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  1. Math is important on Ask Slashdot: How Important Is Advanced Math In a CS Degree? · · Score: 1

    but the weight of its importance depends on how far you go. A B.S. in Computer Science does not expose you to much in the way of how higher math is applied in computer science - but if you go to the graduate level, you need that background. One of my criticisms of how calc and beyond is taught to CS undergrads is that the applications are not made clear at all. It wasn't until I was in grad school and started working on some machine learning / bioinformatics stuff that the application became clear. If I never see another word problem with springs again it will be too soon.

  2. Re:Notes on Pen Still Mightier Than the Laptop For Notetaking? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Then you've been using shitty fountain pens.

  3. Re:Notes on Pen Still Mightier Than the Laptop For Notetaking? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Actually I just picked up the HP TM2 tablet. That with one note is awesome for note taking. Being a CS grad student myself, diagrams and more importantly equations drove me nuts trying to take notes before so I relied on my trusty fountain pen and a tablet of paper, but the hand writing recognition is really there _now_ for tablets, and the hp gets great battery life.

  4. What do you expect... on State of Colorado Calls Firefox Insecure, IE6 Safe · · Score: 5, Funny

    What do you expect from a state who uses 128 characters to describe a perspective hire's education.
    The Education Property has been increased to 128 characters due to popular demand. Thanks for your patience.

  5. Two books on Mathematics Reading List For High School Students? · · Score: 1

    Group theory in the bedroom (sounds dirty, but isn't) it has a lot of interesting essays involving mathematics and some historical stuff. For something with a little more meat, godel's proof - it's short, and sweeet.

  6. Re:And they wonder why. . . on Louisiana Passes Intelligent Design Law · · Score: 1

    Ironically in the New Orleans area (not to be confused with the rest of this state) there is a much larger population of Catholic high schools and elementary schools, none of which teach this ID nonsense in the first place. In point of fact from my own education in Catholic schools here, it was mentioned more than once "It's too bad Darwin didn't pay more attention to Mendel's work with pea plants or it would have solved his blending problem"

  7. Re:I'm just glad they're teaching C++ actively aga on Stroustrup Says C++ Education Needs To Improve · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Where are they teaching it actively again? I'm a student on computer science at the moment and all they teach in any depth is Java. The only reason I know c++ is my desire to learn it, despite the fact that various parts of my course have recently required a fairly in depth knowledge of c++.
    As background, I have worked with Java, C, and C++. I've also dealt with functional languages (Lisp, Haskell), scripting languages (perl, php, python), and a bunch of other stuff. In all my experiences, my response to C++ is pfft, I can live without it. If I want to get into the guts of the operating system, muck with the kernel, or do something nasty by hand in memory, I'll use C, if I want to write an application I'll use Java. C++ is a terrible language for application development, it combines all the worst aspects of OOP with all the worst aspects of C style memory handling, but brings no advantage to the table!
    I'm tired of all this chest beating of wanabe's complaining oh they teach me java, but I am such an uber geek I want to learn C++! Computer Science education doesn't teach you to program in JAVA, it teaches you computer science, in the course of that you learn to program, not to program in X, but to program. Any computer scientist worth their salt can program just as easily in one language as another, and can pick up any other language just as easily.
    The only big mental shifts come between procedural languages vs oop languages vs functional languages, etc. Everything else is syntactic sugar. Choose the language which best fits the problem at hand.

  8. Re:Mayan Calender on Time Dimension To Become Space-like · · Score: 5, Funny

    There will be a patch to update the calendar software to granite instead of sand stone, this will push the calendar into 4096.

  9. Re:The Chinese will learn, too, eventually... on Chinese Worm Creator Gets High-Paying Job Offer In Prison · · Score: 2, Informative
    Do you see many universities teach you something about malware?

    Um... yes? Actually, where I go there's an entire CS Masters concentration dealing with the subject along with digital forensics topics...

  10. Re:What?? on Judge Orders TorrentSpy to Turn Over RAM · · Score: 1

    Do judges just think computers are magic boxes which they can order to do whatever they may like, and that there are no limits of technical feasibility?
    yes.

  11. um.... on Implants for Sensing Magnetic Fields · · Score: 4, Funny

    if they touch my crt screen, they'll lose those implanted fingers!

  12. Re:Next news.... on Chicken and Egg Problem Solved · · Score: 1
    Complete details of why the chicken crossed the road... ba du

    The mean value theorem.

  13. Re:Doesn't this vialate our treaty with the Klingo on Plan For Cloaking Device Unveiled · · Score: 2, Funny

    No, it violates our treaty with the romulans stupid!

  14. Re:Forgotten What the Internet Is All About? on The Cost of a Tiered Internet · · Score: 1

    Don't you mean, creating a geographicly distributed computer network such that a single strike at one military facility would not take down the entire network?

  15. Re:I would say IDEs on Should Students Be Taught With or Without an IDE? · · Score: 1

    The whole "real world" argument is completely irrelevant. My third CS class was on data structures, and in that class I had to implement Linked lists, array based lists, dynamic array based lists, doubly linked lists, trees, etc, etc, etc. Given modern libraries, do you think I'm going to have to ever implement these in the real world? Probably not, but having done so in school I have a far greater understanding of how they work than if I had just read about them and used the built-in implementations.

    The same holds true with IDEs, you have to learn to crawl before you can walk. Doing everything in emacs, compiled via command line gives you a much better understanding of how the language and the compiler work than being cushioned by an IDE. Let's take java for an example, doing so much via command line teaches you a lot about some of the compiler requirements like having class paths set correctly, etc, where as an IDE will often auto-generate the needed class path information without user input. But if you are only raised with an IDE, you won't be as versed with that information and thus you become dependant on the IDE.

    The purpose of a university is not to prepare you to "get a job", it is to help you learn. As one of my professors used to always say, "Bonehead! I am not teaching you a language, I am teaching you how to program. Once you know how to program, the language does not matter."

  16. Well... on Germany Accepts Strict Piracy Law · · Score: 1

    Doesn't that blow... bubbles...

  17. 3 easy steps on What Would You Demand From Your IT Department? · · Score: 2, Funny

    Step 1: Find a Bofh
    Step 2: Unleash the bofh into the IT department
    Step 3: Rightly cower in fear and reverence of the new effective (and renamed!) Network & Systems department.

  18. Re:mod article -1, troll on Apple to 'Switch' to Windows? · · Score: 0

    You mean, running BSD?

  19. Re:Yea that will work on Programmer Challenges RIAA Investigators · · Score: 3, Informative

    except that this is a civil case, not a criminal one, and a motion for discovery not a request for a warrent.

  20. Re:Details of the problem on Blu-Ray Facing Delays Caused by DRM Squabbling · · Score: 1

    Thanks, Dr. Pepper just came shooting out of my nose!

  21. so what they're saying is... on Blu-Ray Facing Delays Caused by DRM Squabbling · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Both HD-DVD, and Blue Ray will be delayed until the DRM is done, so they'll both end up launching at the same time creating a split in the market that makes DVD+ DVD- elegant by comparison.

    Can anyone say 2 stillborn products?

  22. Depends on What is the Scope of Computer Forensics? · · Score: 1

    It depends a lot on the network setup. Was it part of a domain? Were the files on a file server? If the answer to these questions is yes, then the answer would be yes, with the right audit settings he can tell what files were accessed when. I do it all the time at work, we have serious problems with CAD drafters accidently deleting folders and files from the server thinking it's their local drive. To solve that problem I log all file access on the file server, and have a program that runs at the end of the day and produces a list of files that were deleted and emails it to me to check the next morning.

    If it's a standalone XP machine, I doubt the file logging would be set up (it isn't on by default) to log successful file access events. As far as computer forensics, it's amazing what kind of information can be recovered, but that deals mostly with deleted files, obfuscated files, things hidden in graphics files, etc. A good computer forensics analysis is going to follow three steps: 1) make an image of the drive, 2) work only from the image, 3) record all steps used to find evidence so it can be reproduced along with why you chose to look at that specific file/sector/whatever (often important for law enforcement.) Check if Person B's expert did this.

  23. One thought. on EU Approves Data Retention · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    fuck them all.

  24. File server on A Storage Solution for Lots of Digital Photos? · · Score: 1

    Get a very large server case with plenty of cooling, get a raid 5 card and make a raid array. Add more as needed. If you are going to store to a CD/DVD medium in addition to that, make parity files with something ala par2 as well, and get one of those food saver bags to chuck the jewel case in and store it in a vacuum in a dark area.

  25. Re:Am I the only one? on Hurricane Relief - What Would You Bring? · · Score: 1

    Because our city supports a big ass port which facilitates transportation through the middle of the country. Because water is still the most cost effective method of moving large amounts of cargo. Because we're the drop off point for a whole lotta oil. Because anywhere you live natural disasters can strike, and I'll take flood over fire, earthquake, and tornados. And oh by the way, this whole muckity muck wouldn't have happened if congress hadn't cut our levie funds, like the project which would have looked into what needed to be done for New Orleans to survive a cat 5 storm?