You would give up the limited time for teaching needed information in the programming class to teach the tools.

If the tools take that much teaching then you've chosen the wrong tools. They should be 15 minutes at the most (with a handout on how to install them).

Knowing how to set up a web server is not important. Almost all the web programmers I have worked with couldn't set up a server and never needed to because there is someone like me whose job is doing that.

At which point you're getting into the "magic" aspect of a "science" degree. Their code will be running on a web server or in a web browser. There is no reason why they should not know the basics of setting up both.

Particularly when their code might depend upon a specific module being loaded on the web server.

Chances are those classes you think should be dumped are required by the certifying authority for this to qualify for an AAS.

A class on Algebra? Again, make it a prerequisite to the program. Use the slot to add another database program.

Many of the classes will be for people new to programming, so programming tools, etc. will be needed.

They won't be much use outside of a programming class. So don't spend time on them by themselves. Teach the IDE and github or whatever within the class itself.

The idea being to provide the students with as great a depth of knowledge in the core technologies as possible.

There is no need for a basic web server admin class.

I disagree. If the program is about how to write code for the Web then knowing how to set up part of the Web is important.

Screw all that CompSci crap - we don't use it in 99.9% of our code.

It's not whether you use it in your code.

CompSci teaches you the fundamentals that AJAX and JSON and such are built upon. That way you know what the alternatives are and what their strengths/weaknesses are.

The problem I see with that is that you don't have enough tech.

You have 5 courses that I would consider "electives". English I and English II being examples of such.

You have 5 "intro" courses.

Which leaves 3 stages of web development and 1 stage of database ... whatever. You have more electives than core.

Which leaves a basic math class and a project class. Dump the math class. If they don't have it already they can make it up outside of that program. Add another database class.

Also dump the "programming tools" class. They can pick that up in their programming classes. Add a class on basic web server administration. Install Apache and add modules and read logs. Install IIS and so forth.

To be fair, it could be defeated completely by wearing the crocodile mask.

I am detecting a significantly elevated level of story quality and of course, beta changes, in the last week or so. I guess you guys really did listen...eventually.

Brilliant, so let's say the inventor starts his or her own company. MegaCorp sees the idea, likes it, and uses its massive financial and market power to create their own version which is better, faster and shinier. MegaCorp gets a 3% rise in stock prices, the inventor gets nothing.

OK. So let's say a chef starts his or her own restaurant. MegaCorp sees the menu, likes it, and uses its massive financial and market power to create their own version which is better, faster and tastier. MegaCorp gets a 3% rise in stock prices, the chef gets nothing.

Explain the difference to me? Explain why inventors get monopoly protections from competition and other entrepreneurs and workers don't?

The inventor has another brilliant idea, but this time he or she keeps it under their hat and the whole of society suffers as a result

I would liken this to a cook at home with a secret recipe which they don't even serve to guests. The resulting "suffering" of society does not bother me.

I'd really like to be able to install something on the lines leaving my breaker panel that acts like a firewall and blocks any kind of network communication over powerline.

1. Get some electrical-noise suppression ferrite toroids and some ceramic capacitors at your local electronics store. (.005 microfarad at a minimum of 600V would be good for the caps. 1000V or higher on cap used for 240V circuits.)

2. In your fusebox connect a cap from each breaker's hot output to the nearest ground bus, keeping the wires as short as possible. (You want them downstream of the breaker so they blow the breaker, rather than start a fire, in the very unlikely chance that one fails shorted.) On 220v loads hook the cap between the two hot wires (red and black in the US).

The cap wires are too small to carry the current in case of a short, so get some tiny 1A pigtail fuses and wire them in series on the hot side (either side in the 240V both-are-hot case). Put plastic insulation rated at least 600V over (at least) the hot side wires and the fuse. (You can get such insulation, of adequate voltage and temperature ratings, by stripping the insulation from a spare piece of electrical wiring.)

3. In your fusebox disconnect the circuits, one by one, both hot and neutral. On each run the hot and neutral lines through a ferrite toroid core in opposite directions and reconnect the . For a 220V circuit run the two hot lines through the ferrite core, again in opposite directions, and ignore the Neutral. If you have multiple loads on a breaker, you can use separate toroids on each load or a single one on from two to all of them: Run the hot wires all one way through the toroid and the neutral (or red-hot on 240V) the other way.

This puts inductance in series with the signal and capacitance shunting it, forming a low pass filter. The low-frequency power will get through just fine and the high frequency networking signals will get stopped.

Putting cores on the main feeds also works, and takes fewer cores. You can also put one on each of the hot wires, separately, rather than using one with the wires crossed through it. You can get big ones that are split, intended to be clamped over a computer signal cable to prevent it from acting like an antenna, which you can clamp onto the wires without unhooking them.

Don't bother putting the two haves of the circuit through the core in the SAME direction, as you would with the signals in a cable or power cord if you clamped a core around the whole thing. This keeps the common-mode (both wires go positive or negative together) from propagating past the core, but the differential mode (one goes positive while the other goes negative), which is what power line networking uses, goes right through.

Note that putting this stuff in your fusebox may be against code, and void your fire insurance. The capacitor wiring may also be problematic for creating hazards if not done properly (insulated with "spaghetti tubing" on at least the hot side, hot side cut short, a little fuse (1A or so) in series, etc.).

"THE" billion dollar hacker club? Seems to me there are several of those.

Two instances just from the public record: First there's the Homebrew Computer Club, founded in '73, which includes a number of leading lights in the Silicon Valley part of the industry, including Jobs and Woz. (Apple alone has WhatsApp beat by a factor of neary 25, as of today's close.) Then there's the (invitation-only) Hackers Conference, Founded by in '84, whose membership may not have as high a percentage of people who made billions in high tech, but does have more than one just among those whose membership is publicly known.

I could go on for a while, and I'm SURE I don't know anywhere near all such organizations.

NYC [treats] electric bikes [as] illegal [... No] (lights, signals, VIN numbers, etc).

But this box DOES have lights, as the ilustration clearly shows. Looks like it has signals, too, though that's not clear. (There are rear-facing lights, too.)

As another has already pointed out, it's designed so you have to start up manually before the motor will cut in, to make it escape the definition of a motor vehicle.

Yep, 3D printing, were the per unit price is likely 10x more than other techniques ...

That goes well with the one-grand-plus pricetag for a device that should be selling for a couple hundred bux or less in mass production.

If this catches on I expect to see an injection-molded version closer to the price I mentioned. Either this guy will go to that as he ramps up or the Chinese/Koreans/whatever will have a knockoff out in a few months after it catches on.

Whatsamatter, fattie, can't pedal for more than 5 minutes without having a coronary?

I expected more math literacy on Slashdot. Silly me.

12 to 20 miles at a top speed of 16 MPH is an hour (+-25%).

That's up and down the steep hills of San Francisco, of course, in all sorts of weather. Do you want to try it - twice a day, to and from work in rush hour traffic? (Didn't think so.)

To keep everything organized, I recommend that all posts mentioning going at night be arranged under this one.

What value has this man added to a single piece of equipment sold in the last 40 years? What part of these machines relied on his effort or ingenuity? If his patent had never been filed, are we to seriously believe that progress would have been held back by so much as an hour.

Let drop this passive-aggressive geek myth of the vital "small-guy" inventor and the civilization changing ideas which supposedly emerge from his superior brain. It is far, far easier, and far, far better for society as a whole to simply regard all patent holders as parasites, and simply stop issuing them. Inventors can start their own companies or get a job like everyone else.

Reward belongs to those who add value. To those who produce things; produce wealth. it does not belong to the people who "thought" of doing so, or who had some "bright idea" sometimes in the 1970s. It belongs to the three generations of people since who put their -- unpatented -- ideas into action and made them a reality. To the people who competed based on the merits of their results, and not the entitlement they felt their intellects deserved.

It's time to put patents away. All patents. Our society will make better progress without them. Inventors are not worth the price being paid to parasites.