Month: April 2009

  • April 28, 2009

    Sensationalism in the News

    We’ve all done it. When I think something is a big deal, I want others to think it’s a big deal, so I sensationalize the situation. I exaggerate it to make it seem better or worse than it really is. It’s human nature. However, when you’re a major news network, you should be more careful about these things. But most major news networks want people to think their way instead of just giving them the news. I’ve written about Bias in the News before but this is different. This is something we’ve seen with Bird Flu, West Nile Virus, Mad Cow Disease, and most recently, the swine flu ‘pandemic’.

    Let me start by saying this: people dying is no joke. I’m not taking the situation lightly. However, according to CNN, there are 90 confirmed cases of swine flu world wide. Mexico estimates 152 deaths from swine flu. Even if we take a more liberal estimate and say 400 cases, that’s still 400 out of 6 Billion people. That’s 1 in every 15 Million people. Is that really a pandemic?

    Let’s put this in perspective. According to Wikipedia, Every year 34,290 people in the United States ALONE die from Pancreatic Cancer. That is 93 people a day in the U.S. alone. Why isn’t that a pandemic? Because we’ve known about it for a while? 17,941 died from alcohol related collisions in 2006. That’s 49 people a day in the U.S. alone, and that is 100% preventable. Do you get my point?

    The Black Death was a pandemic. It wiped out half the world. There was no cure. Small Pox was a pandemic. It ravaged the world until a vaccine was created. Swine Flu, in my opinion, is the just the flavor of the week. Scientists are working on a vaccine and not ever case is fatal. It’s irresponsible for news networks to call it a pandemic. Educate people on it, yes. But don’t create panic where there is not.

  • April 10, 2009

    What I Learned in College

    College Life

    Over at Nettuts, they’ve posted an article titled, “Should You Attend University for Web Development”. Reading the article, I found it pretty interesting that a lot of people feel college isn’t necessary for web development and that their schools are behind the times when it comes to web development. I’m not going to defend my school and say it’s totally up-to-date, because it’s not. I do feel however, that that’s the nature of the beast when dealing with web development and computer science in general. As I wind down in the Masters program, set to graduate in May, I can tell you these two things after six year of college: the CS program should not be about the what but the how, and college is just as much a social thing as it is an academic thing.

    First, let’s focus on the academics. Computing, no matter what your focus, is an ever changing field. It would be impossible for every school to stay on top of every technology is out there. I’m not being an apologist, I am speaking the truth. The idea should not be, “I’m learning C#,” or “I’m learning PHP.” It should be, “I’m learning how to program, using PHP.” I learned what Object Oriented Programming is and I can apply that to any language. I’ve learned the semantics of an imperative and a declarative language. I learned algorithms, and should be able to implement them as long as I know how certain language behaves, and I’ve learned how to teach myself that. Heck, my school doesn’t even have a web development major, and I consider myself a damn good web developer.

    Beyond that, you learn the social skills you should have whether your profession be computer scientist, web developer, engineer, etc. There is a huge focus in our program on team building and communication. Human interaction isn’t something Google can teach you (yet). In our Masters program (in Software Engineering) we learn about process, eliciting requirements, etc. While you can learn some of this stuff with experience, hearing about it in a classroom certainly expedites the process.

    But college isn’t just about academics. I will attribute a good amount of my social skills, professionalism, and 90% of my connections to going to college. I got involved in extracurriculars, networked, and made some amazing friends that challenged my way of thinking and got me to try new things. Again, that isn’t something you’re going to find on Google.

    College should not just be about teaching you X. It should teach you how to learn. You should get some leassons in being social. It should give you some experiences you can’t get anywhere else. Those who say, “I don’t need to go to college to be X,”  aren’t looking at the big picture and will never be the best at what they do.