people need to understand the concepts of bits, bytes, words, longwords, binary/octal/hex numbers, thinking sequentially and logically, what an operating system actually does, what an IO system is and does, how a computer actually does math, etc., etc., etc.
No, they don't. Especially not at age 14. I live in a first world country, and none of those topics were covered before the final year of highschool (age 18) or the first few years of university. There's a good reason for that - most of those topics are completely useless unless you have something to actually apply them to. Having something to apply them to would require trying to teach C/C++ or assembler to your average 14 year old. That's just not going to end well.
This is Australia - being stopped by customs for more than the cursory "Hello, papers please. Anything to declare?" would be considered unusual, unless they have actual grounds for suspicion.
I know at my university, most of the professors used PDF (LaTeXed) slides, or digital over-head projectors (as opposed to light-based, which requires those transparent plastic sheets). Other than that, this is fairly standard. That said, I've tended to have quite good professors so far, and most of them will use the whiteboard to show steps or diagrams, and they don't just read straight from the slides.
It's also rather useful in that all the lecture slides get posted to the course websites, so going back and reviewing the material is much easier, and means you can pay more attention in class than if you're scribbling notes hurriedly.
Nor is the U.S. led and controlled by a radically conservative theocracy with a demonstrated intent to export insurrection with the stated goal of complete domination.
True, however this has only been the case since the beginning of this year.
Having been in the situation of starting to program when I was about 15, I can say that there is almost certainly no 'perfect' language to start aspiring programmers off on. Indeed, I'm still kicking some of the bad habits I learnt from my first language (PHP), and I now do this professionally.
I'd say the best option is probably to try and learn/teach two languages side-by-side - preferably two that have completely different approaches to programming. The first should be something that allows one to easily learn the fundamental Computer-Science stuff - functions, lists, trees and recursion - and languages like Lisp, Scheme or Haskell - by their nature - lend themselves well, although C can also serve at a pinch.
The second should be some sort of practical/pragmatic programming language, that one can learn how actual everyday programming works in. I'd honestly stay away from Java or C for this - C is scary for actually *doing* stuff when you first start to program, and Java is overly complex. Run with something like Ruby or Python, which give you a good grounding in Object Orientation, and allow a newbie to actually accomplish something. You could also use PHP if the kid's into the Web, as a lot are these days (though make sure you still teach them the OO way of doing things, as opposed to purely procedural.
Once you've got those down, you can happily jump into languages like C/C++ and Java, and start making more than just the toys that all newbies make.
I wrote to my MP, and got a reply back from Stephen Conroy. It's probably just a stock-letter, but some of you might be interested.
I am aware that the proposal for ISP filtering has attracted some
criticism from those, like yourself, who are concerned that it will lead
to censorship of the internet. However, the Australian Government has no
plans to stop adults from viewing material that is currently legal, if
they wish to view such material. The Government regards freedom of
speech as very important and the Government's cyber-safety policy is in
no way designed to curtail this.
The internet is an essential tool for all Australian children through
which they can exchange information, be entertained, socialise and do
school work and research. The ability to use online tools effectively
provides both a skill for life and the means to acquire new skills.
However, while the internet has created substantial benefits for
children it has also exposed them to a number of dangers, including
exposure to offensive content. As such, parents rightly expect the
Government to play its part in the protection of children online.
The Government has committed $125.8 million over the next four years to
a comprehensive range of cyber-safety measures, including law
enforcement, filtering and education. Measures include:
Australian Federal Police (AFP) Child Protection Operations Team
- funding to detect and investigate online child sex exploitation;
Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions - funding to help
deal with the increased activity resulting from the work of the AFP to
ensure that prosecutions are handled quickly;
ISP level filtering - funding to develop and implement ISP
filtering, including undertaking a real world 'live' pilot;
Education activities - funding to the Australian Communications
and Media Authority (ACMA) to implement a comprehensive range of
education activities;
Websites / Online helpline - funding to ACMA to improve current
Government
cyber-safety website resources and to make them easier for parents to
use, and to provide up to date information. ACMA will also develop a
children's cyber-safety website to provide information specifically for
children, and improve the online helpline to provide a quick and easy
way for children to report online incidents that cause them concern;
Consultative Working Group - funding for an expanded
Consultative Working Group. The Group will consider the broad range of
cyber-safety issues and advise the Government, to ensure properly
developed and targeted policy initiatives;
Youth Advisory Group - funding for a Youth Advisory Group which
will provide advice to the Consultative Working Group on cyber-safety
issues from a young person's perspective; and
Research - funding for ongoing research into the changing
digital environment to identify issues and target future policy and
funding.
These initiatives will tackle the issue of cyber-safety from a number of
directions to help clean up the online environment and protect
Australian children from the dangers of the internet now and into the
future. This approach acknowledges the key role parents and carers have
in the online safety of children, and provides them with the necessary
information to assist with this task. This initiative also recognises
that there is no single solution to ensure children can access the
internet safely.
A key part of the Government's plan to make the internet a safer place
for children is the introduction of ISP level filtering. The policy
reflects our community's growing belief that ISPs should take some
responsibility for enabling the blocking of illegal material on the
internet. Filtering would cover illegal and prohibited content using an
expanded ACMA blacklist of prohibited sites, which includes images of
the sexual abuse of children.
Consideration is being given to more sophisticated filtering techniques
for those indi
If you can get access to his laptop - and from what I've seen in this thread, that should be easy, then in Firefox - which, being a Linux user, I'd guess he was probably using - there's a way to get all of someone's saved passwords very quickly and easily. You just go to Tools -> Options -> Security -> Show Passwords -> Show Passwords, and there they all are, in plain-text.
To be honest, I've always wondered about this option. Seems like a big security risk, on shared computers. Anyway, hope it's helpful for you.
I wouldn't do this for client's websites, but for my own personal ones, they can go to hell. I'll code to the W3C standards. I'm not going to break my code for their benefit. I'll be nice though. There'll be a big, shiny 'Get Firefox' button somewhere.
So I hear Slashdot is rolling out a new dating service: SlashHeart. I personally predict it'll be a huge success, judging by the great ability most/.ers have at picking up chicks.
I do an awful lot of web-design work, so I've of necessity had to pick up the basics of doing graphics. As much as I love supporting OSS, Photoshop's overpriced ass still has a spot on my hard-drive, because it doesn't make me spend 20 minutes struggling with a damned unintuitive interface just to fiddle the colours on a button-graphic. There's a reason Photoshop - and indeed, pretty much no other program out there that I can think of - requires you to have multiple active windows open to do even the simplest thing - it's annoying, confusing and unintuitive. I shouldn't have to go looking in the task-bar for the blasted toolset. It should be right in front of me.
Seriously, one window people - make things like Layers and the Toolset simple toolbars within that window. Make them hideable or shrinkable or dockable or whatever - it's nice to have things not cluttering up screen real-estate when you're working on an image - but stop making things disappear whenever I change windows - it's not any more useful or powerful, and all it's really doing is pissing me off. I mean, heck, even MS Paint - a program both useless and virtually unchanged since I first used Windows (3.1) manages to get this right.
And if sticking it all in one window really is out of the question, then please, for the love of god, give me an 'Always on top' option, and when I have one Gimp window open, have them all open.
Slashdot Mirror
Go watch a video of someone trying to play Through the Fire and Flames on Drums on Expert.
It's opensource, and (AFAIK) distributed, so no, they really don't.
No, they don't. Especially not at age 14. I live in a first world country, and none of those topics were covered before the final year of highschool (age 18) or the first few years of university. There's a good reason for that - most of those topics are completely useless unless you have something to actually apply them to. Having something to apply them to would require trying to teach C/C++ or assembler to your average 14 year old. That's just not going to end well.
Assuming this is an optional install then... Ok. Cool.
This is Australia - being stopped by customs for more than the cursory "Hello, papers please. Anything to declare?" would be considered unusual, unless they have actual grounds for suspicion.
I know at my university, most of the professors used PDF (LaTeXed) slides, or digital over-head projectors (as opposed to light-based, which requires those transparent plastic sheets). Other than that, this is fairly standard. That said, I've tended to have quite good professors so far, and most of them will use the whiteboard to show steps or diagrams, and they don't just read straight from the slides.
It's also rather useful in that all the lecture slides get posted to the course websites, so going back and reviewing the material is much easier, and means you can pay more attention in class than if you're scribbling notes hurriedly.
I live in Australia. Our broadband *sucks*. Try Korean or Japan if you're after inspiration.
Nor is the U.S. led and controlled by a radically conservative theocracy with a demonstrated intent to export insurrection with the stated goal of complete domination.
True, however this has only been the case since the beginning of this year.
Having been in the situation of starting to program when I was about 15, I can say that there is almost certainly no 'perfect' language to start aspiring programmers off on. Indeed, I'm still kicking some of the bad habits I learnt from my first language (PHP), and I now do this professionally.
I'd say the best option is probably to try and learn/teach two languages side-by-side - preferably two that have completely different approaches to programming. The first should be something that allows one to easily learn the fundamental Computer-Science stuff - functions, lists, trees and recursion - and languages like Lisp, Scheme or Haskell - by their nature - lend themselves well, although C can also serve at a pinch.
The second should be some sort of practical/pragmatic programming language, that one can learn how actual everyday programming works in. I'd honestly stay away from Java or C for this - C is scary for actually *doing* stuff when you first start to program, and Java is overly complex. Run with something like Ruby or Python, which give you a good grounding in Object Orientation, and allow a newbie to actually accomplish something. You could also use PHP if the kid's into the Web, as a lot are these days (though make sure you still teach them the OO way of doing things, as opposed to purely procedural.
Once you've got those down, you can happily jump into languages like C/C++ and Java, and start making more than just the toys that all newbies make.
The Internet is not a model of Communism, it is a model of Anarchy - but it is one which works.
For those wanting to read the contents of the letter they tried to suppress, you can find the original here. (PDF)
If you can get access to his laptop - and from what I've seen in this thread, that should be easy, then in Firefox - which, being a Linux user, I'd guess he was probably using - there's a way to get all of someone's saved passwords very quickly and easily. You just go to Tools -> Options -> Security -> Show Passwords -> Show Passwords, and there they all are, in plain-text. To be honest, I've always wondered about this option. Seems like a big security risk, on shared computers. Anyway, hope it's helpful for you.
I wouldn't do this for client's websites, but for my own personal ones, they can go to hell. I'll code to the W3C standards. I'm not going to break my code for their benefit. I'll be nice though. There'll be a big, shiny 'Get Firefox' button somewhere.
So I hear Slashdot is rolling out a new dating service: SlashHeart. I personally predict it'll be a huge success, judging by the great ability most /.ers have at picking up chicks.
So wait... this lets pilots see through their planes? I call wall-hacks!
I do an awful lot of web-design work, so I've of necessity had to pick up the basics of doing graphics. As much as I love supporting OSS, Photoshop's overpriced ass still has a spot on my hard-drive, because it doesn't make me spend 20 minutes struggling with a damned unintuitive interface just to fiddle the colours on a button-graphic. There's a reason Photoshop - and indeed, pretty much no other program out there that I can think of - requires you to have multiple active windows open to do even the simplest thing - it's annoying, confusing and unintuitive. I shouldn't have to go looking in the task-bar for the blasted toolset. It should be right in front of me.
Seriously, one window people - make things like Layers and the Toolset simple toolbars within that window. Make them hideable or shrinkable or dockable or whatever - it's nice to have things not cluttering up screen real-estate when you're working on an image - but stop making things disappear whenever I change windows - it's not any more useful or powerful, and all it's really doing is pissing me off. I mean, heck, even MS Paint - a program both useless and virtually unchanged since I first used Windows (3.1) manages to get this right.
And if sticking it all in one window really is out of the question, then please, for the love of god, give me an 'Always on top' option, and when I have one Gimp window open, have them all open.