Information Security masters. Tiny classes (10-18 students), not terribly expensive, great experience, certified by NSA.
Wait. I'm not sure about the NSA's motivation in certifying such a program. It's not exactly in their interest to have schools teaching how to make really, really secure (as in NSA-proof) networks.;)
Not to mention that the 'online environment' in an online school won't quite be the 'natural environment', it'll be proprietary web forums and chatrooms, etc.
Adding that one advantage to meatspace school is that you're more likely to meet students in other specialties or levels in a social context. I'd think that in an online school you'd tend to mix only with your most immediate peers, and, frankly, the "quality" of your classmates might dissuade you from socializing more broadly with fellow students. In a physical school you might meet the classmate's older brother or sister or friend who's a few years ahead and doing something you're interested in.
I work in a medical school, in the neurobiology department. On most fridays there's a department beer hour hosted by a lab (it rotates among them). Everyone gets together, mingles, eats and drinks, and talks about what they're working on and science in general.
Finally, in real school your teachers and TAs are probably more likely to be fruitful professional contacts. I have a hard time imagining an online instructor doing so.
I always liked how it was different from function syntax. Obj-C was my first OO language, and I had a conceptualization of objects as being semi-independent entities, so it felt natural to express message passing in a different syntax from 'mere' C functions.
A lot of companies wanted Java for their internal apps, because C++ was just too nasty. For them, it was definitely a matter of replacement, at least for those apps. The banks that used NeXTStep/OpenStep in the 90s wanted to get away from the inherent vendor risk, and they eventually bailed out to Java. They could have bailed out to C++ any time in the 90s if that were seen as acceptable. (Some probably did.)
"I remember one commenter on this site referring to C++ as the AK47 of languages."
Nah, the AK47 is a pretty simple machine. C++ is more like one of the newfangled future combat system guns with computerized everything, programmable grenades, etc, etc, etc.
Animals interact with a complex world, encountering a variety of challenges: They must gather data about the environment, discover useful structures in these data, store and recall information about past events, plan and guide actions, learn the consequences of these actions, etc. These are, in part, computational problems that are solved by networks of neurons, from roughly 100 cells in a small worm to 100 billion in humans. Methods in Computational Neuroscience introduces students to the computational and mathematical techniques that are used to address how the brain solves these problems at levels of neural organization ranging from single membrane channels to operations of the entire brain.
In each of the first three weeks, the course focuses on material at increasing levels of complexity (molecular/cellular, network, cognitive/behavioral), but always with an eye on these questions: Can we derive biologically plausible mechanisms that explain how nervous systems solve specific computational problems that arise in the laboratory or natural environment? Can these problems be decomposed into manageable pieces, and can we relate such mathematical decompositions to the observable properties of individual neurons and circuits? Can we identify the molecular mechanisms that provide the building blocks for these computations, as well as understand how the building blocks are organized into cells and circuits that perform useful functions?
Core presentations in weeks one to three will be given jointly by theorists and experimentalists who have worked, often together, on the same problems. In the first week, to supplement the lectures, there will be numerous optional tutorials covering topics including dynamical systems, information theory, UNIX basics, and simulation using NEURON, MATLAB, and XPP. As each week progresses, the issues brought up in these presentations will be explored in laboratory demonstrations and exercises that invite the students to follow and generalize from the paths outlined in the lectures. Exercises involve both quantitative analysis of experimental data and exploration of models through analytic and numerical techniques. To reinforce the theme of collaboration between theory and experiment, exercises are often performed in teams that combine students with theoretical and experimental backgrounds.
The fourth week of the course is reserved for student projects. These projects provide the opportunity for students to work closely with the resident faculty, to develop ideas that grew out of the lectures and seminars, and to connect these ideas with problems from the students' own research topics.
This course is appropriate for graduate students, postdocs and faculty in a variety of fields, from zoology, ethology, and neurobiology, to physics, engineering, and mathematics. Students are expected to have a strong background in one discipline, and to have made some effort to introduce themselves to a complementary discipline. The course is limited to 24 students, who will be chosen to balance the representation of theoretical and experimental backgrounds..
Those are probably areas that are not particularly walkable. Hell, stationary sidewalks aren't even omnipresent in the US suburbs, and these people think we should build maintenance-nightmare, energy wasting, moving sidewalks?
If you want these people to walk instead of drive, the first step would be to tear up the parking lots and install street-level retail where restaurants could be established.
The only person who would think moving sidewalks are a good idea is a person with a patent for a moving sidewalk and a PR firm on retainer.
" Java wasn't originally open source and was a poorly designed language that got lots of marketing impetus from Sun, hence it's widespread adoption."
Also companies were positively gagging for something simpler than C++, but most weren't interested in/couldn't afford/didn't want to risk investing in NeXT's stuff. Even NeXT's corporate clients started trying to port to Java ASAP, presumably in hopes of reducing small-vendor risk and getting access to cheaper development environments.
"In fact, even when it comes to 'corporate software services', even when the database/application that needs to be worked on is hosted on Unix servers, you'll invariably find each developer working on a Windows PC 'telnet-ing'/'ssh-ing' to the Unix machine. "
That's unwise. Windows is crap for that. Last time I did that, as a "build master" for a big weblogic project, I brought my Macbook Pro in from home so that I could use a bunch of Terminal.app windows to connect to the various Unix servers to do builds and deployments and restarts etc, monitor logs, etc. Everyone else was using Windows.
Terminal emulators on Windows tend to be crappy, and all too often are for some reason modeled after the Windows Command window thingy, which is an abortion.
Slashdot Mirror
Information Security masters. Tiny classes (10-18 students), not terribly expensive, great experience, certified by NSA.
Wait. I'm not sure about the NSA's motivation in certifying such a program. It's not exactly in their interest to have schools teaching how to make really, really secure (as in NSA-proof) networks. ;)
Not to mention that the 'online environment' in an online school won't quite be the 'natural environment', it'll be proprietary web forums and chatrooms, etc.
Adding that one advantage to meatspace school is that you're more likely to meet students in other specialties or levels in a social context. I'd think that in an online school you'd tend to mix only with your most immediate peers, and, frankly, the "quality" of your classmates might dissuade you from socializing more broadly with fellow students. In a physical school you might meet the classmate's older brother or sister or friend who's a few years ahead and doing something you're interested in.
I work in a medical school, in the neurobiology department. On most fridays there's a department beer hour hosted by a lab (it rotates among them). Everyone gets together, mingles, eats and drinks, and talks about what they're working on and science in general.
Finally, in real school your teachers and TAs are probably more likely to be fruitful professional contacts. I have a hard time imagining an online instructor doing so.
Hell, I'm wary of taking the online offerings from the real university I graduated from (Drexel).
On the one hand, it's a real school. On the other hand, the temptation to go for the money-grab may be too great.
MIT OpenCourseware's content is highly variable. Some (a few?) courses are pretty complete, even with full lecture video or audio, etc.
Others have, maybe, lecture slides (lacking context for the points made) and a syllabus, which often isn't quite enough to work with.
So, wait.
You enrolled at the insistence of your employer...
But your employer's HR director discounts resumes of people with U of Phoenix on their resume.
WTF?
Re: method syntax
I always liked how it was different from function syntax. Obj-C was my first OO language, and I had a conceptualization of objects as being semi-independent entities, so it felt natural to express message passing in a different syntax from 'mere' C functions.
Objective-C is definitely simpler than C++. A little complexity is creeping in now, especially with Blocks. But overall it adds very little to C.
Doh. You're right. Reading fail.
I suspect rocket scientists would prefer to focus on the difficulties of rocket science, without having to *also* deal with the complexities of C++.
"In response to != replace"
A lot of companies wanted Java for their internal apps, because C++ was just too nasty. For them, it was definitely a matter of replacement, at least for those apps. The banks that used NeXTStep/OpenStep in the 90s wanted to get away from the inherent vendor risk, and they eventually bailed out to Java. They could have bailed out to C++ any time in the 90s if that were seen as acceptable. (Some probably did.)
"I remember one commenter on this site referring to C++ as the AK47 of languages."
Nah, the AK47 is a pretty simple machine. C++ is more like one of the newfangled future combat system guns with computerized everything, programmable grenades, etc, etc, etc.
But... he's been on Letterman.
Anyone have an opinion on the UMass Boston CS master's/PhD programs?
Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory has a 4 week summer seminar on Methods In Computational Neuroscience. It's too late to apply for this year, but you might try again next year.
That's QuickDraw 32, the 32-bit extension to the original QuickDraw.
Um, the "safe limit" is not the point at which it's fatal.
For monkeys, the LD50 (median lethal dose) of dioxin is 114-280 g/kg of monkey weight, taken orally.
But nasty effects can start at lower doses.
She. And it's a blog, not a dissertation defense.
lol
Hey, China will have more people who can get a column in Parade magazine (or local equivalent) answering stupid peoples' stupid questions.
Actually I think they have some sort of smart whiteboard type thingy that they designed in-house and is hooked up to their systems to do kewl stuff.
Big deal.
Those are probably areas that are not particularly walkable. Hell, stationary sidewalks aren't even omnipresent in the US suburbs, and these people think we should build maintenance-nightmare, energy wasting, moving sidewalks?
If you want these people to walk instead of drive, the first step would be to tear up the parking lots and install street-level retail where restaurants could be established.
The only person who would think moving sidewalks are a good idea is a person with a patent for a moving sidewalk and a PR firm on retainer.
" Java wasn't originally open source and was a poorly designed language that got lots of marketing impetus from Sun, hence it's widespread adoption."
Also companies were positively gagging for something simpler than C++, but most weren't interested in/couldn't afford/didn't want to risk investing in NeXT's stuff. Even NeXT's corporate clients started trying to port to Java ASAP, presumably in hopes of reducing small-vendor risk and getting access to cheaper development environments.
"In fact, even when it comes to 'corporate software services', even when the database/application that needs to be worked on is hosted on Unix servers, you'll invariably find each developer working on a Windows PC 'telnet-ing'/'ssh-ing' to the Unix machine. "
That's unwise. Windows is crap for that. Last time I did that, as a "build master" for a big weblogic project, I brought my Macbook Pro in from home so that I could use a bunch of Terminal.app windows to connect to the various Unix servers to do builds and deployments and restarts etc, monitor logs, etc. Everyone else was using Windows.
Terminal emulators on Windows tend to be crappy, and all too often are for some reason modeled after the Windows Command window thingy, which is an abortion.