Children learning Computing

Just read an interesting article on BBC News pointing out that in the UK less and less children are learning how to programme computers and more and more children though are learning to be end users, I slightly disagree from what i have seen in all honesty. When I twas a child i hadn’t even heard of such things like computer code etc. I had no idea at all with the exception of what a word processor was maybe.

Today children seem a LOT more educated in subjects related to computing, even if these subjects are not in detail, the concept of what a computer does and there importance is a message well received.

News article here:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7324556.stm

CSC – My experience this year

The purpose of this post is to let people know how I’m getting on at CSC and what i have been up to 5 days a week, paying particular attention to what it is like in the industry to prepare people at University in my year.

I have been working for CSC now for 4 months on an industrial placement. In these 4 months I have learnt and experienced an immeasurable amount of skills working in the IT industry. I have got to say i definitely don’t regret taking a year out from my degree (although there was times where I thought I wish I was in DEC10 pulling all nighters with the crew), I definitely recommend it.

I have increased my technical skills over the last 4 months but I think what i have learnt most of all is how a software development environment works, how people think in the industry, how people develop and interact with peers/ managers, how we interact with users. All this stuff from a students perspective is perceived as wishy washy irrelevant stuff, but it is essential (Owen knows! Owen is right!)

Linking the software development to business cases is pivotal too, as it is a business after all and we need to try and quantify the savings a company gets from better software, so we get paid for coding it! Although sometimes this can be a challenge, especially within the NHS!

Another important point to note is being a ‘Software Engineer’ (yes that’s my job title, sexy i know d:)  from my experience working on a small development team is more than coding, a lot more.  Testing, deploying code, designing interfaces and models, documentation both in and out of code, configuration on servers and local machines, management of databases and resources and user involvement are all just as important.

Technically speaking I have had experience in a good number of different technologies, some at greater depth than others. A few i have listed below:

• Programming in C# and the .NET environment.
• ASP.NET, XHTML, CSS, AJAX with JS
• XML
• SQL SERVER  and T-SQL scripting
•  using O(i)SQL/MSDOS scripts for deployment
• Crsytal Reports
• VBA (this is not as easy as it sounds)

So… what do i actually code i hear you asking? Well I’m going to deliberately leave that out of this public blog post because of confidentiality and such (:

Overall I have had a good 4 months!

I am off for 10 days for family time + food @ xmas then partying with friends + drink @ new years before i return to the routine of 9 till 5 until August.  This is the one thing that’s a drag sometimes, the same routine every day, I like variety and impulsiveness as some days I’m in the zone and lovin’ coding and getting loads of work done then some-days I’m tired.

But Overall I am liking my year out and would like to thank all that have supported and helped me be where I am now.

Any questions, feel free to ask.

Linux in russian schools

I just read a news article that told me Russia is planning to use Linux in all its schools from 2009. Absolutly brilliant or a risky move?

My answer: Absolutly brilliant. Using Linux teaches people how to us Computers, not how to use a specific piece of software, therefore in educatuion Linux should definently be used.

<rant speculation=’true’>In coming generations if everyone knows how to use computers, what wonders could be achieved? If we can send man to the moon with the aid of a computer less powerful then a pocket calculator… You see the potential for human development? </rant>

Negatives? May take a little while for teachers to get up-to-speed using the software with enough precifienty to teach… but the long term benefits of this small spurt of effort far outway the costs.

Talking about costs… I would rather the publics’ tax dollers/pounds contribute to better teaching and opportunities for children and students rather then paying licencing fees to multi-billion pound coorporations who get enough money milking businesses anyway!

Thank you Russia for taking this risky bold move, hopefully people will follow once the success has been quantified in years to come.

See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7034828.stm for further details.

asp.net breaking the ‘rules’

coding today at work I came accros a data control you can place on a web form that contains properties. These properties are used to connect to a data source (sql, xml… etc…). You can then link this control to a grid and hay presto you got a 3 (or n)-tier application architecture, in dangerously potentially 1 or 2 tiers… tut tut tut.

A layered architecture is there for a reason, to make it easy to extend code, read code, modify code amongst many other useful reasons. Although this method of data access is easy to code at first, in the long run (90% of the time) this will not be very benefitial and you wiull have to recode or make things difficult at a later date.

naughty naughty.

msn messenger observation

I was talking to a friend online using msn a moment ago, he signed out of msn and I had not noticed this and kept on talking away (i was watching a youTube vid @ the time)…

just an observation… but wouldnt it be easy to grey the speaking area (lower pane) or send a message to the sent messages panel that ‘John has signed out’ to alert users instead of the small message on the top of the panel which you wouldnt easily notice if you were ‘appear offline’ as it wouldnt pop up as it would just change text…

just a thought