MESSAGE
| DATE | 2014-08-27 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Re: [nylug-talk] I'd be happy to pay of a GNU Desktop that works
|
On 08/24/2014 07:42 AM, Chris Knadle wrote:
> On Sunday, August 24, 2014 03:27:40 Ruben Safir wrote:
>> On 08/23/2014 01:58 PM, Chris Knadle wrote:
>>> Hey, Ruben.
>>>
>>> On Friday, August 22, 2014 11:37:34 Ruben Safir wrote:
>>>> right
>>>
>>> Heh. What are you referring to in the above? This thread is 4.5 /years/
>>> old and after reading the full message I can't tell what you're trying to
>>> say about it now. ;-) Did you send this accidentally?
>>>
>>> -- Chris
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> Chris Knadle
>>> Chris.Knadle-at-coredump.us
>>
>> No, what I am saying that the responses to go and program it yourself or
>> go use an ancient desktop are inappropriate. Furthermore, it isn't like
>> all the development is being done by unpaid professionals. Most of it
>> is done through sponsorships and paid work.
>
> That's certainly more true these days than it used to be. In the mid-to-late
> 90's when GNU and the Linux system was still relatively new it was more common
> for developers to have a separate job and be coding free software on the side
> such that the latter was more of "a labor of love". However for the most part
> the effort required today to contribute significantly to projects is such that
> it generally needs more coordination of many people over a sustained time, and
> getting those needed man years in an unpaid way is difficult today where costs
> of living are steadily going up, but salaries are flat or in some industries
> -- such as health care -- even repeatedly going down.
>
>> The problem is that the
>> design just sucks from the ground up. The assumptions made about usage
>> and design are not for the convenience and security of the end user.
>> They are mostly motivated by a commercial request or desire. This is
>> not necessary bad but the outcomes need to be monitored.
>
> At least when it comes to the Linux kernel itself, I think security is
> actually taken seriously, and interestingly enough there are still a lot of
> contributions to the kernel that are outside of corporate influence. When it
> comes to the next layer of integration, distributions generally have package
> maintainers and security teams that watch for security issues that make up
> pieces of the system, and there are regular security fixes and changes
> upstream to deal with that. This is certainly not perfect, as we see some
> individual instances of the "upstream" project being a bit "asleep at the
> wheel" in terms of discovering/reporting/fixing security issues.
>
> "Usage and design" is difficult to discuss broadly. Some of that was
> originally dictated by the POSIX spec from Unix, but once we get to the GUI
> layer the focus changes to one of "the user experience". The oddity here is
> that there can be some disconnects between "what's good for the user" and what
> the developers think of as a good direction for what users need and will like,
> and acceptance of negative feedback from users and acting on it correctly is
> difficult.
>
> However even with all of this there's been a shift to "cloud computing" such
> that much of the data and interfaces are on websites such that our data as
> well as the GUIs we use are increasingly not residing on our Desktop anymore,
> and instead residing on corporate fiefdoms (Facebook, GMail, etc) that we can
> have virtually no influence on in terms of their programming or design, nor
> even know how they work or in what ways our own data is used by them.
>
>> Currently, leading desktop and user interfaces all across the digital
>> world and failing the most basic standards of usability and digital
>> ownership. Sending something to facebook, that is one click or swipe.
>> Sending something to your home computer...that is NOT HAPPENING. This
>> is bad.
>
> It is. The critical issue with this is that the control the user's data is no
> longer in the user's hands.
>
>> The new devices and desktops are entirely too complicated,,
>> tied down and prevent access to your data. People can't wait to get
>> shit on the cloud because they can't move it around. They can't make
>> simple calls, transfer files, see their hard drive, download their music
>> and movie files, play links in their browsers, etc etc etc.
>>
>> Interfaces are confusing as hell, and nobody knows wtf is going on as
>> long as they can get their candy crush...
>>
>> Really, Candy Crush? Is that not a gnome-games from 1998 repackaged
>> into a 500 million dollar company?
>>
>>
>> BTW - I'm trying to go back to graduate School for Comp/Sci.
>
> That's terrific. Having done this myself recently with Engineering I'll
> mention that reviving one's past Calculus knowledge is nontrivial. I'm not
> sure why but I found that the "stack" of knowledge needed to get through
> college went about 75% unused such that it went stale in my mind, so it was
> quite a struggle to "refresh" my memory when I went back to graduate school.
> Perseverance won out even though my Calculus knowledge never fully returned to
> its past glory -- but I was able to enjoy the struggle and that helped a lot.
>
>> I'm Pharmacy burned out.
>
> The health care field is really shaken up right now so that fits in with what
> I'm hearing going on from both nurses and doctors too. There are a lot of
> people that want to leave the medical field right now.
>
>> Actually, I have three choices.
>>
>> A) LIU Comp/Sci program is 36 credits for an MS
>>
>> B) City Tech CUNY has a heavy math intensive Applied
>> Mathmatics/Information Systems that includes:
>
>
> [...]
>> This is intense and is all but starting school from scratch. I would
>> need access to student loans for 4 year worth of living....
>
> I found that the cost of living was quite a bit more expensive than the
> college courses and books were. What's most difficult about this situation is
> that if one is working in a career job it's possible (in some cases -- getting
> more difficult) to get a corporation to pay for schooling, but only if the
> schooling is in the same field. :-/ This makes switching fields difficult
> and expensive. On the flip-side I think it's important to be able to have
> passion for what one does, so switching fields may be the right thing in the
> long term, but the combination of economic and academic pressures are
> significant in the short term and the loans will require repayment over the
> long term too.
>
> [...]
When I went for my {hD, getting the Math ramped up was the single
hardest thing for me to do. I never found math hard, until then. I
found it challenging and requiring effort, but never out of reach. I
retook calc II after realizing that there was no way I was going to
understand differential equations without a severe tone up. And even
taking calc II the second time was mind numbingly difficult.
However, I disagree that one doesn't use their math even in the mundane
coding assignments. People with the math background have a foot up on
problem solving.... they really do and I'm suffering a knowledge gap
with kids who have had a full comp/sci BS with the math and logic
circuits backgroudn etc.
Ruben
>> The undergraduate programs actually look better except for the need to
>> remain in school for 3 years almost, and paying for it. The MS is
>> designed more for adults to do. 36 credits and your out.
>>
>> Anyway, I need two letters of recommendation, and any input on loans or
>> scholarships will be much beloved.
>
> For grad school you'll also need to take the GRE [Graduate Record Exam]. For
> technical fields the main score to concern yourself with is the math portion
> of the test. The math required for that is mostly Algebra and some
> Trigonometry -- not terribly difficult as math goes -- but the time constraint
> on the test is significant. Make sure to get the GRE study software and take
> a few example tests before taking the GRE.
>
> What I found in doing that was that I could always solve the problems but I'd
> repeatedly run out of time and thus miss questions and loose points. The best
> scores I was able to achieve were by making a quick evaluation of each
> question and knowing whether I could solve the problem /within two minutes/
> and skipping the question if it was going to take longer than that. This
> itself is a risk because the computerized test is /adaptive/ meaning if you
> skip a question you not only loose those points but are then given easier
> questions afterwards that are worth less.
>
> Concerning loans, generally what the loan advisement will get you is to apply
> for a Stafford loan -- but don't stop there -- look for grants, and in rare
> cases it might be possible to get a full fellowship (which would fully pay for
> school but not living expenses). Most grants are positioned at undergrads so
> this isn't easy either, but it's worth putting in some time and effort to
> study this and work on it to try to ease the financial part of the equation as
> much as possible.
>
> -- Chris
>
> --
>
> Chris Knadle
> Chris.Knadle-at-coredump.us
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> .
>
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