No. P2P traffic can be delayed, but it shouldn't be throttled. If I'm using my paid for connection and you're using your paid for connection, why should you get more bandwidth than I do?
I bet they didn't learn it at a young age and they were probably taught how to code in [C|Java|whatever] rather than how to program. Programming is writing simple, concise instructions. Recipes are programs. The note you leave your house sitter for watering the plants and feeding the cat might be a program. Computer programming is special because you can very quickly see the result and the computer does EXACTLY what you tell it. Logo is a great place to start (and possibly end).
"Some schools still offer shop classes to learn car repair and mechanics, but we don't make that compulsory because not everyone can or should learn that stuff. Basic cooking skills are really important, too, but can you imagine making Home Ec classes compulsory?"
Home ec and shop were both compulsory when I went to school. And rightly so. You may not fix your own car. You may decide that even changing your own oil isn't worth it, but knowing a bit about cars lets you decide whether the mechanic is ripping you off or not. Knowing a little bit of sewing not only lets you make simple repairs like putting buttons back on, it lets you check the seams in that piece of clothing you're going to buy - are they reasonable quality? And quite a few current problems would be greatly alleviated if more people knew how to prepare their own food.
"learning a second language (higher) and being able to play a musical instrument (lower)"
Both of which were mandatory in my elementary and high schools. A second language was mandatory for admission to university too, although they accepted grade 12 math as a language.
Increasingly dependent on the few? This isn't limited to just computers. How many of us here on/. can sew our own clothes from scratch? Have gardens capable of feeding our families year round? Able to repair our own cars? Fix our televisions, built our furniture, make the thread used to sew our clothes, possibly even wire and pipe our own homes? And the time to do it all?
Sew clothes - check, learned at home, mandatory (home ec, along with cooking and a few other things) at school. Grow food - check, learned at home, learned again at school (required elementary and junior high science class). Repair cars - check, learned at home, could have learned at school (optional, part of shop class). Fix televisions - check, learned at home, could have learned at school (optional electronics class). Build furniture - check, learned at home, learned again at school (required shop class). Make thread - check, learned at home, had a go on a school field trip (required science class). Wire a building - check, learned at home, basics covered in school (required shop class). Plumb a building - check, learned at home, basics covered in school (required shop class).
I actually ended up building my bedroom in an unfinished basement my second year of university along with a bathroom - plumbing, wiring, studs, drywall, spackling, painting and laying carpet. Saved a lot on living expenses that year.
Yes, I'm now probably older than the average Slashdotter, and I do come from a small, isolated town where sometimes you HAD to do these things for yourself, but even if you never actually DO any of these things, a basic understanding of how the world works can come in very handy. What's your opinion of GM food? You really need to have a basic understanding of food production to have a reasonable opinion. Is the plumber ripping you off? If you knew how a toilet works you might be able to tell. What's that funny noise my car is making? Does it need to be fixed urgently or can I drive it to work today? A bit of car maintenance ability helps make that decision.
First, you have the mistaken belief that programming is confined to computers. Writing out a recipe for making a cake is programming. Computer programming is just a convenient example that's easy and efficient to teach.
You CAN learn programming skills from chemistry, logic or even anthropology, but it's harder to teach specifically, has less immediate payoff (it takes longer to refine your technique and see the results) and you can usually squeak by in introductions to those subjects without figuring out how to program effectively.
Exactly. A computer used to be a person who could follow instructions. A recipe is a program. Almost any job can benefit from the ability to break a problem down into simple steps and communicate those steps clearly.
If you're going to ride a bike it's a good idea for you to at least know what it's basic parts are, and what it does so you can possibly do small emergency repairs, or at least know when something is broken.
"Not everyone has the aptitude or desire to learn how to program"
Bull. Take any eight year old and sit them down with a copy of Logo. They can all learn to program. And EVERYBODY would benefit from a little basic programming. Not only does it open up a lot of options later in school but it gives everyone a basic understanding of what a computer is, how you use it, and what it's limitations are. Not to mention and introduction to logic and breaking tasks down into simple parts. EVERYONE can make use of those skills.
"Outside of academia, you believe this to be an important skill why?"
Nobody in academia should use Excel. It's far more trouble than it's worth. Maybe in business and finance it's a good tool... no, never mind. Nobody should use Excel.
That's not necessarily a bad thing. I collapse in a heap whenever I'm asked to do any basic Excel functions. Admittedly it's from laughing at the idiot who's using Excel for some completely inappropriate task....
"Computer literacy" doesn't equal "knows how to use ${PIECE_OF_SOFTWARE}" any more than it means "knows how to use Facebook."
What the hell is a torq bit? Do you mean a torx bit? I think the old Mac classics and SEs used those, but I don't think I've ever seen a PC that didn't use Phillips screws.
You're right. If your education system isn't producing students who know know how to operate a computer you've got bigger problems that you need to solve first.
BUT, assuming a functional education system, a little bit of programming is something that should be taught. It used to be.
Teams work a whole lot better if everybody has some familiarity with what's going on and can at least talk to each other intelligently about different aspects of the project.
"You missed the point - programmers are a commodity."
You missed the point. Programmers are a commodity. People with other skills who can also program (or programmers who know something about things other than programming) are rare and valuable.
Bloody OB (yes, I know - the double meaning of that phrase was pointed out to my friend Barry as he said it loudly when he plopped down in a chair in the cafeteria one day about fifteen years ago).
Twin brothers separated at birth and raised in fairly similar circumstances (come on, same country, fairly uniform educational system, national media and culture) may have interests heavily influenced by genetics but that has absolutely nothing to do with how much of the ability to learn something is genetically determined.
Um, I'm pretty sure Felisa Simon-Wolfe named it that herself. She was a postdoc when she did the work and it she named it that as a joke about getting a faculty position (i.e. a real job).
It probably had something to do with their media whoring and science by press conference approach.
If they'd done as you're supposed to and submitted a paper for peer review FIRST, it would have been quietly shredded by the reviewers and they would have been able to either a) do better experiments, b) tone down their claims or c) give up.
Some customers who got grandfathered in theoretically get a 99.48% discount. In reality the "unlimited" plan was never unlimited, AT&T just forgot to put the quotes in their advertising. Yes, it's false advertising. Be outraged about that if you want. Comparing the theoretical maximum on a no longer available "unlimited" plan to the actual cost on a currently available capped plan is silly.
How is it industry wide lockin? Don't want to sell your book exclusively with Apple? Use one of the alternative tools out there to write it and sell it on Amazon.
What's happened is that now there are two eBook publishers, and the new one doesn't think the old one's habit of charging more fore ebooks is fair.
Slashdot Mirror
That's not the same thing as throttling.
No. P2P traffic can be delayed, but it shouldn't be throttled. If I'm using my paid for connection and you're using your paid for connection, why should you get more bandwidth than I do?
I bet they didn't learn it at a young age and they were probably taught how to code in [C|Java|whatever] rather than how to program. Programming is writing simple, concise instructions. Recipes are programs. The note you leave your house sitter for watering the plants and feeding the cat might be a program. Computer programming is special because you can very quickly see the result and the computer does EXACTLY what you tell it. Logo is a great place to start (and possibly end).
"Some schools still offer shop classes to learn car repair and mechanics, but we don't make that compulsory because not everyone can or should learn that stuff. Basic cooking skills are really important, too, but can you imagine making Home Ec classes compulsory?"
Home ec and shop were both compulsory when I went to school. And rightly so. You may not fix your own car. You may decide that even changing your own oil isn't worth it, but knowing a bit about cars lets you decide whether the mechanic is ripping you off or not. Knowing a little bit of sewing not only lets you make simple repairs like putting buttons back on, it lets you check the seams in that piece of clothing you're going to buy - are they reasonable quality? And quite a few current problems would be greatly alleviated if more people knew how to prepare their own food.
"learning a second language (higher) and being able to play a musical instrument (lower)"
Both of which were mandatory in my elementary and high schools. A second language was mandatory for admission to university too, although they accepted grade 12 math as a language.
Sew clothes - check, learned at home, mandatory (home ec, along with cooking and a few other things) at school.
Grow food - check, learned at home, learned again at school (required elementary and junior high science class).
Repair cars - check, learned at home, could have learned at school (optional, part of shop class).
Fix televisions - check, learned at home, could have learned at school (optional electronics class).
Build furniture - check, learned at home, learned again at school (required shop class).
Make thread - check, learned at home, had a go on a school field trip (required science class).
Wire a building - check, learned at home, basics covered in school (required shop class).
Plumb a building - check, learned at home, basics covered in school (required shop class).
I actually ended up building my bedroom in an unfinished basement my second year of university along with a bathroom - plumbing, wiring, studs, drywall, spackling, painting and laying carpet. Saved a lot on living expenses that year.
Yes, I'm now probably older than the average Slashdotter, and I do come from a small, isolated town where sometimes you HAD to do these things for yourself, but even if you never actually DO any of these things, a basic understanding of how the world works can come in very handy. What's your opinion of GM food? You really need to have a basic understanding of food production to have a reasonable opinion. Is the plumber ripping you off? If you knew how a toilet works you might be able to tell. What's that funny noise my car is making? Does it need to be fixed urgently or can I drive it to work today? A bit of car maintenance ability helps make that decision.
First, you have the mistaken belief that programming is confined to computers. Writing out a recipe for making a cake is programming. Computer programming is just a convenient example that's easy and efficient to teach.
You CAN learn programming skills from chemistry, logic or even anthropology, but it's harder to teach specifically, has less immediate payoff (it takes longer to refine your technique and see the results) and you can usually squeak by in introductions to those subjects without figuring out how to program effectively.
Exactly. A computer used to be a person who could follow instructions. A recipe is a program. Almost any job can benefit from the ability to break a problem down into simple steps and communicate those steps clearly.
Logo.
Are you suggesting we shouldn't teach kids to read, do simple arithmetic and identify their MP?
If you're going to ride a bike it's a good idea for you to at least know what it's basic parts are, and what it does so you can possibly do small emergency repairs, or at least know when something is broken.
"Not everyone has the aptitude or desire to learn how to program"
Bull. Take any eight year old and sit them down with a copy of Logo. They can all learn to program. And EVERYBODY would benefit from a little basic programming. Not only does it open up a lot of options later in school but it gives everyone a basic understanding of what a computer is, how you use it, and what it's limitations are. Not to mention and introduction to logic and breaking tasks down into simple parts. EVERYONE can make use of those skills.
"I'm not 100% certain, but the "explorer" part ceases to exist around puberty.... My experience, I might be 100% off."
No it doesn't. It might get discouraged, but it doesn't naturally turn off.
"Outside of academia, you believe this to be an important skill why?"
Nobody in academia should use Excel. It's far more trouble than it's worth. Maybe in business and finance it's a good tool... no, never mind. Nobody should use Excel.
"I am talking the most basic of Excel function"
That's not necessarily a bad thing. I collapse in a heap whenever I'm asked to do any basic Excel functions. Admittedly it's from laughing at the idiot who's using Excel for some completely inappropriate task....
"Computer literacy" doesn't equal "knows how to use ${PIECE_OF_SOFTWARE}" any more than it means "knows how to use Facebook."
What the hell is a torq bit? Do you mean a torx bit? I think the old Mac classics and SEs used those, but I don't think I've ever seen a PC that didn't use Phillips screws.
You're right. If your education system isn't producing students who know know how to operate a computer you've got bigger problems that you need to solve first.
BUT, assuming a functional education system, a little bit of programming is something that should be taught. It used to be.
Teams work a whole lot better if everybody has some familiarity with what's going on and can at least talk to each other intelligently about different aspects of the project.
"You missed the point - programmers are a commodity."
You missed the point. Programmers are a commodity. People with other skills who can also program (or programmers who know something about things other than programming) are rare and valuable.
Bloody OB (yes, I know - the double meaning of that phrase was pointed out to my friend Barry as he said it loudly when he plopped down in a chair in the cafeteria one day about fifteen years ago).
Twin brothers separated at birth and raised in fairly similar circumstances (come on, same country, fairly uniform educational system, national media and culture) may have interests heavily influenced by genetics but that has absolutely nothing to do with how much of the ability to learn something is genetically determined.
Um, I'm pretty sure Felisa Simon-Wolfe named it that herself. She was a postdoc when she did the work and it she named it that as a joke about getting a faculty position (i.e. a real job).
You know public (and most private) grants are awarded via peer review of proposals, right?
It probably had something to do with their media whoring and science by press conference approach.
If they'd done as you're supposed to and submitted a paper for peer review FIRST, it would have been quietly shredded by the reviewers and they would have been able to either a) do better experiments, b) tone down their claims or c) give up.
Some customers who got grandfathered in theoretically get a 99.48% discount. In reality the "unlimited" plan was never unlimited, AT&T just forgot to put the quotes in their advertising. Yes, it's false advertising. Be outraged about that if you want. Comparing the theoretical maximum on a no longer available "unlimited" plan to the actual cost on a currently available capped plan is silly.
How is it industry wide lockin? Don't want to sell your book exclusively with Apple? Use one of the alternative tools out there to write it and sell it on Amazon.
What's happened is that now there are two eBook publishers, and the new one doesn't think the old one's habit of charging more fore ebooks is fair.