I don't want to say it, but it has to be said. You must show them the All Your Base music video. It isn't a high quality production, but it is an example of a piece of multimedia that can spawn a whole load of crap. Also show them the "Father Frags Best" Quake II Demo. I'm sure that'll bring back some lan party memories.
The problem is caused by the mentality of parents and teachers. When they were young their parents paddled them good, so they don't do that to their kids. Also "back in the day" when kids had a fight in school the teachers would drag them to the boxing ring (schools don't have these anymore) and they let them go at it.
Nowadays parents spoil their kids and big time because they don't want their kids to have it as bad as they did. Plus a lot of kids have two working parents and no supervision. The result is that we get a lot of kids like Nelson from the Simpsons. The are the result of bad parenting, broken homes, etc. These kids have nothing to feel good about. So they pick on and bully other kids. If you take a survey of bullies I guarantee that at least oh say 75% have some sort of family troubles.
Now you have bullies who need to pick on other kids to increase their self esteem. They usually pick on kids who get good grades, have "normal" families, and good lives. This is because they are easy targets. They are easy targets because they live sheltered lives. Seriously if you go to a "normal" American household where there are two parents, kids with good grades, etc. The kids don't know hardship. They have food, they get cars when they are 16, they get the newest video game systems. The bully is jealous of these things. So he has to put these people below him in order to feel like he is something special.
Now you have the set up, the bully is ready to pick on the victim. The victim's self esteem drops like a rock and the bully thinks he is all that. Even though the bully goes home to his drunk father, or he goes home to an empty house because he has all his parents gone or working. What happens is the bully picks on the kid until they snap. Most often the snap is a big yelling argument in the middle of school. Other times it's an actual fist fight broken up by teachers. Very often it seems the victim is depressed so greatly instead of snapping they kill themselves. And sometimes the victim snaps on the inside, saves it for later and makes plans about killing the bully.
I know that feeling. You feel as if those people are the scum of the earth, what the hell are they in school for? They are going to end up dead from overdosing on drugs or working in a gas station. They have no purpose in life except to make my life miserable. So in frustration the victim goes out and kills the bully.
However of course I did not kill anybody. I actually developed a very pacifist attitude. I say haha, let them pick on me all they want. I don't give a damn. I am now a CS Major at RIT, with many friends, and much happiness. All my bullies from Elementary and Middle School are working in gas stations. When I get a job I'll buy a car soon and laugh as they fill my tank. I pity all bullies for they are all poor souls with little to live for.
What is the solution? Well I'm not sure. Or else I would be very very rich, but I do have some untested ideas.
1) Make it VERY hard to get a divorce. And use common sense when determining custody.
2) Teachers, if you see two kids in a fight figure out which one instigated the fight. Give this child the largest punishment. The child who erupted tell them what I have said. That the other is going to end up working in a gas station, don't let the words hurt you, etc. etc. MAKE SURE THEY DON'T HAVE GUNS OR SUICIDE PLANS. CALL THEIR PARENTS AND HAVE THEM SEARCH THE HOUSE.
3) Bring back the old boxing ring to school. Soceity these days shuns all violence, even non deadly fist fights. Martial Arts have become Self Defense. This is why Pro Wrestling *shudder* and football are so popular. It is a way for males to expunge the the urge to hurt things. If you have kids box in school they can get rid of that energy.
Now you may be one of those people who still say well, the video games are still at fault a little. Well I'm sorry, but you are ABSOLUTELY WRONG. How do I know? Japan. Japan has the most violent disgusting video games ever. Remember this is the home of tentacle hentai. Video Games are so popular that is is illegal to release an RPG on a school day. How many murders in Japan last year? 1, 2 at most. Yeah. Take that.
I know I posted late so I probably wont get modded up so people can see this, but if you do read it, print it out. Think about it. I know from experience, and I have made it through and I'm happy now. I also have some reccomended reading on the subject. Read "They Cage the Animals at Night." I remember in middle school the author spoke at our school. He said that he would rather go to school late and be beat by the nuns, because it hurt less than the kids picking on him. Read the book then read that again.
This is completely worthless. I have to pay to listen to a game if I listen through real player. So I'll use another media player, Windows Media Player if need be *shudder* and I'll simply visit WFAN's web site and get all the Met's games I want.
I think this will really increase Plextor's revenue as well. See I have a Plextor 8/4/32 CDRW and with the aid of Nero Burning ROM I can do bit for bit copies. I'm pretty sure that whatever they are doing isn't going to prevent me from copying each bit on the CD one at a time to another CD. However if it does prevent that, then it means there is some genius out there. I'm pretty sure the solution will be new Burning software and CDRW drivers.
I read the story about these last year. Why are they posting it again. There's nothing new to say. However I was thinking there might be some coolness if we use these in places besides replacing LCD screens. For example replacing all LEDs with organic ones. Look around you right now and take note of every LED you see. Now replace it with an organic one.
Also have you seen those lighting systems that have a bed of LEDs in the basement and then a bunch of fiber optics bringing the light to every room in the house. Thing about the energy savings if every house has a bed of organic LEDs! No more lightbulbs because LEDs don't die.
Not all science is computer science. For example I'm a CS major and I don't know crap about biology. If CS was biology I would know biology, and I don't. I think what is trying to be said here is that all problems in other sciences can be translated into CS problems and be solved by coding software. However then you run into the old P/NP problem that some things CAN'T be solved with computers. But most scientific problems in engineering, chemistry, especially physics can be solved by coding software to solve it. It's nothing we didn't know before.
The solution is simple. Write a web browser or plugin for existing web browser that detects and does not display ads of any sort. Of course the idea is simple, actually coding it might not be as easy. But somebody should give it a try. I would, but I'm in college and I have to code the schoolwork that I'm assigned leaving no time for fun projects.
Slashdot's ads aren't very intrusive I really don't even notice them. However it is quite obvious that the internet needs a new advertising model. The banner ad is going down the hole. Me and most people I know click on a banner ad like once a century. I can't even remember the last banner ad I glanced at. I see a think geek banner ad right now, but I already visit that site regularly:)
I would have an idea for a new internet advertising model, but then I would have lots and lots of money wouldn't I?
It seems to me that a lot of you don't really understand what's oging on with the game boy advance. It has the same LCD technology as the Game Boy color only it has back lighting and more color. It can play games that are just about as high quality graphics wise as star fox. I also heard it has an internet connection possibly.
And when connected to the gamecube as a controller you can do cool stuff with it like choose plays in a football game. The technology for making something like this has been around for a long time, but it has recently improved a lot. It doesn't drain tons of batteries. I think it takes a few AA's and runs for hours. It also has a lot of games like Mario Kart that I really want.
Some people say they are just re-releasing NES and SNES games, which is a GOOD thing. This gives Nintendo an excuse to bash emulation. They are showing that they can still profit off of old software and because the software is still commercially available they have a real strong case when busting ROM sites and such.
Besides I just want the 4 player games going on during the extra long road trip.
Now to reply to the people who replied to me. All at once. First of all I don't think that people who never programmed before should not be allowed into CS. The thing is that CS here is taught very quickly. It is currently the third quarter of my first year here. That means that if you don't fail a CS class you should be in CS 3 now, which I am. However there are currently only 3 lecture sections of CS3. They all hold 45 people. There are multiple large sections of CS2 and even a couple CS1 sections. I heard something like 25% of the people who were initially CS switched to IT. I think the person who said that they have different levels for entry into CS is on the right track.
As for my lack of tags I know HTML. I just forgot to switch the little combo box to plain old text. I don't format my notes nicely either, I lose my train of thought when I have to stop and put in a tag. As for the people who joined CS programs and did well without knowing any previous coding, good for you. Not many people can do that. Especially here as the statistics show.
Now that part about KDE2 instead of CDE. The real reason I put that in there was because it just came to my mind when I was thinking about the problems in the CS department. Whenever I go to the lab people always ask me how I got an image file for my wallpaper (can't be done in CDE). So I take the five minutes to change their dotfiles to startkde and they get very happy. The thing is that the CS department doesn't even tell you about this. We wasted multiple days in the beginning of CS1 and wasted money on a UNIX book (not me) before we started coding. Since KDE is a lot like windows if the CS department defaulted to it we could have wasted less time and money. It's not really relevant it's just a personal gripe I have with the department. There are so many cool things on their network and they keep them all a secret. The only way to find out is to ask the teaching assistants.
Basically the CS department here at RIT is pretty good. The program has a reputation of being difficult because so many people leave and fail classes. After the first year of the program it really changes for the better. There are classes like Intro to Digital Design and Operating Systems that area really cool and such. And in CS4 you get switched from Java to C++.
For a better look at RIT's CS program go to http://www.cs.rit.edu
I'm a CS Major at RIT. And the current CS program is pretty good. Except for the fact that lots of people drop out and join the IT program. The first problem is the misunderstanding of what CS is. Kids in high school who like computers are told oh, you should be a computer science major then. When really they should be IT majors because they don't know the first thing about coding. They are interested in networking and web page making. The second problem is the fact that they require no previous coding experience to join the CS program. The art programs at my school require you to show them a portfolio. CS does not. So the CS classes are half coders like me and half people who never coded before. The people like me sleep and skip class and get A's. The rest go to class and study hard and get F's. The third major problem with our CS department is the teachers. The teachers we have are quite intelligent, and a few of them are really good computer scientists. However some of them are just not qualified. We ask them all kinds of advanced questions and they don't have answers. There are only two teachers we can take our complex problems to because the rest don't know.
There are other ways of improving the program besides solving these problems. For example at RIT java is learned first. They teach you object oriented concepts and such right off the bat. I think that for the never coded before folk they should have them write simple C programs where they store data in variables, manipulate it, make loops, printf, etc. So they actually understand the code writing concept before they get object oriented concepts. Another thing, that isn't so major, that would be nice is if they changed to a different os besides Solaris. We're running on a bunch of Ultra 10's so they come with Solaris and I really dont' like it. I set my account up to use KDE, (I would use KDE2, they don't have it) but everyone around me is using Solaris CDE. KDE should be the default. Half these people didn't know what UNIX was until they got here they should have the most user friendly desktop environment available. The last thing I would like to do to improve CS class is make it all lab. Currently I have 3 1 hour lectures and 1 2 hour lab every week. I want to have 3 2 hours labs a week. I learn nothing from someone teaching me how to code. I don't learn the week's lessons (if we learn something I don't already know) until I get to lab.
That's really all that's wrong with the CS program at RIT. I don't know if your CS program is any different. The one really great thing I can say about our CS program is that it gets people really good jobs. We have a 100% job placement rate and a lot of those guys and girls make a lot of dough right off the bat.
I heard about this game in Video Game mags and from some sites quite a while back. Then a few weeks ago I realized there was no news of the game since, and it had been months. I'm glad it didn't turn out to be vaporware. I need to kill more nazi scum.
I hope KOffice is better than Star Office. I haven't really found a really good office suite lately. I dont' want all the million insane crazy features. I just want a very stripped down, stable, simple office suite that does graphs, spreadhseets, and word procesing. That's it. I hope KOffice Delivers.
One game says it all. X-COM. Oh yeah. Have you noticed that games in general are beginning to suck more? The GameCube Metroid is a perfect example. The game companies feel that EVERY game HAS to be 3D. If it's not 3d it wont sell. SO they make every game 3d. I would have been very happy with another 2d metroid, and so would everyone else. The guys making it weren't doing a good job with it as a 3rd person platform game, so Nintendo made them change it to a first person shooter. Me and my friends are going to start programming massively enourmous 2 dimensional games that will blow everyones mind. Look at Diablo II? Oh yeah. 2D. As for turn based games. X-COM. Nuff said.
This is not an upgrade at all. Well not for me at least. My vision is already far better than 20/20. I can read the bottom line of any eye chart from twice as far away as your are supposed to be. With either eye closed. However my left eye is a little stronger. I can imagine a world where me and my offspring are the only ones with "real" eyes and everyone else has bionic eyes. That would be freaky.
Mega Tokyo, Bad boys of Computer Science, and Neo Baka. Duh. How can you leave these guys out? These are the only 3 web comics I read religiously. And I bet if half of you/.ers read the bad boys of CS from the beginning you will realize that the bad boys are just like you. They are so much like me and my friends it's scary.
This is definitely one of the 2 biggest problems I have with Linux. I use Red Hat 7.0, and I'm still learning how to do advanced stuff. I mainly use it just to do my CS labs because it's easier to connect to the Solaris machines my school has. However whenever I try to install software that isn't a Red Hat 7.0 rpm, I always have some kind of problem. Always. I can't use licq, because I don't have a newer version of qt. I can't install a newer version of qt, because it gives me error messages I don't understand. The list goes on. The other thing is that Linux doesn't have any easy way to set up my Printer (HP Deskjet 810C) or my Promise Ultra66 IDE controller card. The only solution I see for Linux is merger. Every distro, every variation, all the little people have to get together and make one big company. Then take everything and standardize it. combine KDE + GNOME, make rpms standardized, write lots and lots of drivers, etc. If I could I would use Linux all the time, because it never crashes, but sometimes I just HAVE to use windows, because I still don't have the functionality or software in Linux.
Yeah, I know exactly where this guy is coming from. I recently went on a trip to Israel and I noticed that their technological infrastructure was far superior to that of the United States. Their phone cords resemble category 5 cables. I asked if they had a network, but they dialed up just the same. Everything from the pay phones to the atm machines was superior to the United States version in one way or another. But it is true, just about every computer in Israel has Microsoft Windows with Hebrew Language support. However I have Red Hat Linux, and it has hebrew support. You use international keyboard and language in KDE to change the settings.
I don't see how web pages can be IE only. I see just about every web page I ever wanted to visit perfectly in Mozilla. But I relate very much to having to deal with Excel and Word Files. I use Star Office and all my friends have Microsoft Office. They wont listen to me when I tell them it is a bloated piece of crummy software. Star Office isn't perfect, but it is legally free (they have appz office) and it works. They send me things to look at in excel or word files that I have trouble reading correctly. How come we have a universal graphics format (gif and jpg), universal video formats (mpeg, avi) but no universal word processor formats. rtf and txt are ok, but they don't remember tab settings, paragraph indents other page formatting stuff, or weird text colors. We need a universal office file format. Let's call it.off Every spreadsheet, database, text document, etc. could be saved as a.off and the only difference between word processors would be their features and not the popularity of their file formats. How did I change topics like that? Dang.
This may not be something that very many people are going to do. Basically because anyone who wants to use gnome has gnome with linux. If they use windows at all they use it for games. However if we can get non-linux people to use gnome over windows then they will see, hey this linux aint so bad. It's a way we can get people to gradually switch to linux rather than jumping right in. It makes a new os less scary. However I want to see KDE not gnome. In my opinion KDE 2 is the best desktop ever. I "luff" it.
this is just a little note that nobody will probably notice. But how about this for some examples. I buy FF9 for PSX, and I want the PC version? Or I own mario 1 for the NES and mario all stars for SNES why should I pay for mario deluxe on the gameboy? How about I had MS-DOS at one point. Shouldn't I be able to get the newest version (win 98 SE)? Here's my feeling. If it is the same exact thing on two different media, or for two different systems. Then you should be able to get it for free. However if it is different, like a software upgrade, or a version that has more features, you should have to pay, but not full price. That's why winme upgrade is only $50 and winme full is $100. If you own a vinyl, and you don't have the equipment to burn vinyl to digital format, then feel free to get some mp3s. I want to see someone go to court with this argument. Why? Because that would mean that we would be able to get all kinds of roms and emulators for classic video games without being hounded by people calling us pirates.
The way it usually works is that if you code it, without using the college's equipment you own it. There is a fair use though. So it would be ok to use your college internet connection to talk to someone about code, or visit newsgroups for help. But it isn't ok if you test the part of your software that uses the network on the campus network. Then they own your software. It really bites, that's why I team up my computers with my friends so I can code stuff and not have my college own it.
The fact that IE has won the browser war is a big lie. You see the plain fact is that most of the US peeps on the internet are AOL users. To my dissapointment AOL6 still comes with IE. The reason most internet folk are IE users? They are mostly AOLers. If you discount AOLers I bet that less than 30% of the remaining users will be using any form of IE.
Look at us. Here at slashdot are thousands of computer nerds, and we do nothing? Someone has to figure out a way to take down these boxes. If it monitors everything, then all we have to do is send an e-mail that had a word like bomb or something they would want to read. Then, BOOM! It is a bomb. Just have some insanely malicious little program that takes the box down for the count. That's of course only if we can't win in court or some legal way.
this is the place for me all right. I'm not going to write an insanely long note because I don't have the time, but let me just say a few things. First of all there are only a few people in the world that I would like to be president, me, people in my family, or other people that might agree with me on every issue. There is nobody on the ballot who agrees with me on every point. SO why should they get my vote? They shouldn't. However because I don't vote doesn't mean I don't have a political opinion. I urge everyone who feels the same way to not vote, instead to voice your opinions on the internet and in public. Protest, Petition, etc. It all comes down to campaign finance. The only people who can possibly become president in the current system are rich people. However they don't represent us at all, you aren't rich are you? They don't represent 18 year olds like me either? These are all old geezers. And what about 16 year olds who have jobs? They pay tax and don't get to vote? Isn't that why we had the revolution that started this country? I just brought that point up cause I think it's pretty neat. IF YOU DON'T AGREE COMPLETELY WITH ANY OF THE CANDIDATES DO NOT VOTE AT ALL. I'm not saying any particular candidate is good or evil, but if they aren't representing you don't vote for them. The only solution I see is the following. First campaign finance reform. That means a law that says "You may not spend more thatn X dollars on a presidential election". Step 2 elimination of political parties. People will run as individuals. So it would be George W Bush for president and Cheney for Vice President. NOT Bush/Cheney (Republican). Don't replay to this on Slashdot because I wont come back to read it. If you want to talk about this e-mail slr2777@cs.rit.edu
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I don't want to say it, but it has to be said. You must show them the All Your Base music video. It isn't a high quality production, but it is an example of a piece of multimedia that can spawn a whole load of crap. Also show them the "Father Frags Best" Quake II Demo. I'm sure that'll bring back some lan party memories.
The problem is caused by the mentality of parents and teachers. When they were young their parents paddled them good, so they don't do that to their kids. Also "back in the day" when kids had a fight in school the teachers would drag them to the boxing ring (schools don't have these anymore) and they let them go at it.
Nowadays parents spoil their kids and big time because they don't want their kids to have it as bad as they did. Plus a lot of kids have two working parents and no supervision. The result is that we get a lot of kids like Nelson from the Simpsons. The are the result of bad parenting, broken homes, etc. These kids have nothing to feel good about. So they pick on and bully other kids. If you take a survey of bullies I guarantee that at least oh say 75% have some sort of family troubles.
Now you have bullies who need to pick on other kids to increase their self esteem. They usually pick on kids who get good grades, have "normal" families, and good lives. This is because they are easy targets. They are easy targets because they live sheltered lives. Seriously if you go to a "normal" American household where there are two parents, kids with good grades, etc. The kids don't know hardship. They have food, they get cars when they are 16, they get the newest video game systems. The bully is jealous of these things. So he has to put these people below him in order to feel like he is something special.
Now you have the set up, the bully is ready to pick on the victim. The victim's self esteem drops like a rock and the bully thinks he is all that. Even though the bully goes home to his drunk father, or he goes home to an empty house because he has all his parents gone or working. What happens is the bully picks on the kid until they snap. Most often the snap is a big yelling argument in the middle of school. Other times it's an actual fist fight broken up by teachers. Very often it seems the victim is depressed so greatly instead of snapping they kill themselves. And sometimes the victim snaps on the inside, saves it for later and makes plans about killing the bully.
I know that feeling. You feel as if those people are the scum of the earth, what the hell are they in school for? They are going to end up dead from overdosing on drugs or working in a gas station. They have no purpose in life except to make my life miserable. So in frustration the victim goes out and kills the bully.
However of course I did not kill anybody. I actually developed a very pacifist attitude. I say haha, let them pick on me all they want. I don't give a damn. I am now a CS Major at RIT, with many friends, and much happiness. All my bullies from Elementary and Middle School are working in gas stations. When I get a job I'll buy a car soon and laugh as they fill my tank. I pity all bullies for they are all poor souls with little to live for.
What is the solution? Well I'm not sure. Or else I would be very very rich, but I do have some untested ideas.
1) Make it VERY hard to get a divorce. And use common sense when determining custody.
2) Teachers, if you see two kids in a fight figure out which one instigated the fight. Give this child the largest punishment. The child who erupted tell them what I have said. That the other is going to end up working in a gas station, don't let the words hurt you, etc. etc. MAKE SURE THEY DON'T HAVE GUNS OR SUICIDE PLANS. CALL THEIR PARENTS AND HAVE THEM SEARCH THE HOUSE.
3) Bring back the old boxing ring to school. Soceity these days shuns all violence, even non deadly fist fights. Martial Arts have become Self Defense. This is why Pro Wrestling *shudder* and football are so popular. It is a way for males to expunge the the urge to hurt things. If you have kids box in school they can get rid of that energy.
Now you may be one of those people who still say well, the video games are still at fault a little. Well I'm sorry, but you are ABSOLUTELY WRONG. How do I know? Japan. Japan has the most violent disgusting video games ever. Remember this is the home of tentacle hentai. Video Games are so popular that is is illegal to release an RPG on a school day. How many murders in Japan last year? 1, 2 at most. Yeah. Take that.
I know I posted late so I probably wont get modded up so people can see this, but if you do read it, print it out. Think about it. I know from experience, and I have made it through and I'm happy now. I also have some reccomended reading on the subject. Read "They Cage the Animals at Night." I remember in middle school the author spoke at our school. He said that he would rather go to school late and be beat by the nuns, because it hurt less than the kids picking on him. Read the book then read that again.
I hope I made my point.
This is completely worthless. I have to pay to listen to a game if I listen through real player. So I'll use another media player, Windows Media Player if need be *shudder* and I'll simply visit WFAN's web site and get all the Met's games I want.
I think this will really increase Plextor's revenue as well. See I have a Plextor 8/4/32 CDRW and with the aid of Nero Burning ROM I can do bit for bit copies. I'm pretty sure that whatever they are doing isn't going to prevent me from copying each bit on the CD one at a time to another CD. However if it does prevent that, then it means there is some genius out there. I'm pretty sure the solution will be new Burning software and CDRW drivers.
I read the story about these last year. Why are they posting it again. There's nothing new to say. However I was thinking there might be some coolness if we use these in places besides replacing LCD screens. For example replacing all LEDs with organic ones. Look around you right now and take note of every LED you see. Now replace it with an organic one. Also have you seen those lighting systems that have a bed of LEDs in the basement and then a bunch of fiber optics bringing the light to every room in the house. Thing about the energy savings if every house has a bed of organic LEDs! No more lightbulbs because LEDs don't die.
Days ago? That's horrible. I get all my news from /..
So Sad.... Watch Boomerang, the other Cartoon network Station. It has Hanna-Barbera Cartoon 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. I love it.
Not all science is computer science. For example I'm a CS major and I don't know crap about biology. If CS was biology I would know biology, and I don't. I think what is trying to be said here is that all problems in other sciences can be translated into CS problems and be solved by coding software. However then you run into the old P/NP problem that some things CAN'T be solved with computers. But most scientific problems in engineering, chemistry, especially physics can be solved by coding software to solve it. It's nothing we didn't know before.
The solution is simple. Write a web browser or plugin for existing web browser that detects and does not display ads of any sort. Of course the idea is simple, actually coding it might not be as easy. But somebody should give it a try. I would, but I'm in college and I have to code the schoolwork that I'm assigned leaving no time for fun projects.
:)
Slashdot's ads aren't very intrusive I really don't even notice them. However it is quite obvious that the internet needs a new advertising model. The banner ad is going down the hole. Me and most people I know click on a banner ad like once a century. I can't even remember the last banner ad I glanced at. I see a think geek banner ad right now, but I already visit that site regularly
I would have an idea for a new internet advertising model, but then I would have lots and lots of money wouldn't I?
It seems to me that a lot of you don't really understand what's oging on with the game boy advance. It has the same LCD technology as the Game Boy color only it has back lighting and more color. It can play games that are just about as high quality graphics wise as star fox. I also heard it has an internet connection possibly. And when connected to the gamecube as a controller you can do cool stuff with it like choose plays in a football game. The technology for making something like this has been around for a long time, but it has recently improved a lot. It doesn't drain tons of batteries. I think it takes a few AA's and runs for hours. It also has a lot of games like Mario Kart that I really want. Some people say they are just re-releasing NES and SNES games, which is a GOOD thing. This gives Nintendo an excuse to bash emulation. They are showing that they can still profit off of old software and because the software is still commercially available they have a real strong case when busting ROM sites and such. Besides I just want the 4 player games going on during the extra long road trip.
Now to reply to the people who replied to me. All at once. First of all I don't think that people who never programmed before should not be allowed into CS. The thing is that CS here is taught very quickly. It is currently the third quarter of my first year here. That means that if you don't fail a CS class you should be in CS 3 now, which I am. However there are currently only 3 lecture sections of CS3. They all hold 45 people. There are multiple large sections of CS2 and even a couple CS1 sections. I heard something like 25% of the people who were initially CS switched to IT. I think the person who said that they have different levels for entry into CS is on the right track.
As for my lack of tags I know HTML. I just forgot to switch the little combo box to plain old text. I don't format my notes nicely either, I lose my train of thought when I have to stop and put in a
tag. As for the people who joined CS programs and did well without knowing any previous coding, good for you. Not many people can do that. Especially here as the statistics show.
Now that part about KDE2 instead of CDE. The real reason I put that in there was because it just came to my mind when I was thinking about the problems in the CS department. Whenever I go to the lab people always ask me how I got an image file for my wallpaper (can't be done in CDE). So I take the five minutes to change their dotfiles to startkde and they get very happy. The thing is that the CS department doesn't even tell you about this. We wasted multiple days in the beginning of CS1 and wasted money on a UNIX book (not me) before we started coding. Since KDE is a lot like windows if the CS department defaulted to it we could have wasted less time and money. It's not really relevant it's just a personal gripe I have with the department. There are so many cool things on their network and they keep them all a secret. The only way to find out is to ask the teaching assistants.
Basically the CS department here at RIT is pretty good. The program has a reputation of being difficult because so many people leave and fail classes. After the first year of the program it really changes for the better. There are classes like Intro to Digital Design and Operating Systems that area really cool and such. And in CS4 you get switched from Java to C++.
For a better look at RIT's CS program go to http://www.cs.rit.edu
I'm a CS Major at RIT. And the current CS program is pretty good. Except for the fact that lots of people drop out and join the IT program. The first problem is the misunderstanding of what CS is. Kids in high school who like computers are told oh, you should be a computer science major then. When really they should be IT majors because they don't know the first thing about coding. They are interested in networking and web page making. The second problem is the fact that they require no previous coding experience to join the CS program. The art programs at my school require you to show them a portfolio. CS does not. So the CS classes are half coders like me and half people who never coded before. The people like me sleep and skip class and get A's. The rest go to class and study hard and get F's. The third major problem with our CS department is the teachers. The teachers we have are quite intelligent, and a few of them are really good computer scientists. However some of them are just not qualified. We ask them all kinds of advanced questions and they don't have answers. There are only two teachers we can take our complex problems to because the rest don't know. There are other ways of improving the program besides solving these problems. For example at RIT java is learned first. They teach you object oriented concepts and such right off the bat. I think that for the never coded before folk they should have them write simple C programs where they store data in variables, manipulate it, make loops, printf, etc. So they actually understand the code writing concept before they get object oriented concepts. Another thing, that isn't so major, that would be nice is if they changed to a different os besides Solaris. We're running on a bunch of Ultra 10's so they come with Solaris and I really dont' like it. I set my account up to use KDE, (I would use KDE2, they don't have it) but everyone around me is using Solaris CDE. KDE should be the default. Half these people didn't know what UNIX was until they got here they should have the most user friendly desktop environment available. The last thing I would like to do to improve CS class is make it all lab. Currently I have 3 1 hour lectures and 1 2 hour lab every week. I want to have 3 2 hours labs a week. I learn nothing from someone teaching me how to code. I don't learn the week's lessons (if we learn something I don't already know) until I get to lab. That's really all that's wrong with the CS program at RIT. I don't know if your CS program is any different. The one really great thing I can say about our CS program is that it gets people really good jobs. We have a 100% job placement rate and a lot of those guys and girls make a lot of dough right off the bat.
I heard about this game in Video Game mags and from some sites quite a while back. Then a few weeks ago I realized there was no news of the game since, and it had been months. I'm glad it didn't turn out to be vaporware. I need to kill more nazi scum.
I hope KOffice is better than Star Office. I haven't really found a really good office suite lately. I dont' want all the million insane crazy features. I just want a very stripped down, stable, simple office suite that does graphs, spreadhseets, and word procesing. That's it. I hope KOffice Delivers.
One game says it all. X-COM. Oh yeah. Have you noticed that games in general are beginning to suck more? The GameCube Metroid is a perfect example. The game companies feel that EVERY game HAS to be 3D. If it's not 3d it wont sell. SO they make every game 3d. I would have been very happy with another 2d metroid, and so would everyone else. The guys making it weren't doing a good job with it as a 3rd person platform game, so Nintendo made them change it to a first person shooter. Me and my friends are going to start programming massively enourmous 2 dimensional games that will blow everyones mind. Look at Diablo II? Oh yeah. 2D. As for turn based games. X-COM. Nuff said.
This is not an upgrade at all. Well not for me at least. My vision is already far better than 20/20. I can read the bottom line of any eye chart from twice as far away as your are supposed to be. With either eye closed. However my left eye is a little stronger. I can imagine a world where me and my offspring are the only ones with "real" eyes and everyone else has bionic eyes. That would be freaky.
Mega Tokyo, Bad boys of Computer Science, and Neo Baka. Duh. How can you leave these guys out? These are the only 3 web comics I read religiously. And I bet if half of you /.ers read the bad boys of CS from the beginning you will realize that the bad boys are just like you. They are so much like me and my friends it's scary.
This is definitely one of the 2 biggest problems I have with Linux. I use Red Hat 7.0, and I'm still learning how to do advanced stuff. I mainly use it just to do my CS labs because it's easier to connect to the Solaris machines my school has. However whenever I try to install software that isn't a Red Hat 7.0 rpm, I always have some kind of problem. Always. I can't use licq, because I don't have a newer version of qt. I can't install a newer version of qt, because it gives me error messages I don't understand. The list goes on. The other thing is that Linux doesn't have any easy way to set up my Printer (HP Deskjet 810C) or my Promise Ultra66 IDE controller card. The only solution I see for Linux is merger. Every distro, every variation, all the little people have to get together and make one big company. Then take everything and standardize it. combine KDE + GNOME, make rpms standardized, write lots and lots of drivers, etc. If I could I would use Linux all the time, because it never crashes, but sometimes I just HAVE to use windows, because I still don't have the functionality or software in Linux.
Yeah, I know exactly where this guy is coming from. I recently went on a trip to Israel and I noticed that their technological infrastructure was far superior to that of the United States. Their phone cords resemble category 5 cables. I asked if they had a network, but they dialed up just the same. Everything from the pay phones to the atm machines was superior to the United States version in one way or another. But it is true, just about every computer in Israel has Microsoft Windows with Hebrew Language support. However I have Red Hat Linux, and it has hebrew support. You use international keyboard and language in KDE to change the settings. I don't see how web pages can be IE only. I see just about every web page I ever wanted to visit perfectly in Mozilla. But I relate very much to having to deal with Excel and Word Files. I use Star Office and all my friends have Microsoft Office. They wont listen to me when I tell them it is a bloated piece of crummy software. Star Office isn't perfect, but it is legally free (they have appz office) and it works. They send me things to look at in excel or word files that I have trouble reading correctly. How come we have a universal graphics format (gif and jpg), universal video formats (mpeg, avi) but no universal word processor formats. rtf and txt are ok, but they don't remember tab settings, paragraph indents other page formatting stuff, or weird text colors. We need a universal office file format. Let's call it .off Every spreadsheet, database, text document, etc. could be saved as a .off and the only difference between word processors would be their features and not the popularity of their file formats. How did I change topics like that? Dang.
This may not be something that very many people are going to do. Basically because anyone who wants to use gnome has gnome with linux. If they use windows at all they use it for games. However if we can get non-linux people to use gnome over windows then they will see, hey this linux aint so bad. It's a way we can get people to gradually switch to linux rather than jumping right in. It makes a new os less scary. However I want to see KDE not gnome. In my opinion KDE 2 is the best desktop ever. I "luff" it.
this is just a little note that nobody will probably notice. But how about this for some examples. I buy FF9 for PSX, and I want the PC version? Or I own mario 1 for the NES and mario all stars for SNES why should I pay for mario deluxe on the gameboy? How about I had MS-DOS at one point. Shouldn't I be able to get the newest version (win 98 SE)? Here's my feeling. If it is the same exact thing on two different media, or for two different systems. Then you should be able to get it for free. However if it is different, like a software upgrade, or a version that has more features, you should have to pay, but not full price. That's why winme upgrade is only $50 and winme full is $100. If you own a vinyl, and you don't have the equipment to burn vinyl to digital format, then feel free to get some mp3s. I want to see someone go to court with this argument. Why? Because that would mean that we would be able to get all kinds of roms and emulators for classic video games without being hounded by people calling us pirates.
The way it usually works is that if you code it, without using the college's equipment you own it. There is a fair use though. So it would be ok to use your college internet connection to talk to someone about code, or visit newsgroups for help. But it isn't ok if you test the part of your software that uses the network on the campus network. Then they own your software. It really bites, that's why I team up my computers with my friends so I can code stuff and not have my college own it.
The fact that IE has won the browser war is a big lie. You see the plain fact is that most of the US peeps on the internet are AOL users. To my dissapointment AOL6 still comes with IE. The reason most internet folk are IE users? They are mostly AOLers. If you discount AOLers I bet that less than 30% of the remaining users will be using any form of IE.
Look at us. Here at slashdot are thousands of computer nerds, and we do nothing? Someone has to figure out a way to take down these boxes. If it monitors everything, then all we have to do is send an e-mail that had a word like bomb or something they would want to read. Then, BOOM! It is a bomb. Just have some insanely malicious little program that takes the box down for the count. That's of course only if we can't win in court or some legal way.
this is the place for me all right. I'm not going to write an insanely long note because I don't have the time, but let me just say a few things. First of all there are only a few people in the world that I would like to be president, me, people in my family, or other people that might agree with me on every issue. There is nobody on the ballot who agrees with me on every point. SO why should they get my vote? They shouldn't. However because I don't vote doesn't mean I don't have a political opinion. I urge everyone who feels the same way to not vote, instead to voice your opinions on the internet and in public. Protest, Petition, etc. It all comes down to campaign finance. The only people who can possibly become president in the current system are rich people. However they don't represent us at all, you aren't rich are you? They don't represent 18 year olds like me either? These are all old geezers. And what about 16 year olds who have jobs? They pay tax and don't get to vote? Isn't that why we had the revolution that started this country? I just brought that point up cause I think it's pretty neat. IF YOU DON'T AGREE COMPLETELY WITH ANY OF THE CANDIDATES DO NOT VOTE AT ALL. I'm not saying any particular candidate is good or evil, but if they aren't representing you don't vote for them. The only solution I see is the following. First campaign finance reform. That means a law that says "You may not spend more thatn X dollars on a presidential election". Step 2 elimination of political parties. People will run as individuals. So it would be George W Bush for president and Cheney for Vice President. NOT Bush/Cheney (Republican). Don't replay to this on Slashdot because I wont come back to read it. If you want to talk about this e-mail slr2777@cs.rit.edu