If you think you're going to work all that into an introductory programming course, you're nuts. First teach them to use a programmable calculator. Then introduce them to the (Ugh!) BASIC computer language. That's probably about all the time you'll have, but if at all possible try to teach them the C language. That should serve as a good foundation to branch off into the other areas you mentioned for the more advanced courses.
If on the other hand, your job is to teach them to use computers instead of programming computers, by all means concentrate on applications - both native and web apps.
Now I'm happy that I canceled both my Paypal and Ebay accounts a few weeks ago. According to Paypal I had hit the lifetime maximum spending limit of $10,000 without having given them carte blanche access to my checking account. They demanded that if I wanted to continue using Paypal I would have to provide them with my checking account number. In response I canceled both Paypal and Ebay and have never regretted it.
> "What can I do to get these unrepentant spammers off my back? Does anyone have any ideas?"
Sure, just use a Spamex.com email address instead of your "real" email address. The beauty of Spamex is that you get a virtually unlimited number of email addresses that you can create as needed, and that you can also disable or delete with the click of your mouse; which is what I usually do whenever any Spam is sent to one of my Spamex email address. This won't do any good for the Spammers who already have your "real" email address, but it will halt the problem in it's tracks in the future if you use a disposable Spamex email address for everything. I believe there are other similar services as Spamex, but I haven't tried them because I'm perfectly happy with Spamex but maybe others could recommend alternatives to Spamex.
One other interesting thing I've found is that Spamex email addresses very rarely get Spammed. I think that's probably because Spamex email addresses are deleted from Spammers databases because they know that the Spamex email address will probably be disabled after the first Spam email is received, so they simply don't bother.
Alcoholic beverages are not allowed on JPL premises. I suppose it's always possible for someone in management to smuggle in a bottle of champagne for a special occasion like this, but I guarantee you those people are very busy either doing their jobs or holding their breaths that all the subsystems check out Ok.
Twenty or thirty years ago policies were much more relaxed and it was permissible to bring booze to on-lab Christmas and New Year parties, etc., but those days are long gone. The last I heard, you couldn't even bring a cake-knife on-lab to cut birthday cakes with.
Very well put. I think the problem is that Fleischmann and Pons gave the entire field a bad name by seeking publicity (if true?) before having confirmed their hypothesized cold-fusion as being reproducible by others. If it weren't for that single incident, the public would probably accept ongoing work on cold fusion as eagerly as they accept work on wind-farms, solar power, pebble-bed nuclear reactors, mining tar-sands, and drilling in the artic.
Actually, Phoenix is itself a resurrection of the failed Mars Polar Lander that I worked on a decade ago before my retirement from JPL (I wrote the firmware for the meteorology sub-system). I wish Phoenix well.
Hmm. HTML lists appear not to print bullets in the new Slashdot stylesheet...
Yes, lots of things about the "new and improved" SlashDot sucks, not the least of which is all the wasted whitespace on the left side of the page. About half of the remaining displayable space is taken up by huge buttons and other formatting crap that diminish and detract from the amount of users comments I'm able to see on the screen at any one time. Well guess what? I come here (used to anyway) to read the users comments, NOT to be impressed with all the fancy formatting. That's why SlashDot is on the skids and reddit is on the rise.
Very concise summary of the crux of the problem, I wish I could vote you up beyond "5" but apparently the maximum number of karma points a user can receive isn't inflating nearly as fast as the mod points alloted to moderators (it used to be five max, then it was ten mod points for awhile, and now I notice it's up to fifteen available mod points even though I seldom visit slashdot anymore and usually hang-out at reddit.
Didn't there used to be a time when there was a requirement that the inventor had to produce a working prototype before being able to apply for a patent? It seems to me that would put a rapid halt to all these "blue sky" patent applications.
PROM's, EPROM's, EEPROM's, FLASH, etc., have been around for a very long time. Is this "memresistor" different/better because it's denser and cheaper to manufacturer? Unless I missed it, the article never cites any advantage over existing non-volatile memory technologies.
You don't need any special web client, browser plug-in, or anything else to use PGP. Although I do sometimes use a GnuPgp extension to Thunderbird, I mostly just use the older versions of PGP that let you encrypt/decrypt, sign/verify, etc., either the contents of the clipboard or a text file. I then simply copy/paste the encrypted/signed message text file into the email I'm sending. The encryption/decryption can be totally separate from the email client.
... the traffic is easily detected and provides proof of intention to conceal, which depending on the context may pose a significant difficulty. All the more reason why EVERYONE should use PGP or some variant thereof ALL THE TIME for ALL email, even if you're only encrypting your favorite cookie receipt.
There's only one problem with the story: the kid's sums are in fact wrong, NASA's are right, and the ESA swear blind they never said any different. An ESA spokesman in Germany told the Reg this morning: "A small boy did do these calculations, but he made a mistake... NASA's figures are correct."
It would appear that the intial article in the Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten, which says that NASA and the ESA endorsed Nico Marquardt's calculations, was incorrect. The story was picked up by German tabloids and the AFP news wire, and is now all over the internet.
Prepare yourself for work in a field that interests you. Computer programming is no longer an end in itself (if it ever was), but is a skill that you can use in many different ways. First decide what you want to do with your CS degree. There is a HUGE difference between working at a bank writing COBOL and between working in R&D on some really neat project like spacecraft design, AI, or I suppose even genetics, biology, etc. Your CS skills will be applicable to all these areas so first think about what you want to do with your CS degree.
Slashdot Mirror
If you think you're going to work all that into an introductory programming course, you're nuts. First teach them to use a programmable calculator. Then introduce them to the (Ugh!) BASIC computer language. That's probably about all the time you'll have, but if at all possible try to teach them the C language. That should serve as a good foundation to branch off into the other areas you mentioned for the more advanced courses.
If on the other hand, your job is to teach them to use computers instead of programming computers, by all means concentrate on applications - both native and web apps.
Prostitutes always forgo morality in favor of money, and there's not much money in free open-source software.
Somehow I doubt it refers to the FTP command "lcd" for "local change directory."
Now I'm happy that I canceled both my Paypal and Ebay accounts a few weeks ago. According to Paypal I had hit the lifetime maximum spending limit of $10,000 without having given them carte blanche access to my checking account. They demanded that if I wanted to continue using Paypal I would have to provide them with my checking account number. In response I canceled both Paypal and Ebay and have never regretted it.
Egads, there are thousands of computer viruses. If any of them manage to jump the species barrier from computer to human we are all DOOMED!
> "What can I do to get these unrepentant spammers off my back? Does anyone have any ideas?"
Sure, just use a Spamex.com email address instead of your "real" email address. The beauty of Spamex is that you get a virtually unlimited number of email addresses that you can create as needed, and that you can also disable or delete with the click of your mouse; which is what I usually do whenever any Spam is sent to one of my Spamex email address. This won't do any good for the Spammers who already have your "real" email address, but it will halt the problem in it's tracks in the future if you use a disposable Spamex email address for everything. I believe there are other similar services as Spamex, but I haven't tried them because I'm perfectly happy with Spamex but maybe others could recommend alternatives to Spamex.
One other interesting thing I've found is that Spamex email addresses very rarely get Spammed. I think that's probably because Spamex email addresses are deleted from Spammers databases because they know that the Spamex email address will probably be disabled after the first Spam email is received, so they simply don't bother.
Alcoholic beverages are not allowed on JPL premises. I suppose it's always possible for someone in management to smuggle in a bottle of champagne for a special occasion like this, but I guarantee you those people are very busy either doing their jobs or holding their breaths that all the subsystems check out Ok.
Twenty or thirty years ago policies were much more relaxed and it was permissible to bring booze to on-lab Christmas and New Year parties, etc., but those days are long gone. The last I heard, you couldn't even bring a cake-knife on-lab to cut birthday cakes with.
Very well put. I think the problem is that Fleischmann and Pons gave the entire field a bad name by seeking publicity (if true?) before having confirmed their hypothesized cold-fusion as being reproducible by others. If it weren't for that single incident, the public would probably accept ongoing work on cold fusion as eagerly as they accept work on wind-farms, solar power, pebble-bed nuclear reactors, mining tar-sands, and drilling in the artic.
Actually, Phoenix is itself a resurrection of the failed Mars Polar Lander that I worked on a decade ago before my retirement from JPL (I wrote the firmware for the meteorology sub-system). I wish Phoenix well.
Yes, but that was before the computer industry switched from mechanical relays to vacuum tubes. ;-)
Don't you mean "Or, for a hydrogen filled Zeppelin, they are offering the discounted, insurance free rate of $50 per person, half way."?
Very concise summary of the crux of the problem, I wish I could vote you up beyond "5" but apparently the maximum number of karma points a user can receive isn't inflating nearly as fast as the mod points alloted to moderators (it used to be five max, then it was ten mod points for awhile, and now I notice it's up to fifteen available mod points even though I seldom visit slashdot anymore and usually hang-out at reddit.
Didn't there used to be a time when there was a requirement that the inventor had to produce a working prototype before being able to apply for a patent? It seems to me that would put a rapid halt to all these "blue sky" patent applications.
And they undoubtedly take incredibly detailed photos of the people and things "of interest" to the "authorities" as well.
Well gee, do you suppose maybe the Iranians are simply building the enrichment facility to fuel a power plant as they've been saying all along? Duh.
PROM's, EPROM's, EEPROM's, FLASH, etc., have been around for a very long time. Is this "memresistor" different/better because it's denser and cheaper to manufacturer? Unless I missed it, the article never cites any advantage over existing non-volatile memory technologies.
May I ask which vendor did a really poor job with support?
You don't need any special web client, browser plug-in, or anything else to use PGP. Although I do sometimes use a GnuPgp extension to Thunderbird, I mostly just use the older versions of PGP that let you encrypt/decrypt, sign/verify, etc., either the contents of the clipboard or a text file. I then simply copy/paste the encrypted/signed message text file into the email I'm sending. The encryption/decryption can be totally separate from the email client.
Would the ability to write/speak Spanish be necessary?
Prepare yourself for work in a field that interests you. Computer programming is no longer an end in itself (if it ever was), but is a skill that you can use in many different ways. First decide what you want to do with your CS degree. There is a HUGE difference between working at a bank writing COBOL and between working in R&D on some really neat project like spacecraft design, AI, or I suppose even genetics, biology, etc. Your CS skills will be applicable to all these areas so first think about what you want to do with your CS degree.