Learn a server-side scripting language or three, and start writing web sites. Far less annoying bugfixing, still plenty of money in the field, and you end up with more of a visible, brag-aboutable end product.
Targeted advertising is actually pretty cool; I use Altavista as a search engine, and they target ads based on search criteria; occasionally the ad shows what I'm looking for faster than the actual search results. And even when it's not exactly what I'm looking for, at least it shows more interesting things than that nasty monkey banner.
With the OSDN sites, it would have to be preference-page based, because there's no other easy place to get input (unless the ad system was hooked up to check what kind of articles you click-through/post to and based ads off of that?). However, I would much prefer to look at ads that are interesting.
I also _really_ like the idea of being able to post comments on ads; there are some that could really use improvement, and the advertisers just haven't done their research.
Re: Ad karma, I'd be willing to put up with bigger/more active ads just for the ability to "turn off" the offending ones. If I never have to see another porn banner, I'd be happy.
--Yostinso
I'm currently a college freshman, majoring in CS, but I'm pretty sure that I'm going to tack on a CE minor, just to know some of the underlying things that I can use so much as a programmer.
At my college (WPI[.edu]), anyway, CS seems to focus on a lot of theoretical background to programming; things like algorithm design, backed by LOTS! of math, and quite a bit of focus on interface design.
CE, on the other hand, seems to be focused on underlying hardware, from designing hardware (logic gates and up) to writing low-level machine language to run on embedded systems.
I have a friend who's a CE major, who gave me a good description a year ago: CS majors write the software, CE majors design the hardware, and EE majors build the hardware. There's crossover, of course, but that's actually a pretty good summation.
--Yostinso
I agree with the whole focus on being open-minded, rather than sophisticated in only one area. I'm not nearly as smart as this kid seems to be, but I have been noticeably ahead of my age for quite some time. Part of this is because I was well-rounded from the outset.
Like photon317, I've traveled overseas fairly often, which gave me a huge boost in being able to adapt to different situations; spending time in a country where no one speaks your language or has the same ideals obviously encourages you to devise new strategies for dealing with people.
Also, no one seems to have mentioned this yet, but besides reading good literature, he should also be exposed to some at least decent science fiction. It's one way to easily introduce new concepts and encourage thinking outside of the box. I don't have many specific recommendations off the top of my head, but the classic political SF (Ayn Rand, H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury) are good places to start.
Knowledge is like an island. The greater the area, the more the coastline of what we don't know. -- Pat Murphy
Slashdot Mirror
Learn a server-side scripting language or three, and start writing web sites. Far less annoying bugfixing, still plenty of money in the field, and you end up with more of a visible, brag-aboutable end product.
Besides, you get to make purty pictures, too.
--Yostinso
Targeted advertising is actually pretty cool; I use Altavista as a search engine, and they target ads based on search criteria; occasionally the ad shows what I'm looking for faster than the actual search results. And even when it's not exactly what I'm looking for, at least it shows more interesting things than that nasty monkey banner. With the OSDN sites, it would have to be preference-page based, because there's no other easy place to get input (unless the ad system was hooked up to check what kind of articles you click-through/post to and based ads off of that?). However, I would much prefer to look at ads that are interesting. I also _really_ like the idea of being able to post comments on ads; there are some that could really use improvement, and the advertisers just haven't done their research. Re: Ad karma, I'd be willing to put up with bigger/more active ads just for the ability to "turn off" the offending ones. If I never have to see another porn banner, I'd be happy. --Yostinso
I'm currently a college freshman, majoring in CS, but I'm pretty sure that I'm going to tack on a CE minor, just to know some of the underlying things that I can use so much as a programmer. At my college (WPI[.edu]), anyway, CS seems to focus on a lot of theoretical background to programming; things like algorithm design, backed by LOTS! of math, and quite a bit of focus on interface design. CE, on the other hand, seems to be focused on underlying hardware, from designing hardware (logic gates and up) to writing low-level machine language to run on embedded systems. I have a friend who's a CE major, who gave me a good description a year ago: CS majors write the software, CE majors design the hardware, and EE majors build the hardware. There's crossover, of course, but that's actually a pretty good summation. --Yostinso
I agree with the whole focus on being open-minded, rather than sophisticated in only one area. I'm not nearly as smart as this kid seems to be, but I have been noticeably ahead of my age for quite some time. Part of this is because I was well-rounded from the outset. Like photon317, I've traveled overseas fairly often, which gave me a huge boost in being able to adapt to different situations; spending time in a country where no one speaks your language or has the same ideals obviously encourages you to devise new strategies for dealing with people. Also, no one seems to have mentioned this yet, but besides reading good literature, he should also be exposed to some at least decent science fiction. It's one way to easily introduce new concepts and encourage thinking outside of the box. I don't have many specific recommendations off the top of my head, but the classic political SF (Ayn Rand, H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury) are good places to start. Knowledge is like an island. The greater the area, the more the coastline of what we don't know. -- Pat Murphy