Some kids really do care about programming, but really good development software costs lots of money. That was definately my barrier into programming: I wanted to learn when I was really young, however I could not afford Metrowerks CodeWarrior nor were my parents willing to buy it for me. When your net worth is less than the cost of a computer program that makes it hard to enter the field.
Now, enter open source software. Guided by the right people and articles, anyone can learn to program. Guidance is the key word here. Most kids aren't going to go off and buy textbooks just to learn how to Do Cool Stuff.
A lot of programming is a mystery and there needs to be better education earlier in schools about what programming is. Programming is just like Math or Chemistry these days- it is required for many B.S. majors and can turn out to be hell if someone did not know what they were doing. In order to prepare kids for college, programming in a language like JavaScript would be a good starting tool. There is no barrier to learning JavaScript- the compiler exists in (almost) every web browser, which students should have access to.
Some of the problem is that few people how to teach at the High School level very well. VB is not a good language to learn on, and it causes awful headaches for students who later decide to learn Java and C. VB, though, seems to be what is taught, even though most students do not have access to a VB compiler at home. Learning in school is not enough- it is homework that is also important. I advocate teaching kdis HTML and JavaScript so they can make a cool web site with image rollovers, calculators, and other various algorithms.
Not only does this introduce the concept of programming, but it also gives students a great tool for publishing resumés and marketing themselves as an intelligent young people who have something going for them.
A nice web page can do a lot, even if it is just a little.
I have to confess, I used to think like that too. However, after I mentioned the words "Girls Gone Wild" to a small group of females, and getting a lividly silent response, I decided to re-evaluate my tune. (I do not own girls gone wild- that is too much $$ for soft-core porno;)
Fortunately, time passes and people forget these things- except me. It was a lesson well learned to treat women not as objects but as intelligent people.
It would have been helpful if the ars reviewer had included a number of known speakers as a base-line for their testing. Few people have these speaker systems yet, and providing a high-end and a low-end comparison to actual speakers that people own would be more useful.
I'm partial to logitech models, especially the Z-680, but I'm sure ars could have found something to give us a better indicator of sound quality. Having no baseline to compare your systems to is not a very good benchmarking schema.
The design is NOT bad, although I do not think it has reached Apple Cinema HD display caliber, as the poster claims. The summary was a bit misleading- I looked at the prices for that LCD and it was pretty easy to figure out that pixel performance was not great without reading the review.
I'm surprised that people don't see an obvious reason for Apple choosing Intel over AMD:
Intel has great brand recognition among most consumers. All those "Intel Inside" ads were not just played to give TV networks money. Apple wants to be associated with a top brand, since they want to be the top brand. AMD does not have nearly the brand recognition that Intel has. I have seen few, if any, AMD ads on TV.
The fact is many consumers and businesses trust the Intel brand. Intel does not really sell directly to the consumer (although you can buy a chip from them), rather, they cater to manufacturers who put a big sticker saying "I run on Intel and Windows" right on the PC.
Apple is the #1 brand name in the world and they want to be associated with the "#1" chip-maker in the world.
There really is a problem with, as one professor of mine said, "Not knowing your shit." Are these "techs" even college graduates as in 4-year instutution or as in 2-year technical school? People pay me good money to fix their computers because they know it will be done right the first time. When I worked at CompUSA many of the "techs" were not A+ or Apple certified. I was Apple certified, and I was not allowed to work on computers any reason (maybe because management is too busy smoking?) even though my coworkers came and asked for help on Apple-Related hardware.
I think to call these people "geeks" is an insult to the geek/nerd establishment. Just because you grow your sideburns out and drive a VW Bug doesn't make you that much more technologically literate.
I was installing Boot Camp on my MacBook. And it was, like, "beep beep beep beep beep".
But I did't really care, cause I was looking at pictures of ponies. omg ponies are like so cute I can't stand it. It was like after I got off my cute high that, like, I noticed something was weird.
I had a computer science professor who recently got his PhD from Georgia Tech. He worked with intelligent robots- that is, robots that can learn. He is from Bulgaria, not too far from the Czech Republic. You might find interest in fuzzy logic and advanced HCI design, that stuff is really big in Japan. He very much loved his research field and is currently teaching graduate-level classes about the same topics. It's a cool new area, maybe that might interest you.
I had a horrible experience dealing with Apple and a Cinema HD display I bought. There were 4 dead pixels and a bunch of scuff marks on the screen. Needless to say the scuff marks were all my fault, but 4 dead pixels and you need 5 to replace the display?!
Well, I opened up my handy-dandy toolbox, got a set of torx screw drivers, and opened up the display. I found the ROM located on the back of the display and I erased it with a very strong magnet. You know what Apple support said, not knowing what I had done? "We'll ship a replacement out to you overnight, just send back the old one in the box we shipped to you. Postage is covered on us." Of course I had put the display back together minus a few screws (Where do all those screws come from anyway?) and cleaned it up with a damp cloth.
Ok, so the 2nd display has been working for several months with no hickups, then suddenly it breaks AGAIN. You know what Apple told me? You really wanna know?
Apple: "We'll ship a replacement out to you overnight, just send back the old one in the box we shipped to you. Postage is covered on us."
To top it off, I had G5 that had bad firewire ports (because I somehow inserted the FireWire cable in the WRONG WAY, my fault again). I also forgot to unplug the power when replacing a PCI card, rendering an expensive graphics card totallly useless. You know what Apple did, those stinking bastards?
Apple: "Take your Mac to a service center, here's a list of 100000 places you could go, we'll repair at no charge."
Less than 5 days later my G5 had a new logic board, graphics card (which I promptly sold on eBay, packaged in original Apple packaging). I had just bought a better graphics card, so I had no use for both.
Oh and then there's the time I bought a laptop from Apple and they billed me incorrectly. I was using a gift card to pay for my order but I forgot to make it my primary method of payment. That cost me $1100. You know what Apple did? The f*ckers actually credited my credit card with $1100.
</endsarcasm>
If comes down to this: if you want your computer fixed, play nice with the support agents instead of having a hissy-fit and they will practically give you anything. If you called annoyed, T'd off, or other some such negative behavior you're not going to get your stuff fixed! It pays to be nice to others, something many slashdotters seem to lack. The people on the other end of that support telephone line have families, they're just trying to make a buck like everyone else, don't make the support agent mad at you for being an A-hole.
It's time to end the "Negative Nancy" attitude some people have about computer support in general and turn that frown upside down.
I'm a.Net Developer who just joined a new company where I am in charge of updating and upgrading an existing environmental tracking program. However, all the charting options (over 300) were written with Steema's Tee Chart ActiveX control. Now, I could use their.Net version that they have released to fix an ypotential problems, but I have a demo scheduled for April 15th which I can already forsee is going to be a potential disaster.
Rule #5 on slashdot:
Never say you are a.Net or Java developer
I've seen some ugly fights between developers of different languages about this.
Best to declare you are like Switzerland- neutral, not worth conquering, and having nice places to ski.
It's funny. We take these things for granted, but I remember the days when they didn't exist AT ALL. It was a wonderful era. Also worthy of notice is that all of them (except popups) were possible thanks to Microsoft Windows(TM).
Eh hem, it's
Microsoft® Windows®
You don't want Steve Ballmer to throw a chair at you, do you?:)
Woz was always the real talent and soul behind the band. Jobs just had the business smarts to get the deal, and better hair, so he got to be the front man.
An aside: Ringo Starr is NOT talented, he lacked the vision John Lennon and Paul McCartney had... why people give him any credit whatsoever for the Beatles' success is beyond me.
Slashdot Mirror
Now, enter open source software. Guided by the right people and articles, anyone can learn to program. Guidance is the key word here. Most kids aren't going to go off and buy textbooks just to learn how to Do Cool Stuff.
A lot of programming is a mystery and there needs to be better education earlier in schools about what programming is. Programming is just like Math or Chemistry these days- it is required for many B.S. majors and can turn out to be hell if someone did not know what they were doing. In order to prepare kids for college, programming in a language like JavaScript would be a good starting tool. There is no barrier to learning JavaScript- the compiler exists in (almost) every web browser, which students should have access to.
Some of the problem is that few people how to teach at the High School level very well. VB is not a good language to learn on, and it causes awful headaches for students who later decide to learn Java and C. VB, though, seems to be what is taught, even though most students do not have access to a VB compiler at home. Learning in school is not enough- it is homework that is also important. I advocate teaching kdis HTML and JavaScript so they can make a cool web site with image rollovers, calculators, and other various algorithms.
Not only does this introduce the concept of programming, but it also gives students a great tool for publishing resumés and marketing themselves as an intelligent young people who have something going for them.
A nice web page can do a lot, even if it is just a little.
Fortunately, time passes and people forget these things- except me. It was a lesson well learned to treat women not as objects but as intelligent people.
I'm partial to logitech models, especially the Z-680, but I'm sure ars could have found something to give us a better indicator of sound quality. Having no baseline to compare your systems to is not a very good benchmarking schema.
The design is NOT bad, although I do not think it has reached Apple Cinema HD display caliber, as the poster claims. The summary was a bit misleading- I looked at the prices for that LCD and it was pretty easy to figure out that pixel performance was not great without reading the review.
"Best be the idiot that has learnt, than the genius who won't."
Ah, ignorance is bliss!
Intel has great brand recognition among most consumers. All those "Intel Inside" ads were not just played to give TV networks money. Apple wants to be associated with a top brand, since they want to be the top brand. AMD does not have nearly the brand recognition that Intel has. I have seen few, if any, AMD ads on TV.
The fact is many consumers and businesses trust the Intel brand. Intel does not really sell directly to the consumer (although you can buy a chip from them), rather, they cater to manufacturers who put a big sticker saying "I run on Intel and Windows" right on the PC.
Apple is the #1 brand name in the world and they want to be associated with the "#1" chip-maker in the world.
I prefer to call it "Paris Hilton's Law" ;-)
If someone is able to obtain a press pass to an event by company A, company A considers them a journalist.
Further, if a blogger can get a press pass at MacWorld or WWDC, more power to them- they are journalists.
Otherwise, they are not, and they don't have a company behind them to protect them from lawsuits.
$0.02
Just like everywhere at Microsoft, we get all-you-can-drink beverages.
Does that include beer?
Gotta have that buzz when you're developing!
That is exactly why you get an Engineering degree with an MBA. Makes a whole world of difference.
Make a Statement when you delete the root directory:
# rm -Rf /
I think to call these people "geeks" is an insult to the geek/nerd establishment. Just because you grow your sideburns out and drive a VW Bug doesn't make you that much more technologically literate.
But I did't really care, cause I was looking at pictures of ponies. omg ponies are like so cute I can't stand it. It was like after I got off my cute high that, like, I noticed something was weird.
It could also be used to annoy the hell out of your coworkers.
Expert?! You're barely multi-celled!
How about like a bacteria-
Error: Nucleus was not readable on drive A: Abort? Retry? Ignore?
My $0.02
"Our Sun is not the Sun that we thought it was."
Your children are never who you think they are until you've seen them out in the wild (or in Cabo).
I could not have said it better myself. Off with their heads!
I need to get out more.
I refuse to be a Karma whore and post on April 1.
Well, I opened up my handy-dandy toolbox, got a set of torx screw drivers, and opened up the display. I found the ROM located on the back of the display and I erased it with a very strong magnet. You know what Apple support said, not knowing what I had done? "We'll ship a replacement out to you overnight, just send back the old one in the box we shipped to you. Postage is covered on us." Of course I had put the display back together minus a few screws (Where do all those screws come from anyway?) and cleaned it up with a damp cloth.
Ok, so the 2nd display has been working for several months with no hickups, then suddenly it breaks AGAIN. You know what Apple told me? You really wanna know?
Apple: "We'll ship a replacement out to you overnight, just send back the old one in the box we shipped to you. Postage is covered on us."
To top it off, I had G5 that had bad firewire ports (because I somehow inserted the FireWire cable in the WRONG WAY, my fault again). I also forgot to unplug the power when replacing a PCI card, rendering an expensive graphics card totallly useless. You know what Apple did, those stinking bastards?
Apple: "Take your Mac to a service center, here's a list of 100000 places you could go, we'll repair at no charge."
Less than 5 days later my G5 had a new logic board, graphics card (which I promptly sold on eBay, packaged in original Apple packaging). I had just bought a better graphics card, so I had no use for both.
Oh and then there's the time I bought a laptop from Apple and they billed me incorrectly. I was using a gift card to pay for my order but I forgot to make it my primary method of payment. That cost me $1100. You know what Apple did? The f*ckers actually credited my credit card with $1100. </endsarcasm>
If comes down to this: if you want your computer fixed, play nice with the support agents instead of having a hissy-fit and they will practically give you anything. If you called annoyed, T'd off, or other some such negative behavior you're not going to get your stuff fixed! It pays to be nice to others, something many slashdotters seem to lack. The people on the other end of that support telephone line have families, they're just trying to make a buck like everyone else, don't make the support agent mad at you for being an A-hole.
It's time to end the "Negative Nancy" attitude some people have about computer support in general and turn that frown upside down.
Rule #5 on slashdot: .Net or Java developer
Never say you are a
I've seen some ugly fights between developers of different languages about this.
Best to declare you are like Switzerland- neutral, not worth conquering, and having nice places to ski.
Maybe the Slashdot icon for MS (Bill Gates as a Borg) should be changed to Steven Ballmer (as himself) throwing a chair.
Eh hem, it's
Microsoft® Windows®
You don't want Steve Ballmer to throw a chair at you, do you? :)
See MS Trademarks
An aside: Ringo Starr is NOT talented, he lacked the vision John Lennon and Paul McCartney had... why people give him any credit whatsoever for the Beatles' success is beyond me.