In france, the compulsory formation before you get the driving license teaches you how the car works, and how to do simple maintenance on it, including changing a flat tyre and checking lubricant levels. You have to pass an exam and cannot get the license without demostrating this knowledge.
So I find your anecdote... quite peculiar.
What can I say.. it happened in Caen; perhaps the locals there know how to get around the regulations.
A couple of years ago I was asked to teach a Masters level course in software development. During one discussion, we somehow got on to the subject of cars, and what made them go. Faced with baffled faces and a stunned silence, I drilled a bit deeper and found that none of them actually knew how an internal combustion engine worked - had no idea as to what made it go other than they had to put petrol in every so often. They had cars, drove them, but none of them knew anything about the mechanism under the hood.
This reminds me of a visit to France earlier this year. My wife and I were walking past a couple when my wife slowed down, turned to me, and said "I don't think the man knows what to do about their flat tyre - the girl has just said to him that he'll have to ask someone." They were well into their 20s, but neither had a clue. With the help of my wife as a translator, I changed the wheel for them. You should have seen their faces when I 'amazed them' with my knowledge, e.g., I knew that there'd be a special adapter required to take off one of the wheel-nuts; and that it was probably in the car's glove compartment (which it was).
I'm at a loss to explain this. Where has 'curiosity' gone; especially in males!? They all seem too much into self grooming products and how they look these days.
I find the VS debugger to be simply wonderful; as do others. In my institution, a lot of developers (mostly Ph.D. students) who have to target Linux, choose to run VS in a VM and develop/debug under Windows before recompiling under Linux. This is so popular that some have automated the process somewhat and perform Linux daily builds (only).
I've used GDB in the past, but wasn't impressed: so I'm wondering why, if the VS debugger under Windows is so good, why don't more people don't do this sort of thing?
Donald Knuth is an elitist. It is not necessary to have a background in mathematics to write software. I taught myself PHP and I certainly don't have any kind of mathematics background whatsoever. It isn't dumbing down as he claims. It's about creating opportunities. If you can code and you can do it well without mathematics, so be it. The math side is for those that want to do research. I work in the real world....
Um, IMHO, no he isn't.
Formally, there's a big difference between being a 'Coder/Programmer/Developer' and 'Software Engineer' and 'Computer Scientist'. The latter two usually require a mathematical understanding of what a computer system is (includes programs, OSes, networks, languages,...) and how it will perform.
At my own institution, our CS degree was really a pure mathematics degree at one time... the department had a saying "The computers are for email and writing up, please use the blackboards for the Computer Science". We do these days teach some programming - because it's expected - but we usually use this to animate the mathematics.
I agree, in that it was more fun (don't know if it was more cool).
At university, I never saw the machine we programmed. Back then it was coding sheets handed through a hatch and because the university leased much of its computing out to local companies, a 24 hour debug cycle. The fun in this was in getting your code correct the first time.
When I got a computer of my own (kit ZX80) I pretty much used machine code exclusively. The fun there was in coding directly to the 'machine' if you will, and in learning and using the cpu's primitives, and to some degree, what was going on at the logic level inside the chip.
The only fun I get out of contemporary computing these days is in teaching it as an academic. The fun is when you see students 'get' some subtle concept and their eyes light up.
Or expose college students to ideas that they disagree with without also providing them a safe space and reassuring them that those nasty people over there are definitely mysogynistic racist bigoted homophobic nazis and nobody likes those guys at all and you're so special, little snowflake.
As the title says, I'm getting on now - and even thinking of properly retiring.
Ever since I was aware of such things, I was always very much more than hopeful - convinced really - that we would receive some signal (in a 'Contact' fashion) before I was placed into my box (cremate/inter:- hey surprise me!) An example of self-centred hubris in the ‘belief of ourselves’, including me of course!
Still, I live in hope.
Goodness knows what it would do to all those religious fundamentalists though!
.. still can't punctuate or use grammar. Shame. The retiring generation is more literate and numerate than the average undergraduate apparently. Shame again.
If you'd have just added a Facebook 'Like' widget (I didn't just miss that did I?), you would have won first prize for the worst, most shit like news site that I thought could only exist in a nightmare.
>>and they spent too much time trying to get it to run windows programs
Who did?
I worked on the Windows Libraries for OS/2 (WLO) and it was a pure Microsoft effort, and it worked just fine thank you very much - in fact, thanks to some of the features we could take advantage of, like PM's graphics paths, we could out perform Win 3.1 too.
In my university's CS department, we mostly use computers for email, i.e., our professors, readers, lecturers don't program, but spend their time thinking about the theory of computation; which means doing maths. And to be honest, that's what a CS academic should be imho.
Slashdot Mirror
In france, the compulsory formation before you get the driving license teaches you how the car works, and how to do simple maintenance on it, including changing a flat tyre and checking lubricant levels. You have to pass an exam and cannot get the license without demostrating this knowledge.
So I find your anecdote... quite peculiar.
What can I say .. it happened in Caen; perhaps the locals there know how to get around the regulations.
You're right - and it's not just kids.
A couple of years ago I was asked to teach a Masters level course in software development. During one discussion, we somehow got on to the subject of cars, and what made them go. Faced with baffled faces and a stunned silence, I drilled a bit deeper and found that none of them actually knew how an internal combustion engine worked - had no idea as to what made it go other than they had to put petrol in every so often. They had cars, drove them, but none of them knew anything about the mechanism under the hood.
This reminds me of a visit to France earlier this year. My wife and I were walking past a couple when my wife slowed down, turned to me, and said "I don't think the man knows what to do about their flat tyre - the girl has just said to him that he'll have to ask someone." They were well into their 20s, but neither had a clue. With the help of my wife as a translator, I changed the wheel for them. You should have seen their faces when I 'amazed them' with my knowledge, e.g., I knew that there'd be a special adapter required to take off one of the wheel-nuts; and that it was probably in the car's glove compartment (which it was).
I'm at a loss to explain this. Where has 'curiosity' gone; especially in males!? They all seem too much into self grooming products and how they look these days.
Can't see a problem.
Pardon my lack of knowledge; but, it's possible to install Linux on a Mac (but not Windows)? And the same with BSD? Holy smokes - when'd that happen!?
We have 'Switft on Security', whoever HE is. What can go wrong?
What's that?
And breathe!
I'm more than curious.
I find the VS debugger to be simply wonderful; as do others. In my institution, a lot of developers (mostly Ph.D. students) who have to target Linux, choose to run VS in a VM and develop/debug under Windows before recompiling under Linux. This is so popular that some have automated the process somewhat and perform Linux daily builds (only).
I've used GDB in the past, but wasn't impressed: so I'm wondering why, if the VS debugger under Windows is so good, why don't more people don't do this sort of thing?
Mine @peetm is partly a bot - tweeking for me.
tweeking = tweeting + twerking
Mine @peetm is partly a bot - tweeking for me.
Is anything 1000,0000 low?
But hardly unexpected it seems to me.
Donald Knuth is an elitist. It is not necessary to have a background in mathematics to write software. I taught myself PHP and I certainly don't have any kind of mathematics background whatsoever. It isn't dumbing down as he claims. It's about creating opportunities. If you can code and you can do it well without mathematics, so be it. The math side is for those that want to do research. I work in the real world ....
Um, IMHO, no he isn't.
Formally, there's a big difference between being a 'Coder/Programmer/Developer' and 'Software Engineer' and 'Computer Scientist'. The latter two usually require a mathematical understanding of what a computer system is (includes programs, OSes, networks, languages, ...) and how it will perform.
At my own institution, our CS degree was really a pure mathematics degree at one time ... the department had a saying "The computers are for email and writing up, please use the blackboards for the Computer Science". We do these days teach some programming - because it's expected - but we usually use this to animate the mathematics.
I agree, in that it was more fun (don't know if it was more cool).
At university, I never saw the machine we programmed. Back then it was coding sheets handed through a hatch and because the university leased much of its computing out to local companies, a 24 hour debug cycle. The fun in this was in getting your code correct the first time.
When I got a computer of my own (kit ZX80) I pretty much used machine code exclusively. The fun there was in coding directly to the 'machine' if you will, and in learning and using the cpu's primitives, and to some degree, what was going on at the logic level inside the chip.
The only fun I get out of contemporary computing these days is in teaching it as an academic. The fun is when you see students 'get' some subtle concept and their eyes light up.
Or expose college students to ideas that they disagree with without also providing them a safe space and reassuring them that those nasty people over there are definitely mysogynistic racist bigoted homophobic nazis and nobody likes those guys at all and you're so special, little snowflake.
Hear hear!
Stop changing the fucking interface.
"That is, more than two F-35s were lost for each Su-35 shot down."
Wow thanks for explaining that :-)
...but it has the consequence that one person's clear C++ is another person's incomprehensible C++
That makes writing underhanded C++ a rather pointless exercise.
No it doesn't - it's good for job security because no one else knows what your code does.
As the title says, I'm getting on now - and even thinking of properly retiring.
Ever since I was aware of such things, I was always very much more than hopeful - convinced really - that we would receive some signal (in a 'Contact' fashion) before I was placed into my box (cremate/inter :- hey surprise me!) An example of self-centred hubris in the ‘belief of ourselves’, including me of course!
Still, I live in hope.
Goodness knows what it would do to all those religious fundamentalists though!
.. still can't punctuate or use grammar. Shame. The retiring generation is more literate and numerate than the average undergraduate apparently. Shame again.
don't listen to him ... you WILL regret it.
Don't knock our holy JC.
If you'd have just added a Facebook 'Like' widget (I didn't just miss that did I?), you would have won first prize for the worst, most shit like news site that I thought could only exist in a nightmare.
Summary: it's fucking awful!
Prediction: you'll just ahead anyway.
>>and they spent too much time trying to get it to run windows programs
Who did?
I worked on the Windows Libraries for OS/2 (WLO) and it was a pure Microsoft effort, and it worked just fine thank you very much - in fact, thanks to some of the features we could take advantage of, like PM's graphics paths, we could out perform Win 3.1 too.
"Is It Possible To Erase Yourself From the Internet?"
Should be
"Is It Possible To Erase Yourself From the world-wide-web?"
The Internet is the network, not the content the op is talking about.
In my university's CS department, we mostly use computers for email, i.e., our professors, readers, lecturers don't program, but spend their time thinking about the theory of computation; which means doing maths. And to be honest, that's what a CS academic should be imho.