Slashback: Pricedrops, Honor, Games

Slashback (below) is chock full of updates to recent (and not recent) Slashdot stories, including some good news for AMD fans, and a last drizzle of news from E3.

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."

Comments

Open Source in College

[lkaos]

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.

Re:Open Source in College

[EnderWiggnz]

you're talking about programming /systems/ not programming the assignments at an introductory computer science class.

Seriously, in most universities, if you cant do the basic programming and problem solving skills involved in writing basic Intorductory programs - Then an CS or an EE degree probably isnt the right degree for you.

They're *weed out* courses for a reason.

Re:Open Source in College

[Rudeboy777]

I second your comment, and I strongly disagree with timothy implying that intro CS students should not have to think through and code their own bubble sort. In CS as in any other discipline, the foundations are CRITICAL for further success in later semesters. You cannot breeze through CS101 with only a half-assed understanding of arrays and switch statements. You will need this stuff later, no way around it.

New lesson: cheating == OK

[dtd201]

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.

Groups can be very bad

[gregfortune]

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.

Re:Groups can be very bad

[peterdaly]

I don't know how many groups you have worked in as part of a business, but in my experience, the 20/80 percent rule holds just as true. It is usually for the same reasons too, the 80% either doesn't really know the material, or just doesn't care. It is easier to for many larger businesses to make a hiring mistake than a firing decision.

Other than that, I agree with the above posts.

-Pete

Re:Groups can be very bad

[Bald Wookie]

Imagine that you are sitting in a cube farm right now. Pop your head up and have a look around.

Yeah, isn't she cute. I knew you'd spot her first. She's the receptionist, but you couldn't tell she works here by the hours she puts in. Most of the time she is in a closed door meeting with the VP.

Ah, Bill, the VP. Isn't he a character. Always shifting those paradigms, building synergies. He's a 3 handicapper at the club. Goes every afternoon after twiddling the receptionist's switchboard.

At least your boss Shamir works his ass off. Always on the phone to Bangalore. The language is pretty opaque, but it sounds like he is haggling. You just wish he'd quit printing up org charts on the department printer.

Well, the team looks solid anyway. Jerry is the best coder you've ever met. This guy dreams in regular expressions and could probably vomit a virtual memory system. OK, so he's just supervising now. Someone needs to be responsible for the spec and overseeing the reports. He doesn't code much anymore, but he's so good that he's always correcting the lead programmer Mike.

Of course Mike doesn't code much either. He needs to fill out those damn reports. Plus he doesn't get along with Jerry. Mike keeps telling him to quit messing with the spec and to leave his code alone. Jerry just blames Marketing, who blames the Focus Group (that was requested by the Customer) and THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT. With Jerry tied up, Mike also needs to make sure the "Gang of Four" are working hard. After all, this is the company's main product we're working on. Someone needs to write it.

Oh wow! Did you say you've got the Gang of Four working with you? No, not quite. Someone decided to hire a team of recent grads from Cal Poly. They'd all worked on the same senior project, and one of them couldn't shut up about Design Patterns, so the name just stuck. When they aren't talking about their rice racers they can pound out a few lines. On the other hand, just by listening to them chatter, you can rebuild a Civic SI in your sleep.

Now it's down to just you and me, and we're both reading Slashdot. I wonder if I can convice the brass to start giving me put options...

-BW

I Beg Your Pardon?

[Lethyos]

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.

Game Conventions...I Miss 3dfx's Showmanship

[Chasing Amy]

> 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...

Re:Too bad about Borland

[Catiline]

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.

Shameless promotion of photos (and karma abuse)

[Tide]

My E3 photos. Note, there are more than just E3 photos there, but some 60+ of the show.

Re:You don't really mean that, do you?

[Mr. Slippery]

CS courses are not about learing to write sorting algorythms, compilers, operating systems, or any code at all.

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.

Re:What a great message!

[1010011010]

Exactly. The only enforceable laws are the ones that the people agree to obey. :)

Another person who hasn't read the GPL

[stevenj]

Sigh...the above comment was modded +4 "insightful?"

The GPL requires that:

• Modified copies must include "an appropriate copyright notice" (GPL Sec. 1). Note that the copyright notice is not the same thing as the license (the GPL)...it is something like: Copyright © yyyy name of author.

• "You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that you changed the files and the date of any change." (GPL Sec. 2a.)

The original BSD license, in contrast, has an obnoxious clause requiring credit in any advertising, not just in the copyright notice and source code.