Harry Potter makes people who don't read want to read. I would say that's a very good thing! If they really love Harry, maybe they will start to read real literary works of art. Or... maybe they'll just stick to Harry.;)
It's better because it appeals to a wider range audience (children, teens, adults, and the elderly). It's a fantasy book that isn't too fantastical for people who aren't into traditional fantasy novels (ie. Lord of the Rings, Sword of Shannara, The Magic of Recluce, etc.). It's written with the intent of a younger audience being the main group of readers. What the educated don't realize is that a HUGE portion of the population is undereducated. These books are right at the level of the garbage man, or the guy who pumps your gas.
If you are reading them the same way you read Great Expectations or To Kill a Mockingbird then you are going to be severely disappointed. These books weren't written to be literary works of art. They are written for entertainment. And guess what, they are entertaining. They are cute, fun, emotional, dark, and happy all at the same time. Almost everyone can connect with Harry in some way.
So when you put together wide audience range and entertaining, you have a book that is better than most others.
I think the hardest thing for my generation is the gap between males and females. I personally grew up a gamer female, so when my boyfriend chooses to play video games for hours, it really doesn't bother me at all. However, the biggest complaint I get from a lot of my female friends is that they cannot understand why boys feel the need to play video games so much! The idea that guys play too many video games is slowly, but surely sneaking into Cosmopolitan magazine and others like it. Beware, Men, Cosmo says video games are bad!;)
My first CS Class in high school was amazingly good. My teacher made his own text book. It had assignments, information about standard libraries, number systems, variable stuff, everything. It was awesome. It also had all of the due dates for the programs. The way he taught the class was, he taught everyone how to write the first program as a group. After that, a couple of us just took off. If you had already turned in a program, you didn't have to sit through the associated lecture. I finished the class in like four or five months. It was in Java, but it was a basic design that could easily be translated into C.
Some good program assignments I give my CS1 tutees are:
Make Change: The user inputs some amount, and then the student says $1.16 is 4 quarters, 1 dime, 1 nickle, and 1 penny.
Repeating Program: Force them to play with while and do-while loops by writing a program that has a "Would you like to try again?" question at the end with a y or n answer.
STRING MANIPULATION!!! Let me explain. I had intro to computer science twice. Once in Java, once in C. My Java teacher forced us to write tons of string manipulation programs. My C teacher stuck with math. I still use a lot of the tricks I learned from my Java teacher today. Best set of homeworks ever.
For my generation in particular, it was the way we were raised. For both my boyfriend and I, it was our family life too. We both have dads who are computer programmers. They both talk about the good ole days before there was Microsoft. We both also remember the days of Lemmings.
We weren't taught to hate Microsoft. We were taught that there's more to life than just Microsoft. However, I have to say, I personally respect Microsoft. Their goal was to provide an operating system and set of software for the average customer. I think they hit the nail on the head.
Computer Science 1 classes have non-computer related majors writing this program without any libraries other than some standard I/O library. Not very hard at all. Just annoying.
I built a radio. It wasn't out of a little set from Radio Shack. I bought copper wire and wrapped everything myself. It could pick up one station, the speaker was made out of a cup and a straw, and had two volume settings: on and off. I was still really proud of it though.
Actually... the sensor in the Wii will pick up small motions too. You don't have to work out every time you play, but you look stupid sitting on the couch when the person next to you is jumping up and down.
Seriously, all they had to do was go to one college, pick out the one and only female CS student, and tada! You have your replacement for Paris Hilton.
If you can get past the first 1/3 of The Silmarillion, then you're good. It's really entertaining after that. And it's cool to see how the events in that book lead up to LOTR.
The Hobbit is a small part of the prequel. Read The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales of Middle Earth, and the 10 histories of Middle Earth. The Silmarillion is the LOTR bible.
I am sure many people are giving you advice on which classes to take; however, it's more than just classes. Get yourself some kind of real job to talk about. If that isn't possible, and you find yourself working retail, do a huge project. Research and development. Create a portfolio to talk about at interviews. If you were a communications major who had written a 3d first person shooter video game, your degree would mean nothing. You would be hired on the spot. It's all about your portfolio!
The CS students who make it through a lot of math often end up being better programmers. I'm not sure if that's a true statement, but it certainly seems to be true where I go to school. Calculus Calculus Calculus! So important! At least one semester of calc is necessary, but I would say if you can squeeze in multi variable calculus, you're good. Multi variable + Linear Algebra (matrix math) is really good. I would say the matrix math is much more important though. And discrete! Now, we actually have a class in our CS department that is our own little private discrete class, but I'm totally planning on taking the math department's discrete. Plus, my math department has this computer programming class for math majors. It's all logic problems. I'm taking that too. Statistics. Now, this one isn't as important because if you get the basic concept then you can just look stuff up, but consider it an easy A (hopefully). I am so glad I took AP Stat in high school. I have used information from that class in almost every class I have had here in college. In short, if you can fit in a math minor (or major), go for it. My CS department has you take 3 math courses, and then you only need 4 more for a minor.
At my small, private college, we the students made a solution. Compiler Design. It's a senior level course that is recommended only for CS or Computer Engineering students who are serious about programming. It's offered like once every four years simply because not that many people want to take it. So last spring, me and the boyfriend got together four other people, and now we have the class. My professor was going to run it like a normal class, and we were like, "uhh... there's 6 of us. So no. We're going to do a group project." It's working out really well. We've written an interpreter, and now we're well into making our compiler. I think we might be farther along because it's a group project. Plus, since everyone is at about the same skill level, we're all bringing equal amounts of work to the project. It's like we're killing two birds with one stone.
I have an admin and non-admin account set up. I have NEVER had a problem. I run all of my software on a non administrator account, and have never had any problems at all. Hence why I said that OSX is simplier for simple people. Windows might be more confusing to people who aren't willing to think things through, but the capabilities are still there.
Here's where I slapped my forehead and said, "this guy has no idea what he's talking about." At the very end while talking about viruses and malware he comments, "I don't run as an administrator." Amazingly enough, in Windows XP you can set up multiple accounts!!! Wow... You mean, you can make one administrator and then use a non-administrator account for your daily use? Amazing... It's probably best that he switched over to Mac OSX. It's simple for simple people.
Wait a minute... Don't most of these teenagers have something like a parent with a credit card? Honestly, say to your parent, "I got an A on my calculus test. Can I download some songs?" And while the parent stands over the shoulder of the child, then yeah, they can use the parent's credit card. Or am I the only one who thinks parents should be responsible for their children? Now thankfully, when I was a teenager, illegally downloading music was just starting to become big, but it was something my dad was still doing too, so he didn't care.
We'll bring the laptop to bed to watch movies, play sudoku together, and run around for a bit in Guild Wars with each other's characters. But it's always us time.
I absolutely agree. Too much of a good thing is a very bad thing. My parents also made me pay my insurance, but by paying, I earned the right to drive wherever I wanted.
I decided to go to a very tiny private school for college. First semester there I found I didn't have a lot in common with about 90% of the student body. None of them had ever worked or even so much as paid for their own cell phone plan.
selling their gold/equipment for money in the real world.
This has been a popular way to make money in EverQuest for YEARS. Only not hackers, but actual players sell their stuff. Nothing new at all. Hackers selling your stuff? It's like a theif selling your stuff at a pawn shop. It was bound to happen sooner or later.
First, it's MMORPGs.
Now it's pirates.
What next? Will the gaming world be blaming ninjas?
Face it, most games for today's market suck. People are looking for either a quality game (such as Mario Tennis, which will keep you and your friends entertained for hours) or something different (MMORPGs still fit the different category, but probably not for long). Video games are also too expensive. $50 is a lot of money to spend all at once. Personally, I buy a new game about once a month, which equates to about $600. These games have to be a worthy investment.
Not only is the price far below most console systems, but the games are affordable too. Plus there are some really great games on the DS. A game doesn't need the most up to date hardware to be awesome. Super Puzzle Fighter II still keeps me entertained.
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This sounds like a great idea!... At an airport. I would really hate to see these filling up libraries.
Harry Potter makes people who don't read want to read. I would say that's a very good thing! If they really love Harry, maybe they will start to read real literary works of art. Or... maybe they'll just stick to Harry. ;)
It's better because it appeals to a wider range audience (children, teens, adults, and the elderly). It's a fantasy book that isn't too fantastical for people who aren't into traditional fantasy novels (ie. Lord of the Rings, Sword of Shannara, The Magic of Recluce, etc.). It's written with the intent of a younger audience being the main group of readers. What the educated don't realize is that a HUGE portion of the population is undereducated. These books are right at the level of the garbage man, or the guy who pumps your gas.
If you are reading them the same way you read Great Expectations or To Kill a Mockingbird then you are going to be severely disappointed. These books weren't written to be literary works of art. They are written for entertainment. And guess what, they are entertaining. They are cute, fun, emotional, dark, and happy all at the same time. Almost everyone can connect with Harry in some way.
So when you put together wide audience range and entertaining, you have a book that is better than most others.
I'm so obsessed with Harry Potter. This was the best Christmas present she could give out... short of the book itself.
I think the hardest thing for my generation is the gap between males and females. I personally grew up a gamer female, so when my boyfriend chooses to play video games for hours, it really doesn't bother me at all. However, the biggest complaint I get from a lot of my female friends is that they cannot understand why boys feel the need to play video games so much! The idea that guys play too many video games is slowly, but surely sneaking into Cosmopolitan magazine and others like it. Beware, Men, Cosmo says video games are bad! ;)
Some good program assignments I give my CS1 tutees are:
For my generation in particular, it was the way we were raised. For both my boyfriend and I, it was our family life too. We both have dads who are computer programmers. They both talk about the good ole days before there was Microsoft. We both also remember the days of Lemmings. We weren't taught to hate Microsoft. We were taught that there's more to life than just Microsoft. However, I have to say, I personally respect Microsoft. Their goal was to provide an operating system and set of software for the average customer. I think they hit the nail on the head.
Computer Science 1 classes have non-computer related majors writing this program without any libraries other than some standard I/O library. Not very hard at all. Just annoying.
I built a radio. It wasn't out of a little set from Radio Shack. I bought copper wire and wrapped everything myself. It could pick up one station, the speaker was made out of a cup and a straw, and had two volume settings: on and off. I was still really proud of it though.
Actually... the sensor in the Wii will pick up small motions too. You don't have to work out every time you play, but you look stupid sitting on the couch when the person next to you is jumping up and down.
Seriously, all they had to do was go to one college, pick out the one and only female CS student, and tada! You have your replacement for Paris Hilton.
You know who they should have had on the list as a top 10 geek girl? Me. :-P
If you can get past the first 1/3 of The Silmarillion, then you're good. It's really entertaining after that. And it's cool to see how the events in that book lead up to LOTR.
The Hobbit is a small part of the prequel. Read The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales of Middle Earth, and the 10 histories of Middle Earth. The Silmarillion is the LOTR bible.
I am sure many people are giving you advice on which classes to take; however, it's more than just classes. Get yourself some kind of real job to talk about. If that isn't possible, and you find yourself working retail, do a huge project. Research and development. Create a portfolio to talk about at interviews. If you were a communications major who had written a 3d first person shooter video game, your degree would mean nothing. You would be hired on the spot. It's all about your portfolio!
The CS students who make it through a lot of math often end up being better programmers. I'm not sure if that's a true statement, but it certainly seems to be true where I go to school. Calculus Calculus Calculus! So important! At least one semester of calc is necessary, but I would say if you can squeeze in multi variable calculus, you're good. Multi variable + Linear Algebra (matrix math) is really good. I would say the matrix math is much more important though. And discrete! Now, we actually have a class in our CS department that is our own little private discrete class, but I'm totally planning on taking the math department's discrete. Plus, my math department has this computer programming class for math majors. It's all logic problems. I'm taking that too. Statistics. Now, this one isn't as important because if you get the basic concept then you can just look stuff up, but consider it an easy A (hopefully). I am so glad I took AP Stat in high school. I have used information from that class in almost every class I have had here in college. In short, if you can fit in a math minor (or major), go for it. My CS department has you take 3 math courses, and then you only need 4 more for a minor.
At my small, private college, we the students made a solution. Compiler Design. It's a senior level course that is recommended only for CS or Computer Engineering students who are serious about programming. It's offered like once every four years simply because not that many people want to take it. So last spring, me and the boyfriend got together four other people, and now we have the class. My professor was going to run it like a normal class, and we were like, "uhh... there's 6 of us. So no. We're going to do a group project." It's working out really well. We've written an interpreter, and now we're well into making our compiler. I think we might be farther along because it's a group project. Plus, since everyone is at about the same skill level, we're all bringing equal amounts of work to the project. It's like we're killing two birds with one stone.
I have an admin and non-admin account set up. I have NEVER had a problem. I run all of my software on a non administrator account, and have never had any problems at all. Hence why I said that OSX is simplier for simple people. Windows might be more confusing to people who aren't willing to think things through, but the capabilities are still there.
Here's where I slapped my forehead and said, "this guy has no idea what he's talking about." At the very end while talking about viruses and malware he comments, "I don't run as an administrator." Amazingly enough, in Windows XP you can set up multiple accounts!!! Wow... You mean, you can make one administrator and then use a non-administrator account for your daily use? Amazing... It's probably best that he switched over to Mac OSX. It's simple for simple people.
Wait a minute... Don't most of these teenagers have something like a parent with a credit card? Honestly, say to your parent, "I got an A on my calculus test. Can I download some songs?" And while the parent stands over the shoulder of the child, then yeah, they can use the parent's credit card. Or am I the only one who thinks parents should be responsible for their children? Now thankfully, when I was a teenager, illegally downloading music was just starting to become big, but it was something my dad was still doing too, so he didn't care.
We'll bring the laptop to bed to watch movies, play sudoku together, and run around for a bit in Guild Wars with each other's characters. But it's always us time.
I absolutely agree. Too much of a good thing is a very bad thing. My parents also made me pay my insurance, but by paying, I earned the right to drive wherever I wanted. I decided to go to a very tiny private school for college. First semester there I found I didn't have a lot in common with about 90% of the student body. None of them had ever worked or even so much as paid for their own cell phone plan.
First, it's MMORPGs.
Now it's pirates.
What next? Will the gaming world be blaming ninjas?
Face it, most games for today's market suck. People are looking for either a quality game (such as Mario Tennis, which will keep you and your friends entertained for hours) or something different (MMORPGs still fit the different category, but probably not for long). Video games are also too expensive. $50 is a lot of money to spend all at once. Personally, I buy a new game about once a month, which equates to about $600. These games have to be a worthy investment.
Not only is the price far below most console systems, but the games are affordable too. Plus there are some really great games on the DS. A game doesn't need the most up to date hardware to be awesome. Super Puzzle Fighter II still keeps me entertained.