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Comment Re:Hilarious! (Score 2) 220

You can game university classes too. Pay someone to write your papers or even sit in for you in tests.

We try to have individual accountability, but people that don't want to work in class often expend limitless effort to get around our defenses.

I would like to think that these efforts eventually catch up with the perpetrators in life.

Comment Re:Engineering. Solve Problems (Score 1) 420

This. Some people are problem solvers, and some people can be taught problem solving skill / strategies but never are really good at dealing with complex problems.

As a parent, I worry for my children. If they are not problem solvers, what else can they do that will not be totally automated? Nursing? Physical therapy? Fire/ Police? Stuff where you should need a physical presence and it will be difficult to robustly automate to deal with uncertain situations...

Comment Re:But why? (Score 1) 634

"more societally meaningful" ?! And I don't get it either. My job does not get more societally meaningful; if I don't do my job (Software Engineer, Industrial Automation), you don't get any power to your home, don't drive a car, don't get air condition in the mall and many more things. Sure I am only a small cog in that bigger scheme of things, but without engineers modern society would not exist.

Exactly. Maybe they don't see the bigger picture? Maybe we don't properly motivate with these examples?

If engineers fail at their job, people die. Chemical plants explode, medical devices fail, airplanes crash and burn. How much more impact on society can you have?

I think the problem is the job is too far removed from the feels. You don't have personal direct impact.

And sometimes the conditions are not conducive to family life. I have students starting with a four year degree making over $100k. But they spend lots of time in the gulf on oil rigs. Sometimes people make different life choices.

Comment Diaspora? Open standards! (Score 1) 359

I know it will never work, but open-standards for stuff is what we really should shoot for.

Email and web were successful because anyone could run servers on the protocol.

Chat was starting to move that way, but nobody seems to use chat anymore. Text or FB message or instagram or twitter.

Social media is all privately controlled and that is bad for us all.

Comment Off script (Score 2) 407

I had a student talk with me about Adderall abuse on campus.

He said it worked great, he could study all night but retention long-term was limited.

He also said he stopped taking Adderall off-script because it made him suicidal.

Whatever happened to coffee?

Comment Re:A first: We should follow Germany's lead (Score 1) 700

A huge all-glass cathedral, $ multi-million salaries for the charismatic preacher begging for more donations, and toys like private jets and limos: False

I would assume the "church" is still doing good charity works of some sort, even if the optics are bad.

And the "toys" can somewhat be justified. Everyone needs to get around, so a preacher needs a car. A preacher in a giant church has more resources (and obligations) to get around, so maybe a big car (and a driver?) could be justified if they are actually going around ministering.

And a jet seems crazy, but these groups become large national (multinational?) organizations that have members and locations and ministries all over the country. Again, if they have resources, why not let them have a jet if they are doing good works? Now if they only use it to jet to the Bahamas every weekend...

As in many things, the real answer is "it depends."

Comment Re:What guarantees of longevity? (Score 1) 48

BTW, what would you guys suggest to wean non-technical friends off FB chat, given that IRC might be a little too much hassle with all the servers and keeping their computer on all the time?

Google Hangouts does chat and video chat and snapchat image type stuff.

It is multiplatform, unlike Factime or SMS messaging. Not sure if Whatsapp has a PC/Mac client.

I have had messaged delayed for some unknown reason on occasion. But overall, it is very solid.

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