It seems like a lot of people are confusing CS and Software Engineering and aren't aware of the differences. I think that a lot new students want to be software engineers but most schools only offer traditional CS programs. So it's only natural that they are going to be turned off by what seems to be math courses with no relevance to what they want to do.

CS is very important to have and I love it, but I think many schools dismiss the importance of having a Software Engineering program as well.

That's a problem with the curriculum then which is easily solved by assigning group projects that are due at the end of the term.

You are an idiot. Version control isn't that simple, even in a smaller project. Merges and Tree Conflicts are something that everyone should learn how to work out. I'm not saying it hard, but the sooner you are introduced to these concepts the better it will be in the long run. I would hope that after using a VCS that the students would continue to use it later on in other class projects.

I have a 4 year software engineering degree. The only downside to it is that I don't feel comfortable going into a CS graduate program.

http://www.sistema.itesm.mx/va/Planes2000/InISC.htm

Because it's cross platform and keeping 2 databases up to date is a PITA. The typical use case for KeePass is if you have multiple computers with different OS.

I agree with everything you've

Novel ideas usually don't live on by themselves unless they become useful.

The guy had an itch and he scratched it, there is nothing wrong in that. Not everything that is made has to be useful.

Things are bad in Mexico right now because of the warring drug cartels, but it's hard to say how this new law will affect them. I feel it's the a step in the right direction though, because hopefully law enforcement will be able to focus on more important things like busting the dealers and leaving the consumers out of this whole mess.

http://www.alice.org/

I've seen a few places that teach students alice in order for them to become familiar with looping and conditional constructs before they move to something else. I think with all the visual stuff going on it would appeal more to younger programmers.

Most high school seniors are lazy and blow off thier senior year. Add to that the fact that most of them don't care about tests that don't affect your grade, and you get those results. In my HS when we were given "extra" tests, a lot of my classmates would skip class or just fill in bubbles.