MOD PARENT UP! That is the main point. H-1b vissa holders aren't considered immigrants. If they were, they wouldn't be "stealing" our jobs because they would never accept 95% of prevailing wages or the other dirty tricks that companies play to get around the law in the first place.
immigrant programmers in the U.S. are simply human beings trying to better themselves in what's supposed to be a free society
And that's their first mistake. The United States is not currently a free society and hasn't been since the Civil War. H-1b visas (which are for employees and wage slaves, that's why they are called NON-immigrant visas) are a symptom of this: Much as he'd like to be, the author and Linus are NOT immigrants- they are guest workers, here to be used and abused by the corporations and thrown away when their 6 years are up.
In other words, the "people trying to better themselves" aren't the problem- the sytem that treats guest workers and other employees more like slaves than free people is the problem. That's why I dislike H-1b VISAS- H-1b visa holders are usually much more likeable.
Obvioiusly you know nothing about Turbo C under DOS as a programming environment, nor how constants are stored in memory under that combination. So go back to your little WIMPE Linux or Windows or MacOS environment.
Your judgement when deciding who to work for or when to walk away must be truly horrible. Do you stick around after the first check bounces?
After the first check bounces, they have a tendency to lock the doors.
If so, I have no sympathy for you, if not you must have worked for 26 companies who coudln't pay you your last check (assuming 1 check every two weeks is the norm) I call bullshit on that.
Since when is 1 check every 2 weeks the norm? Hell, since when is there a "norm" with any pay period at all? It's completely arbitrary and set by the employer. I've had everything from one check a week to one check every 4 months.
Uhhh, if the state couldn't pay their bills, you not getting your last paycheck would be the LEAST of your problems.
My point is that all the libertarians and conservatives claim that they want the State to work just like "Private Industry". Near as I can tell, private industry downright sucks when it comes to fullfilling obligations, which is why I'm interviewing with a state agency today and abandoning private industry.
Ashcroft has to go through the Court system to get rid of somebody. A private or public UNIVERSITY has only to decide to deny tenure and break the contract, just like any other business. And since the recent Sun decisions on worker's rights, Bernstein can file petitions and tie things up in lawsuits until he is dead and never see one red cent again from the University.
It's a FAR different world today when it comes to workers rights than it was just a couple of years back. If private industry can fire a union activist every 23 minutes for a year, with EVERY one of those cases going to court and eventually being decided in favor of the employer, what makes you thing even djb has a whelk's chance in a supernova of protecting himself from unemployment?
Wrong. This is an astounding success. He's taken a bunch of university students, thrown them at the most secure operating system known, given them this task, and came up with 44 security holes.
RTFA- they didn't find holes in the operating system, they found holes in the support software shipped with the operating system. There's a very big difference in that. In addition- Unix is not the most secure operating system known, and never has been. Most likely your digital watch has a more secure opertaing system than Unix, as well as most standalone embedded devices.
With an average of 1.76 security holes per student in 3 months time (assuming that this assignment was given at the beginning of the semesters - it probably wasn't), that's far more than the vast majority of UNIX programmers find in their entire lives, outside their own programming. How many security experts have accomplished the same feat in the past 3 months? I think that Dr. Bernstein was asking the impossible and got a miracle nonetheless.
The assignment was to find 10 NEW security holes. It was in the very first sylabus given. It was made clear that if 4 students found the same security hole, they'd only get 1/4 point each for that security hole. There's a darn good chance that nobody passed the assignment, and that everybody failed the class, just from simple mathematics. Yes- it may well be a miraculous output- but that doesn't change the fact that nobody succeeded at the assignment.
You realize that you're saying he should not fail them because it's unfair, but that he should give lower grades to students that he arbitrarily doesn't like?
NOT arbitrarily- there should be a method to the madness. The method I suggested is the same one that is in place in the real world- those who band together and work the system within the system do better than those who merely complain. Those who stay silent often get what is not deserved.
When that dislike is borne merely of how someone reacts to realizing their professor will fail an otherwise A student for her mis-calculated and impossible examination?
That's life. That's the real world. If your education does not prepare you for the real world- then it is worthless.
I guess being a dick is ok as long as they're your kind of dick. That's not to say I don't see that you have a reason for believing it's a wise course of action, whereby you're encouraging people to "work the chain of command," but an ego-trip is an ego-trip, and coercing people in such a manner is exactly that.
So? These students are going to have to deal with tons of ego trips when they get out of school- the real world is not fair and never will be.
I seriously doubt Dr. Bernstein is going to fail all these students.
I do too- universities have tough standards for continued tenure these days.
He should give them the grades he thinks they deserve with one letter grade lower for whiners.
Yes- as long as he hits his minimum pass that way. Even better yet would be to teach them a truth about bureaucracy as well- give one letter grade higher to the students he didn't hear from, one letter grade lower to the students that merely whined, and the correct grade to those who banded together and worked the chain of command- just like we all have to do in the private and public sectors merely to get what we deserve.
Mine was modifying a string constant in Borland's Turbo C by setting a pointer variable to the begining of where the constant was stored and then changing the proper offset. When I got my test back, it said "-5, +5, I tried it it worked!". I was too much of a stupid kid to realize that you shouldn't write self modifying code in the global constants table.....
The worst part is that you end up with very, very few products you can point to and say "I worked on that"- because bankruptcy courts have a tendency to confiscate both source and object code (and any other records the company generated).
With every one of those shit jobs, at the end came paychecks that bounced. I figure from various bosses I'm still owed something close to a year's salary of back pay that I will never see- because of limited liability corporation laws. The last one was April 2003- after that I got a government contract. Funny how the state can figure out ways to pay their bills but private industry goes bankrupt on you.
By that- you might be close. At least, close to passing. Still going to screw up your GPA- but there is an outside chance that you can pull a D out of the hat (at 55% of total points available). I'd still suggest pulling the chain of command protest routine- which may just assure it since he didn't list any grades lower than a B on the original sylabus (boy, that was a badly written sylabus), just "etc". And you probably wouldn't have to take the protest any higher than the chair of the department. I had a couple of these in college myself, and usuaully, going to the instructor first, then the chair, worked fine, because by the time we got in to see the chair, the instructor had already taken advantage of the loophole he left himself in the sylabus, passed the top half of the class with C's and D's and was able to tell his boss "But, half the class passed".
Ah- but did it commit to certain percentages being certain letter grades? You've probably got a solid 52% right now- likely one of the highest point totals in the class- and good reason to walk this up the chain of command, starting with djb, then the chair of the department, then the dean, then the president of the campus.....
No- I don't think djb cares per say- but that's the first step. ALWAYS go with the chain of command method while protesting- then you can make a monkey of yourself in the Secretary of Defense's press conferance and get your name in all the papers.
Same rules apply for universities, as the army, private industry, etc.
Perhaps- I didn't think of this until reading your post- that's exactly what the professor was trying to teach. Though it would be a damned awfull way to do it, I've got to admit that 95% of the projects I've worked on since college have followed that general path. Work obscenely hard- get a product out there- get laid off when the marketing people spend tons on booze to cover their poor marketing skills and drive the company into the ground. Yep- sounds just like this assignment.
Not disagreeing- but if I was this student, I'd get a few buddies together from the class and point out to the prof:
1. This is the first term this class has been taught.
2. Nobody did well with the homework if the entire class of 25 students only found 44 holes.
3. Even those who were among the best students in the class, getting A's on all the exams, only found 2-3 holes.
Therefore the grades should be assigned to fit a bell curve based mainly on test scores and minimizing points earned for the homework.
LARGER CUBICLES! I hate how often I try XP or Agile when the boss has decreed a cubicle size and number of comfortable chairs to be optimal for a single person...it just doesn't work.
Makes me want to dig holes in my front yard
on
Dry Quicksand
·
· Score: 2, Funny
And bury an air compressor. Would make for an awfully neat booby trap.
I can have a car that will last on my commute (assuming a steam engine that is at least as efficient as my Escort's 4-cylinder gas engine, and my current driving habits) 961 years? Something tells me that this simply won't be that efficient- or that the car will be wrecked LONG before the Mr. Fusion runs out of power.
Certainly adding odor would allow easier detection of leaks. My greater point is that in enclosed spaces hydrogen would likely be just as if not more dangerous than gasoline. I am not trying to be alarmist or say that it is too dangerous, but that in their zeal to promote it some proponents of H2 (as with any new technology) pretend as if there would be no danger at all.
Wouldn't the same danger exist in an enclosed space with a running gasoline engine? I know my garage in my house has CO detectors hooked up to fans for just this sort of problem.
Regarding the quantity of H2 leaked, in the article the concern mentioned was that it would combine with oxygen in the upper atmosphere to form high level clouds. These clouds could then could contribute to global warming, which would seemingly defeat the purpose of going to H2. Your own prediction of ozone depletion wouldn't exactly be a windfall for the environment (or the fair-skinned) either.
Don't forget that certain types of electric engines also PRODUCE ozone. I personally doubt those clouds would last very long- clouds have a tendency to come back to earth as rain- but I think you fail to see the main reason to switch to hydrogen. The reason to switch to hydrogen has NOTHING to do with it being environmentally better- and everything to do with being POLITICALLY better (as in, getting us out of the quagmire that the middle east has turned into).
Propane is odorless too- so they add odor to it for consumer sales, thus we get our nice onion smell when there is a propane leak.
BTW- if large amounts of hydrogen were to leak into the atmosphere, you might get an explosion someplace, but far more likely is that it would rise into the Ozone layer creating oxygen and rain.
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The answer, I found, is to give up on Private Industry entirely and work for the government instead. They usually like to give jobs to CITIZENS.
MOD PARENT UP! That is the main point. H-1b vissa holders aren't considered immigrants. If they were, they wouldn't be "stealing" our jobs because they would never accept 95% of prevailing wages or the other dirty tricks that companies play to get around the law in the first place.
immigrant programmers in the U.S. are simply human beings trying to better themselves in what's supposed to be a free society
And that's their first mistake. The United States is not currently a free society and hasn't been since the Civil War. H-1b visas (which are for employees and wage slaves, that's why they are called NON-immigrant visas) are a symptom of this: Much as he'd like to be, the author and Linus are NOT immigrants- they are guest workers, here to be used and abused by the corporations and thrown away when their 6 years are up.
In other words, the "people trying to better themselves" aren't the problem- the sytem that treats guest workers and other employees more like slaves than free people is the problem. That's why I dislike H-1b VISAS- H-1b visa holders are usually much more likeable.
When I was going to school there wasn't any such thing as Windows, or even Linux yet.
Obvioiusly you know nothing about Turbo C under DOS as a programming environment, nor how constants are stored in memory under that combination. So go back to your little WIMPE Linux or Windows or MacOS environment.
Your judgement when deciding who to work for or when to walk away must be truly horrible. Do you stick around after the first check bounces?
After the first check bounces, they have a tendency to lock the doors.
If so, I have no sympathy for you, if not you must have worked for 26 companies who coudln't pay you your last check (assuming 1 check every two weeks is the norm) I call bullshit on that.
Since when is 1 check every 2 weeks the norm? Hell, since when is there a "norm" with any pay period at all? It's completely arbitrary and set by the employer. I've had everything from one check a week to one check every 4 months.
Uhhh, if the state couldn't pay their bills, you not getting your last paycheck would be the LEAST of your problems.
My point is that all the libertarians and conservatives claim that they want the State to work just like "Private Industry". Near as I can tell, private industry downright sucks when it comes to fullfilling obligations, which is why I'm interviewing with a state agency today and abandoning private industry.
Ashcroft has to go through the Court system to get rid of somebody. A private or public UNIVERSITY has only to decide to deny tenure and break the contract, just like any other business. And since the recent Sun decisions on worker's rights, Bernstein can file petitions and tie things up in lawsuits until he is dead and never see one red cent again from the University.
It's a FAR different world today when it comes to workers rights than it was just a couple of years back. If private industry can fire a union activist every 23 minutes for a year, with EVERY one of those cases going to court and eventually being decided in favor of the employer, what makes you thing even djb has a whelk's chance in a supernova of protecting himself from unemployment?
Wrong. This is an astounding success. He's taken a bunch of university students, thrown them at the most secure operating system known, given them this task, and came up with 44 security holes.
RTFA- they didn't find holes in the operating system, they found holes in the support software shipped with the operating system. There's a very big difference in that. In addition- Unix is not the most secure operating system known, and never has been. Most likely your digital watch has a more secure opertaing system than Unix, as well as most standalone embedded devices.
With an average of 1.76 security holes per student in 3 months time (assuming that this assignment was given at the beginning of the semesters - it probably wasn't), that's far more than the vast majority of UNIX programmers find in their entire lives, outside their own programming. How many security experts have accomplished the same feat in the past 3 months? I think that Dr. Bernstein was asking the impossible and got a miracle nonetheless.
The assignment was to find 10 NEW security holes. It was in the very first sylabus given. It was made clear that if 4 students found the same security hole, they'd only get 1/4 point each for that security hole. There's a darn good chance that nobody passed the assignment, and that everybody failed the class, just from simple mathematics. Yes- it may well be a miraculous output- but that doesn't change the fact that nobody succeeded at the assignment.
I don't think he cares much about what institutions tell him to do.
In that case, the students will have F's on their record, but will succeed in geting Dr. Bernstein fired. Which is also worthwhile.
You realize that you're saying he should not fail them because it's unfair, but that he should give lower grades to students that he arbitrarily doesn't like?
NOT arbitrarily- there should be a method to the madness. The method I suggested is the same one that is in place in the real world- those who band together and work the system within the system do better than those who merely complain. Those who stay silent often get what is not deserved.
When that dislike is borne merely of how someone reacts to realizing their professor will fail an otherwise A student for her mis-calculated and impossible examination?
That's life. That's the real world. If your education does not prepare you for the real world- then it is worthless.
I guess being a dick is ok as long as they're your kind of dick. That's not to say I don't see that you have a reason for believing it's a wise course of action, whereby you're encouraging people to "work the chain of command," but an ego-trip is an ego-trip, and coercing people in such a manner is exactly that.
So? These students are going to have to deal with tons of ego trips when they get out of school- the real world is not fair and never will be.
I seriously doubt Dr. Bernstein is going to fail all these students.
I do too- universities have tough standards for continued tenure these days.
He should give them the grades he thinks they deserve with one letter grade lower for whiners.
Yes- as long as he hits his minimum pass that way. Even better yet would be to teach them a truth about bureaucracy as well- give one letter grade higher to the students he didn't hear from, one letter grade lower to the students that merely whined, and the correct grade to those who banded together and worked the chain of command- just like we all have to do in the private and public sectors merely to get what we deserve.
Mine was modifying a string constant in Borland's Turbo C by setting a pointer variable to the begining of where the constant was stored and then changing the proper offset. When I got my test back, it said "-5, +5, I tried it it worked!". I was too much of a stupid kid to realize that you shouldn't write self modifying code in the global constants table.....
If I had mod points, I'd mod you up for the Babylon 5 reference alone.
The worst part is that you end up with very, very few products you can point to and say "I worked on that"- because bankruptcy courts have a tendency to confiscate both source and object code (and any other records the company generated).
With every one of those shit jobs, at the end came paychecks that bounced. I figure from various bosses I'm still owed something close to a year's salary of back pay that I will never see- because of limited liability corporation laws. The last one was April 2003- after that I got a government contract. Funny how the state can figure out ways to pay their bills but private industry goes bankrupt on you.
By that- you might be close. At least, close to passing. Still going to screw up your GPA- but there is an outside chance that you can pull a D out of the hat (at 55% of total points available). I'd still suggest pulling the chain of command protest routine- which may just assure it since he didn't list any grades lower than a B on the original sylabus (boy, that was a badly written sylabus), just "etc". And you probably wouldn't have to take the protest any higher than the chair of the department. I had a couple of these in college myself, and usuaully, going to the instructor first, then the chair, worked fine, because by the time we got in to see the chair, the instructor had already taken advantage of the loophole he left himself in the sylabus, passed the top half of the class with C's and D's and was able to tell his boss "But, half the class passed".
Ah- but did it commit to certain percentages being certain letter grades? You've probably got a solid 52% right now- likely one of the highest point totals in the class- and good reason to walk this up the chain of command, starting with djb, then the chair of the department, then the dean, then the president of the campus.....
No- I don't think djb cares per say- but that's the first step. ALWAYS go with the chain of command method while protesting- then you can make a monkey of yourself in the Secretary of Defense's press conferance and get your name in all the papers.
Same rules apply for universities, as the army, private industry, etc.
Perhaps- I didn't think of this until reading your post- that's exactly what the professor was trying to teach. Though it would be a damned awfull way to do it, I've got to admit that 95% of the projects I've worked on since college have followed that general path. Work obscenely hard- get a product out there- get laid off when the marketing people spend tons on booze to cover their poor marketing skills and drive the company into the ground. Yep- sounds just like this assignment.
Not disagreeing- but if I was this student, I'd get a few buddies together from the class and point out to the prof:
1. This is the first term this class has been taught.
2. Nobody did well with the homework if the entire class of 25 students only found 44 holes.
3. Even those who were among the best students in the class, getting A's on all the exams, only found 2-3 holes.
Therefore the grades should be assigned to fit a bell curve based mainly on test scores and minimizing points earned for the homework.
LARGER CUBICLES! I hate how often I try XP or Agile when the boss has decreed a cubicle size and number of comfortable chairs to be optimal for a single person...it just doesn't work.
And bury an air compressor. Would make for an awfully neat booby trap.
I can have a car that will last on my commute (assuming a steam engine that is at least as efficient as my Escort's 4-cylinder gas engine, and my current driving habits) 961 years? Something tells me that this simply won't be that efficient- or that the car will be wrecked LONG before the Mr. Fusion runs out of power.
Certainly adding odor would allow easier detection of leaks. My greater point is that in enclosed spaces hydrogen would likely be just as if not more dangerous than gasoline. I am not trying to be alarmist or say that it is too dangerous, but that in their zeal to promote it some proponents of H2 (as with any new technology) pretend as if there would be no danger at all.
Wouldn't the same danger exist in an enclosed space with a running gasoline engine? I know my garage in my house has CO detectors hooked up to fans for just this sort of problem.
Regarding the quantity of H2 leaked, in the article the concern mentioned was that it would combine with oxygen in the upper atmosphere to form high level clouds. These clouds could then could contribute to global warming, which would seemingly defeat the purpose of going to H2. Your own prediction of ozone depletion wouldn't exactly be a windfall for the environment (or the fair-skinned) either.
Don't forget that certain types of electric engines also PRODUCE ozone. I personally doubt those clouds would last very long- clouds have a tendency to come back to earth as rain- but I think you fail to see the main reason to switch to hydrogen. The reason to switch to hydrogen has NOTHING to do with it being environmentally better- and everything to do with being POLITICALLY better (as in, getting us out of the quagmire that the middle east has turned into).
Propane is odorless too- so they add odor to it for consumer sales, thus we get our nice onion smell when there is a propane leak.
BTW- if large amounts of hydrogen were to leak into the atmosphere, you might get an explosion someplace, but far more likely is that it would rise into the Ozone layer creating oxygen and rain.