Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Pricedrops, Honor, Games
Making your computer worth even less. Acid-F1ux writes: "Advanced Micro Devices has slashed prices of its desktop and mobile Athlon processors just days after a similar move by rival Intel. The cuts range from 17 percent to 52 percent for mobile Athlon XP chips and between 11 percent and 32 percent for desktop Athlon XP chips. On Sunday, Intel dropped prices of its Pentium 4 processors by as much as 53 percent."
Progressive Education strikes a blow. darnellmc writes: "According to this Atlanta Journal-Constitution news article GA Tech had so many students violate the school's "honor code" that they have decided to change it.
"In the wake of the investigation, Tech officials have decided to allow students in introductory computer science courses to share information and collaborate on homework, previously prohibited under the school's academic honor code."
Of course code sharing also teaches the value of Open Source ;o) . Maybe now some young Computer Science student can spend more time on developing a good overall program, instead of spending a bunch of time writing simple things like their own sorting routine."
How many letters will the next big threat have? matthew writes: "LWN is carrying the notes from the Broadcast Protection Discussion Group (BPDG) conference (more info at the EFF). The BPDG is the body that will be suggesting future technological control measures; they make the DMCA and CBDTPA seem like trivial problems. The BPDG conference was last week and it was open to the public so anyone could call in. You can read about what the FSF's Bradley M. Kuhn digitalspeech.org's Jonathan Watterson thought of the conference. The basic summary is that we're screwed if people don't start fighting against this kind of injustice."
This is what's called taking license. infochuck writes "Back in January, this story on Slashdot focused on Borland's licensing PR fiasco, and how they promised to remedy the situation (in short, their license permitted them to search at any time any of your computers looking for stolen software). Well, here we are, five months later, and their license hasn't changed one bit - at least not the two most unreasonable clauses, 12 and 14.4, and not in the license included with the Windows version of the Personal Edition. Download for yourself to see, but be warned, you'll have to register, which involves many questions and no less than 5 checkboxes to uncheck, as well as at least a 25MB DL. I believe pr@borland.com is still the place to write..."
Playful is good. If the last month of pre-hype hype, pre-hype, actual hype and post-hype weren't enough, you'll be pleased to read that E3 coverage continues, at Gamespy (some cool reviews), Gamegal (good photos) and other sites beginning with "Game."
If enough people break the rules, they'll change em!
Never argue with an idiot, he'll just lower you to his level and beat you with experience.
All the software I wr[oi]te at my school includes the GPL copyright notice. The nice thing about the GPL is that you can share with fellow students to your hearts content but if the students use any of your code, they have to clearly mark that it is your code if they use it.
As far as I can tell, this protects me in the event that a student is accused of cheating while still allowing me to show anyone my code. I personally think that software licensing should be a part of every CS program and the GPL should be encouraged to be used for all assignments.
int func(int a);
func((b += 3, b));
When you are writing software for a company or a non-classroom project, reinventing the wheel is usually a bad idea. However, in the context of learning how to program, I think it is important for students to do their own work and not just copy code from the Internet or from the smart student down the hall.
The new rules are just a license to cheat.
Maybe now some young Computer Science student can spend more time on developing a good overall program, instead of spending a bunch of time writing simple things like their own sorting routine."
Noooo!!!! I don't know how many "groups" you've worked in at college level, but almost every group has one or two people that do the work and understand the material. The others don't have a clue or are freeloading. Even if I do understand the material, jumping into a group and only doing a portion of the work sets me up to not know part of the material very well come test time or when I'm working at a real job.
For large projects, working in groups makes sense in a couple of cases. First, the project is cool, but too large for one person to complete in the alloted time is a prime candidate for a group project. Second, group projects teache the group members to deal with the frustration of working on software with another person. (yeah, cheap shot...)
But please, oh please, don't make it a policy to allow group projects at every level. You'd think we didn't already have a job market saturated with poorly trained CS people.
Personally, I am sorry to see that Ga Tech has decided to back off on its no-collaboration policy for the classes in question. The policy was only in place for "Intro to Programming"-type classes, where learning basic programming techniques, not group-environment programming skills, is the purpose of the course.
Can you imagine the hell of being given a group assignment in a higher level class where half of the members can't remember how to create a for() loop or use pointers, because they "collaborated" that part of their work in the intro classes?
It looks like GaTech will now be offering different Intro-level courses for computer-related majors and non-computer-related majors, but it looks like they won't be enforcing the "no-collaboration" rules even for the comp-sci major classes. With a shift in emphasis to quizzes and tests, rather than actual coding, I can only see this as working to lower the quality level of students' programming skills.
CC-licensed translations of Japanese fiction: http://tonygonz.blogspot.com/
Maybe now some young Computer Science student can spend more time on developing a good overall program, instead of spending a bunch of time writing simple things like their own sorting routine.
You're missing the point of a CS education. Students are supposed to learn how to write "simple" things like sorting routines. (Of course, if you think sorting is simple, you're either inexperienced or you're extremely well versed in computer science.) That's why professors always tell you to not use libraries for assignments you're supposed to do yourself. Otherwise, we're talking about short typing exercises. The more simple algorithms you write, the more experience you gain for making the jump from higher complexity algorithms to code.
Students should not be swapping code on assignments. That's called cheating. These kids need to write as much code as possible, even if it's been done before.
Why bother.
> E3 coverage continues, at Gamespy (some cool reviews), Gamegal (good photos) and other sites beginning with "Game."
;-)
So, am I the only one who misses all the obligatory pictures we used to get from these conventions of 3dfx's latest Lara Croft booth babe?
They may have fallen behind in the video card market before their demise, but they sure had *showmanship*. Teenage girls in skimpy fantasy-wear and video cards the size of...
Chasing Amy
(We all chase Amy...)
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws"-Tacitus
Am I the only weirdo that treats companies the way they treat me...
No. The major companies attitude extends from the tiny, "insignificant" difference between the words customer and consumer. A customer is someone who you have an extended business relationship with because your product is used multiple times. In constrast a consumer is someone who buys your product and uses it once; they may buy other, likewise disposable, products from you, but they do not require maintenance.
This explains the attitudes of many "vicious" corporations or organizations such as the RIAA, MPAA, and BSA-- they view you as a consumer, with a one-time disposable product (market forces to the contrary). OTOH, the "good" businesses like RedHat, IBM, and so forth understand that when they get your money they have started, not ended, the relationship.
Do you like Japanese imports?
My E3 photos. Note, there are more than just E3 photos there, but some 60+ of the show.
People think Microsoft is the answer. Microsoft is just the question, "No" is the answer.
They haven't used that "like a book" license in a long time.
I don't know anyone who's used their products in a long time.
They haven't made money in a long time.
Coincidence?
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
No, CS courses are not about learing to write sorting algorythms, compilers, operating systems, or any code at all. Computer Science courses should focus on the theory topics such as "this is how you determine the time it would take for the algorythm to complete" (since this is a very limited, deliberate subset of the Turing Halting question, it is possible). Most students won't understand the theory they know how to write code and put the theory to use writing (or analyzing) code-- but that shouldn't affect the course's focus.
You're confusing discrete mathematics with computer science. CS involves code to apply the algorithms. The algorithms are abstract. Most of them cannot be used in anything except theoretical constructs (such as those that appear on a computer system). You can learn everything about computer science without any computer technology, but you will be unable to apply it to anything meaningful. As a result, I the ability to code is critical to acheiving a useful computer science education. Just the same as physics students apply the theory of numbers to real world objects, computer science students apply the theory of algorithms to operating systems, compilers, and what have you.
So if when you talk of teaching "how to write... sorting routines" you mean teaching "this is the optimal sort algorythm" not "this is how you determine the efficiency", you are the one who've missed the point of CS education.
This doesn't oppose my argument. Code is extremely useful for determining algorithmic complexity. Obviously not required, except for a niche. If you don't know about code, you won't know where to use which algorithms. On top of that, if you can't code them, you probably do not understand them.
As for your statement that I do not know the point of CS... I can only respond by asking you what the point is. Computer science is a broad field. It includes everything from linguistic analysis to software development. It's not specific and myopic as you're making it seem.
Why bother.
No two ways about it. If you insert a solution into your homework that did not come from your own mind, then a) you haven't learned anything b) it will just bite you in the ass later on an exam where (I assume) you are still not allowed to look at your neighbor's paper.
Advanced Micro Devices has slashed prices of its desktop and mobile Athlon processors just days after a similar move by rival Intel.
I purchased my new AMD XP 2000 just a week ago, and now the price drops. It seems like every time you buy any computer part, the next week prices go down.
given the choice of Intel's price cut to 262$ on a 2.2 gigahertz Xeon processor, or AMD's linked price cut to 224 on its 2100+. I can honestly say that i feel that Intel has far better value for the cash right now.
:)
the competition however is great, we all stand to benefit from it
We had a similar sitution in regards to my physics course. The homework was turned in over the internet. This lead to several groups forming. Each group, however, ended up with several people doing the work and the rest 'collaborating'. Out of the 40 people the class started with, 12 remained at the end of the semester and only half of those students passed. It seems as though the students who were 'collaborating' didn't fare all that well on the IRL tests. Strangely, the one test conducted over the internet had an excellent pass rate ;-). Collaboration has great value in teaching students why it's not a good idea to screw yourself over by taking the easy road.
The best way to accelerate a windows box is at 9.8 meters per second square.
Of course they are. At some point, the CS student should learn the relationship between all this theory, and actual code.
Every CS class I took had a component of theory. Many also had a component of coding, with the objective being to see how the theory applies. You don't just talk about parsing theory, you write a compilier.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
Maybe now some young Computer Science student can spend more time on developing a good overall program, instead of spending a bunch of time writing simple things like their own sorting routine."
Yeah! Last thing we need is fresh grads who actually know how stuff works. Give 'em to me thinking everything is a black box. Why, best thing is if they view the computer, the company, the government, the whole world and everything in it as a mysterious black box. That way Mr. Scorpio and I can fill their heads with our Mantra of Death(TM) while they lounge in their business hamocks. I sure hope this works better than our last endeavor.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
oooo Game theory.
Requirements:
1. If you take ballots, make sure the ballots are secret to avoid personal conflicts.
2. Make the system an accurate measurement of actual work.
3. The system should encourage more work, and less freeloading.
In any system, the person will be aware of any demerit or bonus due to participation grades. They will either see what the other group members got, or they will know that the project wasn't deserving of the grade they got.
Since they will be aware of the demerit or bonus, there is no way to implement this in groups of two people and still fulfill requrement 1. Groups of three are almost as bad.
The larger the group is, the better a system like this works.
Another alternative would be to use CVS and count lines of code checked in by a certain person. Of course this ignores possible planning/design work that one student did.
Yet another alternative would be to interview each member of the group, asking them what parts of the program do. This could be bluffed though.
I don't see an easy answer. Do you?
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
The GPL requires that:
The original BSD license, in contrast, has an obnoxious clause requiring credit in any advertising, not just in the copyright notice and source code.
If a thing is not diminished by being shared, it is not rightly owned if it is only owned & not shared. S. Augustine