I think you meant poignant instead of pointed. This leads me to my first thought: Are we over compensating by focusing on STEM education over other subjects? Most universities don't make their STEM students take any rigorous retrotic, literature, philosophy, sociology, or arts classes. Why can't we encourage everyone (both boys and girls) to be truly knowledgeable by having a well rounded education? I feel like so many people are missing the point of higher education by trying to encourage everyone to look at college as a training program for your job instead of an opportunity to become educated and informed. Didn't anyone read Pirsig?

Aside from that, I pretty much agree that most of these goofy named initiatives are just gimmicks to make it look like some corporation actually gives a shit.

If someone were to ask me how to encourage everyone ( not just girls) to get into STEM and take science and math seriously in middle and high school (where it really matters for getting on the STEM track) I would say that they need to get some truly talented and knowledgeable math and science teachers in middle and high school. From what I remember about high school, everyone would rather take drama or english lit because the teachers were cool and passionate and it wasn't "boring or dry". None of the science or math teachers could convey why science and math skills and knowledge are actually valuable, that's why every sophomore feels like "I'll never use this stuff" and they zone out and don't take any science or math beyond the minimum to graduate. How do you get talented science and math teachers? Pay them what they would make in the private/government(contractor) sector. I make $70K+ a few years out of college and I have a pretty sweet job that I enjoy. Why would I choose secondary education over engineering? Being a good teacher takes a lot of work, a lot of time outside of the normal work hours is spent planning and preparing. The salary is pathetic compared to what you could make as a software engineer (just picking that because that's what I do). I understand people do it because they have a passion for teaching but they also have to pay the bills. Science and math minds are going to analyze jobs based on objective measurements like quality of life and ability to support themselves and their family. Not surprising that they pick engineering over education which has an even lower level of job security. /rant

This will be abused. Either the autistic employees will be abused or the non autistic employees will be abused because they are not performing as well as the autistic employees. I think it's a really good thing that these people are being given opportunities, I just don't know how their "talents" won't be exploited by management. Low social functions could also mean not really speaking out when asked (forced) to work 12 hour days.

Maybe I jump to cynical conclusions but it seems generalizing autistic people as some kind of software super people and then seeking to hire them is a bit like generalizing asians as good at math and seeking to hire them into math intensive positions.

This is probably really cool for a lot of the worlds people that may not have access to the technology required to preserve food.

But I like cooking. Its one of the last things that I do that is kind of not actively involved with technology. Of course technology is involved in every process of growing/producing food but theres something cool about taking a bunch of raw ingredients and using basic tools (cast iron, fire) to create delicious food. I don't want that to go away.

Who made an excuse? Pointing out that 1 company is being whiny isn't making an excuse for another.

I don't advocate that we cheer anything, just pointing out that it's just MS being a sore loser. If MS could do what google does, they would be doing it. Business isnt about morals, its about money. If MS or Google could make money from killing kittens and tripping grandmas they would.

It's disingenuous for MS to criticize Google for doing something that MS is also currently doing, just not as well.

It just seems like MS is jealous that Google is making money hand over fist. Microsoft tried to do the same thing Google did. They have a search engine and advertising business. They just aren't as good at it as Google. Tracking is pretty independent of what browser you use anyways. Besides, people don't give a shit that they are being monetized. People still use facebook don't they? And people do realize, to some probably limited extent, that facebook is all about monetizing them.

2^32 - 1 != (2^32 -1)*2 - 1

The comments cited by TFA weren't the problem in my opinion. He has a unpopular viewpoint on a subject that a lot of his former employer's customer base feels strongly about but the other comments basically insulting people who don't live in large metro areas are the firing offence to me.

I can't find the quotation so this is from memory but someone responded to his tweet by saying "sometimes the internet is spotty in other areas of the country like Kansas and that's why always on would suck" and Orth responded "why would anyone live there". That's pretty much a big fuck you to a large part of the country. Not a wise move to disparage millions of potential customers. I think that comment and the attitude it conveys is a bigger problem than him stating his opinion about "always on".

Stroustrup's The C++ Programming Language might seem like more of a reference but it contains a lot of design methodologies from the guy who created the language, so I used it as my starting point. I graduated in 2011 with similar experience to you, Java and some C but no C++, and I currently do embedded software engineering professionally.

What really helped me learn the language and good design skills was working with someone that had a lot of experience and who also liked sharing that experience with a newbie.

GL

If they actually did the study then Chertoff and Rapiscan would have to mount another FUD campaign to create a need for some other product that Rapiscan would make and Chertoff would convince all his friends in the government to buy.