Refer to Stephen Jay Gould and his "Wonderful Life" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B... also. Gould mentions that there were a range of various paleobiological doohickeys bopping around at the same time, and we come from one group that happened to swim better, or whatever. Next time round, we'll have five eyes.
Well, I'm not explaining it right, but that's why there's books...
Programmers maybe write reasonable code - but they often cannot express their ideas in ordinary language. Read the paper, George Orwell, 'Clean Code', Slashdot, whatever - and practice writing too. And talk to people. If they look puzzled, you're not communicating well, and need to get better. Use grammar. Write clean, accurate comments.
(Quick scan to make sure that this is clean... well, good enough...)
... why NZ is seen as a hot bed of terrorism, naughtiness and general mayhem. The lead item on the news last night was a political hopeful having to pay back about $350 after claiming on a flight for a friend. Wow. This isn't a country where much happens.
Unless you can have a controlled study where both groups take the same exams and have the same labs/assignments the "result" is meaningless.
You also have to rely on the sample students being exactly the same. And I mean, exactly. Some people study best with a TV set droning in the background. The lady next to my desk has a radio going. What works for some people doesn't work for others.
Maybe the scientific findings will be that not all people will be the same? That'll be worthwhile research.
There was an article on slashdot a while ago about how frequent gamers tend to not have nightmares because they're so used to staying calm and winning in frightening situations. I can personally say that that is extremely true. That seems safer and more long-term than this treatment.
Forgive me, but I suspect that's also adulthood. Us folks old enough to have existed pre-game times used to have nightmares. We (well, me certainly) outgrew them. I suspect it's tied in with growing confidence and the ability to handle situations. Which is what you said.
This topic comes up once a quarter, or so. I agree with the gent above suggesting 'Chess' but in a different way. Teach the original abstract, not the implementation. If we've time and room in the curriculum, teach the kids logic. This will let them code, play chess, think, reason and analyze no matter what the end up doing for a crust in later life.
And 'Critical thinking' - which someone had taught me that at Scumbag High. I had to work a lot of it out myself in later life. With Critical thinking around, we'd have a lot less homeopaths, psychics, spiritualists, gamblers...
Will we teach kids a bunch of propriety toolchains that will be obsolete and disused by the time they get into the real world? Guessing yes
The answer is to teach them COBOL. That seems to keep running and running.
Hey, I'm working at a site that uses COBOL, you insensitive cl.. oh, I'm sorry. Yes, it does just keep going. God knows why, meantime I'll just bank the cheques.
Probably a 'teaser": Teasers are usually rich kids with nothing to do. They cruise around looking for planets that haven't made interstellar contact yet and buzz them, meaning that they find some isolated spot with very few people around, then land right by some poor unsuspecting soul whom no one's going to believe and then strut up and down in front of him wearing silly antennas on their head and making beep beep noises.
TFA is junk, of course. But hey, it's Friday down here in Middle Earth. I don't care.
I was with you 'til you said English was a natural language. It isn't. One example from "Monkey Business" - Marilyn Monroe is asked to go to every Ford garage in town and find Professor Fullton. "But which one do you want me to do first?".
One reason we have computer languages is that our normal ones are too ambiguous.
I like the idea of computer languages that read like Hemmingway novels. My suggestions,.,.,
1: The SUN also rises
2: For (whom the bell tolls): Do
3: The Old man and the C:
Hey, I've a large collection of physical media - about 800 discs or so. Thing there is that you can lend it to friends ("Hey Steve, seen 'Breaking Bad' yet? Here it is - let me know what you think of it").
It's also a way of supporting the business and the participants. I like Humphrey Bogart movies. I have a lot of his stuff on DVD. So, I've kicked in some cash to the estate of Bogie. I've no problem with that.
So there you go Zamphatta. And here's looking at you, kid.
But what's often forgotten is that Ludd was right. The Industrial Revolution really did cause horrible misery to many, to the point of making violent communistic revolution seem like a good idea.
Nonsense. Well, in the long term, nonsense. The industrial revolution made the modern world, with its factory towers and pollution - but also with its hospitals, schools and longer lifespan. Moon-rockets, television, cars, jets... thank the industrial revolution for those.
In economics, this is called 'Creative destruction', which is what short-term destruction is (of manual looms or ignition keys) to get to a better location (automatic looms or press-button starts). And we're all in the business of IT, so change for us is second nature.
Agree with your flying missiles comment though:) But maybe don't call it a 'kill switch' - bad connotations...
I just say 'generate' to PasswordSafe (right now my tool of choice) and have a 8-character pile of gibberish that I can't pronounce and never read. If someone points a gun to my head (the NSA?) and asks for my online banking password, I can only - truthfully- say that I have no idea.
BTW, pavlovian to me implies egg whites and sugar, mixed and then baked. Then cream.
I'm 55. 4 years ago, I left a good paying job at a Fortune-100 cube farm (where I was miserable) and went with a startup (where I'm having fun again). Best decision I ever made. I'm the oldest person in the company. Many of the people I work with are half my age. It all works just fine. Get over it. You're there to do a job, not be a frat buddy. If you don't want to go clubbing with the guys after work, don't go clubbing.
Well said. OP, just do what you want. Some kids want to go clubbing, fine. Some don't. Some want to go see a movie, a theatre show or something - maybe that's your thing. At one place I objected to the high number of athletic groups in the company (I live in NZ). I started a lunchtime bridge group, and we had a 'triathon' one night of three events: bridge, chess and backgammon. I didn't get a huge turn out, but I had about a dozen there (out of 400 or so).
I was in my 30s at that time... ok, so I matured early.
Yep: any 'Star Wars' reference is guaranteed to get a few hits, and will likely be planted by a Disney marketing drone, somewhere in the evil empire (formally known as Disneyland).
I was in this thread to see comments about being a Hollywood science consultant, yet I can see are "I like tBBT", and "I don't", interspersed with the occasional "What do you know" and "You're obviously a moron".
Have all the slashdot accounts been hacked by some preschoolers?
Episode VII is the movie they should have made years ago. Instead, we got the godawful prequels and now all the original cast is a hundred years old and will be lucky to get through filming without needing paramedics standing by at all times.
Well, by that theory, "Indiana Jones and the Crystal skull" would have been bad, long overdue and needed paramedics nearby and... oh, I take your point.
I think he said "Being responsible, I will direct: and will be responsible for nothing that I do not direct".
If the new guy thinks you're looking over his shoulder all the time, he'll (rightly) think you don't trust him. And you're either fully trusted or you're not. If I was hired into a position and had the boss checking on me all the time, I think I'd walk. (Well, maybe not - I have bills to pay - but I'd be annoyed).
And as someone else else, if you hire the right guy, you've got no problems.
Sounds like you may be regretting the decision to move to the boardroom? Anyhow, good luck with it...
Can't remember who said it, but someone once said, on looking up at the stars "A sorry spectacle: if they be inhabited, what a scope for misery and folly. If they be uninhabited, what a waste of space".
Slashdot Mirror
Refer to Stephen Jay Gould and his "Wonderful Life" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B... also. Gould mentions that there were a range of various paleobiological doohickeys bopping around at the same time, and we come from one group that happened to swim better, or whatever. Next time round, we'll have five eyes.
Well, I'm not explaining it right, but that's why there's books...
Programmers maybe write reasonable code - but they often cannot express their ideas in ordinary language. Read the paper, George Orwell, 'Clean Code', Slashdot, whatever - and practice writing too. And talk to people. If they look puzzled, you're not communicating well, and need to get better. Use grammar. Write clean, accurate comments.
(Quick scan to make sure that this is clean... well, good enough...)
Who is looking for them? Why have I never been contacted? I'm easily in the top 5-10% of the industry, conservatively.
Maybe because you post anonymously?
... why NZ is seen as a hot bed of terrorism, naughtiness and general mayhem. The lead item on the news last night was a political hopeful having to pay back about $350 after claiming on a flight for a friend. Wow. This isn't a country where much happens.
Unless you can have a controlled study where both groups take the same exams and have the same labs/assignments the "result" is meaningless.
You also have to rely on the sample students being exactly the same. And I mean, exactly. Some people study best with a TV set droning in the background. The lady next to my desk has a radio going. What works for some people doesn't work for others.
Maybe the scientific findings will be that not all people will be the same? That'll be worthwhile research.
There was an article on slashdot a while ago about how frequent gamers tend to not have nightmares because they're so used to staying calm and winning in frightening situations. I can personally say that that is extremely true. That seems safer and more long-term than this treatment.
Forgive me, but I suspect that's also adulthood. Us folks old enough to have existed pre-game times used to have nightmares. We (well, me certainly) outgrew them. I suspect it's tied in with growing confidence and the ability to handle situations. Which is what you said.
This topic comes up once a quarter, or so. I agree with the gent above suggesting 'Chess' but in a different way. Teach the original abstract, not the implementation. If we've time and room in the curriculum, teach the kids logic. This will let them code, play chess, think, reason and analyze no matter what the end up doing for a crust in later life.
And 'Critical thinking' - which someone had taught me that at Scumbag High. I had to work a lot of it out myself in later life. With Critical thinking around, we'd have a lot less homeopaths, psychics, spiritualists, gamblers...
Will we teach kids a bunch of propriety toolchains that will be obsolete and disused by the time they get into the real world? Guessing yes
The answer is to teach them COBOL. That seems to keep running and running.
Hey, I'm working at a site that uses COBOL, you insensitive cl.. oh, I'm sorry. Yes, it does just keep going. God knows why, meantime I'll just bank the cheques.
Probably a 'teaser": Teasers are usually rich kids with nothing to do. They cruise around looking for planets that haven't made interstellar contact yet and buzz them, meaning that they find some isolated spot with very few people around, then land right by some poor unsuspecting soul whom no one's going to believe and then strut up and down in front of him wearing silly antennas on their head and making beep beep noises.
TFA is junk, of course. But hey, it's Friday down here in Middle Earth. I don't care.
I, for one, welcome our new monkey overlords.
My software told me "your username/password is invalid". So I entered "invalid" for both. Still didn't work.
You're not doing it right, maybe.
That way, when I forget it, the software/site will come back and tell me "Your password is incorrect', so I don't have to remember it at all.
I was with you 'til you said English was a natural language. It isn't. One example from "Monkey Business" - Marilyn Monroe is asked to go to every Ford garage in town and find Professor Fullton. "But which one do you want me to do first?".
One reason we have computer languages is that our normal ones are too ambiguous.
I like the idea of computer languages that read like Hemmingway novels. My suggestions,.,.,
1: The SUN also rises
2: For (whom the bell tolls): Do
3: The Old man and the C:
Hey, I've a large collection of physical media - about 800 discs or so. Thing there is that you can lend it to friends ("Hey Steve, seen 'Breaking Bad' yet? Here it is - let me know what you think of it").
It's also a way of supporting the business and the participants. I like Humphrey Bogart movies. I have a lot of his stuff on DVD. So, I've kicked in some cash to the estate of Bogie. I've no problem with that.
So there you go Zamphatta. And here's looking at you, kid.
Anyone use those, these days? Harder (but not impossible) to enter that into a laptop with 'Word' or Google Docs.
If you do a cost-benefit analysis of risk, nuclear energy is less problematic than fossil fuels, believe it or not, even with occasional accidents.
I read somewhere that the most deaths of any power source have been .. solar. Because people fall off the roof while putting up the panels.
Yeah I know... citation needed. But hey, this is slashdot, right?
History. The US has always been at war.
Kerry justifies his bullshit with the standard, "The other guy is worse, so STFU".
Eurasia has always been at war with Eastasia.
But what's often forgotten is that Ludd was right. The Industrial Revolution really did cause horrible misery to many, to the point of making violent communistic revolution seem like a good idea.
Nonsense. Well, in the long term, nonsense. The industrial revolution made the modern world, with its factory towers and pollution - but also with its hospitals, schools and longer lifespan. Moon-rockets, television, cars, jets... thank the industrial revolution for those.
:) But maybe don't call it a 'kill switch' - bad connotations...
In economics, this is called 'Creative destruction', which is what short-term destruction is (of manual looms or ignition keys) to get to a better location (automatic looms or press-button starts). And we're all in the business of IT, so change for us is second nature.
Agree with your flying missiles comment though
I just say 'generate' to PasswordSafe (right now my tool of choice) and have a 8-character pile of gibberish that I can't pronounce and never read. If someone points a gun to my head (the NSA?) and asks for my online banking password, I can only - truthfully- say that I have no idea.
BTW, pavlovian to me implies egg whites and sugar, mixed and then baked. Then cream.
I'm 55. 4 years ago, I left a good paying job at a Fortune-100 cube farm (where I was miserable) and went with a startup (where I'm having fun again). Best decision I ever made. I'm the oldest person in the company. Many of the people I work with are half my age. It all works just fine. Get over it. You're there to do a job, not be a frat buddy. If you don't want to go clubbing with the guys after work, don't go clubbing.
Well said. OP, just do what you want. Some kids want to go clubbing, fine. Some don't. Some want to go see a movie, a theatre show or something - maybe that's your thing. At one place I objected to the high number of athletic groups in the company (I live in NZ). I started a lunchtime bridge group, and we had a 'triathon' one night of three events: bridge, chess and backgammon. I didn't get a huge turn out, but I had about a dozen there (out of 400 or so).
I was in my 30s at that time... ok, so I matured early.
So the Disney hype has already started, uh?
Yep: any 'Star Wars' reference is guaranteed to get a few hits, and will likely be planted by a Disney marketing drone, somewhere in the evil empire (formally known as Disneyland).
I was in this thread to see comments about being a Hollywood science consultant, yet I can see are "I like tBBT", and "I don't", interspersed with the occasional "What do you know" and "You're obviously a moron".
Have all the slashdot accounts been hacked by some preschoolers?
Episode VII is the movie they should have made years ago. Instead, we got the godawful prequels and now all the original cast is a hundred years old and will be lucky to get through filming without needing paramedics standing by at all times.
Well, by that theory, "Indiana Jones and the Crystal skull" would have been bad, long overdue and needed paramedics nearby and... oh, I take your point.
I think he said "Being responsible, I will direct: and will be responsible for nothing that I do not direct".
If the new guy thinks you're looking over his shoulder all the time, he'll (rightly) think you don't trust him. And you're either fully trusted or you're not. If I was hired into a position and had the boss checking on me all the time, I think I'd walk. (Well, maybe not - I have bills to pay - but I'd be annoyed).
And as someone else else, if you hire the right guy, you've got no problems.
Sounds like you may be regretting the decision to move to the boardroom? Anyhow, good luck with it...
Can't remember who said it, but someone once said, on looking up at the stars "A sorry spectacle: if they be inhabited, what a scope for misery and folly. If they be uninhabited, what a waste of space".
Whoever it was, was a pessimist.