I go to the University of Waterloo and all my CS classes make extensive use of private newsgroups.
All the TA's and profs monitor them and respond to students question very frequently and reliably.
The newgroups are only available from on campus computers, but telneting in to read the news is no problem. Telnet and UNIX are also required skills for CS here too. It's just sort of expected that everyone learn how to use the stuff. Some classes even have an Assignment 0 that doesn't count for much but the assignment is to post to the newsgroup or read the webpage or figure out how to do something on Unix (solaris).
It works quite well and honestly, i wouldn't want it any other way. For instance, today i was working on an assigment and got stuck. I posted to the newsgroup and emailed the TA and within the hour she responded and helped me out.
Web pages are useful for relatively static material, but the newsgroups are invaluable for assignment discussion and announcements. It also helps if you can't make it too class. Because anything important you missed (like exam changes etc) will get posted the the newsgroup.
So it's cool. But make sure the newgroups are private on your servers only.
If somebody really needs to post a graphic or a link or something, it's all good because chances are most people are reading news with netscape or outlook anyway.
I'm a co-op student on my 4th work term. This is my second term as a fulltime telecommuter. (A term is a 4 month period) I've worked for the same company for all 4 terms. The first two terms I had to work from the office for the most part, but once trust had been established and my employer got to know me better, there was no problem with me working from home. Actually, my company has a number of employees who work from home (coincidently all programmers). We talk via icq and email frequently and it really doesn't cause any problems at all.
Now, I think it really depends on your job whether or not working from home can be plausible. Generally, i'd say that a programmer will have the best chances of being able to work from home simply because surroundings tend to be irrelevant when you just need to be sitting in front of a computer. Of course, the occasional meeting at the office (or someone else's house!) will likely be required.
Occasionally i'm called upon to do tech support type work and i've never had any problems talking to people on the phone or accessing their systems remotely from my home. I just bring my phone bill to the office and get reimbursed.
A lot of companies are very understanding if you have young children at home and, if your job allows for it, wont stop you from working there.
I'll answer any specific questions you have, just reply to this and i'll respond.
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The Art of Computer Programming Vol I-III
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All the TA's and profs monitor them and respond to students question very frequently and reliably.
The newgroups are only available from on campus computers, but telneting in to read the news is no problem. Telnet and UNIX are also required skills for CS here too. It's just sort of expected that everyone learn how to use the stuff. Some classes even have an Assignment 0 that doesn't count for much but the assignment is to post to the newsgroup or read the webpage or figure out how to do something on Unix (solaris).
It works quite well and honestly, i wouldn't want it any other way. For instance, today i was working on an assigment and got stuck. I posted to the newsgroup and emailed the TA and within the hour she responded and helped me out.
Web pages are useful for relatively static material, but the newsgroups are invaluable for assignment discussion and announcements. It also helps if you can't make it too class. Because anything important you missed (like exam changes etc) will get posted the the newsgroup.
So it's cool. But make sure the newgroups are private on your servers only.
If somebody really needs to post a graphic or a link or something, it's all good because chances are most people are reading news with netscape or outlook anyway.
I'm a co-op student on my 4th work term. This is my second term as a fulltime telecommuter. (A term is a 4 month period) I've worked for the same company for all 4 terms. The first two terms I had to work from the office for the most part, but once trust had been established and my employer got to know me better, there was no problem with me working from home. Actually, my company has a number of employees who work from home (coincidently all programmers). We talk via icq and email frequently and it really doesn't cause any problems at all.
Now, I think it really depends on your job whether or not working from home can be plausible. Generally, i'd say that a programmer will have the best chances of being able to work from home simply because surroundings tend to be irrelevant when you just need to be sitting in front of a computer. Of course, the occasional meeting at the office (or someone else's house!) will likely be required.
Occasionally i'm called upon to do tech support type work and i've never had any problems talking to people on the phone or accessing their systems remotely from my home. I just bring my phone bill to the office and get reimbursed.
A lot of companies are very understanding if you have young children at home and, if your job allows for it, wont stop you from working there.
I'll answer any specific questions you have, just reply to this and i'll respond.