In 1972, I wrote a tiny program in machine language for an IBM 1620. It was a decimal machine (sort of: see below) with 12 digit instructions and 40000 digits of memory. I punched the program onto cards. The program read a punched card, added two numbers on the card, and punched a card with the result.
The machine had a disk operating system, a macro assembler, a Fortran II compiler, and a useful set of file manipulation programs. You could enter commands from a teletype machine. We had a washing machine sized disk drive and a line printer.
We were required to start at the bottom with machine language so we knew what was really happening. The instructor introduced addressing, conditional branches, loops, subroutines, etc before we were allowed to use Fortran. He then convinced us, not rigorously, that it was at least possible for a computer to parse, translate, and compile. Only then were we allowed to use Fortran.
I left home at 6AM to ride the New York City subways to school, arriving one hour before first class so I could learn assembly language from a manual I found in the closet. I struggled to write programs that were too advanced for me. When I eventually learned a technique, I had been primed with a problem that required it.
For every type of computer I have ever programmed, I programmed it first in assembly language. I retired when this stopped being practical,
(Footnote) The hardware actually used 8 bit bytes. Six bits represented the usual characters, and the remaining 2 bits per byte where used for special purposes.
I will mostly leave this discussion to others, but I have a problem. I don't know in what circumstances I can use conservation of momentum. I used to rely on it all the time in physics classes, and now I can't. What should I do?
Without work as a TA, my wife could not have earned two Master's degrees. She wouldn't have her career. I wouldn't have met her. That would be very, very bad.
I mostly agree with you, but... Every version of Windows has extensive documentation, even if not organized the way I want it. Are the details you want documented? Should they be on the standard installation screens?
Back in XP, I did the research and registry edits and group policy changes to make Windows use local NTP and DNS servers, but then I burned out trying to research each security update. I don't have a solution for real-time certificate revocation. Important stuff ran on Linux, but it has some of the same issues.
The kind of traffic matters. Some external communication is reasonable.
NTP, to synchronize clocks. Checking for certificate revocation. Checking for the existence of security updates. Downloading lists of sites known to be malicious.
You can take responsibility for these functions, but servers need to get them done.
I'm surprised by comments that Ahmed "just" took things apart and put them together. Do you remember getting your first chemistry set, or bicycle, or learning how switches work? I'll bet that you tried things out, many times.
If you played basketball, I bet you went out to shoot baskets, just because you could.
If you took shop class, did you invent wood, or drills, or nails? I bet you did things that somebody showed you.
If you played a musical instrument, I bet you played the same practice pieces over and over.
Those activities are "play" and most mammals do that. They practice their skills, even if they are not immediately needed to survive. That is a developmentally appropriate thing to do! There are parts of your brain that are not wired up to the rational, language using parts, and those parts need to develop.
I don't care if all Ahmed did was take something apart and put it together again. That was encouraged in me, and I hope it will be encouraged in others.
Making something "mandatory in all grades" breeds dislike. Young kids often like programming, (or math, or art, or language, or music) and understand right away that it can be fun. Then the schools mess it up. If you haven't read it, I recommend the essay known as Lockhart's Lament:
A musician wakes from a terrible nightmare. In his dream he finds himself in a society where music education has been made mandatory. “We are helping our students become more competitive in an increasingly sound-filled world.” Educators, school systems, and the state are put in charge of this vital project. Studies are commissioned, committees are formed, and decisions are made— all without the advice or participation of a single working musician or composer.
My wife, an educator, just heard me ranting and popped into the room: "Preschoolers need to play. That is the developmentally appropriate thing for them to be doing." She also reminded me that Steve Jobs didn't want his children looking at screens - he wanted them talking and reading.
I believe that ocean acidification is one of the planet's greatest problems. But I am ignorant about the timing.
The article is about the Permian Extinction. It took place 250 million years ago. When geologists or biologists say that something happened "fast" they might be talking about 10 years, or ten thousand years, or ten million years. That matters. If the scale is long then I don't care because we have *no idea* what life will be like then.
I have a strong bias in favor of kids who are growing up in the most chaotic environments.
In the poor neighborhoods I know, schools don't let kids take home *books*. What fool thinks taking home computers is a good idea? Anyway, who lets hardware manufacturers influence educational policy?
"More mathematicians" does not mean "better mathematics." Also, I don't think the best and brightest are motivated by money. Those people are like hackers. They don't care whether they eat or not.
Dave Cutler designed and wrote much of the popular RSX-11M operating system for the PDP-11. He went on to design the OS for the Vax (VMS). Programmers observed that it was just like RSX-11M, but better. Microsoft hired him to lead a team that designed Windows NT. That kernel lives on in modern versions of Windows.
I believe that there should be limits to the authority of the state. There is a sphere of privacy that includes the thoughts in my head. A sort of no trespassing sign, if you wish.
I am an atheist, but there are religious objections to self-incrimination. Christianity contains the idea that forgiveness is possible, if one confesses to God. In the middle ages, it was accepted that civil authority was inferior to God's authority. This was not a minor matter; people were killed for refusing to lie about their religious beliefs.
I reject the restrictions of the poster of the question.
The article describes impressive security precautions, but it leaves something out. Data is stored so it can be retrieved. On random days, restore and decrypt some test data, so everybody knows what to do and knows that it works.
Consider a trillion dollar weapon of mass destruction in space.
It will never get through Congress. There will be construction delays lasting a century. Your enemies will be able to destroy it, cheaply. Bright high school students will play with it.
Lots of things can cause seizures, and some of them can be treated. Where I live, a person can get a license if a doctor certifies that they have not had a seizure for a year.
It is a sad comment about our country that a driver's license is so essential that we tolerate more than 30,000 traffic fatalities each year. Seizures are a minor part of that bigger problem.
A good way to start is to ask current and former students, and teachers at other schools. Also think about the type of environment you would like to learn in.
When I was in high school ( class of 1972; IBM 1620; punched cards ) I loved my computer course so much that I came in before first class to read manuals and do stuff on my own. I was not aware of my physical environment.
Also, please make sure some attractive, physically mature, but reckless young women are in each class.
"The essential purpose of a liberal education, as we understand it, is not to instill competency and confidence, or to flatter the presumption that the world students are familiar with is the only one that matters. It is, on the contrary, to unsettle presumptions, to defamiliarize the familiar, to reveal what is going on beneath and behind appearances, and to disorient young people and help them to find ways to re-orient themselves. Liberal educators aim to accomplish this by challenging assumptions, by inducing self-reflection, by teaching students how to think critically and analytically, by exposing them to the sense of alienation produced by encounters with radically different historical moments and cultural formations and with phenomena that exceed their, and even our own, capacity fully to understand. These are things that professional schools do not do, employers do not do, even academic graduate programs do not do. Those institutions deliberalize students, train them to think as professionals. The historical, theoretical, and relational perspectives that liberal education provides can be a source of enlightenment and empowerment that will serve our graduates well for the rest of their lives. We expect that every course offered in general education will be taught in this spirit.
Slashdot Mirror
In 1972, I wrote a tiny program in machine language for an IBM 1620. It was a decimal machine (sort of: see below) with 12 digit instructions and 40000 digits of memory. I punched the program onto cards. The program read a punched card, added two numbers on the card, and punched a card with the result.
The machine had a disk operating system, a macro assembler, a Fortran II compiler, and a useful set of file manipulation programs. You could enter commands from a teletype machine. We had a washing machine sized disk drive and a line printer.
We were required to start at the bottom with machine language so we knew what was really happening. The instructor introduced addressing, conditional branches, loops, subroutines, etc before we were allowed to use Fortran. He then convinced us, not rigorously, that it was at least possible for a computer to parse, translate, and compile. Only then were we allowed to use Fortran.
I left home at 6AM to ride the New York City subways to school, arriving one hour before first class so I could learn assembly language from a manual I found in the closet. I struggled to write programs that were too advanced for me. When I eventually learned a technique, I had been primed with a problem that required it.
For every type of computer I have ever programmed, I programmed it first in assembly language. I retired when this stopped being practical,
http://tincansandstring.net/co...
(Footnote) The hardware actually used 8 bit bytes. Six bits represented the usual characters, and the remaining 2 bits per byte where used for special purposes.
--
Hi to all my friends at NSA.
I will mostly leave this discussion to others, but I have a problem. I don't know in what circumstances I can use conservation of momentum. I used to rely on it all the time in physics classes, and now I can't. What should I do?
Without work as a TA, my wife could not have earned two Master's degrees. She wouldn't have her career. I wouldn't have met her. That would be very, very bad.
How is our economy supposed to work?
I mostly agree with you, but ...
Every version of Windows has extensive documentation, even if not organized the way I want it. Are the details you want documented? Should they be on the standard installation screens?
Back in XP, I did the research and registry edits and group policy changes to make Windows use local NTP and DNS servers, but then I burned out trying to research each security update. I don't have a solution for real-time certificate revocation. Important stuff ran on Linux, but it has some of the same issues.
[ I can't tell if others have commented on this ]
The kind of traffic matters. Some external communication is reasonable.
NTP, to synchronize clocks.
Checking for certificate revocation.
Checking for the existence of security updates.
Downloading lists of sites known to be malicious.
You can take responsibility for these functions, but servers need to get them done.
I'm surprised by comments that Ahmed "just" took things apart and put them together. Do you remember getting your first chemistry set, or bicycle, or learning how switches work? I'll bet that you tried things out, many times.
If you played basketball, I bet you went out to shoot baskets, just because you could.
If you took shop class, did you invent wood, or drills, or nails? I bet you did things that somebody showed you.
If you played a musical instrument, I bet you played the same practice pieces over and over.
Those activities are "play" and most mammals do that. They practice their skills, even if they are not immediately needed to survive. That is a developmentally appropriate thing to do! There are parts of your brain that are not wired up to the rational, language using parts, and those parts need to develop.
I don't care if all Ahmed did was take something apart and put it together again. That was encouraged in me, and I hope it will be encouraged in others.
Making something "mandatory in all grades" breeds dislike. Young kids often like programming, (or math, or art, or language, or music) and understand right away that it can be fun. Then the schools mess it up. If you haven't read it, I recommend the essay known as Lockhart's Lament:
My wife, an educator, just heard me ranting and popped into the room: "Preschoolers need to play. That is the developmentally appropriate thing for them to be doing." She also reminded me that Steve Jobs didn't want his children looking at screens - he wanted them talking and reading.
I believe that ocean acidification is one of the planet's greatest problems. But I am ignorant about the timing.
The article is about the Permian Extinction. It took place 250 million years ago. When geologists or biologists say that something happened "fast" they might be talking about 10 years, or ten thousand years, or ten million years. That matters. If the scale is long then I don't care because we have *no idea* what life will be like then.
After a major health crisis, one doctor told me: "We don't cure people so they can live miserable lives without wine."
When I gather wood or water or food, I won't be walking.
I have a strong bias in favor of kids who are growing up in the most chaotic environments.
In the poor neighborhoods I know, schools don't let kids take home *books*. What fool thinks taking home computers is a good idea? Anyway, who lets hardware manufacturers influence educational policy?
Signed,
bleeding heart liberal.
This news is very serious, but sometimes humor is the only possible reaction to bad news.
This is a violation of Google's Terms of Service. I hope Google cuts off all access from .gov and .mil domains.
"More mathematicians" does not mean "better mathematics." Also, I don't think the best and brightest are motivated by money. Those people are like hackers. They don't care whether they eat or not.
Obsolete? Not the ideas.
Dave Cutler designed and wrote much of the popular RSX-11M operating system for the PDP-11. He went on to design the OS for the Vax (VMS). Programmers observed that it was just like RSX-11M, but better. Microsoft hired him to lead a team that designed Windows NT. That kernel lives on in modern versions of Windows.
I believe that there should be limits to the authority of the state. There is a sphere of privacy that includes the thoughts in my head. A sort of no trespassing sign, if you wish.
I am an atheist, but there are religious objections to self-incrimination. Christianity contains the idea that forgiveness is possible, if one confesses to God. In the middle ages, it was accepted that civil authority was inferior to God's authority. This was not a minor matter; people were killed for refusing to lie about their religious beliefs.
I reject the restrictions of the poster of the question.
The article describes impressive security precautions, but it leaves something out. Data is stored so it can be retrieved. On random days, restore and decrypt some test data, so everybody knows what to do and knows that it works.
Sorry for being a pessimist, but I'm old enough to remember Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative
Consider a trillion dollar weapon of mass destruction in space.
It will never get through Congress.
There will be construction delays lasting a century.
Your enemies will be able to destroy it, cheaply.
Bright high school students will play with it.
Lots of things can cause seizures, and some of them can be treated. Where I live, a person can get a license if a doctor certifies that they have not had a seizure for a year.
It is a sad comment about our country that a driver's license is so essential that we tolerate more than 30,000 traffic fatalities each year. Seizures are a minor part of that bigger problem.
I don't think you should be discussing a legal threat in a public forum.
I don't care what others say - LCD's, LED's, and Plasma Panels just can't provide the softness and warmth of a CRT. They will never go out of style.
The kids who need help often have chaotic home environments. They need role models, not electronics. There is no technical fix.
A good way to start is to ask current and former students, and teachers at other schools. Also think about the type of environment you would like to learn in.
When I was in high school ( class of 1972; IBM 1620; punched cards ) I loved my computer course so much that I came in before first class to read manuals and do stuff on my own. I was not aware of my physical environment.
Also, please make sure some attractive, physically mature, but reckless young women are in each class.
For the full report, Google
filetype:pdf "The growing impact of full disk encryption on digital forensics"
I may look like a bum, but I'm really a wealthy man. It's just that my battery ran down, and I have no way to get my money. Please, please help me.
More seriously, I bicycle to places with no cell phone service all the time. I am not going to rely on online services for everything.
I wouldn't hire you because you want to remain ignorant. I would think you were afraid to be challenged, and content to live with your prejudices.
Here's the view of the Harvard faculty ( http://harvardmagazine.com/breaking-news/general-education-gains )
"The essential purpose of a liberal education, as we understand it, is not to instill competency and confidence, or to flatter the presumption that the world students are familiar with is the only one that matters. It is, on the contrary, to unsettle presumptions, to defamiliarize the familiar, to reveal what is going on beneath and behind appearances, and to disorient young people and help them to find ways to re-orient themselves. Liberal educators aim to accomplish this by challenging assumptions, by inducing self-reflection, by teaching students how to think critically and analytically, by exposing them to the sense of alienation produced by encounters with radically different historical moments and cultural formations and with phenomena that exceed their, and even our own, capacity fully to understand. These are things that professional schools do not do, employers do not do, even academic graduate programs do not do. Those institutions deliberalize students, train them to think as professionals. The historical, theoretical, and relational perspectives that liberal education provides can be a source of enlightenment and empowerment that will serve our graduates well for the rest of their lives. We expect that every course offered in general education will be taught in this spirit.