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Comment: Re:Keep them busy. (Score 4, Funny) 245

Dunno, but I managed to keep one on the line for almost an hour before I had to go get my kid from a football game. I even gave clues that I wasn't on windows - he wanted me to start task manager, I brought up top and read him the output. When I got to the Zombie Processes part, I freaked out.

Finally had to go, so I confessed that I had been screwing with him, and felt it was my duty to keep him on the phone as long as possible to keep him from harming someone clueless. He called me a "miserable son of a bitch" and slammed the phone down.

Wish I had some way of recording stuff like this...

Comment: Re:Just let them test out! (Score 1) 307

Don't feel bad. One of my students has already taken an Objective C class here, but since he changed his degree track he is now being forced to take "intro to programming concepts".. because the Objective C class has been replaced with (back to) C++ and the degree track changed for new incoming students to required the concepts class before any other real programming class.

Comment: More non-tradtional systems may need to (Score 1) 118

by i.r.id10t (#48539563) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Paying For Linux Support vs. Rolling Your Own?

The college I work for (not in IT but in academic technology) has a support contract with IBM for Linux on the p-series boxes that have replaced the mainframe and zVM. Needed too due to some network issues.... Of course, since there was a support contract for the mainframe, not much has changed as far as the bean counters are concerned.... Note that while they use RedHat on some x86/amd64 boxes, they don't have a special support contract for those - just for the "new mainframe replacement systems".

Comment: Re:German cars (Score 1) 525

by i.r.id10t (#48496979) Attached to: Montana Lawmakers Propose 85 Mph Speed Limit On Interstates

We had annual inspections here in Florida in the 70s and maybe even the early 80s. They checked function of all lights, turn signals, wipers, and braking system (ie, accelerate hard until this line then slam on brakes). Also did a visual on tires. Took about 10 minutes, and honestly anything that can't pass that kind of test really shouldn't be on the road.

Comment: Re:Marketspeak (Score 1) 125

by i.r.id10t (#48447057) Attached to: 2014 Hour of Code: Do Ends Justify Disney Product Placement Means?

So you don't think that having a known character assist wtih something educational is good? If my kids can learn the 50 states and their capitals with the assitance of the Warner brothers (and their sister Dot), why should I complain that a cartoon franchise character is doing the teaching?

Granted, with the Frozen tie in it is much more appealing to my 4 year old than my 14 year old daughter, Now to get my 10 year old son involved, you'll need to fall back to Lego... or Star Wars. Or Lego Star Wars.

Comment: Re:First and foremost (Score 1) 176

by i.r.id10t (#48442359) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Best Practices For Starting and Running a Software Shop?

"Lets try this again. Have you ever been employed and paid for work in this field?"

Why is a pay check important? Having a portfolio of work, be it class projects, contributions to an open source project, perhaps having a patent granted, etc. should count just as much as earning a pay check for a few years working as an assistant code monkey to the junior developer of some corporate sub-project.

Comment: Re:VW Bug (Score 1) 195

by i.r.id10t (#48436905) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: What's the Most Hackable Car?

There is also a guy in the Daytona area that was making adapters to let you put a Harley engine in any vehicle wiht teh 200mm Porsche/VW clutch (so 356B or C/SC, 912 - but not hte E from '76, 914, VW bug or bus made after '65). And there is an outfit in Tampa that has electric conversions for same that run about $9k.

Comment: Re:Community college bubble... (Score 1) 226

by i.r.id10t (#48410175) Attached to: Coding Bootcamps Presented As "College Alternative"

Here at the "former community college" I work for (we offer a few BAS degrees, so we legally can't be a CC anymore) the Linux admin courses I teach do minimal programming - admin 1 covers shell scripting, admin 2 has a little SQL for managing virtual email users on a postfix system.

Our programming track covers C++, C#, Objective C, Java, and PHP+MySQL, both iOS and Android development, as well as stand alone DB management wtih MySQL, HTML with CSS, and JavaScript.

By contrast, the large state university in town (hint - they just fired their football coach) that has a Comp Sci/Engineering program teaches one language (Java) for one class for one semester.

MindTree recently moved ot the area, thinking they'd be able to hire these software engineers.... who as it turns out really don't know how to crank out the code to create useful stuff. Prove algorithms and theories, sure, but not create usable applications. Guess which school they are hiring graduates and near graduates from?
