this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2024
118 points (99.2% liked)
libre
9822 readers
32 users here now
Welcome to libre
A comm dedicated to the fight for free software with an anti-capitalist perspective.
The struggle for libre computing cannot be disentangled from other forms of socialist reform. One must be willing to reject proprietary software as fiercely as they would reject capitalism. Luckily, we are not alone.
Resources
- Free Software, Free Society provides an excellent primer in the origins and theory around free software and the GNU Project, the pioneers of the Free Software Movement.
- Switch to GNU/Linux! If you're still using Windows in
$CURRENT_YEAR
, flock to Linux Mint!; Apple Silicon users will want to check out Asahi Linux.
Rules
- Be on topic: Posts should be about free software and other hacktivst struggles. Topics about general tech news should be in the technology comm or programming comm. That doesn't mean all posts have to be serious though, memes are welcome!
- Avoid using misleading terms/speading misinformation: Here's a great article about what those words are. In short, try to avoid parroting common Techbro lingo and topics.
- Avoid being confrontational: People are in different stages of liberating their computing, focus on informing rather than accusing. Debatebro nonsense is not tolerated.
- All site-wide rules still apply
Artwork
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
If my graduating Computer Info Systems class is anything to go by, 90% of humans don't know fuck about computer technology.
I watched a guy in my security class sit through two ads to watch a video, then clicked on a random spot on the video and activated another ad. Also had some people click on the fake download buttons lol
The amount of "tech people" that weren't using any sort of ad blocking was astounding. When I was doing IT stuff I figured it was just normie endusers barely undrestanding how shit worked but god damn, it was rather appalling.
My main professor in college pronounced "kernel" as "Curr-nell". Our computer lab mentor, who I basically carried through her first 2 years, insisted that URL was pronounced like the name "Earl" with a Y on the front of it. I applied for that job when she did and never even got an interview.
Looking back on the girl that had no business being in a programming degree not understanding how to properly format HTML/XML, not so bad compared to some of the dumb shit I witnessed.
I gave my two boomer/maybe X-er coworkers (in well compensated IT roles) shit about it recently after one of them made us all sit through youtube ads to show us a goddamn Archer clip on a screen-share. I said "at this point browsing without an ad-blocker should be considered a security risk" and neither of them had any concept of why I thought that or that there was anything sucky about sitting through ads. It took a lot of restraint to not get angry or further mock them
I originally was going to major in computer science but unbeknownst to any of the freshmen, almost the entire CS department got poached by another school the summer before. So you had a bunch of inexperienced professors and even more student teachers, along with this fuckwad boomer who came out of retirement but didn't really want to teach. The department head was a smart guy, but he had only finished his doctorate three or four years before I got into college.
Anywho, you had a bunch of students who had no place being in CS and wanted to skirt by like they did in high school then get a six figure job immediately after graduation. Even worse, because the department had only a handful of experienced professors, there wasn't any quality control.
As an example, one of the TAs who was supposed to be grading program submissions was just slapping on As to any program that compiled and didn't seg fault. So you had people submitting Hello World with a menu for a program that was supposed to sort a tree of linked lists and passing classes with flying colors they should have failed. These should have been graded by professors, but some of them were teaching four to six classes each term.
I remember one class I submitted basically nothing except documentation for the final program because I got bogged down in my other classes. The TA's grade came back and said the program did everything it was supposed to. Motherfucker, there was no program. I was willing to bite the bullet and get like 15/100 because my grade in that class was fine and I had other classes I needed to devote more time to.
Sorry I'm rambling. My point is I was one of like 10 people in the freshman class of 70ish who was doing well in all my classes. As I got to upper division, the students who had been passed when they shouldn't have got absolutely fucked as the department started sorting its shit out and getting real teachers. They basically knew nothing and we were over halfway through our degree.
Everything was still a mess, though, and I realized I didn't enjoy what I was doing the way I did in high school. Trying to dodge sketchy professors each term felt like I was wasting money. I switched my major to painting and printmaking, deciding I would just have three minors in math, physics, and computer science. >!I ended up dropping out of college with 5/6ths of my degree due to depression and surviving a suicide attempt that left me disabled.!<
Our main professor just got tenure so they couldn't get rid of him and he basically checked out after that. In order to pass his class you just had to show up and turn in something. He gave B's to broken uncomplilable code. He gave A's to compliance code that had even the remotest of functionality. I found out 2 years ago at my last job that pretty much no one took programmers from that school with a CIS degree. I worked with 3 people who graduated from the same school with CS degrees, including my boss. To put it bluntly, I was mediocre lol.
Calling a presumably adult woman a girl when also shitting on their technical proficiency is rough, comrade.
You mean by properly configuring your text editor to auto-format, right?
I didn't mean anything by the girl thing. I guess I default to using "girl" a lot. sorry if that came off ruder than intended.
But MS Notepad doesn't have code formatting either.
She really wasn't supposed to be in those classes. She was going for business management or something and had to take a handful of programming classes like we had to take a handful of marketing and accounting classes.
Thanks comrade. CIS/MIS is pretty notorious for what you're describing so it's not too surprising.
Not that the bazingas in the CS department are any better but I'd be less surprised by it in an IS program just cause you're usually in or more adjacent to the business school.