Re: Schneier, Data and Goliath: no hope for privacy

On Mon, 24 Feb 2025, Salvador Mirzo wrote:

D <nospam@example.net> writes:
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On Sun, 23 Feb 2025, Salvador Mirzo wrote:
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This is very interesting! What was it that the student thought was crazy
complicated compared with git?

>
Not compared to git.  They did not get to see git.  They just hated
fossil to the point of almost giving up on the whole course altogether.
Very likely they knew that other courses would give them the same
credits and they could try it afresh on the next semester.

>
Ahh, got it! Yes, sadly this happens to me as well. At the slightest hint of
difficulty or effort, about 20% of the class riots, complains to the school that
the teacher is evil, that the difficulty level should be lowered etc. They do
not realize, that the only ones they are cheating by doing that are themselves.
The sad thing is that business owners (including myself) have noted a dramatic
drop in skill from graduates over the past 3-4 years. One reason is that the
government has changed the funding of the schools, rewarding schools that pass
all students. So of course, the schools pass all students, since it means more
money for them (they are paid by the government upon graduation) and you get the
situation where awful students graduate, and now, where companies no longer hire
them.
>
Usually in order to buck the trend somewhat, I make my first course more
difficult in order to get rid of the unmotivated ones. If I don't have the first
course of the semester, the following 1-2 are pure hell, since the bad ones
remain and complain about everything, but after 1-2 semesters they usually quit.
It is just sad that I could not make them realize this after 3 weeks, and
instead they waste 1-2 semesters. But such is life.

>
Such is life. :)
>

I have taught classes with git (basics) and at the end of the day,
regardless of if you use git or fossil, it just requires a few simple
commands to get started at the basic level (we were not discussing
rebasing and huge software projects).

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I think it boils down to a lot more because these are compouter users
that even ``environment variable'' is a never-seen concept.  I watched
them opening a c:\> prompt on their Windows system, slowlying typing up
their very long path to their project, say, and then doing it again on
the next class---paths with spaces and other complicated symbols.

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Haha, yes... I think I have to tell them about ls, cd, pwd etc. about 30-40
times before they finally start to remember what it is. ;)

>
Oh, yes, memory is another thing I notice.  Not only students, but
teachers, too; I'm known as having a superb memory or something.  Truth
is, though, it's their memory that is not doing very well.

I think smartphones and google are a huge part of the problem. I do not have a smartphone, so I have to remember things like codes, shopping lists, directions, and I am convinced it helps my memory somewhat.
The young ones, just google everything, so they don't exercise their memory.
For instance, one of the students the other day was amazed at how I could live without google maps, and wondered how I do it.
My answer, I check where I want to go, before I leave home. Most of the time I remember it. If I don't know exactly where to go, I ask someone in the street, or ask a hotel. The hotels are nice, because often they give you a map. For long trips I might print out the map on a piece of paper. This has the advantage of having zero value, so I never have to worry about dropping it, forgetting it or someone stealing it.
The students were chocked! ;)