I would generally agree. There should certainly be assembly in the mix, too. I'm not sure it should matter if the language is "marketable" or not to teach it in school. Not in CS, anyway. It should be about learning concepts and not about learning the language, IMO. If anything, the only part of CS that should be language related is when learning how to learn languages. With that in mind, I'd say perhaps when studying OO a course should hit C++, Java, Smalltalk, and Ruby--not just one of them. Of course I may be asking for a bit much...:-)
Sorry, but compared to the stuff we have running, that is a very, very small app. There's simply no comparison.:-) I'd quote numbers, but I never remember them, so I won't try just now. I realize that without numbers it doesn't mean much, but we have PHP apps that handle a greater load than the Java applications doing very similar things on less hardware with less developers and less downtime. This is just how I experience Java--and it ain't pretty.
When I was in college for my CS degree, the focus shift away from C/C++ and towards Java was beginning. I was lucky in that my early CS programs were still in C++. However, the classes right behind me as I moved through were getting shifted over to Java one by one. I did not like that at all. It just felt wrong. I figured maybe I was just being biased since I learned C/C++ pretty much on my own without the aid of classes.
After graduating with my BS in CS, I was out in the field for a few years. I spent some time at a C++ Windows shop which was trying to become gung-ho about C# and the various.NET technologies. The magazines all had big pushes for Java, C#, VB.NET, etc.
I left that place and moved into a contracting position where I help admin a data center. The attitude there is much different, to say the least.:-) Everyday we have to deal with huge bloated Java web applications that melt CPUs, eat RAM, and are so slow it takes boxes with 11 CPUs just to service a few thousand customers. The distaste for Java that begins in our department has been filtering up the layers and is starting to become apparent to some of the people who build these projects. When you line up a huge app in PHP next to one written in Java, why is it that the PHP one can easily outperform it on less hardware and require less people to maintain it? That all translates to big $$$$ not to mention application stability and performance.
I'm also now studying for a master's degree in CS. Since I had been away a few years, I was not surprised when I came back to see Java everywhere in the undergrad classes (this at a different school than before). What did surprise me is the attitude of one of my new professors. He taught a projects class where the whole point of the class is to build/do something by the end of the term. It doesn't matter what as long as it fit the basic subject area of the class. After that, you're pretty much on your own (or in a group, if you want). Since this was a different school than where I got my BS, I didn't know this professor. I had seen him wearing a Java shirt a few times, so I was prepared to have to deal with some friction when I went to suggest that I wanted to do my project with C++. One day I stayed after class to chat with him and get to know him a bit. I was shocked to discover that he had done a lot of postdoctoral research using Java and about Java and found it lacking in many very important areas (specifically in high performance scientific computing applications). As we were walking out of the building, he was asking me about my background in programming and computers, so I was giving him a mini life story sort of thing. I mentioned my C/C++ upbringing and how in my college days the Java shift had begun and I didn't quite feel comfortable with that and how I see it seemed to have happened everywhere. That's when he took a careful look around the hallway, leaned in, and said in a hushed tone, "Switching to Java for the undergrads is the worst decision this department ever made."
I was pretty stunned to hear that from a professor considering what was going on just a few years previous. I hope that sentiment grows and CS departments take back their programs from corporate interests and marketing machines. Perhaps there is hope...
"But this nannying produces only poorer developers who rely on the language rather than their own abilities to code effectively."
I know this is shockingly off-topic, but it is interesting how stating something like that seems pretty obvious and logical when talking about computer programs. The reason I mention this is that your comment could very easily be applied to western (or at least American) culture in general. We have become a culture of safety where anything even remotely dangerous is banned or sectioned off. Everything has guardrails now.
After spending some time in middle-to-eastern Europe, the differences in thinking in that regard are quire amazing. Everything is so "safe" in America for fear that people will hurt themselves and go on a suing rampage. I think it is creating some pretty pathetic and petty people which isn't going to bode well in the future.
Actually, I went to a Microsoft speaking event thing one time where the dude was demoing something out of Windows 2000 or something that hadn't been released yet. It crashed and he actually said that it wasn't a bug, but a feature that reminds you to take breaks and go get more coffee. Of course he was joking... I think...
Good question. The only problem is that how likely is it that you'd only share part of one movie over your entire lifetime ever?
If you share 1/10 of movie A and 1/10 of movie B and 1/10 of move C etc... all at the same time or over the course of a few years you might end up sharing some small portion of 10, 20, 100+ movies. Are they going to go easy on you just because you only shared a portion of all of these movies?
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see you're just trying to be clever with the wording of the law. Any reasonable judge would probably just nail you with the full penalty of sharing 1 whole movie at the least because you had demonstrated intent to enable copyright infringement by providing all of those partial fragments.
Of course I admit that somewhere a line must be drawn. I might have, say, a 1kb block of some binary data in some database someplace that happens to correspond to a 1kb block in a movie file. Technically, there's no difference between those blocks of bytes as they are just numerical values. At some point it does break down, but that's when you pull in other factors such as past behavior, software you had installed, things you said on IRC, etc.
Yes I did. Well, for awhile, anyway.:-) The thought had occurred to me that it'd make a great gag toy that could be easily planted on people.:-) Naturally, of course, I managed to lose it before I ever actually used it for that...
Is it maybe some kind of insurance policy that is cheaper if they have these anti-theft things? I too have noticed how most store employees don't even pay attention when they go off. The customers get far more upset than the employees do.
There was a time awhile back when I used to set these things off almost everywhere I went. Eventually I started to remove one item each time I went to the store. First it was my keys, then my cell phone. The alarm would still go off. Then I tried leaving my wallet in the car and just carry in the cash I needed. Lo and behold, the alarm didn't go off! So after some careful investigation I found that my wallet still had the anti-theft sticker tucked inside an unused pocket. What was strange about this is that the alarm problem had only started recently even though the wallet had been with me for years.
After thinking about it a bit, I determined that the problem had to be caused by either one of two likely possibilities (or a combination of them). The most likely explanation is that the old security key card I had had was blocking the anti-theft device. I didn't connect to the two immediately, but the problem of the alarms going off began to occur about the time I turned that badge in. The other possible explanation is that somehow the anti-theft device was re-activated. I'm not even sure if that's possible or not, but I had the wallet before I got the job that required the security key card and never had any problem going through those detectors.
In any case, after removing the old anti-theft sticker, I've not had any problems with those devices. So if you're one of those who keeps setting them off, you might have a look for something like this.:-)
Maybe I'm missing something, but why does it turn off the keyboard light if you happen to bump the keyboard light adjustment keys while the ambient light is bright? It appears this new update didn't address that.
I wonder if there's some checkbox that I need to check or something. Grr. It is the most annoying thing.
I suppose this isn't really a question directed at you, but your comment about the light sensor reminded me to test for it on my PowerBook.:-)
It seems as if this update fixed the sensitivity problems with my PowerBook trackpad. I have a 1.67Ghz PB with the new trackpad that supports the vertical/horizontal scrolling stuff and it has always been far less sensitive than my old PB -- until I rebooted after this update. Cool!
Although the Safari upgrade re-added Apple, Amazon, eBay, etc. links to my bookmark bar. That was sort of annoying, but easy enough to fix.
Why do these "gee whiz" stories about new tech or materials always have such strange example applications?
"This material could one day lead to medical devices that build themselves inside a patient's body, or door latches that can be opened with a flashlight."
Okay, the medical one isn't so bad (except, kinda dark in a body)... but a door latch that opens with a flashlight? Huh?
How about... - Plastic flowers that open in the sunlight! - Sunglasses that automatically lower in front of your eyes! - Light-based transformer toys! - Gag sundials!
That kind of attitude is not the fault of MySQL being late with features. It is the fault of the person with that attitude.
It seems that for many people, learning is hard. When they spend a significant amount of energy learning something that did not come easily to them they tend to be MUCH more defensive to anyone who comes around with an alternate point of view (regardless of evidence).
I think that all people have been followers in their lives at some point, but that MOST people never venture out on their own and even attempt to live any other way. This attitude that you speak of is a classic sign of that follower mentality. They learned and used MySQL because it was "cool" and "everyone" else was using it. That, in itself, isn't a huge problem. If it weren't for forces like that, nothing would ever standardize or gain any kind of momentum. The problem is that most people never get beyond that. It is the classic "I have a hammer, so everything looks like a nail" syndrome. This is hardly the fault of MySQL.
Still, somehow Wizards of the Coast managed to patent the game of Magic. If they can do that, then I imagine something like "Letter-tile Game Method of Play" could be patented--which is basically like patenting the idea of the rules of the game, isn't it?
Why are they in this class to begin with? Figure that out (or, assuming you know already), then make the project into something that will seem useful to them. Printing hello world, outputting today's date on a web page or anything boring and useless like that is bound to be quickly forgotten. Show them something that makes sense for them in their domain that relates to why they are there.
If they think that what they are learning will be useful, then they will remember it.
That is exactly the way it was for me. I used to hate Macs before OSX. I always had great respect for their hardware, but the environment I wanted just wasn't there. After experiencing the first titanium PowerBooks via friends I simply *had* to have one. I'm on my second PowerBook now and I'm not looking back.
That's odd. I know close to 10 people with Powerbooks and iBooks and not one has ever had this happen. I've heard of it happening from stories like yours online, but I have to say it seems to be very much a rare occurrence in my experience.
Sucks that you gotten a rotten one. Oh well. Shit happens.
Yes there are. There are always such issues. Even for tools. What if you created a tool that's sole purpose was to assist with suicide? That's just a tool, after all. Are there no moral or ethical issues associated with it? If there are with that and not with p2p, then what's so different? Is it just because someone may die? What about tools designed to help a pickpocket do his job?
You have to admit that the majority of users of p2p software are engaged in activities that are currently considered illegal. Does that not affect the ethics of producing such software? You can claim you are developing it for noble or innocent means until you are blue in the face but it doesn't change the fact that you are knowingly developing tools that will primarily be used to break the law.
Since you yourself state that "morals are involved with the use and application of tools," and you are knowingly producing tools that will mostly be used for illegal activities, then how are there NOT moral and ethical issues to deal with? Just because you yourself may not use your own tools to such ends does not mean that you aren't in some small way responsible for those that do use your tool for ill means.
If Bob comes to you and asks to borrow your gun because Ted down the street is bugging him, and you let him take your gun, are you blameless when Bob gets arrested for murder and your gun is implicated in the crime? After all, a gun is just a tool. Who cares if you knew he might use it to kill someone or not. You're not to blame. You didn't pull the trigger. You didn't encourage Bob to do it. You didn't even witness it. Of course, you did nothing to stop it, either. Still, legally, you didn't commit murder.
I think it is important to make a distinction here between ethical and moral issues and law. They aren't the same thing. I am very much of the opinion that p2p software should not be illegal or regulated as the choice to be unethical or immoral is not up to the government or even the people at large--it is a personal choice. So don't go thinking that just because I'm interested in the moral and ethical considerations of p2p software that I'm somehow advocating that it be banned or not used. That is FAR from the case.
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I would generally agree. There should certainly be assembly in the mix, too. I'm not sure it should matter if the language is "marketable" or not to teach it in school. Not in CS, anyway. It should be about learning concepts and not about learning the language, IMO. If anything, the only part of CS that should be language related is when learning how to learn languages. With that in mind, I'd say perhaps when studying OO a course should hit C++, Java, Smalltalk, and Ruby--not just one of them. Of course I may be asking for a bit much... :-)
Sorry, but compared to the stuff we have running, that is a very, very small app. There's simply no comparison. :-) I'd quote numbers, but I never remember them, so I won't try just now. I realize that without numbers it doesn't mean much, but we have PHP apps that handle a greater load than the Java applications doing very similar things on less hardware with less developers and less downtime. This is just how I experience Java--and it ain't pretty.
Of course the modern PC is probably doing that spinning torus in a far, far higher resolution than your 486 was...
When I was in college for my CS degree, the focus shift away from C/C++ and towards Java was beginning. I was lucky in that my early CS programs were still in C++. However, the classes right behind me as I moved through were getting shifted over to Java one by one. I did not like that at all. It just felt wrong. I figured maybe I was just being biased since I learned C/C++ pretty much on my own without the aid of classes.
.NET technologies. The magazines all had big pushes for Java, C#, VB.NET, etc.
:-) Everyday we have to deal with huge bloated Java web applications that melt CPUs, eat RAM, and are so slow it takes boxes with 11 CPUs just to service a few thousand customers. The distaste for Java that begins in our department has been filtering up the layers and is starting to become apparent to some of the people who build these projects. When you line up a huge app in PHP next to one written in Java, why is it that the PHP one can easily outperform it on less hardware and require less people to maintain it? That all translates to big $$$$ not to mention application stability and performance.
After graduating with my BS in CS, I was out in the field for a few years. I spent some time at a C++ Windows shop which was trying to become gung-ho about C# and the various
I left that place and moved into a contracting position where I help admin a data center. The attitude there is much different, to say the least.
I'm also now studying for a master's degree in CS. Since I had been away a few years, I was not surprised when I came back to see Java everywhere in the undergrad classes (this at a different school than before). What did surprise me is the attitude of one of my new professors. He taught a projects class where the whole point of the class is to build/do something by the end of the term. It doesn't matter what as long as it fit the basic subject area of the class. After that, you're pretty much on your own (or in a group, if you want). Since this was a different school than where I got my BS, I didn't know this professor. I had seen him wearing a Java shirt a few times, so I was prepared to have to deal with some friction when I went to suggest that I wanted to do my project with C++. One day I stayed after class to chat with him and get to know him a bit. I was shocked to discover that he had done a lot of postdoctoral research using Java and about Java and found it lacking in many very important areas (specifically in high performance scientific computing applications). As we were walking out of the building, he was asking me about my background in programming and computers, so I was giving him a mini life story sort of thing. I mentioned my C/C++ upbringing and how in my college days the Java shift had begun and I didn't quite feel comfortable with that and how I see it seemed to have happened everywhere. That's when he took a careful look around the hallway, leaned in, and said in a hushed tone, "Switching to Java for the undergrads is the worst decision this department ever made."
I was pretty stunned to hear that from a professor considering what was going on just a few years previous. I hope that sentiment grows and CS departments take back their programs from corporate interests and marketing machines. Perhaps there is hope...
"But this nannying produces only poorer developers who rely on the language rather than their own abilities to code effectively."
I know this is shockingly off-topic, but it is interesting how stating something like that seems pretty obvious and logical when talking about computer programs. The reason I mention this is that your comment could very easily be applied to western (or at least American) culture in general. We have become a culture of safety where anything even remotely dangerous is banned or sectioned off. Everything has guardrails now.
After spending some time in middle-to-eastern Europe, the differences in thinking in that regard are quire amazing. Everything is so "safe" in America for fear that people will hurt themselves and go on a suing rampage. I think it is creating some pretty pathetic and petty people which isn't going to bode well in the future.
Actually, I went to a Microsoft speaking event thing one time where the dude was demoing something out of Windows 2000 or something that hadn't been released yet. It crashed and he actually said that it wasn't a bug, but a feature that reminds you to take breaks and go get more coffee. Of course he was joking... I think...
Good question. The only problem is that how likely is it that you'd only share part of one movie over your entire lifetime ever?
If you share 1/10 of movie A and 1/10 of movie B and 1/10 of move C etc... all at the same time or over the course of a few years you might end up sharing some small portion of 10, 20, 100+ movies. Are they going to go easy on you just because you only shared a portion of all of these movies?
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see you're just trying to be clever with the wording of the law. Any reasonable judge would probably just nail you with the full penalty of sharing 1 whole movie at the least because you had demonstrated intent to enable copyright infringement by providing all of those partial fragments.
Of course I admit that somewhere a line must be drawn. I might have, say, a 1kb block of some binary data in some database someplace that happens to correspond to a 1kb block in a movie file. Technically, there's no difference between those blocks of bytes as they are just numerical values. At some point it does break down, but that's when you pull in other factors such as past behavior, software you had installed, things you said on IRC, etc.
Yes I did. Well, for awhile, anyway. :-) The thought had occurred to me that it'd make a great gag toy that could be easily planted on people. :-) Naturally, of course, I managed to lose it before I ever actually used it for that...
Is it maybe some kind of insurance policy that is cheaper if they have these anti-theft things? I too have noticed how most store employees don't even pay attention when they go off. The customers get far more upset than the employees do.
:-)
There was a time awhile back when I used to set these things off almost everywhere I went. Eventually I started to remove one item each time I went to the store. First it was my keys, then my cell phone. The alarm would still go off. Then I tried leaving my wallet in the car and just carry in the cash I needed. Lo and behold, the alarm didn't go off! So after some careful investigation I found that my wallet still had the anti-theft sticker tucked inside an unused pocket. What was strange about this is that the alarm problem had only started recently even though the wallet had been with me for years.
After thinking about it a bit, I determined that the problem had to be caused by either one of two likely possibilities (or a combination of them). The most likely explanation is that the old security key card I had had was blocking the anti-theft device. I didn't connect to the two immediately, but the problem of the alarms going off began to occur about the time I turned that badge in. The other possible explanation is that somehow the anti-theft device was re-activated. I'm not even sure if that's possible or not, but I had the wallet before I got the job that required the security key card and never had any problem going through those detectors.
In any case, after removing the old anti-theft sticker, I've not had any problems with those devices. So if you're one of those who keeps setting them off, you might have a look for something like this.
Works for me. Sorry, nothing more helpful... 15" PowerBook G4 1.67Ghz.
Maybe I'm missing something, but why does it turn off the keyboard light if you happen to bump the keyboard light adjustment keys while the ambient light is bright? It appears this new update didn't address that.
:-)
I wonder if there's some checkbox that I need to check or something. Grr. It is the most annoying thing.
I suppose this isn't really a question directed at you, but your comment about the light sensor reminded me to test for it on my PowerBook.
It seems as if this update fixed the sensitivity problems with my PowerBook trackpad. I have a 1.67Ghz PB with the new trackpad that supports the vertical/horizontal scrolling stuff and it has always been far less sensitive than my old PB -- until I rebooted after this update. Cool!
Although the Safari upgrade re-added Apple, Amazon, eBay, etc. links to my bookmark bar. That was sort of annoying, but easy enough to fix.
Why do these "gee whiz" stories about new tech or materials always have such strange example applications?
"This material could one day lead to medical devices that build themselves inside a patient's body, or door latches that can be opened with a flashlight."
Okay, the medical one isn't so bad (except, kinda dark in a body)... but a door latch that opens with a flashlight? Huh?
How about...
- Plastic flowers that open in the sunlight!
- Sunglasses that automatically lower in front of your eyes!
- Light-based transformer toys!
- Gag sundials!
Okay, maybe this is harder than it looks...
Sure it does. It adds up to $Z.
I've been using this feature for at least a year. Possibly more. Geesh.
"pseudomorphic heterojunction bipolar transistor"
Sounds like it needs to see a doctor!
That kind of attitude is not the fault of MySQL being late with features. It is the fault of the person with that attitude.
It seems that for many people, learning is hard. When they spend a significant amount of energy learning something that did not come easily to them they tend to be MUCH more defensive to anyone who comes around with an alternate point of view (regardless of evidence).
I think that all people have been followers in their lives at some point, but that MOST people never venture out on their own and even attempt to live any other way. This attitude that you speak of is a classic sign of that follower mentality. They learned and used MySQL because it was "cool" and "everyone" else was using it. That, in itself, isn't a huge problem. If it weren't for forces like that, nothing would ever standardize or gain any kind of momentum. The problem is that most people never get beyond that. It is the classic "I have a hammer, so everything looks like a nail" syndrome. This is hardly the fault of MySQL.
Still, somehow Wizards of the Coast managed to patent the game of Magic. If they can do that, then I imagine something like "Letter-tile Game Method of Play" could be patented--which is basically like patenting the idea of the rules of the game, isn't it?
They should have patented the process of playing. That's what Wizards of the Coast did with Magic.
Why are they in this class to begin with? Figure that out (or, assuming you know already), then make the project into something that will seem useful to them. Printing hello world, outputting today's date on a web page or anything boring and useless like that is bound to be quickly forgotten. Show them something that makes sense for them in their domain that relates to why they are there.
If they think that what they are learning will be useful, then they will remember it.
VLC comes to mind. I'm pretty sure all the codecs are integrated.
That is exactly the way it was for me. I used to hate Macs before OSX. I always had great respect for their hardware, but the environment I wanted just wasn't there. After experiencing the first titanium PowerBooks via friends I simply *had* to have one. I'm on my second PowerBook now and I'm not looking back.
Well, 5% of todays market is MUCH MUCH larger than 5% of 1992's market...
That's odd. I know close to 10 people with Powerbooks and iBooks and not one has ever had this happen. I've heard of it happening from stories like yours online, but I have to say it seems to be very much a rare occurrence in my experience.
Sucks that you gotten a rotten one. Oh well. Shit happens.
Yes there are. There are always such issues. Even for tools. What if you created a tool that's sole purpose was to assist with suicide? That's just a tool, after all. Are there no moral or ethical issues associated with it? If there are with that and not with p2p, then what's so different? Is it just because someone may die? What about tools designed to help a pickpocket do his job?
You have to admit that the majority of users of p2p software are engaged in activities that are currently considered illegal. Does that not affect the ethics of producing such software? You can claim you are developing it for noble or innocent means until you are blue in the face but it doesn't change the fact that you are knowingly developing tools that will primarily be used to break the law.
Since you yourself state that "morals are involved with the use and application of tools," and you are knowingly producing tools that will mostly be used for illegal activities, then how are there NOT moral and ethical issues to deal with? Just because you yourself may not use your own tools to such ends does not mean that you aren't in some small way responsible for those that do use your tool for ill means.
If Bob comes to you and asks to borrow your gun because Ted down the street is bugging him, and you let him take your gun, are you blameless when Bob gets arrested for murder and your gun is implicated in the crime? After all, a gun is just a tool. Who cares if you knew he might use it to kill someone or not. You're not to blame. You didn't pull the trigger. You didn't encourage Bob to do it. You didn't even witness it. Of course, you did nothing to stop it, either. Still, legally, you didn't commit murder.
I think it is important to make a distinction here between ethical and moral issues and law. They aren't the same thing. I am very much of the opinion that p2p software should not be illegal or regulated as the choice to be unethical or immoral is not up to the government or even the people at large--it is a personal choice. So don't go thinking that just because I'm interested in the moral and ethical considerations of p2p software that I'm somehow advocating that it be banned or not used. That is FAR from the case.