Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Invests in the University of Waterloo
saforrest writes "Say goodbye to independent academia. In a presentation by Microsoft on Wednesday at the University of Waterloo, a new joint initiative was announced which involves the addition of a mandatory course on C# for all electrical and computer engineers. 'Completion of this course
will be mandatory for students entering the E&CE
program.'" Microsoft's press release is available.
[Insert obvious Napoleon joke here]
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Now the phrase "school sucks" is no longer a subjective comment.
I think the move toward corporate education at the university level is a good one. Perhaps now that the people being fed the lies are at a cognitive level where they can see through it, they'll fight back. The little ones have been handed this kind of crap for years.
I'm much funnier now that I'm a subscriber.
Jane: "Darn it, Bob, I just don't understand. No matter how many times we ask people, 'Where do you want to go today?', they still seem to think of us as a big, bullying monopolist."
Bob: "Well, Jane, maybe we should just change the message. Perhaps if we say, 'Where do you really want to go today?', people will respond better!"
The guy in the corner from developer marketing meekly raises his hand. "Uh, guys, perhaps if we didn't put out press releases crowing about our ability to buy out universities, we wouldn't be perceived as bullies."
Jane: "Bob, I think your proposal is right on the money!"
Bob: "Hey, that's why they pay us the big bucks, right?"
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Not to take M$'s side or anything, but at least they're teaching something RELEVANT now. When I went there, they were inflicting MODULA-3 on us. (And Pascal.. but then, I like Pascal)
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
This sort of thing won't be happening much longer; they'll soon be running SQL Server 2000 and IIS 5.0 atop Windows 2000. The load likely will never be too high, but if there is are a lot of hits, performance will degrade much more grace*** STOP: 0x0000000C (0000000A, 0xFAADFF0D, 00000008, 00000000) UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP
I knew it was all over for academia when the University of Cambridge pimped out its reputation in return for dollars from Gates.
I'm still angry about it. Every time I get a fundraising letter, I rip it up and trash it. If Maurice Wilkes wants more money for the Computer Lab he can bend over and kiss Bill Gates' butt some more, 'cause he's not getting anything from me for the William Gates Laboratory for Computer Science.
I mean, what next? The Arthur Andersen Mathematics Building? The Rupert Murdoch School of Journalism? The Ken Lay MBA Program?
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
4 years from now a bunch of grads will be heading to interviews...
...
Grad: "I know C#! Hire me!"
Industry: "C#. Check. What else do you know?"
Grad: "Huh? Like what?"
Industry: "Well, what did you learn in some of your other courses?
Grad: "I know how to design a web page so that it only works under Internet Explorer."
Industry: "Hmm..okaaaay. What type of degree did you say you have again?"
Grad: "I have a copy right here..."
Industry: "That says MCSE. That's not a diploma."
Grad: "No, it is. There's some fine print at the bottom. See?"
"All your brain are belong to us!"
It might be interesting to let them know that there are quite some people who don't like the idea of "buying a course" :)
For example: mail them to ask the pricelist to buy a course
I can't wait to see what sort of scary EULA madness will eventually and inevitably be shrinkwrapped over the University of Waterloo's degrees. Just imagine the happy faces at graduation as they peel back the shrinkwrap on their degrees. And when MS move to a new licensing model, will all the version 1.0 University of Waterloo degrees be de-activated unless graduates pay a re-activation fee? The mind boggles.
Da Blog
For the same reason, if I were to pick a single language to be taught to engineers, I wouldn't recommend teaching Java either.
You should start with something like C that teaches the fundamentals, then when you know how a computer *really* works, you can move on to a higher level language like C# or Java.
we are we are we are we are we are the engineers!
we can we can we can we can code C# with our peers!
drink rum drink rum drink rum drink rum and come along with us!
for we change policies for the companies that allocate funds to us!
(next step: The Ridgid Tool replaced by The Flaccid Software as department mascot)