Comment Re:No, it doesn't (Score 1) 157
Well said. That was exactly my first thought too.
Comment Names that cause problems in the web age (Score 1) 490
Arcadia University in Pennsylvania used to be called Beaver College. It doesn't mention this in the Wikipedia article but I recall newspaper articles at the time claiming that, because of web filtering software, High School students were having trouble accessing the college's web site for application and other enrollment information.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcadia_University
Son Sues Mother Over Facebook Posts 428
Most kids hate having their parents join in on a discussion on Facebook, but one 16-year-old in Arkansas hates it so much he has filed suit against his mother, charging her with harassment. From the article: "An Arkadelphia mother is charged with harassment for making entries on her son's Facebook page. Denise New's 16-year-old son filed charges against her last month and requested a no-contact order after he claims she posted slanderous entries about him on the social networking site. New says she was just trying to monitor what he was posting." Seems like he could just unfriend her.
Comment Re:First post... (Score 1) 830
Ouch! I would say that this ad campaign is the gonorrhea of viral marketing except that its victims get no moment of ecstasy before the agony sets in.
Comment Learning to learn is game one. (Score 1) 991
First, my disclaimer. I received a Math/CS degree from a very highly regarded technical school (some twenty years ago but please don't hold that against me).
I currently lead an engineering organization. I've personally hired about 40 developers over the last 4 years and I've been involved in the hiring process my entire career. My organization prides itself on identifying and hiring top performers. Many of our staff graduated from top tier CS programs but we do have a smattering of great staff from small liberal arts colleges as well as other, perhaps less highly regarded, institutions.
I grew up in a family that placed a high value on literature and the other arts. I sometimes wish I had received more of a classic liberal arts education but I have to say that my professional education has served me well. I do think that it helps to walk away with some good, solid practical programming skills; I held programming jobs most of the way through school and every summer during school. I'm not sure I would have had that same opportunity at a different institution but perhaps that is one way in which the landscape really has changed since I was in school.
I would recommend that you look for a program that will teach you solid CS theory, whether it's at a small liberal arts college or at a technical school. I run into too many candidates these days that know a particlar programming library API inside and out but, for example, have no clue about the performance implications of selecting one data structure over another for a given application. Ultimately though, the most important skill to learn in college is how to learn.
No college program is going to teach you everything you will need to know as your career progresses. Hell, when I went to school object-oriented programming was a notion that a few researchers were barely tossing around in their heads. I didn't learn about polymorhism in college. That came later. You will undoubtably have to pick up additional skills on the job through your interactions with others and through your own investigation. The real skills you need are the basic understanding of how to learn and the perseverence and foundational knowledge that empowers you to do so.
Good luck with your decision. Ultimately what you get out of your education is more about what YOU put into it rather than what others put into it.
Merck To Halt Lobbying For Vaccine 544
theodp writes "Reacting to a furor from some parents, advocacy groups, and public health experts, Merck said yesterday that it would stop lobbying state legislatures to require the use of its new cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil, which acts against strains of the sexually-transmitted human papilloma virus. The $400, 3-shot regimen was approved by the FDA in June. Later that month, a federal advisory panel recommended that females 11-26 years old be vaccinated. The governor of Texas has already signed an executive order making its use mandatory for schoolgirls."
Journal SPAM: Scramble for Iraq's oil begins as troops start to pull out 4
We are about to find out if the invasion of Iraq really was a war for oil. The country is on the verge of passing a petroleum law, which will set down rules for investing in its oil industry. That will set off a race among the foreign oil giants, scrambling for their slice of Iraq's vast oil riches. Britain's two world-leading oil companies, BP and Shell, both say they want to enter Iraq. Exxon, ConocoPhillips, Total, Russia's Lukoil and the Chinese
IRS May Ask eBay To Snitch On Sellers 418
Makarand writes "The IRS thinks that many sellers on online auction sites are unaware of their obligation to declare their profits and pay their taxes to the IRS. Tax experts are now asking the IRS to require online auction sites like eBay, Yahoo, and Ubid to report the gross sales numbers for their sellers. Such a requirement will surely send a shock wave across the online trading world because it could drastically reduce the profits a seller would make on these sites. The IRS thinks it can collect an extra $2 billion in taxes from this requirement that auctioneers report sellers who complete 100 or transactions a year worth at least $5,000."
Journal SPAM: Israel seeks all clear for Iran air strike 3
Israel is negotiating with the United States for permission to fly over Iraq as part of a plan to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.
To conduct surgical air strikes against Iran's nuclear programme, Israeli war planes would need to fly across Iraq. But to do so the Israeli military authorities in Tel Aviv need permission from the Pentagon.
Submission + - TV delays drive viewers to piracy
Astat1ne writes: The Register has a story about the delays Australian TV viewers are experiencing with overseas-produced series and how it is driving many of them to download the shows via BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer networks. From the story: "According to a survey based on a sample of 119 current or recent free-to-air TV series', Australian viewers are waiting an average of almost 17 months for the first run series' first seen overseas. Over the past two years, average Australian broadcast delays for free-to-air television viewers have more than doubled from 7.9 to 16.7 months." According to the article, the situation is compounded by the fact that Australian viewers are unable to download legal copies of the episodes from the US iTunes website and are turning to unauthorised means to get copies of their favorite shows.
Mr. Ballmer, Show Us the Code 462
DigDuality writes "A new campaign, Showusthecode.com, requests every leader in the Linux world, and companies invested in Linux, to stand up and demand that Steve Ballmer show the world where Linux violates Microsoft's intellectual property. He has been making these claims since the Novell-Microsoft deal. If Microsoft answers this challenge — by May 1st — then Linux developers will be able to modify the code so that it remains 'free' software. If such infringing code doesn't exist, we will have called Microsoft's bluff. And if the campaign garners enough attention and if Steve Ballmer maintains silence, then the community and companies behind Linux can take the silence for the admission that it is."
Submission + - Introduction to Linden Scripting Language
prostoalex writes: "Dr. Dobb's Journal runs a lengthy introduction to Linden Scripting Language, the language behind avatars and their interaction in Second Life: "LSL is a scripting language that runs server-side, on a piece of software called the simulator. The simulator does just what it's name implies — it simulates the virtual world of Second Life. Each simulator runs everything for 16 acres of virtual land — buildings, physics, and of course, scripts. While you manipulate the script text in a form that is somewhat easy to read, the actual code that runs on the simulator is compiled. A compiler is a piece of software that takes the text version of the script and converts it into something that can actually run. In the case of LSL, the compiler exists within the Second Life viewer itself. In the future, it is likely that the compiler will move from the viewer into the Second Life simulators, but where the code is compiled isn't very important. What matters is that the text is converted into a form that can run on the simulators.""
AACS Device Key Found 351
henrypijames writes "The intense effort by the fair-use community to circumvent AACS (the content protection protocol of HD DVD and Blu-Ray) has produced yet another stunning result: The AACS Device Key of the WinDVD 8 has been found, allowing any movie playable by it to be decrypted. This new discovery by ATARI Vampire of the Doom9 forum is based on the previous research of two other forum members, muslix64 (who found a way to locate the Title Keys of single movies) and arnezami (who extracted the Processing Key of an unspecified software player). AACS certainly seems to be falling apart bit for bit every day now."
67-Kilowatt Laser Unveiled 395
s31523 writes "Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California has announced they have working in the lab a Solid State Heat Capacity Laser that averages 67 kW. It is being developed for the military. The chief scientist Dr. Yamamoto is quoted: 'I know of no other solid state laser that has achieved 67 kW of average output power.' Although many lasers have peaked at higher capacities, getting the average sustained power to remain high is the tricky part. The article says that hitting the 100-kW level, at which point it would become interesting as a battlefield weapon, could be less than a year away."
Amazon Using Patent Reform to Strengthen 1-Click 71
theodp writes "As some predicted, lawyers for Amazon.com have recently submitted 1-Click prior art solicited by Tim O'Reilly under the auspices of Jeff Bezos' patent reform effort to the USPTO, soliciting a 'favorable action' that would help bulletproof the patent. Last June, an Amazon lobbyist referred to deficiencies with the same prior art as he tried to convince Congress that 1-Click was novel, prompting Rep. Howard Berman to call BS."
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There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence. -- Jeremy S. Anderson
