I can't agree with either point. Any knowledge of calculus can help you detect situations where politicians or other people with an agenda (even your boss) are trying to pull the wool over your eyes with something that would otherwise sound plausible. Min/max would be an example, and not only for maximizing profit.

CS, OTOH, I don't regard as useful to the general population, which I can't imagine ever having to, for example, select the most appropriate sort algorithm. Computer *usage* skills are necessary, and by that I don't mean simply teaching the latest Microsoft products. Or if that's deemed the most practical means of preparing students for the "real" world, then also teach, for example, how Excel's stat functions can lead you astray.

Ummm, no. They were smart enough that they could basically package *dirt* and sell it.

The people that *bought* them were stupid. There were even Signs in the Heavens, in the form of the ratings services assigning the same ratings to some of these that they were giving to Treasury instruments. And there were *still* buyers, to the tune of untold trillions of dollars. Never underestimate the power of human greed.

What astounds me is that the people at Moodies and the other ratings orgs aren't facing charges yet. I've not even heard that they've had to testify to Congress. Though they well could have been, and I missed it.

I quoted a Slashdot doc related to moderation earlier in the 'conversation'. But when you get right down to it, who's going to read a bunch of lame doc, dating (mostly) back to 2000, which isn't even *internally* consistent?

Last October I had to tell them that their links re: how to advertise on the site referred to Web sites that didn't exit!

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"http://slashdot.org/faq/advertising.shtml#ad100 has a link to:
http://slashdot.org/advertising.shtml
click it, and I get:

"An error occurred while loading http://slashdot.org/advertising.shtml:
Could not connect to host www.osdn.com."

Should www.osdn.com point to www.newsforge.com? That's where a traceroute ends up.
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I like doc to actually mean something, too. But the people that run this place simply aren't competent.