I'm just going to start this off by saying that no matter what your degree is, you'd better be good at it if you want to get a job. A friend of mine is a CIS minor who is a better programmer than half of the students in our SAN/CS department. Though its true that he shouldn't have any problems getting jobs after his first, it is the first that is the hardest. I imagine that if he were competing for a programming job with a CS major the CS major would win handsdown because of the degree.
Now for my $.02 worth about the MIS majors at my university....
I decided to take one of our lower level CS courses on COBOL to try and kill a few hours. As it just so happened the prof. teaching is the MIS 'liason' in the CS dept. Long story short, I've never ever been in a class were the prof. suggested to the students that the class they were in was too hard and they should take something easier. This was directed specifically at the MIS students. This was a 200 level course, with the prof. suggesting 100 level courses. When the profs. admit there is an intellegence gap...well, I'll let you go from there.
I think you're missing a very important detail. If the shuttle/ship/whatever doesn't need to carry the fuel necessary to get it into orbit then you've just removed a LOT of added weight. Think of how much weight SRBs add, let alone the liquid fuel tank.
I don't know the exact cost/[pound|kilo] to get something into orbit, however reduced weight means less cost and less energy needed per launch. Seems like a win/win situation to me.
If we are to follow your advice and get rid of operating systems, then what do you suggest we put in place of them? Would everyone be happy having a spare bucket of logic gates, wires, and breadboards lying about whenever one wanted a different cook-time for one's ramen noodles?
I'll stick with my good friend Linux for now, but thanks all the same.
Appologies if I 're'-iterate anything already stated as it is late.
Your statements;
Operating systems do not need to:
* provide compilers, web browsers, colossal text editors (MS Word and emacs included)
* inform users of the *really* important reasons they need to upgrade *now*
* do GUI shit
Well, they don't and I doubt they ever will. Whoever puts the software bundle together includes these lovely features we have all come to expect. I'm 99%, and dropping, sure you know this. So why did you put this in the article?
What OS does your fridge run? your car? your microwave oven? your alarm system?
My fridge sure doesn't have an Operating system that fulfils any of your '3 and only 3' tasks.
I don't know that my car's OS has a specific name and it is really of no consequence.
My fridge does one job; keep my caffeine cold.
My car does one 'job'; get me from my house, to my destination.
As for this: If you know that you are running an operating system, you are either an OS hacker, or the OS hackers have failed to protect you from their work.
More people than you know actually can, and do, grasp this concept. They may not know the word for it, but they are aware that they are "running windows". Computers are a part of everyone's daily life now. It would be rediculous to expect the only people to know anything about them are the people like us.
If a machine could effectively fool someone into believing it is a human then the goal has been achieved. If you tip someone off to expect the possibiliy they may be speaking with a machine you've just titled the results in one direction. A person who was not aware of the possibilty may dismiss any error(s) as a common grammatical mistake, which we all make on a daily basis. I've never read the Turing Test, however it would seem to me that you need two groups; one that was tipped off and one that wasn't.
All the same, if the machine can get its point across then it has succesfully communicated.
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I'm just going to start this off by saying that no matter what your degree is, you'd better be good at it if you want to get a job. A friend of mine is a CIS minor who is a better programmer than half of the students in our SAN/CS department. Though its true that he shouldn't have any problems getting jobs after his first, it is the first that is the hardest. I imagine that if he were competing for a programming job with a CS major the CS major would win handsdown because of the degree.
Now for my $.02 worth about the MIS majors at my university....
I decided to take one of our lower level CS courses on COBOL to try and kill a few hours. As it just so happened the prof. teaching is the MIS 'liason' in the CS dept. Long story short, I've never ever been in a class were the prof. suggested to the students that the class they were in was too hard and they should take something easier. This was directed specifically at the MIS students. This was a 200 level course, with the prof. suggesting 100 level courses.
When the profs. admit there is an intellegence gap...well, I'll let you go from there.
Nah, I got the joke and it was funny.
But getting turned into jello at 3112 gees is funnier thought. Would make one hell of a rollercoaster ride.
I think you're missing a very important detail. If the shuttle/ship/whatever doesn't need to carry the fuel necessary to get it into orbit then you've just removed a LOT of added weight. Think of how much weight SRBs add, let alone the liquid fuel tank.
I don't know the exact cost/[pound|kilo] to get something into orbit, however reduced weight means less cost and less energy needed per launch. Seems like a win/win situation to me.
If we are to follow your advice and get rid of operating systems, then what do you suggest we put in place of them? Would everyone be happy having a spare bucket of logic gates, wires, and breadboards lying about whenever one wanted a different cook-time for one's ramen noodles?
I'll stick with my good friend Linux for now, but thanks all the same.
Appologies if I 're'-iterate anything already stated as it is late.
Your statements;
Operating systems do not need to:
* provide compilers, web browsers, colossal text editors (MS Word and emacs included)
* inform users of the *really* important reasons they need to upgrade *now*
* do GUI shit
Well, they don't and I doubt they ever will. Whoever puts the software bundle together includes these lovely features we have all come to expect. I'm 99%, and dropping, sure you know this. So why did you put this in the article?
What OS does your fridge run? your car? your microwave oven? your alarm system?
My fridge sure doesn't have an Operating system that fulfils any of your '3 and only 3' tasks.
I don't know that my car's OS has a specific name and it is really of no consequence.
My fridge does one job; keep my caffeine cold.
My car does one 'job'; get me from my house, to my destination.
As for this:
If you know that you are running an operating system, you are either an OS hacker, or the OS hackers have failed to protect you from their work.
More people than you know actually can, and do, grasp this concept. They may not know the word for it, but they are aware that they are "running windows". Computers are a part of everyone's daily life now. It would be rediculous to expect the only people to know anything about them are the people like us.
If a machine could effectively fool someone into believing it is a human then the goal has been achieved. If you tip someone off to expect the possibiliy they may be speaking with a machine you've just titled the results in one direction. A person who was not aware of the possibilty may dismiss any error(s) as a common grammatical mistake, which we all make on a daily basis. I've never read the Turing Test, however it would seem to me that you need two groups; one that was tipped off and one that wasn't.
All the same, if the machine can get its point across then it has succesfully communicated.