"Maths, in university, is useless bull..."

[Agathon]

Now, you name me five people who have a CS degree who have had more influence on the world than all of the people in that list.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Agathon
Could it have anything to do with the fact that she's a woman in a man's world?

What're you talking about? The first computer programmer was a woman.

People hate her because she makes constant boneheaded mistakes, and her company has tanked since she's taken over.

They hate her because she's inept.

As for the rest, it just shows how you don't know what you are talking about. Jeez.. we've got the ****ing pope on our side.

The pope is a ****ing bigoted moron, the last person you should be proud to have studied your discipline.

[Imran Siddiqui]

IIRC, Gates never got a CS degree, did he? Just as an aside.

[Agathon]

The pope is a ****ing bigoted moron, the last person you should be proud to have studied your discipline.

Bigoted? Perhaps. A moron?

As I said, you show me five people with computer science degrees who are the equals of people like Jefferson, or Guiliani (who may well end up as the President of the US).

[Agathon]

IIRC, Gates never got a CS degree, did he? Just as an aside.

No, neither did Steve Jobs.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Agathon
Now, you name me five people who have a CS degree who have had more influence on the world than all of the people in that list.

It's a different kind of degree, we don't try to become leaders.

We write the software that makes the world work. We write the algorithms that allow new medical advances to occur. We maintain the networks of computer systems that let us live in a digital world.

Just because you have a handful of people who studied something for an easy GPA and then went on to do something else, doesn't say anything about its usefulness.

I mean, Bruce Lee and the dude from This Old House? How desperate are you?

The IBM employee who invented CTRL-ALT-DEL has had more of an impact on this world than virtually everyone on that list.

[Imran Siddiqui]

But if neither Gates or Jobs got a CS degree, how important can it be in that industry? They were self-taught weren't they?

[Agathon]

It's a different kind of degree, we don't try to become leaders.

Surely the innate brilliance of CS grads would have them rising to the top.

No?

It must be a conspiracy.

We write the software that makes the world work. We write the algorithms that allow new medical advances to occur. We maintain the networks of computer systems that let us live in a digital world.

Translation: you're peons who invent widgets that real people have to find a use for.

Just because you have a handful of people who studied something for an easy GPA and then went on to do something else, doesn't say anything about its usefulness.

Now you are grasping at straws.

I mean, Bruce Lee and the dude from This Old House? How desperate are you?

They were on the list. I don't even know what This Old House is. Presumably they're famous. And Bruce Lee was a dude. But that doesn't alter the rest of them.

The IBM employee who invented CTRL-ALT-DEL has had more of an impact on this world than virtually everyone on that list.

uhh.. nah.

You're just full of **** as usual.

[Agathon]

But if neither Gates or Jobs got a CS degree, how important can it be in that industry? They were self-taught weren't they?

It's important now because they have to justify the ridiculous salaries they pay glorified mechanics.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Agathon
As I said, you show me five people with computer science degrees who are the equals of people like Jefferson, or Guiliani (who may well end up as the President of the US).

That's a stupid question, and you know it.

People with arts degrees tend to go onto social things, such as politics and even business.

People with technical degrees like CS and Engineering are not as apt to do that.

It's probably an intentionally loaded question on your part.

Since CS is such a new subject in particular, it's especially stupid to compare them to people who've had much more time to gain notoriety.

Here's some famous engineers:
Yasser Arafat
Neil Armstrong
Leonid Brezhnev
Jimmy Carter
Leonardo Da Vinci
Thomas Edison
Alfred Hitchcock
Herbert Hoover
Boris Yeltsin
Alexander Graham Bell
Seymour Cray
Sir Sanford Fleming
Henry Ford
William Hewlett and David Packard (the real innovators, not the Carly bull****)
Grace Murray Hopper
Steve Wozniak

[Asher]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
But if neither Gates or Jobs got a CS degree, how important can it be in that industry? They were self-taught weren't they?

Yeah, but how many universities gave CS degrees when they went to school?

What a silly question.

If you look at today's generation, virtually everything new is coming from CS people. Google, Amazon, eBay...

In the old days, it was all self-taught...because there was no where else to learn it.

[Agathon]

People with arts degrees tend to go onto social things, such as politics and even business.

People with technical degrees like CS and Engineering are not as apt to do that.

It's not a loaded question, it is merely a reflection of the different things people do. Our society needs politicians and businessmen.

And you are cheating. If CS grads are so brilliant, you should be able to find quite a few who would humble the lowly philosophers.

If you are going to include engineers, then I don't see why I can't include economists, historians, political scientists and psychologists.

Freud alone beats everyone on your list. You only need to think about how many of his ideas people unknowingly repeat in everyday speech to see that.

[Imran Siddiqui]

If you look at today's generation, virtually everything new is coming from CS people. Google, Amazon, eBay...

In the old days, it was all self-taught...because there was no where else to learn it.

But doesn't that show that those self taught in CS can do it just as well as those who went for the degree in school? I mean there is more than the university to learn CS.

[Agathon]

If you look at today's generation, virtually everything new is coming from CS people. Google, Amazon, eBay...

These are hardly earth shattering ideas. Geez... what if someone sold books on the internet? Wow.. what an amazing idea!

And I'll point out that Amazon would be worth virtually nothing if it refused to sell books by people who had Arts degrees.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Agathon
Surely the innate brilliance of CS grads would have them rising to the top.

No?

It must be a conspiracy.

Which is why most tech executives these days are compsci/compeng type people.

Your constant pointing to the 1970s as evidence of people with CS degrees not founding the main companies is simply retarded. You don't seem to realize computer science is a relatively new field...

Translation: you're peons who invent widgets that real people have to find a use for.

You try living your life without computers. We'd be happy to keep them to ourselves, but the "real people" seem to want what we do.

Nothing would please me more if I could strip you over your technology for a bit to reassess your position.

The world can do without philosophers today, the world cannot go on without computer scientists. It's a sad fact, one that you'll need to get used to if you want to pretend like you're useful.

Let's face it, Agathon, you teach people about a dude that died how long ago? You're in no position to call other people peons. You're a disposable part of an undervalued education system, mostly teaching people who don't care what you're talking about.