The Becker Blog

Just heard on Mark Guzdial’s blog that “Georgia Tech’s College of Computing is now considering a proposal to remove Smalltalk from the required curriculum in favor of C++.”

This is another nail in the coffin of CS.

There is great value to learning many languages, not the least of which is that those who do come to understand the concept of ‘language’ and ‘programming’ better than anyone who only knows one language ever can. This makes them better programmers and better problem solvers.

There are those who feel CS is a dying discipline, and the more that CD departments contract in their view of what they should be doing, the more likely it is to come true.

Interesting and creative people are leaving CS departments, leaving behind …. can you guess? Theoreticians, mathematicians, and academic software engineers who haven’t written a real program, well, ever. These are the kind who say we shouldn’t be teaching about and with games, because “It gives the wrong impression.” (I actually heard these words from influential members of my former department). I can tell what impression it gives if you do things like games: THAT YOU ARE INTERESTING.

I once gave an assignment to a 3rd year CS class that involved building a client side search engine. The 1st step involved getting a complete list of file names and creating a format that would retain the names and directory structures in as small a space as possible.
They could use what ever language they wanted to. They had all learned C/C++ in 1st & second year.
Almost all chose to write a 2000+ line C++ program, over learning how to write the 20 lines of SED and Unix that would do the same thing, only better.

That’s what happens when they only learn one language.

CS at the university level is not about job training.

In Today’s MIT Tech Review: A Better, Cheaper Multitouch Interface

A new pressure-sensitive pad could improve large and small touch screens.

I’ve thought for some time that the SMART Technologies’ White Board which is marketed so vigorously to Alberta schools relies on physical technology that has become obsolete. Note the Wii mote stuff developed by Johnny Chung Lee. That technology’s been known for a few years now.

As if that’s not enough, Ken Perlin and his crew have come up with this. SMART Tech isn’t even mentioned in the article.

C’mon SMART, any chance you can try and live up to your name?

There’s a big todo about EA’s DRM – and rightly so. It’s  no wonder Spore is being pirated at amazing rates. You know – many people would be willing to pay for it (and NOT try to steal it) if EA would only permit you to actually own what you bought.

The Penny Arcade provides a lovely analogy:

“Imagine, though, an unsuspecting bibliophile returning home with their copy of The True-Born Englishman
only to discover that once they’ve read it, the pages turn to ash. Or maybe they can read it and let a couple of friends borrow it, but that’s it. No more reads, thank you very much. What if they find that there is someone lurking outside their library window, watching them, making sure no one else catches a glance of page 32? Or, god forbid, they try to go and sell the book back?”

Be reasonable and you’ll find thefts go down.

Really, Will, I know you’re a reasonable man, can’t you do anything about this?