What makes Linux great is the various options that you can choose from. Your suggestion that all distros combine forces, although it can have some benefits, would limit the distros to focusing on something other than their original design purpose. Each distro differs from one another, which is why they were orignally created - there was no current distro that did exactly what they wanted, so they created their own. While you might chose to run a distro such as Debian, I choose Gentoo. There are people who like binary packages, and many who prefer source based. Combining all distros will only lead to a very bulky OS. IMHO having a choice to choose what distro you want to run is what makes Linux great.
I'm on a 900mhz athlon and unlike most of you, who own better systems might not really care for the difference gentoo provides, I can most definitely say that the performance I get under gentoo is extremely great in comparison to others(specifically: ubuntu, mandrake and rh).
Compiling the whole system took about a day and a half, then another couple of hours emerging important packages. The less important software I just emerged later as I needed to use them.
Those of you bitching about the compile time...it really doesn't take that long for the performance you get in return. The large packages that do take a long time, such as ximian-openoffice and mplayer, can be emerged while you're asleep.
The performance difference can be seen, I dint feel like I'm working on an old system at all - in fact I still think it kicks ass: games run perfectly(even under wine), apps start very quickly and run smoothly.
Indeed, with this post I jumped straight to the comments after the title...I did this even though I find the idea of high schools teaching C++ interesting
I don't personally find spelling errors a big problem when reading, unless they are very drastic. (and yes the title, "High School's should teach C++," is horrible - careless typing mistake). However, noticing that some, such as yourself, look at something(the post) with a different view when it is not properly written, I must admit, convinced me to actually pay more attention to my writing.
I wasn't trying to make a political statement, I was just stating my opinion as if just talking to a group of friends, therefore I don't find it important to write with such care.
If they can't teach you to have an automatic ability to express yourself properly in the language you speak natively I started learning english about four years ago, therefore you are assuming wrong. If you actually care to know, my English is better than a majority of the natives. In cases I find of importance I dont care to use English to the best of my abilities. I am not trying to impress anyone, I am not pretending to wear a suit - jeans and a shirt are more comfortable.
I didn't think that/. comments are to be written to impress you with their English abilities. I am not writing a paper to check what spelling errors and stupid mistakes I make while writing a comment - as long as the message is clear enough I am satisfied.
I'v been coding in Perl, Java, C and C++ for the past few years and although I prefer using perl and bash I must say that I've learned to think like a programmer having learned C++ first.
I also eneded up taking a C++ course in High School, and I found that many of my classmates started to think and analyze problems differently. A year later the school changed from C++ to Java ( because the CollegeBoard changed it's CS exams to Java). I also took that class and I noticed that the kids that only took Java, even after completing the course did not learn much - and especially not to think like programmers. I think that this is most likely because Java has so many libraries within that the kids never actually learn what occurs in the "back end." Many fail to understand what a string is, and the majority did not understand algorithms at all, I dont want to mention efficency. Although Java is probablly used more widely, I think that for beginners to learn to think like programmers it would be better to learn a language from which they can learn the basics behind programming, and although I would suggest PASCAL (better for learning algorithms),C++ should be taught before Java.
Learning DSA with Java is a bit funny, how is having a garbage collector efficent and how will that inspire programmers to write more cautius and efficent code?
I used to always work under root, until one night. I was extremely tired and no longer really knew what I was doing. I only remeber typing in "rm *" to remove all the content from the directory, however I was not in the folder I wanted to delete the files from, but in "/". Ofcource, except for a few files none of the important system data & folders were removed - i didnt type "rm -rf *". It was an extremely careless and stupid mistake, however I realized that it would be safer to just create a user account and "su" when I need to - so when I'm in another one of those funky moods I will be harmless because I'll never get my funky 19 char root password right:)
Of course, if the radio is inop, they'll have to come up with some other idea to warn the pilot.
i fully agree with using a different method of communicating when radio fails,in which case lasers will suffice. however I dont think that this should be(come) the standard way of communication when a plane is in a restricted area.
I apologize for sounding like an asshole...didnt RTFA.
it make more sense to actually send a message to the pilots? I don't think that having a red/green laser beamed at them would be very smart(what would prevent a prankster from doing it?) and i don't think that as a pilot having a laster beamed at you is the most comfortable thing - panic? and is it just a coincidence that they come up with this idea after they lockup a guy for beaming a laser at a plane?
'Everyone knows that Russians are good at math...Our software writers are the best in the world, that's why our hackers are the best in the world.'
Although this is not exactly the most intelligent comment, I think that many of you/.er's are being a bit too hard on this comment. Many americans say very similar things, such as this country is the best, it is the land of the free(then why do we travel to other countries?)
it's pride in nationality, in this case the russians are happy to report that they have smart hackers - intelligence.
most countries take pride in what they can
Although it wasn't I who pulled the trick, a friend and classmate came to school on the first with a Harvard acceptance letter. A teacher got extremely excited and to congratulate my friend gave us no work and allowed us to talk during class(normally this teacher would be extremely strict, although his lessons do not at all relate to Economics or are the least educational). When he told them,at the end of class, that it was a fake the teacher's face (and most likely thoughts on how to murder my friend) were extremely funny.
I was playing around with the satellite image feature last night( and submitted a story on it that was rejected:( ), and although this is a cool feature I think that Google should improve their address/map search first. The search for an adress is not so great and actually gets annoying- Google Maps fails to find adresses which Mapquest easily maps. I love Google Maps, I just think that for a Search company they can most definately improve their adress/map seach.
-just my share
While I laughed at your comment, I found:
There are some levels of satisfaction that money can't buy, like watching 100+ snot-nosed future pointy hairs take it up the pooper from Harvard.
and other similar comments on this post a bit insulting and actually stupid.
Stereotyping Ivy league students as being rich, snotty, heartless people is stupid and really not nice, especially since you probably don't know that many of them. Some of my friends attend an Ivy league school and they're some of the nicest and most intelligent people I've met. Yes, many rich people tend to be snotty and since they can afford these schools there are more of them there than at another typical school - but it's not nice just bashing these 100+ students because of a stereotype.
Out of these 100+, some might be rich and snotty, however I'm sure many are very intelligent and probably just acted on their curiosity.
Weather you consider their actions unethical or not, I'm sure that most of us have made mistakes, and therefore I think it's improper for us to laugh at them - especially those that originally got accepted - who now suffer a pretty big loss.
As a high school student myself, I notice that most of my classmates are in school only expecting to one day get a job thanks to this "education". Many of their parents no longer tell them to go to school and learn to gain knowledge, but they more commonly they tell them "get your education so you can get a good job." Many teachers also encourage students to "see" that education is important, however their reasoning of why it's important is to get a well payed job. I think that this is due to the way our society is, money-centered.
However, those who actually seek knowledge, although they can learn much from a teacher, usually end up studying what they care to learn about, on their own. Although learning from a professor is probably the easiest way, there are many resources that we can use to study on our own just as well.
Although I've encountered many teachers who no longer care about what education should be, there are teachers who still see educations as something other than a way of getting a job. However, I noticed that even these teachers limit themselves to teaching only what is within the curriculum. Approaching these teachers, I've learned that you can actually have very interesting conversations and learn more than the bullshit that is taught in class. My question is: why don't these teachers share the same information with the whole class?(i'm sure the discussion I had with the teacher would interest the whole class at least as much, if not more, than the crap in the curriculum)
(this is just my share, based on my own experience)
"Wouldn't it be more productive to study ways to combat spam?"
I think that by learning the insides of the spam software and writing spam software they can learn many ways of fighting against spam and probablly find different methods to doing so. But then again there is a chance that they use this course to write more spam software, instead of combating it. Either way I, too, think that "they're just doing this for attention..."
I agree that tests should be used to assign grades, but i dont think that kids should only be taught how to pass a test. i live in nyc - and we are taught to pass the Regents Examinations...most of the teachers teach the kids only what is on that exam and only how to pass the exam. If you ever took a look at one of the exams you would think that its a joke, its not quality education. even Advance Placement classes are a joke. take Physics for example. in this class we are basically just taught how to apply formulas when solving problems. your might say, well isnt that the point? no, 80% of my class when given a problem that requires the understanding of a concept, fail to answer the question because they dont understand the material - which is because they are just taught how to pass the test.
The whole school system is fucked up.
Everything is being taught in order to pass a test...in the end the whole class ends up learning absolutely nothing.
Teacher's dont tech kids to think more open mindedly, and the students who are free thinkers are usually put down.
example:
1.My friend wrote a brilliant paper on socialism - analyzing different positive effects on society, economy... Another kid in the class wrote a complete bullshit paper on democracy - just kissing ass on how America is so great and how democracy works for all. My friend ended up getting a lower grade, just because the teacher did not agree witht the paper. Because teachers are so biased, many students are reluctant to actually write what they think and usually just end up just kissing ass for a good grade.
2.In class my friend and I usually end up fighting against the rest of the class on topics of discussions, such as weather or not people of different cultural backgrounds (i.e Muslims) should be "watched by Big Brother". The scary thing is that most of my classmates think that its ok for the government to control the media and limit the rights of citizens (and especially those of specific cultural backgrounds).
[I'm not 'Middle Eastern', in case you think that I'm defending muslims for personal reasons. I believe in freedom - especially to express yourself. Excuse the horryfic grammar, I'm also an immigrant:)]
Side note: I'm really tired of the bullshit saying: "If you dont like America get out of the country". Many older people have said that to me, and I think that it is a very ignorant thing to say - it's a bullshit counter to the flaws I usually bring up. There are many flaws in the American system, just like any other system, and it is those who rebel - fight for our rights - that, I believe, will reform this country to a better place.
They should have every right to hack into the systems considering they use those systems themselves to check their bank accounts and other personal data, so itll be more like breaking into ur own house to test ur security agains thieves, its not like breaking into any random house, u live in that house. For whatever reason they did this, they couldve approached it a different/better way, but what they did wasnt wrong - the university should spend more on security.
I took the C++ AB (5) last year too and I just took the java AB. I think that the java was a bit more difficult, but then again I didnt pay attention in class or actually study for the test - I dont really like Java;) Anyway I think that they should go back to Pascal or even C++, so the kids actually learn something instead of just how to copy and paste. Personally I think that they should learn( and understand) algorithms first and then code, java isnt the language to teach a kid how to think like a programmer.
I also am a high school student, to graduate in a 2005. I'm interested in majoring in Electrical Engineering/Comp.Sci. or any other engineering/comp. fields. However, how the economy is going I don't really want to end up with a useless degree. Any suggestions as to what majors I should consider?And would doing some intern jobs for tech companies help with scholarships? (No med please:))
Thanks.
Yeh I agree. But coffee does have one negative effect: bad memory when you dont have any caffeine in you. Heh im 16 and I cant remember a damn thing without coffee.;)
P.S paroneayea sweet comic
Slashdot Mirror
Although I agree that this is a bad question, I think that he ment to say that besides windows, he only knows knows Apple systems.
What makes Linux great is the various options that you can choose from. Your suggestion that all distros combine forces, although it can have some benefits, would limit the distros to focusing on something other than their original design purpose. Each distro differs from one another, which is why they were orignally created - there was no current distro that did exactly what they wanted, so they created their own. While you might chose to run a distro such as Debian, I choose Gentoo. There are people who like binary packages, and many who prefer source based. Combining all distros will only lead to a very bulky OS. IMHO having a choice to choose what distro you want to run is what makes Linux great.
I'm on a 900mhz athlon and unlike most of you, who own better systems might not really care for the difference gentoo provides, I can most definitely say that the performance I get under gentoo is extremely great in comparison to others(specifically: ubuntu, mandrake and rh).
Compiling the whole system took about a day and a half, then another couple of hours emerging important packages. The less important software I just emerged later as I needed to use them.
Those of you bitching about the compile time...it really doesn't take that long for the performance you get in return. The large packages that do take a long time, such as ximian-openoffice and mplayer, can be emerged while you're asleep.
The performance difference can be seen, I dint feel like I'm working on an old system at all - in fact I still think it kicks ass: games run perfectly(even under wine), apps start very quickly and run smoothly.
Indeed, with this post I jumped straight to the comments after the title...I did this even though I find the idea of high schools teaching C++ interesting
I don't personally find spelling errors a big problem when reading, unless they are very drastic. (and yes the title, "High School's should teach C++," is horrible - careless typing mistake). However, noticing that some, such as yourself, look at something(the post) with a different view when it is not properly written, I must admit, convinced me to actually pay more attention to my writing.
I wasn't trying to make a political statement, I was just stating my opinion as if just talking to a group of friends, therefore I don't find it important to write with such care.
If they can't teach you to have an automatic ability to express yourself properly in the language you speak natively
I started learning english about four years ago, therefore you are assuming wrong. If you actually care to know, my English is better than a majority of the natives. In cases I find of importance I dont care to use English to the best of my abilities. I am not trying to impress anyone, I am not pretending to wear a suit - jeans and a shirt are more comfortable.
I didn't think that /. comments are to be written to impress you with their English abilities. I am not writing a paper to check what spelling errors and stupid mistakes I make while writing a comment - as long as the message is clear enough I am satisfied.
I'v been coding in Perl, Java, C and C++ for the past few years and although I prefer using perl and bash I must say that I've learned to think like a programmer having learned C++ first.
,C++ should be taught before Java.
I also eneded up taking a C++ course in High School, and I found that many of my classmates started to think and analyze problems differently. A year later the school changed from C++ to Java ( because the CollegeBoard changed it's CS exams to Java). I also took that class and I noticed that the kids that only took Java, even after completing the course did not learn much - and especially not to think like programmers. I think that this is most likely because Java has so many libraries within that the kids never actually learn what occurs in the "back end." Many fail to understand what a string is, and the majority did not understand algorithms at all, I dont want to mention efficency. Although Java is probablly used more widely, I think that for beginners to learn to think like programmers it would be better to learn a language from which they can learn the basics behind programming, and although I would suggest PASCAL (better for learning algorithms)
Learning DSA with Java is a bit funny, how is having a garbage collector efficent and how will that inspire programmers to write more cautius and efficent code?
Just my opinion, I'd like to learn more.
I used to always work under root, until one night. I was extremely tired and no longer really knew what I was doing. I only remeber typing in "rm *" to remove all the content from the directory, however I was not in the folder I wanted to delete the files from, but in "/". Ofcource, except for a few files none of the important system data & folders were removed - i didnt type "rm -rf *". :)
It was an extremely careless and stupid mistake, however I realized that it would be safer to just create a user account and "su" when I need to - so when I'm in another one of those funky moods I will be harmless because I'll never get my funky 19 char root password right
Of course, if the radio is inop, they'll have to come up with some other idea to warn the pilot.
i fully agree with using a different method of communicating when radio fails,in which case lasers will suffice. however I dont think that this should be(come) the standard way of communication when a plane is in a restricted area.
I apologize for sounding like an asshole...didnt RTFA.
it make more sense to actually send a message to the pilots? I don't think that having a red/green laser beamed at them would be very smart(what would prevent a prankster from doing it?) and i don't think that as a pilot having a laster beamed at you is the most comfortable thing - panic?
and is it just a coincidence that they come up with this idea after they lockup a guy for beaming a laser at a plane?
'Everyone knows that Russians are good at math...Our software writers are the best in the world, that's why our hackers are the best in the world.' Although this is not exactly the most intelligent comment, I think that many of you /.er's are being a bit too hard on this comment. Many americans say very similar things, such as this country is the best, it is the land of the free(then why do we travel to other countries?)
it's pride in nationality, in this case the russians are happy to report that they have smart hackers - intelligence.
most countries take pride in what they can
Although it wasn't I who pulled the trick, a friend and classmate came to school on the first with a Harvard acceptance letter. A teacher got extremely excited and to congratulate my friend gave us no work and allowed us to talk during class(normally this teacher would be extremely strict, although his lessons do not at all relate to Economics or are the least educational). When he told them ,at the end of class, that it was a fake the teacher's face (and most likely thoughts on how to murder my friend) were extremely funny.
All this talk of phones...I'm still trying to figure out the whole cups and a string method!
I was playing around with the satellite image feature last night( and submitted a story on it that was rejected :( ), and although this is a cool feature I think that Google should improve their address/map search first. The search for an adress is not so great and actually gets annoying- Google Maps fails to find adresses which Mapquest easily maps. I love Google Maps, I just think that for a Search company they can most definately improve their adress/map seach.
-just my share
While I laughed at your comment, I found: There are some levels of satisfaction that money can't buy, like watching 100+ snot-nosed future pointy hairs take it up the pooper from Harvard. and other similar comments on this post a bit insulting and actually stupid.
Stereotyping Ivy league students as being rich, snotty, heartless people is stupid and really not nice, especially since you probably don't know that many of them. Some of my friends attend an Ivy league school and they're some of the nicest and most intelligent people I've met. Yes, many rich people tend to be snotty and since they can afford these schools there are more of them there than at another typical school - but it's not nice just bashing these 100+ students because of a stereotype.
Out of these 100+, some might be rich and snotty, however I'm sure many are very intelligent and probably just acted on their curiosity.
Weather you consider their actions unethical or not, I'm sure that most of us have made mistakes, and therefore I think it's improper for us to laugh at them - especially those that originally got accepted - who now suffer a pretty big loss.
As a high school student myself, I notice that most of my classmates are in school only expecting to one day get a job thanks to this "education". Many of their parents no longer tell them to go to school and learn to gain knowledge, but they more commonly they tell them "get your education so you can get a good job." Many teachers also encourage students to "see" that education is important, however their reasoning of why it's important is to get a well payed job. I think that this is due to the way our society is, money-centered.
However, those who actually seek knowledge, although they can learn much from a teacher, usually end up studying what they care to learn about, on their own. Although learning from a professor is probably the easiest way, there are many resources that we can use to study on our own just as well.
Although I've encountered many teachers who no longer care about what education should be, there are teachers who still see educations as something other than a way of getting a job. However, I noticed that even these teachers limit themselves to teaching only what is within the curriculum. Approaching these teachers, I've learned that you can actually have very interesting conversations and learn more than the bullshit that is taught in class. My question is: why don't these teachers share the same information with the whole class?(i'm sure the discussion I had with the teacher would interest the whole class at least as much, if not more, than the crap in the curriculum)
(this is just my share, based on my own experience)
"Wouldn't it be more productive to study ways to combat spam?"
I think that by learning the insides of the spam software and writing spam software they can learn many ways of fighting against spam and probablly find different methods to doing so. But then again there is a chance that they use this course to write more spam software, instead of combating it. Either way I, too, think that "they're just doing this for attention..."
I agree that tests should be used to assign grades, but i dont think that kids should only be taught how to pass a test.
i live in nyc - and we are taught to pass the Regents Examinations...most of the teachers teach the kids only what is on that exam and only how to pass the exam. If you ever took a look at one of the exams you would think that its a joke, its not quality education.
even Advance Placement classes are a joke. take Physics for example. in this class we are basically just taught how to apply formulas when solving problems. your might say, well isnt that the point? no, 80% of my class when given a problem that requires the understanding of a concept, fail to answer the question because they dont understand the material - which is because they are just taught how to pass the test.
to cook enough popcorn?
I'd say go for midgets!
The whole school system is fucked up.
:)]
Everything is being taught in order to pass a test...in the end the whole class ends up learning absolutely nothing.
Teacher's dont tech kids to think more open mindedly, and the students who are free thinkers are usually put down.
example:
1.My friend wrote a brilliant paper on socialism - analyzing different positive effects on society, economy... Another kid in the class wrote a complete bullshit paper on democracy - just kissing ass on how America is so great and how democracy works for all. My friend ended up getting a lower grade, just because the teacher did not agree witht the paper. Because teachers are so biased, many students are reluctant to actually write what they think and usually just end up just kissing ass for a good grade.
2.In class my friend and I usually end up fighting against the rest of the class on topics of discussions, such as weather or not people of different cultural backgrounds (i.e Muslims) should be "watched by Big Brother". The scary thing is that most of my classmates think that its ok for the government to control the media and limit the rights of citizens (and especially those of specific cultural backgrounds). [I'm not 'Middle Eastern', in case you think that I'm defending muslims for personal reasons. I believe in freedom - especially to express yourself. Excuse the horryfic grammar, I'm also an immigrant
Side note: I'm really tired of the bullshit saying: "If you dont like America get out of the country". Many older people have said that to me, and I think that it is a very ignorant thing to say - it's a bullshit counter to the flaws I usually bring up. There are many flaws in the American system, just like any other system, and it is those who rebel - fight for our rights - that, I believe, will reform this country to a better place.
They should have every right to hack into the systems considering they use those systems themselves to check their bank accounts and other personal data, so itll be more like breaking into ur own house to test ur security agains thieves, its not like breaking into any random house, u live in that house. For whatever reason they did this, they couldve approached it a different/better way, but what they did wasnt wrong - the university should spend more on security.
bash ;)
I took the C++ AB (5) last year too and I just took the java AB. I think that the java was a bit more difficult, but then again I didnt pay attention in class or actually study for the test - I dont really like Java ;) Anyway I think that they should go back to Pascal or even C++, so the kids actually learn something instead of just how to copy and paste. Personally I think that they should learn( and understand) algorithms first and then code, java isnt the language to teach a kid how to think like a programmer.
I also am a high school student, to graduate in a 2005. I'm interested in majoring in Electrical Engineering/Comp.Sci. or any other engineering/comp. fields. However, how the economy is going I don't really want to end up with a useless degree. Any suggestions as to what majors I should consider?And would doing some intern jobs for tech companies help with scholarships? (No med please :))
Thanks.
Yeh I agree. But coffee does have one negative effect: bad memory when you dont have any caffeine in you. Heh im 16 and I cant remember a damn thing without coffee. ;)
P.S paroneayea sweet comic