this 1974 example in 1997 and $650 for the 1978 gun for my wife in 2002. If you find one of these in "mint condition", it's a great gun to collect and/or carry. Use extreme care in cleaning the finish on this gun. I have seen many examples at gun shows that appear to have thousands of tiny scratch marks from being wiped with the wrong kind of cloth.
It was an earlier version of the Colt Cobra that Jack Ruby used to kill Lee Harvey Oswald. The serial number of Ruby's Colt was 2744LW (note the LW stands for Light-Weight). The Jack Ruby Colt Cobra was returned to his estate many years later and was sold at auction. An anonymous New Jersey gun collector paid $220,000 for it.
Colt Cobra: Nickel plated alloy (15 oz.), .38 six shot revolver. At first glance, the most distinguishing feature is the full-shroud surrounding the ejector rod. The Cobra was produced in calibers .38 Special, 32 Colt New Police, and .22 LR. The .38 Special Cobra was available in 2, 3 and 4-inch barrel lengths. The .32 caliber version was availble in 2- and 3-inch barrel lengths. The .22 LR Cobra was available only with the 3-inch barrel.
Colt Cobra Market Report
October 2019 to October 2020
In my research I found 215 completed online auction sales of the Colt Cobra over the 12 month period from October 2019 to October 2020 and the Average Sales Price was $652. Of the 215 completed sales analyzed, I found that only 19 of those guns might be considered Collector Grade Quality. Further, of the 19 best examples, they sold between $1,000 and $2,400.
A closer look at the top 19 Cobras that sold during this time revealed that 3 went for more than $2,000, 5 sold for $1,200 to $1,800 and the balance of 11 guns sold for $1,000 to $1,200.
Note: Since these were online sales it is important to note that buyers likely paid $100 more than the reflected sales price to cover credit card fees, shipping costs and FFL transfer fees.
1974 and 1978 Guns
Greg Colt Cobra .38 December 9, 2019
These 1970s lightweight guns get 5 out of 5 stars from me. This is the only model, of which I own two identical guns. I love the way it feels. The way it handles. And the way it carries.
Colts Light Weight Double Action Revolvers included the Cobra (1950-1981), Aircrewman (1951-1959) which was distinguished by the gold-metal Air Force medallion in the place of the silver-metal Colt medallion on the checkered wooden grips, as well as a cylinder made of aluminum alloy, Courier (1954-1956) approximately 3,000 Couriers were produced in .22 Long Rifle and 32 Colt NP, and Agent (1962-1979 and 1984-1986) the Agent was a lower-price version of the Cobra.
Ocassionally someone will question my collectibility rating system, let me say upfront that I give the Colt Cobra 5 stars as of August 2013 primarily for these reasons: 1) Colt won't make any more of these guns, 2) I believe the younger generation (future collectors) will eventually develop a "liking" of these revolvers, 3) this .38 caliber has staying ability (longevity, unlike the .32), 4) It has the unique feature of being lightweight, but along with that comes the inability of the finish to hold up to years of wear and tear (if you have one with a good finish, you have a jewel) and finally, 5) I think the sight blade, sight-ramp and full shroud give this gun a futuristic look unlike any other and especially for the 1970's.
In summary, I believe the Colt Cobra of the 1970's was Colt's last desperate attempt to redesign an older revolver to keep the public's attention on revolvers. By 1981 the public was already beginning their love affair with and headed down the road of thinking semiautomatics are king. It is true that Colt continued to produce revolvers after 1981, but they were all nostalgic old designs.
I will admit that I truly love this design and am partial. The firing pin on the hammer is but one feature I love. All prejudice aside, I think this is a gun to collect. Normally I don't disclose what I paid for a gun unless I have either already sold it or have no intention of ever selling it. These Colt Cobras fall into that latter category and therefore I can't give you a graph of the value.
Truth be told, when I bought these guns it was for carrying purposes as much as or more than collecting purposes. Did they double in value every ten years? Not as yet, but I think they will. Take a look at that Colt Vest Pocket Model 1908 page! If you owned that gun for the first 40 years you would have done very poorly. Forty years have passed for my 1974 gun and I believe these guns will come into thier own rightful place in collections worldwide.
click or tap image
The Second Model Colt Cobra
The Colt Cobra from the mid-1970's is one of my favorite revolvers and my all-time favorite revolver to carry. I used to say that this is the only Colt that I own two of, that are exactly the same, but...
"Recently while cleaning these Cobras with the grips off, I noticed a design difference between the 1974 and 1978 back-side of the grips."
When I get time, I will pull the grips on both and show photos side by side. The Cobra is one gun that I've never even considered putting pearl or ivory grips on. The wood on these are very light-weight and I like them. These guns are classics! My curiosity is peaked. My guess is that the design change was either an imrpovement or cost saving measure, but which I don't know.
My teenage years were all in the 70's and perhaps I'm a little nostalgic as I sit here humming "Country Side of Life" by Wet Willie. Some of you will recall that after a 36 year hiatus Colt brought the Cobra back in 2017. But it wasn't the same gun at all. I know there were a lot of musicians putting out new music in 2017 but I can't name one song from that year.
Author with one of his Colt Cobras
Okay, I do remember a song from 2017. My granddaughter was 4 and she loved to sing and dance to a song called "Havana."
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When most people think of an old gun collection, they envision high-dollar guns in a presentation case or cabinet, guns that are never fired. That's not what this site is about.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


A recent feature in the Collective Hub.
Some of the end results of our Fiji shoot.
It's been to a few nice locations.
On location in the Margaret River region of Western Australia, July 2016.
The west definitely is an extreme coast. Open to very strong weather systems.
Yes the water is crystal clear.
Behind the scenes 2. D squared.
Good crew. No great crew!!!
Not a bad office that's for sure.


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Analysis: 'Go back' captures core of Trump political agenda
President Donald J. Trump presents the Medal of Honor to U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Travis W. Atkins Wednesday, March 27, 2019, in the East Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Go back where you came from.
President Donald Trump's tweet on Sunday did more than take a shot at four Democratic lawmakers of color. In just a few words, Trump summed up the backbone of his agenda - one aimed at reducing the number of immigrants in the U.S. through fear and force.
"Go back" was also behind his denunciation of Mexicans as rapists and murderers when he announced his first presidential campaign. It was behind his plans for a border wall, his travel ban and his attempts to end protections for migrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children. It is behind his closed-door question of why the U.S. had to accept so many people from "shithole countries."
Now it's behind his administration's move to effectively end asylum for migrants at the U.S. southern border, remaking America's role as a safe-haven for immigrants around the world.
Trump's hardline actions and sometimes racist comments have generated outrage, yet they didn't prevent Trump from his unlikely victory in 2016 and may have energized some of his supporters. With another election coming up next year, it looks like Trump is doubling down.
In his tweet Sunday, Trump said the four Democratic lawmakers - three of whom were born in the U.S. __ should "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came." He said these places "need your help badly, you can't leave fast enough."
His policies have often been as blunt as his speech. His travel ban order shortly after he took office was billed as excluding "radical Islamic terrorists" from the U.S. A version of his ban was ultimately upheld in court.
His administration has also tried to block asylum seekers from crossing between ports of entry, and he's threatened a few times to shut down the entire southern border. He has moved to end protections for migrants from war-torn or disaster-ravaged countries, and he's drastically reduced the number of refugees accepted.
And then Monday's announcement, which goes further than any other asylum restriction. It bans anyone from claiming asylum at the southern border if they pass through another country first. The policy, if it withstands legal challenges, seemed squarely aimed at the tens of thousands of Central American migrant families crossing the border in record numbers. Many are fleeing violence and extreme poverty in their home countries.
Trump has been struggling to manage a growing border crisis. Tens of thousands of people, mostly families, are crossing each month in record numbers. The result has strained border facilities and added up to tedious delays up and down the entire immigration system. Migrants are crammed for weeks into fetid, filthy stations not meant to hold people longer than a day or so. Children who should be placed in government-run shelters with schooling, medical care and toys are held in the facilities for weeks. Illness is rampant. Children have died.
Border agents are also suffering and lashing out - 62 current and 8 former employees are under investigation for offensive posts made in a secret Facebook group that mocked migrants and lawmakers, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the subjects of Trump's recent ire.
While Republicans say it took too long for Democrats to address the crisis brewing at the border, Trump himself was fixated on his signature border wall, forcing the longest government shutdown ever over the topic, before backing down to say he'd find the money elsewhere for the wall. Even when he's talking about the humanitarian crisis, he tends to do it through the lens of the criminal migrant.
"Democrats are kidding themselves (they don't really believe it!) if they say you can stop Crime, Drugs, Human Trafficking and Caravans without a Wall or Steel Barrier. Stop playing games and give America the Security it deserves. A Humanitarian Crisis!" he tweeted in January.
In talking about migrant caravans, he said, "many were criminals."
In defending his tweets on the lawmakers, Trump said he doesn't have a "racist bone in my body." Trump barely mentioned asylum at all during lengthy comments Tuesday to reporters, and made no reference to the major policy shift. Instead he focused his time on the topic of immigration speaking about how Mexico had hardened its efforts to stop people before they reached the U.S., and admiring their strict laws.
"Those laws," he said, "you can actually tell a person, 'I'm sorry, you can't come. Get out.'"
Colleen Long covers Homeland Security for The Associated Press. Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ctlong1
Fire destroys boats, dock at Chandler's Landing Marina in Rockwall


The board of directors of Alaska Air Group has elected Brad Tilden chairman of Air Group and its subsidiary carriers, Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air. A 22-year veteran of the company, he currently serves as president and chief executive officer.
Tilden succeeds Bill Ayer, who will retire Dec. 31 after spending 31 years at Air Group and serving as president, CEO and chairman during his last decade at the company. Ayer remained as chairman when Tilden was elected CEO in February 2012.
"Under Brad's leadership, Alaska Air Group has continued to set the bar in safety and operational performance, provide award-winning service, innovate to make flying easier, grow our network, and achieve record financial results. His new role as chairman completes an orderly leadership transition that the board has been planning for years," Ayer said. "I can't imagine a better way to have spent the past three decades. I feel fortunate to have worked with the most talented people in the business, and I'm confident the team will continue to build on their current success."
Tilden, who is 52, joined Alaska Airlines from Price Waterhouse in 1991.


Cross border mergers and acquisitions are becoming a consistent trend in business and economic cycles. Thanks to globalization, now it is possible for businesses in different countries to come together as a single entity with the sole aim of pushing their business agenda in the global market. Through cross border mergers and acquisitions, businesses have been able to easily spread their operations into other countries that due to market and logistical demands it could have been very difficult to set up a business. However, the success of cross border mergers and acquisitions depends on a number of factors that ought to be fully met in order to guarantee that success will be realized and maintained all through the years of operation in this new market.
Cross border mergers and acquisitions depend on a number of success factors that ought to be extensively considered if all the ambitions of the involved businesses are to be fully met. Logically, there must be differences in the way business is conducted in either side of the borders where the mergers and acquisitions are to take place.
In this article, we look at some of the factors that need to be considered when initiating and implementing cross border mergers and acquisitions. These include 1) proper management, 2) cultural integration, 3) business policies, 4) taxation, and 5) general business conditions in the country.
As Mark Jamrozinski states, cross border mergers and acquisitions ought not to be scary. If you get scared with cross border mergers and acquisitions you will end up messing everything up and due to the panic that will come up, the involved transactions will fail to live up to the aspirations held. The scary bit regarding to mergers and acquisitions ought to be eliminated with the initiation of proper management strategies. Just like any business transaction, cross border mergers and acquisitions demand that they be undertaken with proper techniques of management in all the aspects of the involved business. Some of the critical management areas that demand keenness in their handling include market analysis, human resource aspects and product integration and development.
In market analysis, it is obvious that in either side of the border where such cross border mergers and acquisitions are to take place; there exist unique markets, with mostly unique demands and structures. Therefore, it is a critical demand that the management techniques to be initiated provide a guideline detailing how to conduct an extensive market analysis before the cross border merger and acquisition exercise comes to effect. It is a demand that this market analysis takes a comparative approach in the sense that both of the involved businesses have their markets fully analyzed then comparisons drawn with an aim of explaining their demands and structures. It is only after the market analysis has extensively been done that proper management can be attained.
Proper management must involve the aspects of human resource. In fact, cross border mergers and acquisitions will on a very large scale rely on human resources if sustainable success is to be attained. Human resource aspects directly give a notion of employees who work for the involved firms. There is always the issue of job security that comes up when cross border mergers and acquisitions come up. Often, employees develop the notion that they may have their participation in the businesses that are merging terminated due to a number of reasons, however realistic or unrealistic they maybe. Such employee notions hurt employee productivity and the failure gets directly related to human resource management. Therefore, when initiating cross border mergers and acquisitions, it is a demand that the proper management factors gets to understand the plight of human resource aspects in such transactions.
Product development and integration is another topic of concern when dealing with the topic of proper management in cross border mergers and acquisitions. Logically, the involved business in a cross border merger and acquisition exercise has their unique products that they deal with. When such businesses will have merged, they will effectively become a single entity and in such a case, the products will need to be integrated in a way that will reflect that there actually was a cross border merger and acquisition exercise. Integrating the product and developing it is one of the most challenging tasks in cross border mergers and acquisitions. Therefore, it calls for utmost keenness when trying to streamline all the thorny issues that are often incurred in product development. In the end, it is only through proper management that effective product development and integration can be realized in cross border mergers and acquisitions.
The topic of culture is always a complex one in cross border mergers and acquisitions. In most cases, as Zhang Rong states, cross border mergers and acquisitions are transactions involving large sums of money which take in widely varied cultures. The term culture in cross border transaction elicits different definitions from among the involved players. In most cases, you will find that players from one side of the border hold a different view of the business culture while another set of players from the other side of the border have their own view. Entering into a cross border merger and acquisition exercise without fully integrating these differing views on business culture will be a mistake of dire consequences that those involved will have done. In fact, business culture is a wide topic which in most cases will include the different business and market philosophies held by the two or more merging businesses in a cross border merger and acquisition transaction. It will be proper only when a team is set up to strategize on how cultural integration will be conducted.
Some of the topics that the team set up to strategize on cultural integration will have to handle will include business philosophies and market strategic positioning. Every business always has its own philosophy from which all its strategies and ambitions stem up from. Therefore, it may be quite a daunting task in trying to have the cross border businesses to with draw their philosophies given the fact that almost everything in regard to management will remain intact regardless of the merger and acquisition exercise. The team set for cultural integration purposes in cross border mergers and acquisitions will have to ensure that a new business culture is developed that will be inclusive of all the aspects as previously held by the cultures of the involved businesses. This will certainly be a tough task but the involved businesses ought to do everything in their power to ensure that a single but effective business culture is adopted which will help the newly born business entity attain its ambitions as per to the terms and conditions of the merger.
Every country has its own business policies. These policies often outline how business should be conducted while in specific areas. The policies determine how successful or unsuccessful business becomes in the markets of such countries. For instance, in cross border merger and acquisitions, the involved businesses come from different countries with unique business policies. For business A which has all along operated in a specific country, it may have learned to adjust itself in the best way possible in order to meet its own ambitions as per to the policy guidelines stipulated and set in that country. This scenario also repeats for business B which has operated in a specific country. When these two businesses will merge and start operating in any one of the involved countries, it is possible that business ambitions may be hindered given the fact that one of the businesses will not have effectively adapted to the new policies in this new country. However, this may not be a persistent problem as sooner or later; the business will adjust and cope with the policy demands.
In most countries, business policies abhor monopolies. According to Vanessa Zhang, a monopoly is a situation where a single business entity controls a specific product or commodity in a specific market. Realistically, such abhorrence is beneficial as it ensures consumer protection from exploitation by businesses. Cross border mergers and acquisitions are often viewed as a precedent to monopolies. When a business merges with another, there is a likelihood that market competition for the provision of such a product to the consumers will cease to exist. With no competition in the market, the new business enters into a monopoly which diminishes the consumers' power to choose from a wide range of businesses before picking on what business to buy from. This is often viewed as an unfair business practice and most countries have crafted policies to control cross border mergers and acquisition with an aim of discouraging monopolies. Therefore, when in the quest of trying to initiate a cross border merger and acquisition exercise, it is important that such monopoly controlling policies are fully understood lest the gets illegalized in the country where it is to be conducted.
Taxation is always one of the most challenging issues in the practice of business. The taxation challenges are magnified in cross border mergers and acquisitions. In most cases the acquiring firm, being that it operates in a foreign land will have to pay higher taxation rates than its competitors in business that will be classified as local businesses. The unequal tax rates between the foreign owned business and the locally owned business in cross border mergers and acquisitions often work against the ambitions of the acquiring firm. As there develops an unfair playground in relation to tax remittance to the authorities of the country where the transaction is to take place, realizing sustainable profitability always becomes elusive. Therefore, it becomes an important requirement that the taxation aspect of business is keenly considered before venturing into cross border mergers and acquisitions.
In addition to this, it is important that all the specifications and guidelines on how and when tax should be remitted to authorities once the cross border merger and acquisition venture has been initiated should be fully understood. History has it that some businesses have been penalized, fined or banned from operating in some countries due to their failure to remit taxes as per to the laid down procedures. Therefore, it is important that all taxation practices as spelled out in taxation laws and guidelines of various countries are keenly studied before initiating cross border mergers and acquisitions. This is the best way to ensure that the acquiring business in a cross border merger and acquisition exercise will fully benefit from the venture.
In most cases, business success will be determined by a number of conditions in the countries where the business has been set up. Conditions such as guaranteed provision of security and availability of reliable and convenient insurance policies and plans should be fully catered for. With the large amounts of money involved in cross border mergers and acquisition exercises, it is a demand that these conditions are availed without any form of delay. Delays in the provision of such useful pro-business conditions in cross border mergers and acquisitions may prove disastrous to the acquiring firm. The large amounts of funds that are pumped into the cross border merger exercise should guarantee of their security at all times and any aspect of threat to such a business should be fully eliminated.
Conditions of effective business should be streamlined to ensure that there is a guarantee of returns on investment in cross border merger and acquisition transactions. Unless there are such safe conditions to practice business, the transaction will fail and the losses that may be incurred may be beyond contemplation. Realistically, cross border mergers and acquisitions are expensive ventures that demand the best of conditions on and off the market. In addition to the internal business strategies, there should be an assurance from the authorities in the new country that the involved business will be safe and no disruptions will hinder its maximum performance. This is a necessary commitment given the fact that cross border mergers and acquisitions often provides economic benefits that such countries require for the development and growth of their countries. Therefore, before initiating cross border mergers and acquisitions, the involved business should ensure that the conditions of practicing business in whatever countries where the merger and acquisition will be performed ought to be safe and disruption free all through the duration of business practice.
Cross border mergers and acquisitions are complex ventures that require proper planning, management and ethical conduct before they are initiated. Failure to fully venture into these three practices will lead to failure and such failure will always result in the loss of large sums of money. Every step that will be taken when in the quest to attain a successful cross border merger and acquisition transaction must be identified, analyzed and then a decision on whether to take it or not be made. A cross border merger and acquisition exercise should never be a one man show but rather an exercise in which every player and stakeholder fully takes part in before any decisions are made. It is of great importance that every view and opinion that may be raised by those charged with the responsibility of ensuring a successful cross border merger and acquisition exercise is taken with the seriousness that it deserves.
In conclusion, cross border mergers and acquisitions should be treated as important ventures given the often critical implications that they come with. Therefore, all the above described factors ought to be fully considered before any decision of whether to allow the transaction or not is made. Failure to consider the above factors may lead to complications which may alter the route to success. However, the above discussed factors should only form the basis of what should be considered in cross border mergers and acquisitions. Realistically, every cross border merger and acquisition transaction tend to vary hence the need to ensure that every such transaction is analyzed per its unique demands and specifications.


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LOCAL SENIOR FOOTY
Blumers Lawyers CRC Semi Final Preview
crrl.com.au
Fri 23 Aug 2019, 12:24 PM
The finals begin this weekend as the four remaining teams hope to move one step closer to the Blumers Lawyers Canberra Raiders Cup trophy.
Minor Semi Final – Goulburn Workers Bulldogs v Queanbeyan Kangaroos
3pm, Saturday, August 24 at Workers Arena
The Goulburn Workers Bulldogs and Queanbeyan Kangaroos have their seasons on the line as they play for a place in next weekend's preliminary final.
Goulburn enter the match after claiming a mammoth 80-0 win over the Gungahlin Bulls last weekend, and have won five of their last six matches.
The Kangaroos have hit their straps with three consecutive wins to make it seven wins from their last eight fixtures.
The two sides have already played each other twice this season with the spoils shared at one win apiece.
It was the Kangaroos who edged past the Bulldogs in the most recent encounter which was at Seears Workwear Oval. On that occasion, two tries to Josh Ayers saw the Queanbeyan side claim an 18-14 win.
The Bulldogs boast the best attack and defence in the competition, having scored 159 more points than the next best side. The Kangaroos have the second best defensive record and the third best attack in the competition.
The winner of this match will play the loser of the major semi final while the team that loses will see their season come to an end.
CLICK HERE to watch the live stream
Major Semi Final – Queanbeyan Blues v Tuggeranong Bushrangers
1:50pm, Saturday, August 25 at Seiffert Oval
One week after fighting it out for the Minor Premiership, the Queanbeyan Blues and Tuggeranong Bushrangers will battle it out for a place in the Grand Final.
Last weekend, it was the Queanbeyan Blues who claimed a narrow 22-16 win and they'll be hoping for a similar result at their home ground, Seiffert Oval.
The Bushrangers will take plenty of positives from the match having forced their way back into contention late in the match courtesy of a Jacob McGrath double.
The Blues enter the match with five straight wins which have included victories against the other three sides taking part of this year's finals series.
Tuggeranong, on the other hand, enter the match on the back of consecutive defeats. The Bushrangers will hoping to bounce back quickly to ensure they can reach the Grand Final for the second year running.
The loser of this match will play the winner from the minor semi-final at Gungahlin Enclosed Oval next Sunday.
Gallery: Another week down
Gallery: Friday fun
40 year Friday: Team effort results in Henjak try


Teacher Tom: "Those Guys Were Really Nice To Me"
Earlier this week, we played Animal Twister in the 5's class. Like with traditional Twister, you start by spreading a vinyl sheet on the floor and removing your shoes. The "caller" has a stack of cards with pictures of animals that correspond to pictures on the vinyl sheet. Then you try to be the first to "capture" the animal using your hands and feet.
I keep a close eye on the game to make sure the competition doesn't get out of hand, but I've found that contrary to my adult fears, this game more often than not brings out the best in the children. Normally, I serve as the "caller," but on Monday I'd turned the duties over to Audrey. At one point, "Phil" became frustrated with his lack of success and very quickly went into a mini tantrum, rolling about on the floor and crying. He found his way over by me, where he squeezed his body between my back and the a shelf where I stroked his shoulder as the rest of the kids continued the game. After a few minutes he decided he wanted to rejoin the game.
Face still red and wet, he didn't assume an alert ready position at the edge of the mat like the other kids, but rather stood there looking a bit hopeless. Before Audrey could make her call, he said rather pathetically, "I want to get one."
And I, rather cold-heartedly, answered, "You'll have to do your best."
He replied, "But I won't win." I was going to suggest that he might like to play somewhere else for awhile when Audrey took over.
She walked over to Phil, got right up close to him, and said, "This time you'll win. I just know it."
"No I won't," he answered, starting to cry again.
She said, "Yes, you will," then turning to the other competitors she commanded, "Everyone just stay where you are. It's Phil's turn." Turning back to Phil, getting right up close to make sure he heard her, "Okay? I'll call the card and everyone will let you have a turn all by yourself. Okay?"
She then returned to her spot and called, "Cow! Hand!"
Phil stood at the edge of the mat scanning for the proper picture. When it became apparent that he simply was still too upset or feeling under pressure or whatever to identify the proper animal, Audrey quietly walked over to the cow and pointed it out with her toe. As the rest of us stood by, he walked slowly across the mat and touched the cow with his toe. Audrey whispered, "Hand! Use your hand!" Phil bent down and touched it with his hand. "Alright! You did it! You win!" and she handed him the card.
When he returned to his position at the edge of the mat, he was smiling through his wet face.
The next call was one of our usual free-for-alls, after which Phil complained, "I didn't win."
Audrey said, "That's okay. You won last time. Sometimes you don't win, sometimes you do." She then orchestrated another round in which Phil got a card. "See look," she said, handing him his card, "You won that time."
By now all the rest of the players were in on the system, alternating between competitive turns and turns manufactured for Phil to get a card. In fact during those turns, the other players began to help him as well, pointing out the pictures to him. He still had moments of frustration, once starting to walk away, but Audrey followed him and talked him back into the game, coaxing and encouraging.
Lukas had been playing the game for quite some time, had more or less memorized the mat, and was winning most of the other rounds. For the kids other than Phil and Lukas, it wasn't about winning the cards as much as the stocking-footed, bodying-bumping free-for-alls.
At one point, Audrey said, "Phil, you have seven cards! That's a lot! You're really doing good!" Lukas replied, "I have seven, too." Audrey got close and whispered to him, "Don't feel bad, I'm just trying to make Phil feel good." She then kept track of the two boys cards in her head, alternating between cheering for Phil and assuring Lukas, who became her teammate in keeping the card counts even.
After the round was complete, Phil announced he was going to do "something else." I followed him from the field of play as the game resumed behind me under Audrey's leadership. I asked, "Are you feeling better?"
"Yes, but I didn't really win."
I said, "You got a lot of cards."
"I did. Those guys were really nice to me."


In the area of robotics, it is important to deal with design, operation, construction, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots. Using computer technology one can work on their control, sensory feedback, and information processing using appropriate hardware and sensors. Many motors are used in robotics which is controlled through dedicated micro-controllers with appropriate program. Therefore, language knowledge in assembly and 'C' is a must to design robotic applications.
Nowadays many engineering students showing lot of interest on robotics projects and they create lot of interest as compared to others. Robots such as line following, pick n place, firefighting, wall tracking, hexapod, humanoid etc are few popular projects in academic level.
RF Controlled Robotic Vehicle with Laser Beam Arrangement – Abstract.
Line Following Robotic Vehicle – Abstract.
Pick & Place With Soft Catching Gripper – Abstract.
Fire Fighting Robotic Vehicle using Microcontroller– Abstract.
RF controlled robot with Night Vision Wireless Camera for Spying in War Field – Abstract.
Microcontroller Based Line Following Robotic Vehicle– Abstract.
Obstacle Avoidance Robotic Vehicle using Ultrasonic Sensor – Abstract.
Auto Metro Train to Shuttle between Stations – Abstract.
IR Controlled Robotic Vehicle – Abstract.
Cell Phone Controlled Robotic Vehicle – Abstract.
Metal Detector Robotic Vehicle – Abstract.
You may get the block diagram and output video details of the above projects along with the abstract by clicking on the "abstract" links.
A Line Following Robot is a robot which follows a certain path on which it moves. The path can be a black path on a white floor or a magnetic field. These robots are being used in a variety of applications from being a guide at public places to automatic vehicles. Here a Line Following robotic vehicle is developed which is made to move on a curved black path sensed by a pair of sensors for each motor.
Here the robotic vehicle consists of two motors and the DC supply to each motor is controlled using a transistor which acts as a switch. A pair of sensors each comprising of an IR LED and a photodiode are placed beneath the circuit. The white floor is sensed by the sensors and the motors are given the rotation accordingly. At the turning, on encountering the black path, one of motors stop rotating with the sensor input. The sensor works on the principle that when light from the IR LED falls on the white surface it gets reflected and this reflected light when falls on the photodiode, reduces its resistance so as to control the conduction of the motor switch.
A robotic vehicle is designed which serves the purpose of detecting metals. Such robots can be used to detect landmines at places. Landmines are explosive devices which are placed under the ground and it is very dangerous to detect those manually using metal detectors. Here a metal detector is embedded to the robot circuit and the robot is controlled using RF communication.
At the transmitter side, number of push buttons is interfaced to the microcontroller to provide required motion to the robot. When any button is pressed the command is send to the microcontroller which delivers a binary data for the button and the parallel data is converted to serial data using encoder and this command is transmitted using RF module.
At the receiver side, this command is decoded by the Decoder and based on the command; microcontroller gives relevant signals to the motor driver to drive the two motors to give the robot the desired motion. A metal detector is embedded to the circuit which detects any metal and accordingly gives an indication using a buzzer.
A robot can be controlled either by detecting the environment on its own or manually using a remote or any other means. Here a fully automatic robot is developed which senses the area around it and accordingly moves. A sensor arrangement is embedded which senses any objects ahead of it and accordingly the robot changes its direction to avoid any collision. Such robotic vehicles can be used at places like sanctuaries etc.
Ultrasonic sensor is used to detect presence of any obstacle. These sensors work on the principle of reflection of ultrasonic waves by the objects which is received by the sensors and converted to electrical signals. On receiving any interruption signal, the microcontroller thus gives proper command to the motor driver such that one of the motor is stopped and other motor rotates, giving a change in direction to the robot.
A robotic vehicle can be used to pick up objects and place it accordingly. For this purpose the robots consist of end effectors whose moment is controlled accordingly using motors. The robotic vehicle is controlled remotely by a set of buttons using RF communication.
At the transmitter side, a keypad is interfaced to the microcontroller and when a relevant key is pressed, the microcontroller generates a binary code for that key and this binary code is converted to serial form and sends through a RF module and an RF antenna.
At the receiver, two motors are used to give relevant motion to the robotic vehicle and another two motors are used to control the movement of the gripper to hold any object and place it on the desired place. The commands send from the transmitter are decoded and used by the microcontroller to give proper signals to the motor driver ICs.
One of the major applications of Robotics is in military. They can be used to survey enemy lands, detect and destroy targets. A Robot can be embedded with a LASER gun which can emit strong focused monochromatic light that can actually harm the targets or produce a spot on the target to make them easier to be detected. Here a simple prototype of such a robotic vehicle is designed which is embedded with a LASER pen and controlled using RF communication.
A robotic vehicle is designed which consists of a wireless camera that can take images even in dark and wireless transmit these images to a TV receiver unit. These robots are frequently used in military to spy on enemy lands and send the information to the controlling unit. Here this robot is controlled using RF communication by a set of push buttons.
Robots can be used in many hazardous situations like when a fire accident occurs. Here such a prototype is demonstration which consists of a water pipe with a nozzle and a pump. The movement of the robot as well the spraying of water by the nozzle is controlled remotely using a set of push buttons and the commands are transmitted the robot through RF communication.
Here a line following robotic vehicle is designed which is controlled using a microcontroller. Here one pair of sensors are used to sense the path and based on the input, the microcontroller gives proper commands to the motor driver IC to drive the motors accordingly.
Here a pick and place robot is developed which is controlled using RF communication. A touch screen panel is used to give commands which are transmitted and received by the robot to give proper motion to the robot in the desired direction and control the pick and place operation.
An automatic train is developed with automatic start and stop mechanism such that the train stops at a particular station and starts moving after a certain time. It also consists of a mechanism to automatically open and close the door and counts the number of persons entering the train.
Get some more information on various Robotics Projects for Engineering Students.
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Have you ever experienced corporate burnout? Chances are, you have. Most of us have had that experience at one time or another, but it's what you do to overcome it that can have some surprising effects on your career path. That's what happened to our next guest, Jeremy Clark, aka Jeremy Bytes.
There was a time when Jeremy called himself a corporate developer, but that was long ago. After experiencing corporate burnout, a friend convinced him to leave his job without lining up a new opportunity and pursue something else. He did and hasn't looked back.
Jeremy has always loved teaching, but his first experience didn't work out as planned. So, what did he do. He kept seeking opportunities as an independent consultant and decided to start promoting himself. After all, if no one knows you exist, how can you find potential clients and work, right?
After authoring a Pluralsight course for the purposes of branding and self-promotion, Jeremy discovered some amazing and surprising results: financial success! He could teach, after all … he just needed to start with a different medium. After that, Jeremy decided to start public speaking. While that may sound intimidating, it's not what you might expect. Jeremy started small with local community events before moving on to professional events and now he speaks on an international platform.
For Jeremy, success is about creating your own luck and to do that, you must step out of your comfort zone and put yourself out there. That means personal branding in whatever way makes the most sense for you. Blog. Create video courses. Engage in social media. Speak at events when an opportunity arises. All of this is necessary is you want to change your life or situation or if you are looking for personal or professional growth. For some, this is not an easy task to do. We like our own comfort zone, but here's something to remember. Nothing worth doing is ever easy. So, take a leap of faith. You never know where it may lead you.
Listen in as Arsalan Ahmed and Jeremy 'Bytes' Clark talk about how you can create your own success starting today. Jeremy shares how he found success and how you can too. If you enjoy this interview, show us some love and 'Like' and 'Share' this episode.
Jeremy Clark makes developers better. By drawing on over 15 years of experience in application development, he helps developers take a step up in their skillset with a focus on making complex topics approachable regardless of skill level. He is a Microsoft MVP for .NET, and he has authored seven courses for Pluralsight, including "C# Interfaces", a course aimed at giving developers a clear understanding of abstraction. He loves speaking and has delivered over 200 technical presentations in the last 7 years in the United States and Europe. Jeremy lives in northern Washington with 2 dogs, 2 cats, and a banjo.
Arsalan: Hi everyone. Today my guest is Jeremy Clark how are you, Jeremy?
Jeremy: I'm doing great. Thanks for having me.
Arsalan: It's so good to have you. I was going to your profile, your website looking at some of the information that we found about you before this interview and I was really amazed that it seems that you've done a lot of quality work. You are also a teacher and a mentor. You've done a lot of different types of things. I really want our audience to get to know you and really understand where you're coming from and how you manage all that. I'd also like to hear the story of how you got into independent consulting because that was not planned. You just fell into it. How did that happen?
Jeremy: Yeah. It was not planned at all. I spent the bulk of my development career as a corporate developer at the Disneyland resort and it was a great place to work. I never saw myself as someone who would do contracting or consulting work because I'm not a risk taker. I'm the type of person who needs that regular paycheck every week even though having a regular job is kind of an illusion of safety because we don't know if the next paycheck is actually coming.
Jeremy: I always felt like I needed that security and I couldn't go months between paychecks without knowing where my next meal was coming from and things like that. I always saw myself as sitting here and getting a regular paycheck and that's the way it was going to be. Through a series of small steps, I ended up independent, which is kind of scary. Part of it was that I left that corporate job and workforce startup and part of it was that it was time to start something new. At one time, I managed to save up some money and live within my means, which is always a good challenge to do. I also kind of burnt myself out at that startup. I got to the end of my time there and I realize that I needed to move on to something new because I was burnt out and I needed to relax. I had a friend who said that I needed to quit my job without having a new job. I was like "what? You want me to quit my job without having a new job?" But at the time, I was a senior developer, which is always a good place to be, and there is a good demand for my kind of work. Plus, I did need to break before starting something new. During that time, I started to pursue teaching because get down that's what I really love to do. I really love to help other developers and make developers better.
Jeremy: So, that's what I decided to do. I pursued a couple of different paths and I got into cloud teaching and spent some time with that. That didn't quite work out the way I planned, and I ended up taking a contract job in the meantime and patted the bank account a little more. Then, I ended up with an opportunity to do a Pluralsight course. This was a great opportunity for me because again I wanted to get into teaching. I figured this was a good way for me to show what I could do. I wasn't really looking at it as a kind of financial solution. I was more looking at it as a marketing and brand building kind of thing because, in the Pluralsight catalog next to these famous people, there's a little bit of street credit for me.
Jeremy: It turned out that my first course did unexpectedly well for me financially. That gave me the opportunity to do some more courses and I haven't had a regular paycheck in about four years now. Again, it's that whole security thing. As it turns out, sometimes you can have that security even though you don't know when your next gig is coming. A lot of that is because I started speaking within the community. I also started speaking at local code camps. I started regional events in different parts of the US. Then I started speaking at professional events and international events and it's an interesting trip. Here I am independence. In January, this year, I went to Iceland for a consulting gig. It was for people who had found out about me through various channels.
Jeremy: So, I look back at my life and back in 2010 I was sitting in a cube farm programming. It was a great job, but I look at my life now and it's like "wow! I'm flying to Iceland to spend a week talking to this team of developers." It wasn't intentional, but because of the way that things worked out, it's just where I ended up. I'm very happy with where I am because it gives me what I need which is to share what I know with other developers and just kind of make it better.
Arsalan: It's interesting that we have so many different paths that we could follow as new developers. When you're starting out, when you're a new developer or still in high school or maybe you've switched jobs and you just want to be a programmer or a software developer, you really don't know what options you have or some of the things that you can do. Those are some of the things that my audience hears struggles with. We don't know what we don't know. One of the benefits of having you on this podcast, Jeremy is that they can find out that there are other things that they can do. If they live in an area where there are not many jobs, then they have one option. They can become consultants or do independent work. In your case, you told me that you were consulting with clients that are far away. You are probably also consulting remotely Sometimes. Is that correct?
Arsalan: You have the opportunity at home and you also can create courses. They sell, and you don't have to actually do any active work. It's passive, is that right?
Jeremy: That's right. The passive income is great because that's really covering my living expenses right now. What that means is that now I can put my effort into other pursuits like having the opportunity to travel to other parts of the country different people whether it's having them talk to code schools or to talk to different people on podcasts like yours. It's nice having that income coming in, but it's not something that you have to pursue daily. With that said, I know some people who have had great success with it and others who have had moderate to minimal success with it. So, I've realized that the position that I'm in is special. I'm very thankful for where I am. But I don't know if I would've been able to actively get to where I am because I just sort of fell into it.
Arsalan: So, sometimes that happens to us. We set out to do one thing and something else happens to us. It just depends. I've seen this happen again and again. In fact, seeing that most successful people who call themselves successful fell into what they're doing. It's just incredible how many times I've heard that. Some will say "I lucked into it. Random stuff just happens to me." They just do something that they really didn't think they should do and it works. Then, they drop everything else and get on that bandwagon.
Arsalan: Some people have started companies making a product that they really didn't want to make, but accidentally made a product. It then turned out to be their flagship product.
Jeremy: I consider myself very fortunate for where I am, but there is also a lot of heading in a direction. So, it's kind of like what I said about wanting to share my knowledge with other developers. I started out speaking at local code camps and user groups. I started a blog and doing some little YouTube videos and things like that. I'm not exactly sure where I expected to end up. I didn't end up where I expected to end up, but it's kind of along the same direction. I don't think it's purely random chance. I think that a lot of it is that you create your own luck. Get out there. Talk to people and find out what's going on. Then, you sort of generate your own luck.
Jeremy: A good example of that that is when I was at that startup. I kind of came to the end of my time there. There were some changes going on in the company. It turned out that I had put in my notice at that company the weekend before code camp. So, I was at a code camp that we can in southern California and talking to the people who I knew from within the community. So, during that time I had about half a dozen people who said "oh, you're available? Talk to us. We have openings within our company." I ended up having six leads come out of that. These were people who I knew within the developer community and I just talked to them and met with them at user groups and things like that. That network of people who I didn't know before has been influential in my career as well.
Arsalan: The key here is that you were out there speaking [to them] and putting yourself out there. First, people know you to be knowledgeable and technically efficient. They know that you can do the job because of the teaching that you do and the writing that you do. Then, you are getting in front of people. If you had the same technical acumen and the same ability but we're not out there speaking and you weren't on this podcast and you weren't writing blogs, then I think you would find yourself in a different situation. You may not have the exposure or the leads. To your point, we really must put ourselves out there if we want to make a change in our lives.
Arsalan: A lot of developers who I've talked to, and have known personally, would like to change their situation. Maybe they would like to grow professionally or get into consulting, but they don't have people coming to them. They don't have a name. Here's what I would like to know. [With this question, we are talking about] someone who has been working in the field for years and are at a place where they like to go independent and maybe even make some courses for Pluralsight or some other site or maybe even find their own clients and do some client work, but they don't have a name and people don't know them or recognize them, they don't have a VIP award. Is it possible for these kinds of people to pursue the path that you are on or do they need to do all the things that you did first?
Jeremy: I was listening to a podcast and they were talking about the .NET world, which is where I lived these days. When .NET first came out, everyone was talking about the basics because C# was a new language, .NET was a new environment, garbage collectors, and how the classic languages worked. Now that that's been established, people are talking about the latest new technologies in .NET. No one is covering the bids for bringing new developers into the environment or brand-new programmers or people who are coming over from other environments. And [I thought to myself] "you know what, I can teach those basics. I have a good handle on them and a good weight of explaining them." I took the challenge and I signed up to speak at a code camp that was coming up a few months later. That started it.
Jeremy: I got hooked on it. I realize it isn't for everyone, but I encourage everyone to try it at least once. If the only thing that is holding you back is [that you think you don't know enough to get up on stage and talk to people], here's the secret. None of the other speakers are experts either. The important thing is that you have something that you know that could help somebody else. When I'm talking to somebody and trying to encourage them to go share with they know, I tell them to say something that they wish they had known six months ago. It's that thing that you struggled through and you finally got over the hurdle and you're like "I wish someone had told me this six months ago." That is the topic. You don't have to know everything about everything. All you must know is one thing more than the people you're talking to and you can be helpful.
Arsalan: This is great. For everyone listening right now, this is beneficial because you always have something to teach. I'll give you an example of my seven-year-old kid. She has been programming on Scratch for a couple of years. It's not really coding the way that we think about it, but it is programming. She is at a point where she is comfortable teaching her three-year-old little sister on how a few things work on Scratch Junior.
Arsalan: She's a teacher. I also started teaching a new class at a K-8 school locally. I'm teaching kids about programming and I want to start awareness between the parents and the students that programming is a valid and legitimate thing that they can pursue for fun or for a career. It's something that exists. When I was a kid, I didn't know that it existed. So, I'm trying to teach them, and my daughter is in there and I know that when it comes time to do some things, she's going to be over there and helping the kindergartners and first graders and even people her age because she has been doing it for over a year and she feels comfortable. That's incredible for me to think about because since she's a kid. I've been trying to get her into programming, but she wasn't interested until she started doing it. Now as far as that thing now, for that particular thing that she's working on, she is an expert to all of the kids who are younger than her.
Jeremy: Right, and what I found was that some of the best articles on my blog are talking about learning something new. So I wanted to learn functional programming and I took so I wanted to learn functional programming and one of the languages that I took was F#. I decided that I was going to go through the first 10 boiler problems, which are standard. I would call them brainteasers, but when you're learning how to program, it's mostly mathematical things. Write a Fibonacci sequence and calculate the sum of even numbers up to 100 or something like that. So, I decided that I was going to try to do this using F# in a functional sequence and just say "okay, here are going to be the things that I ran into. Here's where I ran into a roadblock and here is how I got around it." I've heard some great things about that series from someone in another country asking me if I was going to do any more of those boiler problems because they were following that series. It's just having someone say that that thing that you did was useful to them.
Jeremy: As far as those boiler problems are concerned, those have been around for a long time and there are thousands and thousands of solutions to those in various languages and people have done them in F# before. They have done them in all the languages before. Putting my process out there of how I went through this is helping other people. It's awesome to think that something that I would normally be doing can actually impact somebody outside of that. So, you don't have to get up in front of other people and speak. It could just be a matter of writing some blog articles or maybe putting out a little YouTube video if you're more comfortable doing talking and live coding things than writing. There are many things that we can do to share what we know. The one hurdle that we do have to get over though is that hurdle of being wrong.
Jeremy: In our industry, we have this fear of being wrong. We have this fear of people coming up to us and saying, "Oh, you're doing that wrong." So, we just have to put ourselves out there and realize that we are human, and we are imperfect, this is my process, and if you have a better idea, then great! Share it! If you want to rip me, then go somewhere else. I don't want to hear about that." Part of it is just saying that you are going to put yourself out there. It's scary. You're going to get some comments that you're not going to like, but it's going to be totally worth it in the long run.
Arsalan: You must have somewhat of a thick skin because some people love to bring everybody else down. It's incredible that it happens, but it happens on Twitter and it's going to happen anywhere that people are going to post comments.
Jeremy: It really amazes me because I have this video on YouTube, which is An Introduction to Test-driven Development, or Intro to T.D.D. In this drive-by comment, someone said: "this drive-by development is awful." I was like, "who is this who feels that they need to go to YouTube and find a random video and comment that this technology does not work?" You must realize, first, that you're not going to please everyone. It was a tough thing for me to get over especially when I was first getting up and speaking in front of people. Then, after you do it enough, you're going to refine it and find those people you're targeting. It took me many years to refine and hone into it, but I know who my audience is now.
Jeremy: So, when looking for places to speak, I'm not sure shot-gunning it. [I'm considering] who are the people who are going to most benefit from what I have to say and the way that I normally say it? I know I'm not going to hit those cutting-edge things. I don't do that leading-edge, new technology stuff. That's not my thing, but [for others] who do that, more power to them. If I have of .NET programmers who want to get better, then that's basically my target audience. There are a lot of people out there like that, which is nice. I've been able to identify that. Now, when I get the comments that say "Oh, this is too basic," I can say, "That's fine." Yet, there are a lot of people who are getting a lot of benefit out of it. So, being able to separate those people is nearly impossible. I'm still crying inside when someone doesn't like me, but that rationalization allows me to focus on the people who I am trying to reach.
Arsalan: It's hard to take it. It happens to me. It happens to everyone. It's hard to take it. It happens to me. It happens to everyone. Sometimes, you get somebody who just doesn't like you. It's that. Sometimes, they are saying things that they don't mean. So, you must have thick skin. You must be able to focus on the positive people, the people who will give you positive energy versus the people who are pulling you down. That's going to happen everywhere except when you are in a face-to-face environment or when you're giving a presentation. You will probably not get those comments from people who are present. Virtual people like to throw all kinds of things that you.
Jeremy: Yeah, and the nice thing about code camps are an awesome place to start speaking if that's what you want to do because first, it's free and people aren't expecting things. In fact, I always offer people things like a "double your money back guarantee" if they don't like my topic. Plus, everyone in the room wants you to succeed. They don't want to sit there and waste an hour. They want you to succeed. They want to learn something from you. Everyone is rooting for you there. Again, not everyone is going to walk out getting what they wanted out of the topic or the presentation or whatever. So, generally, there's a very good positive energy in the room. Nobody wants time. They want you to succeed.
Arsalan: I did want to ask Pluralsight also about the MVP award. Did you have the MVP when you approached Pluralsight?
Jeremy: So, by timeline, yes, I was awarded an MVP before Pluralsight. As far as Pluralsight is concerned, they don't really care who you are. They want to know if you can teach. That is one thing that I found that was nice. They have an audition process, and anyone can go through the audition process. You go to their website and somewhere on there you can click to show that you want to be an author. You go through a process where they send you some instructions and you do a sample video and then they will see if you can teach. They don't care who you are. They want to know that you can teach.
Jeremy: If you want to talk about the technical aspect of presentations and whatnot, they do a-peer-to-review system where there are some people who are experts in those technologies will view to determine if something is way off when it comes to the technology, not for 100% correctness. So, the MVP idea and Pluralsight are an interesting mixture. MVP awards are basically Microsoft recognizing people who contribute to the developer community. So, through my speaking, my blogs, and things like that, that is how I was initially awarded that. I've been an MVP for six years now. So, it's been great. So, Pluralsight and MVP have interesting aspects to each other, but I would not say that one requires the other.
Jeremy: So, I found myself writing out my instructions on a piece of paper before I typed them into this little keypad. That was my first experience that real life doesn't always match theory. If you say 'go forward and turn 90°, it'd turn 85° or 96°, depending on the surface that it was on. These were on plastic wheels and so if it was on carpet it would do one thing and if it was on the tile it would do something else and slide around a little. So, if you told it to turn 90° and it only turned 80° and plows into the coffee table rather than going around it. So, the way you debugged it was by going back and telling it to go 100° rather than 90°. I look back at this and wondered how I ever survived that because that was just a little programming experience. Yet, I guess that was just the time that I found out that I liked doing things like that and I wasn't completely frustrated by it.
Arsalan: Some of my best experiences were when I was young, and I wanted to do programming. I had access to a computer growing up, but I think back in the day we didn't have all these instructions. We didn't have the iPhones and the iPads, and we didn't have cable TV. Well, I didn't have cable TV. We didn't have anything. So, all I had was what was in front of me. I think it would be good if we could find a way to make things simpler again at least for kids so they could focus on things and not get distracted all the time.
Jeremy: Yeah, that's an interesting challenge. There are times when I'm like "That's great! I have the entire internet open to me. So, I can solve this programming problem." But, at the same time, part of me wants to go back to 1980-whatever when I'm typing in basic instructions that were printed out in the back of a magazine. So, you just typed in these programs and you learned to debug based on how badly you typed and by going through them. That's how we got programs, you know. There was nowhere to download stuff from. You had to type them in yourself.
Jeremy: I didn't have a lot. So, I always had old computers. That Apple II that I talked about, it was well past its prime by the time that I got a hold of it. You know what's great? Having a computer that you can hook up to a television set. Oh man, now I feel old.
Arsalan: Yeah. We've all heard about it or done it. We are lucky that we are in an era where we can have high definition screens on our desks. Even 20 years ago, that would've been the stuff of dreams.
Arsalan: So, did you study computer programming, computer science, or any other related field in a formal environment?
Jeremy: No and that was interesting because I am, for the most part, a self-taught programmer. So, like I said, I did hobby programming and back in the day, I ran a bulletin board system where you would basically modem into a specific computer to do stuff. That was quite a thing back in the day. How I got programming for real was that my brother worked for a software distributor. One day he drops this gigantic box in my room. He told me it was a compiler. It was a C++ compiler. I installed it and there were command lines of C++ and I ended up writing some little programs for his bulletin board. I wrote a multiple choice, trivia quiz. It was fun, but it was my first foray into programming for real.
Jeremy: Back in college, I was an English major. I don't regret that at all because it taught me critical thinking skills that became very useful to me as a programmer. Then, when I decided that I wanted to do programming as a profession, I realized that I didn't have any formal training and wasn't sure how I was going to get my foot in the door. That was something that, I don't want to say that I lucked into to, but I was in the right place at the right time and kind of pursuing a path.
Jeremy: I ended up on the user side of a project. So, I was working at the Disney Land Resort and I was on the user side of this big, resort-wide system that we were doing. I was doing the requirements meetings and I was building some little things and access according, so we could figure out what our requirements were. The develop manager saw that I had the right mindset and I was asking the right types of questions. So, she had a junior position open. So, I said "Awesome! I will take that!" I would say that I got started late as a developer. I wasn't a developer until I was 29 years old. Most people that you are practically over the hill at that point and that was just when I was beginning my professional journey.
Jeremy: I am very fortunate because that team that I ended up on was focused on going forward. So, everyone was thinking about how we could propel ourselves forward and meet our users' needs that best way that we can. Everyone was sharing. So, the senior developers were sharing with the people who knew less than they did. So, it was an inspiring growth environment. I attribute how rapidly I was able to progress as someone with no formal training to that and I wish that more people could have access to that. I realize that was a rare experience that I got to experience. It was awesome!
Arsalan: That is amazing that you had the opportunity and found yourself in the right place and at the right time. I have had a lot of other people tell me similar stories, not the same. If you work at a company that deals in technology or maybe have a technology, they may need someone to build some custom applications for them.
Arsalan: It appears to be a common pattern. Some places just need someone to write some Excel or Access or some Visual Basic, or something simple. Some places may have websites, or, in your case, more. The lesson that I take from this is this. Let's say that you are out, or you are a student, and you want to do software development, but you don't have any experience or training. So, you get a job in a different position, but you know that this company has a department where they hire developers. There is an opportunity for you to work within the system and either apply for an open position or maybe have a good working relationship with managers there in those departments.
Arsalan: I've seen it happen time and again where people go from something completely unrelated to software development or to testing and then they work up. Eventually, they all end up in the same place. Once you have a little bit of experience, then nobody asks how you got that experience or whether you have a degree. Nobody asks if you have a master's degree or a Ph.D.
Arsalan: I spent many years studying computer science and computer engineering. It turns out that it wasn't needed for the job, at least. So, I think that's a good lesson for all of us to learn, especially for those who are listening to this podcast right now and they are apprehensive about getting a job somewhere. Go get the job. Having a job is important. Being jobless is no fun.
Jeremy: You reminded me of the steps before that because when I started at Disneyland resort, I was making hotel reservations. That was my first job there. I was using a scheduling system. I hate to use the scheduling system, but basically, the manager was going through an Excel sheet and typing in the schedule for everyone. Because of seniority and other things, if someone changed their position, she had to rearrange everything and fill in the schedules all over again.
Jeremy: It was this huge manual process. I knew some Excel and I built a pivot table. I told her to just type in the schedule in the pivot table and that would turn it into a grid. It was little things like that where you could save time that is valuable in the long run. I don't know that the little schedule spreadsheet got me the programming job, but it was small steps to, first, prove to myself that I could be technologically useful and to prove that to other people as well.
Jeremy: So, there are some things that you can do even if they are technologically out of your realm. I see my job as a developer to make the world a better place. That's just me making other people's jobs easier.
Arsalan: So, that was your first job as a junior developer. You were excited. You have never done it. You are 29 years old. I don't know how people reacted to that, but a lot of people who I know would not necessarily react very positively to joining their company, their closed knit group with little to no experience. It happens to a lot of us. Getting accepted and viewed as a valued member, an equal and contributing member to each team, take some effort. How is that experience for you?
Jeremy: Like I said, I was on a very welcoming and open team. So, it was probably smoother for me than what a lot of other people go through. it will take time before you become useful in the department. Realize that if you are brand-new to the area, you're going to be a drag on the area for a while. So, just because it is in of that. That's not necessarily that you are a new developer, it might be because you're new to the industry.
Jeremy: When I took a contracting job in a completely new industry, I didn't know how anything about these people's line of business works. Although I was rock-solid as a developer, and the skills that they needed, it was a learning process in determining how they did things. I think I think that the key to becoming a successful developer is absorbing knowledge. You must want to learn. You can learn the technologies. You can learn about the business space area. You can learn whatever the problem space it.
Jeremy: There are so many things out there to learn, but you must be willing to do it. If somebody must keep handing you things that you need to learn, you're not going to be successful. Yet, if you go and find new things to learn and start participating and that experience, the other developers are going to see that you are serious. You will be showing that you are interested in improving and getting better and wanting to be a productive member of the team. That attitude goes a long way toward softening those people who might be a little harder towards that.
Arsalan: Were you completely on your own or did you have a mentor over there?
Jeremy: It was kind of weird because we tried to set up a mentoring relationship where everyone was paired up in the department, but it didn't last very long. So, it was more of an informal thing. Different people on the team had different areas of specialty.
Jeremy: So, when I first joined the team, I was given reporting because it's hard to delete data if you're doing reporting. It is easier to hang a server, though. I've hung servers while doing reporting before. Yet, it's something that you can approach, and you can learn how the data is set up and people looking for you to get it on a piece of paper and things like that. During the initial process, I am talking to people who know the system, the data that I'm working with so that I can understand how the relationships work and things like that. I'm talking to people who know the tool.
Jeremy: We were using Crystal reports. So, I was able to tap into these people to do the different areas that I needed to learn. Then, eventually, I would be able to do programming. When I first started programming, we were using Delphi and doing some actual language programming. So, we were getting more into the actual application space. It was more of an informal system where we were sharing with each other and we would pair when we ran into problems.
Jeremy: Now, as a senior developer, I've heard about these teens who have a 15-minute rule and I really like the idea of this. During the 15 minutes before you asked somebody how to do something, you must spend at least 15 minutes looking for a solution on your own. That could include looking on Google, Stack Overflow, or the software that you have in your environment. So, you must spend at least 15 minutes trying to find an answer before asking someone else. So that gets you past always asking somebody else for help and helps you figure it out.
Jeremy: On the flip side of the 15-minute theory, if you spend more than 15 minutes looking for something, you must ask for help. So, that prevents people from getting stuck. It also promotes that sharing environment. That way, someone isn't sitting there spinning for two hours being stuck on a problem. They are asking for help and other people are used to asking for help and giving help. Again, it depends on your teammates wanting to be involved in that, but I like the idea of doing some due diligence first and realizing when you get stuck and then asking someone for help.
Arsalan: That's good advice. I'm not seeing both sides of the equation. I've been on both ends of this divide. I've been the one asking and the one being asked these questions. The problem is that, for the people who are new developers, the person that you are asking also has his or her own tasks. Everybody is under the gun. That's what happens.
Arsalan: The problem is that sometimes they are deep in their process and if you interrupt them, not only do you break their flow and sometimes that means that something gets delayed for them, which further adds to their stress and therefore their response to you may not be as favorable. So, I think it's good to have some type of process. One of the companies that I worked at had this umbrella process. It rained a lot in Chicago, so everyone had umbrellas. If it was on the desk, that meant not to bother them.
Jeremy: Yeah. I like that. This is one of the things that I miss from being in a cube environment. It's nice when you can pop your head up over the cube wall to look at the person and figure out what's going on, once you have some experience and you can see it. You can tell if they are deep in meditation while trying to solve a problem or if they're just looking at the whiteboard or if they are talking to a client or whatever. You can get that visual of how busy this person is before you approach them. Considering I'm working remotely with people, I'm not quite as comfortable with that. I feel like I might be interrupting you if you're deep in thought. I do miss popping my head up over the wall to see if that person is available or not. So, yeah, the umbrella method does sound pretty good.
Arsalan: If you could start over, is there anything that you would do differently?
Jeremy: I learned many things the hard way. As someone who likes helping the next generation of developers, I love telling people the problems that I ran into and the things I wish I could avoid, but I know that people won't listen to me and they're going to have to experience those problems themselves. The advice I usually give has to do with best practices. Before I say anything further, I hate the term best practices because it implies that this is the right thing to do in all circumstances. When I was a new developer, I always thought that best practices applied to academic people and not to regular programmers. So, I proceeded to make huge messes. I eventually realized that the people who had for 30 years or more might know something more than I do. So, I would encourage people to understand the best practices.
Jeremy: I don't always follow them, but not because I don't want to use them, but rather, it's because I know that they don't apply to the specific situation that I am in. So, listen to your elders. I know that I'm kind of in with the elders, but that's self-serving. That's what I wish I would've paid more attention to when I was younger. The first solo application that I did in this one department, I was doing a start to finish reporting application. I ended up putting all the logic in the code behind the main form of the application. When I was building it, I figured that it was a simple application, and this wouldn't be a big deal. Yet, as it got bigger and bigger, I then had 700 lines of code in this one form. I had to reap the benefits of that because I supported the application for many years. It was a moment when I wished that I could have gone back to do it over again and have things in different places based on functionality. Yet, I don't know if I would've learned my lesson without making that mistake. So, I don't know what a good answer to that is.
Arsalan: I have two little girls. There are arguments or debates between my wife and me about what to do if they are doing something potentially dangerous. My wife's point of view is to allow them to fall and get hurt and learned the lesson. I like that approach. In general, but then it gets to a point where I feel it's a little too dangerous and I want to enforce some rules. So, I think there's a balance here. The people who you and I are talking about, who read blogs and take your courses, or listen to this podcast, or do this, may not always understand this. It's always a good idea to try it if you're unsure, then if you fall flat on your face then you'll know it's not a good thing and you'll learn a lesson. However, sometimes it's beneficial to listen to people who have been there and take their word on it. Often you can save yourself so much trouble and heartache if you could avoid the big problems. I wish I had.
Arsalan: You were mentioning, that as a new developer or just as a young person, that you are so full of self-confidence sometimes and think you know everything. I've suffered from that. I just want to believe my own experiences, but sometimes it's better. There are patterns and there are anti-patterns but we're not going to go into this. When you're looking at software development, there are ways of building good software that is just bad. They're not all bad, but they are generally bad. So, I think it's good knowledge. The best way to do that is by listening to podcasts, watching YouTube videos, reading blog posts, and all that other stuff that's out there that Jeremy Clark and other people like him are putting out.
Arsalan: So, Jeremy, are there any podcasts, YouTube channels, or any other places on the internet that people can glean wonderful information?
Jeremy: Yes. There's a lot of good stuff out there, but there's also a lot of bad stuff out there. I like Pluralsight because they go through that vetting process. So, it's not random content on YouTube. It's curated content where they have found people who know how to teach a topic and are not confusing things.
Jeremy: Another thing that Pluralsight does is that they don't have multiple courses on the same topic. So, you're not looking at 32 courses on how to do Angular 2 or Angular 5 or whatever the version number is up to at the time. They are all more targeted and there are one overview course and a lot of specific courses. So, you don't have several overview courses to pick from. If you are a video learner, then I highly recommend Pluralsight.
Jeremy: Unfortunately, I am not a video learner. I figured my brain doesn't work at the same speed as video. Basically, my brain speeds up and slows down and video runs at a constant speed. So, for me, print media is the best way for me to learn whether it's blog articles or paper books. I'm one of those people who still like paper books where you can flip back and forth between pages. Find out the best way that you learn and try to get yourself into the environment where you will learn best. I'm kind of a book person. So, I talked to a lot of my friends about the resources within the community to see what other people are doing and recommending. That's what I do.
Arsalan: That's good to know. Pluralsight is very good. You can check out Jeremy's courses, and we can put the links to Jeremy's courses on our webpage for this episode. It'll be in the notes with the transcript of our interview and all the links. If you have a promo code, you can share that with us if you'd like and we'll make sure that it's on that page.
Jeremy: I'll make sure to get you those links.
Arsalan: Awesome. So, we're finally at the close. It's been a lengthy interview. I'm grateful to you for giving us so much of your time today. Before we close, I still have a couple of interesting questions that I think our audience could benefit from. One of the things that I've noticed is that you are focused on .NET. .NET is not one technology. It is a suite of technologies. It doesn't appear that you have diverged from your focus, which is a very good thing. I would like you to talk about how you keep up with things and how you decide which new technologies to learn. What do you do? What're your criteria? Also, give us some advice on how to learn new things.
Jeremy: The first thing to understand is that I cannot know everything. That was a hard lesson for me to learn. I think what I want to focus on. I like to attend user groups, code camps and community events and talk to people about what technologies they are using, what's interesting, and what's exciting. I ask myself, what makes me happy? In the current world, I've developed an interest in machine learning and functional programming.
Jeremy: Although I've talked about using F# earlier, I've started learning Haskell for functional programming. Part of the reason I did that is to get out of the .NET environment. That way I don't confuse functional bits with .NET bits. Most of the work that I would be doing would be in the F# world. I dabbled in Scala and a couple of other things. I've also seen some cool things out there that I haven't had a chance to dabble in.
Jeremy: So, people ask me which technologies they should learn. I usually explore a couple of different things. I asked them if there is a specific industry that excites them. Do you want to be in medical devices? Do you want to be in entertainment? Do you want to be in finance? If there's a specific industry that you want to be in, go and find out which technologies they are using. Then, start exploring those. That's one direction that you can go in if you are looking at a specific industry.
Arsalan: I think that is a great answer because it's hard to answer questions like these because we want to know how you picked a technology and or are so many things that excite you. I think there's also the aspect of which industry you want to go into because where is the money? Ultimately, you could do something for fun or you could say that you want to do it professionally and you need to learn certain types of technologies because that is how a means becomes an end. Some people have different motivations. If you are just starting out or are a new developer, if you are young or looking to establish yourself, then I encourage you to focus on things that will get you a job. Focus on things that will get you noticed. You need to make your mark. Once you have done that, then it's okay to branch out into things that interest you. When you're getting yourself established, the first four or five years are the hardest. In our industry, it is hard to find senior people. So, it gets easier with time.
Arsalan: So, how can people get in touch with you, Jeremy?
Jeremy: You can find me under Jeremy Bytes everywhere online including my website: Jeremybytes.com and also on Twitter. Each I do quite a bit of speaking so I travel the US and venture internationally from time to time. On my website, there are also links to my YouTube channel where I have some screencasts on various topics, as well as my Pluralsight courses. That's pretty much the one place to go to find out where I'm going to be.
Arsalan: All right. Jeremy Bytes everywhere on the Internet. That's a good lesson in branding. I am so excited to have Jeremy here and be able to talk to him about some of the questions that our audience has. If you are listening to this podcast and are really excited about learning or you want to learn more about Jeremy or check out his courses, or if you want to see a number of our other guests, our previous guest was Reuven Lerner and we talked about Regular Expressions and he's an expert in that, if you just want to let know how to get started, you can send me an e-mail@us.mentoringdevelopers.com. You can also tweet at us at @MentoringDevs. Let us know what you think about this episode and if there's a specific person that you would like us to talk to would like to pursue that as well.
Arsalan: All right, Jeremy. It was so nice to talk to you today.
Jeremy: Thanks for having me.


Allergen immunotherapy has a well-established role in the treatment of allergic rhinitis and conjunctivitis. Sublingual allergen immunotherapy seems to have a similar impact on symptoms and medication score as compared to classic, subcutaneous immunotherapy. Due to the fact that sublingual immunotherapy utilizes several approaches, in this review we are comparing clinical trials data for two of the most common allergen tablets, Grazax and Oralair. Based on these data we suggest that pre and co-seasonal treatment is efficient only when Oralair is prescribed, whereas Grazax should be used in only in an all-year-around manner in order to obtain clinical efficacy. Further, more well-designed clinical trials are needed to establish the pre and co-seasonal treatment efficacy with Grazax.


Good news for the working executives in the country as Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kozhikode has introduced a new doctoral programme, PhD in Management (Practice Track) where the working executives with at least eight years of experience can work on a doctoral degree while remaining in their jobs. The newly introduced programme will also allow research specialization in banking, manufacturing, sports or tourism as well along with economics, finance or strategy.
Commenting on this, Prof. Debashis Chatterjee, Director, IIM Kozhikode, says, "This is the first time in India that we are defining a PhD in the form of a Practice Track. It is an idea whose time has come. While you are in the job you can bring real life problems to your doctoral research for investigation and discover the solutions with the kind of clarity that only a deeply embedded knowledge system can bring".
Prof. Kaushik Gangopadhyay, Chair of the doctoral programmes, notified that the deadline for online submission of applications on the Institute's website in June 5th 2019. The programme is designed to make sure that the busy work life of an executive is not affecting their PhD dreams. The Executive Post Graduate Programmes will enrich the skills and strategies to take their organization to the next level round work.
Prof. Rudra Sensarma, Dean (Research), IIM Kozhikode, comments, "The entire program can be completed in 3-5 years and successful PhDs can expect to make meaningful contributions to industry best practices or even seek a shift in career to teaching and research". With his experience spanning across a broad spectrum of Economics and Finance problems in recent times, he has been focusing on applied work with strong policy orientation.
Established in 1997, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK) provides Postgraduate Programme (PGP) and other academic programmes in management education. IIMK is one of the few centres for Development of Digital Libraries in the world and is a country leader. The institute aims to create a unique and futuristic space of global reckoning so as to nurture the finest management thinkers. IIMK has grown tremendously with the current batch of 356 odd students, making it one of the fastest growing management schools in the country.


any tips on places to go around burlington tonight to wet a line? any help is appreciated.
maybe under the skyway bridge? Beach blvd?
That is indeed a good spot fpr carp fishing. All around the Skyway. You may even run into a Salmon if your lucky.
Bronte's where I'd be if I lived there!
There's Lasalle Park ( take Waterdown Rd. south off the 403). Good carp, largemouth and panfish. The pier below the Skyway ( take Eastport off the QEW) lakeside for salmon, bayside for sheephead, channels and panfish.
Going to Bronte tomorrow early.
How crowded does the creek get on the weekends?


text:
Q: I am trying to write a decorator to test a command for call a function It seems to me that the error is related in _input but im not sure
import random
from functools import wraps

_input = input()

def name(command='help'):
    def _name(func):
        @wraps(func)
        def inner(*args, **kwargs):
            if _input == command:
                func(*args, **kwargs)

        return inner
    return _name

@name(command='test')
def poo():
    print('5')

@name(command='test_2')
def foo():
    print('Hello')

>>>test
5

(Sorry for my English)

A: I think there is just a misunderstanding here.  You seem to think that if you run the code and type test it should run poo.  (ugh, what a name).  But it won't run anything at all, because the only executed lines in the script are the imports, the _input = input() and the decorators (because decorators are semantic sugar).
If what you want to do is to run a fn when you type a particular command, use a dict of fns instead:
def poo:
    pass

fns = {"test":poo}

choice = None
while choice not in fns:
    choice = input("Fn: ")

fn[choice]()

Note that there is nothing else wrong with your code, and you could just add calls to both fns at the end, if you are trying to test decorators, as a comment notes.
Decorators
Since there seems to be some disagreement about decorators, the following are equivalent:
@mydecorator(*args)
def fn():
    pass

mydecorator(*args)(fn)

Perhaps this makes it clearer where the decorator code is called.

A: If the question is: Why doesn't my program output 5, then the answer is: because you don't call any of your functions.
The simplest solution to this particular problem is to just call the functions and let your decorator do the filtering it was designed for:
...
# code from the OP elided
poo()
foo()

Output:
test
5

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