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

D <nospam@example.net> wrote:

 
On Mon, 24 Feb 2025, Rich wrote:
 

D <nospam@example.net> wrote:

>
>
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.

>
The result of 20+ years of "everyone gets a participation trophy, and
no winners are declared" parenting.....

 
This is the truth! You are a philosopher king! In sweden, they stopped
scoring goals in football for children. When I was a child, and you were
bad at foot ball, you sat on the bench. Then you found another sport that
you actually had some aptitude for. Much better system if you ask me, and
also an experience that teaches valuable life lessons early!

Fail to learn that the real world is an unforgiving mistress, and you
will be constantly at odds with reality forever.  The "no score,
everybody wins" method just breeds an enormous amount of snowflakes
that expect everything handled to them on a silver platter.  Sadly,
life hands you nothing unless you work to get it.

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.

>
Provided you can withstand the heat, this is the best option.  Clear

 
Amen! I started to study engineering, and I could not stand the heat. I
discovered that physics and math was extremely boring. I could push
through by sheer force of will, but after 1 years I realized... why?
Wouldn't it be better to study something I actually enjoyed?

I enjoyed Engineering, so most of the classes were /easy/ (relative
measure, University Physics was significantly harder than high school
Physics -- we covered all year from HS in the first month, then set off
into uncharted territory) from my perspective.  Calculus classes were
terrible, largely due to awful professors (Indian, thick accents, spoke
250wpm, wrote on board at 400wpm, skipped writing the 13 critically important
intermediate steps in between each line that did get written on the
board because they were trivially obvious *to the professor*). 
Electromagnetic Theory was the other one that was 'ugh', but a lot of
that was that it was almost "calculus 4" in disguise.

out the ones unfit as early as possible.  I still remember the carnage
of the freshman Engineering courses when I went through.  Began with
120+ students per lecture.  End of each of both semeters could see the
shrinkage.  Start of second year and more than half were no longer
anywhere to be seen in the courses.  Sadly, I can only imagine what
kind of complaints would be going to the dean's office now 40 years
later for such carniage in the first year.

 
Severe complaints! The cruel irony is... do a good job at a school, and
you'll be kicked out for failing too many students. This has happened to
me.
 
My revenge was when the school told me... you know, there is something
very strange with your program. I said... what?
 
The students who graduate from your program, all have jobs in IT, and
their salaries are all way above the average starting salary.
 
But your program is the program where 40% drop out.
 
In our other programs, 100% graudate. But only 50% work in IT, and they
have very low salaries.
 
I cannot understand how they could not see cause an effect.

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary
depends upon his not understanding it.

Their (the admin's) performance measure was "number passed out", not
"percent earning above average salary in job related to degree".

True.  But from time to time it is fun to see when they really
"get" the terminal.  It's such an eye opening experience for them,
and they, themselves become completely amazed at what they can do
with a computer all of a sudden!  One guy told me he had no idea
and it was amazing the day he understood the terminal concept.  He
went on to become a rock star!  Those students are what makes it
worth it for me.

>
And he was someone who *should* have been in that course.  Many of
the others were likely only present because they had been told the
degree was a magic paper towards a big salary (while omitting that
they have to know what the F they are doing for the magic paper to
gain them the big salary).

 
Haha...  yes, reminds me of one of my teachers at a school, and on
the first day they had an open question session.  One arabian
gentleman asked...
 
"Hey you... what's the salary? Will I be rich when I'm done?"
 
The teacher: I'm X, you can call me X, that's perfectly fine."
 
He: "What ever... what's the money?"
 
The teacker: Sigh....  "if you are good, you earn well, if you are
bad, find another program."
 
The student looked dissatisfied with the answer. ;)

Likely a royal prince or duke or some other such 'secondary royal
family member' who's been pampered and such his entire life, and so has
no basis for understanding how the world really works.