I’m a big Digg fan that to this day still watches Diggnation every week. But, one thing that’s always bothered me about Digg has been its comments. It’s honestly a problem that I believe most websites suffer from. As MG Siegler of TechCrunch eloquently put it:

I think if I sneezed, 99% of TC readers would say ‘bless you.’ Meanwhile, 99% of our commenters would say ‘fuck you.’

At its base, this is an engineering problem. Or, more specifically, an algorithm problem. Many of the world’s popular websites are going about the wrong way with sorting their comments and choosing which ones should float to the top, as Evan Miller discusses. That article was the basis of Reddit changing its comment system and getting some really great results and Randall Munroe (Yea, of XKCD).

Welcome to the new decade: Java is a restricted platform, Google is evil, Apple is a monopoly and Microsoft are the underdogs.

Best Hacker News Comment (by bearwithclaws):

It reminds me of a quote by Chris Rock few years back: “You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America’s Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, Germany doesn’t want to go to war, and the three most powerful men in America are named ‘Bush’, ‘Dick’, and ‘Colon.’ Need I say more?”

The government has decided to infuse the city with $1.5 billion dollars to re-develop San Juan and, most of all, make it a walking city, with no cars allowed.

With proper mass transportation, do we all really need individual cars? Why do many New Yorkers decide to not own a car?

- Brazil or Brasil
- In the anus article, is it appropriate to show a picture. If yes, should it be shaved or moderately hairy?
- Should Hummus be in the “Israeli cuisine” category or is it a purely Arab food that the Zionists have illegally occupied?
- Palin: Who’s more famous? Politician or Monty Python member?

“Five years from now on the web for free you’ll be able to find the best lectures in the world. It will be better than any single university.”

We’ve been hearing thoughts like that for a long time. And, why shouldn’t we? Any system that’s in effect for a few years gets questioned, let alone one that’s been in existence for centuries.

My Experience

I’ve been a college student for two years now. As I enter my third, I still wonder if the time I’m spending in college is valuable. It’s not that I don’t value an education. It’s just that I’m thinking of my approach to getting an education just like any good hacker would: I wonder if it’s the optimal choice.

I came into college expecting absolutely nothing. Deep down, however, I have always been hoping that my experience in the classroom is insightful and exhilarating.

What I got, on the other hand, has been anything but. I’ve been taught a whole deal of information in a very short condensed format. On top of that, it was done in a huge boring lecture hall, often with hundreds of other students.

To call the format uninteractive would be a huge understatement. Too often, the lecture was simply an old man reading off PowerPoint slides. Sometimes, it would be the same lecturer teaching the same subject for years. When comparing lecture notes, I could occasionally find that the lecture notes didn’t even change. Usually, this professor didn’t seem at all to be interested in the subject. There was about a zero percent chance of him having an idea who I was.

After a while, I finally figured out that one didn’t need to go to lecture. Not only was everything online, but since the lecturer rarely added insight, I could simply stay home and learn what I needed to get an A on the midterm and final. That, in the end, was the only thing that mattered.

Colleges try to downplay this, talking about the “average” classes being under 50 or 20, etc. But the truth is that this lack of interactivity is evident in every instance. Even in the smaller “recitation” classes, rarely does it turn into a good discussion. A graduate student, who’s probably been forced to teach this class and most likely is not interested in the material, leads this class taking questions, administering tests, remembering your name.

I knew about that. But I had always thought that for some reason Computer Science will be different. People wouldn’t be treated like that in Computer Science. Much to my surprise, I walked into my first computer science class learning that I was about to learn the material through lecture notes that haven’t been updated in more than a decade. Even though it’s clearly 2010, my lab headers have the date when they were made prominently shown at the top: 1997. That’s unfortunate.

Solutions

So my quick response to the quote above is, “why shouldn’t it?”

What Gates is suggesting is that in the future, students will not be required to physically attend a university and go through all the hoopla, provided that you’re self-motivated.

In two years of studying Computer Science & Engineering, I have yet to learn anything I didn’t already know. That’s sad.

Where do I learn the necessary programming skills? You know, the ones that have placed me in internships and allowed me to create amazing applications. The skills that lead to my creativity, acting like an paintbrush in my hands as I etch something beautiful on some application, are honestly all I feel like I need. And every bit of that was taught to me by myself, on my own time with my own resources.

I’ve learned more about recursion, iterations, and objects from messing around with PHP or Python than I ever could have learned from studying PowerPoint slides. As exciting as learning about Partial Derivatives and Green’s Theorem are, I learned all the math I need to write amazing programs by doing things like Project Euler. Through something like that, I picked up on how to develop algorithms, how to sieve to get answers, and how to use highly-efficient processes in code.

I don’t have a class on Python at my university. Or, something on AJAX, jQuery, iOS apps, APIs and a whole slew of other things. As an alleged student of Computer Science, I’ve yet to take a mathematical class that discusses algorithms and as far as I know I will not even be required to take one.

Final Thoughts

Thankfully, I’m self-motivated. As are most good programmers. Most of the great web nerds started when they were young, teaching themselves how to program within their teenage years. To then be stuck in a hot and crowded lecture hall listening to a uninterested professor read notes off of a PowerPoint presentation that hasn’t been changed in the last five years is torture. Something must change.

As far as I’m concerned, we’re really already started seriously going down the path to educational reform. In the last few years, we’ve started seeing projects like Academic Earth and Knewton that have seriously started changing the learning environment. That’s only the beginning.

While you will never be able to replace the social element of attending a university, arguably the most important part of it, bit by bit we can hopefully knock over this outdated system. I dream of a day when the nerds finally turn the educational system upside down and replace it with something more efficient, personal, and interactive. Something tells me that will be soon.

Comments?

I don’t have comments on my website, but thankfully Hacker News does.

Bloomberg, who made the bulk of his estimated $17.5 billion fortune from financial news and information services company Bloomberg L.P., said it didn’t make sense to leave everything to his children and have them go through life as members of “the lucky sperm club.”

That being said, I think it’s terribly important to make sure that this $250b actually go towards investing for the future, rather than simply “throwing money at problems”.

Excerpt:

Some of you may be thinking, “Well, if you pass a test, or become valedictorian, didn’t you learn something? Well, yes, you learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.

One of the longer and more interesting advice comes from a re-posting of a Craiglist post titled “Advice to Young Men from an Old Man”:

1. Don’t pick on the weak. It’s immoral. Don’t antagonize the strong without cause, its stupid.
2. Don’t hate women. It’s a waste of time
3. Invest in yourself. Material things come to those that have self actualized.
4. Get in a fistfight, even if you are going to lose.
5. As a former Marine, take it from me. Don’t join the military, unless you want to risk getting your balls blown off to secure other people’s economic or political interests.
6. If something has a direct benefit to an individual or a class of people, and a theoretical, abstract, or amorphous benefit to everybody else, realize that the proponent’s intentions are to benefit the former, not the latter, no matter what bullshit they try to feed you.
7. Don’t be a Republican. They are self-dealing crooks with no sense of honor or patriotism to their fellow citizens. If you must be a Republican, don’t be a “conservative.” They are whining, bitching, complaining, simple-minded self-righteous idiots who think they’re perpetual victims. Listen to talk radio for a while, you’ll see what I mean.
8. Don’t take proffered advice without a critical analysis. 90% of all advice is intended to benefit the proponent, not the recipient. Actually, the number is probably closer to 97%, but I don’t want to come off as cynical.
9. You’ll spend your entire life listening to people tell you how much you owe them. You don’t owe the vast majority of people shit.
10. Don’t undermine your fellow young men. Mentor the young men that come after you. Society recognizes that you have the potential to be the most power force in society. It scares them. Society does not find young men sympathetic. They are afraid of you, both individually and collectively. Law enforcement’s primary purpose is to suppress you.
11. As a young man, you’re on your own. Society divides and conquers. Unlike women who have advocates looking out for them (NOW, Women’s Study Departments, government, non-profit organizations, political advocacy groups) almost no one is looking out for you.
12. Young men provide the genius and muscle by which our society thrives. Look at the Silicone Valley. By in large, it was not old men or women that created the revolution we live. Realize that society steals your contributions, secures it with our intellectual property laws, and then takes credit and the rewards where none is due.
13. Know that few people have your best interests at heart. Your mother does. Your father probably does (if he stuck around). Your siblings are on your side. Everybody else worries about themselves.
14. Don’t be afraid to tell people to “Fuck off” when need be. It is an important skill to acquire. As they say, speak your piece, even if your voice shakes.
15. Acquire empathy, good interpersonal skills, and confidence. Learn to read body language and non-verbal communication. Don’t just concentrate on your vocational or technical skills, or you’ll find your wife fucking somebody else.
16. Keep fit.
17. Don’t speak ill of your wife/girlfriend. Back her up against the world, even if she’s wrong. She should know that you have her back. When she needs your help, give it. She should know that you’ll take her part.
18. Don’t cheat on your wife/girlfriend. If you must cheat, don’t humiliate her. Don’t risk having your transgressions come back to her or her friends. Don’t do it where you live. Don’t do it with people in your social circle. Don’t shit in your own back yard.
19. If your girlfriend doesn’t make you feel good about yourself and bring joy to your life, fire her. That’s what girlfriends are for.
20. Don’t bother with “emotional affairs.” They are just a vehicle for women to flirt and have someone make them feel good about themselves. That’s the part of a relationship they want. For you it is a lot of work and investment in time. If they are having an emotional affair with you, they’re probably fucking someone else.
21. Becoming a woman’s friend and confidant is not going to get you into an intimate relationship. If you haven’t gotten the girl within a reasonably short period of time, chances are you won’t ever get her. She’ll end up confiding to you about the sexual adventures she’s having with someone else.
22. Have and nurture friendships with women.
23. Realize that love is a numbers game. Guys fall in love easily. You’re going to see some girl and feel like you’ll die if you don’t get her. If she rejects you, move on to the next one. It’s her loss.
24. Don’t be an internet troll. Got out and live life. There is not a cadre of beautiful women advertising on Craigslist to have NSA sex with you. Beautiful women don’t need to advertise. The websites that advertise with attractive women’s photos and claims of loneliness are baloney. All they want is your money and your personal information so that they can market to you. The posts on Craigslist by young “women” seeking NSA sex, and asking for a picture are just a bunch of gay troll pic collectors. This is especially true if the post uses common gay lexicon like “hole” as in “fuck my hole” or seeks “masculine” men, or uses the word cock (except in the context of “Don’t send a cock shot.”) There are women on Craigslist. They are easily recognizable by their 2-5 paragraph postings. Most are in their 30’s or older.
25. When you become a man in full, know that people will get in your way. People who are attracted to you will somehow manage to step in your path. Gay guys will give you “the look.” Old people will somehow stumble in front of you at the worst time. Don’t get frustrated. Just step aside and go about your business. Know that these are passive aggressive methods to get you to acknowledge their existence.
26. Don’t gay bash. Don’t mentally or physically abuse people because of who they are, or how they present themselves. It’s none of your business to try to intimidate people into conformity.
27. If your gay, admit it to yourself, your parents, your friends and society at large. Be prepared to get harassed. See rule 14. If someone threatens you or assaults you, call the cops. Have them arrested. You have no obligation to self sacrifice because of who you are. As a gay person, you’ll have more social freedom than straight men. Use it to protect yourself. Be prepared to get out of Dodge if your orientation makes your life unbearable. Move to San Francisco, New York, Atlanta, or New Orleans. You’ll find a welcoming community there.
28. Don’t be a poser. Avoid being one of those dudes who puts a surfboard on top of their car, but never surfs, or a dude with a powder coated fixed gear bike and a messenger bag, but was never a messenger. Live the life. Earn your bona fides.
29. Don’t believe the crap about the patriarchy. More women are accepted and attend college. More degrees are awarded to women than men. Women outlive men. More men commit suicide. Men are twice as likely to be victims of violence, including murder. If you consider sexual assaults in prisons, twice as many men are raped as women (society thinks prison rape is funny). The streets are littered with homeless men, sprinkled with a few homeless women. Statically, women are happier than men. The myth that girls are being cheated by are educational system is belied by the fact that schools are bastions of femininity, mostly run by and taught by women. Girls outperform boys in school. It is the boys in school getting fucked over, and prescribed ritalin for being boys. Real wages for men are falling, while real wages for women are rising. Just because someone says something enough times, doesn’t make it true. You have nothing to feel guilty about.
30. Remember, 97% of all advice is worthless. Take what you can use, and trash the rest.

Every night we’ll email you the question “How did your day go?” Just reply with your entry and it’s saved here instantly. Your nightly email also has a random entry from the past. Forget what you were up to a week or a month ago? We’ll show you.

Perfectly simple. Only thing that bothers me: a lack of a Privacy Policy even though their home page advertises their respect to privacy. “OhLife is private, secure, & friendlier than Ned Flanders. Only you can see your entries.”

Searching the internet for servers, routers and more
- Finding computers running certain software (HTTP, FTP, etc.)
- Filter hosts based on geographic location

The finding comes from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism’s 2010 Digital Future Study, which throws a little cold water on the notion of transitioning users from free to paid services:

“Such an extreme finding that produced a zero response underscores the difficulty of getting Internet users to pay for anything that they already receive for free.”

Really interesting if it’s accurate. But then again, this is Gizmodo we’re talking about.

edit: I’d probably add myself to that list. I don’t think at the present time I personally derive enough value from Twitter that would justify me paying for it. At any point, I could walk away from the service without looking back and I think most people feel that way. A more interesting solution could be around charging people who reach a certain follower threshold. Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) gets a lot more from Twitter than your average Midwest mother who’s following 20 of her friends. Just my quick thoughts.

SeizeTheDay is a simple and easy to use task manager that helps you organize and stay on top of your busy life – and it’s even got reminders. Choose to get individual reminders for each task, or get a daily reminder each morning with the day’s tasks.