Revenge of the Greg!

So they're not exactly pets. All I can say is Icky Icky Icky Pa-toing! (10 points if you get the reference).

On to more relevant items:

The TechCats semester-end celebration has come and gone. There were some interesting projects this semester. However, there are some things that I don't necessarily agree with, though I can understand why it's done.

The biggest issue in my opinion is that students in a non-cs course should be required to make a website. I think that being to make a web-page is an excellent idea, and should be a skill learned prior to graduation. However, the reliance on WYSIWYGs when making the web-pages seems to detract from the overall effectiveness of their ability to make web-pages. While working as a Jr. Doctor, I was often helping people who had no clue whatsoever as to what they were doing, and relied on the WYSIWYG to do something that would take a quarter of the time if they could actually just work via the source code. I also felt a lot of the times that I was essentially working as a TA to some students in the course, which caused some problems when there were other people who I felt had more of a reason to be receiving my help (e.g., a professor with a webct question), as their topic was more along the lines of why I am working as doctor. I am here to help with webpages, and there are some courses like nr260 which we were specifically helping. But I don't necessarily view myself as being here to TA a course. I won't turn people away, but I feel that my effectivess to help others with a more viable reason to come to doctor hours is lessened.

Currently, all UVM students is required to take the basic English course, eng 001. However, that class does very little in assisting a student's knowledge, as that course is the exact same as almost any high school english course, and only covers materials that we already have been doing for years. Can some people use the extra practice writing essays? Of course. Should it be a required course for all students? I don't believe so.

However, if they made a course such as CS 008 a required course for all students (CS 008 is the intro to web design course, covering HTML and CSS). There are professors in the CS department who are extremely knowledgeable about the material, as well as a multitude of highly qualified individuals who could TA the course. This would be far more effective than a professor who doesn't completely understand web design (also without any TAs and only the CTL as assistance) at teaching how to make a web page. Many times a student came in saying they were making a page for a certain course (for example, there was an agriculture course), and I had to spend about 15 minutes just trying to figure out exactly what the requirements of the project were, what pages were needed, what was needed on each page, then going through and spending another 30-45 minutes just having them walk me through what they had at the time. After the 45 mins to an hour, then I could finally actually get to the real work. Except that most had no knowledge about either html or the more in-depth aspects of WYSIWYGs like Nvu.

I'm here to assist, but am I here to take the role of the professor?

It just seems to me that a 1-3 credit html course being a requirement for all students would just make more sense then the current set-up. Also, if they took such a course, they would be able to not only use the WYSIWYG far more effectively, but it would be far easier to fix and maintain the website code.

However, since the likelihood of a course such as cs 008 becoming a requirement is next to null because of the relatively poor state of the technological aspect of this university, I would rather see courses require websites than not, because it still lets students learn about basic web design.

I just think that it's extraordinarily ineffective.

Posted by at 12:43 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Topic of the day: Protests.

As a student at the University of Vermont, I have learned that protests are quite common. There are so many things that can be protested: Iraq, livable wages, lack of strong enough decisions to make the university "green" (lower energy consumpton, stuff like that). I don't mind protests. Really, I don't. Everyone has the right to protest something they don't agree with.

And I would like to exercise that right.

Almost every time I've talked to a protester (doesn't matter what the issue is), they seem to assume that I'm completely uninformed and intellectually lacking because I don't believe they are necessarily correct in their protestation. They don't care about my side of the argument, they just blatantly make the assumption that if I take the opposing side I'm automatically wrong. Why do you assume we're not as smart as you? Not as informed as you?

It's because I don't have a professor, vice-president, or "expert" telling me what to say. I acknowledge that I am a college student and currently learning. I'm not a politician, I'm not a strategist, I'm not a geologist. I read things, and make my own inferences from that material. I don't mind admitting when I'm wrong. I am a student, who is currently learning a specific subject. However, on the flipside, you are too.

But at least I attempt to think for myself.

Most protests I see are the exact same as the 15 million that have came before. I have left natural science classes where other students spout off what the professor said as gospel fact without looking into whether or not it's true. He puts up a powerpoint slide, he must be right, irregardless of the fact he didn't cite anything. I've seen students who take the word of a energy-conservationist who flew around the country on a private jet, made powerpoint presentations on a huge screen that more than likely required an unnecessarily large amount of electricity, and probably didn't use a hybrid car transporting all of his materials (including the lift he used when he needed to get to the top of the monitor) as definite fact.

And for all I know, you may very well be right.

But I will only respect you if you actually research your materials, and spend time on it. Those who do have every right to protest, and I have no problems admitting to them that they could very well be correct, and I could be wrong. I don't respect those who don't attempt to think for themselves. Nor those who automatically assume that I'm intellectually inferior without listening to my beliefs. To those who do that, I'll talk with your professor, or the guy who wastes energy trying to encourage people to conserve energy, about the topic being protested. You can choose to ignore me. That's your choice.

But rest assured that I will ignore you.

Anyways, off of this topic, and onto other ones.

Recently on digg.com, an individual posted a link to a code that will break the encryption on HD-DVD discs (I believe, could be getting it wrong). Originally, digg took removed the story for legal reasons, reasons that you can't fault them for. Except that millions of people did. The pages of digg got slammed, with all of the the top digged stories containing the code in one form or another.

In response to this overwhelming outrage and fierce protestation (hey... protests are the topic of this post :-P), the found of digg had this to say. And I have to admit, my respect for digg has just gone up.

Although I understand that the dvds are intellectual property, and thus the creators should have the right to make specific players for them, I also disagree entirely. I can play regular DVDs in a ps2, xbox, laptop, desktop, and plain old dvd player, amongst many others. I should be able to play an HD-DVD anywhere.

Are mp3s only playable by pcs? Are mpgs only playable on macs? Can websites only be seen via a linux browser?

The answer is no, and for a viable reason. Some people use pcs, some use macs, some use linux. I have multiple devices that can play dvds. I shouldn't have to buy another one to clutter up what little space I have.

Random musings:

Why I may never have a girlfriend :-P.

The best thing to do to people who speak elite.

Currently in NH... should be relaxing... doing work for techcats...

Please kill me.

Posted by at 12:16 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)