I have an EE degree. Mechanical and Electrical Engineering at any Canadian University anyway are much more difficult than any other undergraduate program on campus - to the point where it is foolish. I imagine the situation is similar in the US. Part of this is because you can't dumb down engineering - there are professional review boards that make sure that doesn't happen. Engineering has actually changed very little - same math people learned 50 or 100 years ago - but if all you want is a degree, you'd have to be insane to literally beat yourself stupid for 4 or 5 years.
Thanks for your insights into engineering as a discipline.
Just a little comment: I'm not sure, but your comment on ME and EE could possibly be bordering on being an overgeneralization. EE and ME programs are not necessarily always the hardest, and definitely not at any Canadian university (hey, I graduated from one myself).
That is not to say that all engineering programs are equally difficult -- they're not. Sure, the CEAB (Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board) has very strict standards and is anal retentive about what goes into the curriculum, but there is still a lot of latitude in curriculum design. (I read the guidelines) From my observations, in some schools EE programs can be less challenging than other programs, simply because of the way it is approached.
EE programs are known to be mathematically intensive, and ME programs are known to be technically broad. As to whether they are really more difficult than others, it really depends on a variety of factors, not least personal aptitude and propensity for the subject matter.
At my school, the dropout rate in ChE was the highest (because of all the weeder courses). But I wouldn't say ChE was the hardest program (though it was widely believed to be one of the more difficult ones to graduate from). Heck, a math degree can be pretty difficult too if you're not cut out for it.
I just want to add this: the hardest part about engineering school wasn't the math (at least not for me). Learning the math was the easy bit (when you get down to it, PDEs and Fourier series are not really that hard...). The hardest part was learning how to apply the math, how to make judgment calls (when there's missing information -- this happens a lot in real life), and how to visualize the physical problem. All these sound easy but in reality problems can be quite abstract.
If you ever get a chance to model a complex thermodynamic system, you'll see what I mean.
Agreed, I think visual IDEs are very important, not necessarily just for the novice programmer, but for the expert programmer who doesn't want to spend so much time to piece together a halfway usable interface. Sure, the back-end code is very important, but if you're writing a desktop app, defining the UI can be a non-negligible activity. Also, stuff like refactoring, code completion, a visible event-handling model, etc. can only help.
I'm surprised no one mentioned this, but I've found that the single most important contributor to productivity is third-party visual/non-visual components - which incidentally is also the strength of tools like Visual Studio and Delphi. It allows you to leverage someone else's expertise very easily. For instance, if I needed a specialized widget (e.g. a cross between a tree and an arraybox), I could just look for the right component, drop it in, set a few properties, and write the code to populate it or whatever. Or if I needed an RTF textbox, or HTML WYSIWYG editor in my program, I'd just drop the component in and immediately be able to see how it looks like. (I sure don't want to write stuff like that myself. BTW, I wonder if how easy it is to drop a Gecko-based browser window into a KDE app and have it work without having to fiddle too much...)
At this point, I'm sure someone's going to mention Eclispse. Well, I've had a look at Eclipse, and it's a very nicely done IDE, but I don't know if it has the equivalent of visual components. (Disclaimer: I don't know much about Java)
BTW, not everyone who needs to write software are full time programmers. Some of us are engineers who write software to solve problems in non-CS domains (i.e. thermodynamics packages etc.). These software often need to interact with the user. For people like us, any tool that helps us achieve what we want, with the least amount of pain, is good.
3M makes some good reusable ear plugs that can cut up to 12.5 dB (halving the NRR value gives you a better picture of the actual possible attenuation). Only costs $1.38.
However, earplugs only cut out the noise that enters through the ear canal. Sound can still conduct through your cranium, and besides, you will hear the sound of your own breathing.
The better (but more expensive method) is to get ACTIVE noise cancelling headphones (not PASSIVE ones). These guys basically send out an antiphase signal of the ambient noise, effectively cancelling the noise out (well, not perfectly, but...). Sony sells good ones for $149. Or build your own.
From the article: "an atomic manipulation facility, unique in the world. This atomic manipulation facility will enable a new generation of experiments to unfold. It will allow McGill researchers to construct new devices atom by atom, thus developing the science and technology required for future electronic and biochemical systems."
The U.S. (and Canada) get to use the 1 international dialling code because they established the first telephone system. Likewise, the Internet came from ARPA, so the U.S. gets to omit the.us.
This is a standard practice. Looks at stamps. UK stamps (and ONLY UK stamps) omit the name of their country. They have that privilege because they invented the first adhesive stamps.
Whoops... clicked "reply" by mistake, I didn't mean to reply to your message specifically. I was making a general remark to the detractors of the language.
To the people who say that Esperanto is useless etc: Look, usefulness isn't the only reason to learn anything.
Sure, we'd be better off learning German or some real language (actually, I've done that. I have a working knowledge of German, Chinese, etc.). But consider the effort and time required to pick up those languages. (it took me a couple of months to just wrap my mind around the nominative, accusative, dative and genitive in German). In contrast, Esperanto can be picked up fairly easily. You can get a basic feel of the language in a matter of days (if you're good) or weeks. (becoming an advanced user of the language takes a bit more time of course)
Esperanto is also an interesting study in syntax. It is interesting to study the choices that were made in its design -- and what limitations they impose, i.e. whether expressiveness was given up in simplifying certain structure. (after all, language is a form of encoding. Some things are there for a reason, while others are merely ornamental -- so lossy vs lossless). Learning Esperanto grammar helps one learn more about grammar in general (how symbols are classified, how they are modified, etc.) without getting into a whole lot of linguistic jargon.
You might also learn a few things about etymology; many Esperanto words come from Romance languages, and some from Germanic languages.
It's a language that should be learned for fun, or just for improving the mind's flexibility, if nothing else. (symbolic manipulation and that sort of thing, you know.) You might even use it as resume padding material. (I have so many languages that most employers don't even look at my list, but what the heck. It's one of those geek items, much like naming all the opensource projects that you've been involved even if you were just responsible for designing the toolbars).
It's kind of like learning LISP (okay, it's not the perfect analogy because LISP is actually useful and powerful, but the moral is the same). Some people use it. Most people don't, but it's probably good for them to learn it anyway, so that they can appreciate functional programming. It gives them an extra vantage point from which to approach problems.
Likewise, Esperanto helps us appreciate other languages more. It may not be your cup of tea, but don't diss us language dillettantes and other people who'd like to learn it anyway.
So why should any geek learn Esperanto? For all the above reasons, but most of all:
Sounds like a big project to undertake. If you do start an open-source project, I'd be happy to contribute. (I have a chemical engineering background, and I know something about process control)
So essentially you want to build a SIMULINK clone, much like those Octave guys building a Matlab clone? You might want to consider using Octave as a base tool then, and extend it as you see fit.
Savage wasteland, eh? Hmm.... but the weather in Minneapolis, Detroit, upstate New York, and the northern states aren't too different from other cities in Canada. The weather in Seattle isn't too different from Vancouver either.
So how is Canada a savage wasteland? If you're talking about Yukon, NWT and Nunavut, well... Americans have Alaska.
I highly recommend a French Canadian keyboard. (It's not the same as a French keyboard, btw.) It's very close to the U.S. keyboard (QWERTY and all, and none of that funny stuff on the numeric line), and you get most accents at your fingertips. It's useful even when typing English, especially for words like facade, resume etc. Or even if you need a degree mark °;, you have it on the keyboard, because the French word for number is Numero, and is abbreviated N°. (an abbreviation that English borrowed: ever wondered why Number is abbreviated No. when there are no 'o's in the word? In comparison, the Germans abbreviate it as Nr. because the German word is Nummer)
And if you need a full U.S. keyboard, just flip your keyboard language (Ctrl-Shift in Windows, but you can bind it to other keys), and there you have it.
The great thing is that the keycaps on a French Canadian keyboard has both U.S. and French marks on it. So you can use it as a U.S. keyboard exclusively, if you want.
The other good thing? A cheap French Canadian keyboard is only C$12 (US$8.69) from Microbytes (www.microbytes.com) in Montreal.
And if you really don't want to buy a new keyboard at all, you can just install the layout and start using it. Here's a guide: (http://www3.uakron.edu/modlang/french/key board.html)
No, the beauty of being in a university environment is the existence of a place called the library. You can browse and borrow books for weeks, even a whole semester. Then if you decide you want to keep a certain book, you can go to a second-hand bookstore and pick up a copy, cheap. That's what I did.
(In Montreal, there is a bookstore on rue Milton and rue Durocher called "The Word" that sells cheap 2nd hand texts in very good condition. I picked up my copy of Rosen and the solution manual for C$2)
The UCF Library has a copy. If you can get the solutions manual, you can really learn a lot. (I was trained as an chemical engineer, not a computer scientist, and even I found Rosen's book intriguing and interesting.)
As far as I know, this is the standard text at many colleges. Rosen's approach is mathematically rigorous yet practical at the same time. This was also the book from which I first discovered Fermat's Last Theorem, so it is not the typical dry textbook that we all know about. Walmart sells it for less than Amazon.
Try Multicentrix. It goes beyond hierarchies and recognizes 5 basic types of relationships between information. Every piece of information is an object, and unlike other systems, the relationship between objects is an object! More information here. Has XML support and even allows a database backend.
This is OT, but the author of that page was also happened to be the sexiest geek alive 2001. She has 3 MIT degrees in CS, and can apparently count in binary with her fingers.... definitely a CS woman.
Btw, I only know about her because she spoke at an Ig Nobel Prize ceremony...
Google has a whole list of them here.
As far as free services go, Photobase is pretty good. Phil Greenspun's Photo.net gives you some space plus a community of amateur to pro photographers to boot.
Not funded by German government
on
Corporate KDE
·
· Score: 1
Is the German government sponsoring/supporting the project?
To be very precise the project is _not_ "funded", "supported" or "sponsored" by the German Government. This would missrepresent that fact that the Kroupware project is a regular commercial business contract after we've won the tender to deliver a solution for the groupware needs of the BSI (compare answer 1.1). The participating companies organise the open development of this Free Software aiming to create the best technical result for the BSI regarding the contract.
"While it is commonly stated that Nobel decided against a Nobel prize in math because of anger over the romantic attentions of a famous mathematician (often claimed to be Gosta Mittag-Leffler ) to a woman in his life, there is no historical evidence to support the story. Furthermore, Nobel was a lifelong batchelor, although he did have a Viennese woman named Sophie Hess as his mistress (Lopez-Ortiz)."
Slashdot Mirror
I have an EE degree. Mechanical and Electrical Engineering at any Canadian University anyway are much more difficult than any other undergraduate program on campus - to the point where it is foolish. I imagine the situation is similar in the US. Part of this is because you can't dumb down engineering - there are professional review boards that make sure that doesn't happen. Engineering has actually changed very little - same math people learned 50 or 100 years ago - but if all you want is a degree, you'd have to be insane to literally beat yourself stupid for 4 or 5 years.
Thanks for your insights into engineering as a discipline.
Just a little comment: I'm not sure, but your comment on ME and EE could possibly be bordering on being an overgeneralization. EE and ME programs are not necessarily always the hardest, and definitely not at any Canadian university (hey, I graduated from one myself).
That is not to say that all engineering programs are equally difficult -- they're not. Sure, the CEAB (Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board) has very strict standards and is anal retentive about what goes into the curriculum, but there is still a lot of latitude in curriculum design. (I read the guidelines) From my observations, in some schools EE programs can be less challenging than other programs, simply because of the way it is approached.
EE programs are known to be mathematically intensive, and ME programs are known to be technically broad. As to whether they are really more difficult than others, it really depends on a variety of factors, not least personal aptitude and propensity for the subject matter.
At my school, the dropout rate in ChE was the highest (because of all the weeder courses). But I wouldn't say ChE was the hardest program (though it was widely believed to be one of the more difficult ones to graduate from). Heck, a math degree can be pretty difficult too if you're not cut out for it.
I just want to add this: the hardest part about engineering school wasn't the math (at least not for me). Learning the math was the easy bit (when you get down to it, PDEs and Fourier series are not really that hard...). The hardest part was learning how to apply the math, how to make judgment calls (when there's missing information -- this happens a lot in real life), and how to visualize the physical problem. All these sound easy but in reality problems can be quite abstract.
If you ever get a chance to model a complex thermodynamic system, you'll see what I mean.
Try this
Stepvoice recorder
http://www.stepvoice.com
It records almost any sound source directly into MP3. You can also define quality of the recording.
Best of all, it's only 230k!
Agreed, I think visual IDEs are very important, not necessarily just for the novice programmer, but for the expert programmer who doesn't want to spend so much time to piece together a halfway usable interface. Sure, the back-end code is very important, but if you're writing a desktop app, defining the UI can be a non-negligible activity. Also, stuff like refactoring, code completion, a visible event-handling model, etc. can only help.
I'm surprised no one mentioned this, but I've found that the single most important contributor to productivity is third-party visual/non-visual components - which incidentally is also the strength of tools like Visual Studio and Delphi. It allows you to leverage someone else's expertise very easily. For instance, if I needed a specialized widget (e.g. a cross between a tree and an arraybox), I could just look for the right component, drop it in, set a few properties, and write the code to populate it or whatever. Or if I needed an RTF textbox, or HTML WYSIWYG editor in my program, I'd just drop the component in and immediately be able to see how it looks like. (I sure don't want to write stuff like that myself. BTW, I wonder if how easy it is to drop a Gecko-based browser window into a KDE app and have it work without having to fiddle too much...)
At this point, I'm sure someone's going to mention Eclispse. Well, I've had a look at Eclipse, and it's a very nicely done IDE, but I don't know if it has the equivalent of visual components. (Disclaimer: I don't know much about Java)
BTW, not everyone who needs to write software are full time programmers. Some of us are engineers who write software to solve problems in non-CS domains (i.e. thermodynamics packages etc.). These software often need to interact with the user. For people like us, any tool that helps us achieve what we want, with the least amount of pain, is good.
I hear UVa students wear T-Shirts that say "Friends don't let friends go to Virginia Tech".
3M makes some good reusable ear plugs that can cut up to 12.5 dB (halving the NRR value gives you a better picture of the actual possible attenuation). Only costs $1.38.
However, earplugs only cut out the noise that enters through the ear canal. Sound can still conduct through your cranium, and besides, you will hear the sound of your own breathing.
The better (but more expensive method) is to get ACTIVE noise cancelling headphones (not PASSIVE ones). These guys basically send out an antiphase signal of the ambient noise, effectively cancelling the noise out (well, not perfectly, but...). Sony sells good ones for $149. Or build your own.
Take a look at this:
Here
From the article:
"an atomic manipulation facility, unique in the world. This atomic manipulation facility will enable a new generation of experiments to unfold. It will allow McGill researchers to construct new devices atom by atom, thus developing the science and technology required for future electronic and biochemical systems."
The U.S. (and Canada) get to use the 1 international dialling code because they established the first telephone system. Likewise, the Internet came from ARPA, so the U.S. gets to omit the .us.
This is a standard practice. Looks at stamps. UK stamps (and ONLY UK stamps) omit the name of their country. They have that privilege because they invented the first adhesive stamps.
Whoops... clicked "reply" by mistake, I didn't mean to reply to your message specifically. I was making a general remark to the detractors of the language.
Sorry bout that.
To the people who say that Esperanto is useless etc: Look, usefulness isn't the only reason to learn anything.
Sure, we'd be better off learning German or some real language (actually, I've done that. I have a working knowledge of German, Chinese, etc.). But consider the effort and time required to pick up those languages. (it took me a couple of months to just wrap my mind around the nominative, accusative, dative and genitive in German). In contrast, Esperanto can be picked up fairly easily. You can get a basic feel of the language in a matter of days (if you're good) or weeks. (becoming an advanced user of the language takes a bit more time of course)
Esperanto is also an interesting study in syntax. It is interesting to study the choices that were made in its design -- and what limitations they impose, i.e. whether expressiveness was given up in simplifying certain structure. (after all, language is a form of encoding. Some things are there for a reason, while others are merely ornamental -- so lossy vs lossless). Learning Esperanto grammar helps one learn more about grammar in general (how symbols are classified, how they are modified, etc.) without getting into a whole lot of linguistic jargon.
You might also learn a few things about etymology; many Esperanto words come from Romance languages, and some from Germanic languages.
It's a language that should be learned for fun, or just for improving the mind's flexibility, if nothing else. (symbolic manipulation and that sort of thing, you know.) You might even use it as resume padding material. (I have so many languages that most employers don't even look at my list, but what the heck. It's one of those geek items, much like naming all the opensource projects that you've been involved even if you were just responsible for designing the toolbars).
It's kind of like learning LISP (okay, it's not the perfect analogy because LISP is actually useful and powerful, but the moral is the same). Some people use it. Most people don't, but it's probably good for them to learn it anyway, so that they can appreciate functional programming. It gives them an extra vantage point from which to approach problems.
Likewise, Esperanto helps us appreciate other languages more. It may not be your cup of tea, but don't diss us language dillettantes and other people who'd like to learn it anyway.
So why should any geek learn Esperanto? For all the above reasons, but most of all:
Because we can.
Sounds like a big project to undertake. If you do start an open-source project, I'd be happy to contribute. (I have a chemical engineering background, and I know something about process control)
Good luck.
So essentially you want to build a SIMULINK clone, much like those Octave guys building a Matlab clone? You might want to consider using Octave as a base tool then, and extend it as you see fit.
This one doesn't use Javascript at all. And it's only 4k.
/. it.....
Obfusticated Email Link Creator
It does mixed dec and hex. Creates links like this. But check the underlying code....
It's a Tripod site, so don't
The latter, I'm inclined to think.
Savage wasteland, eh? Hmm.... but the weather in Minneapolis, Detroit, upstate New York, and the northern states aren't too different from other cities in Canada. The weather in Seattle isn't too different from Vancouver either.
So how is Canada a savage wasteland? If you're talking about Yukon, NWT and Nunavut, well... Americans have Alaska.
I highly recommend a French Canadian keyboard. (It's not the same as a French keyboard, btw.) It's very close to the U.S. keyboard (QWERTY and all, and none of that funny stuff on the numeric line), and you get most accents at your fingertips. It's useful even when typing English, especially for words like facade, resume etc. Or even if you need a degree mark °;, you have it on the keyboard, because the French word for number is Numero, and is abbreviated N°. (an abbreviation that English borrowed: ever wondered why Number is abbreviated No. when there are no 'o's in the word? In comparison, the Germans abbreviate it as Nr. because the German word is Nummer)
y board.html)
And if you need a full U.S. keyboard, just flip your keyboard language (Ctrl-Shift in Windows, but you can bind it to other keys), and there you have it.
The great thing is that the keycaps on a French Canadian keyboard has both U.S. and French marks on it. So you can use it as a U.S. keyboard exclusively, if you want.
The other good thing? A cheap French Canadian keyboard is only C$12 (US$8.69) from Microbytes (www.microbytes.com) in Montreal.
And if you really don't want to buy a new keyboard at all, you can just install the layout and start using it. Here's a guide:
(http://www3.uakron.edu/modlang/french/ke
Downside: no Euro character though.
Tinyapps has some nice gems for Win32. The collection is not very big though.
The answer is... yup!
Students' Solution manual is $37.75. A bit steep for a student, I know... (yes, I've been there before too).
No, the beauty of being in a university environment is the existence of a place called the library. You can browse and borrow books for weeks, even a whole semester. Then if you decide you want to keep a certain book, you can go to a second-hand bookstore and pick up a copy, cheap. That's what I did.
(In Montreal, there is a bookstore on rue Milton and rue Durocher called "The Word" that sells cheap 2nd hand texts in very good condition. I picked up my copy of Rosen and the solution manual for C$2)
The UCF Library has a copy. If you can get the solutions manual, you can really learn a lot.
(I was trained as an chemical engineer, not a computer scientist, and even I found Rosen's book intriguing and interesting.)
As far as I know, this is the standard text at many colleges. Rosen's approach is mathematically rigorous yet practical at the same time. .
This was also the book from which I first discovered Fermat's Last Theorem, so it is not the typical dry textbook that we all know about.
Walmart sells it for less than Amazon
Try Multicentrix. It goes beyond hierarchies and recognizes 5 basic types of relationships between information. Every piece of information is an object, and unlike other systems, the relationship between objects is an object! More information here. Has XML support and even allows a database backend.
This is OT, but the author of that page was also happened to be the sexiest geek alive 2001. She has 3 MIT degrees in CS, and can apparently count in binary with her fingers.... definitely a CS woman.
Btw, I only know about her because she spoke at an Ig Nobel Prize ceremony...
Google has a whole list of them here.
As far as free services go, Photobase is pretty good. Phil Greenspun's Photo.net gives you some space plus a community of amateur to pro photographers to boot.
From the FAQ
Here
Is the German government sponsoring/supporting the project?
To be very precise the project is _not_ "funded", "supported" or "sponsored" by the German Government. This would missrepresent that fact that the Kroupware project is a regular commercial business contract after we've won the tender to deliver a solution for the groupware needs of the BSI (compare answer 1.1). The participating companies organise the open development of this Free Software aiming to create the best technical result for the BSI regarding the contract.
I use Phoenix and I click the middle button to open a link in a new tab. No mouse gestures. It's all in the wrist.
And it's slightly more convenient than Opera's Ctrl-Shift-Click.
Whooops... the page says:
"While it is commonly stated that Nobel decided against a Nobel prize in math because of anger over the romantic attentions of a famous mathematician (often claimed to be Gosta Mittag-Leffler ) to a woman in his life, there is no historical evidence to support the story. Furthermore, Nobel was a lifelong batchelor, although he did have a Viennese woman named Sophie Hess as his mistress (Lopez-Ortiz)."