This really does not seem to be all that different then tons of other people. People drop out of school all the time, and very few people finish school in 4 years. I go to Penn State and something like 45% of the student's here finish in 4 years. Although in all fairness, we need to attribute most of the longer then four years crew to poor scheduling of course by the university, too much drinking, and failing classes because of driking. But a certain amount of it is caused by not just doing school straight through.
Tons of people get summer jobs, internships, or co-ops in their area of interst. I did a one year co-op at GSK, and you better believe I thought about dropping out everyday. Who wouldn't? I made $35,000 a year as an intern and worked on cool stuff and had an automatic raise every six months. Sure beats going to class...
I have a firend who went to Motorola for a summer internship, and decided to go their full time and finish his degree through distance education courses at night while working there full time. Sure it took him a little longer to graduate, but he got paid something $50,000 a year while finishing his degree.
I have another firend who dropped out and went to work for Merck as a lab tech on the condidtion that he somehow finish a bachloer's degree within three years of his start date.
I've also know people that run out of money and need to make some more before going back to school. I know people that have done 6 months co-op, 6 months school (Penn Stat has a half length summer session if you are wondering how to only go to school for 6 months at a time).
People leave school all the time. Most of them come back. Some don't I have a friend who deceided he'd rather be an electricain than a physicist, and so he dropped out. This seems to be a pretty regular thing, and it happens all the time. This happens all the time, and it happens to people that are not computer people. Just because computers can be used to model the universe, doesn't mean that computer people are the center of the universe.
I'm 20, and still in school. I have never once been the victim of age discrimination. I have been a network admin for law firm, a contract programmer for a title company, and a co-op at a pharamcutical company. And no one has ever once looked down on me for my age.
Any problems I've had have been for one of three reasons: 1) I had more technical (computer/chemistry) knowledge then someone, and presummed that also ment I had more bussiness knowledge, 2) I was confonrtational about what I felt was an incorrect technical dicission mad eby someone else, and 3) I look like shit during most of my jobs (you just aren't going to get respect when you are wearing steel tipped boot with a wrinkled shirt you didn't feel like ironing, and sporting a ponytail, mutton chjops, and a goatee.
Once you 1) clean yourself up (in attitude and dress), 2) learn to respect other people's knowledge as well as your own, and 3) learn how to interact with people (both assholes and nice people), then your 'age discrimination' will go away.
Although there my be some discrimination, the vast majority 'age' discrimination is really 'you don't know as much as you think you do, are a pain in the ass, and don't work well with others' discrimination.
Give it a rest, and grow up.
You got robbed. When I took the AP course (1994, in Pascal) we did:
* primative data types and records
* procedures
* recursion
* loops (while, repeat, for)
* flow control (if, if/else)
* arrays
* pointers
* data strucutres (linked list, stack, que, binary tree)
*algorithms (travesel/insertion/deletion to all data types above, binary sort, merge sort, bubble sort, hashing)
* optimization (ram vs cpu vs complexity, vs programmers time, time complexity (big-O only))
basic software engineering (commenting, code reuse, library desgin and group coding (class had to desgin an interface, and have teams implement componets and then put them together))
* error handling (the test data would alawys crash programs that did validate their input)
I thought it was a pretty good intro course. It was a better foundation then I've seen most people get out of their first year of college...
This reminds me of what happened at my high school. When I took AP computer science (1994), it was in Pascal. When the the switch to C++ was annouced, my teacher complained about having to learn a new langauge. He started to do it, but never really had the free time or the interst in learning it. So now my old high doesn't have AP computer science. It has computer science taught in Pascal.
This will just reduce the number of schools offering AP computer science.
Maybe he got the idea of memes from Dawkins?
on
Candle
·
· Score: 2
>Barnes' concept of the Memes originates with the >computer viruses of our own time, combined with >the idea that ideas have an existence of their >own. In Candle, Memes have jumped the sentience >gap from hardware to wetware, allowing them to >run within the human brain, placing beliefs >directly and absolutely in the mind, >incontrovertible except by the destruction
>or replacement of the meme itself.
Let's give credit where credit is due. Memes where invented by Richard Dawkins (an eveolutionary biologist). The first appearence of the term, in a book, was the Selfish Gene. I'm not sure if there were any prior uses of the term in other literature(journals, etc.). Meme is just a word that sounds like gene, but sounds related to the mind.
Memes get to move from mind to mind, and in things like books, painintgs and computeres, and all the things that apply to genes apply to them, except that no one has ever seen them...
Philosophers of Mind, especailly those of the Dan Dennett (see his book Consciousness Explained) variety, have been happy to use memes, as well as lots of other unfounded pseudo-scientific speculation, to make all sorts of claims about the mind and AI. For agood overview, try Dale Jaquettes Philosophy of Mind book.
You do not want to get surgery first. Surgery is a last resort for stuff like this. The reason that you are having a problem is because you are building up scar tissue and/or straining the muscles in your hands and wrist. Surgery can alleviate some of this pain, but it will ultimately make things worse if you wish to continue with the stressful activity (i.e. Typing). The end result of any surgery is the creation of scar tissue and possibly the cutting of muscles. This results in less flexible muscle that can be damage more easily than the pre-surgery muscles. Surgery now is asking to not be able to type 10-15 years (possibly with additional surgery along the way).
You need to stop any activities that cause scar tissue to build up in your hands. Foremost among these is cracking your knuckles. If your a knuckle cracker, you have to stop. The popping sounds is nitrogen liquifying under the pressure. This is bad for your muscles and is the source of your scare tissue.
Another problem with typing is, shall we say, improper technique. Most people assume that the presence of a wrist pad/mouse pad means that they should rest their wrist on it while typing/using their mouse. This is absolutely wrong. Typing or using a mouse while your wrist is resting on any surface (even just the table) puts additional strain on your wrists. This will cause you problems. Although ergonomic keyboard are nice, you can receive great benefit from having your wrist not touch anything while you type.
Another aspect of proper technique is the height of the keyboard relative to your body. When you are typing your forearm should make a right angle (or as close as possible) with your biceps. Anything above or below this puts additional strain on your elbows and wrists. If forced to choose between a little below or a little above, I would recommend a little above because the muslces in your biceps are more able to compensate for the additional strain.
While we are on the subject, monitor placement is also an issue. Most monitor documentation is wrong. They show that "safe" monitor height to be the top of the monitor at eye level. This is absolutely wrong. It puts additional strain on your neck. The center of the monitor should be level with your eyes. Additionally, if you are forced to pick between above and bellow this, above is much better. The reason is that looking above causes your next to arch backwards, which does not degenerate the curve in your spine. Actually, short periods of over-curving the neck are beneficial for the spine (not that you will enjoy long periods of the monitor being to high). Having it lower than this is always bad. It degenerates the curve of your neck and strains the muscles.
As many of the other posters have said, I strongly recommend some form of exercise. The scar tissue in your muscles can be removed through exercise, which also has the added benefit of strengthening your muscles.
I strongly recommend you go and see a chiropractor. In addition to the concerns about school raised above, there are also concerns of technique. There are different kinds of chiropractors, and I am very in favor of biomechanics. I have been going to chiropractors for the last 15 years (and my current biomechanics chiropractor) for the last 10. Please e-mail me if you are interested in additional information (such as the location of a repeatable chiropractor in your area.)
I know several people that were told they needed surgery by docotors and who ended up not needing surgery after seeing a chiropractor. Also, I would like to take the time to dispell some of the myths about chiropractors. Medical school requires a student to put in less credit hours than does chirpratic school. Both schools require the student to have a college degree. Additionally chirporators have to pass a licensing examination to be able to practice. They are not unskilled quacks as some other post have try to portray them.
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This really does not seem to be all that different then tons of other people. People drop out of school all the time, and very few people finish school in 4 years. I go to Penn State and something like 45% of the student's here finish in 4 years. Although in all fairness, we need to attribute most of the longer then four years crew to poor scheduling of course by the university, too much drinking, and failing classes because of driking. But a certain amount of it is caused by not just doing school straight through.
Tons of people get summer jobs, internships, or co-ops in their area of interst. I did a one year co-op at GSK, and you better believe I thought about dropping out everyday. Who wouldn't? I made $35,000 a year as an intern and worked on cool stuff and had an automatic raise every six months. Sure beats going to class...
I have a firend who went to Motorola for a summer internship, and decided to go their full time and finish his degree through distance education courses at night while working there full time. Sure it took him a little longer to graduate, but he got paid something $50,000 a year while finishing his degree.
I have another firend who dropped out and went to work for Merck as a lab tech on the condidtion that he somehow finish a bachloer's degree within three years of his start date.
I've also know people that run out of money and need to make some more before going back to school. I know people that have done 6 months co-op, 6 months school (Penn Stat has a half length summer session if you are wondering how to only go to school for 6 months at a time).
People leave school all the time. Most of them come back. Some don't I have a friend who deceided he'd rather be an electricain than a physicist, and so he dropped out. This seems to be a pretty regular thing, and it happens all the time. This happens all the time, and it happens to people that are not computer people. Just because computers can be used to model the universe, doesn't mean that computer people are the center of the universe.
I'm 20, and still in school. I have never once been the victim of age discrimination. I have been a network admin for law firm, a contract programmer for a title company, and a co-op at a pharamcutical company. And no one has ever once looked down on me for my age. Any problems I've had have been for one of three reasons: 1) I had more technical (computer/chemistry) knowledge then someone, and presummed that also ment I had more bussiness knowledge, 2) I was confonrtational about what I felt was an incorrect technical dicission mad eby someone else, and 3) I look like shit during most of my jobs (you just aren't going to get respect when you are wearing steel tipped boot with a wrinkled shirt you didn't feel like ironing, and sporting a ponytail, mutton chjops, and a goatee. Once you 1) clean yourself up (in attitude and dress), 2) learn to respect other people's knowledge as well as your own, and 3) learn how to interact with people (both assholes and nice people), then your 'age discrimination' will go away. Although there my be some discrimination, the vast majority 'age' discrimination is really 'you don't know as much as you think you do, are a pain in the ass, and don't work well with others' discrimination. Give it a rest, and grow up.
You got robbed. When I took the AP course (1994, in Pascal) we did:
* primative data types and records
* procedures
* recursion
* loops (while, repeat, for)
* flow control (if, if/else)
* arrays
* pointers
* data strucutres (linked list, stack, que, binary tree)
*algorithms (travesel/insertion/deletion to all data types above, binary sort, merge sort, bubble sort, hashing)
* optimization (ram vs cpu vs complexity, vs programmers time, time complexity (big-O only))
basic software engineering (commenting, code reuse, library desgin and group coding (class had to desgin an interface, and have teams implement componets and then put them together))
* error handling (the test data would alawys crash programs that did validate their input)
I thought it was a pretty good intro course. It was a better foundation then I've seen most people get out of their first year of college...
This reminds me of what happened at my high school. When I took AP computer science (1994), it was in Pascal. When the the switch to C++ was annouced, my teacher complained about having to learn a new langauge. He started to do it, but never really had the free time or the interst in learning it. So now my old high doesn't have AP computer science. It has computer science taught in Pascal.
This will just reduce the number of schools offering AP computer science.
>Barnes' concept of the Memes originates with the >computer viruses of our own time, combined with >the idea that ideas have an existence of their >own. In Candle, Memes have jumped the sentience >gap from hardware to wetware, allowing them to >run within the human brain, placing beliefs >directly and absolutely in the mind, >incontrovertible except by the destruction
>or replacement of the meme itself.
Let's give credit where credit is due. Memes where invented by Richard Dawkins (an eveolutionary biologist). The first appearence of the term, in a book, was the Selfish Gene. I'm not sure if there were any prior uses of the term in other literature(journals, etc.). Meme is just a word that sounds like gene, but sounds related to the mind.
Memes get to move from mind to mind, and in things like books, painintgs and computeres, and all the things that apply to genes apply to them, except that no one has ever seen them...
Philosophers of Mind, especailly those of the Dan Dennett (see his book Consciousness Explained) variety, have been happy to use memes, as well as lots of other unfounded pseudo-scientific speculation, to make all sorts of claims about the mind and AI. For agood overview, try Dale Jaquettes Philosophy of Mind book.
Not everything is related to computers...
Reminds me of my favorite WalMart commercial:
"Everything I own, excpet my wife and my cow, I got at wal mart."
For those for those of you that don't live nera farms, you are really missing out...
You do not want to get surgery first. Surgery is a last resort for stuff like this. The reason that you are having a problem is because you are building up scar tissue and/or straining the muscles in your hands and wrist. Surgery can alleviate some of this pain, but it will ultimately make things worse if you wish to continue with the stressful activity (i.e. Typing). The end result of any surgery is the creation of scar tissue and possibly the cutting of muscles. This results in less flexible muscle that can be damage more easily than the pre-surgery muscles. Surgery now is asking to not be able to type 10-15 years (possibly with additional surgery along the way).
You need to stop any activities that cause scar tissue to build up in your hands. Foremost among these is cracking your knuckles. If your a knuckle cracker, you have to stop. The popping sounds is nitrogen liquifying under the pressure. This is bad for your muscles and is the source of your scare tissue.
Another problem with typing is, shall we say, improper technique. Most people assume that the presence of a wrist pad/mouse pad means that they should rest their wrist on it while typing/using their mouse. This is absolutely wrong. Typing or using a mouse while your wrist is resting on any surface (even just the table) puts additional strain on your wrists. This will cause you problems. Although ergonomic keyboard are nice, you can receive great benefit from having your wrist not touch anything while you type.
Another aspect of proper technique is the height of the keyboard relative to your body. When you are typing your forearm should make a right angle (or as close as possible) with your biceps. Anything above or below this puts additional strain on your elbows and wrists. If forced to choose between a little below or a little above, I would recommend a little above because the muslces in your biceps are more able to compensate for the additional strain.
While we are on the subject, monitor placement is also an issue. Most monitor documentation is wrong. They show that "safe" monitor height to be the top of the monitor at eye level. This is absolutely wrong. It puts additional strain on your neck. The center of the monitor should be level with your eyes. Additionally, if you are forced to pick between above and bellow this, above is much better. The reason is that looking above causes your next to arch backwards, which does not degenerate the curve in your spine. Actually, short periods of over-curving the neck are beneficial for the spine (not that you will enjoy long periods of the monitor being to high). Having it lower than this is always bad. It degenerates the curve of your neck and strains the muscles.
As many of the other posters have said, I strongly recommend some form of exercise. The scar tissue in your muscles can be removed through exercise, which also has the added benefit of strengthening your muscles.
I strongly recommend you go and see a chiropractor. In addition to the concerns about school raised above, there are also concerns of technique. There are different kinds of chiropractors, and I am very in favor of biomechanics. I have been going to chiropractors for the last 15 years (and my current biomechanics chiropractor) for the last 10. Please e-mail me if you are interested in additional information (such as the location of a repeatable chiropractor in your area.)
I know several people that were told they needed surgery by docotors and who ended up not needing surgery after seeing a chiropractor. Also, I would like to take the time to dispell some of the myths about chiropractors. Medical school requires a student to put in less credit hours than does chirpratic school. Both schools require the student to have a college degree. Additionally chirporators have to pass a licensing examination to be able to practice. They are not unskilled quacks as some other post have try to portray them.
Dave
dgr116@psu.edu