I think there's a big difference in between saying "An guy is going to come on a cloud on a specific date and the faithful shall float off into the sky." and "The economy and world stability are in bad shape and some bad things are likely to happen in the near future.".
I was moreso talking about the attitude held by your school (ie, that guys shouldn't learn to type).
but it's a long way from being an essential skill of a developer.
About as much as broadband is, which means it is a de facto requirement. Essentially, typing speed is just another measure of throughput between two parts of the system. Just as broadband changes your whole workflow compared to dial-up, so does real typing (at a good speed) compared to pecking. What you're looking at is an 8 to 10x speed up between one of the most often used communication links in the system that requires only that you learn a simple skill and practice it (and practice is easy given that its something you'll be doing anyways virtually every day).
I've seen a lot of developers (many the same guys I was referencing earlier) who hunt and peck to code, and let me say it is downright PAINFUL to watch. If we're at the same desk collaborating on something I almost just want to push them out of the way so I can type it sometimes, because its going so slowly.
Yes, because we all know that regulations NEVER change as the rest of the world does. I'm sure there was someone 100 years ago claiming that due to government regulations mail could "never" be sent via airplane too.
Lots of companies are already doing it. Whether you think it's a good idea is irrelevant, but I will remind you that history is littered with people in an industry arrogantly proclaiming that something new will "never work" because it doesn't fit their past experience. No matter how much they stamp their feet progress marches on.
Most people who think they know word processors and ESPECIALLY spreadsheets without taking a course simply don't know how to use them right. The average idiot on the street still probably thinks Excel is like a database for just keeping track of phone numbers and crap. I've had people at work claim to know Excel and as soon as I started using formulas in front of the (I'm talking basic crap like =A1 + B1) they acted as if I was pulling out some super secret nuclear physicist level knowledge. In reality they though because they could type into the little boxes they knew how to use the software.
Strange. I have older coworkers (close to retirement) that still seem to have that attitude. I learned touch type when I was in school - and got really good at it. I can do about 125wpm or so when I just have a copy or something to transcribe (if I'm thinking of what to say as I type it it's naturally a bit slower). I actually get moderately teased by the older guys of "typing like a secretary". They are in their late 50's/early 60's and somehow feel it more "manly" to hunt and peck:S.
I believe typing is now taught in middle school in my district.
That's when it was available to me, and I am just a tad younger than you guys from the sounds of it. Sounds like the right time to offer it though. No sense in teaching typing to kids that are still learning to read at a basic level.
In all fairness, as someone with a BS in Computer Science, at our school most of those entry level computer usage classes WERE labeled as computer science classes (all 100 level courses), so the general population of students might would get the idea that that's what the major as about. That said, our curriculum had a list of all those courses and specifically stated that THOSE Computer Science courses could not be applied towards a CS degree.
Are you kidding? Virtually everyone in the US hates all that knee-jerk reaction, but realistically at the voting booths are two-party system has left use with a choice between dumb and dumber. The POLITICIANS put those things in place and it's not even fair to say "You elected them!" anymore because those are basically the only choice anyone has these days. I personally vote Libertarian when I get the chance but out of the entire ballot last time I only had ONE that was even listed anywhere.
No real issue with that, but personally holding off on playing a good game(s) for the 6-7 years it's probably going to take between the the release of Wings of Liberty and the final bundle just to save $75 or so seems like a waste.
That's getting into such a niche market segment though that the percentage of people who would both do that in the first place AND care enough about it to not purchase the game based on it is minuscule.
Very few people plan LAN matches anymore. And no, "But I still do!" doesn't refute that. "Very few" does not mean "no one", but it does imply a number low enough that a business doesn't care about it any longer.
Full game - these are being billed as all different "chapters" rather than Wings of Liberty being a full game and the others expansions.
And honestly, it makes sense. Businesses charge what people will pay, and Blizzard can charge full game pricing and still sell a ton of copies. The people that won't pay the full game price but would pay expansion will probably just wait till later to buy it and they'll still make their money.
PS As an addendum to my post - while I say that college has a place, I do think it wise to be realistic when picking your college. It needn't be a huge expense. If you don't have a lot of money or parents who are willing to foot the bill, pick a nice PUBLIC college in your state (assuming it discounts tuition for in-state residents. I think all such schools do but it seems anything you say "all" there's an exception). Some such schools have better reputations than others, but most states have at least a few good ones to choose from. If you can get any level of financial aid it'll cut down on it further.
My total debt in student loans after graduation from such a school was just over $20,000 - and that was including a whole semester that I lost down the drain due to me breaking a leg and having to sit out that semester (but still had to pay for it since I'd started classes already). Without that I'd have been closer to $17,000 or so at graduation.
So basically, 4 years spent getting an education - living expenses included, and all I owed back was the about the price of a relatively cheap car.
I don't think its required. Everything you can learn in college you can learn out of it.
To me, college just establishes some extra stuff. For one, it establishes that you have been tested to some degree on the things you learned, and you passed those tests. It also exposes you to some concepts that might seem boring from an individual study standpoint, but can help in understanding certain types of problems. This is true not only for concepts and classes related to your degree, but also some not related. My CompSci curriculum for example required classes in technical writing and public speaking. The public speaking class, much as I thought it useless going in, actually has helped tremendously throughout my career. That class did wonders for my ability to "think on my feet" when up in front of an audience.
Doesn't mean it's required, but IMHO a college education still has a place in todays society.
Apple, or any other hardware/software manufacturer, can not start blocking sites willy-nilly. It would be considered a free-speech violation most likely, but particularly, in this case, anti-competitive.
Anti-competitive, quite possibly, but free speech is an idea that applies to the government only. Private companies have no requirement to allow free speech at all.
5 dollars get in you into that movie until it comes out on DVD. Then $15 buys it on release day, then $10 a year or two later, finally ending up in the $5 bin a few years after that. The really unpopular ones end up at Big Lots for $3 or so. For the most part though, you can buy plenty of movies for that $5.
Because they like the small plants that start cracking the sidewalk slowly but surely. At first they don't cause much damage, but over time, they begin to crack it.
Trust me, no government EVER subdugates a people immediately and proclaims "Do it cuz we say so - suck it bitches!!!!". No, it's always so called "common sense" measures "for your own good". A little here, a little there. I've had enough of it.
If someone yells fire in a theater - calmy exit - afterall - there is some case for which there could actually be a fire - is it assumed that an orderly evacuation is reserved only when its "for real". Trust me - the teenagers will get bored with pulling the verbal fire alarm soon enough.
Same with newspapers. If the press and speech is completely free then such over the top statements would likely carry about as much weight as when the Weekley World News currently claims that a 3 headed baby is currently educated a frozen Hitler on how to regain power.
Bottom line: I'm tired of the old "Come on now, it's for your own good." line being trotted out time after time as our rights are constantly eroded. I don't want to live in Pleasantville. I simple want a government there to enforce laws against the most obvious of crimes (theft, rape, murder, assault) but otherwise *BUTT THE HELL OUT OF MY LIFE*.
Not at all. Anarchists don't want any laws. I think that laws against theft, rape, murder, assault, etc are all good things and serve to keep our society functioning. A lot of others are superfluous. In this case specifically, it's the restriction on free speech - of ANY kind, that I take issue with.
I think I made my point clear when I said no asterisks. However, since you were kind enough to provide a list of the existing asterisks, kindly reference it. Those are the restrictions I want undone.
At this point I'm tired of that damned example. These days it's used more and more as precedent to just keep eroding freedom of speech until its meaningless. A few years back someone in my state's legislature tried to outlaw PROFANITY citing that it has already been established that some speech is not protected (citing the "Fire!" bit).
Fuck the fire in the theater example. If someone yells fire in a theater, calmly exit the building in an orderly fashion. Free speech should mean free speech with no asterisks beside it.
It's not just people working by a pool. All my desktop displays are matte how I like them, but when I bought my laptop I was in a crunch and just bought whatever was on sale. Sadly, that meant a glossy screen.
I typically only use my laptop when travelling which means I use it mostly in hotel rooms. Most hotels use numerous lamps and wall lights - not many use a single ceiling light. End result is that I literally cannot use the machine without walking around the room and turning off every single light in the room and working in the dark.
Glossy screens are about the dumbest idea every created. People used to buy anti-glare filters for their CRT's to get rid of the glare problem that was solved by LCD's. When we first moved to LCD's that problem was gone. Over. History. No longer an issue. Then some idiot decided to artificially recreate the same problem LCD's had solved.
It reminds me on when one of our supervisors decided that for easy reference, the assigned DNS names of all the machines on the network would be their serial numbers. So we used DNS - a technology designed to map obscure numbers to an easily identifiable name - to map those to an even more random and obscure number. Result is that now everyone just remembers the systems by IP now. It's easier.
Slashdot Mirror
I think there's a big difference in between saying "An guy is going to come on a cloud on a specific date and the faithful shall float off into the sky." and "The economy and world stability are in bad shape and some bad things are likely to happen in the near future.".
I don't buy dog food (don't like animals), but I do buy breakfast cereal. Where else am I going to find Count Chocula? :)
I was moreso talking about the attitude held by your school (ie, that guys shouldn't learn to type).
but it's a long way from being an essential skill of a developer.
About as much as broadband is, which means it is a de facto requirement. Essentially, typing speed is just another measure of throughput between two parts of the system. Just as broadband changes your whole workflow compared to dial-up, so does real typing (at a good speed) compared to pecking. What you're looking at is an 8 to 10x speed up between one of the most often used communication links in the system that requires only that you learn a simple skill and practice it (and practice is easy given that its something you'll be doing anyways virtually every day).
I've seen a lot of developers (many the same guys I was referencing earlier) who hunt and peck to code, and let me say it is downright PAINFUL to watch. If we're at the same desk collaborating on something I almost just want to push them out of the way so I can type it sometimes, because its going so slowly.
Yes, because we all know that regulations NEVER change as the rest of the world does. I'm sure there was someone 100 years ago claiming that due to government regulations mail could "never" be sent via airplane too.
Lots of companies are already doing it. Whether you think it's a good idea is irrelevant, but I will remind you that history is littered with people in an industry arrogantly proclaiming that something new will "never work" because it doesn't fit their past experience. No matter how much they stamp their feet progress marches on.
Most people who think they know word processors and ESPECIALLY spreadsheets without taking a course simply don't know how to use them right. The average idiot on the street still probably thinks Excel is like a database for just keeping track of phone numbers and crap. I've had people at work claim to know Excel and as soon as I started using formulas in front of the (I'm talking basic crap like =A1 + B1) they acted as if I was pulling out some super secret nuclear physicist level knowledge. In reality they though because they could type into the little boxes they knew how to use the software.
Strange. I have older coworkers (close to retirement) that still seem to have that attitude. I learned touch type when I was in school - and got really good at it. I can do about 125wpm or so when I just have a copy or something to transcribe (if I'm thinking of what to say as I type it it's naturally a bit slower). I actually get moderately teased by the older guys of "typing like a secretary". They are in their late 50's/early 60's and somehow feel it more "manly" to hunt and peck :S.
I believe typing is now taught in middle school in my district.
That's when it was available to me, and I am just a tad younger than you guys from the sounds of it. Sounds like the right time to offer it though. No sense in teaching typing to kids that are still learning to read at a basic level.
In all fairness, as someone with a BS in Computer Science, at our school most of those entry level computer usage classes WERE labeled as computer science classes (all 100 level courses), so the general population of students might would get the idea that that's what the major as about. That said, our curriculum had a list of all those courses and specifically stated that THOSE Computer Science courses could not be applied towards a CS degree.
IANARH (I am not anything relevant here)
Is there any use at all for using a single instance of a made-up acronym so obscure that you have to immediately spell it out afterwards?
Are you kidding? Virtually everyone in the US hates all that knee-jerk reaction, but realistically at the voting booths are two-party system has left use with a choice between dumb and dumber. The POLITICIANS put those things in place and it's not even fair to say "You elected them!" anymore because those are basically the only choice anyone has these days. I personally vote Libertarian when I get the chance but out of the entire ballot last time I only had ONE that was even listed anywhere.
No real issue with that, but personally holding off on playing a good game(s) for the 6-7 years it's probably going to take between the the release of Wings of Liberty and the final bundle just to save $75 or so seems like a waste.
That's getting into such a niche market segment though that the percentage of people who would both do that in the first place AND care enough about it to not purchase the game based on it is minuscule.
Very few people plan LAN matches anymore. And no, "But I still do!" doesn't refute that. "Very few" does not mean "no one", but it does imply a number low enough that a business doesn't care about it any longer.
Full game - these are being billed as all different "chapters" rather than Wings of Liberty being a full game and the others expansions.
And honestly, it makes sense. Businesses charge what people will pay, and Blizzard can charge full game pricing and still sell a ton of copies. The people that won't pay the full game price but would pay expansion will probably just wait till later to buy it and they'll still make their money.
Snes9x remember - it has its own licensing scheme which is not GPL. It forbids commercial usage, regardless of if they give you the source or not.
PS As an addendum to my post - while I say that college has a place, I do think it wise to be realistic when picking your college. It needn't be a huge expense. If you don't have a lot of money or parents who are willing to foot the bill, pick a nice PUBLIC college in your state (assuming it discounts tuition for in-state residents. I think all such schools do but it seems anything you say "all" there's an exception). Some such schools have better reputations than others, but most states have at least a few good ones to choose from. If you can get any level of financial aid it'll cut down on it further.
My total debt in student loans after graduation from such a school was just over $20,000 - and that was including a whole semester that I lost down the drain due to me breaking a leg and having to sit out that semester (but still had to pay for it since I'd started classes already). Without that I'd have been closer to $17,000 or so at graduation.
So basically, 4 years spent getting an education - living expenses included, and all I owed back was the about the price of a relatively cheap car.
I don't think its required. Everything you can learn in college you can learn out of it.
To me, college just establishes some extra stuff. For one, it establishes that you have been tested to some degree on the things you learned, and you passed those tests. It also exposes you to some concepts that might seem boring from an individual study standpoint, but can help in understanding certain types of problems. This is true not only for concepts and classes related to your degree, but also some not related. My CompSci curriculum for example required classes in technical writing and public speaking. The public speaking class, much as I thought it useless going in, actually has helped tremendously throughout my career. That class did wonders for my ability to "think on my feet" when up in front of an audience.
Doesn't mean it's required, but IMHO a college education still has a place in todays society.
Apple, or any other hardware/software manufacturer, can not start blocking sites willy-nilly. It would be considered a free-speech violation most likely, but particularly, in this case, anti-competitive.
Anti-competitive, quite possibly, but free speech is an idea that applies to the government only. Private companies have no requirement to allow free speech at all.
5 dollars get in you into that movie until it comes out on DVD. Then $15 buys it on release day, then $10 a year or two later, finally ending up in the $5 bin a few years after that. The really unpopular ones end up at Big Lots for $3 or so. For the most part though, you can buy plenty of movies for that $5.
Really? Can you tell me why?
Because they like the small plants that start cracking the sidewalk slowly but surely. At first they don't cause much damage, but over time, they begin to crack it.
Trust me, no government EVER subdugates a people immediately and proclaims "Do it cuz we say so - suck it bitches!!!!". No, it's always so called "common sense" measures "for your own good". A little here, a little there. I've had enough of it.
If someone yells fire in a theater - calmy exit - afterall - there is some case for which there could actually be a fire - is it assumed that an orderly evacuation is reserved only when its "for real". Trust me - the teenagers will get bored with pulling the verbal fire alarm soon enough.
Same with newspapers. If the press and speech is completely free then such over the top statements would likely carry about as much weight as when the Weekley World News currently claims that a 3 headed baby is currently educated a frozen Hitler on how to regain power.
Bottom line: I'm tired of the old "Come on now, it's for your own good." line being trotted out time after time as our rights are constantly eroded. I don't want to live in Pleasantville. I simple want a government there to enforce laws against the most obvious of crimes (theft, rape, murder, assault) but otherwise *BUTT THE HELL OUT OF MY LIFE*.
You are an anarchist then?
Not at all. Anarchists don't want any laws. I think that laws against theft, rape, murder, assault, etc are all good things and serve to keep our society functioning. A lot of others are superfluous. In this case specifically, it's the restriction on free speech - of ANY kind, that I take issue with.
Which restriction do you think should be undone?
I think I made my point clear when I said no asterisks. However, since you were kind enough to provide a list of the existing asterisks, kindly reference it. Those are the restrictions I want undone.
But yelling fire in a cinema?
At this point I'm tired of that damned example. These days it's used more and more as precedent to just keep eroding freedom of speech until its meaningless. A few years back someone in my state's legislature tried to outlaw PROFANITY citing that it has already been established that some speech is not protected (citing the "Fire!" bit).
Fuck the fire in the theater example. If someone yells fire in a theater, calmly exit the building in an orderly fashion. Free speech should mean free speech with no asterisks beside it.
Whoa.
It's not just people working by a pool. All my desktop displays are matte how I like them, but when I bought my laptop I was in a crunch and just bought whatever was on sale. Sadly, that meant a glossy screen.
I typically only use my laptop when travelling which means I use it mostly in hotel rooms. Most hotels use numerous lamps and wall lights - not many use a single ceiling light. End result is that I literally cannot use the machine without walking around the room and turning off every single light in the room and working in the dark.
Glossy screens are about the dumbest idea every created. People used to buy anti-glare filters for their CRT's to get rid of the glare problem that was solved by LCD's. When we first moved to LCD's that problem was gone. Over. History. No longer an issue. Then some idiot decided to artificially recreate the same problem LCD's had solved.
It reminds me on when one of our supervisors decided that for easy reference, the assigned DNS names of all the machines on the network would be their serial numbers. So we used DNS - a technology designed to map obscure numbers to an easily identifiable name - to map those to an even more random and obscure number. Result is that now everyone just remembers the systems by IP now. It's easier.