Kenyon Wilson, the associate head of performing arts at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, wanted to see if any of his students read every word of his syllabus for a music seminar, The New York Times reported. On the second page of his three-page syllabus, Wilson added the location and combination of a locker, which contained a $50 bill.
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Not a surprise. Music students. I was CompSci and read every page of every syllabus and every instruction page on every test. It made a difference. The operating systems class (part 2) was a 45 page, double sided, single spaced spec and had to be completed in three months. Twelve three person teams and only 3 completed the effort; my team had a girl (the only girl in the class) and she dropped the day after the add deadline, co Charlie and I had only each other. We were one of the three. The prof actually advised us to drop the course because he thought we would choke missing the third member. She was a dumbass anyway.
ReplyDeleteOh well, I could go on, but it would likely bore the crap out of anybody listening.
"Oh well, I could go on, but it would likely bore the crap out of anybody listening."
DeleteTed Striker, is that you?
- Capt. Clarence Oveur
When I finally got serious about post secondary education I would up in a two year programming course at a local community college. SO much more hands on and useful than what the uni was teaching, and back in 1992 it didn't even cost $1k for a whole year, unless you included books.
DeleteAlmost a third of that class was girls, and some of them were really cute even, and all of them except one did really well. God we were an odd bunch, from teenage party animal types like me to a mailman in his 50s to a Chinese guy who barely spoke English to a single mom in her late 20s to some guy who later became a "big" drug dealer.
One thing I still remember was being told constantly about some crazy assignment in the last term that everybody struggles with. Over the course of my time there I helped myself to copies of that assignment that various people had printed off, figuring they might come in useful. When I finally looked at them, they were almost ALL line for line identical, down to formatting and comments...people just copied the exact same thing over and over for years, and the teachers either didn't notice or didn't care enough to do anything about it. The other thing I noticed was how badly written the code was, so I would up writing my own and it wasn't that hard at all.
That community college course landed me a work placement at a local manufacturer, coding on an old minicomputer in BASIC of all things. Within two years I was the network admin using and learning skills that had nothing to do with programming, getting paid almost double for about a tenth of the stress.
I sometimes wonder where my life would have led if I had been able to get serious at uni and followed the CompSci path. I suck at interviewing so landing jobs has never been fun for me.
A few years ago, a software company added a clause to their license. Users sold their immortal souls to the company.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.foxnews.com/tech/7500-online-shoppers-unknowingly-sold-their-souls
In 1973 to 1977 I never saw a syllabus that was more than one page. Lectures, tests, quizzes, the book or books need to purchase and any papers that were due. As a biology major that included the math and chemistry classes as well as geology and astronomy.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that's why I told people who worked for me anything over a one page memo was a novel.
That's why any e mail I type is mainly bullets, or no more than one short paragraph.
ReplyDeleteMultiple replies, I picking up the phone. Pisses off the younger crowd, so I start my phone call with, sorry to call you, but I'm a Boomer and hate e mail strings.
I was working for a printing company and the president wanted us all to read and sign his very lengthy "Mission Statement", a full page long...slipped into the very middle was the sentence, "Your mother is a whore"...everyone in the company signed the mission statement...
ReplyDeleteThe Chief Metallurgist at a place where I work slipped the phrase "and if you've read this far I'll buy you a beer after work" into one particularly long, dry report.
ReplyDeleteA couple of years ago I saw a story of a women who did read the TOS of some software co, a start-up, and towards the end they wrote "if you have read this far call 1-800 something ext xx and recieve $5000" or something, so she did and did.
ReplyDeleteIt was a promo by the co. to attract others and get publicity.
daddy-o
This reminds me of Van Halen and the brown M&M's.
ReplyDeleteI'm reminded of a test question my math teacher gave us in the 10th grade. It was a 10 parter. Step 1 was "read the entire question before starting." Steps 2 through 8 were various equations to solve, each feeding into the next. Step 9 was "don't do steps 2 through 8" and step 10 was some simple calculation.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading it, looking at the teacher, and managing not to laugh out loud. Only 4 of us out of 30 managed to follow the directions and there were lots of audible groans among those who didn't once they got to step 9.
It's a simple life lesson I only ever seem to forget when I'm following a recipe. I'm good at getting everything mixed up before realizing I don't actually have 2 cups of icing sugar.