teach them the basics of the language, and tell them that they can code up any game they want, in a group of two or three, and that the pass grade is a working game. be that a simple logic game, or even more complex. This makes the course interesting, teaches logic, and and an aim at a (even if simple) working application. I held a course for university students for a week, teaching them C, and the first three days, we worked through the basics of the language, structures, variables, pointers and a good few other things, in half-hour lessons, and 1.5 hour practice sessions. last two days, they were given the task of - create a game, anything you want, but it has to work, and that will be a pass grade. All of them sucked up the info, went to practice, and all passed with flying colors, making not just functional games, but well-designed such, and had an interest in it, as it was lighthearted with focus on doing while learning. The comments afterwards was more or less unanimnous - we learnt more about practical working coding in a week, than we did in 2 years of university courses. They all said they gained an interest, as i was showing them how to use the language to achieve the goal, rather than teach them programming for no reason.

totally agree with you. secondarily, I dont have free space for it to be filled up for others, I have free space to be used, and ready for use, when I need.

I've been actually refused employment because of contracts. One contract for example, gave the company a perpetual, unrevocable power of attorney over all of my affairs, should they need to exercise it for any reason. Another one, claimed rights to any compensation, should you have an accident, in lieu of one months wage. needless to say, I told them that I would not even consider working for them under such terms, and I walked away.

I think EU and ireland has some serious objections to that thinking, that us laws apply to ireland or any country in eu. us may have rulings to that effect, but they are just as much worth as a roll of used toilet paper in the other jurisdiction without the support of a court in that very jurisdiction.

problem is that MS US will have to ask MS ireland to break the EU/Irish law. you can notwrite a court order that orders you to break the law. no court has such authority, as they would be either operating outside their jurisdiction, or violate the law, making the order invalid. secondly, no US court has any jurisdiction in EU, however wet that dream may be, making the order unenforceable, without an irish court order backing it. as it happens, an irish court said explicitly no to just that, making it nit only illegal, but contempt of the irish courtto comply with the us court order, for any reason, in ireland. ms ireland is thereby legally barred from releasing the data to the us mother company.

technically and strictly seaking, yes, as they would be violating EU data protection laws, prohibiting transfer of any kind of personal data outside EU, for any processing purpose , and processing being defined as any kind of operation, not limted to computers, without the express permission from all involved. so the issue is verymuch in this case, which law does microsoft chose to break, a us courtorder, or EU data protection law, that carries some pretty substantial and potentially nasty consequences for willful breaches. without an irish court order to this effect, it would be illegal for the irish guy to transfer the data, or let the data be transferred. if he participates or facilitatesthe transfer, he may very well be looking at some jail time. without that irish court order, the guy in ireland is absolutely in his right to refuse honoring the us court order, that has zero validity in ireland.

...as if the press will follow suit, dancing to the sony tune when there's a high-paying story to tell... The press has no allegiance to sony, nor has the public after their stunts, and lest not forget that sony has a criminal history with the verdict on the rootkits. Sony is just reaping what it hasbeen sowing over the years.

cant be right!

If I had modpoints, id mod you up seriously on that one. japanese workers dont have the choice of "following orders". its that or their job/face/life/family. unless you understand japanese culture to some extent, it is likely that this will just go over your head. screwing up as a worker, is intolerable. as a manager, it is your fault if a subordinant screws up, and you take the rap for it, so you make bloody sure that the subordinant s dont screw up, by any means, and if it still happens, you loose face, and that can very well kill your career and any future prospects. no wonder the suicide rate is so high in japan. the last thing the ordinary workers need, is this kind of shit...

If I had points to vote you up, I would. Question is, when does the counterterorism become the terrorism? I think we all know the answer, and its not limited to just one country..

All I see here is imperial proponents having serious issues with the metric system, where the ones using the metric system has no issues with the imperial, when expressed as fractional metrics. I don't have an issue whatsoever with 1 pint expressed in either litre or ml. Nor a pound expressed as grams. Its all the same to me, and I know exactly what it is. Same with miles to m or km. A mile is 1657 metres, or 1.657 km. Working in engineering - a mm is 25.4 times as accurate as an inch to begin with, and we can still subdivide by any power of 10. Fractional inch is not limited in precision, nor is mm or any of the si units, they are just inherently less awkward to use from start, as almost all share the same base and relation to each other. 1mm is 1/1000th of a metre. 1m x 1m is a square metre. 1m x 1m x 1m is a cubic metre, or 1000 litre. For clean water, 1L, 10*10*10cm is a good approximation for 1kg (difference is about 3mg 0.003g ) which is too small to count for anything but scientific work.

Put small red arrow marks on the speedometers for km/h equivalents. Simple, speedy, non-costly solution that even unwilling subjects could comprehend. There's these run-on stickers that would be great for the job, and prolly cost less than a dollar each.

In the centigrade system, we solve this higher resolution issue by adding decimals, just as Fahrenheit does, such as 37.8 degrees. Furthermore, Kelvin and celcius scales are directly interchangeable, only that the reference points differ, but 1K rise in temp, is exactly the same as 1C, and ~273.14K is 0C. K uses absolute zero (zero energy) as reference rather than freezing point of water. I think it is only UK,US and New Zeeland (please correct me as I am unsure about the last) left in the world to use imperial measures.

Assault charge, for reclining your seat with a function you paid for? Get real... If you feel that bad about the guy in front reclining the seat, and go into a full-blown, YOU are the ahole, and the one that should be paying for your seat space, ie.... go business class.., I've flown my decent amount of airmiles and longhaul, and I'm a big guy, and never, have I come across people who would not accommodate you after a pleasant polite request for upping the chair during meals etc, then saying please recline, as I will recline, recovering the space. Politeness and good manners goes a long way. Not so much self-entitlement and you can't do what I want to do. That's just taking the piss for selfish purposes. Air travel in cattle class these days is exactly what you pay for. Live with it. If you don't want to have the restrictions imposed, you simply have to pay more. Don't expect 5* treatment at 1* prices, cus if you do, you are the one out of luck Air travel is expensive anyway you look at it, but it gets you from a to b in a very (relatively) short time, and if you think you need more space, you will simply have to pay for it. End of. Contrary to seemingly common belief, business or first class space doesn't come at the prices of economy. There's a reason for the apt naming. Simply stop whining about it, or pay more for the space you actually want to occupy.

Really? Running the risk of extrajudicial rendition to the US? Expecting a fair trial from a prosecutor with personal ties to the "victims" and a personal agenda? You gotta be kidding, and yes, I am very very familiar with Sweden and the violations of human rights and other laws. It's a model society, just don't scratch the surface, as it could collapse....