Comment Re:Not News (Score 1) 201
Nevermind. Read TFA.
The professor is paid to present the information; the student pays for the opportunity to learn from an expert. As a student, it is your responsibility to study until you understand the material.
I agree with this. College is certainly a time for students to take responsibility for their own education. I'd go on to say that since I'm paying for the opportunity to learn from an expert, I should be given a fighting chance to learn the material. Please don't take this to mean that I'm of the mindset that professors should bend over backwards to accomodate students in terms of handing out As and Bs for sub-par work and/or bending due dates on the basis of "the student pays the professor salary and thus should get whatever they want." What I mean is that I think that part of the opportunity means having professors who are reasonably good teachers, willing to meet with students during (and outside of) office hours, and are able to instruct students in a manner that they can comprehend.
And while some of them are poor teachers, all professors were at one time undergraduates, and thus they tend to have a good idea about what you need to understand to be a master of a subject.
I had my fair share of professors who were just really bad teachers. Some of them know their subject TOO well and thus have trouble bringing it down to an introductory level where undergrad students, even senior ones, can understand it. In the same vein as the above, looking back on my undergrad engineering education I feel like I shortchanged by poor teaching on at least two critical courses. One of these was intro circuits where I didn't learn all the concepts I was supposed to because I took it with the "wrong" professor. As a result, I had a harder time in subsequent courses while students who took the same course with a different professor had a much easier time.
Worse, for who? Not for companies.
"We don't have enough engineers" is largely just an excuse for allowing corporations to get exemptions to immigration laws and import indentured servants in technical fields.
Part of the problem is that companies are expecting engineers that are basically ready-made to fill the exact position they're looking for. I've tried to help my wife, who is preparing to graduate with MSEE, find a job in engineering. Many jobs that are even "entry level" require a minimum of 5 years experience doing something very specific (e.g., worked on specialized proprietary missile targeting system X), requires a security clearance, and or military experience. How are new engineers right out of college supposed to be able to have years of experience right off the bat? Couple that with the apparently not-uncommon practice of rejecting applicants who have been unemployed for more than a few months and we're on our way to building up a huge pool of wasted talent.
Apple will continue. They still have strong leadership, Jobs will be chairman, and progress will continue. It's not like they're suddenly going to stop making Macbooks, iPhones, and iPads.
When Macbooks, iPhones, and iPads are old news and no long pushing the creative envelope, then things may well take a turn the other direction. Jobs drove those things to be what they are and it's hard to imagine someone else taking over and having the same impact and ability to drive the company forward.
AgentSheets combines a graphical, drag-and-drop user interface with a rule-based programming language to allow students to develop games and interactive applications of surprising sophistication. Projects built with AgentSheets incorporate not just code but images, sounds, and other multimedia.
Haven't we seen software like this many times before? Examples include (but are not limited to): Alice, the old GUI used to program Lego Mindstorms, and Labview. If those didn't "take off" in terms of generating interest in programming and computer science, why should we expect this one to be any different?
"President Obama wants to boost engineering graduation rates by 10,000 a year. (...) The US had just over 1.9 million engineers in 2010. The unemployment rate in 2010 for all engineers was 4.5%." In other words, the US has a total of 85,500 unemployed engineers, but needs to produce an additional 10,000 per year?
Agreed. I know of several engineering graduates (Bachelor's) with decent grades and even technical internships that had a VERY hard time finding an engineering job. At least a few STILL cannot find engineering jobs.
I can imagine people think they're being green when voting down nuclear power, but actually their vote is causing much worse environmental impact and global warming by the necessary increase in conventional non-nuclear energy production.
I'd guess that the problem, as is all too often the case, is that the people behind nuclear power are simply not putting up enough money and/or aren't vocal enough to improve their image or knock on fossil fuel based power. That whole "clean coal" initiative seems to have done well enough for itself even without presenting any readily available (as in, in TV ads or on billboards) scienfitic proof.
What nuclear (and indeed solar, wind, hydroelectric, etc.) power needs is for someone to start an ad campaign that shows the real impact on human mortality and the environment coal and oil power have.
You could browse the web on Windows Mobile, but the experience was pretty painful. The iPhone was the first to make that feature actually useful enough to use all the time. Same with the iPod. I have a little MP3 player from Samsung and I can't for the life of me remember how to use it. It just isn't intuitive.
I'd argue that the iPod isn't that intuitive either. I've had to explain to my dad a few times how to use iTunes to get music on to the iPod and how to use it. He's remarked to me that it "isn't intuitive," a sentiment I've heard from a few others with regard to the iPod.
Like most other expressions of concern that come from brother Stallman, the geeks hear him, and keep merrily on with technological progress. Not that his concerns are never valid, but he has become the Chicken Little of geekdom.
In this case, however, I believe his concerns are completely valid. People store personal information on Facebook, whose privacy policies are a constant subject of debate and, it seems, in constant flux. Information security aside, when I store my credit card information on my home computer I can feel safe that no one is going to get at it who I don't want to get at it. When I give it to some entity in the cloud, who knows what could happen without my knowledge or consent.
it IS unfair competition itself. it was what was done with ie against netscape, and media player against others.
Not quite. Media player and IE come pre-installed on your machine but this is explicitly labeled an optional download. Being part of the "optional updates" means it will be presented to users as an option. They will not be in any way forced to download it and in fact will have to go out of their way to deliberately check the box to get it, something most people (i.e. my mom) probably won't do assuming they even realize the option exists.
Actually major media player updates (e.g. version 11 if you have version 10) are listed as optional as well if I recall correctly.
From the perspective of a conservative, his is THE most left-leaning and partisan Presidency to date. GWB had a record of reaching across the aisle even with a majority (NCLB is the big one there, written by Ted Kennedy).
NCLB's first generation is arriving in college and they're shockingly unprepared. Never in recent history have entering college students been so inept at writing papers and discussing ideas. They still seem skilled at filling in bubbles, at least. The kids from wealthier or better schools haven't suffered much because their programs exceed the minimum requirements and still cover all the same material. The rural and urban kids, however, are being taught in such a way to ensure funding that's contingent on standardized tests. When a college student has never heard of a bibliography or encountered the idea of writing a paper based on research, I die a little inside. Then I stop whining and try to fill in the gaps.
NCLB was indeed a broad bipartisan effort and it should be a reminder that when the idiots on the left and the idiots on the right agree on something, it might just be due to its overwhelming idiocy.
Agreed.
"Engineering without management is art." -- Jeff Johnson
