object oriented programming for neophyte programmers

"there's a tendency for people to teach arts without introducing their faculties. this gives birth to the statement 'a little knowledge can be dangerous'" ~Miyamoto Musashi author of The Book of Five Rings

most academic institutions now teach intro to CS courses in Java. for people who have programmed before, this isn't too bad, but for novice programmers, it takes forever to grasp the concept of instantiating an intrinsic data type such as INT or CHAR and to appreciate that compilation errors result in passing the wrong data type to the wrong function.

knowing that beginners flounder with such concepts, how do you expect students not to flounder in creating their own classes and instantiating objects of that data type?

it would perhaps be more practical to conduct an intro programming class as well as data structures in a functional language and then have another course which segues from functional to object orient programming.

because the whole purpose of getting an education is to have a solid foundation on which you can foster other types of related knowledge later

taxation?

once on the campus of Columbia, I overheard two girls talking about the taxation system and one of them said, "why tax only the wealthy, is it a crime to be rich?" when Democrats speak, they say that they want what is best for the middle class? something has to be lost in the translation here. I completed Barack Obama's 2nd book and he mentions how in his conversations with Warren Buffet that people who are rewarded by tax cuts for the wealthy are those who reap the benefits from dividends of investments? nobody wants hard work to go unpunished. there has to be a much better way to make tax cuts sound more appealing for everyone

Big Slick

given my intitials and my e-mail handle, you may find it ironic that in hold 'em, big slick doesn't rank amongst my favorite hands . . . i would go on the offensive with it, but never on the defensive . . . (it's not worth going on the defensive regardless in poker) . . . i was watching the WPT the other day . . . someone raised with Big Slick, and got re-raised with someone holding A 10 . . . after pondering, he folded. what could possibly be better than AK preflop? do you think someone would re-raise w / pokcet 2's? AA and KK . . . are amongst the few candidates that are better. unless you're up for all your chips, it was right to call that re-raise, or rather re-raise that re-raise

Lakers Vs. The Celtics

wow, this is classic sports . . . still not sure who i'm rooting for . . . sports are boring unless you're rooting for a team . . . w / the exception of soccer . . . i guess it'll boil down to who i liked more Larry Bird or Magic Johnson

The Best Things in Life Are Free

as a kid, i would importune my Grandmother to recite tales from Indian mythology to me. and i really dug the Mahabharat tv series that aired in the late 80's. i was contemplating getting it on dvd, but maybe i won't need to. check out http://www.rajshri.com/mahabharat/

"Big Deal, it's only . . .

. . . Iron Man"

that's what Peter Parker once said when Iron Man delivered some device that Tony Stark delivered to Empire State University.  I saw the film this weekend, and it was all that.  Robert Downey Jr. did an amazing job and Gwenyth was well, she was Gwenyth.  the flick was good enough for me to want to see it again in the theatre, but I still have to abide by my feeling that Spiderman is Marvel's best franchise, in all mediums :)

theme?

it just occurred to me that my blogging deals with rather sporadic topics?  perhaps i should have my musings converge to a particular theme.  i've always been intrigued by current events and global politics, and also been inspired by intellectual liberals.  perhaps i'll gear it towards politics?  but then again, that's too broad a topic