Hehe well D computers have everything 100% there is no guessing. So if you really wanted a good guess as to how bad the road is get a local driver to tell you all about them:-) he'll give you a much better guess then.
Really Im only pulling your leg, what I don't like is that stats are considered "proof" almost by people but stats can give you a very skewed version of reality. Governments do it all the time! so does the media:-) but for computer science? I don't think it should be part of it at all. What do you think?
I think stats is useless in all ways - it is like Astrology - it gives a nice "idea" of how things could be but it is a load of crap really:-)
Think of this - we were told that if you want to see how many pot-holes are on the road between Cork and Dublin you can use the Poisson Distribution. So the one input is the length of the road - the rest is based on the natural log, now that would all be lovely but I am say with a probability of 1 that the answer will be WRONG!! hehe so would everyone who drives that road and knows it is pretty bad in parts because the government doesn't spend enough money on roads:-)
I am in 3rd year computer science night time. I have worked for 10 years in IT doing everything from development to support etc... I have never had to endure such useless rubbish as the 2 years of heavy maths I have had to do.
1) It is completely useless to my daily life - it may be nice to know what DY/DX means and "rise over run" but in the real world we write programmes to make money
2) It was a waste of time - the industry moved on 2 years while we had to sit there doing nothing useful with our time which new technologies came out.
3) "Improves logical thinking"? I am unsure as to what that means - you don't need to know the statistical properties of the binomial distribution to write a beautiful sorting system in Java.
4) Universities are moving to ditch it completely from CS courses - hopefully Trinity College will get their act together and catch up! my manager at work doesn't care if I sit down all day trying to work out the probability of a case coming in on some mad adapter being related to DNA! he only cares about me doing my work and getting the job done right!! it is only now that my course has actually got useful! learning to write XML correctly, understanding assembly etc etc - useful stuff that I am able to use right away!
So whatever dim-wit thought in the University World "oh yes they need maths" should actually get a job in the real world where the aim is not just chalk on a blackboard (or projector if they are somewhat able to use electricity) it's to make money and write better code.
Of course that is my opinion and I totally accept that others will not agree with me - so that is why I think it should be an option in college - not a law almost!
David
A crap-at-maths but amazing programmer person:-)
ps-perhaps Computer Science could have psychology included - that would be much more useful! then we wouldn't have so many engineers who are afraid to talk or hold conversations like math-heads!
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Hehe well D computers have everything 100% there is no guessing. So if you really wanted a good guess as to how bad the road is get a local driver to tell you all about them :-) he'll give you a much better guess then.
Really Im only pulling your leg, what I don't like is that stats are considered "proof" almost by people but stats can give you a very skewed version of reality. Governments do it all the time! so does the media :-) but for computer science? I don't think it should be part of it at all. What do you think?
I think stats is useless in all ways - it is like Astrology - it gives a nice "idea" of how things could be but it is a load of crap really :-)
Think of this - we were told that if you want to see how many pot-holes are on the road between Cork and Dublin you can use the Poisson Distribution. So the one input is the length of the road - the rest is based on the natural log, now that would all be lovely but I am say with a probability of 1 that the answer will be WRONG!! hehe so would everyone who drives that road and knows it is pretty bad in parts because the government doesn't spend enough money on roads :-)
I am in 3rd year computer science night time. I have worked for 10 years in IT doing everything from development to support etc... I have never had to endure such useless rubbish as the 2 years of heavy maths I have had to do. 1) It is completely useless to my daily life - it may be nice to know what DY/DX means and "rise over run" but in the real world we write programmes to make money 2) It was a waste of time - the industry moved on 2 years while we had to sit there doing nothing useful with our time which new technologies came out. 3) "Improves logical thinking"? I am unsure as to what that means - you don't need to know the statistical properties of the binomial distribution to write a beautiful sorting system in Java. 4) Universities are moving to ditch it completely from CS courses - hopefully Trinity College will get their act together and catch up! my manager at work doesn't care if I sit down all day trying to work out the probability of a case coming in on some mad adapter being related to DNA! he only cares about me doing my work and getting the job done right!! it is only now that my course has actually got useful! learning to write XML correctly, understanding assembly etc etc - useful stuff that I am able to use right away! So whatever dim-wit thought in the University World "oh yes they need maths" should actually get a job in the real world where the aim is not just chalk on a blackboard (or projector if they are somewhat able to use electricity) it's to make money and write better code. Of course that is my opinion and I totally accept that others will not agree with me - so that is why I think it should be an option in college - not a law almost! David A crap-at-maths but amazing programmer person :-)
ps-perhaps Computer Science could have psychology included - that would be much more useful! then we wouldn't have so many engineers who are afraid to talk or hold conversations like math-heads!