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User: Gestahl

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  1. Re:*sips pabst* on Ars: Final Hobbit Movie Is 'Soulless End' To 'Flawed' Trilogy · · Score: 1

    Sure there is an explanation, and it's even on screen.

    Aragorn gives them the swords at Bree, probably prepared for the fact that hobbits probably wouldn't have swords.

    The only real difference is that in the book, the fact that they were special, ancient blades allowed Merry to stab the Witchking and injure him. However, that really makes no sense, as Eowyn was able to kill him with plain old iron (and a little bit of destiny), no special Numenorean magic required.

  2. Re:I don't even... on Putting Time Out In Time Out: The Science of Discipline · · Score: 1

    *sigh* stripped tags make templated sentences suck.

    Example:

    "That hurts poor kitty. Why do you want to hurt kitty? Only mean people like [insert current bedtime story villian] would hurt an innocent little kitty. Are you a mean person like [insert current bedtime story villian]? No? If [insert current bedtime story protagonist] were here, what would they do instead?"

  3. Re:I don't even... on Putting Time Out In Time Out: The Science of Discipline · · Score: 0

    >>> I felt the exact same way. "Oh, okay, so no spanking, no time outs. What should I do?" And finally at the end of the article they say something about teachable moments.
    >>> Ummmm...so what do I do when my 2 year old hits the cat?

    Whenever people ask things like this, I think "Who are these people that can't outsmart and manipulate their 2-year-old?" The answer to "what do I do" is you manipulate the child into feeling bad when he does undesirable things, just like every other kind of punishment. The entire point of punishment is to instill empathy when it's lacking, and to do so, you must make them feel a kind of pain when they cause pain to others so they understand. If you aren't particularly clever, you manipulate via physical pain and humiliation (corporal punishment, no dinner). If you are more clever, you use *who they identify as and with* to manipulate them (BTW, this works on adults too... see identity politics).

    Example:

    "That hurts poor kitty. Why do you want to hurt kitty? Only mean people like would hurt an innocent little kitty. Are you a mean person like ? No? If were here, what would they do instead?"

    How is this difficult?

  4. Forget reading other's text for comprehension, you can't even read what you wrote.

    >> That's standard practice for introductory/taster courses. Give the students something they can achieve fairly quickly and easily to show that they can get interesting results and pique their interest in the subject. ***It doesn't have anything to do with gender.***

    Right there, starred so you can't miss it. They straight up admit it has everything to do with gender, right in the headline. Twice.

  5. The course was specifically designed to "increase diversity". MS developed the course material to go along with it specifically for girls. Read for detail and comprehension next time.

    The goal of this course is not to attract males with varied interests,and you know it.

  6. >> In what way do we consider either Google or Microsoft to be qualified to be involved in education?

    Seeing as the primary goal of education for most people is "find a good career" and the primary goal of education for most businesses is "teach the skills I need for a productive workforce"... whose *external* input would you rather have?

    Look, academia, education for education's sake, and deep research will be pursued by those who desire it whether it's encouraged or not. It's the people getting degrees for bigger paychecks (and donations for bigger linemen on the football team) that allows the academia to continue existing as widespread as it is. Seems to me, if you want a thriving school, you'd better listen to what Google and Microsoft want.

  7. *facepalm* on New AP Course, "Computer Science Principles," Aims To Make CS More Accessible · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So... when you *specifically* want to create a class *for girls*, your though is "Hey, let's take out the hard parts, and make it more of a course about all the stuff *around* the actual hard part". You just basically told girls "don't worry yourself about the really hard parts. This is what *you* need to know." Are you sure you don't just want to make it a typing class instead?

    Fuck that noise.

  8. Re:Summary doesn't support headline on We Are All Confident Idiots · · Score: 1

    * Confident new graduate : "I would estimate that I know 10% of all knowledge." Wise old man : "OK, tell me what 10% of the World's population did yesterday." Smartass: "They survived one more day."

  9. Re:I assure you, nobody wants critical thinking on Employers Worried About Critical Thinking Skills · · Score: 1

    They say they want critical thinking because they want problem solvers. It's never crossed their mind that they (or their policies) are one of the primary problems, and that whatever successes they have had was *despite* their influence, not because of it.

  10. Re:Too Late on Employers Worried About Critical Thinking Skills · · Score: 1

    Dunning-Kruger strikes again.

  11. What they are doing right and doing wrong on The Site That Teaches You To Code Well Enough To Get a Job · · Score: 1

    Here's where the rubber meets the road. Beyond the code not working at all, or having redundant/unnecessary code, exactly what should they expect as feedback? Yes, there are a few algorithm patterns and idiomatic usages that are standard for every language, but there's always More Than One Way To Do It, and how consistent and high-quality is the feedback going to be? It seems to me this could easily fall into a trap of the barely-sighted leading the blind when you have non-experts assuming the mantle of an authority. There's plenty of bad and/or inconsistent advice out there about programming style. To take a simple example... what feedback would you get about usage of the ternary operator? Many would consider that bad style, period.

  12. Re:Helium? on WD Announces 8TB, 10TB Helium Hard Drives · · Score: 1

    I was also wondering this. Wouldn't nitrogen or argon/neon be cheaper?

  13. Re:If you don't want science... on Limiting the Teaching of the Scientific Process In Ohio · · Score: 1

    Lavoisier was beheaded, but not for blasphemy (nor politically-divisive science).

  14. Re:Here is how to get in to coding: on Getting Back To Coding · · Score: 2
    An important concept in software development is don't duplicate effort. After someone has taught themselves a programming language from a book or sat through a uni course, better to convince people to find an existing project on Github or whatever, fix open bugs or start working on a feature addition that the devs have put on their wish list.

    He said learning how to code, not how to develop software. Important distinction. Learning a programming language is like learning how to read. Learning programming itself is like learning basic English composition skills (i.e. write a 5 paragraph essay). It's easy to study, easy to evaluate, and easy to review, and you can focus on the details of syntax, semantics, grammar, and style. The logical analysis, presentation, and cites are important (the start of engineering and reuse, etc), but not the focus. Learning software development/engineering is like learning how to publish a properly annotated, logically argued and presented, and cross-referenced scholarly paper suitable for a journal. It (should be) a foregone conclusion that your syntax, etc. is proper. Now the focus is on consistency, coherency, structure, reuse of existing material, and aesthetics.

  15. Hitchhiker's Guide prototype on Is Time Moving Forward Or Backward? Computers Learn To Spot the Difference · · Score: 1

    Behold, the first piece of the the trans-dimensional Hitchhiker's Guide. One of the first things it has to do is figure out is which way time runs in whatever reality it finds itself in.

  16. No Teachers on Average HS Student Given Little Chance of AP CS Success · · Score: 1

    The real reason there isn't in AP computer science in schools is simple.

    Think about most teachers you knew in HS. They probably taught multiple classes, and probably taught at least one main class (a general math, science, history, or language course).

    So, you want to add a new computer science class to the curriculum.

    Well, you can't hire a programmer or a CS degree holder, for the most part. They make too much money to work part-time.
    You can't hire them full time... you only need them for 2 or 3 classes, and the rest of the general classes are handled. Maybe they'll pick up a study hall and a special projects course... but they also get paid less for those courses/periods too.
    And you can't find a "normal" teacher that also knows computer science.

    I suspect this problem will get easier once we start getting more CS retirees... I would imagine part-time teaching would be an attractive option for side income.

  17. Why not a good ultra-book and a smaller tablet? on Surface Pro 3 Has 12" Screen, Intel Inside · · Score: 1

    This seems like it's comparably priced with the X1 Carbon Touch... a good system will run you around $1700 for either option. The main difference is display... the bigger X1 sacrifices resolution. It just seems really expensive for a tablet, and really tiny for a laptop for serious work, it's like it's in an anti-Goldilocks zone.

    I'd use this only if I had an awesome docking rig, and really needed a tablet, *and* I needed to be able to swap between the two seamlessly.

  18. Engineers, not Programmers on Ask Slashdot: Minimum Programming Competence In Order To Get a Job? · · Score: 1

    The question isn't about finding programming competence anymore... you can weed out people that can't figure out (or know) a decent algorithm off the top of their head.

    The question is a matter of engineering skill: if you can't make an application that's architecturally coherent, properly sanitizes inputs, decomposes functionality, behaves intuitively for the user, anticipates future needs and builds in that flexibility in the API, is easily deployable in your org (or to the client), and all with proper documentation, etc. etc. etc. you are a programmer.

    These are all completely different skills than simple programming... it's the difference between wiring a house and designing a fault-tolerant power distribution system that plans for future capacity over 5 states.

    We have enough programmers.

    We need engineers. It would help if business in general thought of programmers as global data and process engineers, rather than simple wish-fulfillment elves for whatever they want to see on their screen using whatever software their buddy in company X sells.

  19. Depends on your goal... on Ask Slashdot: Beginner To Intermediate Programming Projects? · · Score: 1

    Are you trying to practice basic coding and logic skills?

    Project Euler, as many have said, or similar sites.

    Are you trying to learn a specific technology?

    Then go through a tutorial. Notice anything stupid/wrong/incomplete/ambiguous about that tutorial? If not, please share this unique example of completely flawless information transfer between humans. Otherwise... rewrite it yourself, in your words. Think about other directions the tutorial could have taken. Tinker and experiment.

    Are you learning programming to accomplish a specific task?

    In that case, you already have your answer. Write what you can. Learn to write the other parts. The code will grow as you grow.

    Think about programming like carpentry. If you want to do a carpentry project, you can choose:

    1) An design that emphasizes core skills, but isn't particularly useful, although it isn't *useless*. In carpentry, that would be a puzzle box, or a birdhouse, or some other small bauble. The goal was to perfect tool usage, not produce something useful. That's like Project Euler stuff.
    2) A design that emphasizes one particular tool, but because of that isn't particularly practical either, and almost completely useless. You know, some complicated, ornate thing that's only meant to really show off a scroll saw, or using a lathe to make a complicated-looking curtain rod. That's like the tutorial option.
    3) You build a simple table... even if it's just four 2x4s screwed to a piece of plywood and doesn't even bear loads well. You work up from there... you learn about cross bracing and railing. The screws are ugly, so you learn about countersinking and hole plugs. You might even have to start from scratch, but that's OK... you'll redo everything twice as fast the second time. Then maybe you route the edges of the table when you learn to use a router so you have a nice beveled edge. Then maybe you buy a lathe, and turn the legs of the table into something more fancy... and then you add scrollworked cross-braces... That's a real world project.

    All three of these will help you become a better carpenter/programmer, but you will never become a master carpenter/programmer until you do option 3.

  20. Re:A few problems... on Can Reactive Programming Handle Complexity? · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure exactly where he wants to use this... as a new constraint system for a database or something?

    Yeah, that's the ticket... stuff more business logic in the database. I have yet to see a system designed by DBAs around stored procedures as "the way all systems should integrate" that was remotely usable.

    Databases are not good development platforms.

  21. Shell scripts are the answer... on How To Manage Your Home Directory? · · Score: 1

    Here is how I do it, although I only run CLI, I am sure if you run graphical apps you can adjust this accordingly to be nearly as transparent. I use emacs, so I have a shell script in the home directory called run-emacs. This script sets the working directory to a common temp directory, say ~/docs/temp. run-links opens up into ~/download/temp. run-bittorrent goes to ~/download, etc. You probably want to name it the reverse way for tab completion, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Then all the little random files you one-off onto the disk are neatly tucked away. And, if you run most of these programs on a specific file instead, they will switch to appropriate working directories. Simple, easy, and lazy ;-).

    In general, just don't start programs with a working directory of ~.

  22. Neat... on The Wiki Game · · Score: 1

    It's like six degrees of Kevin Bacon, but with general knowledge and 10 degrees. My friends and I used to play something like that where we would name two (mostly) un-related things, and someone would try to come up with the shortest trail from one to the other.

    I would guess the winning condition might be to make it in less than 10 hops on the Wiki, since the second page it gives you is 10 random hops away... or you could have two people on laptops competing time-wise, without all the extra rules at the bottom about no back button, etc. You should be allowed to go back in head-to-head, as it only costs you time. Maybe even in single player, and just play against the clock. Otherwise you learn less.

  23. Testing... bah! on IT Literacy Test · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What a useless thing to test. If you think logically and can break problems down, anything in operating computers simply comes down to Googling, reading, and thinking logically. This is about as useless as just a plain old IQ test, SAT, or any other standardized "bubble" test in assessing future work/educational performance. In fact, I bet an IQ test would be just as effective in this situation. My guess is that it is simply knowledge based, not action based (wasn't willing to drudge through ETS's corporate "Yeah us!" language). ETS should take a hint from Cisco. Their tests are difficult and actually ("GASP!") test performance in real world situations in solving real world examples and problems using real Cisco gear.

  24. Grammar Nazi.... on FreeBSD Core Team elections complete · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    "The regular elections for the FreeBSD governing board has completed."

    Should be "The regular elections have completed."

    That is all.

  25. Re:There is a difference on Automakers Try To Keep Repair Codes Secret · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Quoth Parent:

    Most common use for modchips in computers: pirating games (illegal)

    Quoth I:

    Most common use for modchips in cars: circumvention of emissions/rev limiter/speed governor limitations. Many of these will make the cars illegal in some areas. Car mod chips are not illegal.

    Try again.