There are a lot of posts smashing Slashdot as being extremely left-wing or even communist. The fact remains that slashdot reflects the people who read it. Leftist stories are listed because those who like the articles submit them. If you want more articles that reflect your views, contribute them. I have a hard time believing that there's a conspiracy among Slashdot editors to politically censor.
All code, from the most inelegant to the aforementioned Linux kernel, deserves protection for its academic importance. Any piece of software is a problem-solving attempt. Every piece of functional code is proof that a given task can be performed. Even programs used for malicious attacks on remote systems deserve protection, as they have just shown vulnerablilities in what was designed to be an invincible system. Without having these examples to learn from, progress in security theories (and encryption schemes) will be hampered.
Even if that argument doesn't hold, one can easily defend the merits of code as an art form. Obfuscation contests exist, which judge programs primarily upon the basis of the style in which they are written; code has been validated as art. One could even claim that the awards given by software expos that celebrate programs for their functionality make the performance of a program as much of an art form as the way in which it was written. Either way, it becomes difficult to deny that programming is personal expression.
--My vote goes to the cannibal party!--
For the most part, that post holds true. However, claiming "If you aren't good at Math, get a CSc degree" is a mistake. I am a CS major at UCSB, and a quick check at the course catalog shows that CS requires two more quarters of math (vector calculus and probability/statistics) than the CE major. If you aren't good at math, though, you'll have a hard time getting either degree...
Slashdot Mirror
There are a lot of posts smashing Slashdot as being extremely left-wing or even communist. The fact remains that slashdot reflects the people who read it. Leftist stories are listed because those who like the articles submit them. If you want more articles that reflect your views, contribute them. I have a hard time believing that there's a conspiracy among Slashdot editors to politically censor.
Even if that argument doesn't hold, one can easily defend the merits of code as an art form. Obfuscation contests exist, which judge programs primarily upon the basis of the style in which they are written; code has been validated as art. One could even claim that the awards given by software expos that celebrate programs for their functionality make the performance of a program as much of an art form as the way in which it was written. Either way, it becomes difficult to deny that programming is personal expression. --My vote goes to the cannibal party!--
For the most part, that post holds true. However, claiming "If you aren't good at Math, get a CSc degree" is a mistake. I am a CS major at UCSB, and a quick check at the course catalog shows that CS requires two more quarters of math (vector calculus and probability/statistics) than the CE major. If you aren't good at math, though, you'll have a hard time getting either degree...