With these educational licenses you get two installs. Granted, that's probably sufficient for most students, but for a lot of my friends, they've upgraded their machines more than twice during their college career, or have just upgraded once and installed on their laptops. None of them have been able to call and get re-confirmed.
My brother is actually a SANS (systems analsysis I think) major. He ended up at his preppie liberal arts school since they offered to pay him to go there. This was before he realized that they didn't have a CS program. Whoops.;)
Anyway, he's making the best of what's available and double majoring in math and SANS, and should be finishing his fourth and final year next year. He's taking the intro to programming class just to see what Scheme is like, and also since he likes the prof.
My brother was telling me about he's taking next quarter, an Intro to Programming class that is going to be taught in Scheme. It's an honors class and something the prof is trying out.
I was thinking that the concept was pretty cool, but that the students who take the class were not getting what they expected. My understanding was that the class is mainly freshman, and taken by a lot of business majors. Granted the syllabus did say Scheme, but how many of the students (at a school know for it's students wearing Abercrombie and Fitch), even honor students, going to realize that Scheme is rather different from C++, Java, or anything else that they might actually use in the real world?
In my opinion, the students who are taking that class would be better off learning C++, Java, or even VB for what they're going to do. I mean, how many business types do you see who really program? I would think having a rudimentary knowledge of VB would at least be useful for them since macro'w will probably be the extent of their programming . . .
Psh . . . why should I bother keeping my eyes on it and locking it to anything and everything . . . I don't save anything on my laptop . . . it's all in my photographic memory;)
The laptop is just there to make everyone else not realize how inferior they are, since I can do everything they do on their computers in my head . . .:P
I don't think it's blind technophilia . . . laptops can be rather useful in the classroom . . . ask any Rose-Hulman student . . . of course, Rose-Hulman was one of the first schools that required all students to have laptops, and they're a small enough school that they were able to put network jacks in at every seat and projectors in every room . . . I have a hard time thinking that most public schools have the resources to do this . . .
My school, the University of Cincinnati, is currently "requiring" that all engineering freshman have a laptop . . . not a truly enforceable policy though . . . and unlike Rose-Hulman, my school doesn't have the infrastructure for this . . . yeah, they've started wireless networking but it's not available in all the engineering buildings . . . and I've seen some of my professors try to use computers . . . I shudder to imagine some of them trying to integrate computers into their lesson plans . . .
Rose-Hulman also has a wondreful support program, where you can basically swap laptops if anything goes wrong with yours . . . At Rose this is important since the laptops are integral . . . perhaps support won't be such an issue when the laptops aren't really integrated into the classroom . . . though if they're not integrated into the classroom, why bother?
Another reason my school is currently pushing for laptops is that some people want to eliminate computer labs in general. Computer labs are horribly expensive to maintain, and if every student had a laptop, then there would be no need for them . . . though this logic seems slightly flawed . . . I'd much rather work at a full size keyboard and desktop than a laptop . . .
Another problem with requiring laptops is that laptops are behind the technology curve to begin. My school's engineering program is a five year program. Now how many of you think these laptops will be worth anything by the time an incoming freshman graduates? Especially for engineering students who are going to be running demanding applications . . .
Two main points I'd like to address . . . in the first paragraph, Katz seems to attatch some significance to the fact that there are more young adults than there have ever been before . . . but the reality is that these young adults aren't voting so it doesn't matter . . . Bush's comment probably does appeal to the older voters, who do share his paranoia about the Internet and it's influences upon youth . . .
As to whether the Internet is to blame for violence in America's youth, it seems to me that the Internet is a influence, not the predominant influence . . . yes the Internet makes it easy for kids to find pictures of violence, the Anarchist's Cookbook, and other such things, but the kids who are going to look up this stuff and actually use it probably also have other issues . . . I know when I was in my early teens I looked up all kinds of instructions on making bombs, but I also had been raised reasonably well, and knew that making some nitroglycerin at home, or using some homemade explosive to go blow something up probably wasn't the wisest thing to do . . . while the Internet may serve as a tool to "learn" about violence, it's ridiculous to say that it's driving people to kill others . . .
Other Creative Outlets - Somewhat Offtopic
on
More Junkyard Wars
·
· Score: 2
I first heard about Junkyard Wars from a mailing list I'm on for Creative Problem Solving (CPS). The appeal of the program to CPS types is that it does promote divergent thinking, which is one of the primary goals of CPS.
As a side note, the two major cps programs out there are Destination Imagination and Odyssey of the Mind The programs are pretty similar. Take a team of 7 or less kids or college students, give them an open ended problem to solve, and have the present the solution on a Saturday competition. The presentations generally include technical portions, as well as a skit, about 10 minutes in length, along with scenery and the like. The competition also include an on the spot portion, where you're given a problem to do in about 10 minutes from beginning to end. Again, creativity is highly stressed. Not exactly geek culture, but I strongly encourage people to go check out either program and volunteer to help out as a judge or something.
hmm . . . I'm running AIM 4.1.2031 and it lets me use my UIN and associated password to log on to the ICQ network. I've known about the "feature" for a bit but it's rather useless. It lets you add other UIN's to your list, but other users are displayed by their UIN's, not the associated name.
I personally use AIM for instant messaging since it seems to be the lightest client for Windows, and most of my friends use it. Occasionally I do logon to ICQ to stay in touch with some people who refuse to use AIM.
On AOL trying to unify the two services, I'd say a more accurate assesment would be that AOL is trying to "ICQ-ize" AIM. AIM started off being solely an instant messenger, but AOL has slowly added features to make it comparable to ICQ, which set the bar for features. They've added file transfer, voice chat, direct connects, a file server, a news and stock ticker, and buddy icons. (Not that all these feature are useful but they're there.) The new beta adds supports for games, along with storing your buddy list on a central server.
Granted AIM has become commercialized with banner ads, and AIM Phone, and probably some other things I haven't noticed, but for instant messaging, it has a large user base and it does what it's supposed to do.
I've been a regular on Dalnet for about 5 years now, and a regular on Efnet for about 3 . . . when I'm at school I usually have two IRC clients, one on each network, idling in several channels.
Dalnet is where I go for silly chat, that doesn't matter, and I think the services they offer (registered nicks, channels, etc) are nice.
Efnet is good for various "scenes." Efnet is where the mp3 groups hang out, and I also hang out in the semi-official Ars Technical channel, along with #litestep. IMHO. I find much more intelligent conversation on Efnet that I do on Dalnet.
The article that's linked to does point out the obvious, and Efnet is horrible about script kiddies. The number of DoS attacks are numerous, and I've been packetted for takeover purposes. On the other hand, Dalnet is rampant with various trojans/virii such as Life Stages, script.ini, Judgement Day, etc. Though Dalnet has done a pretty good job of implementing server side protection against these.
In the end, I'll still hang out on both networks because different IRC networks server different purposes.
What would you do if you were a company and saw your product ruined by a couple of kiddies
who obviously never had anything to do with running a business before? Sit there and watch your
dollars go down the drain?
I'm not saying you are doing the wrong thing, after all, there's this subarticle in some subsection of
some USPO law that says you're in your right, but imagine Amazon finding some loophole in some
law that enables them to ruin other people's businesses, would you agree with Amazon? Or would
you despise this company?
mmm . . . you treat it case by case . . . DC is taking a lot of flack from the geek community because they've targetted a large portion of the community and the issue is privacy and ridiculous terms of use.
I doubt that the majority of the hackers out there are thinking "I want to screw Company X over." They're doing what they want, and sometimes it ends up that they do something Company X doesn't like . . . and if the issue is large enough, the community takes a unified stance . . .
With DC the main issue is privacy, and the invasion of privacy, w/o any open disclosure, much like DoubleClick. Yes, the concept of DC is rather nice, but DC should have realized there'd be a backlash of somesort if they attatch UID's to their devices . . . much like Intel did . . . DC has a good idea, but a business model that seems to rely on these UID's . . .
Is a user supposed to blindly support the product because the idea is cool? Just ignore the product, even if it is cool, because of privacy issues? Or find a way to use it and avoid the whole privacy issue?
Slashdot Mirror
Patent 5971091 with DEKA and Kamen's name on it seems to address a unicycle/scooter type device . . . haven't had a chance to look it over
Campus Agreement Deployment Guide
With these educational licenses you get two installs. Granted, that's probably sufficient for most students, but for a lot of my friends, they've upgraded their machines more than twice during their college career, or have just upgraded once and installed on their laptops. None of them have been able to call and get re-confirmed.
My brother is actually a SANS (systems analsysis I think) major. He ended up at his preppie liberal arts school since they offered to pay him to go there. This was before he realized that they didn't have a CS program. Whoops. ;)
Anyway, he's making the best of what's available and double majoring in math and SANS, and should be finishing his fourth and final year next year. He's taking the intro to programming class just to see what Scheme is like, and also since he likes the prof.
My brother was telling me about he's taking next quarter, an Intro to Programming class that is going to be taught in Scheme. It's an honors class and something the prof is trying out.
I was thinking that the concept was pretty cool, but that the students who take the class were not getting what they expected. My understanding was that the class is mainly freshman, and taken by a lot of business majors. Granted the syllabus did say Scheme, but how many of the students (at a school know for it's students wearing Abercrombie and Fitch), even honor students, going to realize that Scheme is rather different from C++, Java, or anything else that they might actually use in the real world?
In my opinion, the students who are taking that class would be better off learning C++, Java, or even VB for what they're going to do. I mean, how many business types do you see who really program? I would think having a rudimentary knowledge of VB would at least be useful for them since macro'w will probably be the extent of their programming . . .
Psh . . . why should I bother keeping my eyes on it and locking it to anything and everything . . . I don't save anything on my laptop . . . it's all in my photographic memory ;)
:P
The laptop is just there to make everyone else not realize how inferior they are, since I can do everything they do on their computers in my head . . .
I don't think it's blind technophilia . . . laptops can be rather useful in the classroom . . . ask any Rose-Hulman student . . . of course, Rose-Hulman was one of the first schools that required all students to have laptops, and they're a small enough school that they were able to put network jacks in at every seat and projectors in every room . . . I have a hard time thinking that most public schools have the resources to do this . . .
My school, the University of Cincinnati, is currently "requiring" that all engineering freshman have a laptop . . . not a truly enforceable policy though . . . and unlike Rose-Hulman, my school doesn't have the infrastructure for this . . . yeah, they've started wireless networking but it's not available in all the engineering buildings . . . and I've seen some of my professors try to use computers . . . I shudder to imagine some of them trying to integrate computers into their lesson plans . . .
Rose-Hulman also has a wondreful support program, where you can basically swap laptops if anything goes wrong with yours . . . At Rose this is important since the laptops are integral . . . perhaps support won't be such an issue when the laptops aren't really integrated into the classroom . . . though if they're not integrated into the classroom, why bother?
Another reason my school is currently pushing for laptops is that some people want to eliminate computer labs in general. Computer labs are horribly expensive to maintain, and if every student had a laptop, then there would be no need for them . . . though this logic seems slightly flawed . . . I'd much rather work at a full size keyboard and desktop than a laptop . . .
Another problem with requiring laptops is that laptops are behind the technology curve to begin. My school's engineering program is a five year program. Now how many of you think these laptops will be worth anything by the time an incoming freshman graduates? Especially for engineering students who are going to be running demanding applications . . .
As to whether the Internet is to blame for violence in America's youth, it seems to me that the Internet is a influence, not the predominant influence . . . yes the Internet makes it easy for kids to find pictures of violence, the Anarchist's Cookbook, and other such things, but the kids who are going to look up this stuff and actually use it probably also have other issues . . . I know when I was in my early teens I looked up all kinds of instructions on making bombs, but I also had been raised reasonably well, and knew that making some nitroglycerin at home, or using some homemade explosive to go blow something up probably wasn't the wisest thing to do . . . while the Internet may serve as a tool to "learn" about violence, it's ridiculous to say that it's driving people to kill others . . .
As a side note, the two major cps programs out there are Destination Imagination and Odyssey of the Mind The programs are pretty similar. Take a team of 7 or less kids or college students, give them an open ended problem to solve, and have the present the solution on a Saturday competition. The presentations generally include technical portions, as well as a skit, about 10 minutes in length, along with scenery and the like. The competition also include an on the spot portion, where you're given a problem to do in about 10 minutes from beginning to end. Again, creativity is highly stressed. Not exactly geek culture, but I strongly encourage people to go check out either program and volunteer to help out as a judge or something.
I personally use AIM for instant messaging since it seems to be the lightest client for Windows, and most of my friends use it. Occasionally I do logon to ICQ to stay in touch with some people who refuse to use AIM.
On AOL trying to unify the two services, I'd say a more accurate assesment would be that AOL is trying to "ICQ-ize" AIM. AIM started off being solely an instant messenger, but AOL has slowly added features to make it comparable to ICQ, which set the bar for features. They've added file transfer, voice chat, direct connects, a file server, a news and stock ticker, and buddy icons. (Not that all these feature are useful but they're there.) The new beta adds supports for games, along with storing your buddy list on a central server.
Granted AIM has become commercialized with banner ads, and AIM Phone, and probably some other things I haven't noticed, but for instant messaging, it has a large user base and it does what it's supposed to do.
Dalnet is where I go for silly chat, that doesn't matter, and I think the services they offer (registered nicks, channels, etc) are nice.
Efnet is good for various "scenes." Efnet is where the mp3 groups hang out, and I also hang out in the semi-official Ars Technical channel, along with #litestep. IMHO. I find much more intelligent conversation on Efnet that I do on Dalnet.
The article that's linked to does point out the obvious, and Efnet is horrible about script kiddies. The number of DoS attacks are numerous, and I've been packetted for takeover purposes. On the other hand, Dalnet is rampant with various trojans/virii such as Life Stages, script.ini, Judgement Day, etc. Though Dalnet has done a pretty good job of implementing server side protection against these.
In the end, I'll still hang out on both networks because different IRC networks server different purposes.
mmm . . . you treat it case by case . . . DC is taking a lot of flack from the geek community because they've targetted a large portion of the community and the issue is privacy and ridiculous terms of use.
I doubt that the majority of the hackers out there are thinking "I want to screw Company X over." They're doing what they want, and sometimes it ends up that they do something Company X doesn't like . . . and if the issue is large enough, the community takes a unified stance . . .
With DC the main issue is privacy, and the invasion of privacy, w/o any open disclosure, much like DoubleClick. Yes, the concept of DC is rather nice, but DC should have realized there'd be a backlash of somesort if they attatch UID's to their devices . . . much like Intel did . . . DC has a good idea, but a business model that seems to rely on these UID's . . .
Is a user supposed to blindly support the product because the idea is cool? Just ignore the product, even if it is cool, because of privacy issues? Or find a way to use it and avoid the whole privacy issue?