Computing is generally just a tool to be put to use in some field - Any field from making margarine to forecasting fashion. From this it should be obvious that any 'side skills' or background knowledge in whatever fields would be really useful.
A language, or 'roughing it round the world' will make it easier to get jobs with global companies looking for staff who can work at plants around the world. This type of job can quickly lead to a lot of varied experience and responsibility.
On the other hand, if languages 'are not your thing' then broaden your horizons in other ways - either starting with formal education or employment or simply getting engrossed in something that takes your imagination.
In ten years time you could be directing opera, teaching at a school in darkest Africa or a million things that don't involve sitting all day in a cube.
If there's something you want to do then why not ask the people who do it already, or the companies involved what they'd recommend.
Where did that energy come from? It'd be one hell of a magic trick if you could pull it off! That's why no process which splits water will ever generate more energy than it consumes.
Gravitational energy is 'free'.
Here's how you get it:
Assume perfect efficiency:)
Pipe electricity to the bottom of the ocean. NB No gravitational 'cost'.
Split water and use the rising gasses to power a geyser from which energy can be tapped
Make it known that you have a goody bag of bits to company employees. Some will be nice to you and ask about 'free stuff'. They take an interest... You take an interest... They take more interest and with any luck you have made some useful bridges into the user community that could be worth the drives many times over. (And they'll buy you a beer.)
If there is something you'd like to leech from the network which is a reasonably steady flow of data AND isn't likely to need to be accessed - but might once in a while prove valuable - Such as logs or who accessed what web pages. Now you could swap in a hard disc in less than a minute and now you have a week's data gathering capacity sitting waiting for you to snoop. Moral of the story: You don't have to use all this storage at once.
Kids do have a natural curiosity with natural scepticism following close behind. However it still needs nurturing. Encouraging asking 'Why', and 'How' to start with; then showing them how spotting the shifty non-answers is really useful to them in their here-and-now lives. Being sceptical is not something to aspire to when you're older but a way of life for dealing with people everyday.
Step 1: Foster curiosity from age 1 month. Really work at it. Remember a dog on a lead can't be pushed and if you pull it it will get resentful. Some people find they need to develop patience and put up with small disapointments in order to get this right.
Step 2: Reward study because if you don't you'll end up with a child with the attention span of a gnat.
Step 3: Expose to lots of different stimulii. This is a 'horse to water' situation. With any luck they'll be drinking at the well of science, splashing in the brook of adventurous exercise and swimming in the stream of dealing with life.
If I want to employ somebody at any level I need every single one of these.
By the way: Now you know the objectives you can ask how they are/should be achieved. For example you can't develop Responsibility without trust...And you have to reward it. So Do you ever see that on TV? Do parents or teachers know how to do it? - - - Discuss.
Programming is engineering. Now your scientists-to-be may well need to 'construct aparatus'; install, calibrate and maintain sensors; and manipulate data. So by putting together bits of technology they are 'doing engineering'.
Part of 'doing engineering' is using the right tool for the job. Part is using these tools effectively.
My minimum syllabus would be:
Data management and sanity checking
Data analysis and presentation
Protocols. (The hard part of programming that means you really have to think "what could possibly go wrong")
The other day I was able to correct some received wisdom on Wikepedia. (Origin of placenames.) It will still be being quoted wrongly from the shelves of libraries in decades time but Wikipedia will be right. Just about any book on English placenames before 1968 is tosh but that doesn't stop people quoting them.
I suppose I could have written a paper of 100 words which might have been published in the back of some obscure journal after the spelling was checked but that's not a very successful way of disseminating knowledge.
So to the original lecturer I say : "Wikipedia is there to be improved, that's what it's there for, that's what it does. It is received wisdom which may be flawed or may be spot on - ANY single source is just as suspect."
"Prestigious" is what you want if you're mediocre and need some bunk-up to fool someone into hiring you for 'something'. I'm sure there must be excellent universities that specialise in your sort of interests. They may not be the ones people have heard of (but you could change that).
FOSSing is excellent, and so is finding out something about the host of non-coding skills and challenges that go with it. Often this goes well with in-depth and practical knowledge of some entirely different field; so whatever you do do not focus on coding - I should say that at your age you should have at least two other strings to your bow and give them equal opportunity to flourish.
Sadly there is a lack of opportunity for autodidacts to get the nourishment they need and network that brings mutual success. Some of us are working on solutions to bring learning (and ownership of learning) to the ordinary man on the back of the emerging FOSS revolution.
Assembly is something that gets in your blood, it hijacks braincells for its own ends, it takes over a part of your mind - A tattoo inside the skull. Just as hard-core tattooees eyeball each other's decorations so assembloids have to know the details because, like any other sport with its afficianados, it means a great deal to them.
Shame about the VB though - still you can't have everything.
In February 2006 a chap names Alexander Meyer published a couple of lectures on the Stanford University web site but these were soon sat on by the authorities. It was on/. here: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/05/006254
I had the nous to download them before they went dark. Anyone know what the eventual outcome was?
Setting up a file retrieval system across such a network would be a bit of a hassle and fraught. What about looking for an application that involves writing large chunks of data, occasionally, to dusty discs just in case it might be needed later.
An application that springs to mind is backing up 'the bits that don't get backed up' possibly as an image. (Ok, lots of issues here, but I'm only thinking aloud.) You might set up a couple of PCs that fetched the whole of the company web site if their copy was more than two weeks old, or another three that stole files from the database server hourly, daily and weekly.
I once got a contract because I used a technical word I'd seen as I walked into the factory. People interviewing you probably have bees in their bonnets about certain computing subjects - that's just luck of the draw, but people who make widgets really love other people who are interested in widgets. Quite likely the bloke that's leaving was 'difficult to talk to' so you'll be a ray of sunshine - a bod who may be inexperienced but will get on well with the shop floor and be an enthusiastic developer and good listener.
Here's the better news: Your passion for underwater flower arranging or any other not-IT interest can be a good card to play if you make it clear that without it you'd go bonkers because you work so hard during the day. (OK I'm an old hand, but it will be people that will employ you and you need to twig what makes them tick.)
Four out of five. It's not the language, but how it's learnt. Suppose you learn that debugging due to stupid mistakes is a chore best avoided by not making stupid mistakes I'd call that a good thing. I could tell you, make you write an essay, even interview you, but unless you've got it ingrained in your programmer's psyche you're not doing it right. FWIW in my book http://www.eminent.demon.co.uk/ob/Programming.htm I use Javascript as a pig-to-debug (but easy to get started with) language in the early stages where either the reader learns early on to think before typing and read after typing or they give up and do something more suited to their temperament.
(1) A mouse needs a lot more real estate on your desk than a trackball
(2) You never have to 'find' your mouse as the trackball is always in the same position
(3) Why wave your arm around just to move a pointer?
Mice are for people who don't know any better.
Anyway, if I'm twiddling with somebody else's computer I have to turn the mouse round 180 degrees - To me it's natural to move the mouse left to get the pointer to go right, and similarly with fore/aft for down/up.
There are plenty of ways other than 'bend until broken' that a structure can fail. For example if you keep rocking back on your chair you weaken the joints a little bit each time (stress reversal etc.) so one day the thing becomes so rickety you have to take it apart and re-glue all the joints.
The reason for structure testing in a case like this (as opposed to materials testing which is a slightly different art) is to validate the computer programs. If the structure fails as predicted then you have a reliable program.
It is irrelevant what others do. You have a specific case which may, or may not, 'justify' two screens.
I use two screens (2 PCs, 1 keyboard+mouse connected by IP and a brilliant small free program called Synergy http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/ ). The ability to have what you want instantly visible is brilliant. (Also this set up allows me to twiddl client and server at the same time from the same keyboard.) FWIW I try to have one sort of thing on one screen and other stuff on the other in the hope that switching is minimised and that one is used for reference while hacking on the other.
Here is the put-down for an inevitable whinge by some droid:
[Droid] : "We can't let you have that! What if everyone wanted it?"
[You] : "Then I'd be silly not to have it also."
Having said it is spurious to argue from the general to the specific, doing it the other way round isn't. So if you get the slightest whiff of grief you point out that many of your colleagues would also benefit from this productivity aid, list them and also ask if "programmer productivity is important to the company".
Intro from Wikipedia:
The Edsel was a make of automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company during the 1958, 1959, and 1960 model years. The car brand is best known as one of the most spectacular failures in the history of the United States automobile industry.
"Microsloth Edsel" - Remind me; what did P.T.Barnum say was born every minute...
Assembler is brain-food. It is a challenge where you're on your own with very little of the modern comforts that people take for granted nowadays. This trains you not to be sloppy, to think before typing, and keep baggage down to the minimum you can carry. Out in the wilderness you can reach places the air conditioned coach tours don't go; but the real value of giving everyone an opportunity to write in assembler is what you learn about self discipline, good working habits and how much you can cram in your brain if the conditions are right.
Well it's like this : Most car crashes are caused by drivers but some are caused by defective design and materials. Others are made worse by 'misleading' the driver (I have ABS so I can stop in 6 feet on ice) or encouraging them to believe they're safe under all conditions (I can drive at 120 (a) 'cos the speedo goes up to 150 and (b) I've seen those videos with the crash dummies which don't seem too fatal.)
PHP is the same : It's easy to drive so naturally lots of people have a go. (Good Thing). Sadly many haven't got the foggiest idea about security, interface design, database design, maintainability or testing. Some will take this opportunity to learn a bit about these subjects but for most 'programming' is the same as 'getting code to work'.
Spot on. If an article is deemed to fail for some reason then start by getting the students to find out where the dodgy ground is, then get them to do something about it. Being able to edit a wiki is surely an important 21st century skill.
It might be best to do this with a private wiki to start with.
Last month I spent days trying to get various distros working. All I wanted was a host for a private web server and an opportunity to fiddle with Linux for real. DAYS of installers failing for some reason or other - usually unspecified and therefore unrecoverable. So eventually I reverted back to trusted NT. A command line doesn't worry me, but when I tried to run FTP and typed in 'help' I was none the wiser - a dictionary approach to manuals is utterly useless.
A possible alternative is to get a 'learn Linux' book with CDs. I believe O'Reily do some Fedora ones. In this case your 'how do I know if it's good' becomes picking between publishers which you might know something about their reputation.
Someone who can work things out on the Back Of an Envelope will have a fluency in modelling, reliable arithmetic, and the mental toolkit of mathematical techniques ready to apply. In particular my goals would be:
Familiarity with the use and manipulation of abstract symbols...
...so as not to be afraid of formal 'mathematical' descriptions.
An appreciation of the various 'mathematical' tools and what they're used for
Of course this last item is huge. At the top of my list would be :
High school maths ie. a bit of everything.
'Proof' as an introduction to algorithms.
'Engineering' maths, probability and statistics as an introduction to modelling systems
'Economics' maths as an introduction to value, costs and benefits
Slashdot Mirror
A language, or 'roughing it round the world' will make it easier to get jobs with global companies looking for staff who can work at plants around the world. This type of job can quickly lead to a lot of varied experience and responsibility.
On the other hand, if languages 'are not your thing' then broaden your horizons in other ways - either starting with formal education or employment or simply getting engrossed in something that takes your imagination. In ten years time you could be directing opera, teaching at a school in darkest Africa or a million things that don't involve sitting all day in a cube.
If there's something you want to do then why not ask the people who do it already, or the companies involved what they'd recommend.
Gravitational energy is 'free'. Here's how you get it:
- Assume perfect efficiency
:)
- Pipe electricity to the bottom of the ocean. NB No gravitational 'cost'.
- Split water and use the rising gasses to power a geyser from which energy can be tapped
- Recombine the gasses in a fuel cell
- Repeat
This is no more daft than using rainwater to power hydro-electric stations. More at http://vulpeculox.net/misc/egee.htmKids do have a natural curiosity with natural scepticism following close behind. However it still needs nurturing. Encouraging asking 'Why', and 'How' to start with; then showing them how spotting the shifty non-answers is really useful to them in their here-and-now lives. Being sceptical is not something to aspire to when you're older but a way of life for dealing with people everyday.
Step 1: Foster curiosity from age 1 month. Really work at it. Remember a dog on a lead can't be pushed and if you pull it it will get resentful. Some people find they need to develop patience and put up with small disapointments in order to get this right.
Step 2: Reward study because if you don't you'll end up with a child with the attention span of a gnat.
Step 3: Expose to lots of different stimulii. This is a 'horse to water' situation. With any luck they'll be drinking at the well of science, splashing in the brook of adventurous exercise and swimming in the stream of dealing with life.
Retention == Remembering Sorry for confusion
- Reading
- Riting
- Rithmetic
- Relationships
- Reviewing
- Responsibility
- Reflecting
- Researching
- Reporting
- Reasoning
- Retention
- Resolve
If I want to employ somebody at any level I need every single one of these.By the way: Now you know the objectives you can ask how they are/should be achieved. For example you can't develop Responsibility without trust...And you have to reward it. So Do you ever see that on TV? Do parents or teachers know how to do it? - - - Discuss.
Part of 'doing engineering' is using the right tool for the job. Part is using these tools effectively.
My minimum syllabus would be:
The other day I was able to correct some received wisdom on Wikepedia. (Origin of placenames.) It will still be being quoted wrongly from the shelves of libraries in decades time but Wikipedia will be right. Just about any book on English placenames before 1968 is tosh but that doesn't stop people quoting them. I suppose I could have written a paper of 100 words which might have been published in the back of some obscure journal after the spelling was checked but that's not a very successful way of disseminating knowledge. So to the original lecturer I say : "Wikipedia is there to be improved, that's what it's there for, that's what it does. It is received wisdom which may be flawed or may be spot on - ANY single source is just as suspect."
FOSSing is excellent, and so is finding out something about the host of non-coding skills and challenges that go with it. Often this goes well with in-depth and practical knowledge of some entirely different field; so whatever you do do not focus on coding - I should say that at your age you should have at least two other strings to your bow and give them equal opportunity to flourish.
Sadly there is a lack of opportunity for autodidacts to get the nourishment they need and network that brings mutual success. Some of us are working on solutions to bring learning (and ownership of learning) to the ordinary man on the back of the emerging FOSS revolution.
Shame about the VB though - still you can't have everything.
I had the nous to download them before they went dark. Anyone know what the eventual outcome was?
An application that springs to mind is backing up 'the bits that don't get backed up' possibly as an image. (Ok, lots of issues here, but I'm only thinking aloud.) You might set up a couple of PCs that fetched the whole of the company web site if their copy was more than two weeks old, or another three that stole files from the database server hourly, daily and weekly.
Here's the better news: Your passion for underwater flower arranging or any other not-IT interest can be a good card to play if you make it clear that without it you'd go bonkers because you work so hard during the day. (OK I'm an old hand, but it will be people that will employ you and you need to twig what makes them tick.)
Four out of five. It's not the language, but how it's learnt. Suppose you learn that debugging due to stupid mistakes is a chore best avoided by not making stupid mistakes I'd call that a good thing. I could tell you, make you write an essay, even interview you, but unless you've got it ingrained in your programmer's psyche you're not doing it right. FWIW in my book http://www.eminent.demon.co.uk/ob/Programming.htm I use Javascript as a pig-to-debug (but easy to get started with) language in the early stages where either the reader learns early on to think before typing and read after typing or they give up and do something more suited to their temperament.
"Closed" will do me fine. It's a bit like trying to claim you're only "partly pregnant": Either you are or you're not.
(2) You never have to 'find' your mouse as the trackball is always in the same position
(3) Why wave your arm around just to move a pointer?
Mice are for people who don't know any better.
Anyway, if I'm twiddling with somebody else's computer I have to turn the mouse round 180 degrees - To me it's natural to move the mouse left to get the pointer to go right, and similarly with fore/aft for down/up.
The reason for structure testing in a case like this (as opposed to materials testing which is a slightly different art) is to validate the computer programs. If the structure fails as predicted then you have a reliable program.
I use two screens (2 PCs, 1 keyboard+mouse connected by IP and a brilliant small free program called Synergy http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/ ). The ability to have what you want instantly visible is brilliant. (Also this set up allows me to twiddl client and server at the same time from the same keyboard.) FWIW I try to have one sort of thing on one screen and other stuff on the other in the hope that switching is minimised and that one is used for reference while hacking on the other.
Here is the put-down for an inevitable whinge by some droid:
[Droid] : "We can't let you have that! What if everyone wanted it?"
[You] : "Then I'd be silly not to have it also."
Having said it is spurious to argue from the general to the specific, doing it the other way round isn't. So if you get the slightest whiff of grief you point out that many of your colleagues would also benefit from this productivity aid, list them and also ask if "programmer productivity is important to the company".
The Edsel was a make of automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company during the 1958, 1959, and 1960 model years. The car brand is best known as one of the most spectacular failures in the history of the United States automobile industry.
"Microsloth Edsel" - Remind me; what did P.T.Barnum say was born every minute ...
Assembler is brain-food. It is a challenge where you're on your own with very little of the modern comforts that people take for granted nowadays. This trains you not to be sloppy, to think before typing, and keep baggage down to the minimum you can carry. Out in the wilderness you can reach places the air conditioned coach tours don't go; but the real value of giving everyone an opportunity to write in assembler is what you learn about self discipline, good working habits and how much you can cram in your brain if the conditions are right.
PHP is the same : It's easy to drive so naturally lots of people have a go. (Good Thing). Sadly many haven't got the foggiest idea about security, interface design, database design, maintainability or testing. Some will take this opportunity to learn a bit about these subjects but for most 'programming' is the same as 'getting code to work'.
If only someone would write a book. http://www.eminent.demon.co.uk/ob/Programming.htm
It might be best to do this with a private wiki to start with.
Last month I spent days trying to get various distros working. All I wanted was a host for a private web server and an opportunity to fiddle with Linux for real. DAYS of installers failing for some reason or other - usually unspecified and therefore unrecoverable. So eventually I reverted back to trusted NT. A command line doesn't worry me, but when I tried to run FTP and typed in 'help' I was none the wiser - a dictionary approach to manuals is utterly useless.
A possible alternative is to get a 'learn Linux' book with CDs. I believe O'Reily do some Fedora ones. In this case your 'how do I know if it's good' becomes picking between publishers which you might know something about their reputation.
- Familiarity with the use and manipulation of abstract symbols...
- ...so as not to be afraid of formal 'mathematical' descriptions.
- An appreciation of the various 'mathematical' tools and what they're used for
Of course this last item is huge. At the top of my list would be :