Ignore the twerps who claim speeders don't kill, what you need is traffic lights etc. They are recycling folk mythology.
However what that response should tell you, which you knew already, is that motorists consider it their right to break the law. Therefore don't expect to make many friends.
My advice is don't try to reinvent the wheel, there are many proven suppliers of portable kit of various sorts. Having said that you would need to show things like you trained the operators and had checking systems in place. The cost of kit then becomes small in relation to the cost of ensuring it is used properly.
As law enforcement really relies on deterrent (Oh dear there might be a speed check and I might lose my licence as a result) this has to be an issue that gets through the skull of drivers. Here is how I suggest you go about your mission:
Research some statistics - This will involve more than Googling, You'll have to ask hospitals, city authorities and the ministry of transport etc. You can also do some sums on the cost to the economy of accidents.
Find out what the police actually do. See if you can get them on your side. I expect there are plenty of police officials who would like a juicy grant to buy new shiny toys. Ask if you can see what they do in practice. (Perhaps they are hamstrung by politics, red-tape etc. that you might be able to pressurise the city/ministry about.)
Build a support base - Presumably there are a few people that are 'mad' and say 'something must be done'.
Get involved with politics - Have a clear agenda. Have a bunch of embarrassing facts. Get up to speed on public relations. Print tee-shirts etc.
GET ON THE TV - when you have something to say and a solution and know your ground enough to challenge the lazy powers that be. The television is the universal medium.
Also you may be able to link up with existing organisations (but be VERY careful - some will be worse than useless with devious agendas) For example are there orphanages, sick-societies, employers organisations who would give you quotes to support your campaign, tell their members what a good job you're doing and even support you in other ways.
To conclude. Good objective. Good to have a go. Wrong method. This is much more about getting people to support improved road safety than a radar camera. Once you've got started you will find many other issues apart from speeding that affect road safety and by then you and your mates (yes you'll have to form an organisation - with a name, web page, contact number for the press etc.) will be the experts as nobody else has bothered to get stuck-in and make a noise.
Good luck
Rubbish. Loss of mental faculties is part of the normal ageing process which is just that. But the medical profession need things to 'treat' at a profit - modern snake-oil salesmen. For a classic, up to date, example of over-diagnosis look no further than the following link.
Not all older people are crippled but that doesn't mean they can run the 10,000 metres as fast as they did when younger. The sort of intellectual athleticism that is real programming (I can't speak for the average plodder - I'm talking about the programmer who is a number of times more insightful, productive and less error-prone than the majority) is subject to general age-related effects.
As programmers get older their sharpness of brain fades (making quick and accurate coding a struggle) while their experience and ability to take a mature overview of a project improve. You aren't the mental athlete you were 30 years ago so bear that in mind when building a mix of computing skills.
If you want a gentle lead-in to web-ish programming then PHP will be a doddle and give you the opportunity to get your feet under the OO table without a straightjacket. There are lots of fun things you can do with it quite easily: Getting to know the front-end of HTML,CSS etc., URL wrappers, and of course interfacing with the database of your choice. Also there are many PHP frameworks (quality and approach may vary) which are an important part of a lot of people's thinking nowadays.
If you want to get more involved with 'native' code then there are so many choices. There are two 'modern' paradigms, OO and event-driven, which are a big change from FORTRAN but not difficult to understand. Java is cross platform and has plenty of meat on if from a programming perspective.
Might I suggest that you become familiar with something 'more modern' but look towards design and management as a mainstream activity.
Education, knowledge and skills beats the alternatives hands down. There's nothing wrong with a non-programmer wanting to learn programming any more than programmers learning creative writing or German or cooking.
Now there are two reasons why a person might want to have a go at something new: (a) Intellectual interest and I'd-like-to-have-a-go-at-that (b) need. "We're sending you to Germany for 3 months" might be a (b) but things take time and without a GREAT deal of time and effort competence might reach 'OK-useful' but nowhere near 'fluent-reliable'. On the other hand (a) - wanting to explore - (especially when there is a vast area to explore) should lead to personal satisfaction and confidence building that might make a jump to (b) a lot easier (or show you why it is unsuitable for you).
The thing about programming is nothing to do with a particular language - it's a thought process as basic to a programmer as the sound of words to a poet or shape of things to a painter. To be a good programmer you need, amongst other things, to be able to use your brain.
If public education provided everything for all people then everyone would want to use it.
However just you try asking your local public education authority for their 'syllabus' for the 12 Rs. (Reading / wRiting / aRithmetic / Relationships /
Reviewing / Responsibility / Reflecting / Researching / Reporting / Reasoning / Remembering / Resolve) of essential basic education.
While you're at it ask about their understanding of the 12 Maturities (Ambition / Sociable personality / Fitness and good health / Curiosity, enthusiasm for learning and knowledge / Confidence / Stand up for principles / Develop and defend own opinions. / Artistic appreciation and accomplishment / Empathy / Excellence of Rs / Imagination and abstract thought / Temptation [ie. Awareness and resistance. Self discipline] ) Read more
Traditional schooling might cover many of the Rs by chance or incidentally won't assess all the Rs and won't have formal methods for remediation. At least home-schoolers can set up their own system that is explicit. Of course having a formal framework for education doesn't mean there has to be a formal structure to learning. (Education is the end-point, learning is the journey.)
In early days it is vitally important for people to 'build' something from their abstract ideas. These things may be toys but there's nothing wrong with that. This gives them experience in the problems of construction and the techniques and satisfaction of solving them.
The very quick minds of the talented need support from the greybeards. They will keep reinventing the wheel, often badly, but that's the nature of adventurous youth. The extra experience and knowledge of the mature bods should be a resource to be called on.
Wrong: You should have done it like Foo
Right: Now you've had a go and got the scars to prove it you'll find the Foo technique easy to understand and I expect you'll be amazed at their power and convenience
Having a few people who are a bit clever to bounce ideas off works well because
Embryo ideas kicked around can turn into more concrete possibilities as others make suggestions. "Good idea but you could find thermo-plastic is the wrong material"
Stuck ideas can get a new life. "That treadmill for dogs... What about for smaller creatures like say Hamsters"
So-so ideas can get better. "Make it in different colours with a 'face' to appeal to consumers"
Other people's problems can trigger your braincells to find solutions in areas you'd never thought of looking before.
Trustworthy enthusiasts will assist your development, marketing etc. (And should share in the pain and gain.)
The problem is of course that there are few people around with any sort of cleverness to spark-off. The 'trust problem' might best be approached by discussing small ideas first.
PS Never underestimate how conservative people are - even techies. "Not-invented-here" is an incubus that seems to affect 99.99% of the population.
PPS Of course a rubbish idea that is easy to sell is a handy fallback.
Hot copy, nightly duplication etc. may protect against catastrophic system failure, theft etc. but they are poison if you want to protect against lurking data corruption.
For example you deleted a file last week that you need now. A supplier has sent this month's data with last month's filenames and overwritten last month's data. Your database has 'acquired' corruptions and now you need to go back to find a working or clean version. A duplication strategy just means you have two copies of the bad stuff!
Here is what I do
Complete snapshot to USB hard drive 'monthly'. (Actually just an update excluding delete)
Selected directories and files: (daily)
Copied to USB flash if changed or new
Copied to a history chain on the same HD if changed or new
The history chain has extending time gaps between copies eg 0.9,1,3,7,15,30,90 days. So for a daily backup of a file that changes every day the two most recent copies are always shifted down the chain and every 3 days the second is bumped down to 3rd position which in turn might bump 3 to 4 if 3 is more than a week newer than 4. This is ever so easy to program - I even did it in a DOS batch file.
Let's review what happens if the computer goes bang! - Reload from USB hard drive and flash. Alternatively if data gets corrupted - Trawl through the history on the HD.
It may encourage them to take a 'computers are not toys' attitude to their own systems when they reach the real world.
It is good practice (not least for parenting) to be able to say 'no'. Yes they will whinge and moan but that's when you explain the first time and when it comes to the second time say "I explained didn't I?". If there's a third time then "Stop being lazy and use the alternative."
However if there is something of a technical nature to be done then you're into the realm of knowledge where you may want to actively help them achieve their goals. Your first faltering steps to being a guru!
Whoever wants you to host could be shown how to do it themselves.
Consider posting rather than hosting. There may be journalists who would love this sort of thing even if it doesn't appear as tomorrow's headlines they may well be using it as a lever to open a can of worms so that it can't be shut again.
If it's not your baby then I'd leave it well alone.
You can teach "very basic paradigms" in an hour or so without touching a computer. The details take longer but that's a different thing. The thing you need to get across - in this instance - is the algorithmic nature of programming.
Enjoy physical and immediate exercises such as: How can we arrange the members of the class in height order? How do we keep the room at a comfortable temperature? Get them to make a HEXAPAWN matchbox computer and find out why it works.
Kids want results but this group will probably also benefit from being given interesting ideas to take home and diddle with. For example show them how to play Nim, ask them if they can find out how to win, then in the class step through with them writing a player and a board - for which BASIC would be ideal - the simpler variant the better NB with line numbers and GOTOs as it makes it a lot easier to see what's going on at this level.
Finally : (Objective->Method) Find out what sort of things they want to do and pick a suitable language based on that. It could be robotics or graphics or web pages or games or...
Editors and IDEs are something we take for granted but can be a stumbling block
Blocks and how they nest and never overlap (can easily be introduced by writing myfirstpage.htm) is another 'obvious-that-isn't' concept.
BASIC is good because it has line numbers... Which make it easy to discuss. It serves its original purpose as a learning tool.
A lot of programming knowledge starts with the General which is something acquired in a minute or two and is then developed to the Particular which takes months. For example a loop can be illustrated with a GO TO and some finishing condition inside the loop to start with, but then the flavours and traps appropriate to each language can be built on this foundation.
So you want to differentiate between exercising a program and testing it: Getting somebody else to follow your written instructions for some task is memorable and fun. In reverse, being asked to follow somebody else's instructions is a start on how programmers can get so many things wrong.
It's not what programming language you learn but how you learn to be a programmer.
If a programmer is stuck-in-a-rut with one paradigm then they're not going to be a very good programmer overall. If you're not open to new ideas then you're not going to be good at spotting all the 1001 traps and quirks the Real World has waiting for your program.
Suppose you invent an algorithm and implement it in a program. These are two different bits of IP. Furthermore different statutes might be applicable.
Decide what it is you want honor, control, ability to freely re-use etc. and what it applies to before going any further.
Then I'd discuss it with whoever is commissioning you. My wild guess is that the public-funded project will come with some sort of "this can't be kept out of the public domain (except...)" but that's probably it.
You sign up to a web service that basically stores some bits of information. The clever part is that if it doesn't hear from you for say 1 month then it forwards it to whoever you have nominated. This means that if for any reason you are unable to be present on the Internet then somebody else can step in. Until that time they have no access to the information.
I'd suggest that some healthcare charity such as a cancer fund should host it and ask for a one-off donation to set up the arrangement. There are phishy and scammy and general security issues as well as various ways in which nominees could interact to think about - but generally this would be a useful and workable scheme.
Geekiness IS about remembering. If your mental toolkit is tidy and with everything quickly to hand then you'll be able to do tasks quickly and without delays of the "now where did I put..." sort.
Few people need to have the same level of mental agility as a geek involved with creating something useful out of a few wispy ideas, uncertain laws of computing and foggy requirements specifications. On top of that they need a set of toolkits, one for say algorithms, one for good coding practice, one for all the calls and defines in this application, one for each language being coded and one for project management. AND they have to flip between all of them all the time. AND, even within the realm of a bit of straight code there will be nests of issues, side-effects, diversions and breakpoints.
This isn't the sort of thing that goes on the hard driver or internet.
However there are two ways to mitigate the undoubted problem of brain ageing and mental fatigue: (1)Do less. (2)Restructure, or apply a structure where before you could busk-it, tasks - typically making notes or checklists to suit.
My advice to the OP is (a)work in an environment that is distraction-free as possible. (b) Recognise there are some times it is best to go for a walk and try again an hour later. (c) When you get a really good session going, ask yourself what could be the influencing factors.
Explain your concerns to the IT bod. If they say it will be fine and it isn't then it's their problem to fix. Check that they have a backing-out scheme first.
As clocks go "tick" and cows go "moo" so programmers go "What could possibly go wrong".
By practising this mantra you'll soon be spotting the gaps in other people's thoughts and specifications, which in turn will make you into one of those awkward people who can simultaneously (a)hold up the slip-shod enthusiasts and (b)find a better, more elegant, solution AFTER THINKING ABOUT it.
A good programmer has to be a mental athlete. Develop your powers of concentration and insist on a working environment where you can think in peace and are not expected to work flat-out for hours on end without a recovery period.
In your mind you're going to try to get the CEO to say either "OK we do something" or "Forget it" so you know where you stand. The best result is "OK then what do you think we should do about it?"
As you can't expect to explain this in technical terms and get it across you need another approach - more emotive and in terms the CEO can understand. Use words like "shambles" and "amateur", "skin of teeth", "matter of when not if". Then lay it on thicker with "I like working here but I can't carry on losing sleep at night worrying about what's going to crack next or how quickly I could repair it in an emergency."
Using a suitable analogy helps. For example you might ask the CEO what they'd think if the firm purchased lab equipment or reagents according to just what somebody thought was a good idea at the time without any strategy, checking of the suppliers and quality assurance of the products. Yes it really is that bad!
If you want to hand over responsibility then you have to delegate trust. Do this in small parts to start with and reward anything that isn't awful, encourage where there's difficulty or dogma. Start with lots of small, well defined tasks. Don't be afraid to ask them for suggestions, advice and criticism - but again start with small matters. If you end up on the same wavelength then not only are you working efficiently, but you are not afraid to 'cooperatively go off at creative tangents' or sharing out some of 'that other stuff' ie the business tasks that pay the wages.
If you're not used to dealing with people then it might be worth while skimming a book that lists different personality types. (They all do it differently.) For example some people are good at detail, some good at starting, some bad at finishing - through losing interest and some bad at finishing because they must have absolute perfection. Being aware of these quirks will make you a better manager.
Finally, agree on standards such as file names and test procedures. Hunting through acres of baroque or haphazard code will be a miserable millstone.
Slashdot Mirror
My advice is don't try to reinvent the wheel, there are many proven suppliers of portable kit of various sorts. Having said that you would need to show things like you trained the operators and had checking systems in place. The cost of kit then becomes small in relation to the cost of ensuring it is used properly.
As law enforcement really relies on deterrent (Oh dear there might be a speed check and I might lose my licence as a result) this has to be an issue that gets through the skull of drivers. Here is how I suggest you go about your mission:
To conclude. Good objective. Good to have a go. Wrong method. This is much more about getting people to support improved road safety than a radar camera. Once you've got started you will find many other issues apart from speeding that affect road safety and by then you and your mates (yes you'll have to form an organisation - with a name, web page, contact number for the press etc.) will be the experts as nobody else has bothered to get stuck-in and make a noise. Good luck
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-10787342
Not all older people are crippled but that doesn't mean they can run the 10,000 metres as fast as they did when younger. The sort of intellectual athleticism that is real programming (I can't speak for the average plodder - I'm talking about the programmer who is a number of times more insightful, productive and less error-prone than the majority) is subject to general age-related effects.
If you want a gentle lead-in to web-ish programming then PHP will be a doddle and give you the opportunity to get your feet under the OO table without a straightjacket. There are lots of fun things you can do with it quite easily: Getting to know the front-end of HTML,CSS etc., URL wrappers, and of course interfacing with the database of your choice. Also there are many PHP frameworks (quality and approach may vary) which are an important part of a lot of people's thinking nowadays.
If you want to get more involved with 'native' code then there are so many choices. There are two 'modern' paradigms, OO and event-driven, which are a big change from FORTRAN but not difficult to understand. Java is cross platform and has plenty of meat on if from a programming perspective.
Might I suggest that you become familiar with something 'more modern' but look towards design and management as a mainstream activity.
Now there are two reasons why a person might want to have a go at something new: (a) Intellectual interest and I'd-like-to-have-a-go-at-that (b) need. "We're sending you to Germany for 3 months" might be a (b) but things take time and without a GREAT deal of time and effort competence might reach 'OK-useful' but nowhere near 'fluent-reliable'. On the other hand (a) - wanting to explore - (especially when there is a vast area to explore) should lead to personal satisfaction and confidence building that might make a jump to (b) a lot easier (or show you why it is unsuitable for you).
The thing about programming is nothing to do with a particular language - it's a thought process as basic to a programmer as the sound of words to a poet or shape of things to a painter. To be a good programmer you need, amongst other things, to be able to use your brain.
Anyway, the complete answer to your question is here : http://vulpeculox.net/ob/Programming.htm
The UK has a statute law base provided by the government. http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/Home.aspx Don't ask me how they do it.
Also, as an aside, sites that are funded by advertisers are not free to say what they want.
However just you try asking your local public education authority for their 'syllabus' for the 12 Rs. (Reading / wRiting / aRithmetic / Relationships / Reviewing / Responsibility / Reflecting / Researching / Reporting / Reasoning / Remembering / Resolve) of essential basic education.
While you're at it ask about their understanding of the 12 Maturities (Ambition / Sociable personality / Fitness and good health / Curiosity, enthusiasm for learning and knowledge / Confidence / Stand up for principles / Develop and defend own opinions. / Artistic appreciation and accomplishment / Empathy / Excellence of Rs / Imagination and abstract thought / Temptation [ie. Awareness and resistance. Self discipline] ) Read more
Traditional schooling might cover many of the Rs by chance or incidentally won't assess all the Rs and won't have formal methods for remediation. At least home-schoolers can set up their own system that is explicit. Of course having a formal framework for education doesn't mean there has to be a formal structure to learning. (Education is the end-point, learning is the journey.)
Absolutely agree. Just watch people struggling with mice and you wonder how 99.9% of educated, wealthy people don't use trackballs as standard.
The problem is of course that there are few people around with any sort of cleverness to spark-off. The 'trust problem' might best be approached by discussing small ideas first.
PS Never underestimate how conservative people are - even techies. "Not-invented-here" is an incubus that seems to affect 99.99% of the population.
PPS Of course a rubbish idea that is easy to sell is a handy fallback.
People work much better together in threes than twos.
For example you deleted a file last week that you need now. A supplier has sent this month's data with last month's filenames and overwritten last month's data. Your database has 'acquired' corruptions and now you need to go back to find a working or clean version. A duplication strategy just means you have two copies of the bad stuff!
Here is what I do
The history chain has extending time gaps between copies eg 0.9,1,3,7,15,30,90 days. So for a daily backup of a file that changes every day the two most recent copies are always shifted down the chain and every 3 days the second is bumped down to 3rd position which in turn might bump 3 to 4 if 3 is more than a week newer than 4. This is ever so easy to program - I even did it in a DOS batch file.
Let's review what happens if the computer goes bang! - Reload from USB hard drive and flash. Alternatively if data gets corrupted - Trawl through the history on the HD.
However if there is something of a technical nature to be done then you're into the realm of knowledge where you may want to actively help them achieve their goals. Your first faltering steps to being a guru!
If it's not your baby then I'd leave it well alone.
You can teach "very basic paradigms" in an hour or so without touching a computer. The details take longer but that's a different thing. The thing you need to get across - in this instance - is the algorithmic nature of programming.
Enjoy physical and immediate exercises such as: How can we arrange the members of the class in height order? How do we keep the room at a comfortable temperature? Get them to make a HEXAPAWN matchbox computer and find out why it works.
Kids want results but this group will probably also benefit from being given interesting ideas to take home and diddle with. For example show them how to play Nim, ask them if they can find out how to win, then in the class step through with them writing a player and a board - for which BASIC would be ideal - the simpler variant the better NB with line numbers and GOTOs as it makes it a lot easier to see what's going on at this level.
Finally : (Objective->Method) Find out what sort of things they want to do and pick a suitable language based on that. It could be robotics or graphics or web pages or games or ...
Decide what it is you want honor, control, ability to freely re-use etc. and what it applies to before going any further.
Then I'd discuss it with whoever is commissioning you. My wild guess is that the public-funded project will come with some sort of "this can't be kept out of the public domain (except...)" but that's probably it.
I'd suggest that some healthcare charity such as a cancer fund should host it and ask for a one-off donation to set up the arrangement. There are phishy and scammy and general security issues as well as various ways in which nominees could interact to think about - but generally this would be a useful and workable scheme.
Few people need to have the same level of mental agility as a geek involved with creating something useful out of a few wispy ideas, uncertain laws of computing and foggy requirements specifications. On top of that they need a set of toolkits, one for say algorithms, one for good coding practice, one for all the calls and defines in this application, one for each language being coded and one for project management. AND they have to flip between all of them all the time. AND, even within the realm of a bit of straight code there will be nests of issues, side-effects, diversions and breakpoints.
This isn't the sort of thing that goes on the hard driver or internet.
However there are two ways to mitigate the undoubted problem of brain ageing and mental fatigue: (1)Do less. (2)Restructure, or apply a structure where before you could busk-it, tasks - typically making notes or checklists to suit.
My advice to the OP is (a)work in an environment that is distraction-free as possible. (b) Recognise there are some times it is best to go for a walk and try again an hour later. (c) When you get a really good session going, ask yourself what could be the influencing factors.
Explain your concerns to the IT bod. If they say it will be fine and it isn't then it's their problem to fix. Check that they have a backing-out scheme first.
Divide your class into 'students' who want to solve puzzles and 'pupils' who need to be given limited-scope exercises.
By practising this mantra you'll soon be spotting the gaps in other people's thoughts and specifications, which in turn will make you into one of those awkward people who can simultaneously (a)hold up the slip-shod enthusiasts and (b)find a better, more elegant, solution AFTER THINKING ABOUT it.
A good programmer has to be a mental athlete. Develop your powers of concentration and insist on a working environment where you can think in peace and are not expected to work flat-out for hours on end without a recovery period.
As you can't expect to explain this in technical terms and get it across you need another approach - more emotive and in terms the CEO can understand. Use words like "shambles" and "amateur", "skin of teeth", "matter of when not if". Then lay it on thicker with "I like working here but I can't carry on losing sleep at night worrying about what's going to crack next or how quickly I could repair it in an emergency."
Using a suitable analogy helps. For example you might ask the CEO what they'd think if the firm purchased lab equipment or reagents according to just what somebody thought was a good idea at the time without any strategy, checking of the suppliers and quality assurance of the products. Yes it really is that bad!
If you want to hand over responsibility then you have to delegate trust. Do this in small parts to start with and reward anything that isn't awful, encourage where there's difficulty or dogma. Start with lots of small, well defined tasks. Don't be afraid to ask them for suggestions, advice and criticism - but again start with small matters. If you end up on the same wavelength then not only are you working efficiently, but you are not afraid to 'cooperatively go off at creative tangents' or sharing out some of 'that other stuff' ie the business tasks that pay the wages.
If you're not used to dealing with people then it might be worth while skimming a book that lists different personality types. (They all do it differently.) For example some people are good at detail, some good at starting, some bad at finishing - through losing interest and some bad at finishing because they must have absolute perfection. Being aware of these quirks will make you a better manager.
Finally, agree on standards such as file names and test procedures. Hunting through acres of baroque or haphazard code will be a miserable millstone.