I didn't say I expected him to hit the books and learn it himself. I said I expected something that someone is passionate about to educate himself - by learning it himself, by finding a mentor, by taking a class as an adult, etc... Blaming lack of knowledge on the father is a cop out.
The father can forbid all of the above except possibly the self learning (although he could even limit that). Where do you think he's going to find a mentor without parental approval? It really is actually quite a good thing that you have no idea what an overbearing parent is like. (Denying it is pointless. The suggestions you are making show that clearly you don't).
Taking a class as an adult you run into the limitations of having to work and possibly support a family. You also need money. Granted if you're passionate enough you forgo things like having a family but it's a fine line between passionate and dangerously obsessive.
In any case being passionate about something and being skilled at it are two different things. I'd consider myself passionate about music and science. I've done not a lot about the music but I've taken a Masters in Astronomy. However I'd not like to try to make a living at either, and any further study is done in my spare time...
It can hardly be described as a passion if it lacks the strength to motivate you to educate yourself.
Methinks you don't understand the amount of effort it takes to constantly butt heads with an overbearing father. Some people are great at learning left to their own devices but others aren't. If he wasn't given the opportunity to be an environment where he could learn (eg. music class instead of science class) expecting him to pick up the books and learn it himself without knowing the circumstances is a bit unrealistic. Especially true when you're a child use to the spoon feeding you get in school, and thinking this is normal.
CDs and DVDs are virtually invincable, compared to VHS and cassette that they replace. And really, if you take care of it, it is quite robust.
Based on personal experience that's total BS. I have 20 year old VHS tapes that are crap but still playable. I also have 5 year old burnt DVDs that are unreadable despite being stored properly.
I have to admit while they have their place, I hate electrics. Being able to refuel and fly 6 times in a row is much better. Yes it's messier, but I don't have potentially exploding LiPos to charge, and yes they're more fragile but that's because you're often going further, faster, higher. I'd like more resilience in my models but I did mange to go 2 years with just 1 crash. I'm hoping to do well if not quite as well for the rest of my flying hobby days.
I'll bet you've been married what.... like 3 years?
Not even 1 year (though co-habiting several). I'm not saying I know with some sort of mystical certainty that it's going to work out, but I do know that I intend to keep the marriage happy, and that adopting defeatist attitudes from AC bozos ain't going to improve my chances.
No seriously, couples that seem happy when you meet them, have these resentments underneath. They choose not too surface them because who really wants to tear things up when you're 55. Go to a marriage counselor or psychologist and find out what really happens in long-term relationships.
Ah that makes sense. Go see a counselor or psychologist - someone only likely to see a couple if they're having issues - and build your view of what marriage will be like based on that. You'll pardon me if I don't choose to go out and sabotage my marriage at your suggestion. Why does it not surprise me that you're familiar with counselors and psychologists? Take some responsibility for yourself. Denying that there are indeed happy couples who've been together for some time isn't the best way to deal with your own feelings and failures. Trying to ruin other people's relationships by suggesting they adopt your approach is vile and pathetic. I hope you're just trolling otherwise you have serious issues.
The key here is simple enough. If you genuinely care weather or not the other person is happy and not just for your own ends, and if you genuinely try constantly to do things for each other to keep each other happy, resentment won't build up. Especially where there is some sacrifice involved (eg. taking turns with hobbies, what tv or movies to watch, etc.). Often bitter people have married someone they don't give a shit about (beyond wanting to boink them regularly) and wonder why it all went sour.
Okay so he's one of those child prodigy types complete with the asian stereo type of being pushed by his parents. I've seen him flying on the sim at 3 years old and being told it was a lousy flight when he crashed. I wouldn't do that to my child. Still it proves he's capable (even though I'd question the safety - I'd have him on a buddy lead even if the buddy never took over, but I guess that wouldn't sell the way a kid doing it on his own does). At 12 or 14 if you can have them using a power tool supervised, I'd argue you could have them on a buddy lead flying a plane or heli.
I'm about to become a father in just under 2 months. I plan on having the kid on the sim by age 2 or 3 if I can get him interested. (I won't be putting him down if he crashes).
I flew paper planes as a kid but didn't learn too much and never progressed very far. The skills didn't really transfer - neither for building or flying. At least a hand launched rubber band model or balsa glider requires more learning. If you want to learn control surfaces and physics a good flight sim (not a shoot em up) is a good place to start. Hell make it a remote control flight sim and you'll already have some idea you're doing to control it if you do build a real r/c plane.
I just don't have a workshop to build in or the expertise my father has with wood and metal things.
Best thing you could do is join a club and get some help that way. Other than that you just have to suck it up and try your best. For a work bench, I use a fold out table in the garage. Far from ideal but good enough. I have to pack it away when we want to put my wife's car away *lol*. Fortunately for me she has a crap car, so parking it outside isn't traumatic. (She gets the next decent one, but she doesn't feel like car shopping till after she gives birth). I have to say I have a very understanding wife, but even she complains about how much time I spend with the planes, and really after being out of the house 60 hrs a week for work, I don't get that much time with them (and still spend time with her).
I've put together my 3rd ARF now, and am quite confident now, though I don't enjoy the building side of the hobby. I prefer flying the damn things.
Only on Slashdot could this be modded "Informative". I lol'd
Hey so did I! I was aiming for funny when I wrote it, but you take what you can get...
Re:Older kids build stuff - R/C aircraft, telescop
on
A Home Lab/Shop For Kids?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Other things to note are that: - Because it's expensive, the time and money are both spread out over time - As another poster noted, no need to start with R/C. Rubber band power and gliders are a gentler, cheaper entry into the hobby.
Still some parents will spend that $1000 on toys without giving it a thought.
Re:Older kids build stuff - R/C aircraft, telescop
on
A Home Lab/Shop For Kids?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I agree that it can get very expensive very quickly.
I don't agree that a trainer certainly isn't much fun to fly. I had a Worldstar 40 ARF. Large plane, very stable. Been in the hobby for a couple of years and only just recently crashed it for the first time - unfortunately a total loss of the airframe. (Crashed doing inverted spins, almost recovered but stalled coming out and fell right back into a spin). I was definitely pushing the limits with that plane, but basic IMAC was certainly doable, and it was a lot of fun to fly. I've been busy building planes since (I got given the Worldstar second hand by my wife's family who've been into it for years. I had to learn to build after learning to fly).
I loved that Worldstar, even though in some ways I'd outgrown it. I'm in the middle of building another one anyway. The one I had was modified with better control rods so working out how to do that properly has slowed me down a bit since I refuse to put in balsa rods. I've completed 3 other ARF aircraft in the meantime.
Isn't there a name for that? Isn't it called "marriage"?
(disclaimer: It's a joke. My wife's actually pretty cool, and no she doesn't read slashdot)
Older kids build stuff - R/C aircraft, telescopes
on
A Home Lab/Shop For Kids?
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Get them into remote control aircraft when they're old enough. It's not a cheap hobby, a few hundred dollars to get into it, but you get to learn about:
- Combustion engines - Mixing fuel (some chemistry) - Radio gear - Flight dynamics - Assembling and building, where care is needed to avoid major mistakes that would render the model unflyable - Woodwork and metal work (and you'll aquire the tools for these if you don't already have them) - The importance of measurement in the real world - Importance of safety and developing good practice and procedure to make things safe
If you go with the above, make sure you join a club and practice on a simulator as it does take quite some time for most people to get the hang of controlling a plane and nothing will cause a child to lose interest quicker than a toy that takes a month to build and breaks (crashes) in under a minute. It's definitely harder than r/c cars which don't fall out of the sky if you slow down too much, aren't affected by the wind etc. (In fact petrol engine cars - not the $10 toys - are a simpler alternative with less of a learning curve BUT there isn't as much reward either).
Also when they're old enough, you could get them to build a dobsonian telescope. It's not particularly difficult, and you can choose to do it from components. Again you learn about woodwork and metal work, but also add optics and astronomy to the mix.
The point is that while the above are in a sense toys, in another they are not. You have to be rigid and disciplined because you are creating a real working piece of equipment where tolerances are important. Kids unfortunately grow up in a schooling environment today where they are taught whatever they do will be just fine. Great for the child's confidence, but the trouble is that's not how the real world works.
These hobbies aren't something they can't be left to do unsupervised - you'll actually have to learn yourself and help teach them. You might even end up doing classes together (telescope making), or taking tution together (learning to fly r/c). It does require that the child can follow direction, has some patience and doesn't just lose interest in a week. They also have to be interested in the end product or they won't want to do it.
The other thing that should be obvious to people here if you like the idea of building things together is to teach them to build a computer from scratch. That's actually a practical skill they can use whether or not they wind up in IT.
Neither? So they're precisely equal, down to the fractional cent?
I'd suggest you develop some reading comprehension skills, but you probably wouldn't understand.
Ah the sweet irony of an AC troll lecturing someone on comprehension skills while choosing to take the literal meaning completely out of context...love it!
Prince seems a little desperate for spotlight attention these days.
These days? You mean as opposed to when he changed his name to some damned symbol and then back, or wore hideous purple suites and simulated sex on stage? Saying that Prince is a little desperate these days is like saying that the pope is a little bit catholic these days.
To the aggressor it's far more valuable to shut down an airport full of planes, disrupting all inbound and outbound air travel, than it is to shut down one plane.
Any attempted attack is going to cause temporary disruptions and potentially some loss of life. The key word is temporary.
What had a bigger financial impact: the FAA shutting down all flights for two days after 9/11, or the destruction of four planes?
Neither. The insane changes to security in the years since like finger printing visitors to your country, banning liquids, putting no-fly lists that are neither transparent nor effective, creating an entire agency of underpaid, underqualified "security" personal, has been the most destructive. You can't blame the terrorists for your own government grabbing power, using the cowardice of the citizenry to do so.
I think it is pretty well documented why Excel should not be used as a serious scientific tool - it will corrupt data, it is incorrect, and inconsistent (pdf) - all bad for science. I am surprised accountants are allowed to use it.
It's a tool. Verifying the results and doing cross checks is always sensible. Do you honestly think that any other piece of software is foolproof and incapable of introducing errors? whether you write it yourself or take an off the shelf computational product, there will always be the potential for a bug causing your answers to be nonsense. Being aware of the limitations of the package you are using is important and par for the course if you're a professional scientist. Same goes for accountants which is why they too are "allowed" to use the software.
That said I haven't used Excel 2007 to do anything since reading about a few of its bugs. Older versions I did use with much success. However I never trusted myself to key in the correct formulae, let alone the software to be bug free. so I cross checked everything to make sure the solution I got was reasonable, and that was just homework. I didn't do any original research. If I did, I'd probably want to use more than one package to verify my results.
Careful not to fall for the hype. There's a lot of Java code that is a horrible out of control mess. I'd include some of the most widely used J2EE web libraries. Spring is out of hand. Hibernate is a mess that makes anything complex a nightmare and adds its own complexity. Struts is all but dead thanks to Spring MVC...everything is a flavour. Every new version breaks compatibility with the old. Every time I hear how wonderful a new version or feature is I think about what it broke and how that feature's about to be abused to make spaghetti code that'd put a BASIC programmer or an obscure code competition winner to shame.
What you have to ask yourself about anything new? - What advantages does it give me? (Can I do something I couldn't before, or can I do something more easily?) - What are the tradeoffs? (What's it going to cost me? Is it worth the learning curve?) - How will a good developer leverage it? - How will a bad developer abuse it? - What does this bozo trying to convince me it's fantastic have to gain if I adopt it?
A nice dose of cynacism is important if you don't want to end up with a mess of projects in a mess of different technology that was going to be the next big thing.
I haven't look at it carefully but from a cursory analysis Groovy looks awful to me.
I wanted to go into physics right through my highschool years. When I got there I was serious enough but wasn't mature enough and didn't do very well. I found the math particularly hard after what math I'd done at highschool. (I opted for the second highest level of highschool math because the highest was taught poorly. I ended up beating out everyone that did the higher level on entrance scores but in the long run it was a mistake as I struggled with first year math). Long story short, I dropped out first year, fell into computing (the only thing I was excelling at at the uni course), went back and got a Bacherlor of Science in Computing (which unfortunately was more an IT degree). Later I went back and did a Masters in Astronomy for fun over the internet with a reputable university. I got sick and ended up going full time for the last year to finish it - it cost me health wise but I'm glad I did it. That said, I'll never do a degree for fun again but I continue to read books and play with scientific concepts that interest me.
I am however only 33 years old, with my first child to be born in a couple of months if all goes to plan, so I can't relate on the parenting front just yet.
I agree that Excel isn't enough, but don't dismiss Excel as a tool.
For doing some of the basic astrophysics in my Astronomy masters it was invaluable. Now I did this masters for my own learning and wasn't intending to use it professionally. To put it in perspective the course I took would make an okay stepping stone to teaching highschool physics/astronomy or first year university Astronomy but it was more an educator's course than a professional Astronomer's course. So much so that we were permitted to skip the Calculus if we wished. I'm certainly not saying a professional astronomer should learn nothing but Excel.
By the way I'm a business programmer by trade. It's just where the opportunities were for me. You could call me a sellout, or you could choose to call me a realist. My dream of going into science just wasn't going to work out for me and I made the best of it.
As much as I hate J2EE (which I do use day to day), I'd say Java's a good first language for a scientist to learn. It's grown up enough, but you don't have to deal with the machine and pointers right away.
Check out this book and accompanying software. (Not affiliated with the author, and think the software has some problems, but it's the best I've seen in about 10 years. I'm part way through the book but I've stalled because my time is tight) http://www.gravityfromthegroundup.org/
I imagine the security checkpoint creates enough of a bottleneck that a bomb detonated right in the middle of it would kill as many people as a bomb on board an airplane.
Yes but those lives are worth nothing (especially if you can claim you were following standard security procedures to prevent terrorism and therefore were not negligent), the terminal is relatively cheap, and the airplane is big bucks.
Actually they're saying they have little faith in the slashdot community (and specifically moderators) to act in the interests of a healthy discussion. I don't think it's unwarranted.
Hussein was a bad man, Hitler was a bad man, the funny thing is though, the same people who lament that our government didn't do anything about Hitler until it involved the US (who killed his own people and invaded other countries) are the same people who think that we shouldn't go after Hussein (who killed his own people and invaded other countries).
I'm not going to feel pity for either asshole. However last time I checked, Hitler offed himself, and the war ended. Whereas Hussein was hung in December 2006 for his war crimes and the war still goes on. This time, when does the war stop exactly? You still have neo-nazis in Germany, but the US hasn't used that as an excuse to prolong WWII till present day.
Slashdot Mirror
I didn't say I expected him to hit the books and learn it himself. I said I expected something that someone is passionate about to educate himself - by learning it himself, by finding a mentor, by taking a class as an adult, etc... Blaming lack of knowledge on the father is a cop out.
The father can forbid all of the above except possibly the self learning (although he could even limit that). Where do you think he's going to find a mentor without parental approval? It really is actually quite a good thing that you have no idea what an overbearing parent is like. (Denying it is pointless. The suggestions you are making show that clearly you don't).
Taking a class as an adult you run into the limitations of having to work and possibly support a family. You also need money. Granted if you're passionate enough you forgo things like having a family but it's a fine line between passionate and dangerously obsessive.
In any case being passionate about something and being skilled at it are two different things. I'd consider myself passionate about music and science. I've done not a lot about the music but I've taken a Masters in Astronomy. However I'd not like to try to make a living at either, and any further study is done in my spare time...
It can hardly be described as a passion if it lacks the strength to motivate you to educate yourself.
Methinks you don't understand the amount of effort it takes to constantly butt heads with an overbearing father. Some people are great at learning left to their own devices but others aren't. If he wasn't given the opportunity to be an environment where he could learn (eg. music class instead of science class) expecting him to pick up the books and learn it himself without knowing the circumstances is a bit unrealistic. Especially true when you're a child use to the spoon feeding you get in school, and thinking this is normal.
CDs and DVDs are virtually invincable, compared to VHS and cassette that they replace. And really, if you take care of it, it is quite robust.
Based on personal experience that's total BS. I have 20 year old VHS tapes that are crap but still playable. I also have 5 year old burnt DVDs that are unreadable despite being stored properly.
I have to admit while they have their place, I hate electrics. Being able to refuel and fly 6 times in a row is much better. Yes it's messier, but I don't have potentially exploding LiPos to charge, and yes they're more fragile but that's because you're often going further, faster, higher. I'd like more resilience in my models but I did mange to go 2 years with just 1 crash. I'm hoping to do well if not quite as well for the rest of my flying hobby days.
I'll bet you've been married what.... like 3 years?
Not even 1 year (though co-habiting several). I'm not saying I know with some sort of mystical certainty that it's going to work out, but I do know that I intend to keep the marriage happy, and that adopting defeatist attitudes from AC bozos ain't going to improve my chances.
No seriously, couples that seem happy when you meet them, have these resentments underneath. They choose not too surface them because who really wants to tear things up when you're 55. Go to a marriage counselor or psychologist and find out what really happens in long-term relationships.
Ah that makes sense. Go see a counselor or psychologist - someone only likely to see a couple if they're having issues - and build your view of what marriage will be like based on that. You'll pardon me if I don't choose to go out and sabotage my marriage at your suggestion. Why does it not surprise me that you're familiar with counselors and psychologists? Take some responsibility for yourself. Denying that there are indeed happy couples who've been together for some time isn't the best way to deal with your own feelings and failures. Trying to ruin other people's relationships by suggesting they adopt your approach is vile and pathetic. I hope you're just trolling otherwise you have serious issues.
The key here is simple enough. If you genuinely care weather or not the other person is happy and not just for your own ends, and if you genuinely try constantly to do things for each other to keep each other happy, resentment won't build up. Especially where there is some sacrifice involved (eg. taking turns with hobbies, what tv or movies to watch, etc.). Often bitter people have married someone they don't give a shit about (beyond wanting to boink them regularly) and wonder why it all went sour.
Dude,
You're just bitter. I know plenty of older married couples well enough to know they're happy and it's not an act.
Well I haven't seen a 4 year old build a heli but I have seen one fly one in jaw dropping style that puts adults to shame:
http://www.justinchi.com/
Download one of the videos.
http://www.justinchi.com/page3.html
Okay so he's one of those child prodigy types complete with the asian stereo type of being pushed by his parents. I've seen him flying on the sim at 3 years old and being told it was a lousy flight when he crashed. I wouldn't do that to my child. Still it proves he's capable (even though I'd question the safety - I'd have him on a buddy lead even if the buddy never took over, but I guess that wouldn't sell the way a kid doing it on his own does). At 12 or 14 if you can have them using a power tool supervised, I'd argue you could have them on a buddy lead flying a plane or heli.
I'm about to become a father in just under 2 months. I plan on having the kid on the sim by age 2 or 3 if I can get him interested. (I won't be putting him down if he crashes).
I flew paper planes as a kid but didn't learn too much and never progressed very far. The skills didn't really transfer - neither for building or flying. At least a hand launched rubber band model or balsa glider requires more learning. If you want to learn control surfaces and physics a good flight sim (not a shoot em up) is a good place to start. Hell make it a remote control flight sim and you'll already have some idea you're doing to control it if you do build a real r/c plane.
I just don't have a workshop to build in or the expertise my father has with wood and metal things.
Best thing you could do is join a club and get some help that way. Other than that you just have to suck it up and try your best. For a work bench, I use a fold out table in the garage. Far from ideal but good enough. I have to pack it away when we want to put my wife's car away *lol*. Fortunately for me she has a crap car, so parking it outside isn't traumatic. (She gets the next decent one, but she doesn't feel like car shopping till after she gives birth). I have to say I have a very understanding wife, but even she complains about how much time I spend with the planes, and really after being out of the house 60 hrs a week for work, I don't get that much time with them (and still spend time with her).
I've put together my 3rd ARF now, and am quite confident now, though I don't enjoy the building side of the hobby. I prefer flying the damn things.
Only on Slashdot could this be modded "Informative". I lol'd
Hey so did I! I was aiming for funny when I wrote it, but you take what you can get...
Other things to note are that:
- Because it's expensive, the time and money are both spread out over time
- As another poster noted, no need to start with R/C. Rubber band power and gliders are a gentler, cheaper entry into the hobby.
Still some parents will spend that $1000 on toys without giving it a thought.
I agree that it can get very expensive very quickly.
I don't agree that a trainer certainly isn't much fun to fly. I had a Worldstar 40 ARF. Large plane, very stable. Been in the hobby for a couple of years and only just recently crashed it for the first time - unfortunately a total loss of the airframe. (Crashed doing inverted spins, almost recovered but stalled coming out and fell right back into a spin). I was definitely pushing the limits with that plane, but basic IMAC was certainly doable, and it was a lot of fun to fly. I've been busy building planes since (I got given the Worldstar second hand by my wife's family who've been into it for years. I had to learn to build after learning to fly).
I loved that Worldstar, even though in some ways I'd outgrown it. I'm in the middle of building another one anyway. The one I had was modified with better control rods so working out how to do that properly has slowed me down a bit since I refuse to put in balsa rods. I've completed 3 other ARF aircraft in the meantime.
Are you interested in adopting a 38 year old?
Isn't there a name for that? Isn't it called "marriage"?
(disclaimer: It's a joke. My wife's actually pretty cool, and no she doesn't read slashdot)
Get them into remote control aircraft when they're old enough. It's not a cheap hobby, a few hundred dollars to get into it, but you get to learn about:
- Combustion engines
- Mixing fuel (some chemistry)
- Radio gear
- Flight dynamics
- Assembling and building, where care is needed to avoid major mistakes that would render the model unflyable
- Woodwork and metal work (and you'll aquire the tools for these if you don't already have them)
- The importance of measurement in the real world
- Importance of safety and developing good practice and procedure to make things safe
If you go with the above, make sure you join a club and practice on a simulator as it does take quite some time for most people to get the hang of controlling a plane and nothing will cause a child to lose interest quicker than a toy that takes a month to build and breaks (crashes) in under a minute. It's definitely harder than r/c cars which don't fall out of the sky if you slow down too much, aren't affected by the wind etc. (In fact petrol engine cars - not the $10 toys - are a simpler alternative with less of a learning curve BUT there isn't as much reward either).
Also when they're old enough, you could get them to build a dobsonian telescope. It's not particularly difficult, and you can choose to do it from components. Again you learn about woodwork and metal work, but also add optics and astronomy to the mix.
The point is that while the above are in a sense toys, in another they are not. You have to be rigid and disciplined because you are creating a real working piece of equipment where tolerances are important. Kids unfortunately grow up in a schooling environment today where they are taught whatever they do will be just fine. Great for the child's confidence, but the trouble is that's not how the real world works.
These hobbies aren't something they can't be left to do unsupervised - you'll actually have to learn yourself and help teach them. You might even end up doing classes together (telescope making), or taking tution together (learning to fly r/c). It does require that the child can follow direction, has some patience and doesn't just lose interest in a week. They also have to be interested in the end product or they won't want to do it.
The other thing that should be obvious to people here if you like the idea of building things together is to teach them to build a computer from scratch. That's actually a practical skill they can use whether or not they wind up in IT.
Neither? So they're precisely equal, down to the fractional cent?
I'd suggest you develop some reading comprehension skills, but you probably wouldn't understand.
Ah the sweet irony of an AC troll lecturing someone on comprehension skills while choosing to take the literal meaning completely out of context...love it!
Prince seems a little desperate for spotlight attention these days.
These days? You mean as opposed to when he changed his name to some damned symbol and then back, or wore hideous purple suites and simulated sex on stage? Saying that Prince is a little desperate these days is like saying that the pope is a little bit catholic these days.
To the aggressor it's far more valuable to shut down an airport full of planes, disrupting all inbound and outbound air travel, than it is to shut down one plane.
Any attempted attack is going to cause temporary disruptions and potentially some loss of life. The key word is temporary.
What had a bigger financial impact: the FAA shutting down all flights for two days after 9/11, or the destruction of four planes?
Neither. The insane changes to security in the years since like finger printing visitors to your country, banning liquids, putting no-fly lists that are neither transparent nor effective, creating an entire agency of underpaid, underqualified "security" personal, has been the most destructive. You can't blame the terrorists for your own government grabbing power, using the cowardice of the citizenry to do so.
I think it is pretty well documented why Excel should not be used as a serious scientific tool - it will corrupt data, it is incorrect, and inconsistent (pdf) - all bad for science. I am surprised accountants are allowed to use it.
It's a tool. Verifying the results and doing cross checks is always sensible. Do you honestly think that any other piece of software is foolproof and incapable of introducing errors? whether you write it yourself or take an off the shelf computational product, there will always be the potential for a bug causing your answers to be nonsense. Being aware of the limitations of the package you are using is important and par for the course if you're a professional scientist. Same goes for accountants which is why they too are "allowed" to use the software.
That said I haven't used Excel 2007 to do anything since reading about a few of its bugs. Older versions I did use with much success. However I never trusted myself to key in the correct formulae, let alone the software to be bug free. so I cross checked everything to make sure the solution I got was reasonable, and that was just homework. I didn't do any original research. If I did, I'd probably want to use more than one package to verify my results.
Careful not to fall for the hype. There's a lot of Java code that is a horrible out of control mess. I'd include some of the most widely used J2EE web libraries. Spring is out of hand. Hibernate is a mess that makes anything complex a nightmare and adds its own complexity. Struts is all but dead thanks to Spring MVC...everything is a flavour. Every new version breaks compatibility with the old. Every time I hear how wonderful a new version or feature is I think about what it broke and how that feature's about to be abused to make spaghetti code that'd put a BASIC programmer or an obscure code competition winner to shame.
What you have to ask yourself about anything new?
- What advantages does it give me? (Can I do something I couldn't before, or can I do something more easily?)
- What are the tradeoffs? (What's it going to cost me? Is it worth the learning curve?)
- How will a good developer leverage it?
- How will a bad developer abuse it?
- What does this bozo trying to convince me it's fantastic have to gain if I adopt it?
A nice dose of cynacism is important if you don't want to end up with a mess of projects in a mess of different technology that was going to be the next big thing.
I haven't look at it carefully but from a cursory analysis Groovy looks awful to me.
I have a similar story so I thought I'd share.
I wanted to go into physics right through my highschool years. When I got there I was serious enough but wasn't mature enough and didn't do very well. I found the math particularly hard after what math I'd done at highschool. (I opted for the second highest level of highschool math because the highest was taught poorly. I ended up beating out everyone that did the higher level on entrance scores but in the long run it was a mistake as I struggled with first year math). Long story short, I dropped out first year, fell into computing (the only thing I was excelling at at the uni course), went back and got a Bacherlor of Science in Computing (which unfortunately was more an IT degree). Later I went back and did a Masters in Astronomy for fun over the internet with a reputable university. I got sick and ended up going full time for the last year to finish it - it cost me health wise but I'm glad I did it. That said, I'll never do a degree for fun again but I continue to read books and play with scientific concepts that interest me.
I am however only 33 years old, with my first child to be born in a couple of months if all goes to plan, so I can't relate on the parenting front just yet.
I agree that Excel isn't enough, but don't dismiss Excel as a tool.
For doing some of the basic astrophysics in my Astronomy masters it was invaluable. Now I did this masters for my own learning and wasn't intending to use it professionally. To put it in perspective the course I took would make an okay stepping stone to teaching highschool physics/astronomy or first year university Astronomy but it was more an educator's course than a professional Astronomer's course. So much so that we were permitted to skip the Calculus if we wished. I'm certainly not saying a professional astronomer should learn nothing but Excel.
By the way I'm a business programmer by trade. It's just where the opportunities were for me. You could call me a sellout, or you could choose to call me a realist. My dream of going into science just wasn't going to work out for me and I made the best of it.
As much as I hate J2EE (which I do use day to day), I'd say Java's a good first language for a scientist to learn. It's grown up enough, but you don't have to deal with the machine and pointers right away.
Check out this book and accompanying software. (Not affiliated with the author, and think the software has some problems, but it's the best I've seen in about 10 years. I'm part way through the book but I've stalled because my time is tight)
http://www.gravityfromthegroundup.org/
I imagine the security checkpoint creates enough of a bottleneck that a bomb detonated right in the middle of it would kill as many people as a bomb on board an airplane.
Yes but those lives are worth nothing (especially if you can claim you were following standard security procedures to prevent terrorism and therefore were not negligent), the terminal is relatively cheap, and the airplane is big bucks.
Actually they're saying they have little faith in the slashdot community (and specifically moderators) to act in the interests of a healthy discussion. I don't think it's unwarranted.
Hussein was a bad man, Hitler was a bad man, the funny thing is though, the same people who lament that our government didn't do anything about Hitler until it involved the US (who killed his own people and invaded other countries) are the same people who think that we shouldn't go after Hussein (who killed his own people and invaded other countries).
I'm not going to feel pity for either asshole. However last time I checked, Hitler offed himself, and the war ended. Whereas Hussein was hung in December 2006 for his war crimes and the war still goes on. This time, when does the war stop exactly? You still have neo-nazis in Germany, but the US hasn't used that as an excuse to prolong WWII till present day.