Yesterday I got to spend my day with other members of my department at work in downtown San Francisco participating in a scavenger hunt. They let us know about the event a month ago and when I told my kids, they decided I work for the coolest company ever. I have to admit it was a lot of fun and the organizers should be commended for creating a fun activity that helped to foster teamwork.
We all arrived at the office before 10am and then boarded buses to head to downtown San Francisco. Some of my coworkers were less enthusiastic about the event and planned on finding a bar where they could wait out the activity in relative comfort. However once we arrived at the starting point, everyone seemed to get into the event. We were given a list of about 50 clues and set loose on San Francisco. There was no way that we would be able to get everything in the 90 minutes and so some organization was required. To further complicate things, not all clues had equivalent point values.
My group ran to a hotel and got a map where we could locate where we believed all the clues to be. Those of us with smart phones used them to look up clues we weren't too sure about and put everything on the map. Then we started running around the city in a somewhat optimized manner taking pictures of the clues and e-mailing them into the referees for the event.
At first we stayed together because certain members of the group had to be in specific pictures. With only a half hour to go, we broke up into two groups and went after the high-point clues. Then we all congregated back at a restaurant for lunch. It was a lot of fun and I think I got my workout for the day.
This morning the referees are still tabulating the results. I think my team did pretty good but in the end it doesn't really matter. I got to spend a day running around San Francisco like a tourist. Furthermore I was paid to do it. I guess my kids are correct, I do work for a pretty cool company.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
The High Price of College Text Books
My oldest son just left for college and it has been interesting to hear about his adventures. While he is only eighteen, he finished his Associates degree this summer and entered college as a Junior. That means he has completed all of his general requirements and can focus on the fun classes. He is in the Computer Engineering program and has a few programming classes that he really enjoys.
One of his classes is an introductory programming class where he is learning Java. For the record, I think Java is a horrible language, but that is a topic for another day. However I am interested in what my son thinks of Java and so I was asking him about it. He was able to complete his first programming assignment even though his text book had not arrived. I was surprised that he didn't have his text book until he told me how much it cost: $110.
My first question was, "How could a book to teach someone Java cost $110?" There are hundreds of books on the market and most of the good ones are less than $50. Furthermore, the best references for Java are online and only a troglodyte would require a textbook. I mentioned the cost of the Java textbook at lunch last week with some of my work associates and they all agreed with my assessment. To say we were outraged would be an understatement. Considering we all work with computers on a daily basis and most of the group were programmers, it should say something about the disconnect between our University system and real-world programming.
My son had purchased his textbook from Amazon.com in the hopes of saving some money. Instead of $110, it was only $50. The only problem was that it took 10 days for him to get the book (the book arrived yesterday). Having written and published a computer-related book in the past, I started doing a little research to discover why it cost so much. It turns out that the book uses 4-color printing on every page. At 500 pages, that makes it an expensive book. While color is nice, if you need pretty pictures to understand a concept, you are an idiot. If you are an author and can't convey your message without 4-color pictures, you are a super-idiot. Finally, if you are computer science professor at a major university and require your students to purchase a $110 text book that uses 4-color printing, then it is obvious that you are too stupid to make it in the real world and had to resort to being a professor. I guess there is a lot of truth to the old cliche that, "Those that can't do, teach."
One of his classes is an introductory programming class where he is learning Java. For the record, I think Java is a horrible language, but that is a topic for another day. However I am interested in what my son thinks of Java and so I was asking him about it. He was able to complete his first programming assignment even though his text book had not arrived. I was surprised that he didn't have his text book until he told me how much it cost: $110.
My first question was, "How could a book to teach someone Java cost $110?" There are hundreds of books on the market and most of the good ones are less than $50. Furthermore, the best references for Java are online and only a troglodyte would require a textbook. I mentioned the cost of the Java textbook at lunch last week with some of my work associates and they all agreed with my assessment. To say we were outraged would be an understatement. Considering we all work with computers on a daily basis and most of the group were programmers, it should say something about the disconnect between our University system and real-world programming.
My son had purchased his textbook from Amazon.com in the hopes of saving some money. Instead of $110, it was only $50. The only problem was that it took 10 days for him to get the book (the book arrived yesterday). Having written and published a computer-related book in the past, I started doing a little research to discover why it cost so much. It turns out that the book uses 4-color printing on every page. At 500 pages, that makes it an expensive book. While color is nice, if you need pretty pictures to understand a concept, you are an idiot. If you are an author and can't convey your message without 4-color pictures, you are a super-idiot. Finally, if you are computer science professor at a major university and require your students to purchase a $110 text book that uses 4-color printing, then it is obvious that you are too stupid to make it in the real world and had to resort to being a professor. I guess there is a lot of truth to the old cliche that, "Those that can't do, teach."
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