I can attest to how expensive computer science textbooks are (along with just about every other science). It irks me to no end when a teacher makes me (or rather, highly recommends) me to buy a $90 Java book where I could go pick up a $25 Java book from B&N or Half Priced Books that would teach me the same thing. Or, when a teacher (this is especially true in math) recommends to buy the latest edition of a textbook (and Calculus books are not cheap) when the previous edition can be purchased for $10. First and second year calc hasn't changed in 6 years! (End Rant) So thats what I recommend, go to the local big bookstore (B&N, Borders, etc..) and see what regular programming books they have on JavaScript (I dunno, something by O'Reilly might work, I haven't touched a JS book in years). One that is pretty up to date with DOM and newer JS features shouldn't be hard to find. Recommend that one to your students.
Sure, it may not be WebCT compatable (but WebCT sucks anyway), but you're students will thank you for letting them purchase a much cheaper book.
Seriously, exercise, to me at least, is one of the best stress relievers.
I'm an amateur bodybuilder working his way up so I would normally be training in the gym everyday anyway, but its great to go in the gym after a day of dealing with users/customers and slamming some iron around. The weights don't care how you treat them, its great. Plus, when you've got 400lbs on your back, the last thing you're worried about is why Susie Q. can't duplicate an event on her calendar.
Finally, exercising, even a little amount just 3 days a week (think 20 minutes 3 days a week, 1 friggin hour!) will change your life drastically. You'll sleep better, find you naturally eat better, and are much less stress free.
Sorry to sound so preachy, but I used to be a fat computer nerd, and I started training, got hooked, and totally changed my life around. Look into it.
This is done by the same director of the famous documentary, Pumping Iron about a very famous Republican. Pumping Iron was later admitted to being a docu-drama (Arnold admitted this himself).
I definitely don't go out to the movies. I think the last movie I saw in the theaters was The Chronicles of Riddick last June. Not a huge fan of the theaters, way too expensive (even as a student). If a movie costs $6.50, and I can wait and get the DVD for $8.99, I'm more than willing to pay slightly more to see all the deleted scenes and making-of stuff that comes on the DVD.
Just gotta wait and watch for Fry's to have sales and you can get 6 or 7 DVD's for $45 or $50. Plus, there's a ton better older movies than newer ones. Most (not all) new movies have sucked major ass.
On a side note, I love collecting DVD's and CD's for the artwork, so for me, its always a win-win situation to buy a DVD.
I'm a PA (same as an RA) at UTD. Its a great school, but the wireless network has always been pretty shakey. They recently upgraded it to 8021x, and it seems to be more stable, but still is not great. Many students opt to get SBC DSL or Comcast Cable, and since many of the apartments are duals or quads, they set up a small Linksys wireless router so everyone can have access in the apartment. I can tell you that this new policy is pissing off everyone on campus. I've had residents come and complain about it already.
That said, the apartments are *not* owned by the University. They are owned by First Worthing, a private company who owns Waterview Park (the apartments here). However, the University owns the property they are on, so its somewhat of a sticky subject. For example, you can smoke in the apartments, but not have candles or incents. These rules are set by Waterview, not the University. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the future. I dont really see how they have any way of enforcing this rule.
Every month Playboy has something where the review software, games, and other tech stuff. They once reviewed Mozilla (Firefox didn't exist at the time, I don't believe) and gave it rave reviews. I thought that was pretty cool. I even brought the issue to school to show my nerdy friends, heh.
But why should my rights be taken away (to play an M rated game) because of a few morons? Remember, your rights end where mine begin. I shouldn't be held responsible for others actions, and I should be able to play a game (listen to whatever, view whatever) that I want to play. Period.
I read the article and it didn't say much at all about how Google operated. Instead, it just said we don't know how they operate because they keep it secret. But maybe that was the point to begin with.
I also attend UTD, and by far, its got to have the worst wireless I've ever seen, its frustrating as hellp. Its 614AM right now, and the connection to the Internet is slow as hell! I wouldn't mind if there was an ethernet connection to go along with it. UTD spends 20-some-odd-million on a beautiful new school of business, and who knows how many million for a 300,000 brand new, state-of-the-art Engineering and CS school, yet we can't get decent wirelss working...especially since we pay for it.
I don't mind UTD's step to making everything wireless, but for god's sake, give me a 100mbps ethernet connection and I'll be happy. Also, unblock our Bit Torrent ports! Some of us do try to use it for legitimate reasons!!!
I saved the most realistic piece of spam I've ever recieved because it almost (and I'm ashamed to say this) got me:
I'm a web master, and I was just searching Google for xhtml tutorial. I found your domain, openglforums.com ranked 33, which is pretty cool.
My site is all about Computers - Software, too . Maybe we should link up? I wouldn't be stealing any of your sales, because all I do is write informational articles...not selling anything on my site at all. And most of my visitors write back to say that they love the fact that I only write good, quality info. As a matter of fact, I've got a pretty loyal following of people that come back over and over again (they use the site as a reference), so if you link to me, you should get some pretty good traffic from it -- which is always nice.
Anyway, let me know if you'd like to swap links. I've already linked to you, and will keep it up there for a few days until I hear back. Hope to hear from you soon!
Elizabeth Richson RAC IM: 327274.
The thing that keyed me off was the statement about sales, mainly because my site didn't sell anything. Also, it was a site about OpenGL, not XHTML (it was XHTML compliant although, and I did have a button). I also did a Google search and didn't find my site anywhere close to 33.
I work with my father at a small software company, and have since 8th grade (I'm a freshman in college now). We get along excellent, and I'm not aware of any employee that resents our relationship. I think the key is that I am not a typical 19 year old: I don't like partying that much, I could care less about going to clubs, etc. all I like to do is work and train (see sig). Thus, my father and I work really well. The employees there all appreciate my hard work (well, recognize it at least). I'm very close friends with one of them.
Of course, this is not a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. When the company first started, he hired my aunt (his sister-in-law) as the secretary. It worked out alright, but she eventually quit (or was fired, I forget which). So, thats just something to keep in mind.
All in all, I suggest you follow what the law says (about marriage, and who owns what, etc). I'd invest some time and money in a lawyer and CPA. Good luck!
I recently purchased an IBM Thinkpad 600e from ebay for real cheap. I read up online and it seemed to have excellent Linux support. I felt it was finally time, as a CS major, to learn Linux inside and out.
I purchase the laptop, download Fedore Core 1 and whip out my 1000+ page Linux manual. Install goes fine. I know why Linux distro's needs 3-5 cd's now. Why on earth do we need 8 different text editors? Especially when all of them are pretty slow (I didn't bother messing with vi/vim or emacs since I heard they were complicated, Kedit and Gedit were good enough for me).
Now, I *try* to install the operating system with as little things installed as possible. My reasoning: I want to learn Linux, what better way than to download the programs and install them myself. I figured it'd get my comfortable with compiling source, RPM's, etc. So, I *don't* install apache, php, mysql, mozilla (or any browser for that matter), only Gnome, and a few other programs. Why is it, then, when I boot up Fedora for the first time, is there a Mozilla icon on my quickstart menu that doesn't work when I click on it? It's these small, but VERY frustrating things that drive people away from Linux. I chose not to install apache, but httpd was still installed as a service. Was this necessary (someone please tell me, I don't know).
Internet access is still a big thing for me. At my apartment, I only have wireless. I can't get my wireless card to work on Fedora yet. Thus, I have to download everything on my Windows machine and burn them on a CD and then put them on my Fedora laptop. Thus, using all those apt-get and emerge and what not is not an option. I know windows update requires Internet access, but at least my wireless card worked as soon as I plugged it in. No compiling anything.
Anyway, I'm sure its just because I'm such a novice that I don't understand anything, but since I'm one of the target audiences of Linux transformation (knowledgable computer user who desperately wants to learn Linux), its something the greater Linux community should understand.
Bodybuilding is an *incredibly* geeky sport. I am a geek/nerd and amateur bodybuilder. It is incredibly scientific, really fun, and something suited for geeks.
Understand: there is an incredibly commraderie in the gym between fellow bodybuilders. They are very eager to help others train and to give tips. We love it when people come up to us and ask us questions on how to get big. Now, some of us want to get huge like Arnold, Ferrigno, Colombu, etc, and others want to just put on some muscle mass. Still, it requires strict attention to your diet, sleep/rest, and training. It's really fun to track your changes, see your body grow, and not to mention the attention from women!
Take him to a gym (and if your at a university, you most likely have an on campus gym thats included in tuition).
As a 19 year old college student with a ton of ideas all the time, its hard to pursue any of them. I keep a small notepad with me at all times. Anytime I get any inspiration (if its in the middle of a professor giving a lecture), I write it down. Then I can go and review it later.
But I was in your position a few years ago (I was a Freshman in highschool, not a senior). Here's what I did (in 2000):
The local science fair had a web design contest. I had been doing web design for about a year, mainly for my own amusement and knowledge. I also had a close friend who did the same, and since we needed teams of 2, we formed a web design team. We made a web page (one we actually wrote, didn't use Dreamweaver) according to the specs of the contest, and totally blew away the judges. They thought it was the most amazing thing ever. They both gave us their business cards, told us to contact them, we did, and bingo, $12 an hour work for each of us. We were psyched.
Eventually our client fell out from beneath us and never contacted us back, but we got paid for the work we did, so all was good.
Another science fair story: the magnet high school program I attended required everyone to do a science fair project every year. Since I was(am) a decent programmer, I always did stuff in the computer science category. I loved the stuff, and the category was small so I was always almost guranteed to win. I did a project on Artificial Intelligence one year, and OpenGL another and Massive Parallel Rendering a third year. All the judges loved it, and a lot offered me jobs. I already had a well paying job at the time, so I passed on them, but I got my name out there.
Those are my opinions and experiences, take them for what their worth from someone in your shoes a few years ago. Keep in mind, as well, that all of this cost me nothing (in fact, it all made me $$$ as 1st place at the web design contest got me money, and so did 1st place at science fair, not to mention the actual jobs).
Somewhat OT, but it annoys the crap outta me that my university blocks the ports for BitTorrent (at least I think it does). I get, at most, 4kbps now, whereas when I first came here, it was 400-500kbps. It annoys me that BitTorrent ports are severely restricted for legitimate uses.
I spent over 2 hours on the phone this weekend with a friend of mine explaining to her how to remove spyware and viruses on her computer that were put there by using IE. I sent her an email with a link to the Firebird download address. I explained how the browser works and how it'll prevent spyware and viruses from spreading. Now, she'll get the email, not recognize this Firefox thing, and not even download it.
I realize the download page redirects you to the new page, but its just annoying and not good for brand recognition.
A few people have replied saying invest your money, which is a much wiser investment (rather than buying a wireless network).
Invest in a Roth IRA. Investing $7,000 for 45 years at 10% interest (the average return rate, it takes ~7.2 for your money to double). Investing so, and not adding a single penny more, will accumulate to $510,233, a pretty hefty sum.
Don't believe me? Go to this Roth IRA calculator, enter in 7,000 for the current IRA balance, 10% for the interest rate, and years until retirement as 45 years. Don't worry about the tax bracket as that doesn't involve Roth IRA's.
Let your money work for you, not the other way around.
-Vic
Slashdot Mirror
April 2nd, 1995
I can attest to how expensive computer science textbooks are (along with just about every other science). It irks me to no end when a teacher makes me (or rather, highly recommends) me to buy a $90 Java book where I could go pick up a $25 Java book from B&N or Half Priced Books that would teach me the same thing. Or, when a teacher (this is especially true in math) recommends to buy the latest edition of a textbook (and Calculus books are not cheap) when the previous edition can be purchased for $10. First and second year calc hasn't changed in 6 years! (End Rant) So thats what I recommend, go to the local big bookstore (B&N, Borders, etc..) and see what regular programming books they have on JavaScript (I dunno, something by O'Reilly might work, I haven't touched a JS book in years). One that is pretty up to date with DOM and newer JS features shouldn't be hard to find. Recommend that one to your students.
Sure, it may not be WebCT compatable (but WebCT sucks anyway), but you're students will thank you for letting them purchase a much cheaper book.
-Vic
Seriously, exercise, to me at least, is one of the best stress relievers.
I'm an amateur bodybuilder working his way up so I would normally be training in the gym everyday anyway, but its great to go in the gym after a day of dealing with users/customers and slamming some iron around. The weights don't care how you treat them, its great. Plus, when you've got 400lbs on your back, the last thing you're worried about is why Susie Q. can't duplicate an event on her calendar.
Finally, exercising, even a little amount just 3 days a week (think 20 minutes 3 days a week, 1 friggin hour!) will change your life drastically. You'll sleep better, find you naturally eat better, and are much less stress free.
Sorry to sound so preachy, but I used to be a fat computer nerd, and I started training, got hooked, and totally changed my life around. Look into it.
-Vic
Don't know if this is true or not (it looks pretty, so I'm inclined to say yeah, its true), but this map is pretty interesting.
-Vic
This is done by the same director of the famous documentary, Pumping Iron about a very famous Republican. Pumping Iron was later admitted to being a docu-drama (Arnold admitted this himself).
/Voting for Badnarik
-Vic
I definitely don't go out to the movies. I think the last movie I saw in the theaters was The Chronicles of Riddick last June. Not a huge fan of the theaters, way too expensive (even as a student). If a movie costs $6.50, and I can wait and get the DVD for $8.99, I'm more than willing to pay slightly more to see all the deleted scenes and making-of stuff that comes on the DVD.
Just gotta wait and watch for Fry's to have sales and you can get 6 or 7 DVD's for $45 or $50. Plus, there's a ton better older movies than newer ones. Most (not all) new movies have sucked major ass.
On a side note, I love collecting DVD's and CD's for the artwork, so for me, its always a win-win situation to buy a DVD.
-Vic
As a student who goes to UTD, Information Resources did provide a page just for that after the network was upgraded.
-Vic
I'm a PA (same as an RA) at UTD. Its a great school, but the wireless network has always been pretty shakey. They recently upgraded it to 8021x, and it seems to be more stable, but still is not great. Many students opt to get SBC DSL or Comcast Cable, and since many of the apartments are duals or quads, they set up a small Linksys wireless router so everyone can have access in the apartment. I can tell you that this new policy is pissing off everyone on campus. I've had residents come and complain about it already.
That said, the apartments are *not* owned by the University. They are owned by First Worthing, a private company who owns Waterview Park (the apartments here). However, the University owns the property they are on, so its somewhat of a sticky subject. For example, you can smoke in the apartments, but not have candles or incents. These rules are set by Waterview, not the University. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the future. I dont really see how they have any way of enforcing this rule.
-Vic
Why are guys pubic hair curly?
:)
So women won't poke their eyes out!
Vic - vic @ fotoperfect.net
LINUX
'Nuff said.
-Vic
Every month Playboy has something where the review software, games, and other tech stuff. They once reviewed Mozilla (Firefox didn't exist at the time, I don't believe) and gave it rave reviews. I thought that was pretty cool. I even brought the issue to school to show my nerdy friends, heh.
-Vic
But why should my rights be taken away (to play an M rated game) because of a few morons? Remember, your rights end where mine begin. I shouldn't be held responsible for others actions, and I should be able to play a game (listen to whatever, view whatever) that I want to play. Period.
-Vic
I read the article and it didn't say much at all about how Google operated. Instead, it just said we don't know how they operate because they keep it secret. But maybe that was the point to begin with.
-Vic
I also attend UTD, and by far, its got to have the worst wireless I've ever seen, its frustrating as hellp. Its 614AM right now, and the connection to the Internet is slow as hell! I wouldn't mind if there was an ethernet connection to go along with it. UTD spends 20-some-odd-million on a beautiful new school of business, and who knows how many million for a 300,000 brand new, state-of-the-art Engineering and CS school, yet we can't get decent wirelss working...especially since we pay for it.
I don't mind UTD's step to making everything wireless, but for god's sake, give me a 100mbps ethernet connection and I'll be happy. Also, unblock our Bit Torrent ports! Some of us do try to use it for legitimate reasons!!!
Thanks,
-Vic
-Vic
I work with my father at a small software company, and have since 8th grade (I'm a freshman in college now). We get along excellent, and I'm not aware of any employee that resents our relationship. I think the key is that I am not a typical 19 year old: I don't like partying that much, I could care less about going to clubs, etc. all I like to do is work and train (see sig). Thus, my father and I work really well. The employees there all appreciate my hard work (well, recognize it at least). I'm very close friends with one of them.
Of course, this is not a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. When the company first started, he hired my aunt (his sister-in-law) as the secretary. It worked out alright, but she eventually quit (or was fired, I forget which). So, thats just something to keep in mind.
All in all, I suggest you follow what the law says (about marriage, and who owns what, etc). I'd invest some time and money in a lawyer and CPA. Good luck!
-Vic
I recently purchased an IBM Thinkpad 600e from ebay for real cheap. I read up online and it seemed to have excellent Linux support. I felt it was finally time, as a CS major, to learn Linux inside and out.
I purchase the laptop, download Fedore Core 1 and whip out my 1000+ page Linux manual. Install goes fine. I know why Linux distro's needs 3-5 cd's now. Why on earth do we need 8 different text editors? Especially when all of them are pretty slow (I didn't bother messing with vi/vim or emacs since I heard they were complicated, Kedit and Gedit were good enough for me).
Now, I *try* to install the operating system with as little things installed as possible. My reasoning: I want to learn Linux, what better way than to download the programs and install them myself. I figured it'd get my comfortable with compiling source, RPM's, etc. So, I *don't* install apache, php, mysql, mozilla (or any browser for that matter), only Gnome, and a few other programs. Why is it, then, when I boot up Fedora for the first time, is there a Mozilla icon on my quickstart menu that doesn't work when I click on it? It's these small, but VERY frustrating things that drive people away from Linux. I chose not to install apache, but httpd was still installed as a service. Was this necessary (someone please tell me, I don't know).
Internet access is still a big thing for me. At my apartment, I only have wireless. I can't get my wireless card to work on Fedora yet. Thus, I have to download everything on my Windows machine and burn them on a CD and then put them on my Fedora laptop. Thus, using all those apt-get and emerge and what not is not an option. I know windows update requires Internet access, but at least my wireless card worked as soon as I plugged it in. No compiling anything.
Anyway, I'm sure its just because I'm such a novice that I don't understand anything, but since I'm one of the target audiences of Linux transformation (knowledgable computer user who desperately wants to learn Linux), its something the greater Linux community should understand.
-Vic
Bodybuilding is an *incredibly* geeky sport. I am a geek/nerd and amateur bodybuilder. It is incredibly scientific, really fun, and something suited for geeks.
Understand: there is an incredibly commraderie in the gym between fellow bodybuilders. They are very eager to help others train and to give tips. We love it when people come up to us and ask us questions on how to get big. Now, some of us want to get huge like Arnold, Ferrigno, Colombu, etc, and others want to just put on some muscle mass. Still, it requires strict attention to your diet, sleep/rest, and training. It's really fun to track your changes, see your body grow, and not to mention the attention from women!
Take him to a gym (and if your at a university, you most likely have an on campus gym thats included in tuition).
Take it for what its worth.
-Vic
Food Network...Food TV Something like 25,000 recipes. I've tried a few of them, really nice.
-Vic
As a 19 year old college student with a ton of ideas all the time, its hard to pursue any of them. I keep a small notepad with me at all times. Anytime I get any inspiration (if its in the middle of a professor giving a lecture), I write it down. Then I can go and review it later.
But I was in your position a few years ago (I was a Freshman in highschool, not a senior). Here's what I did (in 2000):
The local science fair had a web design contest. I had been doing web design for about a year, mainly for my own amusement and knowledge. I also had a close friend who did the same, and since we needed teams of 2, we formed a web design team. We made a web page (one we actually wrote, didn't use Dreamweaver) according to the specs of the contest, and totally blew away the judges. They thought it was the most amazing thing ever. They both gave us their business cards, told us to contact them, we did, and bingo, $12 an hour work for each of us. We were psyched.
Eventually our client fell out from beneath us and never contacted us back, but we got paid for the work we did, so all was good.
Another science fair story: the magnet high school program I attended required everyone to do a science fair project every year. Since I was(am) a decent programmer, I always did stuff in the computer science category. I loved the stuff, and the category was small so I was always almost guranteed to win. I did a project on Artificial Intelligence one year, and OpenGL another and Massive Parallel Rendering a third year. All the judges loved it, and a lot offered me jobs. I already had a well paying job at the time, so I passed on them, but I got my name out there.
Those are my opinions and experiences, take them for what their worth from someone in your shoes a few years ago. Keep in mind, as well, that all of this cost me nothing (in fact, it all made me $$$ as 1st place at the web design contest got me money, and so did 1st place at science fair, not to mention the actual jobs).
Good luck!
-Vic
Somewhat OT, but it annoys the crap outta me that my university blocks the ports for BitTorrent (at least I think it does). I get, at most, 4kbps now, whereas when I first came here, it was 400-500kbps. It annoys me that BitTorrent ports are severely restricted for legitimate uses.
*sigh*
-Vic
I spent over 2 hours on the phone this weekend with a friend of mine explaining to her how to remove spyware and viruses on her computer that were put there by using IE. I sent her an email with a link to the Firebird download address. I explained how the browser works and how it'll prevent spyware and viruses from spreading. Now, she'll get the email, not recognize this Firefox thing, and not even download it.
I realize the download page redirects you to the new page, but its just annoying and not good for brand recognition.
-Vic
(OT) Reminds me of the time on Seinfeld when George stops having sex and becomes smart. Geeks start having sex and loose programming ability. :)
Thanks for the reply. I'm only 19, so I haven't learned everything about money yet. :)
-Vic
A few people have replied saying invest your money, which is a much wiser investment (rather than buying a wireless network).
Invest in a Roth IRA. Investing $7,000 for 45 years at 10% interest (the average return rate, it takes ~7.2 for your money to double). Investing so, and not adding a single penny more, will accumulate to $510,233, a pretty hefty sum.
Don't believe me? Go to this Roth IRA calculator, enter in 7,000 for the current IRA balance, 10% for the interest rate, and years until retirement as 45 years. Don't worry about the tax bracket as that doesn't involve Roth IRA's.
Let your money work for you, not the other way around.
-Vic