Wik wrote:
This doesn't surprise me after looking at the graduate student pictures in the engineering builing hallway. This particular school (CMU) has seen a marked increase (from 10% to nearly 40%) women in the freshman CS class in the past three years. Maybe these statistics could be just as fluid in a few years?
Carnegie Mellon has a special program to actively recruit women computer science students. There was a Slashdot article on it a few months ago (the link to the St. Louis Dispatch article it references has since expired):
University at Buffalo also requires incoming students to have "access to a computer, beyond those provided in the university's public computing sites." http://www.buffalo.edu/iconnect/ com p_reqs.shtml I don't really agree with this policy either.
Con: I suspect that because students will have there own computers, the University will not have to give as much support to public computing labs. Public computing labs will never be eliminated, but the equipment and infrastructure may be allowed to "slide". Also, people have noticed that students in the Computer Science program don't use the CS labs as much these days, now that everyone has their own high-speed-internet-enabled, mp3-playing, IM/ICQ machines at home. This reduction in use of the computer labs also reduces CS students' camraderie and feelings of unity (what little there was to begin with).
Pro: However, having a standardized minimum level of computer access does have its advantages. It allows instructors and administration to move to more efficient ways of registering for classes, communicating, submitting assignments, etc., since they know that all students have the ability to do so (because they know all students have computers).
Details: There are some minimum requirements for computers, based upon the ability to run applications. I don't know of any instances where students are required to be able to run Wintel-only programs. Also, students don't have to buy a computer. They can lease one through the University. There is also a Students Needing Assistance Program (SNAP) which loans computers to students for free, funded by Dell and IBM.
Unfortunately, there is a different paradigm at work when it comes to Art.
Art is created in the Cathedral, by big-name Artists, as a one-of-a-kind expression of that Artist's vision (like Sistine Chapel). Artists tend to keep hush about their Art until it is completed. Artists want to get paid for their Art. Artists also feel that they "own" their Art in perpetuity. They don't like people making changes in their Art, even if the Artist gets credit for the original work.
There is another product, similar to Art, which is produced in the Bazaar. The people who produce this product are called Artisans. Artisans also create art, but do so without the feeling that their art is proprietary. Think of the 1-minute caricature artist or the person who mass-produces cheap landscape paintings or the sidewalk chalk artist. The Artisan simply produces works-for-hire. Once the work is finished and sold (or given away) the Artisan is also finished.
Most software programmers see themselves as Artisans. However, most artists see themselves as Artists. More unfortunately, Artists see Artisans either as hacks or as artists who have sold out.
The problem is: how do we convince current Artists and aspiring artists to become Artisans? Or, is there something fundamentally different about Art such that it can never be commoditized?
Apparently, one way to send money from the United States to South Africa is through an International Postal Money Order. They can be purchased at U.S. post offices.
As I understand it, you fill out a form including how much (in USD) you want to send, pay for the amount of the money order, plus a fee of $8.50 USD, and then mail the form to a processing center. Eventually the U.S. Postal Service sends the info to the foreign country's post office, and the foreign post office sends the money order to the recipient. The recipient can then cash the money order at local exchange rates.
Does anyone have any experience with this? Is using an International Postal Money Order preferable to simply sending a personal check? Do the exchange fees make this method not worthwhile? Obtaining and sending drafts in foreign currencies seems so difficult.
Taco Bell caught the market when "value" was popular among fast food restaurants. Hence the $.49/.69/.89 menu. People wanted low prices above most everything else. Now the emphasis in fast food is on big portions. Hence the extra-extra-large "value meal" at McDonalds's and the "grande meal" at Taco Bell. People would rather spend more and get more food than they can consume-- or should.
But, I'm not sure if the Dilberito is being introduced at the right time. I think that vegetarianism (though always popular) was more the public's eye about 5 years ago. Just 2 years ago or so the trend was for "comfort food". I think that the latest trend continues to be a mixture of comfort and family-style dinner foods that you pick up at the market and reheat at home. People desire the illusion that they are "cooking" when, of course, they are not.
Perhaps Scott Adams should catch this trend by producing a "Dilberito Kit" where you construct your own dilberitos at home. Just add textured vegetable protein!
Ben
> Both in Boston (where I live) and Forida > (where I used to live) Taco Bell had to > make their stuff cheap so people will buy > it. Back in high school I could buy like > fifteen tacos for six or seven dollars, > which made them quite a bit cheaper than > everything else around. Now that everyone's > hooked on the heroin they put in there their > prices are similar to McD's.
Slashdot Mirror
Wik wrote:
This doesn't surprise me after looking at the graduate student pictures in the engineering builing hallway. This particular school (CMU) has seen a marked increase (from 10% to nearly 40%) women in the freshman CS class in the past three years. Maybe these statistics could be just as fluid in a few years?
Carnegie Mellon has a special program to actively recruit women computer science students. There was a Slashdot article on it a few months ago (the link to the St. Louis Dispatch article it references has since expired):
http://slashdot.org/articles/ 99/ 08/22/174242.shtml
My feeling is that these statistics *could* be fluid in a few years, but only with proactive programs like CMU's.
Ben
University at Buffalo also requires incoming students to have "access to a computer, beyond those provided in the university's public computing sites." http://www.buffalo.edu/iconnect/ com p_reqs.shtml I don't really agree with this policy either.
Con: I suspect that because students will have there own computers, the University will not have to give as much support to public computing labs. Public computing labs will never be eliminated, but the equipment and infrastructure may be allowed to "slide". Also, people have noticed that students in the Computer Science program don't use the CS labs as much these days, now that everyone has their own high-speed-internet-enabled, mp3-playing, IM/ICQ machines at home. This reduction in use of the computer labs also reduces CS students' camraderie and feelings of unity (what little there was to begin with).
Pro: However, having a standardized minimum level of computer access does have its advantages. It allows instructors and administration to move to more efficient ways of registering for classes, communicating, submitting assignments, etc., since they know that all students have the ability to do so (because they know all students have computers).
Details: There are some minimum requirements for computers, based upon the ability to run applications. I don't know of any instances where students are required to be able to run Wintel-only programs. Also, students don't have to buy a computer. They can lease one through the University. There is also a Students Needing Assistance Program (SNAP) which loans computers to students for free, funded by Dell and IBM.
Ben
Unfortunately, there is a different paradigm at work when it comes to Art.
Art is created in the Cathedral, by big-name Artists, as a one-of-a-kind expression of that Artist's vision (like Sistine Chapel). Artists tend to keep hush about their Art until it is completed. Artists want to get paid for their Art. Artists also feel that they "own" their Art in perpetuity. They don't like people making changes in their Art, even if the Artist gets credit for the original work.
There is another product, similar to Art, which is produced in the Bazaar. The people who produce this product are called Artisans. Artisans also create art, but do so without the feeling that their art is proprietary. Think of the 1-minute caricature artist or the person who mass-produces cheap landscape paintings or the sidewalk chalk artist. The Artisan simply produces works-for-hire. Once the work is finished and sold (or given away) the Artisan is also finished.
Most software programmers see themselves as Artisans. However, most artists see themselves as Artists. More unfortunately, Artists see Artisans either as hacks or as artists who have sold out.
The problem is: how do we convince current Artists and aspiring artists to become Artisans? Or, is there something fundamentally different about Art such that it can never be commoditized?
Ben
Apparently, one way to send money from the United States to South Africa is through an International Postal Money Order. They can be purchased at U.S. post offices.
As I understand it, you fill out a form including how much (in USD) you want to send, pay for the amount of the money order, plus a fee of $8.50 USD, and then mail the form to a processing center. Eventually the U.S. Postal Service sends the info to the foreign country's post office, and the foreign post office sends the money order to the recipient. The recipient can then cash the money order at local exchange rates.
Does anyone have any experience with this? Is using an International Postal Money Order preferable to simply sending a personal check? Do the exchange fees make this method not worthwhile? Obtaining and sending drafts in foreign currencies seems so difficult.
Ben
Taco Bell caught the market when "value" was popular among fast food restaurants. Hence the $.49/.69/.89 menu. People wanted low prices above most everything else. Now the emphasis in fast food is on big portions. Hence the extra-extra-large "value meal" at McDonalds's and the "grande meal" at Taco Bell. People would rather spend more and get more food than they can consume-- or should.
But, I'm not sure if the Dilberito is being introduced at the right time. I think that vegetarianism (though always popular) was more the public's eye about 5 years ago. Just 2 years ago or so the trend was for "comfort food". I think that the latest trend continues to be a mixture of comfort and family-style dinner foods that you pick up at the market and reheat at home. People desire the illusion that they are "cooking" when, of course, they are not.
Perhaps Scott Adams should catch this trend by producing a "Dilberito Kit" where you construct your own dilberitos at home. Just add textured vegetable protein!
Ben
> Both in Boston (where I live) and Forida
> (where I used to live) Taco Bell had to
> make their stuff cheap so people will buy
> it. Back in high school I could buy like
> fifteen tacos for six or seven dollars,
> which made them quite a bit cheaper than
> everything else around. Now that everyone's
> hooked on the heroin they put in there their
> prices are similar to McD's.