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Admin
That's one long tube...
CAPTCHA: stinky Let's take this outside...
Admin
Is this from the 1970's ? It might have been cool back then, but seriously, WTF?!
Admin
Well, if this was a time when the internet hadn't reached many homes, it might indeed have been something that a prospective student might not have seen. More pertinently, you guys are just jaded. Seriously, how many people in human history have yearned to be connected to France?
Admin
Oh come on, we have far better facilities in Eastern Europe. Besides, I don't think it's possible that anybody without at least MSc. is allowed to teach (can't see how a uni can lack graduates willing to teach either). I call BS.
Admin
A masters to teach at a community college? Beginning classes for associates degrees? Doubt it.
Admin
Being from the Netherlands, where France is about three hours drive (at legal speeds) away, this seems absurd, but seen from countries solidly put at the other side of the world (more or less) it's understandable that one doesn't immediately know of the full extent of the internet.
Also, I remember being astounded that a friend, who was working at a nearby university, was able to retrieve an image of the world, seen from space, from the NASA FTP-server, and display it in 256 colours (on a sun3 something). And that was "in my younger days", only some 17 years ago.
Admin
Was the professor also an Algol-holic?
Admin
Whoops, it was in 2000; I just updated the article with the year.
Admin
My question is this: How does one apply for a professorship at this college?
CAPTCHA: Ninjas. To infiltrate the tenure selection meetings.
Admin
Ummm - is that campus picture the University Of Delaware?
(which, btw, has been connected to France for a VERY long time - longer than most)
Admin
People without a Masters or PhD can be college professors. David Farber is at Carnegie Mellon and used to be a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and he only has a Bachelors. http://www.epp.cmu.edu/httpdocs/people/bios/farber.html
Admin
Wow! Connected to France!
On another note - when did "Josh" change his name to "John"?
Editor's note - fixed the mistake in the main article.
Admin
apparently right before the professor led him through the unix lab
Admin
Man, I'd rather skip a day than have the standards for entries be this low. Oi.
Admin
By sending a crate of Jack Daniels to the HR Director.
Admin
Especially at WTF U.
Admin
NorthEastern is actually a good university. Are we sure we are talking about the same school?
Admin
I don't think it's amazing that people with just a Bachelors can become professors... it's like that at a lot of places.
What bothers me is that people this stupid and with only a Bachelors can get TENURE. I would think that Tenure should be reserved for PhD only.
sigh but then again, look at my school. Some of the professors over there would rule WTF U.
Captcha: smile. No.
Admin
I took a biology class at the local university and the lab teacher had a PhD from that school and taught at local community college. She was getting resumes from other PhDs to fill in for lecture spots for when other faculty were on vacation. And this community college is more of an arts school.
That might just be in biology though as she said a lot of people went back to school to get their PhDs after funding was cut in their programs, so there's a glut of professors out there.
Admin
Admin
Oh.
Admin
So many of our lecturers are confused by the basics of using a computer. Whilst brilliant in their own field, it's unbelievable the number that just can't persuade a laptop to display powerpoint slides.
Admin
I've had a couple of comp sci teachers who don't really know how to tool around with computers. I'm reminded of a quote:
"Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes."
Admin
The Germans, the English, the Romans....
Admin
Has anyone else noticed that you can't search the forums? It will only search the field you have selected last.
I noticed this in firefox. Look at some text, hit "Control-F" and try to find something. It won't work.
Admin
Ok, I had to chime in here...I graduated from NU in 2000 with a CS degree, and I know EXACTLY who that professor is. This story is 100% believable!
Admin
classic quote from bash.org:
http://bash.org/?142934
captcha: atari
Admin
I agree. I've actually had to teach Networking Professors how to use relatively simple things, like SSH, VNC, etc. that they really ought to know about.
However... these people had higher learning all over them, and all they were interested in is their own little niche corner of research because that was where their next grant allocation was coming from. They couldn't teach to save themselves. Whereas some of the best lecturers I had (IE. they could communicate effectively, they knew their stuff, they could extend the more advanced students while still adding value to the average students, etc.) had nothing more than a BSc. Unfortunately the uni required a PhD for tenure and/or for more senior positions, which I think is a big mistake.
Admin
He said connected to, not dominant over. In the connected area I would put Canada's Quebequois and Algeria's Pieds Noir.
Admin
If he was pulling up a web page in the 1970's, I'd be seriously impressed too ;)
patf.net
Admin
Control-F in firefox doesn't work in an outrageous number of websites for me. Its that damn Web 2.0 standards, screwing up searches. Funny thing, I don't get that problem with IE. sigh
some 11 years ago, I opened an account on that old Hackers.com BBS, which had a Telnet interface in addition to the standard dialin lines. Obviously, many users from other places (and countries) outside the local area started to appear.
And there was a user who started asking ... "wow, do you really dial up from Mexico" "do you dial up from Russia? That must be some expensive phone bill!!"
Take in mind this was 1997. No way the dude wouldn't have known about the internet.
Admin
Yup. There was not even TCP/IP in the 70's. Not even mention BIND (name-to-IP resolver, DNS) or HTTP (which works over TCP/IP).
Hell, I think there were no such things as URLs. ;)
Admin
"You see, the internet is a series of connected pipes and wires...."
Admin
You don't need a phd to teach a college course despite what you all may believe. In fact I would go so far as to argue that many phd's have never had a "real" job, and have zero actual experience. I would take a person with 20 years of real-world experience on the front line's vs. a phd who sat and researched for that time.
I have teachers with just an MBA who are teaching my MBA courses and they are phenonemal because they understand the topic like the back of their hand. Remember, if you have enough money and can stay in school long enough, eventually you can get a phd. Doesn't necessarily equal smartness. Also had a guy who worked for the school who I'm sure did not have a Master's, but they needed someone to teach Cobol (yuck), and he had been doing it for 25 years. Did an excellent job.
Admin
This story reminds me of the day the high school I attended got their first modem (I think it was 94). They were so proud and made a big announcement that they were connected to the internet and had access to information around the world. Students could schedule time on the internet capable computer after school, of course with faculty supervision. This was a strict private school and they didn't want any hanky panky going on over their 14.4 baud connection (or slower).
So as one of the few wanna be geeks at the school, I scheduled a time to get my first taste of the internet. I had a list of websites I'd found in various music and video game magazines and I was really looking forward to getting information from around the world.
Finally the day came when I got to get on the internet. I sat down with my list of sites and the teacher who ran the computer lab to show me what to do. We started going down the list and there wasn't a single site we could get to. Turns out they didn't have an internet connection, just a modem. And they didn't want to make long distance calls using the modem.
So the only thing I could was dial out to the public library computer and browse their catalog remotely.
Admin
As a current student at NU, this actually strikes a chord with me. While some of the professors are fantastic, some of them do rather suck.
I don't know who this professor is, but if I ever have him (if he's still here), I'll be sure to let him know that his reputation precedes him.
(on a side note, I don't recognize that picture, but it reminds me a bit of Harvard's campus)
Admin
Sounds like a cool guy. The alcoholics in my town pretty much lack a sense of humour at all.
Admin
MUAHAHA!! Now that is a really nice WTF!!!
Admin
Psst.
Look down.
Admin
Don't forget all the hopeless savants that can't repair a small engine, develop their own photos, make butter, grow a garden, true a bicyle wheel, change the oil in their car, build a simple book case, tie even a dozen knots, tell time from the sun, or do tens of thousands of other simple tasks anyone could pick up in a week.
Admin
Captch: tesla (wtf?)
Admin
I admit, I only did this to see what my captcha was: riaa. I feel cheated.
Story does remind me of the older generation though, those who say "I'll send you a message on the email" or "I can't find my internet".
Admin
I agree completely.
But in the prof's defense. There have been times that I have struggled for 10-20 minutes trying to get Powerpoint to display on a projector.
Having said that, the vast majority of the time it's super easy to get ppt running properly
--doc0tis
Admin
Ok, I'm showing my age here...
In college, I had a monstrously large terminal and shoebox accoustic 14.4K modem to connect to our UNIVAC mainframe, and I was the envy of most of the dorm because I didn't need to drive to campus to do work.
In the working world, I started out on a brand-new pdp-11, and moved up to a Sun-350 (our 'high powered' server was a sun-360), and if we were lucky, we got one of them new-fangled pc-286 boxes with 1mb of ram.
When someone was lucky enough to have a telnet connection to some server, we were overjoyed, and took the opportunity to ftp files to a common server in order to be able to exchange information with our peers at other firms (hmmm, wasn't that what DARPA was going for?)
Being impressed with new technology is relative to how new the technology is.
Still, ya gotta love a prof in 2000 that is impressed with an internet connection.
Admin
"The whole thing?"
Admin
Admin
In California, at least, a Masters is required to teach at a community college. My SO, newly minted MA in hand, has been offered a position at our local CC.
Admin
Jerry Lewis...
The Coneheads...
Admin
Admin
Heh. Back when I started using the Internet, PPP access was considered a privilege.
Lots of websites had "text-only" sections for those who were graphically impaired. Lots of people still used UNIX shells to wade through the net.
Hey ... gopher was still around!!!