Two topics have come up in the past couple of weeks that I’ve often addressed. They go into great detail and are definite read. One is on the importance of guarding your freedoms. The second is an in depth look at the controversy over how Canonical participates in the FLOSS community. Not offering any further thoughts on any of these links as I have already addressed the issues in either prior postings or are addressed in the articles themselves.

A few days ago I finished reading Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman’s Crusade for Free Software, an authorised biography about Stallman. I’ll start by saying if you have any interest in FLOSS you owe it to yourself to read this. I found it to be a quick and engaging read. What made this particularly interesting is the author doesn’t try to smooth over the more eccentric aspects of Stallman’s personality. Instead, he provides a framework for the reader to examine the motivations behind Stallman’s reputation. Ultimately, it is a partial study of a man who gave much to the computing world, while simultaneously being misunderstood.

I ran across an article that espoused the very notion that Computer Science, its degree, is no longer relevant or will soon be as such. The point of the article is that there isn’t a correlation between academic and job performance. Very few will argue that point, but the conclusion he draws from it is patently ludicrous. From the lack of a connection, it is argued that studying Computer Science is not necessary. I do not have my CS degree, but I have completed all but a few of the courses. In a decent CS curriculum you are not learning how to programme, but the theory behind the software and hardware. Why is this important? It is the theories that once learn will raise your understanding on how to best engineer a solution. Learning the syntax of a programming language will not teach you when it is better to use an array versus a linked-list. You can learn this subject matter on your own, indeed I continue my education in such a way, but I only know if a book is good because of the CS classes I took in college. I started coding before I went to college, and I have not stopped. You can look at the difference between each generation and tell how much I knew just by the design of the code. At the end of the day you can learn anything on your own, but getting instruction will show you where to start from on a solid foundation. A person can learn everything there is to know about being a physician, but I wouldn’t go to a self-taught one.