Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - Is Java to Blame for Lack of K-12 Programming Classes?

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: In December, President Obama, celebrities, politicians and tech companies came together to launch a national coding education push. Code.org's rallying cry that "9 out of 10 schools don't even offer computer programming classes" surprised many, some of whom recalled being taught coding in elementary school in the early '80s. So, why the decreased interest in programming by kids? Interestingly, long before he joined Code.org's Leadership Team, IU Dean Bobby Schnabel co-authored a chapter on Education (pdf) for a 2006 ACM report which fingered Java as a villain: "One final possible explanation has to do with the quality of teaching and the nature of the material that is taught. High school curricula have changed in the last decade to focus on languages (primarily Java) and paradigms (object-oriented programming). The introductory college computing course also typically focuses on teaching the more modern object-oriented style of programming such as Java, in part because students who mastered these tools could readily find employment (at least in the 1990s). However, these tools are somewhat difficult for faculty to teach and students to learn especially compared to tools and skills taught in introductory courses in other science and engineering disciplines. The preparation of high school teachers who are teaching computer science has been an issue for many years, but the complication introduced by these new programming languages has made the quality of instruction even more problematic. Many high schools have eliminated computer science courses perhaps because it is so hard to teach." Along these lines, it should be noted that while Microsoft, Apple, and Google are now crying to Congress that little Johnny can't code, all three dumped their programming-for-the-masses offerings — Steve Jobs deep-sixed Hypercard, Microsoft killed BASIC, and Larry Page abandoned App Inventor. Curiously, the huge PR success enjoyed by the Hour of Code stemmed from a Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg-narrated tutorial that employed Blockly, a programming-for-the-masses project that Neil Fraser brought back from the dead after Google killed it. So, if the tech giants want to get kids programming again, might shipping a usable-by-kids programming language on their devices again be a better strategy than giving $750-$1000 to teachers of Code.org's 20-hour course, or offering $100 to 'every U.S. public high school girl' who completes Codecademy's 15-hour JavaScript curriculum?

Submission + - Online Database Allows Scientists to Recreate Early Telescopes (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: When Galileo Galilei shook up the scientific community with evidence of a heliocentric world, he had a little tube fitted with two pieces of glass to thank. But just how this gadget evolved in the nascent days of astronomy is poorly known. That uncertainty has inspired a group of researchers to compile the most extensive database of early refracting telescopes to date. Now, the scientists plan to use modern optics to recreate what Galileo — and the naysaying observers of his time — experienced when they first peered through these tubes at the rings of Saturn, the moons of Jupiter, and the phases of Venus.

Submission + - Is Our Universe a Simulation?

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Mathematician Edward Frenkel writes in the NYT that one fanciful possibility that explains why mathematics seems to permeate our universe is that we live in a computer simulation based on the laws of mathematics — not in what we commonly take to be the real world. According to this theory, some highly advanced computer programmer of the future has devised this simulation, and we are unknowingly part of it. Thus when we discover a mathematical truth, we are simply discovering aspects of the code that the programmer used. This may strike you as very unlikely writes Frenkel but physicists have been creating their own computer simulations of the forces of nature for years — on a tiny scale, the size of an atomic nucleus. They use a three-dimensional grid to model a little chunk of the universe; then they run the program to see what happens. "Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom has argued that we are more likely to be in such a simulation than not," writes Frenkel. "If such simulations are possible in theory, he reasons, then eventually humans will create them — presumably many of them. If this is so, in time there will be many more simulated worlds than nonsimulated ones. Statistically speaking, therefore, we are more likely to be living in a simulated world than the real one." The question now becomes is there any way to empirically test this hypothesis and the answer surprisingly is yes. In a recent paper, “Constraints on the Universe as a Numerical Simulation,” the physicists Silas R. Beane, Zohreh Davoudi and Martin J. Savage outline a possible method for detecting that our world is actually a computer simulation (PDF). Savage and his colleagues assume that any future simulators would use some of the same techniques current scientists use to run simulations, with the same constraints. The future simulators, Savage indicated, would map their universe on a mathematical lattice or grid, consisting of points and lines. But computer simulations generate slight but distinctive anomalies — certain kinds of asymmetries and they suggest that a closer look at cosmic rays may reveal similar asymmetries. If so, this would indicate that we might — just might — ourselves be in someone else’s computer simulation.

Submission + - Merkel wants a European communication network to avoid US spying. (aljazeera.com)

Submitted by dov_0
dov_0 writes: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she will talk to French President Francois Hollande about creating a European communication network to avoid emails and other data passing through the US.

Merkel, who visits France on Wednesday, has been pushing for greater data protection in Europe following reports last year about mass surveillance in Germany and elsewhere by the US National Security Agency (NSA).

Comment This figure seriously boggles my mind (Score 4, Interesting) 380

by serutan (#40318069) Attached to: Employees Admit They'd Walk Out With Stolen Data If Fired

In 30 years as a software dev I don't think I've known more than a couple computer geeks who might have the guts to steal data, let alone the personality to locate a buyer, negotiate a price and actually follow through on the deal. Sure we've all seen Office Space and talked trash about what we'd like to do to a company, but at the moment of truth, no way. And managers tend to be even more gutless -- something tells me the survey results were heavily skewed by false bravado.

Comment Why not in parallel? (Score 1) 178

by serutan (#36813490) Attached to: <em>Chain World</em> &mdash; Innovative Game Design Sparks Debate

Apart from the joy of eccentricity I don't see any real advantage in only one copy of the game existing, as opposed to multiple copies each residing on its own USB stick. You'd have the same effect of a world passing from person to person, maintaining all the modifications made by previous players. Each copy would be unique. More people would get to participate.

Comment Re:Supporting Criminals (Score 1) 412

by serutan (#36521136) Attached to: Paying Hacker Extortion

Any law is automatically an incentive for people not to admit breaking it. That's no rationale against making laws. The reason for any business regulation is that there's a tendency for business owners not to be altruistic unless there are tangible consequence hanging over their heads.

Comment Professional journalists? (Score 1) 271

by serutan (#36430046) Attached to: The Internet Is Killing Local News, Says the FCC

I sure hope you're not lumping local TV news into the category of "professional journalism." Local news is like a high school version of "real" news -- for example, the ubiquitous "Live Report!" in which a reporter goes out to a location where nothing is happening at the moment, and narrates a tape about something that happened earlier in the day. What a joke.

Slashdot Top Deals

One man's constant is another man's variable. -- A.J. Perlis

Close