What I meant by my rhetorical question was that the prof isn't given the means to publicly contradict his critics on such forums. It's like Anonymous Cowards trolling you and your reply button is disabled anyway.
I agree with you that in North America at least, Universities are a business. Therefore students expect a Quality of Service in exchange for their very high tuition fees. In Europe (for now at least), university education is inexpensive and therefore considered a privilege. Students in Europe are grateful for being granted to opportunity to learn for (almost) free, and as a result the prof-student relationship is very different. Life is easier for the profs, but at the same time, the quality of teaching can suffer as there is no financial incentive for a university to ensure quality. Generally though, university life in Europe is less stressful from both the student's and the prof's perspective!
Problem is, who do you talk to? The reviewers are anonymous (well, they have a nickname, but that's it), whereas the prof's name and reputation is out there for all to ridicule. If the reviewers are anonymous, then the reviews must be kept private as well. If it is inacceptable for student marks to be openly posted on the web, why should it be ok for prof evaluations to be made public?
You hit it on the nail: all the people in this thread saying it is perfectly acceptable for profs to be publicly and anonymously criticized and insulted, should pause for a second and think if they would find it acceptable if the roles were reversed.
Either way, anybody (prof, student, programmer, rock star, football player, really anybody) whose name is publicly exposed and is criticized ANONYMOUSLY for all to see has every right to feel hurt.
Now, famous people know that this comes with the territory. They get paid millions to deal with the bruised ego. That's not the case with profs.
There is a system for rating profs inside the university, not to mention the very efficient gossip system;-). That ought to be enough. Anything else is mere exploitation.
Those prof ratings can be pretty cruel and unfair. Yes, it's true that profs must have a thick skin to do their job, but still imagine being insulted on a public forum, and knowing that all your present and future students have access to that site, and that they can form a prejudice before even getting to know the prof.
How about starting RateTheStudents.com ? Would you like being publicly called a cheat or an incompetent lazy weasel (for good reason or not)? Would you like the profs to consult such a site before they start marking the final exam? I thought not.
Yes, that prof might have overreacted, but there's only that much abuse anyone can take. Who knows what else is going on in his life/job, maybe that was the last straw.
He didn't, that's why we could read what he typed before the attempt at deleting...;-)
Re:Its not redundant
on
How C# Was Made
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Exactly! Alternatively, you could use the Smalltalk idea of making new() a static method. No need for a special syntax for creating an object!
You would then have something like this in Java:
Type myType = Type.new();//invokes Type's static new() method
And of course you should feel free to override the implementation of new(), just like you would do it in any constructor. No more need for messy super()... Oh but static methods in Java can't inherit behavior? Because classes aren't considered as objects? Doh! How very object-oriented... (end of sarcasm)
In any true object-oriented language, you should be able to write almost everything as object.method(argument), and this is not the case with Java unfortunately...
No kidding! I spent a couple of days trying to get it to play nice with my new iBook's wireless card. Apple's customer support didn't know what the prob was either. At some point during my various manipulations I knocked the router over by accident, the front cover came off, and guess what, it started working!!!
I agree with you, but at the same time it seems to me that generics basically help you avoid all this extra work you're describing, all the while maintaining readability with the syntactic sugar.
However, I sometimes wish Java stopped evolving all the time, it is getting so hard to keep track! We were doing fine without generics weren't we?
Of course the change of path won't show up on the resume unless the author of the resume makes it so... But then he/she'd have some 'splainin' to do about the number of years it took to graduate.
I agree with the second part of your post, it's really the potential employer's *perception* of the indecision that looks bad.
Unfortunately, I receive so many "bad" bounces (most of them due to spammers using my email address in the "sender" field) that I've had to filter all bounces out. This means that now I have no idea whether my own emails reached their destination or not...
Spot on! No matter the field, if you're REALLY GOOD at what you're doing, and/or if you're PASSIONATE about it, you'll do just fine. Don't do a degree just because there are job prospects in it.
BTW, a change of path this early would look pretty bad on a resume, as it would mean that you have no idea what you want to do, and therefore you're either not good enough or not passionate enough about it.
On the topic of robotic vacuums: don't know how good they are, but wouldn't it be a better idea to have a remote controlled vacuum? It'd be cheaper (less intelligence needed), more effective (you'll go to the important spots and only once) and fun for us guys.
But what if the race of the dancers is all the info you have (or what if you simply don't have the time and resources to evaluate all the dancers available to you): would you take a random guess or use that piece of info and make a choice based on your own previous experience (or whatever society/your parents/books/TV taught you)?
To take a less artificial example (and the one that open my own eyes), think of the hitch-hikers you would let in your car and those you wouldn't. Your algorithm may be different from mine, but both will use some sort of sweeping generalization.
People make decisions based on generalizations all the time, it is in fact vital. We even use that type of reasoning in automatic machine learning, to use a geeky example.
Generalizations aren't repugnant, it is hatred and condescendence that often derive from them that are.
Oh BTW saying 2 races (or 2 genders) are different is different from saying one is superior to the other (unless people were unidimensional, which they obviously aren't). Think: Apples != Oranges
I have to disagree. Are you capable of catching a living turkey and killing it with a knife? Not me. Yet this is a typical farming activity, and after watching Kill Bill and many other violent movies I should be all blase about it.
Slashdot Mirror
Check out this very recent Slashdot thread. Subversion seems to be a very popular choice, and its availability on many platforms doesn't hurt either.
My GF suggests Browzilla... (I won't dare suggest any name on the Firefox forum, they're getting very touchy about the subject!)
A transcript would be the same thing if it was made public on the web and open to comments by a hord of Anonymous Cowards.
Agreed 110% on all points!
What I meant by my rhetorical question was that the prof isn't given the means to publicly contradict his critics on such forums. It's like Anonymous Cowards trolling you and your reply button is disabled anyway.
I agree with you that in North America at least, Universities are a business. Therefore students expect a Quality of Service in exchange for their very high tuition fees. In Europe (for now at least), university education is inexpensive and therefore considered a privilege. Students in Europe are grateful for being granted to opportunity to learn for (almost) free, and as a result the prof-student relationship is very different. Life is easier for the profs, but at the same time, the quality of teaching can suffer as there is no financial incentive for a university to ensure quality. Generally though, university life in Europe is less stressful from both the student's and the prof's perspective!
Except that the grades are not out there for all the internet to see.
Problem is, who do you talk to? The reviewers are anonymous (well, they have a nickname, but that's it), whereas the prof's name and reputation is out there for all to ridicule. If the reviewers are anonymous, then the reviews must be kept private as well. If it is inacceptable for student marks to be openly posted on the web, why should it be ok for prof evaluations to be made public?
You hit it on the nail: all the people in this thread saying it is perfectly acceptable for profs to be publicly and anonymously criticized and insulted, should pause for a second and think if they would find it acceptable if the roles were reversed.
Either way, anybody (prof, student, programmer, rock star, football player, really anybody) whose name is publicly exposed and is criticized ANONYMOUSLY for all to see has every right to feel hurt.
;-). That ought to be enough. Anything else is mere exploitation.
Now, famous people know that this comes with the territory. They get paid millions to deal with the bruised ego. That's not the case with profs.
There is a system for rating profs inside the university, not to mention the very efficient gossip system
Those prof ratings can be pretty cruel and unfair. Yes, it's true that profs must have a thick skin to do their job, but still imagine being insulted on a public forum, and knowing that all your present and future students have access to that site, and that they can form a prejudice before even getting to know the prof.
How about starting RateTheStudents.com ? Would you like being publicly called a cheat or an incompetent lazy weasel (for good reason or not)? Would you like the profs to consult such a site before they start marking the final exam? I thought not.
Yes, that prof might have overreacted, but there's only that much abuse anyone can take. Who knows what else is going on in his life/job, maybe that was the last straw.
He didn't, that's why we could read what he typed before the attempt at deleting... ;-)
You would then have something like this in Java:
Type myType = Type.new(); //invokes Type's static new() method
And of course you should feel free to override the implementation of new(), just like you would do it in any constructor. No more need for messy super()... Oh but static methods in Java can't inherit behavior? Because classes aren't considered as objects? Doh! How very object-oriented... (end of sarcasm)
In any true object-oriented language, you should be able to write almost everything as object.method(argument), and this is not the case with Java unfortunately...
Also, why not use Dialog boxes instead? They're one-liners alright:
JOptionPane.showInputDialog(...)
Should be good enough for a 1st year Java class, and it looks more impressive than a basic prompt!
No kidding! I spent a couple of days trying to get it to play nice with my new iBook's wireless card. Apple's customer support didn't know what the prob was either. At some point during my various manipulations I knocked the router over by accident, the front cover came off, and guess what, it started working!!!
Don't forget the language Beta that comes from Aarhus, Denmark.
:)
And of course Lego! If that's not pure Object Oriented thinking, then I don't know what is...
I agree with you, but at the same time it seems to me that generics basically help you avoid all this extra work you're describing, all the while maintaining readability with the syntactic sugar.
However, I sometimes wish Java stopped evolving all the time, it is getting so hard to keep track! We were doing fine without generics weren't we?
Well, then according to your logic, we don't need bounces at all...
Of course the change of path won't show up on the resume unless the author of the resume makes it so... But then he/she'd have some 'splainin' to do about the number of years it took to graduate.
I agree with the second part of your post, it's really the potential employer's *perception* of the indecision that looks bad.
Unfortunately, I receive so many "bad" bounces (most of them due to spammers using my email address in the "sender" field) that I've had to filter all bounces out. This means that now I have no idea whether my own emails reached their destination or not...
Spot on! No matter the field, if you're REALLY GOOD at what you're doing, and/or if you're PASSIONATE about it, you'll do just fine. Don't do a degree just because there are job prospects in it.
BTW, a change of path this early would look pretty bad on a resume, as it would mean that you have no idea what you want to do, and therefore you're either not good enough or not passionate enough about it.
On the topic of robotic vacuums: don't know how good they are, but wouldn't it be a better idea to have a remote controlled vacuum? It'd be cheaper (less intelligence needed), more effective (you'll go to the important spots and only once) and fun for us guys.
It's a teaser for a Travelocity campaign I believe.
But what if the race of the dancers is all the info you have (or what if you simply don't have the time and resources to evaluate all the dancers available to you): would you take a random guess or use that piece of info and make a choice based on your own previous experience (or whatever society/your parents/books/TV taught you)?
To take a less artificial example (and the one that open my own eyes), think of the hitch-hikers you would let in your car and those you wouldn't. Your algorithm may be different from mine, but both will use some sort of sweeping generalization.
People make decisions based on generalizations all the time, it is in fact vital. We even use that type of reasoning in automatic machine learning, to use a geeky example.
Generalizations aren't repugnant, it is hatred and condescendence that often derive from them that are.
Oh BTW saying 2 races (or 2 genders) are different is different from saying one is superior to the other (unless people were unidimensional, which they obviously aren't). Think: Apples != Oranges
I have to disagree. Are you capable of catching a living turkey and killing it with a knife? Not me. Yet this is a typical farming activity, and after watching Kill Bill and many other violent movies I should be all blase about it.
Adolf and Adolphe have disappeared as names too.