I traced to oxford.edu (went through Telia) and stanford.edu (went through Cogent); interesting latency spikes and a few dropped packets when I ping both. Just started a ping to my ISP for a control.
Did you never have a study group where you collaborated on methods to reaching the right answer? Cheating on homework is pointless; it sets you up for failure on the exam, which is where most of the almighty grade comes from. The student's homework was only worth 10% of the grade. How did the student earn a 'B' in the class if he did not actually learn the material (through his study group or otherwise)? Is learning not the goal? Should an online study group be treated differently from a face-to-face study group where these same things are done?
jhanigsb@ryerson.ca , credmond@ryerson.ca , fdshaikh@ryerson.ca , pres@ryerson.ca , emcginn@ryerson.ca
That's the president, board of governors, and legal counsel. Here's what I wrote...
My view is that the school should explain to the student why the group needs to be different and the student should make the required changes. Since the university's purpose is to educate, you should teach the student what specifically was wrong and how it can be done correctly.
Expulsion should be used as a last resort for students who are beyond reach. In this case, you have a first-year student who created a support group for academic improvement. Discipline of this sort will discourage the use of the Web as a medium for collaborative education as illustrated in the quotes below from Ryerson students:
"All these students are scared s---less now about using Facebook to talk about schoolwork, when actually it's no different than any study group working together on homework in a library," said Neale.
"That's the worst part; it's creating this culture of fear, where if I post a question about physics homework on my friend's wall (a Facebook bulletin board) and ask if anyone has any ideas how to approach this - and my prof sees this, am I cheating?" said Neale, who has used Facebook study groups herself.
The article also mentions that Avenir "is still attending classes pending his hearing but admits the stress of the accusations is affecting his midterm exam results." In my opinion, the university's behavior borders on harrassment, because it is negatively affecting the student's academic performance.
The university has an opportunity to set a good precedent for collaborative education on the Web for present and future students. Please encourage the student to run a Facebook study group with the approval of the school in a way that supports the school's mission. The student needs to know how the group needs to be different and the student will make the required changes to abide by school policy.
I don't know how to tag a story, but my sense is that the South Park "Blame Canada" song applies;-).
The school should simply explain to the student why they feel that the group needs to be different and the student should make the required changes. It seems excessive to expel a student for doing things that are typically done by highly-competitive chemistry (and other natural science) students in the first place. If the school is there to educate, then they should teach the student why this was wrong and how it can be done "correctly."
This kind of cheating is not even the half of it; I remember talk of student labs being tampered with and contaminated to keep them from wrecking the curve for everyone else or because they did not like a particular student who was exceling in the class; of course, these were classes full of pre-med students who were in fierce competition with each-other for seats in medical school. Also, most of the pre-meds had copies of many years of old exams, including the answers.
Sadly, "It's only wrong if you get caught" applies here and this student should be encouraged to set a good precedent; encourage the kid to run a Facebook study group with the approval of the school in a way that supports the school's mission.
Actually, I tried to find episodes 2 and 3, but could not; I could only find the pilot/premiere episode...I guess that people are not that interested in the show and NBC does not have it available on their site...grrr.
"Download from a vast library covering a huge portion of recorded video, and keep the file to watch as many times as you'd like essentially forever... But no such thing exists on a large enough scale."
Sure it does; it's called the BitTorrent protocol. That reminds me, I missed the last two episodes of the new Knight Rider in HD.
There is nothing fair or decent about ceding the point of a valid patent to Microsoft by paying their royalty fees. The validity of Microsoft's patents and their application are questions for the courts to decide, not Microsoft.
Take network file sharing as an example. I'm sure Microsoft dislikes the fact that I can host a Windows file share on my Linux box over SMB using Samba. The fact remains that no matter how many patents Microsoft puts out on its implementation of Windows file-sharing, any reasonable judge would render those patents invalid. Further, NFS could be judged as prior art to SMB.
Take Microsoft Office's Excel, Word, and PowerPoint file formats as another example. Let's say that I'm an open-source programmer who wants to make a free contribution to the computing community. I use the information that Microsoft has published to add a "Save As" Open Document Format (ODF) feature and release my implementation and source code to the community for free under the GPL version 2. Now, you're the CIO at either a private or government organization that wants all of your users (Windows, Mac, Linux) to be able to share Office documents, so you adopt this open-source format conversion software that I wrote and released for free. Under Microsoft's terms, even though I donated my ODF "Save-As" feature to the community, the organization that uses my free work still needs to pay Microsoft a licensing fee. Why? Because they're using Office? THEY ALREADY PAID FOR THE OFFICE LICENSE!!! Because they're saving documents using ODF? It's an open standard! Because they're using the "Save-As" ODF feature? It's a free and open-source implementation! No judge would give Microsoft monetary relief from an organization, for a feature that is given away for free, especially since that the organization already licensed the Office software.
I see how both Samba and ODF are in competition with Windows File Sharing and MS Office's internal file formats and I say, don't pay the Microsoft royalties, LET THEM COMPETE and let the courts sort it out.
I have no doubt that Microsoft staff is quite busy working at all times. The Microsoft press release makes the company leadership's intentions clear:
"Microsoft is providing a covenant not to sue open source developers for development or non-commercial distribution of implementations of these protocols. These developers will be able to use the documentation for free to develop products. Companies that engage in commercial distribution of these protocol implementations will be able to obtain a patent license from Microsoft, as will enterprises that obtain these implementations from a distributor that does not have such a patent license."
And...
"Microsoft will document for the development community how it supports such standards, including those Microsoft extensions that affect interoperability with other implementations of these standards. This documentation will be published on Microsoft's Web site and it will be accessible without a license, royalty or other fee. These actions will allow third-party developers implementing standards to understand how a standard is used in a Microsoft product and foster improved interoperability for customers. Microsoft will make available a list of any of its patents that cover any of these extensions, and will make available patent licenses on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms."
Sounds a lot like the SCO mantra to me. "We own the patents, so pay up on the royalty fees and we won't sue you" (Microsoft, February 21, 2008). Given that all of your work is for the benefit of those who are willing to pay Microsoft for the "patent royalty fees," without a judge's decision on whether the patent is valid, is this not the very definition of minimal? If Microsoft is going to have a covenant to not sue open-source developers, what happens to those who don't pay for the Microsoft patent licenses? Do they still get sued? Are they still under threat to be sued? This looks like an evil Microsoft ploy to make $$$ on the backs of open-source developers and end users.
As for the comparisons of Microsoft to the Open-Source benevolent IBM, I would mention that IBM (Sun Microsystems and others) have donated countless patents to the open-source community. This is NOT what Microsoft is doing and Microsoft should NOT be given the same sweetheart treatment that the IBMs (or Sun Microsystems) of the world have earned through their contributions to the open-source community.
I wanted an Xbox 360 and was about to buy one before Microsoft started spreading their patent FUD about a year and a half ago. I was visiting RedHat's NYC offices the day that Microsoft threatened to file lawsuits against open-source technologies; that was the day that I decided that my Wii was enough for this console generation and I stopped buying Microsoft products.
Now, I see that blu-ray has won and I need a blu-ray player for my 50" HDTV. Microsoft now wants to put out a blu-ray player for the 360 and seems to be backing away from their patent and lawsuit FUD against open source. Aside from holding a grudge at the past FUD and threat of a lawsuit, I was tempted to drop my personal boycott of Microsoft products, until I actually read the Microsoft press release.
"Microsoft is providing a covenant not to sue open source developers for development or non-commercial distribution of implementations of these protocols. These developers will be able to use the documentation for free to develop products. Companies that engage in commercial distribution of these protocol implementations will be able to obtain a patent license from Microsoft, as will enterprises that obtain these implementations from a distributor that does not have such a patent license."
My read on this is that Microsoft wants me to pay a licensing fee if I use Samba (for example). PS3 it is! Sony gets the sale and Microsoft can _STILL_ go about their business without my hard-earned $$$.
"Powerful" is such a vague term.
In my opinion, one of the strengths of Microsoft's development environment is in its integration with IIS and SQLServer. You can publish a web service on your Web Server by pushing a button and publish a web form that queries or adds data to database tables without writing any SQL (cough, choke, gag). Of course, then you're stuck with IIS and SQLServer; not the best web or database server products.
I honestly thought that the Visual Studio was the best IDE when I last used it, but most of the code I write these days is in Java for the sake of portability. I also find it so much easier to download and run Eclipse than to find a way to get Visual Studio CDs (especially since I work in government, where making a purchase takes months).
Did you see all of their authentication requirements? Microsoft Live ID and college verification...some will have to dig up their Xbox Live passwords. What does it matter if they give away the products to students if the process of obtaining them is so cumbersome? Given that downloading and running Eclipse is easier than Visual Studio, I would say that the bar for authenticating a student is set too high for this attempt to have any chance of success.
I really do like your analysis, Reverberant, but I also want you to know that your "perfect" Patriots are overdue for a loss (that's as close to a flame war as I will get on Superbowl Sunday).
Hahaha...that's hilarious! New Yorker here (my Giants are playing today)...they kick the ball to open the game (kickoff), after a 6-point score (1 more point after the touchdown), after every score (kickoff), to push the other team back after 3 consecutive failed attempts to advance 10 yards (punt), or to score 3 points if they are within 50 yards of the uprights (field goal).
I'm happy to call it American football if you're okay to call soccer European or world football.
While we're on the topic, check out the clip of Brandon Jacobs opening up a can on whup-ass in the first play of the game two weeks ago in Green Bay. Note 265 lbs of running-back muscle flattens the tiny little corner-back.:-)
Where does this greedy atery-clogging, "Super-Size Me" executive get off blaming video games for something that the fast-food industry's focus on cheap and un-healthy food is largely responsible for?
Computer Science is one of my two majors (got two minors as well, NYU is a great school to go to if you want to study many related disciplines). I graduated in May 2001 and have a picture of me during my graduation ceremony in front of the fountain at Washington Square Park with the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in the background, less than 4 months before we were attacked. I have heard of Professor Dewar, but had not heard of the other guy and never learned from either of them. At the time that I went to NYU, they were teaching the two terms of froshman introduction to programming in Pascal. Luckily, I had formally studied introduction to programming in C/C++ somewhere else and obtained an A in both classes, so I placed out of the courses during my advisement as I entered the university.
My biggest mistake as I entered NYU was signing up for Computer Systems Organization I (in x86 assembly language), Discrete Math, Calculus I/II (that's an accelerated Calculus course with a ridiculous amount of advanced material), and if I recall correctly Introduction to Psychology (which I had already taken in High School and got an easy A). To this day, x86 assembly language is my least favorite way to code, even though I think I got a B+ or A- in Computer Systems Organization I. I considered dropping CS as a major after that term and started to pursue Psychology as a second major. Computer Systems Organization II was a cinch as it dealt with operating systems and programming in C (I love C, because it's so straight-forward and I can't picture any young nerd that would not enjoy an OS course) -- I got an A in the class. I also took C++ and UNIX, which played to my existing strength in C++ and got another A; that professor also threw in a little bit of Perl, CGI, and multi-threading in Java at the end of the course. I also took Computer Architecture the following term and really enjoyed designing a MIPS processor from low-level logic gates (AND, OR, and NOT). We implemented a MIPS processor simulator in C, including the ALU, a number of required operations, and I even implemented an assembler for MIPS instructions for my simulated processor as part of my final project for that course; I got another A in that class as well and that was the point where I decided to finish my major in CS at NYU -- MIPS assembly language was the antithesis to x86 assembly language and showed me that assembly languages can be intuitive and don't necessarily have to suck ass. I also studied Distributed Operating Systems, Programming Languages (where we implemented a database system in LISP, writing only 4 or 5 functions, each less than 5 lines of code; two of them were only 1-liners and all used recursion) along with all the other required stuff like Basic Algorithms and Calculus; even tried my hand at Computer Graphics, but I got a tendinitis injury in my writing arm because I was working full-time at startups while taking notes in class and had to drop the course. One of my minors is Mathematics, so I also studied Linear Algebra, Statistics, and Logic (great course; we formally proved all of arithmetic and algebra).
I was studying CS at NYU right around the time that CS department first switched the introduction to programming courses from Pascal to Java. At that point in my life, I had a real distaste for Java, but it is my primary language at work these days. At that time, Java was taught as a senior-level elective and you could graduate from NYU without ever having written a single line of Java code.
What I saw from the students in my CS classes at NYU was that there were a handful of us who almost knew the material without having been taught it...it came so naturally to us and we knew the answers to the questions before the professor even asked the question. I also saw tons of students get weeded out in the first few introduction classes. I expect that this weeding out process happens at all universities, regardless of the language that the introduction courses are taught in.
I assume that the company you're investing in has the prospect for positive earnings in the future, correct? I don't need to know which stock it is (though I am curious), but would definitely like to know what makes you think it is a good buy, given negative earnings. Thanks.
Some of my favorite quotes from Darl McBride:
"And C++ programming languages, we own those, have licensed them out multiple times, obviously. We have a lot of royalties coming to us from C++."
"Obviously Linux owes its heritage to UNIX, but not its code. We would not, nor will not, make such a claim."
"We didn't start this, but we're going to finish it."
Walk into our favorite video game store during the holiday season, excited and bouncing off-the-walls about the great game that we MUST HAVE on launch day; then walk up to the counter and ask for a pre-order for Duke Nukem Forever. It's worth the $5 bucks, just to see the reaction from the store's sales staff and PC gamers.
Presumably, the Wii is manufactured in a 3rd world country where things like overtime and night differential don't exist (as we are treated in most US jobs).
I wonder if Nintendo and its partners are manufacturing Wiis 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year at their factories. Does anyone know?
Slashdot Mirror
I traced to oxford.edu (went through Telia) and stanford.edu (went through Cogent); interesting latency spikes and a few dropped packets when I ping both. Just started a ping to my ISP for a control.
I'm glad I'm not paying Blizzard a monthly fee to play World of Warcrack.
Did you never have a study group where you collaborated on methods to reaching the right answer? Cheating on homework is pointless; it sets you up for failure on the exam, which is where most of the almighty grade comes from. The student's homework was only worth 10% of the grade. How did the student earn a 'B' in the class if he did not actually learn the material (through his study group or otherwise)? Is learning not the goal? Should an online study group be treated differently from a face-to-face study group where these same things are done?
jhanigsb@ryerson.ca , credmond@ryerson.ca , fdshaikh@ryerson.ca , pres@ryerson.ca , emcginn@ryerson.ca That's the president, board of governors, and legal counsel. Here's what I wrote...
Ryerson leadership,
I recently read the article below on Chris Avenir's Facebook Chemistry study group:
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/309855
This activity is also the subject of discussion on an Online Rights group at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/07/0355244
My view is that the school should explain to the student why the group needs to be different and the student should make the required changes. Since the university's purpose is to educate, you should teach the student what specifically was wrong and how it can be done correctly.
Expulsion should be used as a last resort for students who are beyond reach. In this case, you have a first-year student who created a support group for academic improvement. Discipline of this sort will discourage the use of the Web as a medium for collaborative education as illustrated in the quotes below from Ryerson students:
"All these students are scared s---less now about using Facebook to talk about schoolwork, when actually it's no different than any study group working together on homework in a library," said Neale.
"That's the worst part; it's creating this culture of fear, where if I post a question about physics homework on my friend's wall (a Facebook bulletin board) and ask if anyone has any ideas how to approach this - and my prof sees this, am I cheating?" said Neale, who has used Facebook study groups herself.
The article also mentions that Avenir "is still attending classes pending his hearing but admits the stress of the accusations is affecting his midterm exam results." In my opinion, the university's behavior borders on harrassment, because it is negatively affecting the student's academic performance.
The university has an opportunity to set a good precedent for collaborative education on the Web for present and future students. Please encourage the student to run a Facebook study group with the approval of the school in a way that supports the school's mission. The student needs to know how the group needs to be different and the student will make the required changes to abide by school policy.
I don't know how to tag a story, but my sense is that the South Park "Blame Canada" song applies ;-) .
The school should simply explain to the student why they feel that the group needs to be different and the student should make the required changes. It seems excessive to expel a student for doing things that are typically done by highly-competitive chemistry (and other natural science) students in the first place. If the school is there to educate, then they should teach the student why this was wrong and how it can be done "correctly."
This kind of cheating is not even the half of it; I remember talk of student labs being tampered with and contaminated to keep them from wrecking the curve for everyone else or because they did not like a particular student who was exceling in the class; of course, these were classes full of pre-med students who were in fierce competition with each-other for seats in medical school. Also, most of the pre-meds had copies of many years of old exams, including the answers.
Sadly, "It's only wrong if you get caught" applies here and this student should be encouraged to set a good precedent; encourage the kid to run a Facebook study group with the approval of the school in a way that supports the school's mission.
Actually, I tried to find episodes 2 and 3, but could not; I could only find the pilot/premiere episode...I guess that people are not that interested in the show and NBC does not have it available on their site...grrr.
"Download from a vast library covering a huge portion of recorded video, and keep the file to watch as many times as you'd like essentially forever... But no such thing exists on a large enough scale."
Sure it does; it's called the BitTorrent protocol. That reminds me, I missed the last two episodes of the new Knight Rider in HD.
There is nothing fair or decent about ceding the point of a valid patent to Microsoft by paying their royalty fees. The validity of Microsoft's patents and their application are questions for the courts to decide, not Microsoft.
Take network file sharing as an example. I'm sure Microsoft dislikes the fact that I can host a Windows file share on my Linux box over SMB using Samba. The fact remains that no matter how many patents Microsoft puts out on its implementation of Windows file-sharing, any reasonable judge would render those patents invalid. Further, NFS could be judged as prior art to SMB.
Take Microsoft Office's Excel, Word, and PowerPoint file formats as another example. Let's say that I'm an open-source programmer who wants to make a free contribution to the computing community. I use the information that Microsoft has published to add a "Save As" Open Document Format (ODF) feature and release my implementation and source code to the community for free under the GPL version 2. Now, you're the CIO at either a private or government organization that wants all of your users (Windows, Mac, Linux) to be able to share Office documents, so you adopt this open-source format conversion software that I wrote and released for free. Under Microsoft's terms, even though I donated my ODF "Save-As" feature to the community, the organization that uses my free work still needs to pay Microsoft a licensing fee. Why? Because they're using Office? THEY ALREADY PAID FOR THE OFFICE LICENSE!!! Because they're saving documents using ODF? It's an open standard! Because they're using the "Save-As" ODF feature? It's a free and open-source implementation! No judge would give Microsoft monetary relief from an organization, for a feature that is given away for free, especially since that the organization already licensed the Office software.
I see how both Samba and ODF are in competition with Windows File Sharing and MS Office's internal file formats and I say, don't pay the Microsoft royalties, LET THEM COMPETE and let the courts sort it out.
I have no doubt that Microsoft staff is quite busy working at all times. The Microsoft press release makes the company leadership's intentions clear:
"Microsoft is providing a covenant not to sue open source developers for development or non-commercial distribution of implementations of these protocols. These developers will be able to use the documentation for free to develop products. Companies that engage in commercial distribution of these protocol implementations will be able to obtain a patent license from Microsoft, as will enterprises that obtain these implementations from a distributor that does not have such a patent license."
And...
"Microsoft will document for the development community how it supports such standards, including those Microsoft extensions that affect interoperability with other implementations of these standards. This documentation will be published on Microsoft's Web site and it will be accessible without a license, royalty or other fee. These actions will allow third-party developers implementing standards to understand how a standard is used in a Microsoft product and foster improved interoperability for customers. Microsoft will make available a list of any of its patents that cover any of these extensions, and will make available patent licenses on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms."
Sounds a lot like the SCO mantra to me. "We own the patents, so pay up on the royalty fees and we won't sue you" (Microsoft, February 21, 2008). Given that all of your work is for the benefit of those who are willing to pay Microsoft for the "patent royalty fees," without a judge's decision on whether the patent is valid, is this not the very definition of minimal? If Microsoft is going to have a covenant to not sue open-source developers, what happens to those who don't pay for the Microsoft patent licenses? Do they still get sued? Are they still under threat to be sued? This looks like an evil Microsoft ploy to make $$$ on the backs of open-source developers and end users.
As for the comparisons of Microsoft to the Open-Source benevolent IBM, I would mention that IBM (Sun Microsystems and others) have donated countless patents to the open-source community. This is NOT what Microsoft is doing and Microsoft should NOT be given the same sweetheart treatment that the IBMs (or Sun Microsystems) of the world have earned through their contributions to the open-source community.
I wanted an Xbox 360 and was about to buy one before Microsoft started spreading their patent FUD about a year and a half ago. I was visiting RedHat's NYC offices the day that Microsoft threatened to file lawsuits against open-source technologies; that was the day that I decided that my Wii was enough for this console generation and I stopped buying Microsoft products.
Now, I see that blu-ray has won and I need a blu-ray player for my 50" HDTV. Microsoft now wants to put out a blu-ray player for the 360 and seems to be backing away from their patent and lawsuit FUD against open source. Aside from holding a grudge at the past FUD and threat of a lawsuit, I was tempted to drop my personal boycott of Microsoft products, until I actually read the Microsoft press release.
"Microsoft is providing a covenant not to sue open source developers for development or non-commercial distribution of implementations of these protocols. These developers will be able to use the documentation for free to develop products. Companies that engage in commercial distribution of these protocol implementations will be able to obtain a patent license from Microsoft, as will enterprises that obtain these implementations from a distributor that does not have such a patent license."
My read on this is that Microsoft wants me to pay a licensing fee if I use Samba (for example). PS3 it is! Sony gets the sale and Microsoft can _STILL_ go about their business without my hard-earned $$$.
"Powerful" is such a vague term. In my opinion, one of the strengths of Microsoft's development environment is in its integration with IIS and SQLServer. You can publish a web service on your Web Server by pushing a button and publish a web form that queries or adds data to database tables without writing any SQL (cough, choke, gag). Of course, then you're stuck with IIS and SQLServer; not the best web or database server products. I honestly thought that the Visual Studio was the best IDE when I last used it, but most of the code I write these days is in Java for the sake of portability. I also find it so much easier to download and run Eclipse than to find a way to get Visual Studio CDs (especially since I work in government, where making a purchase takes months). Did you see all of their authentication requirements? Microsoft Live ID and college verification...some will have to dig up their Xbox Live passwords. What does it matter if they give away the products to students if the process of obtaining them is so cumbersome? Given that downloading and running Eclipse is easier than Visual Studio, I would say that the bar for authenticating a student is set too high for this attempt to have any chance of success.
I really do like your analysis, Reverberant, but I also want you to know that your "perfect" Patriots are overdue for a loss (that's as close to a flame war as I will get on Superbowl Sunday).
;-)
Also, did you know that Hitler is a Cowboys fan?
Of course, the Patriots won't need an asterisk if the Giants somehow pull off the un-thinkable this evening.
Hahaha...that's hilarious! New Yorker here (my Giants are playing today)...they kick the ball to open the game (kickoff), after a 6-point score (1 more point after the touchdown), after every score (kickoff), to push the other team back after 3 consecutive failed attempts to advance 10 yards (punt), or to score 3 points if they are within 50 yards of the uprights (field goal).
I'm happy to call it American football if you're okay to call soccer European or world football.
While we're on the topic, check out the clip of Brandon Jacobs opening up a can on whup-ass in the first play of the game two weeks ago in Green Bay. Note 265 lbs of running-back muscle flattens the tiny little corner-back. :-)
Momentum = Mass * Velocity Brandon Jacobs is HUGE and runs very fast.
With this ridiculous statement from McDonald's as our reason for it. I think I feel my blood boiling as my "nerd rage" overflows.
Wii Fit
Two more words...Wii Boxing
Where does this greedy atery-clogging, "Super-Size Me" executive get off blaming video games for something that the fast-food industry's focus on cheap and un-healthy food is largely responsible for?
Computer Science is one of my two majors (got two minors as well, NYU is a great school to go to if you want to study many related disciplines). I graduated in May 2001 and have a picture of me during my graduation ceremony in front of the fountain at Washington Square Park with the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in the background, less than 4 months before we were attacked. I have heard of Professor Dewar, but had not heard of the other guy and never learned from either of them. At the time that I went to NYU, they were teaching the two terms of froshman introduction to programming in Pascal. Luckily, I had formally studied introduction to programming in C/C++ somewhere else and obtained an A in both classes, so I placed out of the courses during my advisement as I entered the university.
My biggest mistake as I entered NYU was signing up for Computer Systems Organization I (in x86 assembly language), Discrete Math, Calculus I/II (that's an accelerated Calculus course with a ridiculous amount of advanced material), and if I recall correctly Introduction to Psychology (which I had already taken in High School and got an easy A). To this day, x86 assembly language is my least favorite way to code, even though I think I got a B+ or A- in Computer Systems Organization I. I considered dropping CS as a major after that term and started to pursue Psychology as a second major. Computer Systems Organization II was a cinch as it dealt with operating systems and programming in C (I love C, because it's so straight-forward and I can't picture any young nerd that would not enjoy an OS course) -- I got an A in the class. I also took C++ and UNIX, which played to my existing strength in C++ and got another A; that professor also threw in a little bit of Perl, CGI, and multi-threading in Java at the end of the course. I also took Computer Architecture the following term and really enjoyed designing a MIPS processor from low-level logic gates (AND, OR, and NOT). We implemented a MIPS processor simulator in C, including the ALU, a number of required operations, and I even implemented an assembler for MIPS instructions for my simulated processor as part of my final project for that course; I got another A in that class as well and that was the point where I decided to finish my major in CS at NYU -- MIPS assembly language was the antithesis to x86 assembly language and showed me that assembly languages can be intuitive and don't necessarily have to suck ass. I also studied Distributed Operating Systems, Programming Languages (where we implemented a database system in LISP, writing only 4 or 5 functions, each less than 5 lines of code; two of them were only 1-liners and all used recursion) along with all the other required stuff like Basic Algorithms and Calculus; even tried my hand at Computer Graphics, but I got a tendinitis injury in my writing arm because I was working full-time at startups while taking notes in class and had to drop the course. One of my minors is Mathematics, so I also studied Linear Algebra, Statistics, and Logic (great course; we formally proved all of arithmetic and algebra).
I was studying CS at NYU right around the time that CS department first switched the introduction to programming courses from Pascal to Java. At that point in my life, I had a real distaste for Java, but it is my primary language at work these days. At that time, Java was taught as a senior-level elective and you could graduate from NYU without ever having written a single line of Java code.
What I saw from the students in my CS classes at NYU was that there were a handful of us who almost knew the material without having been taught it...it came so naturally to us and we knew the answers to the questions before the professor even asked the question. I also saw tons of students get weeded out in the first few introduction classes. I expect that this weeding out process happens at all universities, regardless of the language that the introduction courses are taught in.
When learning C/
I assume that the company you're investing in has the prospect for positive earnings in the future, correct? I don't need to know which stock it is (though I am curious), but would definitely like to know what makes you think it is a good buy, given negative earnings. Thanks.
Some of my favorite quotes from Darl McBride: "And C++ programming languages, we own those, have licensed them out multiple times, obviously. We have a lot of royalties coming to us from C++." "Obviously Linux owes its heritage to UNIX, but not its code. We would not, nor will not, make such a claim." "We didn't start this, but we're going to finish it."
Thanks for the link. I especially love the earnings per share at N/A and the price to earnings ratio at N/A. Great business model, Darl!
Walk into our favorite video game store during the holiday season, excited and bouncing off-the-walls about the great game that we MUST HAVE on launch day; then walk up to the counter and ask for a pre-order for Duke Nukem Forever. It's worth the $5 bucks, just to see the reaction from the store's sales staff and PC gamers.
Either way, E3 needs to bring the boobs back.
Presumably, the Wii is manufactured in a 3rd world country where things like overtime and night differential don't exist (as we are treated in most US jobs).
I wonder if Nintendo and its partners are manufacturing Wiis 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year at their factories. Does anyone know?