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I'd also recommend taking a look at Ars Digita University's old Computer Science materials at http://aduni.org/.

The discrete math course has nice videos of the lectures, so it could be a nice way to augment whatever course someone takes live. Plus there are additional problems (some with answers). And the book for the course, being 10 years old, can be picked up for under $10.

http://www.aduni.org/courses/discrete/

I'd also recommend taking a look at Ars Digita University's old Computer Science materials at http://aduni.org/.

The discrete math course has nice videos of the lectures, so it could be a nice way to augment whatever course someone takes live. Plus there are additional problems (some with answers). And the book for the course, being 10 years old, can be picked up for under $10.

http://www.aduni.org/courses/discrete/

The OP forgot that the MIT curriculum -- the lectures themselves -- are already largely available. The course materials for nearly two thousand courses at MIT are available here:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm

So are all of the lectures from an experiment in Computer Science education that predates MIT's open courseware, http://aduni.org/ .

ArsDigita University http://www.aduni.org/ has good material on Computer Science. They only charge for the DVDs.

Yeah, when I read the headline "divide an image into discrete patterns", I was reminded of the 'Applied Probability Course' offered by ArsDigita.org. One of the lecturers appearantly did a PhD thesis on this topic. So, I was kind of impressed that some father would be interested in going to such lengths for his kid. (IIRC, there were only 5 lectures for the course, so you could certainly watch them if your interested in this subject.)

Tip: Most 'hard' problems have really nifty approximate solutions that are good enough for most applications (i.e. problems not in AI/automation/verification).

P.S. I think the algorithm using a 'histogram of top N colors' is pretty cool for a automated paint-by-number pattern generator. Seems like that could be a cool perl hack. Sure, you might have to throw a way some of the more 'complicated' images that have too many shades of a color (or other similar low probability scenarios). Maybe you could examine the difference in RGB values of colors in the pallete and examine the frequency in which these colors are used.

These are available for download, but consider sending them $75US for the complete set of 17 DVDs. A great deal.

Some of the best coders I've ever encountered were under 20. It doesn't really take that long for someone with the right sort of intelligence to develop the skills. So the idea of a two-year crash course isn't unreasonable.

The real problem is, that sort of intelligence isn't all that rare. Which is why a coding career isn't as lucrative as it once was, I guess. These crash courses beguile their audiences into thinking they can be fabulously wealthy just as coders. You need a great deal more to convert computing skill into something other than a moderately paid high stress job.

Know computing, but also know something else, is my advice for most people. What else? Something that you can apply the computing to, basically. There's a lot of choices. Pick one.

Sounds a lot like what Philip Greenspun was trying to do with ArsDigita University.

First, you need to do what you like to do. I think a warning about the tough times in computing is fair. However, the employment situation is much better for harder skills (i.e. CS versus IT, research level CS versus UML/OOP/J2EE). I think there's still plenty of room for highly educated and motivated people.

Actually I saw a program at Dartmouth for a dual MD and PhD in CS (odd combination, but definitely useful). You may also be interested in the field of computational biophysics. It's all of the same ilk.

The article poster said he was interested in CS. Are you interested in research or business? There are a lot of different routes you could take. Do you want to deal with biomedical engineers, biochemists, or lawyers? Frankly, you were way too broad.

Incidentally, for what ever it's worth. You may get a kick out of http://www.santafe.edu/sfi/People/kauffman/">Stuar t Kauffman's work. He's regarded as one of the best in the field of complexity research. He also has an MD and no PhD. He taught himself quite a bit.

Some good Math and CS books:

"The (New) Turing Omnibus: 66 Excursions in Computer Science" by A. K. Dewdney
This book is a great advanced introduction to all of the major topics of CS (except neural networks). This book has sections on Godel's Incompleteness Theorem, Relational Algebra (database theory), viruses, operating systems, data structures, and more. This is a great book for you.

http://aduni.org/
This site has lectures from an entire CS curriculum online. It was an experimental program designed for people like you.

You'll need a good introductory book on programming. Since you're probably not worrying about polishing up your resume, and you seem to be more interested in learning, you should take a look at:
"The Little Schemer" or "The Little LISPer" by Daniel Friedman.

If you really want the traditional route, take a look at "Thinking in Java" by Bruce Eckel. It's free and most people recommend Java or C++ as a good first language.

If you're really daring, try the "Perl" book by Larry Wall or "Learning Perl" by Randall Schwartz. Although, I think Perl is a horrible first language to learn. It's way too exotic.

Take a look at "Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment" by W. Richard Stevens. It's a great book on the internals in Unix.

Learn assembly language, it's a poor man's computer architecture course. Try to make a small graphics program (draw some primitives [lines and circles]) with assembly. Of course, you can't do that in Windows (unless you call some Win32 libraries or are VERY good.

"First Order Logic" by Raymond Smullyan
This book essentially covers the mathematics of automated theorem proving. Armed only with this, I was able to read papers in the field. Some knowledge of basic logic (prepositional logic, maybe some slight familiarity with predicate logic) is required. I'd also recommend a whole lot of "mathematical maturity". I recommend any of Raymond Smullyan's books (technical and popular science) sight unseen. Even his thesis (Theory of Formal Systems) was pretty good.

Any book by Howard Whitley Eves or Robert R. Stoll
Both men wrote books on matrix theory (linear algebra and more) and set theory. Actually, both are top-notch textbook writers and many of their books are available from Dover Publications.

Calculus Made Easy by Silvanus P. Thompson (or by FRS [Fellow of the Royal Society] if it's really old) and Calculus by Michael Spivak

The first book is the closest thing to a competent Calculus for dummies. It's almost 100 years old and it's a classic. Incidentally Mr. Thompson was an engineer, not a mathematician. The second book is notoriously rigourous and is almost an introduction to analysis. I don't know if you really care about Calculus. You probably won't

The ADU cat was named /etc. I know it's not a cable type, but it's topical.

You can see /etc emerging from the hardware here.

For anyone interested in the MIT course 6.004 Computation Structures: the lectures are very similar to ArsDigita University's "How Computers Work".

ArsDigita University put all its lectures online in realvideo format. Here's mirror of the "How Computers Work" course.

You might check out some of the materials on display at ArsDigita University, they have lectures online and a critique of each course, together with a list of texts...personally, Sispser's text for Theory of Computation was very helpful in explaining a lot of the higher-level CS Math.

This is how ArsDigita University distributes its course material: http://aduni.org/drives/

At the risk of /.ing one of the best sites for free computer science information, you can download the audio for a talk given by Stallman at ArsDigita University where he describes origins and differences between the GNU Operating System and the Linux kernal.

In defference to Stallman, the the talk is distributed in the .ogg format.

If you find this site interesting, please send them a donation to keep it available for others.

It's actually only about 80 gigs. : ) We sell hard drives with all of that on them. Or you can go the extremely slow route and download them all. We'd love to have someone make all that available through a P2P client - don't have the bandwidth to do it ourselves. And it's all under the OpenContent License, no worries about legality.

-heather
(ADUni webmaster)

Well, relatively so. I had a palm-pilot pro in 1998, and a Casio proprietary-os crapstravaganza before that. The palm pro had a modem, and I was able to telnet into my university and check my email remotely on this device I had picked up for $100 used- it was pretty sweet since I travelled a lot of time and couldn't afford/didn't want to carry my own laptop.

Eventually sold it out of a desperate need for cash, but soon after bought a IIIe. It met my needs and was great for taking notes in class and I even used it to do some of my SICP homework using LispMe. Also played lots of games on it :) Zap!2000 and Dragonbane were pretty sweet ways to spend time on the T. Also got the NYT front page articles and the regular suck.com essays through Avantgo for a while, but suck is gone now and the NYT stuff was just a little too insubstantial.

The display on that one finally gave out after 2+ years of faithful use, so I picked up a used m100 on half.com for about $60, and it's the best palm I've had so far, because it has all the features of the palm pro and palm III, but most importantly it gets the hell out of my way- it actually fits comfortably in a shirt pocket, where the others (especially after adding a faux leather case) were just far too bulky. The only downside is that the graffiti area seems to be smaller and as a result I make a lot more errors, meaning less wpm.

But I use it all the time, especially as a nag machine to keep me on time for appointments and project deadlines. Plus I still play some games (bejeweled and pocketchess 1.0 - if you can still find it - come highly recommended). But I can't imagine giving up battery life for features on my electric planner- palmOS has really not been improved on since palm pro, it's just been gussied up to keep pace with wince. And I especially can't imagine not being able to replace my batteries with a fresh pair of AAA's on the road- the systems with the built-in batteries may save you money on batteries (unless you're using the same 2 pairs of rechargeables you bought 3 years ago like I am), but when you're on the road and your batteries are drained there's just nothing you can do.

Wow, I didn't think I had that much to say :)

Especially the math/compsci stuff. See here. You can even buy an entire drive filled with all course content.

Especially the math/compsci stuff. See here. You can even buy an entire drive filled with all course content.

You begin to make sweeping statements that students need to have more of a will to use the opportunities that they already have. Please, tell us about those opportunities that they have in, say, poorer parts of India, Brazil, or even the United States. Why do you feel those opportunites are enough? Don't you think that choice is good? Don't you think that having more educational options available to people is a good thing? Do you think that everyone has access to the same materials that you do? That the libraries throughout the world or even your country have a wealth of materials such as the ones you have access to? You know, there's a lot of places in the world where quality education isn't ubiquitous.

You also make the mistake of thinking that education can only be gained by sitting through a lengthy class and not from watching a 70 minute video. Who says that one VCD, or many, have to teach you French or calculus? And why do you think they can't? Sure, interaction is important, but haven't you ever sat down with a book and learned something from it? There's plenty of people who've taught themselves things from reading a book on how to do it. I learned how to draw and paint from reading a book. I also learned to program Perl from a book. There's no reason that a video makes it any different, it's just a different medium.

Thankfully, there are people such as ADUni that continue to make quality educational programs accessible in spite of your defeatist attitude. Not only do they provide the videos but they also provide the materials so that people can learn by practicing.

quote:

i dunno, it just seems like a waste to me.

We're still out here. The university itself closed its doors at the end of the academic year last July, and the alumni acted to save everything we could from the ashes. We run the aduni.org site, as others have posted on this thread.

All of our content (80 GB worth) is available online -- about 275 hours of lectures, problem sets, exams, notes, and solutions -- with courses like Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (the much-loved MIT Scheme intro to CS course), Discrete Math, Algorithms, Theory, AI, Databases, and a couple of courses in Software Engineering (one of which is taught by Greenspun).

But we're a shoestring alumni organization that can't afford the bandwidth to stream the videos very well, unfortunately. So as an alternative we'll ship an 80GB hard drive full of the stuff to anyone who wants one for $220. Everything's available under the Open Content License. E-mail me (chris@aduni.org) for more details.

Thanks.

Chris

From aduni.org:

The goal of ArsDigita University was to offer the world's best computer science education, at an undergraduate level, to people who were otherwise unable to obtain it. ADUni.org is now a site run by alumni of the school seeking to carry on that mission.

In 2000-2001, 34 talented and motivated college graduates attended a one-year, intensive, comprehensive undergraduate computer science program, for free. The program was an experiment in curriculum design, free education, and the effect of the Internet on the future of education. ArsDigita University was the brainchild of entrepreneur Philip Greenspun and the ArsDigita Foundation.

After one year, ArsDigita University lost funding and was forced to close its physical doors. Yet, we prefer to think of the program as dormant, not dead. As we redesign aduni.org, we will continue to host all of our course materials and will provide as much information as possible about the workings of this past year - who we are, what we did, how we did it, what worked, what didn't work, and what we're doing now.

The University happened and I attended it. There were some funding issues halfway through the year but they came through on their commitments.

It was a great experience and I hope that the idea will be picked up again someday by another corporation that feels guilty about its sudden wealth.

read about it at aduni.org if you're curious. You can watch/download pretty much all the lectures on line, do the problem sets, etc.

In fact, if someone out there is interested in mirroring about 40 gigabytes worth of video content from this server I believe that there is still a need for additional storage space.

ArsDigita university was wound up, although you can still access all the lectures on downloadable video (rm format I think), and the reading lists, etc. They will even send you a hard drive with all the lectures on, if you want to give yourself a CS degree =).

Their web site is still up at aduni.org.

thenerd

Try Philip Greenspun's brainchild, ArsDigita University .

There's no traditional university that does this. In fact, its not possible to do it in a year. You need 130+ credits to get a CS degree. Maybe in 3 years if you are dedicated, and can work
I really wish there was a place where you could take university quality CS classes in a program geared for working adults that didn't require you to take english, history, or whatever. I don't know of one, however.

When I have seen him speak, he has bootstrapped his entire presentation from the simple principle that one should not be restricted from helping one's neighbor. Here is an audio recording (in ogg vorbbis format) of a speech he gave last January at ArsDigita University.

You seem to want to make him seem selfish. Why not listen to what Stallman himself has to say before drawing any conclusions?

On the other hand, I can see him disapproving of efforts like Wine, which have the potential of turning systems that already are 100% Free into less-than-100% Free. "Hey, MS Office runs in Linux now? Let's stop using KOffice!"

I once thought this very thing, then I saw him speak in January at ArsDigita University, and I asked him about this very thing. His answer, iirc and may paraphrase, was that projects that bridge proprietary and free operating systems and proprietary software are very important, and that GNU at first required and was developed with proprietary unices- but that as these requirements fall away (and we must make progress in making them fall away), they become unnecessary. But he approves of the WINE project specifically. Personally I think if there's a distinction to be made, it's that we should focus on making non-free apps run on free os's more than we should focus on making free apps run on non-free os's (and in non-free languages), but that's just my opinion.

Bryguy

You can get all of the courses from ArsDigita University online now. This was a one-year program based loosely on MIT's undergraduate computer science curriculum. It's got Real (unfortunately) video of all the lectures, problem sets and solutions. Pick a course, do them all in order. They're really quite good.

Bryguy

The policy at your University sounds very backwards. I can certainly understand the need to occasionally assess your individual skill to make sure they don't dilute the value of their diplomas, but without cooperation I don't even see how Computer Science can be taught non-cooperatively.

I attended ArsDigita University last year, and it was explicitly the opposite of what you describe. Although there were individual tests and grades, the lab (where pretty much all interaction took place barring lectures) was built with about 40 computer workstations in an open-plan type office, with no walls separating the students from each other or the faculty. Most of the programming projects were collaborative group projects which were broken down into individual chores within the groups, and as a result we were able to do some pretty interesting things in a pretty short period of time, like building a Java-based Gnutella client in our January Java Class (which, like all of the ADU lectures and course materials, are available freely online, although the lectures are recorded in the unfortunate realvideo format). Here is a picture of some students collaborating intensely (or at least looking at something really interesting on Kevin's monitor :)

Having someone nearby to talk to when you're going crazy trying to find what to someone else will be a really obvious bug, or to bounce your design ideas off of, or to help you recall the syntax for a rarely-used but difficult-to-remember-the-name-of linux command can be absolutely invaluable. This experience is hardly exceptional, as any number of books and websites devoted to Extreme Programming will tell you.

There is a little friction when it comes time to decide who deserves what grade and why, since those within the group know better than the faculty who was really responsible for the work that actually got done, but this pales in comparison to the acceleration in learning that happens when you discuss specific pieces of code with another interested human being.

Hence, I think you are right in thinking that your administration is wrong.

Bryon

The policy at your University sounds very backwards. I can certainly understand the need to occasionally assess your individual skill to make sure they don't dilute the value of their diplomas, but without cooperation I don't even see how Computer Science can be taught non-cooperatively.

I attended ArsDigita University last year, and it was explicitly the opposite of what you describe. Although there were individual tests and grades, the lab (where pretty much all interaction took place barring lectures) was built with about 40 computer workstations in an open-plan type office, with no walls separating the students from each other or the faculty. Most of the programming projects were collaborative group projects which were broken down into individual chores within the groups, and as a result we were able to do some pretty interesting things in a pretty short period of time, like building a Java-based Gnutella client in our January Java Class (which, like all of the ADU lectures and course materials, are available freely online, although the lectures are recorded in the unfortunate realvideo format). Here is a picture of some students collaborating intensely (or at least looking at something really interesting on Kevin's monitor :)

Having someone nearby to talk to when you're going crazy trying to find what to someone else will be a really obvious bug, or to bounce your design ideas off of, or to help you recall the syntax for a rarely-used but difficult-to-remember-the-name-of linux command can be absolutely invaluable. This experience is hardly exceptional, as any number of books and websites devoted to Extreme Programming will tell you.

There is a little friction when it comes time to decide who deserves what grade and why, since those within the group know better than the faculty who was really responsible for the work that actually got done, but this pales in comparison to the acceleration in learning that happens when you discuss specific pieces of code with another interested human being.

Hence, I think you are right in thinking that your administration is wrong.

Bryon

The policy at your University sounds very backwards. I can certainly understand the need to occasionally assess your individual skill to make sure they don't dilute the value of their diplomas, but without cooperation I don't even see how Computer Science can be taught non-cooperatively.

I attended ArsDigita University last year, and it was explicitly the opposite of what you describe. Although there were individual tests and grades, the lab (where pretty much all interaction took place barring lectures) was built with about 40 computer workstations in an open-plan type office, with no walls separating the students from each other or the faculty. Most of the programming projects were collaborative group projects which were broken down into individual chores within the groups, and as a result we were able to do some pretty interesting things in a pretty short period of time, like building a Java-based Gnutella client in our January Java Class (which, like all of the ADU lectures and course materials, are available freely online, although the lectures are recorded in the unfortunate realvideo format). Here is a picture of some students collaborating intensely (or at least looking at something really interesting on Kevin's monitor :)

Having someone nearby to talk to when you're going crazy trying to find what to someone else will be a really obvious bug, or to bounce your design ideas off of, or to help you recall the syntax for a rarely-used but difficult-to-remember-the-name-of linux command can be absolutely invaluable. This experience is hardly exceptional, as any number of books and websites devoted to Extreme Programming will tell you.

There is a little friction when it comes time to decide who deserves what grade and why, since those within the group know better than the faculty who was really responsible for the work that actually got done, but this pales in comparison to the acceleration in learning that happens when you discuss specific pieces of code with another interested human being.

Hence, I think you are right in thinking that your administration is wrong.

Bryon

I have another suggestion: Hal Abelson gave a speech at Ars Digita in which he went the other way- that literary expression, when it's good, uses algorithmic/programming elements. This breaks down the barrier between speech and code in an interesting way, that is, not by arguing that code is speech, but in fact that speech is code.

Here is an excerpt from the abstract for this talk:
"I contend that at this moment in history we are at the beginning of an intellectual revolution based on the assimilation of computational ideas into our culture. We have been programming universal computers for about 50 years. The practice of computation arose from military, scientific, business, and accounting applications. Just as the early Egyptian surveyors probably thought of themselves as experts in the development and application of surveying instruments, we have developed a priestly cult of computer scientists. But, as I have pointed out: Computer Science is not a science, and its ultimate significance has little to do with computers. The computer revolution is a revolution in the way we think and in the way we express what we think."

You can stream the talk (realvideo format) here, or you can download it here.

Bryguy

ps- another thought- the difference between source code and machine code is that source code is specifically designed to be comprehensible to humans, hence it is expressive of an idea rather than pure instruction.

The text for the course is available here.

This was pretty much all I did last October.
Enjoy.
Bryguy

ARSDigita is just another company so whats the big hooplah about. So they have ties with software, web resources, etc.

Yahoo is the same shit, yet when they were shitted on, no one posted about the possible demise of Yahoo. Whats the big difference its just another corporation, and they haven't done anything to improve the Internet as a whole anyFsckingway, so who gives a damn?

Philip has written a great book on designing and deploying web services and made it available online as well as in print. He also makes all the source code for the toolkit that his company uses available free of charge and licensed under the GPL. He, and other people in his company, have written numerous articles at the ArsDigita Systems Journal including his book, a tutorial on SQL, and a tutorial on TCL. He gives you every resource that they use to compete with them, including the ability to educate yourself on their tools and methodology.

ArsDigita also helps to fund ArsDigita University which is starting to make lectures and information on classes available online. Just because you can't physically attend doesn't mean you can't learn what they are teaching. They even sponsor getting kids into development and give away a $10,000US prize in a yearly competition they hold. In their words ArsDigita "recognizes achievement by young people who have built and maintained web services. Web programmers 18 and younger are rewarded for creating non-commercial sites that are useful, educational, and collaborative."

Philip and ArsDigita also give free two-week long boot camps on how to use their software, as well as online web seminars and free one day lectures around the world. Philip was recently here in the San Francisco area and I had a chance to attend one of his seminars.

In short, Philip and ArsDigita have done a lot more than just try to make a lot of money. Unlike Yahoo who just uses free software, Philip and aD actually create it and then go a step further -- They train you on how to use it and make a slew of resources about it and related technologies available on their dime and no cost to you. That's a lot more than most companies can say.

They have quite a bit of material, albeit CS related, on the web already. Content includes notes, homework, and video of the lectures. It is the equivalent of a CS masters program and the Stanford's of the world.

Hours of real video lectures by Phillip Greenspun and others (Richard Stallman for instance) here or http://aduni.org/about/colloquium_schedule.tcl if you're scared of links.

• this year ADU is exclusively on-campus. We are taught in person, have TAs stationed in the same room as us, etc. Materials have been made available online, to some extent, to benefit people capable of doing something constructive with their time, but without the resources, flexibility, or eligibility to attend a quality CS program.
• ADU is not focused on web scripting and databases. There is one course explicitly on programming for the web (yes this will involve using a scripting language). Personally, I plan to use the popular LAMP combo that month, whereas Philip has in the past used AOL server and Oracle and TCL. To the extent that the program is more focused on the Web than other programs, there is good reason, both for the direction computing is going and because of the sorts of goals the students here have. This is not to say that courses such as discrete math, algorithms, OOP, theory of computation, and computer hardware aren't a part of the curriculum.
• suggesting that ADU might be a mill for big companies desiring drones for cubicle farms is really stupid. Hello, they're not even funding us. Not to mention that a review of the student body would clear up any idea that ADU students are the sort that would resign themselves to such a pathetic fate.
• ADU was never intended to be a breeding grounds for arsDigita employees. While this is less obvious, it is consistent with the stated mission of this place, with Philip's comments in interviews, and, hey, there is no evidence to the contrary, but don't let that stop you.
• obviously a 1 year program cannot be everything that a 4+ year program can be, but people should keep in mind that this is an intensive program. The 12 hour a day, 6 day a week desciption is accurate. The resources available, the interaction between students, these sorts of things result in the time being used much more effectively than is typical in the programs this is being held up against. The learning taking place here, whatever the limit, is not at a dumbed down/non-interactive level. This should be obvious to anyone who looks at the curriculum and is familiar with what it covers.
• We did not lose funding because Microsoft pulled some strings. That is my favorite. Acutally Microsoft is sending us 40 Win2K machines next week.
• yes, we run Linux.

• Tuition-free MIT by Philip Greenspun
• the ADU curriculum and faculty | more
• students | more | more
• press
• why apply (google cache)
• class catalog (google cache)
• do your own research

• this year ADU is exclusively on-campus. We are taught in person, have TAs stationed in the same room as us, etc. Materials have been made available online, to some extent, to benefit people capable of doing something constructive with their time, but without the resources, flexibility, or eligibility to attend a quality CS program.
• ADU is not focused on web scripting and databases. There is one course explicitly on programming for the web (yes this will involve using a scripting language). Personally, I plan to use the popular LAMP combo that month, whereas Philip has in the past used AOL server and Oracle and TCL. To the extent that the program is more focused on the Web than other programs, there is good reason, both for the direction computing is going and because of the sorts of goals the students here have. This is not to say that courses such as discrete math, algorithms, OOP, theory of computation, and computer hardware aren't a part of the curriculum.
• suggesting that ADU might be a mill for big companies desiring drones for cubicle farms is really stupid. Hello, they're not even funding us. Not to mention that a review of the student body would clear up any idea that ADU students are the sort that would resign themselves to such a pathetic fate.
• ADU was never intended to be a breeding grounds for arsDigita employees. While this is less obvious, it is consistent with the stated mission of this place, with Philip's comments in interviews, and, hey, there is no evidence to the contrary, but don't let that stop you.
• obviously a 1 year program cannot be everything that a 4+ year program can be, but people should keep in mind that this is an intensive program. The 12 hour a day, 6 day a week desciption is accurate. The resources available, the interaction between students, these sorts of things result in the time being used much more effectively than is typical in the programs this is being held up against. The learning taking place here, whatever the limit, is not at a dumbed down/non-interactive level. This should be obvious to anyone who looks at the curriculum and is familiar with what it covers.
• We did not lose funding because Microsoft pulled some strings. That is my favorite. Acutally Microsoft is sending us 40 Win2K machines next week.
• yes, we run Linux.

• Tuition-free MIT by Philip Greenspun
• the ADU curriculum and faculty | more
• students | more | more
• press
• why apply (google cache)
• class catalog (google cache)
• do your own research

• this year ADU is exclusively on-campus. We are taught in person, have TAs stationed in the same room as us, etc. Materials have been made available online, to some extent, to benefit people capable of doing something constructive with their time, but without the resources, flexibility, or eligibility to attend a quality CS program.
• ADU is not focused on web scripting and databases. There is one course explicitly on programming for the web (yes this will involve using a scripting language). Personally, I plan to use the popular LAMP combo that month, whereas Philip has in the past used AOL server and Oracle and TCL. To the extent that the program is more focused on the Web than other programs, there is good reason, both for the direction computing is going and because of the sorts of goals the students here have. This is not to say that courses such as discrete math, algorithms, OOP, theory of computation, and computer hardware aren't a part of the curriculum.
• suggesting that ADU might be a mill for big companies desiring drones for cubicle farms is really stupid. Hello, they're not even funding us. Not to mention that a review of the student body would clear up any idea that ADU students are the sort that would resign themselves to such a pathetic fate.
• ADU was never intended to be a breeding grounds for arsDigita employees. While this is less obvious, it is consistent with the stated mission of this place, with Philip's comments in interviews, and, hey, there is no evidence to the contrary, but don't let that stop you.
• obviously a 1 year program cannot be everything that a 4+ year program can be, but people should keep in mind that this is an intensive program. The 12 hour a day, 6 day a week desciption is accurate. The resources available, the interaction between students, these sorts of things result in the time being used much more effectively than is typical in the programs this is being held up against. The learning taking place here, whatever the limit, is not at a dumbed down/non-interactive level. This should be obvious to anyone who looks at the curriculum and is familiar with what it covers.
• We did not lose funding because Microsoft pulled some strings. That is my favorite. Acutally Microsoft is sending us 40 Win2K machines next week.
• yes, we run Linux.

• Tuition-free MIT by Philip Greenspun
• the ADU curriculum and faculty | more
• students | more | more
• press
• why apply (google cache)
• class catalog (google cache)
• do your own research

• this year ADU is exclusively on-campus. We are taught in person, have TAs stationed in the same room as us, etc. Materials have been made available online, to some extent, to benefit people capable of doing something constructive with their time, but without the resources, flexibility, or eligibility to attend a quality CS program.
• ADU is not focused on web scripting and databases. There is one course explicitly on programming for the web (yes this will involve using a scripting language). Personally, I plan to use the popular LAMP combo that month, whereas Philip has in the past used AOL server and Oracle and TCL. To the extent that the program is more focused on the Web than other programs, there is good reason, both for the direction computing is going and because of the sorts of goals the students here have. This is not to say that courses such as discrete math, algorithms, OOP, theory of computation, and computer hardware aren't a part of the curriculum.
• suggesting that ADU might be a mill for big companies desiring drones for cubicle farms is really stupid. Hello, they're not even funding us. Not to mention that a review of the student body would clear up any idea that ADU students are the sort that would resign themselves to such a pathetic fate.
• ADU was never intended to be a breeding grounds for arsDigita employees. While this is less obvious, it is consistent with the stated mission of this place, with Philip's comments in interviews, and, hey, there is no evidence to the contrary, but don't let that stop you.
• obviously a 1 year program cannot be everything that a 4+ year program can be, but people should keep in mind that this is an intensive program. The 12 hour a day, 6 day a week desciption is accurate. The resources available, the interaction between students, these sorts of things result in the time being used much more effectively than is typical in the programs this is being held up against. The learning taking place here, whatever the limit, is not at a dumbed down/non-interactive level. This should be obvious to anyone who looks at the curriculum and is familiar with what it covers.
• We did not lose funding because Microsoft pulled some strings. That is my favorite. Acutally Microsoft is sending us 40 Win2K machines next week.
• yes, we run Linux.

• Tuition-free MIT by Philip Greenspun
• the ADU curriculum and faculty | more
• students | more | more
• press
• why apply (google cache)
• class catalog (google cache)
• do your own research

• this year ADU is exclusively on-campus. We are taught in person, have TAs stationed in the same room as us, etc. Materials have been made available online, to some extent, to benefit people capable of doing something constructive with their time, but without the resources, flexibility, or eligibility to attend a quality CS program.
• ADU is not focused on web scripting and databases. There is one course explicitly on programming for the web (yes this will involve using a scripting language). Personally, I plan to use the popular LAMP combo that month, whereas Philip has in the past used AOL server and Oracle and TCL. To the extent that the program is more focused on the Web than other programs, there is good reason, both for the direction computing is going and because of the sorts of goals the students here have. This is not to say that courses such as discrete math, algorithms, OOP, theory of computation, and computer hardware aren't a part of the curriculum.
• suggesting that ADU might be a mill for big companies desiring drones for cubicle farms is really stupid. Hello, they're not even funding us. Not to mention that a review of the student body would clear up any idea that ADU students are the sort that would resign themselves to such a pathetic fate.
• ADU was never intended to be a breeding grounds for arsDigita employees. While this is less obvious, it is consistent with the stated mission of this place, with Philip's comments in interviews, and, hey, there is no evidence to the contrary, but don't let that stop you.
• obviously a 1 year program cannot be everything that a 4+ year program can be, but people should keep in mind that this is an intensive program. The 12 hour a day, 6 day a week desciption is accurate. The resources available, the interaction between students, these sorts of things result in the time being used much more effectively than is typical in the programs this is being held up against. The learning taking place here, whatever the limit, is not at a dumbed down/non-interactive level. This should be obvious to anyone who looks at the curriculum and is familiar with what it covers.
• We did not lose funding because Microsoft pulled some strings. That is my favorite. Acutally Microsoft is sending us 40 Win2K machines next week.
• yes, we run Linux.

• Tuition-free MIT by Philip Greenspun
• the ADU curriculum and faculty | more
• students | more | more
• press
• why apply (google cache)
• class catalog (google cache)
• do your own research

• this year ADU is exclusively on-campus. We are taught in person, have TAs stationed in the same room as us, etc. Materials have been made available online, to some extent, to benefit people capable of doing something constructive with their time, but without the resources, flexibility, or eligibility to attend a quality CS program.
• ADU is not focused on web scripting and databases. There is one course explicitly on programming for the web (yes this will involve using a scripting language). Personally, I plan to use the popular LAMP combo that month, whereas Philip has in the past used AOL server and Oracle and TCL. To the extent that the program is more focused on the Web than other programs, there is good reason, both for the direction computing is going and because of the sorts of goals the students here have. This is not to say that courses such as discrete math, algorithms, OOP, theory of computation, and computer hardware aren't a part of the curriculum.
• suggesting that ADU might be a mill for big companies desiring drones for cubicle farms is really stupid. Hello, they're not even funding us. Not to mention that a review of the student body would clear up any idea that ADU students are the sort that would resign themselves to such a pathetic fate.
• ADU was never intended to be a breeding grounds for arsDigita employees. While this is less obvious, it is consistent with the stated mission of this place, with Philip's comments in interviews, and, hey, there is no evidence to the contrary, but don't let that stop you.
• obviously a 1 year program cannot be everything that a 4+ year program can be, but people should keep in mind that this is an intensive program. The 12 hour a day, 6 day a week desciption is accurate. The resources available, the interaction between students, these sorts of things result in the time being used much more effectively than is typical in the programs this is being held up against. The learning taking place here, whatever the limit, is not at a dumbed down/non-interactive level. This should be obvious to anyone who looks at the curriculum and is familiar with what it covers.
• We did not lose funding because Microsoft pulled some strings. That is my favorite. Acutally Microsoft is sending us 40 Win2K machines next week.
• yes, we run Linux.

• Tuition-free MIT by Philip Greenspun
• the ADU curriculum and faculty | more
• students | more | more
• press
• why apply (google cache)
• class catalog (google cache)
• do your own research

Mills College's program isn't bad.

Penn's program is more of an IT type than a true computer science curriculum, but they have the computer sciency courses too.

http://aduni.org/academics/classes/
http://aduni.org/catalog/

http://aduni.org/academics/classes/
http://aduni.org/catalog/

http://aduni.org/academics/classes/
http://aduni.org/catalog/

Also there's the arsDigita Foundation which sponsers a prize for web service designed by high school age students and aDUni, a tution free computer science program. (Since I am an aDUni, this is a bit of shameless begging/advertising, but so far it has proven itself a very worthwhile program.)

If you're considering donating to a geek charity take a look at what's happening with the ArsDigita Foundation- ArsDigita University is well under way, now finishing it's third month. You can view lectures at the ADU site.

About ArsDigita Foundation:

ArsDigita Foundation is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization dedicated to the
development of web services that work better for society. With a commitment
to outstanding education, training and technical assistance, the
Foundation's programs include, ArsDigita University, ArsDigita Prize,
ArfDigita, and others. Formed in 1998, the foundation received its 501 (c) 3
status in 1999.

Foundation Programs:

ArsDigita Prize (http://arsdigita.org)- The Prize is awarded annually to
young people, eighteen years and younger, for their achievement in building
and maintaining non-commercial, useful Web sites. Each year there is a
winner and a varying number of finalists who receive cash awards, courses in
web development, and the use of a server for their web sites. The Prize is
ready to accept entries for the third annual prize, which will be awarded in
June 2001.

ArsDigita University (http://aduni.org)- The University is a free one-year
post-baccalaureate computer science program. The first class is thirty-six
students who were accepted from a pool of about 350. The curriculum is very
similar to what computer science majors learn at the top schools in the
country and consists of ten month long courses. ArsDigita University is not
a degree-granting institution.

ArfDigita (http://arfdigita.org)- ArfDigita is an animal welfare program
that enables its member shelters to be more efficient around adoption
services thereby decreasing the number of animals euthanized each year.
ArfDigita is a database backed Web site that facilitates the adoption
process, hosts an online community, pet care information, training tips as
well as a question and answer forum.

They want to do something that will impress their classmates from MIT or UCLA or Caltech or wherever.

MIT and Caltech must be really overrated if all it takes to impress the students who graduate from there is a job doing web scripting and 3 tier applications that any high schooler can do with PHP, ASP or Perl.
Then again, maybe you guys simply hired the bottom of the barrel.

If they get sick of it they can always join a slacker company and work 40 hours/week.

Such as i2, Trilogy, Cisco or Microsoft, huh?
<sarcasm> Of course, your hotshit web development shop makes these companies look like mom-N-pop shops. <sarcasm>

The more I read about Ars Digita, the less impressed I am. From the trivial bootcamps and gross overpayment for monkey work (web scripting, pah) to the fact that some of you think using fuck in code is a mark of professionalism, I had mentally filed Ars Digita as yet another hotshit startup that won't last the next half decade.

From the descriptions I've gotten of ArsDigita both from employees and boot camp attendees, the place is a hackers playground where and software engineering and computer science practices are paid lip service. Particularly amusing is the fact that you guys think that your online degree program which is merely a glorified course in Web Development is equivalent to a degree from MIT
*LOL*

Second Law of Blissful Ignorance