abraker wrote:

So if you don't know, big companies decided to band together to put up hundred of millions on the table to enable computer science education. This is supposedly to enable more schools have a CS curriculum and encourage students to learn computer science. That's nice and all, but who is that really going to help?

abraker wrote:

First let's talk about the educational environment. Sure you need a budget for the software and computer labs. That's a given. However, two key points: You need good educators and you need students who are actually interested. My highschool I went to has programming courses. The instructor just gave assignments one by one as the semester continued, due at the end of the semester. Many of the students didn't look interested and did not have this drive to program. The few that did, already finished the assignments and went around helping others getting nicknamed "hacker" or something by others. However, even though most of them didn't pick a computer related degree, it's good that they got exposed to computers and know some sense of how a program functions and such.

abraker wrote:

How effective can a curriculum be? I believe this effective enough to let students that don't know shit about CS to take a look at it, which actually good. The bad part comes in for the rest of the folks that will make it their career.

abraker wrote:

I learned more in internships than the curriculum they want to put funds for, and I doubt you can improve existing without allowing students to experiment on their own while basing a grade on that. They actually discourage that and make you do this very specific thing and only this way or you get a bad/reduced grade. I had to make this console app in JAVA where you put in numbers and it spits out the average while trying to juggle my own, far more advanced project.

abraker wrote:

Now let's talk about post education, finding a CS job. It isn't easy, at least if you are starting out. At one point I had to ask why many companies set a 3.0 GPA requirement for their applications. Reason is simple. There are just too many damn applications for them, so they have to filter out the "lower quality ones". If not the GPA, even the college curriculum won't save you if you haven't sacrificed your time to work some programming projects for your portfolio. And then there are these trends where companies post entry level positions that need 10 years of experience for something that has been out for 3 years. I hear that's an actual tactic to circumvent laws to outsource the work overseas for a cheaper price.

abraker wrote:

So to take away from this, I think putting millions is good in that it will promote computer literacy, however, having knowledge on how to code up a calculator is not going to get you far anywhere. It just makes you a better rounded person. Other than that, it does nothing to help the workforce and it looks to be partially a PR thing.

#include<stdio.h>
 
int main(void){
  int num1 = 0;
  int num2 = 0;
  int value = 0;
  char a = 0;
 
  printf("Which calculation do you want to do? \n 1. Addition\n 2. Subtraction\n 3. Multiplication\n 4. Division\n");
  scanf("%c", &a);
  printf("Please enter the two numbers you want to calculate!\n");
  scanf("%d %d", &num1, &num2);
 
  switch(a){
    case '+': 
      value = num1 + num2;
      printf("%d %c %d = %d", num1, a, num2, value);
      break;

    case '-': 
    value = num1 - num2;
      printf("%d %c %d = %d", num1, a, num2, value);
      break;

    case '*':  
      value = num1 * num2;
      printf("%d %c %d = %d", num1, a, num2, value);
      break;
	
    case '/': 
      printf("%d/%d = %lf", num1, num2, (double)num1/num2);
      break;
	
    default:
      printf( "EksDee" );
      break;
    }
 
  return 0;
}

kai99 wrote:

but there should be a general CS course that'll introduce people to logical and algorithmic thinking. Like maths.

kai99 wrote:

See, that's why I think CS should be more based on logical thinking than actual programming. Integrated into maths or something. That is important in life. It just bothers me talking with a person who doesn't have simple logic. The programming should come later on, after they've filtered who's interested or not in such topics. Systematical thinking should be the base in everyone, just like how math is.

kai99 wrote:

I know usually wake up at 3pm, sleep at 8am

kai99 wrote:

. I took a course that looked at things from networking, sorting algorithms, to GPS, simulation/data, privacy/security, supercomputers, backups, IoT, neural networks, RFID..etc and it was fun just reading articles about IT in general (well even more so because I was already interested in those) but because it was a general course. Easy to understand, easy to get a general knowledge but helpful in getting friendly with technological terms.

kai99 wrote:

you probably wouldn't have the time to do both and time management is seriously a struggle. This "balance" is what I've been struggling with for the past 5 years or so. I had times where I had to give up working on CTF questions in order to save my grades, and now I'm in this weird state inbetween where I'm just failing at both lol.

kai99 wrote:

Because they promote "CS has the most JOB VACANCIES", honestly, the competition has risen a fuck ton. a FUCK ton. FUCKING HELL.

kai99 wrote:

I remember me in 7th grade trying to learn pointers and it was the hardest challenge in my life and I don't remember shit from my depressing session but it's been a while since I've seen C and it's honestly so satisfying

abraker wrote:

kai99 wrote:

but there should be a general CS course that'll introduce people to logical and algorithmic thinking. Like maths.

There is calculus, but I don't suppose that is based on logical and algorithmic thinking. It's more based on learning how to things a certain way using limited set of examples. How to optimize the shape for beverage container to have best volume to surface area ratio or other pretty meh things. The best calc problem I probably gotten had to do with a turret gun tracking a missile to shoot from some distance away. I think it's best if it is less theoretical and you get to see the things in action. The stuff remaining on paper is pretty boring. That's why I like programming. I see math come to life.

abraker wrote:

kai99 wrote:

See, that's why I think CS should be more based on logical thinking than actual programming. Integrated into maths or something. That is important in life. It just bothers me talking with a person who doesn't have simple logic. The programming should come later on, after they've filtered who's interested or not in such topics. Systematical thinking should be the base in everyone, just like how math is.

I think this statement is spoken more with frustration than anything. Some people are slower to get how to do something you figured out a while back because you have better background in math. So to address the actual point, practice makes perfect. Imo it should take equal amount of time to achieve the result whether you learn theory first then application, or spend twice as long with application. Idk which one is better though. The first option has a boring first half, have have less time to figure out the application, but know what how to do it in theory. The second option will leave you confused and not sure what to do on first half, but you would know the application.

abraker wrote:

kai99 wrote:

I know usually wake up at 3pm, sleep at 8am

I knew it. I hax0r

abraker wrote:

kai99 wrote:

. I took a course that looked at things from networking, sorting algorithms, to GPS, simulation/data, privacy/security, supercomputers, backups, IoT, neural networks, RFID..etc and it was fun just reading articles about IT in general (well even more so because I was already interested in those) but because it was a general course. Easy to understand, easy to get a general knowledge but helpful in getting friendly with technological terms.

That is a good way to get people hyped to learn the stuff. Why is this not more widespread?

abraker wrote:

kai99 wrote:

you probably wouldn't have the time to do both and time management is seriously a struggle. This "balance" is what I've been struggling with for the past 5 years or so. I had times where I had to give up working on CTF questions in order to save my grades, and now I'm in this weird state inbetween where I'm just failing at both lol.

*looks at own GPA*

abraker wrote:

kai99 wrote:

Because they promote "CS has the most JOB VACANCIES", honestly, the competition has risen a fuck ton. a FUCK ton. FUCKING HELL.

Still makes me wonder why I hear that the computer science jobs are booming like every other week.

abraker wrote:

kai99 wrote:

I remember me in 7th grade trying to learn pointers and it was the hardest challenge in my life and I don't remember shit from my depressing session but it's been a while since I've seen C and it's honestly so satisfying

Wow I haven't picked up programming until mid 9th grade, and didn't get pointers until 11th grade. I didn't get ranged based for loops until a couple years ago, but I blame me being most familiar and preferring C++03 over anything until that point for that. Get exposure to more languages. C++, C#, python, Javascript to name a few big ones from the top of my head. I am still not sure where Rust, Go, and other "hipster" languages are going yet to say whether they're worth learning for the future. JAVA, however, is weird. Wouldn't want to tell to learn it due to how JAVA likes being JAVA, but companies are still using it.

Hika wrote:

I’m a CS

Hika wrote:

I’m not

Ryoid wrote:

Tl'dr

abraker wrote:

Ryoid wrote:

Tl'dr

last paragraph

kai99 wrote:

lmao in my cpsc course our ta's literally apologizing about how shitty and hard the last assignment was he's like it was shitty i know that was horrible im sorry and we're all like k lol

abraker wrote:

kai99 wrote:

lmao in my cpsc course our ta's literally apologizing about how shitty and hard the last assignment was he's like it was shitty i know that was horrible im sorry and we're all like k lol

I feel you. I was a ta before.

kai99 wrote:

#include<stdio.h>
 
int main(void){
  int num1 = 0;
  int num2 = 0;
  int value = 0;
  char a = 0;
 
  printf("Which calculation do you want to do? \n 1. Addition\n 2. Subtraction\n 3. Multiplication\n 4. Division\n");
  scanf("%c", &a);
  printf("Please enter the two numbers you want to calculate!\n");
  scanf("%d %d", &num1, &num2);
 
  switch(a){
    case '+': 
      value = num1 + num2;
      printf("%d %c %d = %d", num1, a, num2, value);
      break;

    case '-': 
    value = num1 - num2;
      printf("%d %c %d = %d", num1, a, num2, value);
      break;

    case '*':  
      value = num1 * num2;
      printf("%d %c %d = %d", num1, a, num2, value);
      break;
	
    case '/': 
      printf("%d/%d = %lf", num1, num2, (double)num1/num2);
      break;
	
    default:
      printf( "EksDee" );
      break;
    }
 
  return 0;
}

[Taiga] wrote:

@abraker: putting millions into CS is not a bad idea IF this money are spent into proper scientific departments. Right now what in my opinion we are missing is Artificial Intelligence and Software Development... More money should be spent into scholarship, specific into increasing teachers knowledge, giving them more time to teach "the deep dark side" of CS...

abraker wrote:

[Taiga] wrote:

@abraker: putting millions into CS is not a bad idea IF this money are spent into proper scientific departments. Right now what in my opinion we are missing is Artificial Intelligence and Software Development... More money should be spent into scholarship, specific into increasing teachers knowledge, giving them more time to teach "the deep dark side" of CS...

This is about high school level. Getting students that know 0 shit about code to know something. So what you are mentioning is ways off what they are planning to put this money into. The saddest thing is that this will prob going to end with students learning Scratch at grades 9-12.

kai99 wrote:

abraker wrote:

This is about high school level. Getting students that know 0 shit about code to know something. So what you are mentioning is ways off what they are planning to put this money into. The saddest thing is that this will prob going to end with students learning Scratch at grades 9-12.

haha funny when it's not even grades 9-12 man