Ever since Bioshock, I've been in love with the idea of an underwater city. I want to live in Rapture.

Yeah, IMO the best method (more or less what I did):

BASIC -> python / ruby / javascript / shell script -> Visual Basic -> Java/C# -> C++ -> C

Then you're free to try crazy things like smalltalk, obj-c, haskell, brainfuck, etc. on your own.

Smalltalk? Are you kidding? GTFO! Smalltalk is the ugliest thing in the world, ugggggh. Please don't force messaging on newbies, that shit is awkward as hell. Smalltalk is what lead to this annoying world we live in where you have to write so much obj-c. Uggggh.

At least Javascript is just simple C scripts.

But really, I'd start on Python, Ruby, C, or BASIC, depending upon your inclination.

Awesome. I'm going to make everyone I know watch these. Time to get rid of the "Programming is just typing!" school of thought. And maybe teach some people how to think in new ways.

Its definitely true. Can we just use government public education money to build facilities to enable kids to log on to Khan Academy? I think that'd be a huge improvement.

There's something to be said for being able to make changes and see the updates in real time. When you're first learning especially, and when its just the most basic of basics, that's huge.

Fair enough.

I dunno, I think software engineers and security consultants can find solace and joy in the glider. Its not inherently showy or dumb, its just elegant. In fact, the glider should appeal more to the "real hackers" we're discussing and less to the script kiddies. The script kiddie hacker symbol would be something like "01010101" or "1337H4X"

Oh absolutely, I said myself elsewhere that nobody calls themselves hackers except script kiddies.

The rest of us are software engineers or security consultants now.

The Hacker Emblem, the glider, has as much to do with computer hacking as anything else. What the hell? Get off your high horse. Who made you grand poobah of hacking?

There is no more elegant representation of the complexities and the elegance of hacking than the glider.

Have you never heard of a DDOS attack? Do you have any concept of how many people try to hack websites "for the lulz" ??

O_O

It may not SOLELY have been to break something important, but it was directly to break something important, so as to cause the consequences of having lost something important.

And for the exact same reason, it might be profitable for Russia or China or somebody to brick the rover. To break something important to us. Not PURELY to break something important, just "mwahahaha we destroyed the US's rover, they're going to cry!" but rather to see that US advancement is slowed so their countries can catch up.

That's like saying "Why do people go to war? Just for the sake of shooting people and capturing land?" Well, YES, actually, but there's more to it.

Yup! I can confirm I did exactly this! :D

So... is it encrypted? I mean, it has to be, right? Russia or China could try to screw with us otherwise.

For me, probably Children of the Mind, the last book of the original Ender's Game series.

I wrote about several moments, but they're all spoilers. So I'll just include this one, as generic as I can make it. This scene was so hard to read, I had to stop and put the book down for awhile.

A man has to convince the woman he truly loves that he doesn't love her at all, so that she'll be willing to sacrifice herself to save the lives of a planet.

I'm tearing up just thinking about it. ;-;

Read the sequels, they're far, far sadder. But wow, SO good. It blows my mind everybody just reads the first book, they love that wunderkind goes to school, saves the world Harry Potter style story, but the later books where he grows up get REALLY deep and philosophical... You need to read them.