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In the coming year, the Shelby Farms Greenline could move a bit farther west from Tillman Street, where it now ends, to the Poplar Avenue viaduct with a goal of linking up with the Broad Avenue Arts District.
A bicyclist rides the Shelby Farms Greenline south of Sam Cooper Boulevard between White Station and Mendenhall roads. The popular trail will soon be extended in both directions.
(Daily News File Photo: Lance Murphey)
The two-way bike lanes to come on Broad separated from auto traffic by a barrier is the final link in connecting Overton Park and Shelby Farms Park for pedestrians and bicyclists.
Shelby Farms Park Conservancy Executive Director Laura Adams said design work is under way on getting the Greenline at least to the viaduct, although bicyclists are already able to go from Tillman to Broad.
Meanwhile, the conservancy, which manages and maintains the Greenline into Shelby Farms Park is also working on pushing the Greenline farther east across Germantown Parkway in the coming year.
"It's entirely realistic that the Greenline will go all the way to the old Cordova train depot within the next 18 months," Adams said on the WKNO-TV program "Behind The Headlines."
The program, hosted by Eric Barnes, publisher of The Daily News, can be seen at The Daily News Online, www.memphisdailynews.com.
Like Shelby Farms Park, Overton Park has a conservancy that manages and maintains the park for local government. And Overton Park Conservancy executive director Tina Sullivan said it is modeled on what the conservancy has done for Shelby Farms Park.
"When you saw the success of Shelby Farms Park, the increase in the number of visitors, the pent-up demand that seemed to be expressed with the opening of the Greenline – the timing seemed right for the Overton Park Conservancy to be formed and to have its own entity."
The two parks have different histories and different uses that will likely change as they are linked by different Greenline routes.
"It's really an abandoned farm," Adams said of Shelby Farms. "There are lots of improvements. There's not a single natural lake on the old property. People like to think that Shelby Farms is natural but it's not. It was a forest that was chopped down for farm land that became the penal farm that was abandoned. And now it's a park."
Overton Park includes the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Levitt Shell and the Memphis Zoo, all of which are run separately from the conservancy.
"When you come to Overton Park, you can choose to walk in the deep woods – an ancient forest – in the middle of the city or you can choose to go to a museum or you can choose to go to a free concert at the Levitt Shell," Sullivan said.
"Our long-term vision is that we're a park not only for Midtown Memphis and the greater Memphis region, but eventually we become our own destination park where we market ourselves to people far outside of Memphis as a place to come to visit."
In the year ahead, Sullivan and the conservancy are working on an eastern entrance to the park and park trails where Sam Cooper Parkway meets East Parkway. It's an area already sought out on weekends for its historic picnic pavilion by those who come specifically to the park for events at the pavilion.
"It opens up that part of the park to that neighborhood just east of Overton Park," Sullivan said of the improvements to come that will "improve those access points for pedestrians and cyclists so that Overton Park becomes not only a destination but a stopover as you go to other parts of the city on your bike."
The Greenline and its connections, grouped as the Greater Memphis Greenline, have also had their own economic impact.
Nancy Ream, president of the Greater Memphis Greenline, said her organization has counted as many as 400 people an hour using some parts of the Greenline.
"All along the way, people are saying, 'Where can we go for this?'" she said. "There is definitely more room for all of that to happen. … I think it's a fabulous thing for economic development. Once we get 50 miles of all these connections, that's a good economic development thing. If you get 50 miles, people come from far away … to stay here for a couple of nights and use all of these Greenlines."
The Shelby Farms Park Conservancy set some baselines for economic development as well as measuring crime within a certain radius of the Greenline before it was opened.
The conservancy is about to update that study to gauge the impact in the first year and a half
"The private market reaction to the Greenline has already been strong with restaurants and bike shops and bike rentals and things like that," Adams said. "All the research we had done and the Greater Memphis Greenline had done showed that with these kinds of amenities that crime goes down and economic activity and property values go up."


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In the unlikely event of there being any problems concerning the goods restored to us or the processing of a refund we will aim to contact you as soon as possible.
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- * The seal has been broken
- * The goods were a special order to your specification.
If you receive a faulty item(s):
Please note, the following information is as a guide, please contact us to discuss your individual circumstances. If there is a fault with your product within 12 months of delivery (or other defect with your order), we will normally offer a replacement or repair. (The guarantee period for consumable items (e.g. batteries, camera films, ink cartridges etc.) is three months from date of delivery)
We will always offer you the choice of a replacement or refund if the fault occurs within 28 days of delivery.
Once you have notified us about the faulty item(s) and completed the returns form, we will issue a Returns Pack containing a Prepaid Returns Label and all details on how to return the item(s). This will ensure the safe arrival and identification of your return at our Receiving Department. For Quality Reasons we have to inspect the items you have returned. Then, subject to satisfactory inspection and test of the goods by our inspectors we will process a refund, replacement or repair for you, whichever is appropriate.
Please ensure you enter any additional information about the fault in the comments box when completing the returns form.
Please ensure that your product(s) are accompanied by the original delivery note. To qualify for a refund or replacement the product must be:-
- In otherwise "as new" condition
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This guarantee does not cover faults caused by accident, neglect, misuse or normal wear and tear, for consumable items (e.g. batteries, camera films, ink cartridges etc) the guarantee period is three months from delivery. Spares that have to be fitted internally are also guaranteed for three months, provided they have been fitted by a suitably qualified and competent person.
If a pre-recorded videotape, DVD, CD, Minidisk or other software is faulty under guarantee we will happily exchange it for the same title or refund your money.
If you receive your item(s) damaged:
We and our carriers take the greatest possible care to see that your order is delivered in pristine condition. However, in the unlikely event that you take delivery of a parcel which shows signs of damage. Please, where a signature is required, sign that the parcel IS DAMAGED, and then please report the damage WITHIN 3 WORKING DAYS via this web site or by calling our Customer Service Department.
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If the correct product is ordered & the wrong item(s) delivered:
Our Quality System ensures we check that items sent out match the order placed. However, errors can sometimes occur.
We apologise if we have mistakenly sent you a product which does not match the details on your agreed order. You must inform us within 5 working days of receiving the product, and we will send you a returns pack to enable you to return the item(s) to us.
Please help us to take corrective action by selecting one of the following reasons to insert in the comment box, in the returns form.
- The item supplied does not match the item described on the Invoice.
- The Product Supplied does not match the details shown on the Web Site.
- The Part Supplied does not fit the Model I ordered the item for.
- I ordered this part on the telephone and it seems my requirements were misunderstood.
Refunds are processed within 10 working days on safe receipt of the item(s), using the same form of payment as the original transaction.
We ask you to ensure that the unwanted product is complete, unused and in 'as new' condition (e.g. if you have opened the box to examine the product, the product or packaging should not be damaged in any way). If possible, please return the item(s) with the original box, packaging and accessories.
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We provide you with the opportunity to donate a few pence to charity as part of the checkout process. If you use this facility then your donation will be distributed by The Pennies Foundation, registered charity number 1122489. 95% of your donation goes to our chosen charity The League of Friends of the John Taylor Hospice and 5% is retained by Pennies. This donation is separate to your www.buyspares.co.uk order and is non-refundable.
In the unlikely event of there being any problems concerning the returned item(s) or the processing of a refund we will endeavour to contact you as quickly as possible.
We take your privacy rights as a customer seriously. In this Privacy Policy, references to "we" and "us" are to www.buyspares.co.uk and to Connect Distribution Services Limited, company number 3004798, registered office Connect House, Talbot Way, Small Heath, Birmingham, West Midlands B10 0HJ. By using this site and submitting any personal data, you agree to the use by CDSL of such data in accordance with this privacy statement
What information we collect and why?
When a visitor provides personal data to us, we will use it for the purposes for which it was provided to us. When you place an order with www.buyspares.co.uk, we need to know your name, e-mail address, home address, delivery address, your home and/or work telephone numbers and payment details, which may include credit or debit card number and expiry date. This enables us to authorise your payment, process and fulfil your orders and to notify you of your order status.
CDSL is registered as a Data Controller with the Data Protection Regulator, Information Commissioner's Office. Our registration reference is Z8421875. We only collect or use personal information for those purposes indicated in our notification with the Information Commissioner's Office.
How we secure your information and your rights are regulated under the Data Protection Act 1998 and associated legislation and regulations.
You have rights under the Data Protection Act 1998. Individuals have the right:
- To request and access a copy of their information (personal data);
- To object to the processing of their information if they feel it is likely to cause or is causing damage or distress;
- To prevent processing for direct marketing, (e.g. Opt-Out);
- To object to decisions being taken by automated means, (e.g. credit reference checks);
- In certain circumstances to have inaccurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed; and
- To claim compensation for damages caused by a breach of the Act in the courts.
Your personal information may also be disclosed to other businesses within CDSL and to reputable third party contractors engaged by CDSL to perform a variety of functions such as processing your orders, assisting with promotions or providing technical services for our websites including Live Chat and hosting. We require all such third parties to treat your personal information as fully confidential and to fully comply with all applicable UK and European data protection and consumer legislation from time to time in place.
Except where stated within these Terms and Conditions, our website does not collect or compile personally identifying information for sale to outside parties for consumer marketing purposes, or host mailings on behalf of third parties.
We may from time to time contact you to supply you details of our products, services and/or to share our current promotions. You can opt-out of marketing either by selecting the appropriate opt-out option during the checkout process, or by selecting the unsubscribe option available on any promotional email.
In order to monitor the performance of our site we collect:
- An IP address to monitor site traffic and volume
- A session ID to uniquely identify you on our site
In order to fulfil any orders placed with us we collect:
- An email address and telephone number to contact you
- Name of customer
- Credit card / Payment information
- Billing and Delivery addresses
- Note - Some or all of this data may also be used for security fraud checks
What we do with your information?
Any personal information we collect from you will be used in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and other applicable laws and regulations such as the Privacy Electronic Communication Regulations. The details we collect will be used:
- To process your order, to maintain guarantee records and to provide after-sales service.
- To carry out security checks (this may involve passing your details to Experian Limited, or another credit reference agency, who will check details we give them against public and private databases and may keep a record of that check to use in future security checks - this helps to protect you and us from fraudulent transactions); and
- To comply with legal requirements
- For CDSL marketing purposes, where you have agreed to this.
- If you would like details of the information which you have submitted to us through this site, you have a right of access to such information and you may contact us in writing at the above address. We may charge for a request for access in accordance with applicable legal requirements.
Data retention
- The personal data you submit to us will only be retained for as long as is reasonably required for the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by law.
We realise just how important it is to keep your personal and payment information safe when sent over the internet, so we take all the necessary precautions to protect your information and to store it securely.
Your payment card and/or bank information is defined in the Data Protection Act 1998 as personal data. Data controllers such as Connect Distribution Services Limited will put security arrangements around this information and treat it as sensitive personal data. This type of information may be transmitted to us online (such as credit card numbers) and therefore this will be encrypted and transmitted to us securely. You can check that you are shopping in a secure environment by looking for a locked padlock icon (Internet Explorer and Firefox) in the grey bar at the bottom of your screen. This will appear on any page where you are entering personal information (such as your credit card details). No other page will transmit personal information about you.
We will put in place appropriate, technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorised or unlawful processing, against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, your personal information.
Shopping Securely With Us
At www.buyspares.co.uk we utilise the industry-standard Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology to encrypt all your personal information including debit or credit card numbers, name and address. The encryption process takes the characters you enter and converts them into bits of code that are then securely transmitted over the Internet. In order to help safeguard unauthorised use of your credit or debit card, we check the security code located above the magnetic strip on the back of your card and also the address provided on your order with the address set against the card.
Verified by Visa and MasterCard® SecureCode™
When you submit your card details, our e-commerce system will request confirmation that the details provided are correct (as explained in the sections above). Most banks now include the "Verified by Visa" and "MasterCard®" "SecureCode™" virtual 'card present' environment. These are additional security systems which may appear as part of the final stages of placing your order.
If your bank uses one of these systems, you will be prompted to enter a password or code in order to proceed with your payment. The web page which prompts for this information is provided by your bank, and the information transmitted from this page is between you and your bank; it cannot be used or processed by us. As soon as the card/password is verified you will be returned to our website to complete your order.
When this page is displayed, you will either be prompted to enrol in the card's scheme if you have not already done so (you will be asked to create a password or code as part of the enrolment process), or if you are already enrolled, you will be prompted to enter your password. If you would like more information about this process, or to enrol on this scheme independently of our website, it is advised that you contact your bank.
MasterCard®SecureCode™ Explained
MasterCard®SecureCode™ is a simple and secure method of payment at online stores, for which you will have a private code known only to you and to your bank. Your SecureCode™ enhances your existing MasterCard® account by safeguarding against unauthorised use of your card when shopping at participating online retailers. Every time you make a payment with these retailers, you will be automatically prompted to enter your own private SecureCode™ - just like entering a PIN at a cash machine. In seconds, you gain added protection while shopping online.
Verified by Visa Explained
Verified by Visa is a simple password-protected identity-checking service that takes the risk out of online shopping for both retailers and customers. Retailers are protected against fraudulent transactions and the costs associated with it, while customers can spend with confidence knowing that their payment details are safe.
The prices of products on this website are in £ Sterling , inclusive of VAT and exclusive of delivery. You'll find details of our delivery options and costs in the Delivery Information section. They are also shown when you place items in the basket.
The prices, offers and products on this website are subject to availability and may change before (but not after) we accept your order. We do our best to ensure that all information on this site is accurate. However, just occasionally, an error may occur. If we discover an error in the price or description of a product you have ordered, we will inform you as soon as possible and ask whether you wish to continue with your order or cancel it.
Payment Methods Available
We accept Visa and MasterCard credit cards along with, Visa debit, Visa Electron and Maestro debit cards. We also accept payment through PayPal.
Website Transactions
When you place an order we treat it as an offer to buy, and will send you an e-mail to confirm receipt. If we accept your order, we will despatch the product(s) to you, at which point we make a legal contract with you. Payment will be processed at the point the goods are despatched. We will send you an email to confirm despatch.
We are entitled to refuse to accept your order if we feel it necessary, in which case we will contact you as soon as we can to let you know. When you order you will have an opportunity to check the details and correct any input errors.
Telephone Orders
Provided your chosen product(s) is available, we will process your payment and provide an order confirmation number at the time we take your telephone order. We do not send confirmation emails to telephone customers.
During the process of accepting your payment we may use information received from your card issuer. This helps to protect you and us against fraudulent transactions. We will contact you as soon as possible if your payment details cannot be authorised for any reason, and give you the opportunity to pay via another method.
*Please note that prices quoted over the phone may differ to those shown on this website.
There are lots of misconceptions about cookies and what they are for. At www.buyspares.co.uk we believe in being open, upfront and honest. In this section we briefly explain the cookie types we use and how they benefit your experience using the website.
Cookies are used by almost all websites. They contain simple pieces of information and they are downloaded on to your pc when you visit the website. Cookies are not programs; they are simple text files that can be used by a website for various purposes. At www.buyspares.co.uk we use cookies to ensure our website works efficiently and also to observe visitor behaviour on our website during a session. All the information contained in our cookies is used to ensure the website works correctly, delivers the performance you expect and also to improve the overall experience we offer our visitors and customers. Some of the cookies we use are essential to the operation of the website.
We typically use cookies for the following purposes:
- To keep track of the items added to the basket
- To help identify the order as a whole
- To view visitor behaviour and areas of the site visited
- To monitor and run advertising and marketing campaigns
Overview of the types of cookies used:
Essential cookies are technical cookies that are required for the operation of our site. Without essential cookies our sites can't operate properly. Typically these cookies are used to support key functions such as the shopping basket and enhanced features like our sign-in accounts.
These cookies allow us to identify and count the number of visitors to our sites and to see how visitors are using the website. This helps us to improve the way our sites work and develop functionality to make shopping with us a more rewarding experience.
Our site uses a range of cookies for marketing purposes. Marketing cookies record your visits to our sites, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We use this information to make our site and the advertising displayed on them more relevant to your interests. Sometimes we share anonymous information about your browsing activity recorded using cookies with our advertising partners. They may use this information to advertise products that may interest you on other sites. Please note we don't share any of your personal or sensitive information.
Use of cookies & consent
As described above we, like most other websites, use cookies in the operation of our website. By using this website you are agreeing to the use of cookies for the purposes described. If you do not consent to the use of cookies, please refrain from using this site. You can delete and restrict cookie use in your browser:View more about Cookie Control
Checking your settings in Internet Explorer 8 and earlier versions
- Locate the 'Tools' tab on the menu areas of your browser. Click on this.
- There is an option called 'Internet Options' on the list, select this option.
- This should open a pop up box with lots of tabbed options. Select the 'Privacy' tab from the list.
- Internet Explorer has a high, medium, low auto-adjust system for internet content handling. You can configure your own settings by clicking the advanced tab and ticking the 'Override automatic cookie handling'
- Settings above Medium will disable cookies, Medium or below will enable cookies.
Checking your settings in Mozilla Firefox
- Locate the 'Tools' tab on the menu areas of your browser. Click on this.
- From the list of options on the drop down menu, click on 'Options'
- There should be a pop up window appear with tabs along the top. Find the 'Privacy' tab and select this.
- You should now have some options for 'Tracking' and 'History'. Under the 'History' drop down menu, select 'Use customer' settings for history' if you wish to adjust your cookie settings.
Checking your settings in Google Chrome
- Look for the spanner icon in Chrome and click on this
- From this menu, select settings…
- Within settings you will see tabs on the left hand side. Select the tab called 'Under the Hood'
- When this page loads you will see a tab at the top called 'Content Settings' - select this
- This brings up your content controls including cookie permissions - select the option you feel most comfortable with
Checking your settings in Safari
- Locate the Cog icon at the top of your browser and click on this.
- From the list of options select 'Preferences'
- This should open a pop up window with several tabs along the top. From this list select the 'Privacy' option.
- This will open the tab page that allows you to control the cookie settings on your browser.
Checking your settings in Opera
- Click the Opera file icon in the top left hand corner of your browser.
- From the drop down list of options, highlight 'Settings' and then scroll across and select 'Preferences'.
- This should open a pop up window with tabs along the top. Choose the 'Advanced' tab.
- This shows you the advanced options. On the left hand side there is an option called 'Cookies' - click on this option.
- This presents the cookie options for your use on this browser.
If you have another browser…
Please check the help settings within your browser or use a search engine to find answers on the best way to enable or disable cookies in your chosen browser. Please remember we are not responsible for the content on external websites.
If you want more information…
You can visit the following website for an in-depth guide to cookies and how to control, delete and understand them. They even have a great recipe on there for cookies of the edible variety - yum!
It is the policy of Connect Distribution Services Ltd to provide the highest quality of service to ensure customer and client satisfaction.
The company is a commercial business operating in very competitive markets. We believe that delivering the highest quality of service, alongside controlling costs, optimising pricing and having a well established strategic plan, is essential to the long term sustainability and profitability of the business.
In order to ensure that all work is carried out in a manner that provides the highest quality of service, the company operates a quality system in compliance with BS EN ISO 9001.
The director responsible for quality is the Finance Director of Connect Distribution Services Ltd.
The management team is committed to:
- Implementing, integrating and maintaining the Quality Management System and ensuring sufficient resources are made available to achieve this.
- Promoting continual improvement and setting quality objectives in line with the frame laid down within ISO 9001.
- Ensuring through communication, engagement and training that employees are familiar with and understand all objectives and procedures for the improvement and maintenance of the quality system relevant to their work in the company.
- Regularly reviewing quality objectives and ensuring the outcome of any review is communicated and understood.
- Ensuring our processes meet any applicable regulatory and statutory requirements.

subset: commoncrawl


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Submission + - Adrian Lamo Discusses His Decision to Expose Bradley Manning (guardian.co.uk)
ilikenwf writes: Whether you agree with his rationale for doing so or not, Adrian Lamo has come forward to discuss his reasoning for exposing Bradley Manning. Manning, now in federal custody, leaked thousands of US intelligence files and documents. Lamo's side of the story shows that he was concerned for Manning's mental health and stability, and for the lives Manning was risking by releasing classified material — Afghan informants, for instance. Either way, this goes to show that if you're going to release stolen/hacked documents, it's best you do it anonymously and don't brag about it.


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But in the end, there was still a goal (whether yours or someone else's). It's very hard to just start writing code with no idea of where it will end up (unlike say abstract art where just putting brush to canvas begins a process that wanders where it wants).
The parent post is right in that you can show someone an end-point and help them get there. The more interested they are in the end goal, the more motivated they will be to learn what they need to get there. Most classes use contrived end goals (usua
Not sure if you are joking (I'm guessing you are), but pro tip - only mod down items that contribute nothing to a discussion like trolls or flamebait. I've been using the site for over a decade and I've probably modded down five or six people over that course.
Mod up the arguments that speak for you and contribute something. If someone says something that you dislike, look for a counter argument and mod that up.
Lately, I've been seeing a lot of well thought comments modded down (check any smartphone discussion) for disagreeing with the groupthink. This is like group censorship which is never a good thing for any community.
You kids, I swear... how do mobile platforms make it any easier to make your software available for the masses than uploading it to an internet repository or putting it on BitTorrent? Sheesh, I was sharing software fifteen years ago when I first got on the internet. Before that it wasn't easy, but the internet is the internet, whether you're accessing it on a computer, a phone, or a tablet.
The only thing smartphones changes is it just lets you take the internet with you rather than leaving it at home.
And I think programming is going to be more popular now with the mobile platforms making it extremely easy to make your software available for the masses.
Provided your parent is willing to pay $99 per year to unlock your Xbox 360, Windows Phone 7 device, or iOS device to run homemade programs on it.
Everyone does something for a reason. For me, programming was a way to create the games and sandboxes I dreamed of and enjoyed.
In psychology, the motivation can be intrinsic or extrinsic:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation#Intrinsic_and_extrinsic_motivation [wikipedia.org]
Intrinsic means that you do the things for the pleasure of doing them. In your case, creating games for your enjoyment.
Extrinsic means that you do the things to get a reward or avoid a punishment. In your case, it's about getting money.
If the extrinsic motivation becomes bigger than the intrinsic motivation, you don't enjoy your work anymore, and you get bored.
Education encourages extrinsic motivation, by grading people, which basically kills enjoyment in learning when grades become more important than learning.
The more educated you are, and the more you are dependent on extrinsic motivation, which makes people search for fame or money.
People with strong extrinsic motivation (and who have good grades at school) tend to fail in real life, because they search for the immediate rewards.
To avoid being bored, the only way is to do things with intrinsic motivation, and that doesn't mean not getting paid !
If you enjoy what you do, you'll be happier, and you can get paid for it, sometimes making a lot of money, but that's not the main goal.
But this also requires to determine if you can accept to earn a little less money in exchange of being happier...
Education encourages extrinsic motivation
The point of a true education is to enable one to find *intrinsic* motivation. The trouble is, most of what passes for "education" is merely training.
The point of a true education is to enable one to find *intrinsic* motivation.
Not really, if education was about finding intrinsic motivation, why doesn't it search for it first ?
You can't find something that you don't search.
I don't remember a single thing that I enjoyed learning at school.
Also, grading is just spoiling all joy, because it's in general completely arbitrary.
The only thing that grades show is how good the teacher is !
I don't remember a single thing that I enjoyed learning at school.
If you're talking about pre-college public education, yes. A teacher can take the most interesting subject matter in the world and make it boring as hell. I never enjoyed public school at all. College was way different, my instructors could take "mundane" things and make them fascinating. I really enjoyed college, and plan on taking classes again when I retire in a couple of years. I was grateful that my employer occasionally had me take classes, too. I love learning.
Also, grading is just spoiling all joy, because it's in general completely arbitrary.
Grades let you know how well you have absorbed the information. It's simply feedback.
The only thing that grades show is how good the teacher is !
Well, if you get poor grades you didn't learn, and if you were trying to learn and didn't then yes, the teacher failed.
I agree, but "motivation" is the psychological terminology.
In my opinion, it's not the destination that is important, it's the journey.
I would like to quote Buddha: "Happiness is the way".
It means that happiness is not the aim of your journey, happiness is your journey.
It's very difficult to find happiness in what we live
"I would like to quote Buddha: "Happiness is the way"."
Damn, I thought Bubba said that!
Very interesting. Soooo - what would a shrink have to say about a guy who has changed careers a half dozen times? I don't mean just changed jobs, but changed careers. I worked at one type of work because I enjoyed it. Then, I went into the navy because I thought that I would enjoy it, and I did actually enjoy it. After 8 years, I got out, and started doing another type of work, because I found that work enjoyable.
Had I ever actually stuck with a career, I'd probably be well off, or even wealthy today.
Soooo - what would a shrink have to say about a guy who has changed careers a half dozen times?
Wow ! You have a very rich life ! I'm really jealous. You should be very open-minded. It took me a lot of time to accept myself and the others, I'm sure it's easy for you.
Personally, I have been a game programmer during 18 years, and did almost all companies at the time.
I lost interest in game programming, and I accepted a job of developer in a startup, just for extrinsic reasons (earning money for my wife).
Recently, I evolved incredibly, thanks to a work on myself since 15 years. I know myself pretty well now, but I also discovered that I have no real limit, since all my limits were self-imposed: I can probably become a CEO or develop an innovative product, or become wealthy.
But what interests me after all these years of working behing computers is humans. I have to admit that I never had a lot of interaction with people, and now, I love that.
Humans can be trained in how they think and so you fail to grasp the point of school. You also fail to see other forms of intrinsic motivation that drive the really successful people.
Work ethic is, I'd say, an intrinsic form of motivation that can be learned or ingrained. If you think otherwise go talk to some immigrants from Asian or Easter Europe. They can't not work, it's in their very blood and nothing short of death will make them stop (and in some cases they try to make sure even that isn't a barrier
> If you think otherwise go talk to some immigrants from Asian or Easter Europe. They can't not work, it's in their very blood
Are you familiar with the phrase 'self-selecting group'?
You also fail to see other forms of intrinsic motivation that drive the really successful people.
I don't think so. I just hope we have the same definition of "success".
"Success" means that you have "failure", and thus I'm not sure we have the same definition.
Work ethic is, I'd say, an intrinsic form of motivation that can be learned or ingrained. If you think otherwise go talk to some immigrants from Asian or Easter Europe. They can't not work, it's in their very blood and nothing short of death will make them stop (and in some cases they try to make sure even that isn't a barrier via instructions to their kids).
Wow, the educational system in Asia is definitely entirely based upon extrinsinc motivation.
The goal is always to have the best grades in school. Competition may be useful, but not when you are young. It just spoils all your life.
You should read what is Maslow's pyramid. Maslow explained that once your basic needs were covered, you tend to search f
It saddens me how boring computing has become. When I was a kid, computers were my friends, mysterious odd creatures with their own faults, oddities and dark corners. Thus I learned to talk, dream and breathe in binary so that I could better understand and associate with them. Apparently not so today.
This is so cool to read this.
I love seeing the wide eyed look of absolute amazement I see in people's eyes when they write even the simplest program.
It is true. I see them energized and envigorated with an unbelievable energy to learn and expand. They become spontaneously competitive, but they also take immense joy in pulling all others up in a joint learning experience. They stop and teach. Someone gets stuck and groups spontaneously form and disintegrate as the knowledge is imparted.
God, it reminds me
For me I delighted in making the machine do something, and then when I learned that programming was a thing, yes, I programmed and learned about programming for it's own sake.
I was also fascinated by algebra as a child. Guess I'm just weird.
I agree though - don't try to teach kids what it means to be turing complete, or how to normalise data tables, not at first. Show them something with simple cause and effect, see if you can keep their interest.
I was also fascinated by algebra as a child. Guess I'm just weird.
You are amongst friends here. Weird is normal. Weirder is normal-er.
Just don't become average or revert to the mean! (good god, I'm a punny man!)
Reasons abound.
My own experiences that led me down the path to engineering/physics/electronics/hardware hacking and away from programming.
Early on in high school, the math teacher( custodian of one of the two TRS-80s my school bought) decided that I should be kept far from the console and denied acceptance into "computer" class on the grounds that slipping a "Pink Floyd" tape into the drive to see if it had programming potential was the wrong kind of interest.
Later out on my own in the world of low wages, I
I had a mini love of programming for a couple of years as a child, because the Commodore 128 hit the sweet spot for a child's interest that I've rarely seen matched since. The 128's devastating secret was that it could produce both Sprites and Lines. So you just design a sprite, tell it to move, design another sprite, tell that to move, draw some lines, ask for a collision check between either the sprites or the lines, and Voila, you have simple games. 100 lines of code for the shell, another 200 for some m
Even since a kid, I loved the "idea" of programming but I couldn't get myself to make a program that couldn't be useful.
I never really made any programs outside of class or work. One thing that I do love doing all the time is looking at a problem and effectively creating pseudo-code in my head. This I can do quickly and at anytime. I've been doing a lot of reading on how computers work, assembly, latencies, and throughput since I was ~12. I'm always looking at stuff, breaking it down, and juggling around ma
I figure that, for any field, 1% of people are just into it for the sake of doing it, 9% are willing to learn it to achieve a result and/or are naturally talented, and 90% just don't care. I'm willing to bet that the author isn't that into cooking or the mechanical condition of his car or music or politics. And every six months, someone in this 1% posts to Slashdot because they're worried that not enough young kids are into programming or engineering or whatever.
Take food, for example. Some people are reall
Back in the '70s, some kids learned BASIC (or very occasionally Fortran) for no reason other than to make a machine do something. Anything. Not a particular thing, just *ANYTHING*.
Only after the novelty of 10 PRINT "Hello"; GOTO 10 wore off did they turn to getting it to do more specific things. Even then, the specific things weren't as much the point as getting the computer to do it.
That is, write blackjack program. Play once or twice, on to the next program. The game wasn't the objective, writing a progra
Doing what Uncle Jay does... Yeah - tried that. My parole officer is still upset.... However the Catholic Church has contacted me back on that job offer....
When I was my nephew's age, computers were still fascinating: There wasn't a laptop on every table, facebook wasn't splattered on every screen, and you couldn't get any question answered in just a couple seconds with Google.
That can be also seen as an advantage. While most can use a laptop and some software, not many can actually make new apps. The motivation these days might come from standing out as the creator.
... are a tiny minority. Always have been, always will be. The submitter seems to think the average 10-year-old should be interested in programming because he was at that age. Well, good for him, and I guarantee there are still 10-year-olds interested in it, but they're going to be awfully thin on the ground -- and this was just true back then as it is now.
And the submitter should beware not to drown any spark the nephew thinks he may have. Therefore, it is very important to try to understand where the kid is coming from and where he wants to go.
Maybe programming can be it, but it might be some other, more general interest in computers, if the kid isn't quote clear on what programming is.
Explore with your nephw. If it turns out programming was not exactly what the kid will find interesting, at least you might be able to teach him to be a power user. Or i
Nowadays a computer (and perhaps even some custom app you design together) could be useful even if the kid wants to be a ballet-anthropologist, drag queen or beekeper or whatever.
So many ORs, can't he be all of them? Man, you are cramping the lads style!
They're ORs, not XORs!
... are a tiny minority. Always have been, always will be. The submitter seems to think the average 10-year-old should be interested in programming because he was at that age. Well, good for him, and I guarantee there are still 10-year-olds interested in it, but they're going to be awfully thin on the ground -- and this was just true back then as it is now.
My nephew at 10 years old asked me if I could teach him programming. I knew him well enough even then to say 'sure, but you've got to love it and want to stick with it' so after a brief lesson in writing local HTML files and using a browser to read them (and how to use Google to find tutorials), told him to create a web page. Sure enough about half an hour later he quit saying it was too boring.
I started learning at about 10 years old on a Commodore Pet that had nothing but crap BASIC and no graphics
True, they are a tiny minority. Kinda like kids and fixing cars. They're honestly both niche jobs, but both can be very rewarding and interesting. I know, I've done both...and combining the two skills in the workforce can make for an interesting grading scale for pay. But, should the average 10 year old? Pft not. At 10, most kids are interested in screwing around and enjoying themselves, probably easier than we did at that age. Then again they have other things to deal with too.
I would say mod parent up... But remembered that *I* have mod points. MAHAHAHAHHHH!!!!
Seriously, you just say: "You know that ANYONE can do that, yeah?" when they like something a computer does.
Myself, I took the 1986 Scientific American article with the fractals on the cover and coded up the algorithm on little PC with 64K or RAM, and never looked back. I've used to assume that the question for a ten year old would be "Would you like to write your own game?"
I can't use my mod points when I've posted in the thread.
Mod +1 Informative...
Programming is a fundamental skill, almost like reading and writing. Children learn the shape of the characters in one year, but they keep learning how to read and write for many more years, because reading and writing aren't mechanical skills. Programming is a formalization of a solution, and this skill is fundamental. The most important aspect of programming is understanding the problem in detail, and that's something everybody could use. It's like writing up a complicated story without loose ends and contradictions: We're not all going to write books and screenplays, but almost everybody needs to express more complicated thoughts than "I want a cheeseburger".
So your cousin is a senior manager at Microsoft?
No. That is like asking if there are kids who want to weld for welding sake. Or fuck for fuck sake. We don't fuck for fuck sake, we fuck for the climax. Without the climax, fucking would be fucking boring.
Most people code because they want to get something done. Those who don't work in government. Kids want to code a game, the kids that want to code a database or search algorithm tend to be watched by the FBI, from a safe distance, through a snipers scope.
It is the same as with a spoken language. Nobody wants to learn French for the sake of the language, they want to impress chicks. Japanese is only studied by people with a fantasy of picking up school girls, desu. Latin for those who wished to be picked up by Catholic priests.
The easiest way to keep kids interested is to make sure things beep and whistle and spin. It does't matter that much if it is text graphics, direct 3d or leds on a Arduino board, or a programming robot game. What matters is that the concepts have clear examples with easy to understand results.
It is the reason PHP is so popular, its examples are extremely clear and light on the jargon. It is the reason Lego is such a success, nobody has to spend time learning the building blocks of Lego, they are clear... then you can spend all your energy on creating.
Kids haven't really changed but nerdy pursuits have always been the domain of the select few... the few selected by girls not to be dated.
We don't fuck for fuck sake, we fuck for the climax. Without the climax, fucking would be fucking boring.
This is amusing because the Slashdot sterotype totally applies (a virgin who is very opinionated regarding things he knows nothing about).
You are highly cynical. And I think it clouds your view. I know all sorts of people who do all sorts of things just because they enjoy doing them. Sure they probably not the majority, but that doesn't make them vanish. Some of us even get paid to play with cool toys all day. Its not always like that, but I enjoy my job(both the process which does involve some coding and the enjoyment of seeing your solution actually work).
If there is one thing I've learned in my interactions with kids it is that you can't m
EB White said it so much better than I could, so I'll just quote him:
âoeThe best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for i
Gah, I mean TH White, of course.
After 30 years of professional development, I feel that many developers SUCK! They wear some "architect" or "senior developer" badge but struggle through the most basic concepts. I believe the reason is that MANY coders are simply chasing paychecks or have been pushed into the field. They lack the PASSION that I remember when I first got into it. Everyone was learning to program because they loved these cook PC things and WANTED to do something with them AFTER they soldered everything together. Most "geeks" share that same type of passion. They gravitate to the next cool innovation and, in the process, become great at what they love. However, today, the industry is flooded with bodies that are simply working the cliche' 9-5 and drooling over a six-figure paycheck.
Shoot, I didn't realize I wasn't logged in so here it is again, properly attributed
That why I'm a SysAdmin instead of a programmer. As as sysadmin, I can write programs (scripts) that do what I want vs working in an environment where folks tell me what to do. I started out learning to program back on the Sinclair (writing programs that assist with my gaming) then got jobs as a programmer. I found that being told what to do made programming boring and tedious (and a little frustrating). The nice thing about being a sysadmin is a good portion of the time is spent looking for problems (at least for me as I'm very proactive). So when I find something, I script up a solution and push it out to all servers to see if something else has the same problem. It gives me a creative outlet and I look good because I found all the servers with failing cache batteries that are only reported in the logs. The number of reactive problems drops significantly and we all look good for staying on top of things.
A couple of years ago when I started here, I converted an excel spreadsheet of our equipment list into a php front ended mysql backended database. From there, as I wanted to add new things, I'd research how to do what I wanted to do and implement it. As I improved in writing php, javascript, and mysql code, I'd keep adding features that scratch my itch as well as others to the point that the inventory program is being used by quite a lot of people and I spend a portion of my time either working on enhancements (recently added a network map) and even adding modules that provide non-inventory related enhancements. Right now I think I found the right code to create multi-layer PNG images so I can use javascript to hide layers for the network map. And heck, I'm about ready to step up and get a php or mysql cert along with my CCNP and Solaris certs and a coveted 3Wizard cert I earned way back in the day
It's loads of fun.
When I was an 80s teen with my ZX Spectrum, I could write games that weren't too far behind the earliest commercial games. (back then it was even a novelty to have control over what appeared on your old telly screen!)
I wrote games that gave me as much fun as the coin-op machines back then, when things were primitive.
Now though, how can any kid write a fluid 3D FPS shoot-up? I take my hat off to any who can! Where's the incentive? Where's the novelty?
Little 2D games on the kids' Android phones, maybe. Perhaps.
We had a 14 year old work experience lad, who was the nephew of one of the owners of the business, and he wanted to become an app developer - when we chatted about this further, it turned out that his claimed "programming experience" amounted to using the drag-and-drop style of online website wizards, and using apps from the iTunes store.
He had a goal in mind, and he was raring to go, so we decided to embrace this enthusiasm and run with it - so we decided that the best thing for him to do during the two weeks with us was to design and build a basic app - he was thrilled by this. We gave him a task for two hours on the first morning, which was to research the apps out there and decide what was best to build (building a copy of something out there is easier for this sort of thing than coming up with the concept itself).
He came back with "I want to build World of Warcraft". Crap.
We eventually scaled him back to building a HTML5 version of tic-tac-toe, as the logic is simple, the graphics are simple, and the HTML experience travels well. He was given a lot of personal tutorials from myself and the other developers for the first two days, basically a beginners guide to HTML, and then told to see if he could come up with a basic page with a table in which would hold the game board - no styling, no JavaScript, just a basic page with a table.
Despite help from us developers being on tap (we encouraged questions, we discouraged "do it for me" - examples are fine so long as work and understanding was needed to translate the code into what he was doing, so a simple copy and paste wouldn't solve the set issue), by the end of the first day he hadn't grasped the concept of nested elements to build the table. What he came up with even IE barfed over.
The poor kid had no grasp for it at all. I hope it was a failure on our part rather than inability, but really it was inability. He never realised software development was so difficult, no realisation as to what was actually involved in the process or the building itself. He saw pretty things and thought they were simple to produce.
So, anyone who gets the chance to introduce a child to software development, please take it nice and slow and be prepared for lots of failures, lots of frustration and lots of patience.
By the end of the two weeks he was proclaiming he wanted to be a farmer. And now, I hear, he wants to hire out construction equipment (after he was given a day of work experience on a farm).
Sounds like the work experience did exactly work experiences are supposed to: show him what kinds of jobs he enjoys.
He never realised software development was so difficult, no realisation as to what was actually involved in the process or the building itself.
This can be said for any technical profession when you are 14. Electrical engineering? That's all about putting a few circuits together and the robot just works right? Then in first year of their EE degree they get introduced to concepts like imaginary numbers and it just gets harder from there.
I remember tutoring one subject at uni and a pissed EE student came to me to complain about their assignment. They were asked to simulate an EM wave propagation through a semiconductor in Matlab, quite simple maths but highly iterative so a perfect task to code up on a computer. The student said "I'm an electrical engineer not a computer programmer!" triumphantly. I said, "Ok, then do the assignment using this," and dropped a pencil and calculator on his desk.
His pre-conception on what it is to do engineering jaded his view of what his was doing. None of the people in the class were programmers, but they were simply using a tool they had to solve an electrical engineering problem, and that was writing a bit of code into a computer to solve a math problem that would otherwise take waaaay too long.
This is more common than one would think. Back in high school, I was taking a bunch of computer courses including a CCNA program and an MCSE program. The teacher for both was an awesome guy (favorite high school teacher hands down) and a good teacher and before anybody asks: Yes, he was certified in anything he taught and a bunch of crap on top.
Anyway, he basically had to keep dumbing the courses down. He had a quote he pulled out from time to time: "I like playing X-Box, therefore I like computers, th
My experience, similar story, from someone who knows how children learn:
15-year-old kid, work experience (I'm an IT manager, some would say systems- or network- manager, in primary schools). He'd NEVER seen anything approaching a programming language in his life. Slack afternoon because, hell, if you do your job right, the network runs itself. We get talking about computer games while in my office.
Ten minutes later, we're into "Yeah, but how do you do 3D / physics / motion sensing / etc.". After about a
I am not sure dumping them in the deep end of the pool is the correct idea either.
A lot of us learned because we had machines with basic that needed games. Get a magazine and type in a page or two of code and you had some garbage game to play. You see code and you get some reward, plus you appreciate the need for accuracy and precision.
Later, we moved on from rote copying to actually doing our own problem solving / coding. I know I had no context at first, I did not know what I could and could not do but
When I were a lad, working down the coal mines in the snow 30 hours a day, I learned programming in order to achieve a goal - make computers do fun stuff.
If you want to get a kid interested in programming, give them a simple game compiled from source, ask them what they'd like to change, and let the voyage of discovery begin.
My experience is that the kids don't want to do the same kind of programming we did in the 80's and early 90's. At that time it was mind-blowing for me to just have the computer do a simple animation of a couple of lines on the screen. No kid is interested in that anymore.
Later in the late 90's and early 2000's it was all about the internet. Kids wanted to write html and then later PHP etc. They still do it to an extent now but more often then not kids now-days just want to set up and customize packages and
There is one thing though that kids like to do in the 80's that has survived and flourished to this day - hardware/robotics.
And until robots and better artificial intelligence become a fact of life in households across the world, they will continue to have that aura of mystery around them that draws kids interest.
When I was a kid we would go into the woods to build yet another tree house. First step, find the last tree house and scavenge the long boards for the frame.
There was this one long red board that was in practically every tree house ever built in them woods. Without those pieces you couldn't build anything significant.
Once you have a computer, all the "building materials" are essentially free. All you need then is a bit of imagination and creativity.
Most kids simply don't know what programming is. All that they know is that software is made, yet they have had no exposure to how it is made. Once you show a child what programming is, and in a child friendly manner, they are much more likely to want to program for programming's sake.
Well, when I started on my Commodore 64 you started at the command prompt read to write code, so yeah I'd say it takes at least a little more prodding than before to get into programming. Also you started with just two lines:
Okay, so it doesn't produce a very impressive result but as "bang for the buck" it's pretty good. If the reaction is "All that to produce so little?!" you've lost. Hell, you might have lost anyway if they point you to a $100 million AAA game and say that is cool, I want to make something like that. But since you can't ask for time to be turned back to simple sprite based graphics you can't change that, but at least not start them off down the long road.
Personally today I think I'd actually start them off with a game toolkit where you can script events, like Neverwinter Nights or something like that. First of all because it's a game and looks good and produces something cool, second of all because you can start with a level that already exists. Have them modify it and they'll start thinking about objects, attributes, state, conditions, boolean logic (assuming you want to start them down the OOP path) without banging their head on the really hard issues. Plus you get to make your own adventure, which is creative and fun while learning.
A lot changed since the 1970s. In the 1970s computer were science fiction and science fiction was en vogue. We tried to build our own computers based on transistors and later on microchips. In the 1980s things already improved so much, that a lot of people could by a home computer like ZX spectrum, Commodore C64 or Amstrad CPC 464. These machines provided a simple BASIC interface. They were designed for start and play. Where play meant programming. And you could dig into those machines and learn to peek and poke around in the hardware. Then you learned assembler etc. In the 1990s this moved to PCs. While old PCs still allowed you to access the hardware and you had to work with the console. Upcoming GUIs made the direct experience of the machine much more complicated. You couldn't re-program Pong in a week, while learning BASIC.
So on one side, computers get more complex and shield people from the machine and the machine feeling, and on the other side the sci-fi feeling is no longer so intriguing today than in those days. While in the 1970s, if you understood computers you could build your own moon lander software. At least a facsimile. And a lot of the people did. And the program would only display longitude, latitude and height above ground, as well as, speed and fuel. But all without graphic (which had to be imagined). Today moon landing is lame. Especially compared to those days. the whole society is no longer in technology.
In short: The whole setting is different. And the nerds of today go into gaming and become dorks.
Regardless of his interests, your nephew has passed the programmer's first test: His program prints "sorry to low" and "sorry to high". Only a true programmer would get the computer language correct, but the human language incorrect.
I predict a bright future.
The second post mentioned says "nobody want to learn to program" - meaning that people want to be able to program without going through all the tedious learning. Well, "duh". The same could be said for any difficult field, or indeed for learning to do anything well. I'd love to be able to play the piano like a master, but darn, there's all that practicing to be done.
Of course some kids want to learn to program, just like some want to become chemists or doctors. Of those who are interested, not all have the
I used to give guitar lessons.
It was apparent who would stick with the course and who wouldn't be back for the second session, by looking at the verbage they used.
"I wish I could play the guitar." - Fail
"I want to learn to play the guitar." - Win
This entire submission misunderstands the real draw of programming. The desire to learn programming is out of an intrinsic desire in some people to create or build artifacts from resources we have obtained. Some of us are builder/creator archetypes and we are drawn to the process of creation.
If the argument held up, then the quality of carpentry would have degraded considerably with the advent of power tools. Nobody needs to hand-spin a spade to drill a large hole anymore, and while I am handy with a chisel, I can still do things faster and with better quality by using a router for certain situations. The power-tools have allowed us to put arguably better quality wood products in a MUCH faster timeframe, and all with the same sense of satisfaction that you get from a beautiful new table, cabinet or chair.
I do think however that in todays age it is a lot harder to stay focused amidst constant distractions, and it is a lot easier to find information than ever before, making us all slightly lazy from time to time. We are more prone to get frustrated and do something else, so the extreme convenience doesn't come without its faults for sure.
Absolutely they do.
My son is in year 8 at Melrose high in Canberra Australia. They are doing two courses specific to this: games programming and general programming. 3d modeling is also a choice. He is doing all of them (chip off the old block!)
Their assignment, for 14 year olds is quite hard. It raised my eyebrows when I read it. I'm a multi time CTO with a deep history is c, c++, java, ror, PHP and perl. They were asked as a 15% assignment over two weeks to write a number of very complex programs displaying skill in some quite complex areas in JavaScript, vb, actionscript and powershell. This is quite an amazing thing! These little fellas are in year 8!
The class is voluntary, but wow, is is hard. The kids absolutely love it. They apparently are hyper involved and super enthusiastic. While the teacher may be a messiah (I don't know her) but its obvious the kids are revved up beyond control.
Back in the Seventies, kids were motivated to program because there literally wasn't much you could do with a computer unless you built your own application. We were also convinced that programming a computer was going to be a critical job skill. I remember getting a dream job in 1991 because I had a computer background and I had to confess that my experiential universe would not be particularly useful in the new position, writing about the development of the Internet. "No, that experience will be very use
When I was a kid learning to program, 5, 6, 7... I started teaching myself how to program so I could write my own games. Before I became a teenager I was pretty good at it- although on more basic computers than we have today. Not tried writing games on a PC.
The few other kids I knew that programmed- they had the same motivation that I did.
I don't think any kids learn to program for the sake of learning to program. It was a fun hobby- but with all the easy to get free or cheap games- it isn't worth it fo
You're not dead yet. The only thing stopping you from moving on from your dead-end job is fear.
No, it's money.
I have 5 people in my family depending on my paycheque. I'm looking at other careers- haven't completely given up- but I'm not changing careers to drop the lifestyle they are used to. (not going to sacrifice them for me). If I were single with no kids- absolutely- I'd change careers - even if it meant starting lower rung on the pay-scale again in a heart-beat.
Thinking back to my childhood, if my dad came home and said I can either do job A and have this much money and be miserable, or do job B have less and come home happy every night -- i would have told him to take job B every time and twice on Sunday. I'm not saying quit, Im saying push yourself out of your comfort zone. Either way I hope you can pull a switch off.
Programming for fun's sake is a matter of intellectual creativity. Also, programming, drawing, and the like are generally singular activities, so I would suspect that children who tend to do these things to be slight introverted. Also these activities usually produce something substantial, something that parents and peers can see and recognize, so I would also expect these kids to have some drive for recognition -- you know a need for the "oh, isn't he clever/talented" response.
It's probably not rational to
It is easier for a child when something is made to look easy, and the results are made to look fascinating. The environment and the mentor are paramount. But this has become harder recently because everything has advanced so much since the Nintendo Entertainment System days. Also it doesn't help that platforms like the iPhone are hard to develop for (the closed garden hurdles, so to speak).
Games used to be a good genre but now kids are playing MW3 and GW3 so it's increasingly harder to convince them they ca
Every time I hear about teaching kids to program, it's all about the videogames. Kids like videogames right? So they should like programming them right? Wrong. How many young girls make their own makeup out of egg whites and whale barf (It's none)? How many boys are just chomping at the bit to build an injection molding machine so they can make a super soaker (none again)?
Why not use programming to let kids solve problems they hate, do work they don't want to do. Just like in the real world, I hate cor
I can't say why kids aren't learning this stuff anymore, but they're not.
My girlfriend's sons are at the ages when they're looking for their first jobs -- they're 14, 16, and 18. I asked her what programming languages they know, and she said none. They've never programmed, at all. Not even a high school course in it.
By the time I was 14 I knew Atari BASIC, LOGO, and a little Pascal. I had already authored games and applications on my Atari 400. By the time I was 18 I was designing a relational database in FORTRAN using edlin for my father's insurance business. (I told my girlfriend this and she said -- and I quote -- "But you're a genius, hon." That's why I love her.
On the other hand, kids today know applications. All of her kids have experience with Word, Excel, and Photoshop. Maybe that's all they need.
The signs are that programming expertise is going to become a far rarer skill in the next generation, but general computer literacy will be widespread. I think maybe that's a step forward. But I worry that it's not a good pool of talent to help us take another step forward in the generation after theirs.
In the old days, seeing a prompt on your 12" B&W TV was a major accomplishment, and getting "Hello World" to run made you a serious computer geek. But now, the learning curve to become even a novice developer is far steeper. The typical kid doesn't have the patience and/or foresight to be able to get to even the first rung on the developer ladder. It's much easier and more fun to learn how to download and install the latest patch for WoW - no programming required.
And yes, this is the first step on th
Kids these days are doing fine. I know some really smart young computer programmers. For example...
One of them didn't really get started with computers until he was 15. Now almost 18 he's blowing me away with his knowledge and skill. His latest project is to write his own computer language... in C (because he didn't know how to program in C yet, and he wanted to learn C before C++). Now, after his third rewrite (it works!) and looking at a fourth to get more of the functionality that he wants, he's cons
Yes, they do. There are kids building programmable computers with redstone in minecraft. How more abstract can you get?
http://www.minecraftforum.net/forum/67-redstone/ [minecraftforum.net]
You are in a maze of little twisting passages, all different.


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Ivy League Sports.com
SPOKANE, Wash. -- Former Brown quarterback Kyle Rowley '01 passed for 237 yards and a record nine touchdowns to lead the Spokane Shock past the Tampa Bay Storm 69-57 to win the Arena Football League's ArenaBowl XXIII title on August 20.
Rowley, who ran for one touchdowns, completed of 24 of 32 passes with no interceptions. He guided the Shock through a 13-3 regular-season record then to playoff wins over the Arizona Rattlers and Milwaukee Iron to earn his team's first-ever appearance in the ArenaBowl.
His AFL career began in the minor league arenafootball2 with stops in South Carolina and Georgia before being picked as a starter for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers in 2005. The next season, he was traded to the Manchester Wolves and, after only five games, was sent in a trade to the Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings. Rowley turned down the Battle Wings offer and, a week later, he received a call from the Spokane Shock to be the team's starting quarterback. That season, he led the Shock to an ArenaCup Championship in team's inaugural season. He was named the af2's Offensive Player of the Year in 2008. Last season, Rowley set the af2's single-season passing yardage record (4,693 yards).
The Shock, dominant in arenafootball2, became one of the AFL's smallest markets this season when the league was revived after skipping the 2009 season due to bankruptcy.
At Brown, Rowley sat on the bench his three years, only occasionally filling in as a running back on a trick play. He expected to become the starting quarterback for his senior season, but a more experienced player stayed for a fifth year and filled the spot. Rowley then stayed for a fifth season himself, finally grabbing the starting job.
Rowley made the most of his senior season in 2001, leading the Bears to a 6-3 overall record and a 5-2 mark in Ivy play, and earning honorable mention All-Ivy honors. He ranked in top 10 in the school's single-season record book in total offense (7th, 2,324 yards), passing yards (6th, 2,328 yards, completions (7th, 188). He finished the season ranked ninth nationally in passing with 20.89 completions a game, and 19th in the nation in total offense with 258.4 yards per game. He passed for a school-record 474 yards, and registered a school-record 483 yards in total offense against then ninth-ranked Rhode Island in his second collegiate start.


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TALLAHASSE, Fla. – Florida State women's basketball head coach Sue Semrau called senior guard Leonor Rodriguez the Seminoles' MVP so far this season following FSU's 5-0 start.
The Canary Islands, Spain star proved just how valuable she is on Wednesday night at the Donald L. Tucker Center, carrying Florida State past Iowa, 83-69, in this season's ACC/Big Ten Challenge matchup.
Rodriguez, the reigning ACC Player of the Week, scored a career-best 28 points on 11-of-15 field goals, including 4-of-6 from three. Her 11 field goals, four treys in 39 minutes are all career bests.
"She wasn't cocky - she shows humility," Florida State head coach Sue Semrau said. "That kid has put in hours, and hours, and hours of work. She and (Alexa Deluzio) - they are the ones that are in the gym together shooting, shooting, shooting and that's really the difference in why they both are so critical to our success."
Deluzio, a senior guard, added 14 points and five boards for a Seminole team that moved to 6-0 for the third time in four years.
Junior forward Natasha Howard scored 12 points and senior post Chelsea Davis tallied 10 while battling foul trouble.
Rodriguez gave the Seminoles a narrow lead at halftime, 33-30, by hitting 5-of-7 shots, scoring 11 points and dishing three assists before the break.
In the second half, the 5-11 guard made big play, after big play.
When Iowa cut the FSU lead to 4, Rodriguez took a pass from junior point guard Yashira "Cheetah" Delgado and buried a three at the 8:22 mark to put the Seminoles comfortably ahead 58-51.
Three minutes later, the Hawkeyes inched to within 5, 66-61, but there was Rodriguez again. This time, she found Howard for a layup underneath the hoop to stave off the threat and notch her season-high sixth assist.
Rodriguez further extended the Florida State lead to 74-65 by rattling in a pull-up 15-footer with 3:10 left in the game.
Delgado put the Seminoles up 11, 76-65, 40 seconds later when she dribbled through the entire Iowa defense and scooped in a layup.
Rodriguez's steal with 50 seconds left was the back-breaker, as she found Delgado for a layup that put the Noles up 81-69.
"I'm just happy for the team, happy for the victory," Rodriguez said. "I couldn't have done it without them. I think everybody played their role. Cheetah [Delgado] and Morgan [Toles] found me. They did it for me. I just have to shoot it. I'm happy for the win and I hope we keep working hard."
The Seminoles held Iowa's Morgan Johnson (18.1 ppg & 7.6 rpg) to just two points and one board in the first half, but the 6-5 preseason All-Big Ten honoree got rolling with back-to-back layups the first minute following halftime to give the Hawkeyes a 34-33 lead.
Johnson's free throws at the 15:49 mark in the second half gave her double figures for the game and tied the contest at 40-40.
Following a gritty putback by Deluzio, Delagado made a steal and tried to whip a one-handed pass back to Deluzio. The pass was too long, but Deluzio saved it to Delgado, who tossed a pass cross court to a wide open Rodriguez. In what was no surprise to anybody in the arena, she swished in the trey to put the Seminoles ahead, 47-42 and forced Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder to burn a timeout with 12:42 left in the game.
Johnson finished with 20 points, including 18 in the second half, to lead Iowa, who shot 60.7 percent after halftime and 49.2 percent for the game.
The Noles also made 49.2 percent of their shots and connected on 56.2 percent in the second frame.
Florida State was outrebounded for the first time this season, but scored 28 points off 24 Iowa turnovers.
The Seminoles return to action when they travel to Charlotte to face the 49ers at 2 p.m. on Sunday in what will be the first true road game of the season for the Garnet and Gold.
For more information on Florida State women's basketball, follow the Seminoles on Twitter @FSU_WBasketball and like their official Facebook page.
Notes: Rodriguez scored 20 points for the third time this season…Rodriguez, Davis and Howard have scored in double figures in all six games this season…Rodriguez had just five double figure scoring games heading into the 2012-13 campaign…Overall, it was the 10th straight game of 10 or more points for Howard…Rodriguez now has the best three-point shooting percentage in FSU history at .426 as she has made 46-108 from three all-time…The last time the Seminoles won six straight by 10 or more came during the 2004-05 season from Nov. 22 to Dec. 15…In the 1989-1990 season Florida State won seven straight by 10 or more from Jan. 28-Feb. 17…The ACC's leader in three-point defense, Florida State finished the night with its defense holding the Hawkeyes to 18 percent shooting…Florida State snapped a two-game losing streak in the annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge and moved to 4-2 all-time in the event.


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General Presentations
Welcome and Opening General Session
Wednesday, September 10; 8:00 am - 10:00 am
What Do Consumers Expect and Can Public Health Meet Those Expectations?
NOTE: To view the Healthiest Nation Alliance video that was shown during Dr. Gerberding''s presentation, please visit www.healthiestnation.org and click on the What''s Happening tab.
General Session
Wednesday, September 10; 1:30 pm - 2:15 pm
What We Can Do to Become the Healthiest Nation in a Healthier World
General Session
Thursday, September 11; 8:30 am - 10:00 am
What Is the Future of Health in the United States?
General Session
Friday, September12; 9:45 am – 10:45 am
How Will You Protect Your At-Risk Populations During a Pandemic?
General Closing Session
Friday, September12; 11:00 am – 12:15 pm
Becoming the Healthiest Nation: A Call to Action!


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Dead bodies can provide organs for transplants, now they might become a source of stem cells too. Huge numbers of stem cells can still be mined from bone marrow five days after death to be potentially used in a variety of life-saving treatments.
Human bone marrow contains mesenchymal stem cells, which can develop into bone, cartilage, fat and other cell types. MSCs can be transplanted and the type of cell they form depends on where they are injected. Cells injected into the heart, for example, can form healthy new tissue, a useful therapy for people with chronic heart conditions.


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The lights are on
BioWare has earned much acclaim for its ability to craft interesting characters. We all have our favorites and ones we hope to be reunited with again.
This past week I wrote about my enthusiasm for seeing Varric return in Dragon Age: Inquisition. We've also seen a number of returning characters revealed, such as Morrigan, Cullen, Leliana, and Cassandra.
The excitement of spotting one of your favorites again is always exciting. However, Dragon Age: Inquisition isn't the only game that BioWare has in the works. BioWare Montreal is also working on a new Mass Effect game. While Shepard's story is over, BioWare is crafting a new adventure in the universe. We don't know much about the new Mass Effect game, nor do we even know if the time period will line up with a chance for past characters to return. Still, we can hope that some familiar faces grace our presence, or are alluded to in some way.
With Dragon Age: Inquisition and a new Mass Effect game in the works, it got me wondering which characters are you/would be excited to have back and why? Let us know in the comments below.
My Picks:
Personally, seeing Varric, Morrigan, and Leliana back in Dragon Age: Inquisition is already thrilling. I wouldn't mind seeing Isabela back, merely for her hilarious banter with Varric. As for Mass Effect, Garrus is such a hard character to let go of; he's your bro, after all.
Email the author Kimberley Wallace, or follow on Twitter, and Game Informer.
I agree kim, Garrus is the best friend for anyone to have! Although it's unlikely for him to be in the next mass effect.
For Mass Effect... just gimme Wrex back. He's cool!
leliana :X


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An out-of-state manufacturing company's plans to relocate to Hannibal have slowed.
An out-of-state manufacturing company's plans to relocate to Hannibal have slowed, according to George Walley, executive director of the Northeast Missouri Economic Development Council (NMEDC).
Walley reported at the NMEDC's January meeting that the company has "slowed its time line down a little."
The company told Walley earlier this month that it is reassessing the current economic environment in light of last November's election outcome.
"They may not make a decision for several more months," wrote Walley in a memo to his board.
The company, which Walley said is currently located "within 100 miles of Hannibal," continues to be successful despite the sluggish economy.
"They're doing very well and need to expand," he said.
Since at least last year the company, whose identity has never been made public, has shown interest in the former DURA North building in southern Hannibal, near U.S. 61. The 107,000 square foot facility has stood idle for over four years.
According to Walley, company representatives took another tour of the site in late November.
In addition to the former DURA North building, Walley has also suggested to company officials that they consider building in the city's empty industrial park, located adjacent to Highway MM, west of the city.
"Since their plans have slowed down I'm proposing it again," said Walley.
On another front, Walley reported that last month the state finalized its incentive package to the company. Specific details regarding what is being offered have not been made public.


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The Late Debbie Ford
Debbie Ford, Deepak Chopra and Marianne Williamson — New York Times bestselling authors and internationally acclaimed teachers — have joined together to share their knowledge on one of the most crucial obstacles to happiness we face—the shadow. These three luminaries, each with a signature approach, bring to light the parts of ourselves we deny but that still direct our life. For it is only when we embrace our shadow that we discover the gifts of our authentic nature.
The shadow exists within all of us. It is a part of us and yet we spend most of our life running from it. But far from being scary, our dark side holds the promise of a better, more fulfilling life. Our shadow makes itself known every day. It is the reason we get furious over a friend showing up ten minutes late, yell at our parents or kids when they have done nothing wrong, and sabotage our own success at the worst possible time. Until we are able to embrace our dualistic nature, we will continue to hurt ourselves and those closest to us and fall short of our potential
Talking Back To Dr. Phil – Alternatives To Mainstream Psychology
utilizing in-depth research and analysis, this volume debunks the quick fixes and simplistic explanations of Dr. Phil McGraw. While he's watched and revered by millions, no critique exists for his daytime advice—and like much of "pop psychology," his counsel is often ineffective, leaving people feeling like failures and that something is wrong with them. Readers will easily identify with the guests and stories from actual Dr. Phil episodes, on topics ranging from anger, sex, addictions, and dieting to domestic violence, race, and gender. A powerful, love-based alternative psychology is then offered, basing itself on the belief that there is profound meaning in people's struggles. Story after story shows how people's difficulties are seeds of their unique beauty, power, and intelligence, elevating rather than diminishing their esteem. The insight and compassion for people's humanity provided here cuts through the easy soundbites and will leave people feeling a genuine love for who they really are.
Divine Healing Hands
Humanity and Mother Earth are suffering.
Divine Healing Hands are given in this special time.
Serve humanity. Serve Mother Earth.
Millions of people are suffering in their spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical bodies. Millions of people have challenges in their relationships and finances. Millions of people are searching for spiritual secrets, wisdom, knowledge, and practical techniques in order to fulfill their spiritual journeys.
For the first time, the Divine is giving Divine Healing Hands to the masses. Divine Healing Hands carry divine healing power to heal and to transform relationships and finances. Dr. & Master Zhi Gang Sha talks with Health Notes
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HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. (AP) — Tayler Hill scored 25 points to help Ohio State beat Minnesota 58-47 on Thursday in the opening round of the Big Ten Conference tournament.
Ashley Adams added 14 points and eight rebounds for the ninth-seeded Buckeyes (18-12), who advanced to face top-seeded and eighth-ranked Penn State in the quarterfinals Friday.
Rachel Banham had 20 points, including four 3-pointers, for the Golden Gophers (18-13) but didn't get much help. Banham was 7 of 16 from the floor; her teammates were a combined 11 of 45.
Ohio State trailed by as many as nine in the first half and was down 27-24 early in the second. But the Buckeyes took control after that, going on a 19-2 run, capped by Amber Stokes' fast-break layup, to lead 43-29. The eighth-seeded Gophers could get no closer than nine points down the rest of the way.
The Buckeyes scored 19 points off 16 Minnesota turnovers.
(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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"I saw Wedding Crashers accidentally. I bought a ticket for Grizzly Man and went into the wrong theater. After an hour, I figured I was in the wrong theater, but I kept waiting. Thats the thing about bear attacks. They come when you least expect it."-Dwight K. Schrute
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< Investors Looking for Direction with Federal Reserve Policy
Sep 23, 2013 18:31
Category: General News
Category: General News
Efforts to Destroy Syria's Weapons
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - The organization that keeps tabs on compliance with chemical weapons treaty says Syria has sent an "initial declaration" outlining its weapons program. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is looking at ways to speed up efforts to secure and destroy Syria's arsenal of poison gas and nerve agents, as well as its production facilities. But diplomatic efforts to move that process along are proceeding slowly.


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Chris DeVivo is a media technology consultant. He writes BackTeching.com, a blog on technology and media in pro sports.
A wise man once said to a not-so-wise man, "Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it." The not-so-wise man replied, "Get serious! Give me what I wish for and I'll be at the end of my troubles." "Yes," replied the wise man, "the front end."
When the Pittsburgh Penguins decided to move into a new home at Consol Energy Center, I was project manager for most of the technology integration. Scoreboards, LED signs, the in-house cable network, the video control room, IT — if it had a microchip in it, chances are I had a hand in it. The new place had everything I had dreamed of in the 12 years I worked at Mellon Arena. I quickly found out the difference between dreaming about a new facility and actually being a part of the process.
A project of this size — Consol Energy Center cost over $300 million — moves fast. Plans are in place months, if not years, ahead of time. Very early on in the process, I had to be a part of a lot of technology decisions, many of which were yet to be wholly defined. I distinctly remember a meeting where we were trying to determine how much fiber optic and data cable we wanted. Never mind that we had no solid idea what equipment we were going to put at either end of those cables. The project had to move according to schedule, and we had to come up with answers.
Every item was reviewed, researched, revised, and reviewed again. Someone joked that we had 10 meetings for every dollar spent. It meant getting out of my comfort zone on a lot of things and having to drink from the fire hose. On more than one occasion I found myself in a tech meeting secretly looking up terminology on my Blackberry to be sure that the acronym we were talking about meant what I really thought it meant. It was both humbling and enriching.
In the end, we achieved our goals. We built an arena as advanced as any sports facility in the country, with enough "future-proofing" to ensure that we're ready for upgrades and new technology.
It wasn't until a day or so before the home opener that everything crystallized for me. I was standing on the bench watching a rehearsal, and as I looked around at everything I had been a part of, I felt an immense sense of pride in what we had accomplished. Thinking back to the beginning, I realized that we got what we wanted. It may have hurt a little at times, but in the end it was everything that I wished for.