M.I.T. has just announced it is expanding its list of free online courses anyone can take. Attendees earn completion certificates. M.I.T.'s OpenCourseWare project already offers 2,100 courses used by 100 million people. OpenCulture, Free Ed, E-learning Center, and Alison offer competing free online courses, including many on computing and IT certification.
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Member since:2009-08-18
Bollox.
India Software dev is run like a sweatshop. If you want stuff cheap you get crap code. I know there are night shifts and day shifts over dev.
It isn't an easy degree. Front end code and design if done well it as difficult as the more "hardcore stuff".
Nice try trolling, I actually wanted to help you.
Edited 2011-12-22 00:56 UTC
Member since:2005-07-08
Member since:2005-07-08
I was well aware of Indian sweat shops abilities, so you get what you pay for is right, they have been doing since forever.
Trouble is UK isn't cheap place to live in so you need a good salary to get ahead. Its not like I would have done well by staying, too many companies don't want to pay diddly squat.
BTW does everyone have to pay their way through Uni now?
Member since:2011-01-28
transputer_guy,
"Back then physics also included nuclear energy and some binding energy stuff as well, enough to do rough calculations on energy which I have mostly forgotten. I want to get that back in my head to follow what is now coming along like SMRs."
I would have enjoyed more of an engineering background. I opted for CS early on because I was thrilled I could do just about everything on my own personal computer without prohibitively expensive equipment. However I hadn't considered that the low costs of computing would eventually enable third world countries to displace so many IT jobs. The barriers to entry are just too low to have comfortable job security.
"The last time I met a UK prof, they were very sad about the decline in University enrollments in physics, like 20* down over the 70s, nobody wants to study hard for it anymore."
To be fair, there may be other factors contributing to that. How many times over has the cost of education multiplied since those days? I went to school at a yearly expense which was 20X more expensive than my parent's, and I earn a fraction of what they did in medicine. I started courses during the IT bubble and graduated when it popped, pot luck I guess. I kind of regret that decision, but it seemed the perfect fit for me back then, so I doubt I could have known better.
"Kids I know that went the soft side into web dev haven't fared well either, easy degree means competing with kids from India."
I agree completely, competing in low barrier fields is extremely difficult when such different costs of living are factored in.
Member since:2009-08-18
The third and final WWDC product I want to talk about is - of course - OS X 10.9 Mavericks. While iOS 7 was clearly the focus of this year's WWDC, its venerable desktop counterpart certainly wasn't left behind. Apple announced OS X 10.9 Mavericks, the first OS X release not to carry the name of a big cat.
We already talked about iOS 7 yesterday (after a night of sleep, it's only looking worse and worse - look at this, for Fiona's sake!), so now it's time to talk about the downright stunning and belly flutters-inducing new Mac Pro. As former owner and huge, huge, huge fan of the PowerMac G4 Cube - I haven't been this excited about an Apple product since, well, I would say the iMac G4. This is the Apple I used to love.
Apple held its big keynote event thing at WWDC earlier this evening, but since I was away with friends I've had to read up on it later in the evening. The company announced iOS 7, OS X 10.9 Mavericks, and they gave a preview of the new Mac Pro. Especially the Mac Pro impressed me, and while iOS 7's new Holo/Metro-inspired theme looks messy and garish to me, I do commend Apple for finally breaking the mold. This news item will focus on iOS 7 - I'll dive into the Mac Pro and OS X 10.9 tomorrow (it's late here now).
And yes, the PRISM scandal is far, far from over. More and more information keeps leaking out, and the more gets out, the worse it gets. The companies involved have sent out official statements - often by mouth of their CEOs - and what's interesting is that not only are these official statements eerily similar to each other, using the same terms clearly designed by lawyers, they also directly contradict new reports from The New York Times. So, who is lying?This story is getting bigger and bigger. Even though most Americans probably already knew, it is now official: the United States government, through its National Security Agency, is collecting the communications and data of all American citizens, and of non-Americans using American services, through a wide collaboration with the large companies in technology, like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and so on. Interestingly enough, the NSA itself, as well as the US government, have repeatedly and firmly denied this massive spying on Americans and non-Americans took place at all.Ah, patents - the never-ending scourge of the technology industry. Whether wielded by companies who don't actually make any products, or large corporations who abuse them because they can't compete in the market place or because they're simply jerks, they do the industry a huge disservice and are simply plain dangerous. According to The Wall Street Journal (circumvention link), president Obama is about to take several executive actions to address patent trolls - which may seem like a good idea, but I am very worried that all this will do is strengthen the positions of notorious patent system abusers such as Apple and Microsoft.
With version 13.05, the developers of the Genode OS Framework take measures to ensure that Genode continues to scale well with a growing number of users and the steadily broadening platform coverage. Further highlights are the improved SoC support for Exynos 5, OMAP4, Raspberry Pi, i.MX, and new components for realizing headless systems.At the D11 conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook once again took the stage to be interviewed by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. While most of the interview can be replicated by picking and reading 10 random Apple fanblog stories - there were still a number of very interesting things that warrant some closer scrutiny.
So, the Xbox One disaster continues. Microsoft's policy for dealing with the used games market has reportedly leaked - and it's a clear and direct attack to destroy the used games market. Prices for used games will be set at the retail value of a new game, and retailers have to hook into Microsoft's computer systems and comply with Microsoft's terms and conditions.At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
Member since:
2005-07-08
Well well, I did Physics A-level too back in 75 or so, it was my favorite but then the integrated circuit was just starting to get interesting and the prospect of working on a British microprocessor chip (later the transputer) was unbeatable. That eventually got me over here.
Back then physics also included nuclear energy and some binding energy stuff as well, enough to do rough calculations on energy which I have mostly forgotten. I want to get that back in my head to follow what is now coming along like SMRs.
The last time I met a UK prof, they were very sad about the decline in University enrollments in physics, like 20* down over the 70s, nobody wants to study hard for it anymore.
Kids I know that went the soft side into web dev haven't fared well either, easy degree means competing with kids from India.
US kids go to college 1 year earlier but stay for 4yrs so graduate about the same time. I think that's right, it is still very foreign to me even with kids in elementary.
small world