Okay, here's someone who's obviously never used Dreamweaver, or at least to any extent.
I have used Dreamweaver, but when I found it didn't suit my needs I went back to Visual Interdev (for the text colouring only).
.. and while I won't argue that some WYSIWYG editors are good for placing items and text on a web page, it can also use the markup language in ways that it wasn't intended and create very bloated web pages (FrontPage is even worse). WSYIWYG editors also tend to create browser-specific code - another no-no.
Also, increasingly web pages are becoming dynamic. Whether your choice is CGI, PHP, ASP or what have you, WYSIWYG editors make creating dynamic pages quite difficult.
As with any other language (markup, scripting language, etc) you have to do your time. You can't expect to jump straight in when you don't know what you are doing. The worst thing a person can do is expect that a web page can look like an Office (or other word processor) document because that is not the intent of HTML. It's a shame too, because that's exactly what people want. Clearly another more flexible language is needed to fill this void.
...but there's nothing even coming close to Dreamweaver in the way of a GUI HTML editor.
Talk about missing the niche! Someone running *nix is extremely unlikely to use a graphical WYSIWYG-type editor if they are doing any serious web design. It is much more difficult to configure an Apache server (with security patches, etc) than it is to script HTML.
To be perfectly honest, web scripting (HTML, Javascript, DHTML) is best done using a simple and effective text editor with configurable text colouring (IMHO, Visual Interdev is ideal). There is much more control over where items are placed on the page when you script by hand and learning enough HTML tags to be functional in the language is not that difficult.
If you ask me, all *nix needs is a text editor like Windows Notepad that does text colouring. Find me one of those, and I'll be happy.
If he is setting up a Napster clone and Napster plays all goody goody with the RIAA, what will stop Napster from suing the maintainer of the clone?? Heck, they may get the RIAA's help to do it! Is the Napster software protected (or not) by a restrictive license that does/doesn't allow for rogue clones?
As guy who switched from third year Computer Engineering to a new Software Engineering program, I can tell you that Computer Engineering IS a lot of hardware. However, at my school it consisted of a lot of signal analysis, which if you don't like *complex* math, I don't recommend.
I mainly made the switch because Software Engineering is more generic, more open to moving around to different areas. Once you know circuit theory and advanced signal analysis (ie. DSP) you are slotted in a specific area.
Keep in mind though, people like ASIC designers make good coin.
rLowe
Re:I have a journal, and that article was crap
on
Online Journals
·
· Score: 2
"I don't like spam",
"I especially dislike unsolicited advertising",
"Spam is a very difficult thing to filter",
"I wish people would make an honest living" and
"Spam will die because it will eventually be ineffective"
One point unsolicited e-mail advertisers fail to realise is that like other channels, e-mail can be abused. Sending 10 thousand people the same e-mail constitutes abuse of the entire system we know as the Internet as it uses bandwidth that very well could be used for more important things. If a company abuses the phone, electricity, water systems in the same way, they are subject to large penalties. When will the same types of penalties apply to the Internet??
I've never seen a better use of the Anonymous Coward moniker. Someone says I'm whining just because I exercise my right to an opinion and then hides behind anonymity. If you really want me to take you seriously..... aww, forget it - I've already wasted 2 minutes of my life on you already.
Re:Neat review, and question: Trainspotting
on
'Snatch'
·
· Score: 2
I think it was less the shooting style and more of the "I don't give a damn" British attitude that was prevalent in both films. Not that all Brits have this attitude, but most of the players in both movies did.:)
Trainspotting's shooting style is more regular (even the hallucination and chase scenes are filmed quite normally) I think, than Snatch's . But I think that's more of a function of Trainspotting not needing the fancy schmancy editing and filming to entertain the audience. IMHO, Trainspotting is the better movie but they are quite different. Trainspotting is almost a serious movie and Snatch is definitely a comedy (with a side-order of action maybe - pass the mayo).
I have a problem with people that insist I need to be advertised to, because I'd rather not be.
For example, a new radio station where I live had commericial free music for two months and it was great. After they introduced commercials and news, commentary, etc. I stopped listening. I wasn't the only one. This should be telling to advertisers trying to market to "Generation Y" (or "d" if you are that young).
While it's nice to know about the next great product, do I really need 100 or so new products clogging my brain (or my e-mail inbox) every day? What if people clogged your voice mail in such a way??
I disagree that the best way to market to people on the net is by effectively spamming them. This makes their e-mail less useful to them. Filtering software can only pick out so many unsolicited e-mails before it starts picking out e-mails that were actually sent to you PERSONALLY.
It's also a damn shame that people insist on making a buck everywhere they go, but this is the world we live in. Sending 100,000 e-mails is probably cheaper than sending 1,000 flyers to people via snail mail. If you get a greater response, who cares right?
In the short term future, this technique will still work. However, as more and more people treat spamming as a social faux pas, we will see less and less businesses using it as an advertising avenue, simply because no one will respond.
Snatch was a good flick overall, and while it won't go down with other gory/badass/humour movies like Pulp Fiction or The Usual Suspects, it is still one of those movies you HAVE to see... like a Trainspotting, because it is so damn interesting...
IMHO, there wasn't a lot of jittery camera movement. I think what people are talking about is the editing that was done... some of the cuts go by so fast they will make your head spin (ie. the quick concorde flight from New York to London), but that's what makes this movie so interesting to watch...
As for the plot, sometimes it's nice to NOT KNOW what the hell is going on... some directors like it better this way.... besides, the ending brought it together so nicely that it didn't matter if you didn't understand the whole beginning - you'll get it by the end.
I'm not going to say much about this thread, but it really disgusts me that many countries who benefitted greatly from our military "bullying" now treat us with such disrespect.
I think that sums it up right there. European expatriots from the United States come back to Europe to save their native peoples from Hitler and now, just because the US put their budgetary asses on the line AND were quite safe on the other side of the Atlantic from early attacks, means that all Europeans OWE all Americans automatic respect.
Think about this for a second. Imagine someone saved YOUR LIFE one day and every time he saw you he brought it up. Wouldn't you be a little cheesed off? Now extrapolate over millions of people over 50 years and you have a generic European attitude. Also, imagine this same person treated you like shit after he saved your life. Would you care if he saved your life if he treated you like shit? Would your opinion of him still be positive? I doubt it.
The negative European attitude comes from:
1) experience, and
2) hearsay
Now, most people in Europe may have not met an American first hand, but if other people hear something bad about them, it'll stick in their minds and they'll tell people the same thing.... and it just keeps going and going.
Another aspect not discussed here could be simple jealousy. There is no argument that the US is ahead of the European countries in many respects, mostly because European countries have difficulties surpassing tradition, and have (arguably) less significant scientific development. This also causes negativity to arise.
Another thing I can't understand is, why single out FRANCE of all places? There were countries in deeper shit than France before the US helped to end WWII. England, Poland and Czechoslovakia come immediately to mind....
Like I said in my above post, most of the people I know went to Europe and came back with stories of dislike for Americans. For example, some bars in Spain refuse to admit Americans because "they cause too much trouble".
Not to knock the friendliness of the Indian people while you were there, but don't you think it had something to do with the fact that you were in the Army? You wouldn't want to piss off people who were protecting you, in wartime (with another country) or otherwise.
So, I don't know where you get your facts, or if you've ever been out of the country or met anyone from Europe or elsewhere to derive your opinion...
I have been to the US and Barbados so far in my lifetime and neither place had an opinion of the attitudes of Americans.
I get my facts from my FRIENDS and RELATIVES. You know, people that I know IRL, not on IRC. These are people I trust and they have no reason to make up some bullshit stories about Europeans disliking Americans. So when they told me that piece of advice, I thought it would be interesting to share it with/. since it was relevant to back up the statement of the parent post.
Canadians in general laugh about the International attitude toward Americans (since it effects us very little), but we also think that it is pretty sad that such a close neighbor could have such a bad reputation, given we have so much else in common.
5) Internationally, Americans are considered ignorant, rude, bossy, and vain.
...
Contrast with Canadians, who are considered internationally as polite and friendly;
There is no exaggeration here. I have many friends that have travelled to countries abroad (especially Europe) and the best advice they gave me is to keep a Canadian flag visible at all times. The amount of contempt for Americans in Europe is beyond belief in some countries.
I guess being a "bully" doesn't pay off all of the time, "eh"?
I think the reality of this is, no education consumer is actually going to buy into this. If we want people to reject this idea as a whole (ie. a la Divx), then we need to make sure the PUBLIC AT LARGE knows what this could mean to their computing experience, much like most of the public that bought DVDs knew about Divx.
The only difference is, Divx was targetted at computer-savvy early adopters that bought stuff like DVD players early on. Of course these computer savvy people are going to look at this and say, "wait a minute!". However, hard drives are already a big market. If the big boys are persuades to make hard drives that support this and Microshaft make an OS to support it, then it could be all over.
Hypothetically, in order to succeed all of the hard drive manufacturers would have to switch at the same time. Otherwise people would just buy from the last company to switch (heck, maybe they will be so excited they won't switch, however unlikely that will be) and maybe even drive a few of the compliant companies out of business. It will be interesting times...
I guess the only thing we can do is make sure we disseminate information about what there is in store for the hard drives of the future and hope people listen - and reject the idea wholeheartedly.
Of course, you'll get different results with different CD-R media. The brand name ones usually work on most CD-R compatible machines but if you get one of those spools of 50 no-name discs, you may find they only work in the CD-R drive. The last time I used a spool of discs, 10 of the 50 were turned into coasters (and no, they weren't buffer underrun errors) on my HP 8000-series CD-R drive.
I don't think they did license plates, but the satellite footage in real time with the optical resolution they had in the movie was possible, I guess, but still a stretch.... and that was VIDEO from a satellite, not pictures.... just imagine the BANDWIDTH required....
This was the same movie that turned a normal security camera into a rotating 360 degree model...... when I saw that, it pretty much ruined the movie for me.... but I like to pull movies apart like that...
I wonder if this is gonna freak out the folks at Apple
I wouldn't think so. They are no doubt expecting people to customize OS X after basing it on a free OS. I think Apple realises that customization is becoming a big thing, and they can avoid hindering that and base OS X on a proven OS at the same time. Not a bad plan...
I hate to break this to you, but Ottawa is quickly becoming one of the biggest high-tech hubs in Canada. Given the technology companies that surround us here in Ottawa, it's not surprising that the universities are trying to offer a more challenging curriculum to the students.
It is a shame though that this leaves us less time for other things (ie. a social life), but this is the "bad" you have to take with being in this industry. Do you really think that it's going to get any better in the Real World (TM)? - where employers expect you to work minimum 50 hour weeks to pull your weight? Forget it - this is just a warm-up.
Frankly, I'm glad that the universities in Ottawa have some motivation to improve. The general morale of the engineering department at the University of Ottawa is sad at best. Students regularly expect extensions and grade curves from their professors, which requires profs to set easier exams and starts a vicious cycle.
On the other hand, if universities are fighting for students, they have to create a more exciting, challenging program. If they have to weed out people by giving them challenging assignments, then good for the administration for not backing down and easing up. It's about time the universities in Ottawa started on the road to improving their caliber of students. Maybe someday their programs will be right up there with other Canadian universities like Waterloo and U of Toronto, thus motivating them to improve - one of those beneficial cycles.
As for computing clubs, one only has to look at the computing labs to see that a lot of people do their homework at home now, instead of there. This leads to a lot of people getting to the same mistakes and having no one to ask. Granted profs are getting better with e-mail and message boards, but a little face-to-face contact in order to solve simple problems (especially in the first two years) would be better, of course.
I think the bigger issue is where people's motivations lie. People don't want to hang out at school all day in a small computer club room. People have jobs to pay for work, people have social lives (yes, even engineers and computer scientists - I highly recommend one - heh). I think more and more people are realising that if you think about one area too much (ie. computers) you will just burn your brain out. Relaxation is the key, and everyone is different in that respect.
So what to do from here? Start out small. Make a club for people helping people with their homework, even if its on the net. When the community has been built, you might find that people with common interests want to work on a side project. Granted, you may not have much time for it...:)
Ryan Lowe
3 years in Computer Engineering and now in Software Engineering year 2
University of Ottawa
rlowe@[NOSPAM]planetquake.com
Being a good example of an "insomniac", I sleep weird hours, worry my friends, and rarely get a good night's sleep.
What I found out my first year of university (3 years ago) is that if I study for an exam until the early morning and then sleep a few hours, I will actually lose most of the information I learned.
Of course, it all depends on how much you already know before you start "cramming" the night before. Some of my classes are so boring that I used to "barf" the exam, meaning I'd hold as much information in my short-term memory that I could and then (brain) "barf" it on the exam page and leave it there. It is not uncommon for me to forget the entire exam within 24 hours after writing it (sleeping right after the exam probably doesn't help either).
Since then, I've been trying to "time" my sleeping hours (which I have a little bit of control over when I'm a bit over-tired) so that I wake up 16-20 hours before the END of an exam. That way I'll study, write the exam and pass out at exactly the right times.
This has a few risks however. Timing multiple exams is difficult, especially if they occur at the same time on successive days. I usually end up having less time to study for the second exam. This technique is also useless if you are writing two exams on one day (which hasn't happened to me yet, luckily).
Besides memory loss, there are a few other issues along with that. If I stay awake and sleep less than 2 hours, I tend to wake up more groggy than if I had never slept at all. So now I just stay up and crash when I get home.
Also, now that exam time is coming up I have one recommendation about caffiene. If you are going to consume large amounts of caffiene during exams, slowly ramp up your consumption. If you consume a lot of it early on, you will begin to "burn out" a lot quicker and be useless for later exams. However, if you are a regular caffiene (ab)user, this probably won't apply to you.
As a side note, I used to use caffiene to control my sleeping patterns in first year, which were chaotic at best). I probably averaged about 3-4 hours a night. Since then my short-term memory has gone to shit. YMMV.
If you ask me, I'd say that sleeping is the most important thing you can do to prepare for studying. If you can get it, DO IT.
Slashdot Mirror
Okay, here's someone who's obviously never used Dreamweaver, or at least to any extent.
I have used Dreamweaver, but when I found it didn't suit my needs I went back to Visual Interdev (for the text colouring only).
.. and while I won't argue that some WYSIWYG editors are good for placing items and text on a web page, it can also use the markup language in ways that it wasn't intended and create very bloated web pages (FrontPage is even worse). WSYIWYG editors also tend to create browser-specific code - another no-no.
Also, increasingly web pages are becoming dynamic. Whether your choice is CGI, PHP, ASP or what have you, WYSIWYG editors make creating dynamic pages quite difficult.
As with any other language (markup, scripting language, etc) you have to do your time. You can't expect to jump straight in when you don't know what you are doing. The worst thing a person can do is expect that a web page can look like an Office (or other word processor) document because that is not the intent of HTML. It's a shame too, because that's exactly what people want. Clearly another more flexible language is needed to fill this void.
...but there's nothing even coming close to Dreamweaver in the way of a GUI HTML editor.
Talk about missing the niche! Someone running *nix is extremely unlikely to use a graphical WYSIWYG-type editor if they are doing any serious web design. It is much more difficult to configure an Apache server (with security patches, etc) than it is to script HTML.
To be perfectly honest, web scripting (HTML, Javascript, DHTML) is best done using a simple and effective text editor with configurable text colouring (IMHO, Visual Interdev is ideal). There is much more control over where items are placed on the page when you script by hand and learning enough HTML tags to be functional in the language is not that difficult.
If you ask me, all *nix needs is a text editor like Windows Notepad that does text colouring. Find me one of those, and I'll be happy.
"Methinks I should dig up my DVD and watch it again soon"
.... CmdrTaco already has his DVDs 'buried' (with his laserdiscs and tapes, no doubt).
... and eats hot grits with ..... oh, nevermind ....
geez
He probably just stores his DVDs on a 1000GB Beowulf cluster
"and you should see what he can do with a hard boiled egg and a straw"
SHAMELESS!!!
Just a thought:
If he is setting up a Napster clone and Napster plays all goody goody with the RIAA, what will stop Napster from suing the maintainer of the clone?? Heck, they may get the RIAA's help to do it! Is the Napster software protected (or not) by a restrictive license that does/doesn't allow for rogue clones?
rLowe
As guy who switched from third year Computer Engineering to a new Software Engineering program, I can tell you that Computer Engineering IS a lot of hardware. However, at my school it consisted of a lot of signal analysis, which if you don't like *complex* math, I don't recommend.
I mainly made the switch because Software Engineering is more generic, more open to moving around to different areas. Once you know circuit theory and advanced signal analysis (ie. DSP) you are slotted in a specific area.
Keep in mind though, people like ASIC designers make good coin.
rLowe
Is MSNBC run by retards?
... is that rhetorical? ;)
heh
To correct your assumptions:
..... aww, forget it - I've already wasted 2 minutes of my life on you already.
"I don't like spam",
"I especially dislike unsolicited advertising",
"Spam is a very difficult thing to filter",
"I wish people would make an honest living" and
"Spam will die because it will eventually be ineffective"
One point unsolicited e-mail advertisers fail to realise is that like other channels, e-mail can be abused. Sending 10 thousand people the same e-mail constitutes abuse of the entire system we know as the Internet as it uses bandwidth that very well could be used for more important things. If a company abuses the phone, electricity, water systems in the same way, they are subject to large penalties. When will the same types of penalties apply to the Internet??
I've never seen a better use of the Anonymous Coward moniker. Someone says I'm whining just because I exercise my right to an opinion and then hides behind anonymity. If you really want me to take you seriously
I think it was less the shooting style and more of the "I don't give a damn" British attitude that was prevalent in both films. Not that all Brits have this attitude, but most of the players in both movies did. :)
Trainspotting's shooting style is more regular (even the hallucination and chase scenes are filmed quite normally) I think, than Snatch's . But I think that's more of a function of Trainspotting not needing the fancy schmancy editing and filming to entertain the audience. IMHO, Trainspotting is the better movie but they are quite different. Trainspotting is almost a serious movie and Snatch is definitely a comedy (with a side-order of action maybe - pass the mayo).
I have a problem with people that insist I need to be advertised to, because I'd rather not be.
For example, a new radio station where I live had commericial free music for two months and it was great. After they introduced commercials and news, commentary, etc. I stopped listening. I wasn't the only one. This should be telling to advertisers trying to market to "Generation Y" (or "d" if you are that young).
While it's nice to know about the next great product, do I really need 100 or so new products clogging my brain (or my e-mail inbox) every day? What if people clogged your voice mail in such a way??
I disagree that the best way to market to people on the net is by effectively spamming them. This makes their e-mail less useful to them. Filtering software can only pick out so many unsolicited e-mails before it starts picking out e-mails that were actually sent to you PERSONALLY.
It's also a damn shame that people insist on making a buck everywhere they go, but this is the world we live in. Sending 100,000 e-mails is probably cheaper than sending 1,000 flyers to people via snail mail. If you get a greater response, who cares right?
In the short term future, this technique will still work. However, as more and more people treat spamming as a social faux pas, we will see less and less businesses using it as an advertising avenue, simply because no one will respond.
They don't need Matrix technology! They just need some of that technology from Enemy of the State ....
... now that was coo --
... :)
you know, where they take the single POV security camera from the lingerie shop and make a 3D model out of it
oh wait, it was also impossible (did it irk anyone else when they saw it?)
rLowe
Snatch was a good flick overall, and while it won't go down with other gory/badass/humour movies like Pulp Fiction or The Usual Suspects, it is still one of those movies you HAVE to see ... like a Trainspotting, because it is so damn interesting ...
... some of the cuts go by so fast they will make your head spin (ie. the quick concorde flight from New York to London), but that's what makes this movie so interesting to watch ...
... some directors like it better this way .... besides, the ending brought it together so nicely that it didn't matter if you didn't understand the whole beginning - you'll get it by the end.
IMHO, there wasn't a lot of jittery camera movement. I think what people are talking about is the editing that was done
As for the plot, sometimes it's nice to NOT KNOW what the hell is going on
Definitely worth the 12 Canadian bucks. 8/10
I'm not going to say much about this thread, but it really disgusts me that many countries who benefitted greatly from our military "bullying" now treat us with such disrespect.
.... and it just keeps going and going.
....
I think that sums it up right there. European expatriots from the United States come back to Europe to save their native peoples from Hitler and now, just because the US put their budgetary asses on the line AND were quite safe on the other side of the Atlantic from early attacks, means that all Europeans OWE all Americans automatic respect.
Think about this for a second. Imagine someone saved YOUR LIFE one day and every time he saw you he brought it up. Wouldn't you be a little cheesed off? Now extrapolate over millions of people over 50 years and you have a generic European attitude. Also, imagine this same person treated you like shit after he saved your life. Would you care if he saved your life if he treated you like shit? Would your opinion of him still be positive? I doubt it.
The negative European attitude comes from:
1) experience, and
2) hearsay
Now, most people in Europe may have not met an American first hand, but if other people hear something bad about them, it'll stick in their minds and they'll tell people the same thing
Another aspect not discussed here could be simple jealousy. There is no argument that the US is ahead of the European countries in many respects, mostly because European countries have difficulties surpassing tradition, and have (arguably) less significant scientific development. This also causes negativity to arise.
Another thing I can't understand is, why single out FRANCE of all places? There were countries in deeper shit than France before the US helped to end WWII. England, Poland and Czechoslovakia come immediately to mind
Like I said in my above post, most of the people I know went to Europe and came back with stories of dislike for Americans. For example, some bars in Spain refuse to admit Americans because "they cause too much trouble".
...
/. since it was relevant to back up the statement of the parent post.
Not to knock the friendliness of the Indian people while you were there, but don't you think it had something to do with the fact that you were in the Army? You wouldn't want to piss off people who were protecting you, in wartime (with another country) or otherwise.
So, I don't know where you get your facts, or if you've ever been out of the country or met anyone from Europe or elsewhere to derive your opinion
I have been to the US and Barbados so far in my lifetime and neither place had an opinion of the attitudes of Americans.
I get my facts from my FRIENDS and RELATIVES. You know, people that I know IRL, not on IRC. These are people I trust and they have no reason to make up some bullshit stories about Europeans disliking Americans. So when they told me that piece of advice, I thought it would be interesting to share it with
Canadians in general laugh about the International attitude toward Americans (since it effects us very little), but we also think that it is pretty sad that such a close neighbor could have such a bad reputation, given we have so much else in common.
5) Internationally, Americans are considered ignorant, rude, bossy, and vain.
...
Contrast with Canadians, who are considered internationally as polite and friendly;
There is no exaggeration here. I have many friends that have travelled to countries abroad (especially Europe) and the best advice they gave me is to keep a Canadian flag visible at all times. The amount of contempt for Americans in Europe is beyond belief in some countries.
I guess being a "bully" doesn't pay off all of the time, "eh"?
I think the reality of this is, no education consumer is actually going to buy into this. If we want people to reject this idea as a whole (ie. a la Divx), then we need to make sure the PUBLIC AT LARGE knows what this could mean to their computing experience, much like most of the public that bought DVDs knew about Divx.
...
The only difference is, Divx was targetted at computer-savvy early adopters that bought stuff like DVD players early on. Of course these computer savvy people are going to look at this and say, "wait a minute!". However, hard drives are already a big market. If the big boys are persuades to make hard drives that support this and Microshaft make an OS to support it, then it could be all over.
Hypothetically, in order to succeed all of the hard drive manufacturers would have to switch at the same time. Otherwise people would just buy from the last company to switch (heck, maybe they will be so excited they won't switch, however unlikely that will be) and maybe even drive a few of the compliant companies out of business. It will be interesting times
I guess the only thing we can do is make sure we disseminate information about what there is in store for the hard drives of the future and hope people listen - and reject the idea wholeheartedly.
rLowe
Of course, you'll get different results with different CD-R media. The brand name ones usually work on most CD-R compatible machines but if you get one of those spools of 50 no-name discs, you may find they only work in the CD-R drive. The last time I used a spool of discs, 10 of the 50 were turned into coasters (and no, they weren't buffer underrun errors) on my HP 8000-series CD-R drive.
rLowe
Man, there's a new scary movie idea.
.... how about The Abyss?
new? not really
rLowe
no, I think you are thinking of Enemy of the State :o)
.... and that was VIDEO from a satellite, not pictures .... just imagine the BANDWIDTH required ....
...... when I saw that, it pretty much ruined the movie for me .... but I like to pull movies apart like that ...
I don't think they did license plates, but the satellite footage in real time with the optical resolution they had in the movie was possible, I guess, but still a stretch
This was the same movie that turned a normal security camera into a rotating 360 degree model
rLowe
Interesting indeed ...
exactly one minute if I recall correctly ...
...
oh wait, that was Einstein in the Hill Valley Mall parking lot
I wonder if this is gonna freak out the folks at Apple
...
I wouldn't think so. They are no doubt expecting people to customize OS X after basing it on a free OS. I think Apple realises that customization is becoming a big thing, and they can avoid hindering that and base OS X on a proven OS at the same time. Not a bad plan
I hate to break this to you, but Ottawa is quickly becoming one of the biggest high-tech hubs in Canada. Given the technology companies that surround us here in Ottawa, it's not surprising that the universities are trying to offer a more challenging curriculum to the students.
... :)
It is a shame though that this leaves us less time for other things (ie. a social life), but this is the "bad" you have to take with being in this industry. Do you really think that it's going to get any better in the Real World (TM)? - where employers expect you to work minimum 50 hour weeks to pull your weight? Forget it - this is just a warm-up.
Frankly, I'm glad that the universities in Ottawa have some motivation to improve. The general morale of the engineering department at the University of Ottawa is sad at best. Students regularly expect extensions and grade curves from their professors, which requires profs to set easier exams and starts a vicious cycle.
On the other hand, if universities are fighting for students, they have to create a more exciting, challenging program. If they have to weed out people by giving them challenging assignments, then good for the administration for not backing down and easing up. It's about time the universities in Ottawa started on the road to improving their caliber of students. Maybe someday their programs will be right up there with other Canadian universities like Waterloo and U of Toronto, thus motivating them to improve - one of those beneficial cycles.
As for computing clubs, one only has to look at the computing labs to see that a lot of people do their homework at home now, instead of there. This leads to a lot of people getting to the same mistakes and having no one to ask. Granted profs are getting better with e-mail and message boards, but a little face-to-face contact in order to solve simple problems (especially in the first two years) would be better, of course.
I think the bigger issue is where people's motivations lie. People don't want to hang out at school all day in a small computer club room. People have jobs to pay for work, people have social lives (yes, even engineers and computer scientists - I highly recommend one - heh). I think more and more people are realising that if you think about one area too much (ie. computers) you will just burn your brain out. Relaxation is the key, and everyone is different in that respect.
So what to do from here? Start out small. Make a club for people helping people with their homework, even if its on the net. When the community has been built, you might find that people with common interests want to work on a side project. Granted, you may not have much time for it
Ryan Lowe
3 years in Computer Engineering and now in Software Engineering year 2
University of Ottawa
rlowe@[NOSPAM]planetquake.com
Being a good example of an "insomniac", I sleep weird hours, worry my friends, and rarely get a good night's sleep.
:)
What I found out my first year of university (3 years ago) is that if I study for an exam until the early morning and then sleep a few hours, I will actually lose most of the information I learned.
Of course, it all depends on how much you already know before you start "cramming" the night before. Some of my classes are so boring that I used to "barf" the exam, meaning I'd hold as much information in my short-term memory that I could and then (brain) "barf" it on the exam page and leave it there. It is not uncommon for me to forget the entire exam within 24 hours after writing it (sleeping right after the exam probably doesn't help either).
Since then, I've been trying to "time" my sleeping hours (which I have a little bit of control over when I'm a bit over-tired) so that I wake up 16-20 hours before the END of an exam. That way I'll study, write the exam and pass out at exactly the right times.
This has a few risks however. Timing multiple exams is difficult, especially if they occur at the same time on successive days. I usually end up having less time to study for the second exam. This technique is also useless if you are writing two exams on one day (which hasn't happened to me yet, luckily).
Besides memory loss, there are a few other issues along with that. If I stay awake and sleep less than 2 hours, I tend to wake up more groggy than if I had never slept at all. So now I just stay up and crash when I get home.
Also, now that exam time is coming up I have one recommendation about caffiene. If you are going to consume large amounts of caffiene during exams, slowly ramp up your consumption. If you consume a lot of it early on, you will begin to "burn out" a lot quicker and be useless for later exams. However, if you are a regular caffiene (ab)user, this probably won't apply to you.
As a side note, I used to use caffiene to control my sleeping patterns in first year, which were chaotic at best). I probably averaged about 3-4 hours a night. Since then my short-term memory has gone to shit. YMMV.
If you ask me, I'd say that sleeping is the most important thing you can do to prepare for studying. If you can get it, DO IT.
Good luck during exams!
rLowe
PS> Did I mention I'm in engineering?
(yawn) In which case he could have bought a high-end DVD player at a home theatre store. Instead of getting a toy to play them on.
/. post today this article talks about the PS2 as a DVD player.
It seems as though I'm not alone in loathing people who do this. In a new
I don't know, I'm just a poor student. But buying two DVD players when I don't have to just doesn't make sense to me.
rLowe