Think about how many billions of dollars get transfered over the credit card and ATM networks everyday.
There is a major difference between voting and banking: anonymity. The reason that banking software is so reliable is that there are numerous audit trails built in, and these audit trails can be followed all the way through every single transaction, in either direction. Anonymous voting requires an audit trail, but that trail must not be allowed to lead to the individual voter. Allowing this anonymity while preserving the integrity of the voting process is non-trivial, hence this discussion.
Sure, you might be able to do something with BASIC, but that just means he's going to have to re-learn to program later when he does something "real."
I disagree. Learning the elements of programming (loops, conditionals, calls, etc.) it what is important. When you move from a simple language to a more robust language, you don't relearn programming, you simply learn new keywords for the concepts you already know. Then you start to learn about what the new language offers (structured types, inheritance, etc.). Starting with a simple language is not "dumbing down", it is the start of a logical progression. The son can then decide for himself when he's ready to move up to a new language.
What's the best way to for a young teen to get started in exploring this wonderful world of computers and learning how to program?
He's not looking for shortcuts, he's looking for a starting point. Back in the day, the starting point for me was an Apple ][ BASIC tutorial that animated a simple dot bouncing back and forth across the screen. Simple enough, but once I understood it, I could change it to do other things, move along the edges of the screen in a rectangle. That was the hook for me, being able to think of something original and then make the machine do it. Without that instant gratification early on, I don't know if I would stuck with it.
The closest thing to Apple BASIC in terms of approachability these is probably Python. Visual BASIC is still a descendant of Apple BASIC, but you have to wade into Visual Studio before you can do anything with it (besides the whole not-UNIX thing).
At the very least, don't play your MP3's with Windows Media Player.
Word does the same thing, opening files that are named with the wrong type, and not complaining about the mismatch. Rename a.DOC file with a.RTF extension, and double-click it. If RTF is associated with Word, then Word will open your file like a trooper, but won't say a word about the format not matching the name. Now, try opening it with a something that supports.RTF but not.DOC (there are a few out there) and hilarity ensues.
For a long time I have told people "Don't use Internet Explorer unless you absolutely have to, and don't use Outlook under any circumstances." It looks like I need to include WMP in that advice as well.
GGGP wrote "support music by buying from the artists" which then led to a comparison of alternate methods of supporting the artists, ergo concerts. A legitimate (OT) point, and not a straw man. However, between the venues, concert promoters and TicketBastard, the concert business is ripping off artist almost as badly as the recording labels.
When voting with your dollars, deciding where *not* to spend is every bit as important as where to spend. There is no substitute for doing your homework.
Programming was a large part of the CS degree that I got. There were other things in the CS core, like operating systems, hardware, graphics, discrete math and linear algebra, and other things outside the core like English, Math, Statistics, and General Science. But without having learned (or been born with) solid programming skills, I never would have been able graduate, as it should be.
Any teacher will tell you that school is not fair. Any adult with a job will tell you that life is not fair. If young people get their heads around that sooner, the world will be a better place. Still not fair, just better.
The "Trophy Wife" is a little sad; partially because when you marry someone it's supposed to be forever... I frequently tell my wife that I got my "trophy wife" the first time around.
Don't you mean you had to write 50k lines of code, backwards, and upside down? It wasn't backwards or upside down until some idiot knocked the punch-card tray into the floor.
The first thing I did when I got my XP machine at work was to change the desktop theme to "Windows Classic", because I hated the Fisher-Price look. The first thing I did when my wife got her Vista laptop was to change the desktop theme to "Windows Classic", because it didn't have the horsepower for Aero.
The one thing that Vista does that constantly pisses me off is that "Shell Folders" in Explorer occasionally move around in the file system, even though they always show up in the same place in Explorer.
The other night she went to download a video from a web site, and clicked open instead of save by mistake, so after about 30 minutes of progress bar, the video starts playing in Media Player. I'm like, no problem, it's in TEMP, so I'll just copy it to the desktop before WMP closes. So I open a prompt (I'm a command line bigot, so sue me) and cd to the user directory to find Local Settings, and its not there anymore. This time its under Pictures, last time it was under Favorites, who knows where it will be next time.
I'm sure this is a defensive measure to give viruses and trojans a harder time finding the stuff that they scan for, but it pisses me off when need to actually accomplish something.
I would think the Mcdonalds court case will have prevented many accidents due to the change in working practice by Mcdonalds. This change in practice was not due to the court case, this is strictly marketing. McDonald's is trying to compete with Starbuck's by being more "full service". Also note the Iced Coffee available at McDonald's in some regions.
* 35 minutes about campaigns and elections * 36 minutes about the debate over U.S. foreign policy * 26 minutes or more of crime * 12 minutes of accidents and disasters * 10 minutes of celebrity and entertainment Some news stories fit into multiple categories, so we get to see 71 minutes (elections + crime + celebrity) worth of pictures of Spitzer's call girl.
... either way the music industry needs to revise their business model, and removing DRM is the first step. Remember, there are TWO industries at work here. There is the music industry, made up of writers, musicians, singers, producers, etc.
Then there is the recording industry. The recording industry is responsible for pressing CDs and putting them on store shelves.
The recording industry might need a new business model, or it might need to join the buggy whip makers and telegraph operators and just fade into yesteryear. The music industry people never really made much money from CD sales, since the record industry kept the screws so tight with everybody. Performers make their money from concerts (when they don't get screwed by promoters) and merchandise sales, anyway.
Nothing is a substitute for experience with the specific skill required for a job. I said "best", not "only". Presumably, the specific skill required for the job was learned rather than hereditary. My point was that in any tech sector, the specific skills that the job market is looking for turn over on a regular basis, and that focusing on a particular skill set in school is premature. By the time you are out in the job market, the specific skills that the market wants will have changed.
a basic working knowledge of C and C++ is the key to understanding the majority of languages you'll face later (including ones that do not yet exist). The best skill you can have in any tech industry is the ability to acquire new skills.
Slashdot Mirror
For the technically inclined, the full research publication (PDF) is available."
You must be new here.
Think about how many billions of dollars get transfered over the credit card and ATM networks everyday.
There is a major difference between voting and banking: anonymity. The reason that banking software is so reliable is that there are numerous audit trails built in, and these audit trails can be followed all the way through every single transaction, in either direction. Anonymous voting requires an audit trail, but that trail must not be allowed to lead to the individual voter. Allowing this anonymity while preserving the integrity of the voting process is non-trivial, hence this discussion.
FOR GREAT JUSTICE!
Crispin Porter + BOGUSky?
Microsoft, YHBT.
For those of us who don't have immediate access to a pair of red-blue glasses, there are other ways..
I prefer cross eye freeviewing.
Cough up? Uh... I thought it was the other way.
Just wait til his patent is invalidated by prior art ... from his parents.
Sure, you might be able to do something with BASIC, but that just means he's going to have to re-learn to program later when he does something "real."
I disagree. Learning the elements of programming (loops, conditionals, calls, etc.) it what is important. When you move from a simple language to a more robust language, you don't relearn programming, you simply learn new keywords for the concepts you already know. Then you start to learn about what the new language offers (structured types, inheritance, etc.). Starting with a simple language is not "dumbing down", it is the start of a logical progression. The son can then decide for himself when he's ready to move up to a new language.
The original question was:
What's the best way to for a young teen to get started in exploring this wonderful world of computers and learning how to program?
He's not looking for shortcuts, he's looking for a starting point. Back in the day, the starting point for me was an Apple ][ BASIC tutorial that animated a simple dot bouncing back and forth across the screen. Simple enough, but once I understood it, I could change it to do other things, move along the edges of the screen in a rectangle. That was the hook for me, being able to think of something original and then make the machine do it. Without that instant gratification early on, I don't know if I would stuck with it.
The closest thing to Apple BASIC in terms of approachability these is probably Python. Visual BASIC is still a descendant of Apple BASIC, but you have to wade into Visual Studio before you can do anything with it (besides the whole not-UNIX thing).
At the very least, don't play your MP3's with Windows Media Player.
Word does the same thing, opening files that are named with the wrong type, and not complaining about the mismatch. Rename a .DOC file with a .RTF extension, and double-click it. If RTF is associated with Word, then Word will open your file like a trooper, but won't say a word about the format not matching the name. Now, try opening it with a something that supports .RTF but not .DOC (there are a few out there) and hilarity ensues.
For a long time I have told people "Don't use Internet Explorer unless you absolutely have to, and don't use Outlook under any circumstances." It looks like I need to include WMP in that advice as well.
Where did concerts come into this?
GGGP wrote "support music by buying from the artists" which then led to a comparison of alternate methods of supporting the artists, ergo concerts. A legitimate (OT) point, and not a straw man. However, between the venues, concert promoters and TicketBastard, the concert business is ripping off artist almost as badly as the recording labels.
When voting with your dollars, deciding where *not* to spend is every bit as important as where to spend. There is no substitute for doing your homework.
Did his joke just go way over your head or did your joke just go way over my head?
Both.
Programming was a large part of the CS degree that I got. There were other things in the CS core, like operating systems, hardware, graphics, discrete math and linear algebra, and other things outside the core like English, Math, Statistics, and General Science. But without having learned (or been born with) solid programming skills, I never would have been able graduate, as it should be.
CAN-SPAM: It's not just a good idea, it's the law.
The first thing I did when I got my XP machine at work was to change the desktop theme to "Windows Classic", because I hated the Fisher-Price look. The first thing I did when my wife got her Vista laptop was to change the desktop theme to "Windows Classic", because it didn't have the horsepower for Aero.
The one thing that Vista does that constantly pisses me off is that "Shell Folders" in Explorer occasionally move around in the file system, even though they always show up in the same place in Explorer.
The other night she went to download a video from a web site, and clicked open instead of save by mistake, so after about 30 minutes of progress bar, the video starts playing in Media Player. I'm like, no problem, it's in TEMP, so I'll just copy it to the desktop before WMP closes. So I open a prompt (I'm a command line bigot, so sue me) and cd to the user directory to find Local Settings, and its not there anymore. This time its under Pictures, last time it was under Favorites, who knows where it will be next time.
I'm sure this is a defensive measure to give viruses and trojans a harder time finding the stuff that they scan for, but it pisses me off when need to actually accomplish something.
I just looked at a recent picture of him on wikipedia, and he looks more than good enough to reprise his role.
There was that Mastercard commercial . It debuted during the 2006 Superbowl (two years ago).* 36 minutes about the debate over U.S. foreign policy
* 26 minutes or more of crime
* 12 minutes of accidents and disasters
* 10 minutes of celebrity and entertainment Some news stories fit into multiple categories, so we get to see 71 minutes (elections + crime + celebrity) worth of pictures of Spitzer's call girl.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
... either way the music industry needs to revise their business model, and removing DRM is the first step. Remember, there are TWO industries at work here. There is the music industry, made up of writers, musicians, singers, producers, etc.Then there is the recording industry. The recording industry is responsible for pressing CDs and putting them on store shelves.
The recording industry might need a new business model, or it might need to join the buggy whip makers and telegraph operators and just fade into yesteryear. The music industry people never really made much money from CD sales, since the record industry kept the screws so tight with everybody. Performers make their money from concerts (when they don't get screwed by promoters) and merchandise sales, anyway.
This one has CSC written all over it. Dontcha just love consultants?