The "alarmist" wording of this article blows a "gaping hole" in the credibility of this paper. It is "extremely important" when trying to teach people something new that your article not be so "dramatically" worded. Glad it linked to the actual publication, but I didn't see anything here to make me think that the Earth isn't warming.
I like to teach students with Python and Pygame. By the end of the first semester programming class they can create some fairly complex games. I have videos of these games on-line, along with a free draft version of the textbook we use:
The University of Idaho has a research lab dedicated to this. They have SCADA systems set in a lab. There's a grad class in the subject you can take via video. And there are quite a few papers they have helped published. Search the IEEE document library for some good info.
I like agile when people use it to learn the how and why of managing software projects. It can provide a great platform to debate, discuss, and learn.
I hate agile when people use it as a manifesto or religion, assuming it works best in all aspects of all projects at all stages and with all people. And like religion, they use it as a means to gain power over those who would use reason and logic instead.
And dude, this is wrong on so many levels:
"One of my guys keeps telling me that he would like to have more specified requirements. I keep telling him we're going faster because we don't have specified requirements," Weston says. A hardcore requirements document is a "waste of time," he adds.
Well said.
I used to be a good programmer until I got into management. The flood of information, calls, and e-mails that came in seriously did a number on my brain. It felt like it was being remapped.
I've gotten out of that field, but I still feel the effects from it. Now I've taken to learning Russian. I think I enjoy it because of the concentration required.
It's not just games. In the finance industry I've witnessed many failures of projects to re-write systems from scratch. Some of the best teams just keep updating their old lumbering system, occasionally slapping a web interface or window dressing on it. But it works! And they ship on time! And they make money! And that money goes to fund these colossal re-write failures.
Electronic bullying can result in teen suicide. Young kids seeing terrorists cut the heads people can be disturbing. I can think of lots of things on the internet that can be as dangerous as a table saw.
I had one of the people working on the case come talk to my college class. The documents provided to the law office were on paper. The office had an impressive cluster of computers used to do optical code recognition on all the documents so that they could be indexed and searched. There were tons of documents. It was not easy technically, and they worked a lot of hours.
The person I talked to always hoped someone would take this on. They couldn't give up their work for public domain, but there was a ton of computer history contained in those files.
I figured most people would understand, but I wasn't sure. So I polled a college class of mine, and 17 out of 17 students misunderstood the add. All students thought the maps indicated total coverage, not 2G vs 3G. And to top it off, no one really knew what 3G was anyway.
Methodology books are like recipe book. Good chefs own many of them, and draw on the knowledge and ideas inside.
But buying and following a cookbook does not make you an expert chef.
First big hail storm will take care of the yellow glass.
I couldn't get past the 'higher' grads.
For a 15 year old? Python with the Pygame toolkit. There are other toolkits besides Pygame, but that one works well.
Plus, you could always eat the seed corn.
When it is not necessary to make a decision, it is necessary not to make a decision.
