I guess that depends on your powers of observation. But even if you trust in your powers of observation, it is an excellent opportunity to compare what you observe with what they say. If things don't mesh, you have to wonder.
Funny you should mention that. I'm definitely buying more electronic books (Kindle app for iPad). Somehow I feel better paying less for the electronic version. But I still prefer a hard copy for the classics. :-)
Yes, I totally agree. Learning is learning. But the pitfall is when the learner just learns the tool but misses the concept that generated the tool. I see this all the time. Knowledge and wisdom need to go hand in hand.
It isn't that you shouldn't have those books. My point is mainly that once you read them and learn the tools, they just gather dust. I just went back and amended my post with an additional sentence. Basically, most of the books that teach tools are read once, Google later. Once I know about a tool, it is usually a lot faster to quickly search for a bit of refresher knowledge than to thumb through the book looking for some specific page.
In the particular field I'm in (radio astronomy), I usually have two choices when hiring. 1) Hire someone with radio astronomy knowledge and teach them to be a good software engineer, or 2) Hire a good software engineer and teach them a bit about radio astronomy. My point being, you don't have to know everything. From my point of view as the person doing the hiring, you simply have to demonstrate a capacity to learn coupled with a well-groundedness in the basic concepts required for the job.
I would highly recommend that you don't lie. As a person who has hired for several positions and who also has a good BS detector, a discovered lie is always a deal breaker. It puts your entire candidacy into question and you're resume goes straight into the trash can.
This is cool. An interesting tidbit. We actually used Logo as a programming metaphor when creating our telescope observation software for the Green Bank Telescope (http://www.gb.nrao.edu/gbt/) in Python. The observation software has been in operation for about 8 years now and has been very successful.
I have to agree with too stealth. You are trying to generate interest by getting people to think. The problem is that most web surfers don't want to think. And you have to realize that the people on this forum from whom you are asking advice generally like to think and solve puzzles. I'd suggest getting some feedback via feedbackroulette.com to help round out your survey.
I think the most horrible part of that is that I continue to experience the same shock I felt when I first saw it each time I bring it up. It is like I'm seeing it again for the first time and have to reorient myself. I'm wondering how many times it will take for me to rewire my brain.
If you are expecting a relatively low chat volume but more than 20 conversations per month, you might find My Customer Cloud's (http://mycustomercloud.com) pay-per-use plan a good option. We also offer SMS chat in addition to website chat.